Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Wed Jul 26th Todays News

Some things should not happen, but they do. Those hoping that a fair trial and due process would be afforded George Pell regarding pedophile allegations have been disappointed. Pell is Australia's highest ranked Catholic cleric. He had a court appearance today in which anonymous protestors have denounced Pell publicly to tv cameras seen around the world. However there are suppression orders at play. Plenty of police were on hand. However, none of those showing contempt for the court were arrested. Pell cannot face a fair trial if anonymous denouncers are allowed to accost publicly him every time he goes to court. Some trolls are saying "where there is smoke there is fire." Where did the masked denouncers come from? They could have come from Bill Shorten's office, or from Australia's Human Rights Council (AHRC). One held a placard with a convicted pedophile priest on one side, and Pell's picture on the other. But the facts known to date are that Pell was the first Australian senior cleric to address pedophilia and help victims. All who have denounced Pell in the past have been found to have been mistaken or liars. Pell has declared he is not guilty and is going to defend himself. He has legal counsel and did not have to face court today, but did so, knowing the travesty of justice he would face. Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has protected activist vigilantes from police detaining and identifying them, so we do not know who has shown contempt of court or why. Clearly, now, there is a threat to Pell's safety at future appearances. It seems like Pell is technically guilty of being a conservative, but nothing else. 

 Matt Canavan has resigned from federal government Ministry following revelations that he is a dual citizen. However, unlike the recent Greens loss of two members, it appears Matt might be able to keep his seat. The Greens members had been born overseas. They had failed in their due diligence. However, Canavan was born in Australia to Australian born parents. He says he had not known his mother had made the arrangements when he was 25 years old. If that is the full fact, and the Italian Government recognises the validity of the application, then Canavan can void it and retain his seat. Even if Canavan signed a document that had been misrepresented to him, he might still be allowed to retain his seat. Will Turnbull panic? If Canavan is rolled, then some bad scenarios arise for the Liberal Party. Because Turnbull declared at the double dissolution that the most senior elected senators in terms of votes got a full term, any replacement for Canavan would get a half term and an ALP member would get a full term. Turnbull is currently negotiating to get Senate terms lifted from six to eight years. 

 I had a situation that is salient. I was a foreign national permanent resident (born in USA) at the time of Hewson's unloseable election on GST. I wanted to support Hewson. When I was 18 I was allowed as a foreign resident to enrol and vote. Bob Hawke got rid of that, but it is unconstitutional to disenfranchise, so anyone who previously voted or registered could continue to vote even if they were not a citizen. I went to an electoral booth and made enquiries about my status. I voted absentee, and got mail weeks later telling me I was not enrolled and my vote was not counted. However, unknown to me, the electoral officer who heard my story at that booth had asked me pertinent questions and I was legally enrolled from that time, even though my vote had not counted. When I moved, as I did often at that time, I did not tell the electoral office, and I did not vote at subsequent elections. Eventually I was fined for not voting. I did not know or pay the fine. I was given a day in court, but had not gone as I had not known. I was sentenced to a day's prison. Only after my car was stolen and I went to report it to the police did I find out about my predicament. I sorted it out with the electoral office, by declaring my citizenship. At the time, that was sufficient for me to be a citizen. I have voted ever since. However, when Bob Carr became Premier of NSW, he destroyed all the paperwork regarding electoral offences. That included my citizenship declaration and when I discovered that, and needed to prove my citizenship, I found the laws had changed and I could no longer make the declaration, so I took the test. 
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 A Jackson Farewell to Saddam Hussein 

A corruption of the brilliant Jackson 5 number "Never Can Say Goodbye"
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=52842
Thanks to CNN and news.com.au for the pictures.
Sadly, the life of Saddam was of such a nature that these images may offend. 
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=52869


=== from 2016 ===
 Press are calling for a knee jerk reaction into video of an ice affected young inmate in juvenile detention in the Northern Territory in a spit mask and chair. Words like torture and abuse are tossed around and calls are made for the sacking of government ministers. Tear gas was used too. But clearly the situation is not clear cut. The youth pictured in a chair with a hood over him had been spitting at guards. The use of such chairs is banned in other states, but allowed in NT. The idea of rough handling and gassing youth is clearly illegitimate. But the image of the young man, looking like an Abu Ghraib victim, is confronting. So is the list of offences of the young man. He claims to be Aboriginal and it is apparent that no one who loves him as disciplined him when he was younger. But the issue is not to do with him. The issue is inflated now, and driven by hysterical calls, because there is an election in the NT due next month. The media want to end the conservative government in the NT, but they haven't questioned the ALP on the same issue. "Vote ALP because they don't know what to do. Vote ALP because they didn't know it was happening either." The CLP is divided. So is the ALP. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.  
=== from 2015 ===

Father God, this week my project finishes. It has been eight years since I stood on principle and resigned from my secure teacher's position on a social justice issue. I felt isolated and friendless and betrayed. I had a misplaced trust in process and Australian government. Those that loved me told me I needed to lose weight. That is true, but not the issue, either. I ran for government twice, not to win so much as to raise the social justice issue. With help from the press, I didn't win, or come near to it. But, father, I only wanted to hold to you and I have. At times, like today, I have not gone to church and so I have failed you. But I still hold to you, even as I fail. I have lost much I built on sand. I have lost my home, my life savings and all those possessions one collects in life as tokens, reminders of whom they are. I have a few months before all I have is exhausted. But, if I were given a choice, I'd hesitate, and do it again. 

Two million words across twelve books written in a year. Four are published and eight will be written in the next fortnight or two. I have sacrificed much friends I have trusted I have also betrayed and I cannot undo it. But I stand by what I did because to not do so would have been worse. Still, I thank those who supported me to persevere when it would have been very easy to give up. My Aunt Joan Watson and my late grandmother Mary MacMahon and their respective offspring are big motivators for me. My cousin Dé Hurwits and his family. My students John Tran, Remi Oh, The Sosins, and their families. My Happy Cup Cabramatta friends Tuan, Christine and Helen. My online colleagues Stephanie Carroll, Mandy McLean, Phil Box, Jenny Vuong, Daniel Katz, Don Kramer and all their families. My close friends from Jesus Family Cabramatta and Marrickville, especially Timothy Ly, and those rogues from Inspire Church and the wonderful former US Army Chaplain John Morris and our Gathering. Also, Edu-Kingdom Bankstown’s William and Anne. This work is not over, the journey is not ended, but definitely we have reached a landmark. Some very special people I cannot name PFB, SLW (nee B) and TMN. Because the dream of tomorrow is the hope given by God. And lastly, thank you to my ‘daughter’ Tammy. Sometimes I long to go home. But, then I remember you are here, Tammy, and I want your future to be bright. 
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep. 
Robert Frost (Stopping by woods on a snowy evening)

Father, you know the IPA (Institute of Public Affairs) and John Roskam, who used to work for my late father. I want my books to reinforce their campaign for free speech. Father God, the work is not complete. Not even as I finish with it. I have failed in my work I dedicated to you. But that is ok. I don't want it to be about me. I don't want people to read it and hear me, but know you. Such a failure is better than any of the wildest successes I might imagine. 
From 2014
There is a logical fallacy whereby free speech is compared to hate speech. There is a difference. There may be truth applied to events which the hate mongers describe, but, the weight that hate applies to the subject unbalances it. Free speech is noble and something to aspire to. It is a truth of academia that anyone can have a good idea, it is an idea which should be judged, not the person suggesting it, but a bad idea is not something to be accepted because a bad person suggested it. Australia's government and culture is founded on secular virtues and practice. Not because religion is absent from the members, but because it has been found that that is a way for all the members to work together. Sometimes members don't. Some members here hate a lot. It is a lousy way to live and unhelpful in addressing issues. 

A wikipedia article on Al Quds claims to be about the arabic word for Jerusalem. Al Quds day was instituted by the terrorist cleric Khomeini, to be on the last day of Ramadan and allow Iran to fund riots against Israeli government. It is a celebration of Iran sponsoring terrorism, and it has existed for almost ten years. It is a protected article with many terrorist sympathisers resisting balance being brought to the article. A major rewrite is needed for the article, or deletion. The article was placed on the daily summary bulletin as being an international day. It is an example of what is produced by hate. 

On this day, the FBI was given personnel in 1908. The CIA was signed into law in 1947. Fidel Castro began the Cuban revolution in 1953. On the same day in 1953, Arizona opposed polygamy. In Vietnam in 1968, the opposition leader was sentenced to five years hard labour for advocating a coalition government to end the war. In 2008, Ahmedabad India was bombed by terrorists. In 2009, Boko Haram attacked Nigerian police. Also on this day, 1989, a guy was indicted for creating a worm on the internet. Winston Churchill was booted from government by the Labour Party in 1945. Passing on this day were Sam Houston (1863), Eva Perón (1952), Mary Wells (1992) and Mary Tamm (2012). Born on this day Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791), George Bernard Shaw (1856), Carl Jung (1875), Aldous Huxley (1894), Gracie Allen (1895), Stanley Kubrick (1928), John Howard (1939) Sandra Bullock (1964) and Kate Beckinsale (1973)
Historical perspective on this day
In 657, First Fitna: in the Battle of Siffin, troops led by Ali ibn Abu Talib clashed with those led by Muawiyah I. 811, Battle of Pliska: Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I I was killed and his heir Staurakios was seriously wounded. 920, rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.

In 1309, Henry VII was recognised King of the Romans by Pope Clement V. 1469, Wars of the Roses: the Battle of Edgecote Moor, pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England, took place. 1509, the Emperor Krishnadeva Raya ascended to the throne, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire. 1581, Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration): the northern Low Countries declared their independence from the Spanish king, Philip II. 1745, the first recorded women's cricket match took place near Guildford, England. 1758, French and Indian War: the Siege of Louisbourg ended with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. 1775, the office that would later become the United States Post Office Department was established by the Second Continental Congress. 1788, New York ratified the United States Constitution and became the 11th state of the United States.

In 1803, the Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opened in south London, United Kingdom. 1822, José de San Martín arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar. Also 1822, first day of the three-day Battle of Dervenakia, between the Ottoman Empire force led by Mahmud Dramali Pasha and the Greek Revolutionary force led by Theodoros Kolokotronis. 1847, Liberia declared her independence. 1861, American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumed command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run. 1863, American Civil War: Morgan's Raid ended; At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers were captured by Union forces. 1882, premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth. Also 1882, the Republic of Stellaland was founded in Southern Africa. 1887, Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement. 1890, in Buenos Aires, Argentina the Revolución del Parque took place, forcing President Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman's resignation. 1891, Franceannexed Tahiti. 1897, Anglo-Afghan War: The Pashtun fakir Saidullah led an army of more than 10,000 to begin a siege of the British garrison in the Malakand Agency of the North West Frontier Province of India.

In 1908, United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issued an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation). 1914, Serbia and Bulgaria interrupted diplomatic relationship. 1936, the Axis powers decided to intervene in the Spanish Civil War. Also 1936, King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicated the thrоne, officially unveiled the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. 1937, end of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.

In 1941, World War II: in response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States. 1944, World War II: the Soviet Army entered Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, capturing it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survived out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation. 1945, the Labour Party won the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power. Also 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was signed in Potsdam, Germany. Also 1945, HMS Vestal was the last British Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the Second World War Also 1945, the US Navy cruiser USS Indianapolis arrived at Tinian with parts of the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb. 1946, Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport 1947, Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council. 1948, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.

In 1951, Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premiered in London, England, United Kingdom. 1952, King Farouk of Egypt abdicated in favour of his son Fuad. 1953, Fidel Castro led an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement took the name of the date: 26th of July Movement Also 1953, Arizona Governor John Howard Pyleordered an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which became known as the Short Creek raid. Also 1953, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment repelled a number of Chinese assaults against a key position known as The Hook during the Battle of the Samichon River, just hours before the Armistice Agreement was signed, ending the Korean War. 1956, following the World Bank's refusal to fund building the Aswan Dam, Egyptianleader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation. 1957, Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, was assassinated. 1958, Explorer program: Explorer 4 was launched. 1963, Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster. Also 1963, an earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (now in Macedonia) left 1,100 dead. Also 1963, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development voted to admit Japan. 1965, Full independence was granted to the Maldives. 1968, Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu was sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.

In 1971, Apollo program: launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle. Also 1971, Nicolette Milnes-Walker completed sailing non-stop single-handedly across the Atlantic, becoming the first woman to successfully do so. 1974, Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis formed the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule. 1977, the National Assembly of Quebec imposed the use of French as the official language of the provincial government. 1989, a federal grand jury indicted Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George Bush. 2005, Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission – Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the ColumbiaDisaster in 2003. Also 2005, Mumbai, India received 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, resulting in floods killing over 5,000 people. 2007, Shambo, a black cow in Wales that had been adopted by the local Hindu community, was slaughtered due to a bovine tuberculosis infection, causing widespread controversy.
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January. 

Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?

January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.

List of available items at Create Space
Happy birthday and many happy returns Dave Wane. Your birthday is shared with Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791), George Bernard Shaw (1856), Carl Jung (1875), Aldous Huxley (1894), Gracie Allen (1895), Stanley Kubrick (1928), John Howard (1939) Sandra Bullock (1964) and Kate Beckinsale (1973). 811 – Bulgarian forces led by Khan Krum defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Pliska, annihilating almost the whole army and killing Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I.
1581 – Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands signed the Act of Abjuration, declaring the independence of the Dutch Low Countries from King Philip II of Spain.
1908 – Unable to use U.S. Secret Service agents as investigators, U.S. Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte established what is now the Federal Bureau of Investigation as his own staff of special agents.
1953 – In Short Creek, Arizona, police conducted a mass arrest of approximately 400 Mormon fundamentalists for polygamy.
1968 – After coming second to Nguyen Van Thieu in a rigged presidential election in 1967, Truong Dinh Dzu was jailed by a military court for illicit currency transactions. Your remarkable day continues. Try not to lose the whole army. Stay away from Spain .. stand on your own two feet. Don't use the Secret Service. be responsible for your own decisions. You won't be arrested for polygamy if you keep to one wife .. your own. And it is ok to come second, but try not to engage in corruption trying to come first.
Deaths
July 26: Parents' Day in the United States (2015)
1882 premiere of Parsifal
1882 premiere of Parsifal
We have the crumbs. It is all or nothing. We have the Holy Grail. We didn't expect that. Hatred is unbecoming. Let's party. 
===
Tim Blair

RANKED IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE, LARGEST TO SMALLEST

South Australian premier Jay Weatherill displays some interesting photographs in his office.
26 Jul  5
===
Andrew Bolt

===

AMERICA’S FIRST WIFE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 26, 2016 (6:13pm)

An oldtimer in an Alabama bar once explained to me why Hillary Clinton is so unpopular: “She sounds like everybody’s first wife.” Ahead of what could be an utterly shatterbolic Democratic National Convention, even Democrat supporter Michael Moore – the diet commercial “before” model to Graham’s “after” – called the election for Donald Trump: 
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.” 
Never in my life have I wanted to be proven wrong more than I do right now. 
Relax, Mike. There’s still plenty of time for Hillary to recover, although she’s got to get through the convention first. Things don’t seem to be going particularly well for Australia’s $85 million investment: 
“Hillary is our Democratic nominee and I will proudly vote for her,” Silverman said to a chorus of cheers and boos. “I will vote for Hillary with gusto.”

Silverman wasn’t done yet, though. Going off script, she said: “Can I just say to the Bernie or Bust people: You’re being ridiculous.” The line was met by chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” as Franken and Silverman tried to continue their speech. 
Thousands of disenchanted Sanders fanatics marched against Clinton while one Bernie gal delivered the line of the night during Elizabeth Warren’s speech: “You sold your birthright for a bowl of porridge!”
In fact, “bowl of porridge” is Warren’s tribal name. Then there’s the small problem of Debbie Wasserman Schultz: 
On July 22, Wikileaks released 20,000 DNC emails, exposing DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC staff of sabotaging Bernie Sanders’ campaign. In the wake of the fallout, Wasserman Schultz formally resigned from her position as DNC chair, only to be replaced by another Clinton surrogate, DNC vice chair Donna Brazile.

Rather than allowing Wasserman Schultz’s career to go down with her resignation, Clinton has awarded Wasserman Schultz a new role as honorary chair to the Clinton campaign’s 50-state program. 
Genius. No wonder they’ve built a wall in front of the convention podium. It isn’t to protect Hillary from voters. It’s to protect voters from Hillary.
===

COMMUNISM’S LEGACY

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 26, 2016 (5:55pm)

There is still at least one functioning Trabant in Germany. Not so many functioning Germans, however.
===

WORSE THAN WARFARE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 26, 2016 (5:33pm)

During his final season as a full-time Formula One commentator, Murray Walker decided against attending one particular Grand Prix: 
“It’s my choice and, while I like all the races, I would say that I like Brazil the least …” 
To put this in context, remember that Walker served in Germany during World War II. A nation full of armed Nazis didn’t scare him, but Brazil is an entirely different deal. Now come reports that Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s mother-in-law has been kidnapped in Sao Paulo: 
According to Brazilian magazine Veja, Aparecida Schunck, 67, was taken on Friday in the neighbourhood of Interlagos, Sao Paulo with her kidnappers said to be demanding a ransom of 120 million Brazilian reals ($AU48.75 million). 
A few hundred kilometres away in Rio, locals are celebrating the forthcoming Olympics by robbing athletes and planning terror attacks. The Zika virus might not be the only reason so many potential Olympic competitors are following Walker’s example. 
===

HE SPEAKS FROM EXPERIENCE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 26, 2016 (3:13pm)

The editor who published Alene Composta is now criticising other editors.
===

QUESTIONS AND APOSTATES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 26, 2016 (1:30pm)

On Q & A last week: non-practicing Muslim Sam Dastyari.
On Q & A this week: non-practicing Muslim Ed Husic.
Neither were asked for nor offered any views as to why they’d moved away from Islam. That topic might make for an interesting episode.
===

TUESDAY NOTICEBOARD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 26, 2016 (3:50am)

A certain Surry Hills cat today owes its life to the combined efforts of BMW’s brake engineers and Pirelli’s tyre technicians. Then again, the same cat – a creature with an adventurous approach to traffic negotiation – could very well owe its future status as road mince to the combined efforts of a 19-year-old driver, a worn-out Hyundai and bald Hankooks.
===

THE MORAL REALM

Tim Blair – Monday, July 25, 2016 (6:58pm)

Our intellectual superiors have raised the alarm. Worried by how all of us terrible oiks are responding to murderous Islamic terrorism, they’ve declared there should be limits to what we say about murderous Islamic terrorism.
Following what co-host Waleed Aly described as “one of the heaviest weeks we’ve lived through in a long time”, the ABC’s Minefield radio program last Thursday “took a hard look at the negative effects of ‘free speech’.” Waleed’s co-presenter Scott Stephens, editor of the ABC’s Religion and Ethics website, kicked things off:
“There’s something quite disturbing about our response to the events we’ve witnessed in places like Orlando or Nice. I’m hearing things being said that not that long ago would’ve been unthinkable.”
Now, a normal person might choose to focus on the events themselves, which left a total of 133 people dead through the vile deeds of Islamic maniacs. Their thinking might go something this: “There’s something quite disturbing about the events we’ve witnessed in places like Orlando or Nice. I’m seeing things that not long ago would’ve been unthinkable.”
By contrast, not a solitary person has been killed by the response to those murders.
Stephens broadened his concern to include speeches made at last week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland from the parents of children killed by illegal immigrants. “The whole point of it was to demonise a particular group,” Stephens claimed.
“The whole point of it is to do a certain violence against the dignity of fellow citizens and fellow human beings.”
As opposed, I guess, to the actual deadly violence committed by terrorists and illegals, which appear for Stephens to rank below the horrifying use of words. “We’ve been hearing about calls for a ban on Muslim immigration,” he fretted, referring to television presenter Sonia Kruger’s recent remarks.

“In the national broadsheet this week there was a letter published calling for Muslim internment. There have been expressions of unvarnished racism and sexism. We’ve seen over the last year chest-beating advocacy of the restoration of torture.”
Sounds like the advocates are torturing themselves. It’s notoriously difficult to waterboard someone when you’re pounding away on your own ribcage. Stephens then offered this thundering conclusion:
“I’m wondering whether we as moral agents can still be trusted with the privilege of freedom of speech. I think we’re at the point where we have to re-examine what we mean by that and if there is a deeper moral obligation that puts constraints on what we ought to be able to say in public.”
It might have been fun to turn Stephens’s microphone off mid-rant. No more freedom of speech for you, mate, especially not on the taxpayer’s dime.
Waleed Aly went along with most of this, so long as Stephens confined his comments “to the moral realm”, wherever that is. Perhaps it should be Radio National’s new name.
(Continue reading The Moral Realm.)
===

On The Bolt Report and radio tonight

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (6:09pm)

On The Bolt Report on Sky News Live at 7pm tonight:
Editorial - The bigger picture about the Northern Territory juvenile detention scandal - and what you weren’t told.
My guests:
NT Chief Minister  Adam Giles.
Former chairman of the Australian Stock Exchange  Maurice Newman on the terrible danger of financial meltdown.
Gerard Henderson on the ABC’s message of hatred for Israel, and Crikey’s sad search for “quality journalism”.
The panel:  Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger and Labor frontbencher Stephen Conroy.  
Podcasts of the show here. Facebook page here. 
On 2GB, 3AW and 4BC with Steve Price from 8pm.
The NT juvenile “torture” scandal.
Listen live here. Talkback:  131 873.  Listen to all past shows  here.
===

Not acceptable, but no easy answers

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (10:20am)

I do not doubt how hard it is to manage boys so damaged, but this is totally unacceptable:
Vision of the tear-gassing of six boys being held in isolation at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin in August 2014 has been obtained by Four Corners, exposing one of the darkest incidents in the history of juvenile justice in Australia…

The tear-gassing incident was described as a “riot” at the time, with media reporting multiple boys had escaped their cells in the isolation wing of the prison, known as the Behavioural Management Unit (BMU), and threatened staff with weapons. 
But CCTV vision and handy-cam recordings made by staff, obtained exclusively by Four Corners, show only one boy escaped his cell after it was left unlocked by a guard…
Not all the children were misbehaving — two boys can be seen on CCTV calmly playing cards before being exposed to the fumes. Another can be seen repeatedly smashing the wall of his cell with a broken light fitting… Three weeks before the tear-gassing incident, five boys had escaped from Don Dale… When they were recaptured, they were placed in the isolation wing of the prison for between 15 and 17 days.. They were kept locked in their cells for almost 24 hours a day with no running water, little natural light, and were denied access to school and educational material.
Solitary confinement for the children? Tear gassing? For heaven’s sake, we must do better.
UPDATE
Again, the detention chair seems way over the top to me, not least the hood, although the transcript suggests there is another side to the story:

Guard: “You just can’t put toilet paper everywhere, you can’t rip your, you can’t start chewing on your mattress. You can’t do that stuff, you know that.”
Dylan Voller: “You can’t lock me in here, bruz.”
Guard: “Unfortunately you’ve put yourself in here by going at risk.”
....
Guard: “Might get the restraint chair possibly as well.”
Voller: “I don’t want the restraint chair bro.”
...
Voller: “Where’s my f***ing mattress? I’m not a dog to you.”
Guard: “You need to settle down.”
...
Voller: “I’m going to break my hand anyway.”
Guard: “Why are you going to break your hand?”
Voller: “So I can go to hospital … (inaudible).”
Guard: “Well you won’t go … I doubt very much you’ll go to hospital.”
Voller: “I’ll snap my bone through my skin.”
...
Guard: “Alright, well I’ll just give you the heads up, grab the restraint chair, we are going in the restraint chair.”
About Voller:
The 17-year-old, who is known to spit on guards, ...has been in and out of detention centres around the NT since he was 11 years old. He has been charged with numerous offences including aggravated assault and robbery.
Again, that does not excuse some of the things done to him, but does help to explain why some guards may have been at their wits’ end.
I am not convinced a royal commission was necessary, but clearly change is.
UPDATE
A story about Voller from last year:
The verdict of the court which heard about this incident. This isn’t easy:
Tasker stated in his evidence in relation to events that pre-dated 9.12.10: 
· He distinctly remembered Voller’s first admission as he had allowed his mother to visit, but it went “pear shape” and Voller threw food at his mother and actually assaulted her;
· There were multiple times of Voller spitting to himself, including at Aranda house, at the police watch house and the court cells in Alice Springs;…

· He had witnessed Voller remove his clothes and self affixiate;
· Voller was an extremely difficult child to deal with, and he had never come across such a difficult child in his 17 years. 
36.  Clee stated in his evidence as to his knowledge of Voller before 9.12.10: 
· There was no previous occasion when Voller had to be forcibly restrained to be put in an at risk gown; 
· He was known as a spitter (over the years Voller had spat on him 200 times).
UPDATE
No, it is not easy:
The boy, Dylan Voller, was in 2014 convicted of trying to run over a policeman and instigating a gang robbery that saw another man bashed unconscious. 
The court heard Voller, then 16, had been drunk and high on ice at the time he committed the “disturbing” crimes.
UPDATE
I think Chief Minister Adam Giles is right:
I want the royal commission not just to look at the corrections system in the Northern Territory, I also want it to look at child protection in the Northern Territory.

I want it to look at some of the root causes of the reasons why children are entering the youth system in the Northern Territory.

This is not a blame game, this is recognising that there are children who are being neglected, unloved, getting into trouble, causing trouble in the streets and fining their way into our detention facilities.
===

Productivity Commission appalled: Turnbull just blew $15 billion

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (10:00am)

Jacob Greber on the Turnbull Government’s outrageous waste of defence dollars which were meant to go on defending Australia, not saving Liberal seats:
More than four decades of success in lowering tariffs and curbing taxpayer-funded industry featherbedding looks set to be cast aside because of the Turnbull government’s decision to build $50 billion worth of submarines in South Australia, the Productivity Commission has warned. 
In a scathing analysis by the government’s independent economic think tank, the commission estimates the 30 per cent cost premium to build the submarines locally may be the single most generous industry assistance scheme on record.
“This is a major step back from the historical reduction in using government procurement preference as industry policy,” the commission said in its annual Trade & Assistance Review…
“The recent decision to build the new submarines locally at a reported 30 per cent cost premium, and a preference for using local steel, provides an illustrative example of how a local cost premium can deliver a very high rate of effective assistance for the defence contractor and the firms providing the major steel inputs,” the report said.
Analysts at the commission estimate that the effective rate of assistance delivered to the submarine program because it is using local staff and more costly local steel could be as high as 300 per cent… “It is notable that this cost premium does not include any delays in deploying the new submarine capability,” it added.
That suggests we are building 12 submarines here for the price of 18 submarines bought from overseas - and delivered faster. The Turnbull Government has betrayed the national interest.
Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill:
With the cost of electricity in South Australia at least double that of the rest of the country, how much does that add to the final cost of constructing the subs in Adelaide?
===

Ansbach bomber was IS supporter

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (9:59am)

As expected:
The Syrian suicide bomber who injured 15 people in a Sunday night attack on a music festival in Ansbach, Germany, left behind a video pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Monday… 
In the video left on a mobile phone, the 27-year-old Syrian announced his threat to carry out an attack “as an act of revenge against Germans, because they obstruct Islam,” Herrmann told a press conference. The man said the attack would be committed in the name of Allah as retaliation for the killing of Muslims.
There will be more, of course.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Molan proves why Photios should go

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (9:55am)

The Liberals let Michael Photios, a lobbyist, interfere with their NSW preselections, promoting duds and demoting talent such as Jim Molan.
The Senate count suggests that Photios is indeed a man of poor judgement who should be drummed out of the party processes.  Dennis Shanahan:
Voters are using the new Senate system in unprecedented numbers to protest against factional selections within the major parties, to defying voting directives and to embarrass sitting Senators… 
In NSW, a popular conservative Liberal, former general Jim Molan, was pushed to the unwinnable 7th position on the Coalition Senate ticket below four ministers, a National and a first-time Liberal candidate. In a factional deal endorsed by the state Liberal executive, Liberal ministers Marise Payne, Arthur Sinodinos and Connie Fierravanti-Wells and Nationals Fiona Nash and John Williams, then Liberal Hollie Hughes, were all put above Mr Molan on the ticket.
But votes counted so far show the effect of a campaign to defy the Liberal Party how-to-vote card has delivered Mr Molan 6173 first-preference votes, three times the vote of Senator Sinodinos and 10 times the votes of Senator Fierravanti-Wells and Ms Hughes. Mr Molan still is unlikely to be elected and last night told The Australian he was attempting to “democratise the Liberal Party from within”. He said: “This does show those who want to vote individually will do so."b 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Baird wags his finger

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (9:27am)

There is a new authoritarian spirit in the political and media class, just when voters are demanding more say and less bullying.
Brad Norrington describes the troubling case of NSW premier Mike Baird: 
Baird is now grappling with a mounting list of political headaches, most self-induced, as he rushes out policy decisions and adopts what is widely perceived as a steamroller approach to implementing them… His critics go further, ­claiming dictatorial edicts are ­replacing expected democratic consultation processes… 
Opponents of forced local council mergers across NSW, some of them conservatives from Baird’s own side, are unlikely to forget that their suburban or ­regional fiefdoms were taken from them…
Strict liquor licensing laws ­related to late-night city pub lockouts and statewide takeaway sales were inherited after O’Farrell’s tough response to alcohol-fuelled violence at Kings Cross, but ... revellers want back the freedom to drink ad nauseam…

Against type for a supposedly pro-business Liberal premier, Baird has enraged cruise ship companies and parts of the tourism industry by requiring the use of low-sulphur fuels in Sydney Harbour, and eventually along the NSW coast. This decision stems from the complaints of Balmain residents, not known for their Liberal-voting proclivities, about pollution sickness caused by vessels docked in nearby White Bay… [but] shipowners say the new requirements are not based on scientific studies or local surveys of the impact of fuels with a higher sulphur output.
Baird has boosted his pro-environment credentials with Greens and wildlife protection groups for resisting pressure from some businesses, surfers and media to put shark netting and traditional drum lines along NSW north coast beaches after a number of shark attacks, including two fatalities, over the past two years…
No decision better epitomises the new-model Mike Baird, and the political script to go with it, than his announcement that the big-money NSW greyhound ­industry is to be shut down next year. ..
Critics argue he is turning ­arrogance into a virtue and even imposing a nanny state. “So what is Baird saying?” asks one. “That it’s OK to be a bene­volent dictator?” 
===

Had it with Hillary

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (9:07am)

Even Democrats don’t trust Hillary.
Bernie Sanders supporters at a meeting before the Democratic Convention boo Sanders when he tells them to vote for Hillary Clinton:
And Florida delegates boo the Democrat chairwoman off the stage for having secretly helped Clinton beat Sanders, as leaked emails reveal:
UPDATE
Donald Trump has evened the contest with his convention.Hillary Clinton will hope to do the same with this week’s Democratic convention, but I suspect that Trump has more to gain than Clinton from prolonged scrutiny:
===

Slaughter at Japanese disabled centre

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (8:56am)

Is there a madness virus let loose on the world?
At least 19 people have been killed and 20 injured in a knife attack outside Tokyo, Japanese news agencies are reporting.. 
A knife-wielding man attacked a facility for the disabled and then turned himself in, police say.
===

What contempt Andrews shows for Australians and their right to speak

Andrew Bolt July 26 2016 (8:49am)

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews demands the Turnbull Government junk its promise to give the public a vote on same-sex marriage:
This will be a harmful, spiteful debate — it will give legitimacy to hurtful views, views that are essentially bigoted.
Terry Barnes in the latest Spectator Australia - get in at the news agents now - says it well about this arrogant and offensive call:
The Andrews letter is ugly, however, and shows its signer’s offensive contempt for the wisdom of the people whose judgment politicians invariably claim they trust.  It is a disgraceful diatribe against we, the people by someone entrusted by the public to govern for all of us, not just the few… 
The overall tone of Andrews’s letter is arrogant, offensive and anti-democratic.  He clearly sees the Australian electorate as ignorant oafs incapable of civil debate, disregarding the simple truth opinion polls overwhelmingly favour gay marriage with or without a plebiscite.  Many of that majority may well share Paul Keating’s fabled view that “two blokes and a cocker-spaniel don’t constitute a family”, but are willing to vote for gay marriage in the spirit of tolerance and giving people a fair go that is the Australian way.  They are putting their own misgivings aside in the spirit of goodwill, but the likes of Andrews still don’t trust them, and judging from the Premier’s acid words he views many of those who voted for him with snarling contempt.
For the Premier, however, freedom of speech only applies to people who agree with him.  Andrews condemns bigotry as he sees it, but in doing so shows bigotry himself.
===

Book finds island home

Andrew Bolt July 25 2016 (9:45pm)

My book is off on an international frolic without me, having been spotted already in London, Lake Como, Ithaca, Scotland and by the Bay of Naples.  Reader John Stanbridge now takes it on a study tour of Fiji’s Parliament.
To buy a copy for the animal in your life, go here.
The hird edition of the Bolt Bulletin, sent to on-line buyers, has now gone out with thanks, a poem and a little introspection. A point is also made about the Trump critics attacking his speech.
UPDATE
I spoke last year to James Macpherson of the Calvary Christian Church about faith and morals. The video has just popped up:
===

PJ O’Rourke in Melbourne

Andrew Bolt July 25 2016 (9:23pm)

The legend is in Melbourne:
Have We All Gone Nuts?! PJ O’Rourke Talks Politics in Melbourne 
Wednesday, 3 August 2016.

The Centre for Independent Studies is excited to welcome back best-selling American writer and leading political satirist PJ O’Rourke. Join us for a laugh-out-loud evening of trenchant, sometimes scathing political insights; because if you didn’t laugh, you’d have to cry.
With his trademark biting wit and capacity for provocation, PJ will unravel the sorry state of Western politics and democracy. The former Rolling Stone foreign affairs correspondent will offer the latest news from the US campaign trail, and muse over whether the Australian political landscape is merely neurotic when compared to the insane antics of the US elections…
PJ is a contributing editor at The Weekly Standard [and] H. L. Mencken fellow at the Cato Institute… A prolific writer, his exposé of Washington, Parliament of Whores, and his book about international conflict and crisis, Give War a Chance, both reached #1 on the New York Times best-seller list.

Book here to hear him.
===

Labor returns to Kevin Rudd’s 2007 campaign

Piers Akerman – Saturday, July 25, 2015 (10:16pm)

BlLL Shorten says he has learnt from Labor’s mistakes but that certainly hasn’t stopped him ­repeating them.
If anything, he has been channelling the same grandiose policy ideas outlined by Kevin Rudd in the 2007 campaign.
 Continue reading 'Labor returns to Kevin Rudd’s 2007 campaign'
===

Planned Parenthood scam shows us evil has a way of creeping into the world

Miranda Devine – Saturday, July 25, 2015 (10:18pm)

THE gargoyle witches of Grimm’s fairytales, who kidnapped children and fattened them up to eat, served the purpose of warning tender hearts about the evil in our world.
 Continue reading 'Planned Parenthood scam shows us evil has a way of creeping into the world'
===

TUNE IN WHILE I’M TUNED OUT

Tim Blair – Sunday, July 26, 2015 (1:12pm)

I’m busy all day with various editorial tasks, so now is the perfect time to play this week’s Joe/Tim podcast, if you’ve not heard it already. Otherwise please consider this an open thread.
By the way, future podcasts will be available through one or more downloadable pod platforms. Responsibility for accomplishing this has been handed to our massive News Corp online audio technical team, who is named Martin.
===

WHO IS KILLING THE GREAT WARMISTS OF EUROPE?

Tim Blair – Sunday, July 26, 2015 (3:32am)

A Cambridge professor claims three global warming academics may have been assassinated: 
Professor Peter Wadhams said he feared being labelled a “looney” over his suspicion that the deaths of the scientists were more than just an ‘extraordinary’ coincidence.
But he insisted the trio could have been murdered and hinted that the oil industry or else sinister government forces might be implicated.
The three scientists he identified – Seymour Laxon and Katherine Giles, both climate change scientists at University College London, and Tim Boyd of the Scottish Association for Marine Science – all died within the space of a few months in early 2013. 
Evidence suggests that the three were definitely not victims of government or Big Oil: 
Professor Laxon fell down a flight of stairs at a New Year’s Eve party at a house in Essex while Dr Giles died when she was in collision with a lorry when cycling to work in London. Dr Boyd is thought to have been struck by lightning while walking in Scotland. 
The circumstances behind these deaths do seem random – a lightning strike is especially difficult to organise – but everything looks like a conspiracy when you’re a warmy: 
Asked if he thought hitmen might have been behind the deaths, Prof Wadhams, who is Professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, told The Telegraph: “Yes. I do believe assassins possibly murdered them but I can see that I would be thought of as a looney for believing this.
“But it’s just very odd coincidence that something like that should happen in such a brief period of time.” 
(Via Brat)
===

THE MID-LIFE DIFFERENCE

Tim Blair – Sunday, July 26, 2015 (3:28am)

Musician Karl Wallinger: 
Women have the menopause. Men have box sets. 
===

A Labor that hates Ferguson has losts its brains and its compass

Andrew Bolt July 26 2015 (2:33pm)

What a disgrace. A Labor party that damns Martin Ferguson is not worth a damn cracker:
[Labor’s national] conference has carried a resolution condemning former ACTU boss and former federal frontbencher Martin Ferguson,…

The move follows the failure of the MUA and its allies to have Mr Ferguson expelled from the party for his comments criticising NSW Labor Leader Luke Foley for his campaign against foreign investment in power assets and privatisation… 
The rest of the motion text said: “Martin Ferguson has repeatedly spoken publicly against ALP policy and in the case of the NSW election, his actions damaged the party’s chances of success.
“Martin Ferguson does not deserve to be considered a Labor elder and must be condemned as a disgraced former Labor politician,” it read.
===

The Bolt Report today, July 26

Andrew Bolt July 26 2015 (2:07pm)

On Channel 10 at 10.30am (note changed time this week) and 3pm.
Editorial:  Bill Shorten’s boat con.
My guest: Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Right-wing pragmatist Joel Fitzgibbon, on Labor’s national conference. Has Shorten gone too far Left?
The panel: former Labor national president Warren Mundine and Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger.

NewsWatch: Piers Akerman,  Daily Telegraph columnist. We have a list of journalist who should apologise for backing Labor’s deadly boat policy mistake.

So much to talk about: Tony Abbott’s GST plans, Labor’s mad global warming promise, why the Liberals are behind in the polls, the idiot Donald Trump and much more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
Fitzgibbon is no idiot. So I suspect his heart isn’t in some of the policies Bill Shorten is now trying to sell. Lively interview, though, to judge by the results:
===

Shorten channels Rudd

Andrew Bolt July 26 2015 (6:03am)

Piers Akerman, one of my guests on The Bolt Report today:
BlLL Shorten ... has been channelling the same grandiose policy ideas outlined by Kevin Rudd in the 2007 campaign. 
The old themes of stop-the-boats and turnbacks, a ramped-up scare campaign about global warming, a promise of new carbon taxes and expensive investments in unreliable renewable energy, even a totally ineffectual 50 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, mirroring Rudd’s promise of a 60 per cent cut by 2050, have all made a comeback…
Shorten is pitching his spiel to Greens and the Left and not to average Australians or even traditional Labor Party members…

As always, the biggest disconnect was between his rhetoric and any cost considerations.
Trying to gloss over the fury within the party over his eleventh-hour backflip on boat turnbacks, Shorten avoided any mention of what he and his supporters euphemistically describe as a policy “option"…
That opacity covers a lot of water and will be seized upon by people smugglers waiting offshore to resume their lethal trade....
(V)oters will ... be stung the most by ­higher power prices should Labor get elected and institute the Shorten-Rudd energy ­policy.
Shorten’s grand vision for energy relies on nonsensical claims that renewable energy helps generate lower prices, creates jobs and investment and pays for itself. If any of this was so, the world’s coal mines would all be closed and there would be no need for further debate. The truth is all forms of ­renewable energy are more ­expensive than traditional coal power and the jobs and the ­investment aren’t sustainable without heavy subsidies.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

A message from the leader of an Islamic fascist regime with a nuclear program

Andrew Bolt July 26 2015 (5:52am)

Iran’s Supreme Leader sends a tweet that makes clear what he thinks of Barack Obama:
Khameni also sends tweets making clear what he thinks of the nuclear deal Iran has such signed with Obama’s Administration - one that limits inspections and keeps most of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in place:
That doesn’t sound like a man chafing at restrictions. 
===

Hillary Clinton kept national secrets on her private email account

Andrew Bolt July 26 2015 (5:44am)

Why was Hillary Clinton operating in such secrecy? And what chance that her private email account was hacked by rival powers?
Government investigators said Friday that they had discovered classified information on the private email account that Hillary Rodham Clinton used while secretary of state, stating unequivocally that those secrets never should have been stored outside of secure government computer systems. 
Mrs. Clinton has said for months that she kept no classified information on the private server that she set up in her house so she would not have to carry both a personal phone and a work phone..
But the inspectors general of the State Department and the nation’s intelligence agencies said the information they found was classified when it was sent and remains so now…
Security experts have questioned whether her practice made government secrets more vulnerable to security risks and hacking. Exactly how much classified information Mrs. Clinton had on the server is unclear. Investigators said they searched a small sample of 40 emails and found four that contained government secrets. But Mr. McCullough [inspector general for the intelligence community] said in a separate statement that although the State Department had granted limited access to its own inspector general, the department rejected Mr. McCullough’s request for access to the 30,000 emails that Mrs. Clinton said were government-related and gave to the State Department.
===

Latest global warming theory: sceptics murder climate scientists

Andrew Bolt July 26 2015 (5:19am)

A warmist scientist at Cambridge University sniffs another deadly Big Oil conspiracy - the possible murder of three fellow warmists:
Professor Peter Wadhams said he feared being labelled a “looney” over his suspicion that the deaths of the scientists were more than just an ‘extraordinary’ coincidence. 
But he insisted the trio could have been murdered and hinted that the oil industry or else sinister government forces might be implicated.
Tim Blair notes how cunning Big Oil must be, able to arrange even a lightning strike:
Professor Laxon fell down a flight of stairs at a New Year’s Eve party at a house in Essex while Dr Giles died when she was in collision with a lorry when cycling to work in London. Dr Boyd is thought to have been struck by lightning while walking in Scotland. 
When you believe even that, you’d believe anything that fits your catastrophist prejudiuces. And, indeed, here is Wadhams in 2012:
One of the world’s leading ice experts has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years… 
Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for “urgent” consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures…

“This collapse, I predicted would occur in 2015-16 at which time the summer Arctic (August to September) would become ice-free. The final collapse towards that state is now happening and will probably be complete by those dates”.
But three years later, no sign that the Arctic ice is just months from vanishing
===

No, Shorten will not turn back boats

Andrew Bolt July 26 2015 (5:02am)

Labor has voted to give Bill Shorten the “option” to turn back boats. Think a Labor Government will ever use it when two of the three top people in Labor’s leadership group and Shorten’s two biggest rivals - are actually against it?:
Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek is understood to have passed her vote to a proxy who cast the vote in favour of the motion to block turnbacks, putting the senior Left leader at odds with Mr Shorten. 
The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, is understood to have done the same so that her vote ended up supporting the amendment against turnbacks. Senior Left figure and former deputy prime minister Anthony Albanese did not speak on the motion but voted with his factional colleagues to support the amendment seeking to ban turn-backs. 
UPDATE
Malcolm Farr swallows the spin:
The clear message from the ALP conference in Melbourne this weekend is if there is a boat approaching our shores on day one of a Labor government, it will be turned back.
Really?
In fact, Farr goes on to admit there are already exceptions:
Labor turn backs would be applied to any boat coming from a transit country, usually Indonesia. If the boats come from a primary country — for example, should the asylum seekers sail directly from Sri Lanka or Vietnam — the treatment would change.
Farr also overlooks other caveats Labor has added:
BEN FORDHAM: If a boat arrives, you will be turning it back, yeah? 
RICHARD MARLES: That is an option - that we unreservedly reserve the right to… We just want to make sure that this can be done safely. We want to make sure about how it works with the relationship with Indonesia. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===
Here's your dose of happy for the day.
Posted by The Huffington Post on Thursday, 5 March 2015
===
Posted by Right Wing News on Wednesday, 16 July 2014
It highlights the partisan nature of the sniggering press. It isn't recent or fair and has resulted in the public siding with those who commit atrocity. d cries about it despite being the most coddled president in USA history. This is not a partisan issue. O44 happens to be an overgrown child who never really grew up. This is where many liberals pretend that they found these pics of W43 offensive at the time they first saw them. More likely is they snickered. Even more likely is they drew them and bragged about drawing them.
I'd love to see Hillary Clinton's server to see if she and her friends traded these pics of W43. Like many rich white liberals, I bet her emails make what we found out about Sony execs seem like child's play.>
cf http://www.ilikehalloween.com/37/hanging-sarah-palin-halloween-dummy-taste-fail/
“Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.” 
George Washington

Gary Lester ^ Jackass post of the day.

David Daniel Ball Don't hold back or sit on the fence. Say how you really feel.

Gary Lester I'm unfollowing you

David Daniel Ball Hatred is unbecoming
===
In case you were wondering where wine comes from:
Posted by Stupidvideos.com on Tuesday, 15 July 2014
===
Where is your pen taking you this summer?
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Friday, 24 July 2015
===
You know what your morning was missing?  Baby goats in pajamas.Luckily, we're here to help ;)
Posted by 92.9 The Bull on Wednesday, 3 June 2015
===
Many happy returns to an inspirational leader, John Winston Howard, our second longest serving Prime Minister. May you...
Posted by Fiona Scott MP - Member for Lindsay on Saturday, 25 July 2015
===
Inspiration is right in front of you. Here are 5 easy ways to find it: http://bit.ly/1LK6oDA
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Saturday, 25 July 2015
===
Posted by Music for Deep Meditation on Friday, 24 July 2015
===
So sad. :(
Posted by The Comical Conservative on Friday, 24 July 2015
linking the areas listed, almost all are gun free zones
===
I know I'm not the only one.
Posted by Lunkerville on Wednesday, 3 June 2015
===
"You can never win an argument with a negative person. They only hear what suits them and listen only to respond." —...
Posted by SimpleReminders.com on Monday, 20 July 2015
Same too with political lefties
===
It's being called the video that broke the internet's heart..For most, having a child is the happiest day of your life...
Posted by The Motherish on Sunday, 10 May 2015
===

ONLY TEN?

Tim Blair – Saturday, July 26, 2014 (4:48pm)

===

YOU GO, GIRF

Tim Blair – Saturday, July 26, 2014 (12:41pm)

Introducing the tabthgirf, a species of frightbat that hasn’t worked out how to flip a photograph:
===

CHANGE RESISTED

Tim Blair – Saturday, July 26, 2014 (11:27am)

Good hygiene is important, even if you’re an airborne splodey-dope: 
Umar Abdulmutallab sent shockwaves through US intelligence when he successfully smuggled a bomb onto a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day three years ago.
The British-educated Nigerian was able to light the bomb but it failed to explode, causing minor burns to the would-be bomber but sparing his fellow passengers.
John Pistole, the head of the Transportation Security Administration said on Thursday that the bomb did not detonate because Abdulmutallab had been wearing the same underwear for more than two weeks. 
(Via A. R. M. Jones)
===

BURNOUTS AND BULLETS

Tim Blair – Saturday, July 26, 2014 (11:21am)

Darwin is a different place.
===

The Bolt Report tomorrow

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (1:34pm)

On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial: How far will Tony Abbott push Russia, the nuclear superpower?
My guest:  Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
The panel: Grahame Morris and Cassandra Wilkinson - on Joe Hockey’s book, Jacqui Lambie’s shame, Tanya Plibersek’s problem and the boat that got through.
NewsWatch:  The great Rowan Dean.  On his menu - why is the ABC TV showing us two hours a day of the news service of a Middle Eastern regime?
Plus a lot more, including why are the nicest political leaders in TV dramas of the Left? And, sigh, why can’t the lovely Asher Keddie play a conservative instead?:
The videos of the shows appear here.
===

Joan Rivers gets it said for Israel

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (11:49am)

 (Thanks to readers Gordon and Docker.) 
===

The real Abbott

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (11:33am)

The real Tony Abbott has become too apparent for the Left’s caricature to now stick.
Greg Sheridan:
For the first time since the end of World War II, a big European power has used force to take the territory of a sovereign neighbour… 
The Prime Minister ...  and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have been central in providing leadership in response to the Russian outrage…
Of course, Australia is not going to get into a knock-down, drag-out fight with Russia. But Abbott has special standing for three specific reasons — the deaths of the Australians on this plane, the clarity and force of his response, and his chairmanship of the Group of 20 major economies, the leaders of which will meet in Brisbane later this year…
Putin is determined to push on with his strategy in eastern Ukraine. US intelligence sees Russia sending more heavy weapons and equipment across the border. The Ukrainian government accuses Russia of firing on its forces from within Russia itself…
Putin feels he has the West’s measure… Having annexed Crimea, there is every chance he will annex a large part of eastern Ukraine… Most likely, there will be no effective European response. Nor does it seem that the Americans will arm-twist the Euro­peans into greater vigour… Whatever sanctions the West finally decides on, Abbott has a significant voice in the emerging debate, much of it in private, among national leaders he has dealt with extensively over this issue already. There is another broader consequence as well. Abbott builds up diplomatic money in the bank through this crisis. The international system comes to understand that the Australian government can get complex, difficult tasks done. It becomes very familiar with dealing with the Abbott government.
Peter Hartcher: 
Australia has so far kept its crash response pretty much separate from geopolitics, but this cannot last. After recovery, the process moves to investigation and then to the final phase. As Abbott put it, “then, of course, we have to punish the guilty”. 
At that point, there can be no avoiding geopolitics.
When Abbott committed to the fullest possible pursuit of MH17, he did not realise just how hard it would be to get workable access to the crash site. But he did realise that this course ultimately could bring him, depending on the trail of evidence, into direct conflict with the President of Russia. Abbott could have set out a more limited goal, and that way been surer of success. He has not chosen the politically safe route. He has taken the risk to defend fully the rights of Australians, and the rights of civilians everywhere, to travel unmolested by war. He is now set upon a big and difficult enterprise in a worthy cause.  
Paul Kelly:
THE nation is seeing a new Tony Abbott — the Prime Minister as crisis manager. It is a time when more people than usual focus on their leader and the leader, in turn, operates as principal mourner, chief diplomat and security guardian.Abbott’s virtue — so far — is the sense of control he brings to the crisis. He is measured yet firm, not overwhelmed by events yet adapting and changing as the situation changes. He has been active, not passive, yet working with others, notably the Dutch and the Malaysians.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Warmist Moylan excused real punishment

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (11:21am)

Huge disruption caused, and possibly losses to some investors. But Jonathan Moylan gets an extremely light sentence:
An environmental activist who temporarily wiped $300 million off ­Whitehaven Coal’s value by issuing a hoax press release was given a suspended jail sentence. 
Jonathan Moylan was sentenced to one year and eight months in jail before immediately being released on Friday on the condition of good behaviour bond for two years and $1000 security.
The 26-year-old from Newcastle issued a hoax press release in January last year stating Australia and New Zealand Banking Group was withdrawing a $1.2 billion loan from Whitehaven’s flagship Maules Creek open-cut coalmine due to volatility in the global coal markets, expected cost blowouts and corporate responsibility… In sentencing Moylan, judge David Davies at the NSW Supreme Court said “he is not a criminal in the classic sense of one who needs rehabilitation”.
No need for rehabilitation? Where is the evidence in today’s article by Moylan that he is truly repentant and unlikely again to trample on the rights of others to further his green ideology and warmist alarmism?
For the record, I was not trying to crash the market. I was trying to highlight the fact that ANZ are funding the biggest open cut coal mine currently being constructed in Australia. Today I bear the consequences of that decision. 
But rural communities across the eastern states who are living with mine proposals hanging over their heads have never done anything to deserve their fate. Think of people in Bangladesh and Pacific Island nations who are bearing the brunt of both poverty and the effects of climate change. Think of generations yet to be born who, depending on the choices we make today, will pay for our obsession for fast money by suffering through rising tides, extreme weather and crop failures. ...when our politicians continue to break their election promises and cosy up to coal interests, our eclectic mix of citizens – men and women willing to engage in civil disobedience – are the best hope we have for the future. 
(Thanks to reader hlr.) 
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Iran’s top cleric: “Israel must be destroyed”

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (11:10am)

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proves why the West cannot afford to let Iran build a nuclear weapon:
“As said by Imam Khomeini [the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran] Israel must be destroyed…However, until that time with the help of God for this cruel and murderous regime to be destroyed, strong confrontation with steadfast armed resistance is the only solution against this destructive regime.”
At some stage the Left must grasp that Israel’s enemies truly want it destroyed and millions of Jews once more killed. Which side of that battle are you on?

(Thanks to reader Kasey.) 
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Labor should have “lost control” like this

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (8:42am)

The Age gloats:
The Abbott government’s claim to have ‘’stopped the boats’’ has dramatically unravelled, as 157 asylum seekers who have been held captive on the high seas for almost a month will be brought to the mainland on Saturday. 
The humiliating backdown came after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament this month that ‘’on every occasion that may present, we will apply all of the policies we have to ensure that no venture successfully reaches Australia’’.
Mr Morrison, who has refused to acknowledge the existence of the boat for weeks, confirmed the asylum seekers would be transferred to the mainland, where they will be interviewed by Indian officials. 
The Australian reports:
AUSTRALIA has offered more help to India to disrupt people-smuggling from its shores and to fight transnational crime, after the "generous offer” to consider taking back most of the 157 ­asylum-seekers who have been detained at sea for a month.
Fending off claims of policy failure on “stopping the boats”, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott have declared none of the 157 who left India by boat to seek asylum in Australia would be allowed to ­settle here. “Don’t get on a boat to come ­illegally to Australia,” the Prime Minister said yesterday. “Because even if you get here, you won’t stay here. You will not become a permanent resident of Australia.’’
Labor and the Greens jeer:
Labor’s acting immigration spokeswoman, Michelle Rowland, said: “What we saw today was an admission from Scott Morrison that he has lost control of his portfolio."… 
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Morrison was a “spectacular failure” and that the issue was making Australia an international disgrace. 
Labor and the Greens forget:
...the chaotic situation we had under the Labor Party, where first of all we saw the policy flip-flopping back and forth, but secondly we saw some 50,000 boat arrivals, people arriving without a visa, and we saw some 1,200 deaths at sea.
An example of that rigid absolutism that marks the Left - if not all then none. If one then all. 
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How Kevin Rudd’s whisper campaign worked

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (7:36am)

Charming bloke, that Rudd. Greg Combet tells how he was paid back for resisting Kevin Rudd‘s campaign to take back the leadership:
The next day payback was administered in the form of a nasty and untrue Telegraph story attacking me, stating that I had been prepared to switch my support to Rudd if he made me treasurer. This was a story that had been peddled to the Press Gallery for two years, but that no one else would publish because it was false. Its origin was in a one-on-one conversation I had with Kevin in late 2011, following a discussion about the international climate change negotiations. At that time I thought he looked in terrible shape, suffering badly from what had happened to him more than a year before. As a human being, I was concerned for him. Kevin produced a couple of glasses of whiskey, over which I expressed my concern for him personally, discussed what had happened, and responded honestly to his questions about my own ambition for my time in the parliament. This was naive on my part. I said that I had not come into parliament with the ambition of becoming leader, but if I had the opportunity one day I thought Treasury was the best job in government. 
There was no discussion, no hint or suggestion of a deal or of any switch in my support from Gillard, or Wayne Swan for that matter. I would simply never do that. I left pleased that we could relax, have a drink and talk. And yet before too long I was fielding calls from journalists. I immediately called Wayne Swan and Julia to let them know. Wayne simply said, ‘It’s OK, that’s exactly how Rudd operates.’ 
But how vicious is the Sydney Morning Herald? It takes just two short lines in this except - of Sophie Mirabella telling a well-meaning joke - which twists into evidence of heartlessness and a headline on an article actually about the bastardry of Rudd.
The line:
One day before the 2010 election, I was in parliament experiencing a terrible pain in my leg. I went to see Mal Washer, the Liberal MP and doctor, who arranged for me to be taken to hospital in a wheelchair. As I was waiting at the lift, the doors opened and there was my sparring partner Sophie Mirabella.‘You’ll do anything to get media,’ she huffed. 
The treatment:
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Australia’s latest export: Muslim beheaders

Andrew Bolt July 26 2014 (7:02am)

I doubt mass immigration from Lebanon has - on the whole, and despite many success stories - benefited Australia enough. Nor do I think Islam is as benign as immigration bureaucrats have assumed:
Sydney born boxer Mohamed Elomar casually poses with the severed heads in photos posted on Twitter by his friend, convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf… 
Elomar and Sharrouf, who spent time in jail for his part in a foiled plot to blow up targets in Sydney and Melbourne, are believed to be fighting with terror group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)…
Sharrouf, also a former Sydney resident, last week taunted Australian police via his social media account, boasting that he would ‘slaughter’ Australians… On July 14, Sharrouf fired off a tweet to the AFP and Australians, saying… ‘Australia belongs to the muslims not infidels like you’ as well as boasting of his evasion of police.
(Thanks to reader Peter H and others.) 
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Pastor Rick Warren
Life is meant to be enjoyed, not merely endured. "...God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." 1 Timothy 6:17
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Pastor Rick Warren
Surrender is the path to serenity.
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Andreas Herrmann
Marcus war falsch über die Welt. Sie kümmert sich! Sie liebt es, auf süße Träume, Hoffnungen, Wünsche knabbern. Aber sie nicht belohnen die indolenten. - ed
Es wäre dumm, sich über die Welt zu ärgern. Sie kümmert sich nicht darum. Marcus Aurelius
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Black folks in Detroit that continue to vote for Democrats is proof positive that brainwashing is real. Brainwashing by definition causes people to act against their own best interest.

How else can you explain how people can drive past the ruins of DETROIT everyday, and vote for more of the same? How can Black folks leave Detroit, come to a more conservative area and vote for what they had in Detroit?

Brainwashing:

Systematic effort to destroy an individual's former loyalties and beliefs and to substitute loyalty to a new ideology or power. It has been used by religious cults as well as by radical political groups. The techniques of brainwashing usually involve isolation from former associates and sources of information; an exacting regimen calling for absolute obedience and humility; strong social pressures and rewards for cooperation; physical and psychological punishments for noncooperation, including social ostracism and criticism, and constant reinforcement. Its effects are sometimes reversed through deprogramming, which combines confrontation and intensive psychotherapy.

Welcome to the Harris Clinic.

Here is a great video on how it is has been done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeMZGGQ0ERk
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Being weighed. But I don't believe the result. The machine said I was 160 cm tall, not 179. Or 5'3", not 5'10" suggesting I'd shrunk recently. It said my BMI was/is 572.6 when its own measures suggested 85. In fact it is more 67. 53.7% fat is 116.9 kg. total mass is 217.7kg. I don't entirely believe it, but it is a starting point and next month will be less .. really. — at Fairfield Leisure Centre
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Another fractured fairy tale~~~

Pinocchio, Snow White, and Superman are out for a stroll in town.

As they walk, they come across a sign:

" Beauty contest for the most beautiful woman in the world."

" I am entering" said Snow White.

After half an hour she comes out and they ask her, " Well, how did you do? "

" First Place " said Snow White.

They continue walking and they see a sign:

" Contest for the strongest man in the world. "

" I'm entering, " says Superman.

After half an hour he returns and they ask him, " How did you make out? "

" First Place" answers Superman. " Did you even have a doubt? "

They continue walking when they see a sign:

" Contest! Who is the greatest liar in the world? "

Pinocchio says " This is mine. "

Half an hour later, he returns with tears in his eyes.

" What happened? " they asked.

" Who the hell is Kevin Rudd ? " he asked.
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The article isn't wrong. Nathan Reese may well be a stand up bloke, although I know of no evidence to suggest that to be true. He was chief of staff to Milton. The witness to blow the whistle on Milton was treated appallingly because others looked away. - ed

Trevor Khan Steve Wolf, that is an absolutely appalling article. There is absolutely nothing to link Nathan Rees with Milton Orkopuolos's appalling acts. I had dealings with one of Orkopoulos's victims, and one of his former electorate officers.

Steve Wolf True Trevor , the most important aspect of the article is Rudd's links to The Heiner Affair

Trevor Khan I have no idea of the truth or otherwise of the Heiner Affair material, but I am confident the material regarding Rees is false. It is one thing to have political opponents (and he slapped me down more than once in Budget Estimates and the like, when he was Premier), but it is entirely another thing to accuse him of being complicit in foul crimes.....he isn't that sort of bloke.

Steve Evans Nathan Rees seems to me to be an honest sort of bloke. It is all bullshit. Steve I would delete this post. It does no one any good to republish this sort of rubbish.===
There are so many words in the English language that it’s not surprising that the definitions for some of them have gotten mixed up over the years. It’s possible that you’ve gone your entire life without realizing your mistakes. I’m sure people have noticed. One day, you were probably walking down the street, casually chatting with an old friend, and one of these words slipped out of your mouth. Before you can move on to your story about how Mufasa would actually make a very attractive human, your friend stops to correct your error, and suddenly, your whole life starts to feel like one giant lie. How long have you been using that word incorrectly, you wonder? How many angry Facebook rants have you ruined with your improper grammar? While I can’t give you an answer to those questions, I can at least provide you with a list of other tricky words so that you may never have to suffer from this embarrassment ever again:
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Canadian National Vimy Memorial
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“I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.”Psalm 119:60 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"He left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out."
Genesis 39:12
In contending with certain sins there remains no mode of victory but by flight. The ancient naturalists wrote much of basilisks, whose eyes fascinated their victims and rendered them easy victims; so the mere gaze of wickedness puts us in solemn danger. He who would be safe from acts of evil must haste away from occasions of it. A covenant must be made with our eyes not even to look upon the cause of temptation, for such sins only need a spark to begin with and a blaze follows in an instant. Who would wantonly enter the leper's prison and sleep amid its horrible corruption? He only who desires to be leprous himself would thus court contagion. If the mariner knew how to avoid a storm, he would do anything rather than run the risk of weathering it. Cautious pilots have no desire to try how near the quicksand they can sail, or how often they may touch a rock without springing a leak; their aim is to keep as nearly as possible in the midst of a safe channel.
This day I may be exposed to great peril, let me have the serpent's wisdom to keep out of it and avoid it. The wings of a dove may be of more use to me today than the jaws of a lion. It is true I may be an apparent loser by declining evil company, but I had better leave my cloak than lose my character; it is not needful that I should be rich, but it is imperative upon me to be pure. No ties of friendship, no chains of beauty, no flashings of talent, no shafts of ridicule must turn me from the wise resolve to flee from sin. The devil I am to resist and he will flee from me, but the lusts of the flesh, I must flee, or they will surely overcome me. O God of holiness preserve thy Josephs, that Madam Bubble bewitch them not with her vile suggestions. May the horrible trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil, never overcome us!

Evening


"In their affliction they will seek me early."
Hosea 5:15

Losses and adversities are frequently the means which the great Shepherd uses to fetch home his wandering sheep; like fierce dogs they worry the wanderers back to the fold. There is no making lions tame if they are too well fed; they must be brought down from their great strength, and their stomachs must be lowered, and then they will submit to the tamer's hand; and often have we seen the Christian rendered obedient to the Lord's will by straitness of bread and hard labour. When rich and increased in goods many professors carry their heads much too loftily, and speak exceeding boastfully. Like David, they flatter themselves, "My mountain standeth fast; I shall never be moved." When the Christian groweth wealthy, is in good repute, hath good health, and a happy family, he too often admits Mr. Carnal Security to feast at his table, and then if he be a true child of God there is a rod preparing for him. Wait awhile, and it may be you will see his substance melt away as a dream. There goes a portion of his estate--how soon the acres change hands. That debt, that dishonoured bill--how fast his losses roll in, where will they end? It is a blessed sign of divine life if when these embarrassments occur one after another he begins to be distressed about his backslidings, and betakes himself to his God. Blessed are the waves that wash the mariner upon the rock of salvation! Losses in business are often sanctified to our soul's enriching. If the chosen soul will not come to the Lord full-handed, it shall come empty. If God, in his grace, findeth no other means of making us honour him among men, he will cast us into the deep; if we fail to honour him on the pinnacle of riches, he will bring us into the valley of poverty. Yet faint not, heir of sorrow, when thou art thus rebuked, rather recognize the loving hand which chastens, and say, "I will arise, and go unto my Father."
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Today's reading: Psalm 37-39, Acts 26 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 37-39


Of David.
1 Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.

3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.


Today's New Testament reading: Acts 26

1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself."
So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: 2 "King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews,3 and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently....
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Lydia
The Woman Who Was Diligent in Business
Name Meaning: Lydia, who was an Asiatic, derived her name from the country on the borders of which her native city, Thyatira, was situated. It was not an original Greek name, but probably Phoenician, and a common name meaning "bending." Readers of Horace will be familiar with Lydia as a popular name for women. There are those writers who think that it means "The Lydian," seeing Thyatira was a city of Lydia, and that her personal name is unknown.
Family Connections: Scripture does not supply us with any information regarding Lydia's background apart from the fact that she lived in Thyatira which was one of the Macedonian colonies. From names discovered on monuments it is evident that the city was the melting pot of many nations, and that the chief object of worship was Apollo, who was worshiped as the sun-god under the name of Tyrinnus. There was also a strong Jewish element in the city maintaining faith in Jehovah. Lydia, one of the prominent women of Thyatira, is presented to us in various ways, namely:

As a Business Woman

Thyatira was conspicuous for its many guilds which were united by common pursuits and religious rites. One of these guilds was that of dyers. The water of the area was so well-adapted for dyeing, that no other place could produce the scarlet cloth out of which fezzes were so brilliantly and so permanently dyed. This unique purple dye brought the city universal renown. Lydia was a well-known seller of this product (Acts 16:14 ), and typifies a successful business woman in a prosperous city. Ability, enthusiasm, singleness of purpose and mental acumen were hers, and she prospered greatly in an honorable and extensive calling of "selling purple." Lydia was an example of the comparatively independent position some women attained to in Asia Minor. That she became prosperous in business is seen in that she owned a spacious home, and had servants to care for her.

As a Devout Woman

While it is not certain whether Lydia was of Jewish descent it is evident that she was a Jewish proselyte. "She worshipped God," we are told. Often business people are so engrossed in their affairs as to have no time for religion. But Lydia, in spite of all her secular obligations, found time to worship according to the Jewish faith. Daily she made her way to the riverside where prayer was wont to be made. She knew that in order to successfuly meet the stiff competition of the Philippian traders, she needed grace as well as knowledge. At that riverside prayer meeting perhaps she met other Jewish dyers, and with them eagerly waited upon the ministry of Paul and his companions.
As a Seeking Woman
Although sincerely religious, Lydia was not a Christian. She did, however, have a hunger for a deeper spiritual experience. The mind is closed against the full truth either from ignorance or prejudice and cannot discern it, or from pride and perversity and will not admit it. Ignorance was responsible for Lydia's closed mind, but as she attended to the truth of Christ which Paul spoke of in conversational style in that small seated Jewish gathering, the light dawned, and her heart opened to receive that Christ as her Saviour. As Chrysostom puts it, "To open is the part of God, and to pay attention that of the woman." Her faith was born through hearing the Word of God (Psalm 119:18, 130; Luke 24:45).
As a Christian Woman
As an evidence of her surrender to the claims of Christ she was baptized, "the waters of Europe then first being sacramentally used to seal her faith and God's forgiveness in Christ." Her conversion was declared by a public confession, and such was her enthusiasm that she immediately told her household what had happened, and all within it likewise believed and were baptized as disciples of the same Saviour. Thus Lydia had the honor of being Paul's first European convert--the forerunner of a mighty host to honor the Lord. Becoming a Christian did not make her less of a successful business woman. Now she had Christ as her Senior Partner and with Him we can imagine that trade remained good and that much of her profit was used to assist His servants in the work of the Gospel.
As a Hospitable Woman
Lydia's transformation of life was evidenced by her eagerness to give missionaries the hospitality of her fine home. Truth in her heart was manifested in kindness to each other--as they ought to be! "Be ye kind one to another." First came Lydia's faith, then the winning of her servants to Christ, then her love in gracious hospitality, and finally her reception of Paul and Silas into her home after their discharge from prison, bruised and battered though they were. She was not ashamed of the Lord's prisoners (see 1 Timothy 5:10; Hebrews 13:2 ;1 Peter 4:9). While benefiting from Lydia's generous hospitality Paul warned all present of the terrible trials before them, and then parting from godly Lydia, praised God for all she had meant to him and his companions.
As a Consecrated Woman
Lydia always had "open house" for the saints of God and her home became a center of Christian fellowship in Philippi with perhaps the first Christian church being formed therein. When Paul came to write his letter to the Philippians, we can rest assured that Lydia was included in all the saints at Philippi to whom he sent his salutations (Philippians 1:1-7); and was also in his mind as one of those women who labored with him in the Gospel (Philippians 4:3). William Ramsay thinks that Lydia may have been either Euodia or Syntyche (Philippians 4:2).
When Paul penned the triple exhortation--"Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11), we do not know whether he had his hospitable convert, Lydia, in mind. She certainly exemplified these three virtues, and grace can be ours to emulate them.
"Not slothful in business"
If our business is honorable and we are diligent in it, and if we are the Lord's, we have the assurance that if we honor Him in all transactions, He will honor us. He places no premium upon idleness or indolence. Did not Paul say that if we are not willing to work we have no right to eat?
"Fervent in spirit"
Moffatt's translation is suggestive here. He expresses it, "Maintain the spiritual glow," which, by God's grace Lydia was able to do as she cared for her business interests and pursuits which were no bar to her spirituality. Too often, we allow the secular to rob us of our glow. Our affection becomes too set on things below.
"Serving the Lord"
Lydia not only sold her dyes--she served her Saviour. She stayed in business that she might have the money to help God's servants in their ministry. How her generous care of Paul and Silas, and of many others, must have cheered their hearts. Lydia was, first of all, a consecrated Christian, then a conscientious business woman who continued to sell her purple dyes for the glory of God. When we reach heaven, we shall find this "seller of purple" wearing more superior garments, robes not stained even with the notable dye of Thyatira, but "washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb."
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David

[Dā'vid] - beloved. The youngest son of the eight sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite, the second and greatest of Israel's kings, the eloquent poet and one of the most prominent figures in the history of the world (Ruth 4:17, 22; 1 Sam. 16:13).

The Man After God's Own Heart


Volumes have been written on the trials and triumphs of David, a mountain peak among Bible characters, who was carefully chosen as Israel's second king by God Himself. David's father, Jesse, was a man of no great rank who lived in the little town of Bethlehem. In his youth David was trained to tend his father's sheep. Being the youngest of the family he was not brought into public notice, yet it pleased God to raise him from a low estate and set him upon the throne. He was overlooked by the prophet Samuel, but the prophet obeyed when God said, "Arise anoint him, this is he." All we can do in this study is to offer a brief sketch of David's eventful life. We view him as:
I. A Warrior. David was courageous as a champion and a great soldier (1 Sam. 17:40; 2 Sam. 5:7). His fight with Goliath the giant made him a marked man. He had not the training of a soldier. As yet he had not reached the years of manhood. Dressed like a poor country shepherd lad, he had no weapons save his sling. Never were two warriors more unequally matched, but when David was victorious over Goliath there was no empty boasting, no reliance upon his own powers. God gave the victory and David gave Him all the glory. He became a man of war and because of that was not allowed to build the Temple ( 1 Chron. 28:3).

II. As a Musician. Because he was a skilful player on the harp he found himself in the presence of the wretched king, Saul, who could only be soothed by David's music. Poetic genius made him the sweet psalmist of Israel, and no poet has been so constantly used and quoted through the ages. His majestic psalms are the masterpiece of spiritual literature.

III. As a Saint. David was accepted as a child of God. The general trend of his life was spiritual (1 Sam. 13:14; 1 Kings 15:5 ). What other man has had the reputation of being known as a man after God's own heart? Such an expression does not refer to any remarkable goodness in David, but to him as one whom God had chosen to be the ruler of His people. He was the man according to God's special choice. His psalms of praise, worship and meditation indicate the God-ward direction of his life.

IV. As a Sinner. David violated a divine law (Deut. 17:17; 2 Sam. 5:13), yielded to his gross sin in a period of ease (2 Sam. 11) and was rebuked by the prophet Nathan ( 2 Sam. 12). David stained his character by his sin against Uriah and by the deceitful way he gained this gallant soldier's wife as his own. Such a grievous sin brought the bitterest anguish of heart. David's confession was not a cold, formal acknowledgment of guilt, but a true and heartfelt humbling of himself before God and a deep cry for pardon and restoration to divine favor as psalms thirty-two and fifty-one clearly prove.

V. As a Prophet. David had a prophetic gift given to few. He was one of those holy men of old moved by the Holy Spirit to set forth many glorious truths related to Christ as Saviour and Messiah. When we come to the New Testament we find the Psalms quoted from more often than any other part of the Old Testament.

VI. As a Type. Not only did David prophesy about Christ, he resembled Him in many ways. For example:
Both were born in the humble town of Bethlehem.
Both were of low estate on earth, having no rank to boast of, no wealth to recommend them to the world.
Both were shepherds - the one caring for sheep, the other for souls.
Both were sorely oppressed and persecuted but opened not their mouths.
Both came to kingship. David subdued his foes and had a kingdom stretching from shore to shore. Jesus was born a King, and is to have an everlasting Kingdom.
VII. As a Star. Does not the children's hymn urge us to be "a star in someone's sky?" David has lighted many a spiritual traveler on the way to heaven. Glory alone will reveal what his psalms meant to Christ and to His followers in all ages. Yet he is nothing compared to the Sun of Righteousness Himself. None can compare to David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose again to become our Saviour, Friend and King.
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