Saturday, June 03, 2017

Sat Jun 3rd Todays News

Some things should not happen, but they do. The UK election nears and Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party could achieve victory. The Conservatives under May have made good decisions and have the right mix of policy which will see the UK prosper. Corbyn has divisive polices and a tax and spend agenda which could see worse outcomes than that facing Canada. Canada recently had legislation pushed through which could see children taken from parents who don't agree with LGBT principles. It is doubtful that people were aware they were voting for that. But a vote for Corbyn is a vote that will unleash similar. Corbin has form supporting counterproductive legislation. It is ok to disagree with May on issues. It is arrant foolishness to vote against her. 

In 350, the Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaimed himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators. He only survived for 28 days in the role, then his rival won, and put his head on a lance and carried it through Rome. 713, the Byzantine emperor Philippicus was blinded, deposed and sent into exile by conspirators of the Opsikion army in Thrace. He was succeeded by Anastasios II, who began the reorganisation of the Byzantine army. 1140, the French scholar Peter Abelard was found guilty of heresy. Abelard and his love with Heloise is a true story resembling Romeo and Juliet for Christians. It was Petrarch, who had copies of their letters, who is first noted for popularising it. Petrarch began the renaissance with stories of love and mountain walks. The denunciation of Abelard seems from professional jealousy and had the pope demand his lifelong silence and the burning of his work. Abelard was given compromise and died soon after. 

In 1839, in HumenChinaLin Tse-hsü destroyed 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War. 1861, American Civil WarBattle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races) – Union forces routed Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia, in the first land battle of the War. 1862, a 3000-strong riot occurred at Wardsend Cemetery in SheffieldEngland, against rumours of bodysnatching from the grounds. 1864, American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor – Union forces attacked Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia. 1866, the Fenians were driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States. 1885, in the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear, escaped the North-West Mounted Police. 1888, the poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published in the San Francisco Examiner.

In 1980, the 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak. Seven tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, which took five lives, 357 single-family homes, 33 mobile homes, 85 apartments, 49 businesses and caused $300 million in damages all told, according to statistics compiled on the deadly storm by the National Weather Service and the American Red Cross. 1982, the Israeli ambassador to the United KingdomShlomo Argov, was shot on a London street. He survived but was permanently paralysed. The attackers were PLO with Iraq backing. It initiated the war with Lebanon. 1984, Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, was launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for the Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continued until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.

I am very good and don't deserve the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.




Here is a video I made Star Spangled Banner 

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!




=== from 2016 ===
 The left wing tend to anti-semitism. Their leaders reflect that. And their press organs too. On this day in 2015, Wikipedia wrote that Israel had used the failed assassination attempt on their London-based ambassador as a pretext to start the 1982 Lebanese war. As if the conflict was not a direct result of that state sanctioning an assassination attempt. Wikipedia is not responsible for the actions of a lone editor, but a number must have sanctioned their front page anti-semitic comment. Any attempt to correct the mistake would lead to sanctions against the responsible editor by anti-semitic editors. And Bill Shorten and Obama excuse such activity. It is despicable. But neither Democrats nor ALP are benefitting from this bad leadership. Both are promoting leaders that the wider public feel are unhinged.  
For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility. 
=== from 2015 ===
Julia Gillard dumps on Rudd, but stops short of calling him a misogynist. Each had been PM and each lied about liking the other and working well with them. At the time Gillard claimed she was being bullied she had been highly lauded as a policy person who was Deputy and held more ministries of substance than anyone else in the history of Australia's parliament, not counting transitional governments. Gillard is lying about Rudd's abuse and Rudd is lying about his support. Neither of them had good policy nous. The media is lying about what they knew and when, as they were partisan for each when they were PM. So everything that is said is reported as shocking. When really it is merely what liars and opportunists do. 

Alan Bond might be dead soon. He has had a heart operation and the surgeon could not restart it after the procedure. Now he is in a coma and his blood is regulated by machine. He isn't rich, he isn't smart, he isn't graceful. He has a spectacular history as entrepreneur. His high point was the America's Cup race of 1982. His low point was engaging in the corruption of WA Inc and the ALP. 

Russia and MH17 is a never ending story. The tragedy of the shooting down of a passenger airline is masked by the need for Washington to blame Putin. The base of the problem is Ukraine, which, egged on by Washington, has created the condition for war. They also probably were behind the shooting, either by instigating the shooting or doing the shooting to set up Russia. But Obama's foreign policy seems to be, to restart a cold war, to force smaller nations to bow before bigger ones. The benefit for Ukraine is to be shelled and fought over. In regional terms, someone needs to court India because they are a wild card. India is unlikely to ally with an ally of Pakistan. 

Sef Blatter quits. Sort of. His position is, he will stay on until December, or January, to bring in new leadership. The old leadership was inept and corrupt and should have nothing to do with bringing in the next leaders. Expect Blatter to be forced out in days. 

NSW Upper House votes to abuse Eddie Macguire. The bill was put forward by the Greens. It highlights the independent nature of the upper house of NSW and the fact that independents are appallingly bad judges of behaviour. Even were McGuire the worst felon, it would be inappropriate to use parliament that way. It is evidence the Greens need to be deregistered for abusing privilege. McGuire is a good person who is allowed to voice opinion. His opinion of the on field behaviour of former Australian of the Year Adam Goodes was salient. It should have been against the code of conduct for players. But there is a double standard at the moment regarding Aboriginal activity. Race is no way to unite a people. 
From 2014
None in 2014 because of Government and public service corruption related to the petitions
Historical perspective on this day
In 350, the Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaimed himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators. 713, the Byzantineemperor Philippicus was blinded, deposed and sent into exile by conspirators of the Opsikion army in Thrace. He was succeeded by Anastasios II, who began the reorganisation of the Byzantine army. 1140, the French scholar Peter Abelard was found guilty of heresy. 1326, the Treaty of Novgorod delineated borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark. 1539, Hernando de Soto claimed Florida for Spain. 1608, Samuel de Champlain completed his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec. 1621, the Dutch West India Companyreceived a charter for New Netherland. 1658, Pope Alexander VII appointed François de Laval vicar apostolic in New France. 1665, James StuartDuke of York (later to become King James II of England), defeated the Dutch fleet off the coast of Lowestoft. 1781, Jack Jouettbegan his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending raid by Banastre Tarleton.

In 1839, in HumenChinaLin Tse-hsü destroyed 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War. 1861, American Civil WarBattle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races) – Union forces routed Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia, in the first land battle of the War. 1862, a 3000-strong riot occurred at Wardsend Cemetery in SheffieldEngland, against rumours of bodysnatching from the grounds. 1864, American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor – Union forces attacked Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia. 1866, the Fenians were driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States. 1885, in the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear, escaped the North-West Mounted Police. 1888, the poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published in the San Francisco Examiner. 1889, the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was completed. Also 1889, the first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States was completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.

In 1916, the National Defense Act was signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men. 1935, one thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario. 1937, The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson. 1940, World War II: The Luftwaffe bombed Paris. Also 1940, World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ended with a Germanvictory and with Allied forces in full retreat. Also 1940, Franz Rademacher proposed plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl. 1941, World War II: The Wehrmacht razed the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground, killing 180 of its inhabitants. 1942, World War II: Japan began the Aleutian Islands Campaign by bombing Unalaska Island. 1943, in Los AngelesCalifornia, white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines clashed with Latino youths in the Zoot Suit Riots.

In 1950, the first successful ascent of an Eight-thousander; the summit of Annapurna was reached by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal. 1959, Singapore was declared a self-governing state even though it was still a part of the British Empire. 1962, at Paris Orly Airport, an Air France Boeing 707 overran the runway and exploded when the crew attempted to abort takeoff, killing 130. 1963, the Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attack protesting Buddhists in HuếSouth Vietnam, with liquid chemicals from tear-gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments. 1965, the launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performed the first American spacewalk. 1968, Valerie Solanas, the author of SCUM Manifesto, attempted to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times. 1969, Melbourne–Evans collision: off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cut the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half. 1973, a Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashed near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft. 1979, a blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico caused at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.

In 1980, the 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak. Seven tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, which took five lives, 357 single-family homes, 33 mobile homes, 85 apartments, 49 businesses and caused $300 million in damages all told, according to statistics compiled on the deadly storm by the National Weather Service and the American Red Cross. 1982, the Israeli ambassador to the United KingdomShlomo Argov, was shot on a London street. He survived but was permanently paralysed. 1984, Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, was launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for the Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continued until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000. 1987, the Vanuatu Labour Party was founded. 1989, the government of China sent troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation. 1991, Mount Unzen erupted in KyūshūJapan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists. 1992, Aboriginal Land Rights were granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), a case brought by Eddie Mabo. 2006, the union of Serbia and Montenegro came to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence. 2013, the trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manningfor leaking classified material to WikiLeaks began in Fort Meade, Maryland.
=== 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 AugustSeptemberOctober, 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 Francis Underwood LyAlex GazinoskiDrEman Sharobeem and Joanne Vuu. Born on the same day, across the years. The same day in 1982 the Israeli Ambassador to the UK survived an assassination attempt, prompting extreme UN inaction. In 1943, off-duty US sailors fought with Mexican American youths in Los Angeles, spawning the Zoot Suit Riots (I'm not making this up!). In 1781, American Revolutionary War: Jack Jouett made a "midnight ride" to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of coming British cavalry who had been sent to capture them. He was successful and Thommo became Pres much later. I don't know what will happen on your day. Savour it.
Deaths
Lin Zexu
The Southern Paul Revere rode. Don't fight over drugs, as there is plenty for all. Don't let Nazis decide where you will live. Don't fight Buddhists either. Assassins hurt a great man. Let's party.
===
Tim Blair

CORBYN CLOSES IN

“Britain's general election is too close to call,” reports Fairfax’s Nick Miller.
3 Jun  29
===
Andrew Bolt

===

NEW FIGURES

Tim Blair – Friday, June 03, 2016 (5:49pm)

Pure propaganda from the ABC: 
Three years on from Tony Abbott’s successful campaign to “axe” the carbon tax, new figures show a significant majority of Australians now support putting a price on carbon emissions.
The data has prompted former Liberal leader John Hewson to cast doubt on the political truism that former Liberal leader Tony Abbott’s campaign to “axe” the carbon tax won him the last election. 
And the source of these surprising new figures? 
Data from the ABC’s Vote Compass shows 63 per cent of Australians support a price on carbon emissions, up from 50 per cent during the 2013 election. 
(Via Tom D.)
===

Ipsos: Liberals behind

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (9:25pm) 

The Ipsos poll has Labor leading the Coalition, http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-fairfax-ipsos-poll-puts-bill-shorten-ahead-of-malcolm-turnbull-for-first-time-20160603-gpb33x.html#ixzz4AVj9U9im Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook” title="51 per cent to 49">51 per cent to 49.
But I believe Labor isn’t winning the support in needs in the marginal seats it must win.
Still, the trajectory is pretty clear: Malcolm Turnbull’s shtick has been wearing thin for a long time:
Turnbull would have done better to have called the election earlier - but I suspect he believed too much in his own charm. 
===

Where the performers must have a bigger blast than even the audience

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (10:40am) 

 What a fantastic opera is Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, almost never performed because it demands 14 singers , most of whom have to be top drawer. What a blast, then, to be in the cast of a performance like this, surrounded by peers of the greatest quality.
Just how much fun it must be for the performers you can tell from this performance of the same number:
How magnetic is Raimondi? 
===

Why did the Turnbull team not invite Abbott to the return of the fallen Diggers?

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (9:59am) 

Tony Abbott as Prime Minister ordered the bodies returned to Australia. Why was he not invited to the welcome ceremony? And is that why Malcolm Turnbull didn’t go?
Quadrant:
The old Diggers ... turned out, wore their medals, stood with hands on hearts as the long procession of hearses with their flag-draped caskets left Richmond RAAF base on the outskirts of Sydney. Home at last, their remains had been airlifted from Malaysia and Singapore, finally to rest in the soil of the country in whose service they gave their lives. 
While the Governor-General was on the tarmac and Defence Minister too, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was otherwise occupied. He was looking at mattresses ... in Lidcombe, all of 47 kilometres distant.
I don’t think voters know quite how vindictive Turnbull is, and what depths his media team have stooped to in trying to intimidate journalists.
When I am permitted to reveal some confidences I will. I am not quite saying Turnbull is a Rudd, but I am saying that the advertising does not resemble the goods and there will be buyers’ remorse. Already many Liberal MPs are worried.. The superannuation strife is just a hint of what’s to come.
And a question for Liberal MPs: if you cannot control Turnbull before the election, do you think you can control him after?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Turnbull treats voters like fools and his base like mugs

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (9:48am) 

I can understand the Turnbull Government wanting to crack down on super concessions. My problem is that it seems it is not telling the truth and does not understand exactly what it’s doing:
The government’s key claim is that only 4 per cent of super ­account holders will be made worse off by the budget changes, but that figure is being challenged by Labor, actuarial firm Rice Warner and an analysis issued last night by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. 
In the most detailed analysis to date of the total package, ASFA found 1.26 million people would be worse off under the changes — which is 9 per cent of Australia’s 14 million super fund account holders rather than the 4 per cent claimed by the government…
ASFA found that more than 550,000 people would be affected by changes to the transition-to-retirement income stream rules… This is more than five times the government estimate of 115,000 people, based on a report by the Productivity Commission.
ASFA found the $1.6m transfer cap on fund balances would affect 110,000 people while the $500,000 lifetime cap on non-concessional contributions would affect 80,000. 
Up to 500,000 people are expected to be hit by a higher contributions tax applied to those with incomes between $250,000 and $300,000 a year and the cut in the concessional contribution cap from $30,000 to $25,000 a year.
Judith Sloan:
(W)e know that Turnbull is really a left-wing, big government devotee who takes his policy advice from the Grattan Institute… 
He has obviously fallen for the completely erroneous estimates of the tax expenditures of superannuation calculated by Treasury zealots whose main role in life is to dream up figures in the billions to impress an impressionable lefty like Turnbull…

I don’t have any sympathy at all for the government as it sinks on the super controversy – it serves them right. After all, the Treasurer had told an important conference only this year that “the government has made it crystal clear that we have no interest in increasing taxes on superannuation either now or in the future … unlike Labor, we are not coming after people’s superannuation”. Yeh, right. 
And what’s all this drivel about 96 per cent of people being unaffected or better off? Kelly O’Dwyer can’t even count – there are over 500,000 TRIS recipients not 115,000. 
Gareth Hutchens:
John Roskam, the executive director of the IPA, ... says one of the things that has most upset Coalition supporters in recent weeks is the way in which the government has tried to frame the debate… 
Turnbull, and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, have said their super changes would only affect the top 4% of income earners. But Roskam says that sounds like: “Why don’t we squeeze the 1% a bit more?"… How many more taxes do you want to get out of wealthy people when you’re not attacking government spending?”
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Flannery plumbs fresh depths of doom

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (9:24am) 

Professional alarmist Tim Flannery goes diving at the Great Barrier Reefand plumbs new depths of alarmism, even by his startling standards:
This great organism, the size of Germany and arguably the most diverse place on earth, is dying before our eyes. Having watched my father dying two years ago, I know what the signs of slipping away are. This is death, which ever-rising temperatures will allow no recovery from.
In fact, the reef is recovering already:
THE Great Barrier Reef’s most popular tourist sites show just two per cent of coral has died off, with the rest in “positive” signs of recovery, despite the world’s biggest mass coral bleaching event on record. 
New research found about 68 per cent of reefs from Cairns to Lizard Island had varying levels of coral bleaching, but most of it likened to sunburn on a human body where the coral glows pink before fully recovering. Latest findings by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre give hope about the resilience of the living wonder...
Even the more alarmist coral experts - which Flannery is not - admit much of the reef will recover:
“Fortunately, on reefs south of Cairns, our underwater surveys are also revealing that more than 95% of the corals have survived, and we expect these more mildly bleached corals to regain their normal colour over the next few months,” said Mia Hoogenboom from James Cook University.
Who feeds this Flannery? 
===

This economic xenophobia will destroy good jobs

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (9:16am) 

Nick Xenophon reveals his hard-Left populism - promoting a policy that would cripple healthy exporters and force taxpayers pay more to prop up struggling manufacturers with highly unionised workers:
Independent senator Nick Xenophon has warned he will be ruthless in using his numbers in the upper house to impose his agenda on the next government, including that Australia withdraw from free trade deals at the heart of Malcolm Turnbull’s growth strategy. 
The South Australian independent yesterday seized on the fate of Arrium’s troubled Whyalla based steelworks to oppose Australia’s entry into a World Trade Organisation procurement agreement as well as the landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact covering 48 per cent of global GDP and delivering a $1 billion boost to Australian farmers…
Tipped to win at least three Senate seats at the July 2 election, Senator Xenophon said his team would “unashamedly use our votes to hold out for Arrium to get the help it needs” after its Whyalla steelworks was placed into voluntary administration in April. He claimed the WTO procurement agreement and TPP covering 12 Pacific Rim nations would destroy manufacturing jobs and called for a review of the impact of free trade deals on the domestic manufacturing sector… 
The WTO procurement agreement, another target of Senator Xenophon, provides legally binding access to government procurement markets estimated at $US1.7 trillion, including the EU and its 28 member states. The TPP is expected to deliver Australian farmers a $1bn-a-year boost while reducing tariff barriers with key trading partners.
===

Don’t criticise Islam - or risk war or a law suit

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (9:00am) 

Free speech

Free speech - and more - is once again in danger:
A refugee who was the last person detained on Manus Island in 2004 has told a tribunal a newspaper article quoting MPs talking about Islam could “create a civil war”. 
The article, entitled “Islam must change”, was published last November and quoted Coalition MPs Andrew Hastie, Michael Sukkar and Josh Frydenberg questioning the need for reform within modern Islam.
In his application before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, former Palestinian Aladdin Sisalem, 37, alleges the Herald Sun article vilified Islam by claiming it was involved in “serious crimes without any proof and calling for my religion to change"…

This is the third court case he has been involved in since 2004, including an anti-discrimination case against his university, RMIT, where he was studying ­engineering.
In the other case, he protested against the cancellation of his Disability Support Pension.
The cancellation of his pension was linked to his level of impairment and it was noted in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision that he had travelled overseas 16 times in five years and had no difficulty in lifting 13kg of luggage into the overhead compartment on a flight. 
Mr Sisalem alleged yesterday that the Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, which publishes the Herald Sun, breached three subsections of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 by publishing the article…

Tribunal member Julia Grainger ...  has reserved her decision. 
Once again The Age appears to be cheering recklessly for a muzzle
===

Turnbull campaigns on the policies he stole from a “lunatic”

Andrew Bolt June 03 2016 (8:52am) 

Be nice for this arrogant family to acknowledge that the “lunatic” won an election that Turnbull couldn’t and handed him the policies he now campaigns on:
Malcolm Turnbull’s father-in-law, former attorney-general Tom Hughes QC, labelled Tony Abbott a “lunatic” and called the decision to make him leader of the Liberal Party a “folly”. 
According to a new biography, Mr Hughes, Lucy Turnbull’s ­father, sent a handwritten note to Mr Turnbull after he lost the Liberal leadership to Mr Abbott in 2009. “There is room only for ­improvement and the party’s ­present folly will pass,” he said.
The book also republishes a blistering letter Mr Hughes sent to his brother, the late Robert ­Hughes, world-renowned as an art critic and accomplished historian, when Mr Abbott became Liberal leader. 
“This is a potentially catas­tro­ph­ic decision,” he wrote. “To elect Abbott in his place is the equivalent of putting the bull in charge of the china shop or the principal ­lunatic in charge of the asylum. Abbott’s behaviour in relation to the risks of global warming may be compared to the oscillations of the weather vane.”
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The legal loophole allowing some to hide their identity

Miranda Devine – Wednesday, June 03, 2015 (3:26pm)

Remember Carnita Matthews? She was the Muslim mother of seven who was jailed at first instance for falsely accusing a policeman of trying to tear off her face veil after he pulled her over for a random breath test in Woodbine in 2010.

 Continue reading 'The legal loophole allowing some to hide their identity'
===

DEPP AND DERP

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 03, 2015 (1:50pm)

Bob Ellis prediction in the wake of Johnny Depp’s dog importation debacle: 
It is to be hoped, I suppose, that Depp complies meekly and flies home.
It is impossible to imagine he will come back. 
And the outcome
Johnny Depp showed there were no hard feelings as he returned to the set of Pirates Of The Caribbean in Queensland yesterday. 
Always bet against Bob.
===

BULLYING ENCOUNTER ALLEGED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, June 03, 2015 (3:32am)

From next Tuesday, the Rudd/Gillard brawl enters a new phase
Julia Gillard has accused Kevin Rudd of physically intimidating and bullying her when she was his deputy in damaging new allegations made by the former Prime Minister against the man she deposed.
But Mr Rudd has vigorously denied the allegations saying he could not recall ever having an angry exchange with his successor …


“I was the convener of our parliamentary tactics committee, as manager of opposition business,” Ms Gillard says in a fresh round of recriminating interviews to be aired from next week in an ABC series entitled the Killing Season.
“Kevin was always very anxious to strut his stuff in question time. And tactics hadn’t gone his way. I’d taken a view about something else forming the issue of the day. After the tactic meeting broke up he very physically stepped into my space, it was quite a bullying encounter. It was a, you know, menacing, angry performance.” 
Gillard spent the next three years supporting Rudd as deputy PM. In 2012, Gillard vowed to ”call out sexism and misogyny where I see it.” She was noticeably quicker to do so when someone looked at his watch.
UPDATE. Overall, on this particular incident, I’m inclined to believe Julia.
UPDATE II. Sisterhood! Jenny Macklin tells the ABC why she stood aside as Labor’s deputy leader in 2006: 
I knew Julia wasn’t going to stop, she would continue until she won. 
UPDATE III. “Is it just me,” asks Yoda, “or does this anti-bullying poster doing the rounds at the moment look a lot like Australia’s most famous bully?”
===

Hillary Clinton cannot stand for president until this stench is addressed

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (5:52pm)

Wow. This is red hot:
Bill Clinton’s foundation set up a fundraising arm in Sweden that collected $26 million in donations at the same time that country was lobbying Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department to forgo sanctions that threatened its thriving business with Iran, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times. 
The Swedish entity, called the William J. Clinton Foundation Insamlingsstiftelse, was never disclosed to or cleared by State Department ethics officials, even though one of its largest sources of donations was a Swedish government-sanctioned lottery.
As the money flowed to the foundation from Sweden, Mrs. Clinton’s team in Washington declined to blacklist any Swedish firms despite warnings from career officials at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm that Sweden was growing its economic ties with Iran and potentially undercutting Western efforts to end Tehran’s rogue nuclear program, diplomatic cables show.
No surprise:
Clinton’s favorability ratings are the lowest in a Post-ABC poll since April 2008, when she was running for president the first time. Today, 41 percent of Americans say she is honest and trustworthy, compared with 52 percent who say she is not — a 22-point swing in the past year.
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“He very physically stepped up into my space and it was quite a bullying encounter”

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (1:12pm)


I don’t think the Left has worked out consistent rules to victim poker. Here’s Julia Gillard, speaking actually about Kevin Rudd:
... he very physically stepped up into my space and it was quite a bullying encounter. It was a menacing, angry performance.
Gee, that other bit of intimidation worked out well, didn’t it, and really sealed the message of the reconciliation round?:
CARLTON fans who Adam Goodes directed his defiant “war dance’’ towards say they were physically and verbally abused by Sydney Swans fans before and after the incident. 
Two Carlton cheer squad members including a women say they were punched by Swans fans at the SCG on Friday night and have accused police and security in the harbour city of failing to protect them…
Ms Moore, who goes by the name “Blue belle’’ at Carlton matches, ...  said the abuse of Blues fans by Sydney supporters grew stronger after Goodes’ act which has divided the nation and she described as “an act of malice’’.
When he behaved the way he did it seemed to invite the Swans fans to go even harder at us...it was very aggressive,’’ Ms Moore said. 
“He directed his anger straight at us and it was definitely intimidating.”
Yet labelling this newly invented dance “indigenous culture” has ensured that this symbolic act of violence with its clear racial overtones has the support of almost all commentators, politicians and football administrators. Yet at the same time we’re told the war dance has “divided the nation”.
So either the public is terribly backward and racist, or the media class is terribly out of touch and terrified of seeming insufficiently hip.
Tom Wolfe once saw this kind of moral poker before, as the race industry ups the ante and at every stage defies guilty whites to match or fold.
Whatever, the AFL has rocks in its head if it seriously wants more of this challenging of fans to a racial confrontation.
UPDATE

What a disgraceful abuse of Parliament, and what gutter behaviour:
NSW parliament today voted to “condemn” Collingwood president Eddie McGuire for being a “continual boofhead”. Serial troublemaking Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham today moved a motion in the state’s upper house in support of Swans star and Australian of the year Adam Goodes.
Since when was it Parliament’s role to pass motions abusing people?
Since when was it Parliament’s role to condemn and abuse people for stating a plain fact - in this case that Goodes’ dance is a recent invention?
That is appalling enough without considering other aspects of this astonishingly childish motion, such as its approval of an act of symbolic violence, its approval of a challenge to war as an “important ... cultural expression”, and its approval of an us-against-them division by race.
Would Parliament endorse any such behaviour by, say, Serb sportsmen and fans flashing the three-fingered nationalist salute?
Parliament should instantly pass another motion apologising to McGuire, who does not deserve this pack-bullying. Remember, racism is another form of rudeness. It is not to be fought by more rudeness. 
===

Growth up. Government’s spirits up, too

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (11:46am)

The tip, as reported a couple of hours earlier on the ABC:
Economists expect official figures due out today to show annual economic growth has slowed further
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect today’s national accounts to show economic growth in the first three months of this year will be 0.7 per cent, slightly improved from the final quarter of 2014. However, they also predict that the annual rise in gross domestic product (GDP) will fall further behind the long-term average, from 2.5 per cent to 2.1 per cent.
The happy truth:
Australia’s economy expanded at a faster pace than economists forecast in the first three months of the year… Gross domestic product advanced 0.9 percent from the final three months of 2014, when it rose 0.5 percent, government data showed in Sydney Wednesday.
Good news for Australia. Great news for the Government. 
===

One explanation, of course, is that a serial leaker is setting up Julie Bishop

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (10:24am)

Bishop denies:
Julie Bishop has denied being the source of a damaging leak about the federal government’s new citizenship rules after Tony Abbott sought to assert his authority by warning ministers of the “personal consequences” from breaching cabinet rules. 
Bishop denied in February, too:
Today’s political news agenda has been dominated by the revelation that Mr Abbott had reportedly demanded from Ms Bishop a guarantee she would not challenge him for the leadership. But the REAL question gripping Australian politics - not just Canberra insiders - is this: Who leaked the story? 
Others denied leaks by Bishop in February:
[Minister Josh] Frydenberg was asked if he agreed media reports based on leaks from key meetings attended by Ms Bishop and a small number of others had been damaging to the government. 
“Yeah,” he said. “I mean clearly those reports, and … earlier reports about NSC (nat­ional security committee) and ERC (cabinet’s expenditure review committee) and trips to Lima (for the climate conference), have all been aired and I think that has been very unfortunate, disappointing, and destabilising...”
Mr Frydenberg said later he was definitely not suggesting Ms Bishop was responsible for the leaks.
One leak that Frydenberg says he wasn’t blaming Bishop for:
The Financial Review ran a story about a confrontation between Tony Abbott and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop. The paper claimed the minister had “gone bananas” at a meeting with Abbott over reports she was to be “chaperoned” at a climate change conference in Peru by Trade Minister Andrew Robb. 
Bishop was offended, according to the paper, because it was said the Prime Minister’s Office wanted the more sceptical Robb keeping an eye on her to ensure she did not overcommit Australia on climate change policy.
Something is clearly amiss when details of a row between the PM and his deputy leader are leaked like this. Given that Bishop is popular among Coalition backbenchers and regarded as the Government’s best performer, it could only be damaging to Abbott.
An opportunity missed to deny again:
Abbott’s staff asked that [Ambassador to France Stephen] Brady’s [gay] partner, Peter Stephens, not take part in the greeting and remain in the car, without giving an explanation, the newspaper said.. Brady reportedly refused, took Stephens along to meet Abbott and later offered his resignation to the foreign affairs department, but it was rejected, the report said… 
A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop would not comment on the reported resignation offer and referred all requests for comment to Abbott’s office.
Whoever is leaking is not improving the trust between Abbott and Bishop.
UPDATE
If Abbott hasn’t rung her, then he can’t be too worried, I guess:
Ms Bishop, who was absent from Monday night’s Cabinet meeting where Tony Abbott told ministers the leak had been bad and warned there would be “personal consequences” for the leaker, said she had not discussed it with the Prime Minister. 
The Prime Minister hasn’t spoken to me about the Cabinet meeting. He knows I didn’t leak the original story so we haven’t had a discussion about what he meant by that,” she said.
Then again, I would be very surprised if Abbott has not tried to speak to Bishop about this, even to reassure her he doesn’t suspect her.
Has Bishop missed a few calls and messages?  
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No number

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (9:48am)

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I doubt this is a good sign for the Queensland economy

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (9:40am)

Why not just move the Government offices in to the Queensland Council of Unions office and save the travel time?
UNION bosses appear to have been handed the keys to the Palaszczuk Government, scoring 71 meetings with ministers in just three months. 
The extraordinary union access comes after it was revealed employer groups will be left out of a roundtable meeting advising the Government on industrial relations reform.
Meetings with union bosses have been revealed in the latest ministerial diaries released this week and the access is spread across almost every portfolio.
(Thanks to reader Baden.) 
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Russia drops its first MH17 conspiracy theory blaming Ukraine

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (9:15am)

Russia has given up its stupid claim that MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter.  It’s still trying to smear Ukraine, but at least admits the weapon was a Russian-built missile:
THE Russian maker of the Buk air defence missile system has concluded that Malaysian Airlines flight 17 was downed by an older version of the missile, which isn’t in service with the Russian military but is in Ukrainian arsenals. 
Controversy continues over who shot down the plane last summer over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard. Ukraine and the West suspect it was destroyed by a Russian surface-to-air missile fired by Russian soldiers or Russia-backed separatist rebels fighting in the area. Russia denies that. Commentators say Russia’s announcement that the plane was downed by a Buk missile is the closest Moscow will come to admitting it was behind the atrocity. 
===

Gillard the assassin claims Rudd bullied her

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (8:53am)

Still carrying on like children. And I find it interesting that the woman who knifed Kevin Rudd is the one crying victim:
In the ABC series The Killing Season, Ms Gillard recounts an episode where she alleges Mr Rudd, angry with a decision she made about Parliamentary question time, approached her, and “physically stepped into my space.’’ ... 
She said the incident was “quite a bullying encounter”.
“It was a, you know, a menacing angry performance.’’
Mr Rudd dismissed the allegations as “utterly false’’.
Ms Gillard, who rolled Mr Rudd for the prime ministership in 2010, before he clawed it back in 2013, said she had wanted to get rid of the “gang of four’’ decision-making process but Mr Rudd had wanted to keep it. 
But Mr Rudd rejects this, saying: “That is the most creative reconstruction of the political memory I have ever heard. I remember Julia in particular enjoyed and liked the relative secrecy of that small gathering.’’ 
Chris Uhlmann:
But it is fair to say that Ms Gillard does not emerge well from the first episode. She admits she told Mr Rudd she would back him for two elections, a promise clearly abandoned.
UPDATE
An excellent point by Tim Blair about Gillard’s claim to having been bullied by Rudd:
Gillard spent the next three years supporting Rudd as deputy PM. In 2012, Gillard vowed to “call out sexism and misogyny where I see it.” She was noticeably quicker to do so when someone looked at his watch. 
UPDATE
Why this mad compulsion to blab?
Several current Labor frontbenchers agreed to take part in the series, including Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen, shadow families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin, Tony Burke and Senator Stephen Conroy. 
Colleagues have questioned why they would co-operate with a “hatchet” job on their own party.
(Thanks to reader Paul.) 
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Tom McFeely: yes, marriage is safe with conservative gays like me

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (8:49am)


Tom McFeely is a former Liberal candidate and the owner of the excellent Peel Hotel, a gay bar. He responds to my column on Monday, when I wondered whether gay conservatives would now respond to the challenge to defend the marriage tradition they will now inherit, too:
I’ve just finished reading your article in today’s paper and I thought it may be appropriate to offer you an alternative view to that expressed by the individuals you contacted within the gay community.  
From a personal perspective, I’m just about to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of when I decided to join up with my partner Darren and become a couple.  A change in UK laws allowed us to be formally recognised at the British consulate in July 2006, however, had the same opportunity existed in 1992, we would have done so then.
The industry I am in is often portrayed as having a reputation for sex, drugs, and rock n’roll. (Or in The Peels case, sex, drugs, and Dancing Queens). However, I am glad to inform you that neither Darren nor I believe in ‘open relationships’. (Which is basically the freedom to have sex with whoever you like, but there’s only one ‘husband’ at home). I do not judge those who do experiment with this “cake & eat it” style of relationship, and I’m sure a lot of straight men would love to give it a go; but I think the chances of any participant be they straight or gay; celebrating their 5th anniversary let alone their 50th, would be slim indeed.
I have been quoted often, and vilified many times, for saying that the word “marriage” is not appropriate in same sex recognition given its religious connotations.  However, my view on this has changed over the last few years as I contemplated about those individuals who choose to have a celebrant wave coloured crystals over their heads under a tree, and at the same time have no mention of God or religion anywhere in their vows, and yet THEY are considered married.  I have also contemplated the numbers of youth suicides in the gay community.
I do accept that to some, the word marriage is sacred.  As such, I believe government should steer clear of using it.  Abolish the Marriage Act and introduce a Relationship Act.  If two individuals meet the criteria set out, then government should not impede their wishes and recognise them officially.  Then, if the couple want a religious, cultural, or other symbolic type of recognition they can go about this as they (and their church or celebrant) wish.
However, as long as the government continues to use the word “marriage” in legislation and denies the right to use the word under the legislation by some citizens, this issue will not go away.  And out of principal, I now demand the right to be “married”.
Although I was brought up a catholic and also briefly walked along the path of becoming ordained; it is out of natural respect and not some ‘catholic guilt’ that I say I would not dream of asking the church to recognise my relationship if it did not wish to do so.  It is society as a whole, and government as its representative whose recognition and official sanction that I have a right to, as this should not be denied to me because I chose Darren and not Dianne.
You may be interested to know, Andrew, that in my view more and more gay people are forming committed relationships.  I am witnessing a decline in patronage of those who are out for the night looking to ‘pick up’, and an increase in patronage by couples.  We are also seeing more ‘wedding’ parties booking space at The Peel. As an old fashioned traditionalist I am pleased.  An ever increasing number of my younger peers are now steering away from the stereo typical “party every night shag everyone” image we often see in the media, and are now embracing the thought of having a ‘home’ and a partner.  I congratulate them (although my bank would prefer the party queens).
Most gay couples I know are in relationships that have outlasted those of my heterosexual friends.  I won’t speculate as to why.  Instead I’ll suggest that before accusing gay people of being the cause of marriage breakdowns between men and women and the destroyer of ‘traditional’ family life should legislation change in our favour – why not give us a go?  The way the divorce rate is going, if nothing else we may in fact help the marriage stats improve for once!
Keep up the good work Andrew, (and I say this not only on my behalf, but those closet “Andrew Bolt Fans” who whisper to me at the end of the bar…) 
All the best. 
This letter, reproduced with Tom’s permission, has given me more heart than anything else I’ve read this week. 
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Sepp Blatter quits

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (8:31am)

He could have quit on the weekend and saved FIFA a lot of money and bother. But if Blatter thought this would let him hang on until December, I suspect he’s about to be disappointed:
FIFA president Sepp Blatter will resign from football’s governing body amid a widening corruption scandal and has promised to call for fresh elections [in December of January] to choose a successor. 
The 79-year-old Blatter was re-elected to a fifth term last weekend, two days after a corruption crisis erupted and seven football officials were arrested in Zurich ahead of the FIFA congress.
The resignation comes on the back of ABC News reports that Blatter is being investigated by the FBI and US prosecutors as part of the probe that led to the stunning indictments…
Jordanian Prince Ali bin al Hussein will stand in new elections after failing in his bid last week to oust Blatter. He had withdrawn from the race after the first round of voting at the Zurich congress. Blatter beat him by 133 votes to 73 in the first round, with rock solid support from Asia and Africa seeing him through. 
Shame on those delegates who voted for Blatter when even the man himself agrees he’s not worthy. The clean out cannot stop even here.
UPDATE
The vote to give Qatar the Cup seemed bad enough - and clearly corrupt. But this is just evil:
Qatar is still due to host the 2022 World Cup, even though 600 workers have already died building the facilities… More than 1 million foreign labourers have been brought in to build stadiums, hotels and transport. They’re living in squalor and many are dying in extreme heat.
UPDATE
Paul Sheehan:
The pending Qatar World Cup is already stained with the blood of thousands of migrant workers. More than a thousand have died in indentured servitude while working in oven-like conditions… 
It was always absurd that the world’s second-largest sporting event, involving 32 teams and nations, would be awarded to a city-state of 2.15 million people, with just 250,000 Qatar citizens (the rest being foreign workers), in a desert country where the average maximum temperature in June – the traditional month of the World Cup – is 41 degrees and the average temperature is 34 degrees.
This is a country largely under sharia, where adultery is punished by flogging, and adultery between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man is punishable by death, where stoning remains a legal punishment and homosexuality can be punishable by death.
Yet FIFA supports Qatar as host of the World Cup and continues to support the bid as the death toll of workers rises and the taint of bribery.
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How to win an argument to divide us by race: don’t let the opponents argue back

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (8:06am)

Of course, the best way to achieve consensus always has been to stop people from hearing or expressing the other side of the argument:
Government funding for a “no” case would doom to failure the once-in-a-generation chance to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution, one of the ­nation’s most senior Aboriginal leaders has warned. 
Marcia Langton, who was on the 22-member Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islander Peoples, said ... “Let me also warn that if a ‘no’ case is formalised, funded by the government, and included in the question to be put to a referendum, constitutional recognition of indigenous people will almost certainly fail...”
Strange, that Langton is so scared of having the “no” case heard when she’s so sure it is weak:
Professor Langton said she was optimistic the “no” case campaign, led by conservative commentator Andrew Bolt, hard-right Liberal senator Cory Bernardi and former Labor minister Gary Johns, was weak.
Is that so?  Langton clearly how no understanding of the Australian public’s loathing for proposals to divide us by race - and particularly proposals like Langton’s own:
She supported Mr Pearson’s solution to maintain parliamentary sovereignty by establishing a body of indigenous people empowered to review specific legislation in parliament and comment on the effects of legislation on indigenous people. 
“To have a permanent body commenting on legislation would be a solution to the problem of our status as an extreme minority and our desire for a rightful place in the nation,’’ she said
No wonder that other proponents of this divisive stuff share Langton’s believe that less debate would be useful. Here’s The Australian’s Paul Kelly:
If our polity denies recognition of this truth in our Constitution then Australia probably faces a bleak future. This raises another question: as the referendum advances, how much liberty will be extended to Bolt by his editors to continue his campaign in their newspapers?
This fear of debate is becoming bizarre. Even stranger, the “yes” camp is starting to obsess about my role in this, seeming to believe that if it wasn’t for me, millions of Australians would change their mind and agree to dividing ourselves on the basis of the “race” of our ancestors.
Sure, I love the idea of my having such awesome power. But it’s nonsense, of course. These critics just show an astonishingly contemptuous opinion of the judgment and intellectual independence of most Australians, who are quite capable of themselves sniffing out bull, but it does allow some writers on The Australian to indulge in a heady campaign of vilification to silence the one person they fondly imagine is standing between them and racial nirvana, where race warriors on one side shake invisible spears at the other and insist on differences and grievances that ensure we are in permanent conflict.
But a hint to the “yes” camp: screaming “racist”, shutting down debate and vilifying critics will only convince Australians that “reconciliation” will bring not harmony but division, not love but hate.
And to The Australian: check the comments threads of all your articles I’ve linked to. You risk losing your own readers by carrying on like this. Some civility in debate would be useful. I’ve noted before that bullying will not work
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And had he not left us …?

Andrew Bolt June 03 2015 (5:55am)

Be grateful he left before deciding to become a suicide bomber:
A Saudi Arabian student believed to have been radicalised while ­living in Sydney has become the third suicide bomber to leave Australia to die in Iraq for Islamic State. 
Meshaal Suhaimi, who lived in Sydney for a year before vanishing last September, has reportedly been identified as an Islamic State suicide bomber who targeted a Shia militia stronghold in Ramadi.
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If—

(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)
If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, 
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken 
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 
And lose, and start again at your beginnings 
    And never breathe a word about your loss; 
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you 
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 
    If all men count with you, but none too much; 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)
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South Dakota is looking nice
Posted by Matt Granz on Tuesday, 2 June 2015
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Swan attempts to divert attention with a dead republic

Piers Akerman – Monday, June 03, 2013 (8:10am)

Australians have issues - plenty of them - to deal with in the lead-up to the September 14 federal election.
There is the cost-of-living, there is Labor’s flood of illegal boat people and the consequent $5 billion Budget blow-out, there is the estimated $90 billion Not Bloody Necessary broadband cost (not to mention the new asbestos alarm caused by the NBN Co’s lack of diligence), there is the nebulous Gonski education reform being pushed by the education union ... and anyone who has suffered under six years of hard Labor could list a half dozen more issues without blinking.
But these topics all reflect negatively upon the Gillard gang and her Green and Independent supporters and are rarely visited by the mainstream media and the ABC.
No, they are more interested in non-issues such as homosexual marriage and, can you believe it, the republic?
Some homosexuals may get hot and bothered by the idea that same sex couples can lie about their gender and thus, through some mystical sleight-of-hand, a man can become a wife or a woman become a husband, but most Australians know their apples from their pears.
A banana is not an orange, a man is not a wife and a woman is not a husband.
Same with the republic. This issue was dealt with just over ten years ago by referendum and went down in a screaming heap despite the luvvies enthusiasm for metaphorically beheading the Crown.
But today, Mr Hopeless, Treasurer Wayne Swan will urge his doomed Labor Party to ramp up the process of constitutional change and reinvigorate the debate on the issue.
Former Republican leader Malcolm Turnbull will apparently be at the same book launch.
He should know better.
This is no more than an effort to distract Australia at a critical time in its history.
There is almost zero appetite for talk of a republic when so much more needs to be done to return the nation to some semblance of normalcy.
Swan would not have a clue, Turnbull should have some notion that what is needed today is certainty and a restoration of confidence, not political tricks designed to pander to the Fairfax press and the ABC’s activists.

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HATE SHIRT

Tim Blair – Monday, June 03, 2013 (2:12pm)

Obeying the law is now illegal in England.
(Via CL)
UPDATE. Stubby holders of shame.

===

BEWARE OF GREEKS DRAGGING KNUCKLES

Tim Blair – Monday, June 03, 2013 (1:40pm)

US journalism professor Christopher Swindell lashes out at the inhabitants of a Greek island: 
The gun safety debate is B.S. This foaming at the mouth, Obamar is coming for the guns, Nanny Bloomberg is a bad billionaire, and most despicable of all, those survivors and victims are pawns in the liberal agenda is knuckle-dragging Cretan talk. 
“One would think a Card Carrying Journalist™ would be able to distinguish between a Cretan and a cretin,” notes Instapundit reader Kevin O’Brien. “Evidently not.” Interestingly, an Australian academic – also named Christopher – previously suffered Cretan/cretin identification problems.
(Via sdog)

===

COMEDY CONROY

Tim Blair – Monday, June 03, 2013 (1:15pm)

Even the most alert student of chaos theory would struggle to work out the Labor government’s decision-making processes.

===

TAKING SIDES

Tim Blair – Monday, June 03, 2013 (12:14pm)

Alfonzo Rachel on the left’s moral confusion. Former leftist Pat Condell similarly speaks out:



Condell’s views have some support among current leftists, including Peter Tatchell.
UPDATE. Dennis Prager
Here’s a question for Muslims and leftists who buy this argument about the West killing Muslims in Afghanistan: Who are we fighting in Afghanistan?
I thought the Brits and Americans were fighting the Taliban, the people who throw acid in Muslim girls’ faces for attending school, the people who murder nurses who inoculate Muslim children against disease. Now, if fighting the Taliban is to be equated with fighting Muslims, this is a real contradiction of everything much of the Islamic world and virtually all of the left have been contending for years – that the Taliban represent a tiny group of extremists in the Muslim world, and that they have so completely perverted Islam that they cannot even be called Muslims.
Well, you can’t have it both ways. If killing the Taliban is the same as “killing Muslims,” then you can’t argue that the Taliban don’t represent Islam or Muslims.
So, on the issue of the West fighting in Afghanistan, the Muslims and the left need to make up their minds: Is killing the Taliban a service or a disservice to Muslims? This is the first and last question both groups need to answer. Everything else is commentary. 

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CAN’T TALK, CAN’T WRITE

Tim Blair – Monday, June 03, 2013 (12:10pm)

Prime Minister Julia Gillard declares
Today is an historic day for the ACT. Signing up to ?#BetterSchools means brighter futures for students. 
(Via Dan Lewis, who also notes unpleasantness at the Guardian.)
UPDATE. Readers disagree.

===

CENTRAL TABLE LAND

Tim Blair – Monday, June 03, 2013 (1:27am)

Apologies for low weekend wordage, but Sally Evans’s 50th birthday in Mudgee was not to be missed. Highlights:
• A beautiful speech from husband Steve Waterson: “I don’t know anybody who has gained so many friends, nor lost so few.”
• An unusually profane wine auction run by brother Toby.
• Food.


That’s a whole pig in there, but not for long. Also, cheese.

===

But if they’d been 13-year-old girls shouting “ape” they’d have been named and shamed

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (3:38pm)

The ABC reports an unusual crime in Melbourne:
Eleven people were attacked during a home invasion in St Albans, in Melbourne’s north-west on Friday night. 
Two men were walking along Adelaide Street when a group of men assaulted them and stole their slab of beer.
The victims ran to their nearby share house and locked themselves inside.
Up to 20 men followed the victims to the house, forced their way in and used a pole and beer bottles to attack the occupants…
The gang stole money and mobile phones during the attack.
A gang of 20 people invading a stranger’s home? Who could possibly have done this?
Ah. One detail is omitted from the ABC report, but released by Victoria Police:
Investigators have been told that the offenders are perceived to be of African appearance and wish to speak to anyone who may have more information about the incident.
Now why would the ABC have omitted that detail, so critical in identifying the alleged perpetrators and understanding such a bizarre crime?
UPDATE
From the Herald Sun, surprisingly, a similar failure to be explicit:
A VIOLENT teenage gang is terrorising Melbourne, with a police specialist armed robbery taskforce admitting the thugs are responsible for 80 per cent of its workload. 
The gang, called Kill Your Rivals, is the centre of hundreds of investigations after inflicting frightening violence with knives, sawn-off shotguns, machetes, sticks and screwdrivers at service stations, fast-food outlets, bottle shops, milk bars, hotels and supermarkets. Gang members are aged 13 to 20 and teen leaders are recruiting from schools.
This, too, seems an unusual development - a kind of wild, us-against-them tribalism that suggests an ethnic based group, probably of relatively recent arrival.
The only clue comes in a fact-box next to the story:
Many members have gang links to New Zealand
But in an earlier Radio Australia report, this important detail - and, yes, it is the ABC this time revealing it:
The majority of the gang members are migrants of Maori or Islander backgrounds. Some have older relatives in jail and/or connections to gangs in New Zealand.
Unless you knew that, this shocking and unprovoked attack on a Sri Lankan man might have been falsely described - again - as an example of Anglo Australian racism by the likes of Eddie McGuire:

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Will Whitey tell us where the Rembrandt went?

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (3:05pm)

The murders, of course, are the most serious part of this trial:
JAMES “Whitey” Bulger is no longer the feared man who swaggered around South Boston and later became one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives. 
At 83, the bright platinum hair that earned Bulger his nickname is all but gone and his reputed status as the leader of a violent gang has passed… Bulger would eventually be charged with playing a role in 19 murders but fled in late 1994 after former FBI Agent John Connolly Jr. tipped him off that he was about to be indicted.
But culturally, the most important information that may come out - in evidence or in a bargain - could relate to another crime:
In 1990, two men dressed as police officers broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole a Vermeer, five Degas and three Rembrandts
The masterpieces and four other paintings stolen that day are estimated to be worth more than $500 million.
Two decades later, the case remains stubbornly unsolved....
But with the arrest… of notorious Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, many in the art world are now asking: Could it provide a break in the greatest art heist in American history? 
Rumors have long swirled that Bulger, the head of the city’s powerful Irish American mob at the time, may have played a role—or must have known who did. 
The paintings pinched from the once appalling insecure (and still woefully lit) museum include the only major seascape Rembrandt painted:
The missing Vermeer:
The museum still awaits the return of the loot to fill the gaps:
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Essential poll: no sign of life for Labor

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (2:45pm)

Groundhog day at Essential Media: Labor 45, Coalition 55.
Interestingly, the Greens primary vote - 11.8 per cent at the election - now bumps along at just 8 per cent.
UPDATE
The poll explains why Gillard Government Minister Jason Clare now chooses to campaign in Liberal blue:

(Thanks to reader EndGame.) 

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More than 200 boat people today

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (1:42pm)

The last two months have seen more than 100 boat people arrive every day.
This months already looks like more of the same:
A boat carrying more than 200 asylum seekers has been intercepted north of Christmas Island.
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Cleansing Christians from Syria

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (12:10pm)

Anglican vicar Dr Mark Durie reports on a prayer walk in Syria by Dutch Christian Martin Janssen in support of Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim, kidnapped by Syrian rebels:
After the prayer walk Janssen had the opportunity to meet with Syrian Christian refugees, who told him how they came to flee their homes and villages.  Their village was occupied by rebel forces, who proceeded to announce that they were now under an Islamic emirate, and were subject to sharia law. 
The Christian residents were offered four choices:
1. renounce the ‘idolatry’ of Christianity and convert to Islam;
2. pay a heavy tribute to the Muslims for the privilege of keeping their heads and their Christian faith (this tribute is known as jizya);
3. be killed;
4. flee for their lives, leaving all their belongings behind.  
Some Christians were killed, some fled, some tried to pay the jizya and found it too heavy a burden to bear after the rebels kept increasing the amount they had to pay, and some were unable to flee or pay, so they converted to Islam to save themselves. The scenario reported by Syrian refugees is a re-enactment of the historic fate of Christians across the Middle East. 
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Why not debate Mike Carlton? Because, Peter, he can’t

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (11:54am)

Reader Peter:
I looked up your link today to Mike Carlton’s column. Yet again, he’s long on abuse, short of argument, which is what I’ve come to expect from the Left. Why don’t you invite him onto your show to see if he can back his bluster?
Peter, if I thought he had anything to contribute I’d invite him. But I doubt he’d dare accept after his last attempt to debate me. Bluster, abuse - and a bit of smut - is really all he has, and I suspect he secretly knows it:

While the Left is represented by the likes of Carlton, it loses. 

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Just the kind of fact-checker the ABC would love

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (10:08am)

Paul Sheehan has a very personal reason to doubt the bias or factual accuracy of the ABC’s new fact-checker. 

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Sorry for whacking you, Eddie

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (10:02am)

The politics of race
I APOLOGISE to Eddie McGuire. I’m sorry I attacked him last week, when the screeching New Racists were already bashing him beyond all reason.
Their greatest victim last week was, of course, the 13-year-old girl crucified as the “face of racism” for yelling “ape” at Sydney’s Adam Goodes during the AFL’s Indigenous Round.
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Anthony Dillon, co-editor of In Black and White: Australians All at the Crossroads to be launched on Wednesday:
I do not think for one minute that McGuire intended to be nasty towards Goodes. The public has been tough on McGuire, and he has been tough on himself. 
Why? For the usual reason: we make others feel guilty so we don’t have to face our own guilt; and we all carry guilt of some sort…
I think in Australia racism is minimal… Australia is a great country to live in, as any number of Aboriginal people will tell you. Let’s not energise racism by giving it more attention than it deserves. To focus on issues like these detracts from more serious issues of physical abuse and neglect, poverty and unemployment, which plague some Aboriginal communities.. 
Enforced political correctness is fundamentally un-Australian. It runs against the irreverence and healthy realism about any form of constituted authority that is fundamental in the Aussie tradition and arguably comes as much from Aboriginal Australia as anywhere else.
Unfortunately I need to add a disclaimer to help protect Dillon from abuse and legal action: he is himself part-Aboriginal.
Another disclaimer is needed to help protect me from moron‘s abuse and legal action in this new Salem: “part-Aboriginal” is how he defines himself. 

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Call the Fukushima fear-mongers to account

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (10:01am)

The green movement
WHERE are those shameless nuclear hysterics who whipped up the Fukushima panic, now punctured by a United Nations report?
The UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation last week found none of the Japanese public is likely to get sick from the 2011 incident, when a tsunami smashed into the Fukushima reactor.
“It is unlikely to be able to attribute any health effects in the future among the general public and the vast majority of workers,” UNSCEAR it said.
“No radiation-related deaths or acute effects have been observed among nearly 25,000 workers . . . It is unlikely that excess cases of thyroid cancer due to radiation exposure would be detectable.”
Yet remember the free ride the media gave to anti-nuclear alarmists such as Helen Caldicott, who warned Fukushima could make Japan “uninhabitable”?
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Damn. I missed an even better scare quote from Caldicott in 2011:
THOSE poor fellows in the reactor vessels trying to do something, and they’re dead men walking. Many of them are going to be dead within two weeks of acute radiation illness. So they are in immediate danger. Everyone else is in long-term danger of getting cancer, or leukemia, or having their genes mutated in their testicles or ovaries to affect future generations.
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Will Soutphommasane, Fairfax writer and academic, apologise for this falsehood?

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (9:34am)

It’s a sport of certain columnist to put words in my mouth to better damn me, but Fairfax writer and Leftist academic Tim Soutphommasane today takes the prize for misrepresentation.
Soutphommasane today claims I described Eddie McGuire’s “King Kong” insult of Adam Goodes as ”evidence of nothing remotely close to racism - it was just silly behaviour”.
This is completely false.
In fact I called it ”racist” and a “slur” which left me “astonished”, given McGuire “knows perfectly well ‘ape’ can be a racially derogatory term”.  Soutphommasane just made things up.
Mind you, that is far from his only flaw as a writer and academic.
I have submitted letters to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald pointing out this clear misrepresentation. Let us see if they have the integrity to correct a falsehood, and whether Soutphommasane has the integrity to apologise.
Again I wonder: if what I say is so clearly wrong or silly, why not attack what I’ve actually said? Why invent?
UPDATE
Gerard Henderson has come across a preview example of Soutphommasane describing a pet caricature rather than the facts. 

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Say no to Canberra control over your town hall

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (8:42am)

Do you think the Gillard Government should get the power to run local councils like it’s run everything else?
Do you trust Canberra politicians to run your dog pound, pick up your rubbish and tend your sports oval?
If you have the slightest doubt - if you have the slightest suspicion that this is a dangerous power grab - go to this new website and sign up:
Former Defence Minister Peter Reith explains:
Former Councillor, Julian Leeser, will be Convenor of the Vote ‘No’ campaign, with the support of Mr Reith, Dr Gary Johns, Nick Minchin and Tim Wilson.
“We welcome any Australian who wants to stand up to Canberra’s power grab”, Mr Reith said.
“Anyone opposed to this local government referendum can register their interest at:

www.nopowergrab.com.au
“We’re building a broad-based coalition of people, regardless of their political background, to defeat this Canberra power grab. We want organising committee members, activists, donors, anyone prepared to play a part – big or small – to defeat this Canberra power grab”.
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Julia Gillard betrays Emily’s List, despite all it’s done for her

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (8:02am)

What principle won’t Julia Gillard sacrifice for power? Take her support for affirmative action to get more women into Parliament:
Cabinet ministers Jenny Macklin and Penny Wong and minister Catherine King are at odds with Prime Minister Julia Gillard over Martin Ferguson’s successor in Batman, with the trio publicly backing the need for Labor to select a woman. 
Ms Gillard is backing Right powerbroker Senator David Feeney, who is parliamentary secretary for defence. She considers him a strong and loyal ally who has performed well....
Ms Macklin on Sunday endorsed the executive manager of Plan International, Mary-Anne Thomas, for the prized Labor seat and made some rare public comments on the party, saying the ALP was failing to meet its rules that required 40 per cent of candidates in winnable seats to be women… 
“...I am very concerned that if a woman is not preselected for Batman, the ALP in Victoria will have only 27 per cent of candidates in held seats who are women,’’ Ms Macklin said. 
Gillard once would also have backed a woman over Feeney, given she helped found Emily’s List:
She was a founding member in 1996, with her mentor, the former Victorian premier Joan Kirner, and helped write its constitution. 
Modelled after a similar pro-choice group in the US, it describes itself as a “financial, political and personal support network assisting in the election of progressive Labor women candidates”. EMILY stands for “Early Money Is Like Yeast”. 
Emily’s Lists notes its greatest success:
In those early days, EMILY’s List Australia acted as a watchdog over the ALP’s implementation of the Affirmative Action Rule, ... [saying] the ALP would be best served when there was equal representation of women and men. This led to the launch of the Lift the Target Campaign in.... promoting a rule change to 50/50. Although EMILY’s List Australia did not get its aim, the targeted was lifted and the 40/40/20 rule by 2012 was enshrined as ALP policy.
Gillard is named by Emily’s List as one of the women it helped into Parliament:
EMILY’s List Australia – Current Members of Parliament ... Julia Gillard
But having been helped into Parliament by Emily’s List and its affirmative action activism, Gillard now betrays her sisterhood. He is backing a male loyalist for Batman instead of another Emily’s Lister:
Hutch Hussein, former national convener of political lobby group Emily’s List, which aims to elect female candidates to political office, has also indicated her interest in the seat.
Still, given what a woman is doing to the Labor brand, the times aren’t right to insist on insisting on more female politicians.  

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The wrong unity

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (7:22am)

Multiculturalism at work - with a radio station giving one group of immigrants its own program, telling them to stick together against a nasty host country: 

THE African-Australian community has a voice on the airwaves thanks to Collingwood’s community radio station 3CR. 
Daniel Haille-Michael hosts African Australian Voice every Sunday ... [and] said the community faced a range of challenges including racism, racial profiling by police and unemployment… He said the African community was diverse - with different religious beliefs, cultural practices and norms - but many were pushing for a unified voice to address challenges.
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NBN now Labor’s problem, not a boast

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (6:41am)

The main fault seems to lie with Telstra. The political responsibility for handling it will fall on Labor, which will find the brand of its NBN terribly damaged:
THE Gillard government is being urged to send its officials to National Broadband Network rollout sites to conduct checks of subcontractors’ asbestos procedures, a move that could pour more taxpayer funds into the federal workplace safety regulator and add to the $37.4 billion project. 

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Eating the pie, not growing it

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (12:55am)

Henry Ergas:
THERE is one crucial result in the Parliamentary Budget Office’s report on Australia’s fiscal position: from 2001-02 on, the Howard government ran structural budget surpluses every year averaging 1.4 per cent of GDP; while every year it has been in office, Labor has run structural deficits averaging 2.8 per cent of GDP. And even accepting the fog of unreality that is Labor’s latest budget, those structural deficits will persist through to at least 2016-17… 
The contrast with Labor could not be more stark. The licence given to union thugs; the imposition of inefficient taxes, such as the carbon tax and the MRRT; the squandering of scarce capital on follies such as the NBN; the proliferation of subsidies, regulation and “green tape”; the resulting crippling of the resource boom: all these slash the economy’s ability to grow and so finance spending commitments. The result is a deterioration in the structural fiscal position under Labor, which may be 2 per cent of GDP worse than the PBO suggests.
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Recommended

Andrew Bolt June 03 2013 (12:39am)

Loved this:
Loving this:

UPDATE
Much as we all like Kevin Spacey, though, can the late Ian Richardson be surpassed for his effortless projection of urbane menace? Readers in comments below seem at one on this.
Mind you, Richardson had the advantage of being British. It’s a cultural thing. 

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When the storms in your life come..ALWAYS REMEMBER, that JESUS is walking towards them and not away! Holly
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Sorry, long post. The following is a response to an email I sent to the ABC complaints department about the use of the word w**ker at 7.30pm at night, on a Friday when I had let my children have ABC2 on. I find it inappropriate and I am angry. ___________________________________________________________Dear Ms Cavaney

Thank you for your email about the episode of The Roast broadcast on 24 May at 7.30pm on ABC2.

In accordance with the ABC's complaint handling procedures, your concerns have been investigated by Audience & Consumer Affairs, a unit which is separate to and independent of program making areas within the ABC. The role of Audience & Consumer Affairs is to investigate complaints alleging that ABC content has breached the ABC's editorial standards.

We understand that you were offended by an instance of coarse language in this program. 

ABC Television carefully classifies all television programs broadcast on the ABC (other than news, current affairs and sporting events) prior to broadcast in accordance with the Associated Standard on Television Program Classification in the ABC's Code of Practice. As a result of the classification process, this episode of The Roast was classified PG (Parental Guidance recommended for people under 15 years) and was broadcast in a PG timeslot. Subject to the Implementation Guidelines at 7.3.2, PG programs may be broadcast:

· “On weekdays between 8.30am and 4pm and between 6pm and 6am; and

· On weekends at any time except between 6am and 10am”.

This episode of The Roast displayed the PG classification symbol within the first moments of screening to ensure that audience members could make an informed decision about whether or not to view the program. 

In relation to language in PG content, the Code of Practice states:

“Language: Coarse language should be mild and infrequent.”

The Roast is a ten-minute news bulletin that satirises the news of the day. We note that the word ‘wanker’ was used as part of the colloquial putdown “porsche wanker” in the report about the closure of Ford manufacturing in Australia.

On review of the segment, we are satisfied that the use of the word ‘wanker’ in this context was mild and in keeping with the PG classification, and was suitable for broadcast in the PG timeslot at 7.30pm. 

Notwithstanding this, please be assured we regret that you were offended by the word, and your concerns have been noted and conveyed to ABC Television so that they are aware of your feedback. 

For your reference, the ABC's Code of Practice is available on the ABC's website: http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/CodeofPractice2013.pdf.

Should you be dissatisfied with this response, you may be able to pursue your complaint with the Australian Communications and Media Authority: http://www.acma.gov.au/.

Thank you for giving the ABC the opportunity to respond to your concerns.

Yours sincerely

Anna Uszko

ABC Audience & Consumer Affairs
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Ben speaks to former Fairfax broadcaster Michael Smith about developments in the AWU scandal. 
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Barack Obama: Don't say 'Islamic terrorism'!

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The NBNCo on Asbestos. Talking to the Australian newspaper during 2010.

From The Australian paper 2010... "NBN is in talks to re-use Telstra's infrastructure, such as pits and conduits, in the $36 billion NBN rollout. But some underground pits and conduits contain asbestos cement, which was used regularly until the 1980s when the then Telecom switched to using plastic. The situation could put further pressure on the NBN Co as it tries to avoid a ***construction costs blowout*** that would slash the already fragile returns from the project and increase the funding requirements.

NBN Co spokeswoman Rhonda Griffin said ***the company had procedures for managing asbestos*** compliant with state and national rules. "Where asbestos is identified or suspected, ***NBN Co contracts the services*** of fully qualified asbestos experts to remove any aged asbestos-containing infrastructure and dispose of it as per all safeguards required under regulation," Ms Griffin said. "Independent hygienists are engaged to monitor any removal."

She said the "costs of asbestos management has been factored in to ***our business case***"."

That looks a LOT like NBN knew about the asbestos, took responsibility to hire services to look after it, and factored in this as a cost.""

That DOES NOT look like a statement from an organisation that can now do a Sgt. Schultz on Asbestos. The NBN HAD PROCEDURES in place to handle the well know problem. They UNDERTOOK to HIRE 'experts' to mitigate the risk. They built this OPERATIONAL COST into their 'business case'.

Gillard and Shorten are lying through their fucking teeth yet again. Am I the only person in this country with a functioning memory? Jesus.....

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Skirts should be like essays;.

Long enough to cover everything, short enough to keep it interesting. Nam N
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While out teaching a class in night photography tonight I received the terrible news that Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras, and Carl Young all died in the tornado breakout of El Reno on Friday. I'm grief stricken and shocked. They were all the highest caliber of human beings and elegant and humble. They will be sorely missed. M Granz
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IS YOUR SEAT RESERVED?
My seat has being reserved,not with silver and gold but with the precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.The Scripture says,"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." —1st Peter 1:18,19 and I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Ga 2:20)
We don't hear enough these days about the precious blood of Jesus,rather money money all the time.He said,seek me first and every other thing will be added unto you.Let the BLOOD cleanse you of your sins.God bless you.

Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin

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François de Laval
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“so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”Hebrews 9:28 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."
Galatians 5:17
In every believer's heart there is a constant struggle between the old nature and the new. The old nature is very active, and loses no opportunity of plying all the weapons of its deadly armoury against newborn grace; while on the other hand, the new nature is ever on the watch to resist and destroy its enemy. Grace within us will employ prayer, and faith, and hope, and love, to cast out the evil; it takes unto it the "whole armour of God," and wrestles earnestly. These two opposing natures will never cease to struggle so long as we are in this world. The battle of "Christian" with "Apollyon" lasted three hours, but the battle of Christian with himself lasted all the way from the Wicket Gate to the river Jordan. The enemy is so securely entrenched within us that he can never be driven out while we are in this body: but although we are closely beset, and often in sore conflict, we have an Almighty helper, even Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, who is ever with us, and who assures us that we shall eventually come off more than conquerors through Him. With such assistance the new-born nature is more than a match for its foes. Are you fighting with the adversary today? Are Satan, the world, and the flesh, all against you? Be not discouraged nor dismayed. Fight on! For God Himself is with you; Jehovah Nissi is your banner, and Jehovah Rophi is the healer of your wounds. Fear not, you shall overcome, for who can defeat Omnipotence? Fight on, "looking unto Jesus;" and though long and stern be the conflict, sweet will be the victory, and glorious the promised reward. "From strength to strength go on; Wrestle, and fight, and pray, Tread all the powers of darkness down, And win the well-fought day."

Evening


"Good Master."
Matthew 19:16

If the young man in the gospel used this title in speaking to our Lord, how much more fitly may I thus address him! He is indeed my Master in both senses, a ruling Master and a teaching Master. I delight to run upon his errands, and to sit at his feet. I am both his servant and his disciple, and count it my highest honour to own the double character. If he should ask me why I call him "good," I should have a ready answer. It is true that "there is none good but one, that is, God," but then he is God, and all the goodness of Deity shines forth in him. In my experience, I have found him good, so good, indeed, that all the good I have has come to me through him. He was good to me when I was dead in sin, for he raised me by his Spirit's power; he has been good to me in all my needs, trials, struggles, and sorrows. Never could there be a better Master, for his service is freedom, his rule is love: I wish I were one thousandth part as good a servant. When he teaches me as my Rabbi, he is unspeakably good, his doctrine is divine, his manner is condescending, his spirit is gentleness itself. No error mingles with his instruction--pure is the golden truth which he brings forth, and all his teachings lead to goodness, sanctifying as well as edifying the disciple. Angels find him a good Master and delight to pay their homage at his footstool. The ancient saints proved him to be a good Master, and each of them rejoiced to sing, "I am thy servant, O Lord!" My own humble testimony must certainly be to the same effect. I will bear this witness before my friends and neighbours, for possibly they may be led by my testimony to seek my Lord Jesus as their Master. O that they would do so! They would never repent so wise a deed. If they would but take his easy yoke, they would find themselves in so royal a service that they would enlist in it forever.
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Shaphan

[Shā'phan] - prudent, shy, rock badger or wild rat.
  1. A scribe, son of Azaliah, father of Gemariah. It was this Shaphan who laid before King Josiah the law book discovered by Hilkiah in the temple (2 Kings 22:3-14; 2 Chron. 34:8-20; Jer. 36:10-12) and who was the chief lay leader in the outworking of Josiah's reforms. For two generations his family played a worthy part as servants of Jehovah and as friends of Jeremiah.
  2. Father of Ahikam , a chief officer in the court of Josiah (2 Kings 22:12; 25:22; 2 Chron. 34:20; Jer. 26:24; 39:14; 40:5; 41:2; 43:6).
  3. A father of Elasah by whom Jeremiah the prophet sent a letter to the exiles in Babylon (Jer. 29:3).
  4. The father of Jaaganiah whom Ezekiel saw as enticing people to idolatry and whom he denounced as a ringleader (Ezek. 8:11).
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Today's reading: 2 Chronicles 17-18, John 13:1-20 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Chronicles 17-18


Jehoshaphat King of Judah
Jehoshaphat his son succeeded him as king and strengthened himself against Israel. 2 He stationed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah and put garrisons in Judah and in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.
3 The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of his father David before him. He did not consult the Baals 4 but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. 5 The LORD established the kingdom under his control; and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so that he had great wealth and honor. 6 His heart was devoted to the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah....


Today's New Testament reading: John 13:1-20


Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet

1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him....


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