Thursday, September 21, 2017

Thu Sep 21st Todays News

Don't give up on hope. As Victoria's ALP gears to campaign on experience, another of their members has declared they won't run next year in election. A token female in a safe ALP seat with a 14% swing needed to take it, she has taken her constituents for granted and leaves before having to face their anger on government failures. She will have contributed to euthanasia without practicing it. She can expect a generous pension. But Victorians face rising crime, falling employment, higher power prices, a gender war in schools, a crumbling public transport system with unworkable skysail plans and a collapsing business base. But also she leaves Victorians with hope that ALP won't be reelected.

 Tony Abbott assaulted in Tasmania by a SSM activist. The man was wearing a Yes badge and walked up to the former PM saying "Can I shake your hand?" The coward then head butted Tony Abbott and said he deserved it before walking away. Abbott did not fight back, as Andrew Bolt did previously. When Bolt did that, the abusers tried to have Bolt charged with violence. AFL backflips over SSM. AFL had changed their initials with a public poster to say "Yes." Only, some 40% of AFL supporters don't feel that way. And although one might support SSM as a concept, the campaign is a turn off for decent people. SSM suicides? According to one strident supporter of the "Yes" campaign, only a "yes" vote will stop 300 suicides a year from youth. But I'm sure, if the statistics are examined, there would not be 10 suicides ever of a school child over SSM. It is just like the Stolen Generation campaign. 

 Billions lost from AGW waste. And the loss is ongoing. World wide it was some $2.5 trillion a year under Obama. Trump is reeling back the waste. The money is gone forever. It does not contribute to anything worthwhile. It is a lost business opportunity that hits the world's poorest the hardest. Still, the waste is expected to reach over $100 trillion before 2100, and it will not have an effect on world temperature. One day, there will be a reckoning for the hoax. 

 I am a decent man and don't care for 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 I've forgotten you

 I saw this in an Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot tv episode. It struck me. I could dedicate it to TMN who isn't a Facebook friend. I do not know the provenance of the number, having tracked it to another youtube video. I will copy the tags. I've forgotten you, I never think of you, The way you walked, the way you talked, the things you used to say. I've forgotten you, I never think of you, I couldn't say for sure today Whether your eyes were blue or grey. I've forgotten you, I never think of you, Your smile, your touch, Which meant so much, Somewhere along the way. I've forgotten you, I never think of you, I changed my mind , my love was blind , Now I've forgotten you. I'm through. I'll never think of you Oh, what a lie! I shall think of you, Think of you, Think of you, Till I die. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgu8nBQmRcM
=== from 2016 === 
Turnbull promised his government would communicate better than the Abbott one had. Does he really want us to feel that Turnbull does not understand the issues? That is what he is communicating. SBS' abusive comedy program is appalling.

We need free speech. Those opposing it for political opportunism risk losing their voice entirely. 

Turnbull only stays on for further humiliation, before he resigns. 

And the Senate kept Flannery in his over paid job? Thanks Shorten. Shorten stands by the corrupt and the inept. 

Now that the ALP have brought about the end of the Baby Bonus, their activity will bring about an end to more welfare. We cannot keep what we cannot afford. Eventually, we will lose everything we now take for granted. Who is being cold and unfeeling now? 

The left laud the incompetent that are from their tribe. 

There are no winners when cultural assets are dissolved. 

The devil is laughing 

The favour Turnbull is offering Obama and Hillary Clinton masks the nature of the migrants. They are unlikely to be Catholic refugees from Costa Rica
=== from 2015 ===
Turnbull reveals aspirations for good government. Like 20 minutes travel time maximum to daily services, such as shopping, education and work. He has even placed a lowly minister on the task. Malcolm Farr likes it and has the Daily Telegraph wrote a glowing article about it whereas Farr would have spurned it from Abbott. Hockey is blasted for possibly accepting an ambassadorial role. Hockey had been an effective treasurer but he was burned for being in Turnbull's way. The criticism of Hockey was meaningless, denouncing him as being cigar smoking, heartless and thoughtless. "He doesn't think poor people drive cars." It will be interesting to see if a change in rhetoric improves Liberal fortunes. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
Congratulation John Key on your comprehensive win in the NZ Election yesterday. Your previous two terms have demonstrated excellent stewardship and for the first time since the early '90s NZ has now a majority government. You do not need to be reminded, but in opposition, the left wing will lie about everything and paint anything you do as abuse of power. Don't let that stop you from governing well. In Australia, Abbott does not have a majority in the Senate, and so Clive Palmer has the balance of power. Clive opposes responsible budget cuts. Meanwhile, Gillard had had minority government. Gillard admits to dishonesty with the public and so she has rewarded Rudd, but he hadn't deserved the reward, but if she hadn't rewarded him, she would have needed to openly and honestly spoken to the Australian peoples, and she would never do that. Mr Key, Congratulations and use your sacred trust well.

Leftwing and the path of evil are entwined. The '60s anti authoritarian youth rebellion culture and peace movement. Well intended in the case of individuals, but exploited by evil. The Soviet KGB in the Cold War manipulated the peace movement to oppose US missions for freedom and democracy. In that time, and earlier, during the Great Game, the lie was spread permitting Jihad in Islam to pursue politics through terror. There is a history of fighting within Islam between Islamic peoples that allows atrocity. The connection with the left is from the sixties peace movement. It was LBJ that showed many young girls that war was cool. But now the West faces terror and she needs to know how to defeat this millennia old machine. The truth is, to defeat terror, ultimately we must be true to ourselves. But for Islam to separate themselves from terror, they need their gutless, impotent leaders to become competent. The mainstream media have not helped anyone, even themselves, in their excusing terror in the name of Islam. Australian Soldiers risk being targeted by terrorists for wearing their uniform at home. Obama promises to fight IS ineffectively by not using good people on the ground. One Liberal Party member Laundy opposes a free vote on gay marriage when previously he supported it. His rationale for his backflip involves an Islamic presence in his electorate. Meanwhile, terrorists in prison have privileges other prisoners don't get. 

AGW hysterics are global, and fewer than might be otherwise, owing to their extensive use of flight carbon. Climate Change, the musical, is over. It was the worst AGW hype fest failure since the ill omened '07 Cool Aid inspired by Jim Jones. 
From 2013
Germany is nearing election where the conservative leader is likely to win. Greens made a tactical mistake early pushing to legalise pedophilia. The only way the press can even the score is to make out another conservative government will have a policy of pepper spraying fare evaders. News come of the possibility of an accident nuking North Carolina early in JFK's reign. Too late to expect Jacky or Bobby to answer for their incompetence, but I'm uncomfortable with the justice they received. Apparently the safety measures put in place by Eisenhower worked, but that Republican President is dead so there is no need to thank him. 

In modern times, a dithering Obama has peacefully created a world where moderate Iranians make Iraqis execute former Saddam supporters. No news of Obama asking to hit Iran as he wanted to hit Syria. 

In sad election news, it looks like crank Palmer has managed to buy himself a seat in parliament, denying a serious candidate. The result is close, so there will be a recount. Already Palmer has discredited his win claiming the armed services are conspiring .. to let him win. Suggesting he won't improve parliament, but he may make it more watchable. 
The Pope has spoken sense, but his angry critics claim it is proof he endorses them. How would Islamics behave if their senior member said the same as Francis? I note one Islamist recently plotted to kill Prince Harry. What would Climate warming believers do if their scientists revealed the truth? We may never know. 
Historical perspective on this day
455 – Emperor Avitus enters Rome with a Gallic army and consolidates his power.
1170 – Combined English and Irish forces, under the command of Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke and Diarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster seize Norse-Gaelic Dublin, forcing Ascall mac Ragnaill, King of Dublin into exile.
1217 – Livonian Crusade: The Estonian leader Lembitu and Livonian leader Kaupo the Accursed are killed in Battle of Matthew's Day.

1435 – The Congress of Arras causes Burgundy to switch sides in the Hundred Years' War.
1745 – Battle of Prestonpans: A Hanoverian army under the command of Sir John Copeis defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
1776 – Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.
1792 – French Revolution: The National Convention declares France a republic and abolishes the absolute monarchy.

1843 – John Williams Wilson takes possession of the Strait of Magellan on behalf of the newly independent Chilean government.
1860 – Second Opium War: An Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Palikao.
1896 – Mahdist War: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener takes Dongola in the Sudan.
1898 – Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China.

1921 – A storage silo in Oppau, Germany, explodes, killing 500-600 people.
1933 – Salvador Lutteroth ran the first ever EMLL (now CMLL) show in Mexico, marking the birth of Lucha libre.
1934 – A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing more than three thousand people.
1937 – J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.
1938 – The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people.
1939 – Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated by far-right legionnaires of the fascist paramilitary organization Iron Guard.

1942 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis send over 1,000 Jews of Pidhaitsi to Bełżec extermination camp.
1942 – The Holocaust in Poland: At the end of Yom Kippur, Germans order Jews to permanently evacuate Konstantynów and move to the ghetto in Biała Podlaska, established to assemble Jews from seven nearby towns, including Janów Podlaski, Rossosz and Terespol.
1942 – In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews.
1942 – The Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.

1953 – Lieutenant No Kum-sok, a North Korean pilot, defects to South Korea and is associated with Operation Moolah.
1964 – Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom but remains in the Commonwealth.
1964 – The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first Mach 3 bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.
1965 – The Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations.

1971 – Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations.
1972 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos signs Proclamation № 1081, placing the entire country under martial law and marking the beginning of his authoritarian rule.
1976 – Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende, overthrown in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet.
1976 – Seychelles joins the United Nations.
1981 – Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom.
1981 – Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.
1984 – Brunei joins the United Nations.

1991 – Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union.
1993 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament and scraps the then-functioning constitution, thus triggering the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993.
1996 – The Defense of Marriage Act passes the United States Congress (a vote of 342-67 in the House of Representatives and a vote of 85-14 in the Senate). The law prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriage, while allowing states to adopt any marital definition of their choosing.
1999 – Chi-Chi earthquake occurs in central Taiwan, leaving about 2,400 people dead.

2001 – America: A Tribute to Heroes is broadcast by over 35 network and cable channels, raising over $200 million for the victims of the September 11 attacks.
2001 – Increased racial tensions in Peterborough, England following the September 11 attacks result in the murder of Ross Parker by a gang of ten Muslims in a racially motivated attack.
2003 – The Galileo Probe is terminated by sending it into Jupiter.
2013 – Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 67 people.
=== 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 Ann Thompson and  Valerie Alexandra. Born on the same day, across the years, as Bertha of Savoy (1051), Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg (1706), John Loudon McAdam (1756), H. G. Wells, (1866), Allen Lane (1902), Larry Hagman (1931), Leonard Cohen (1934), Jerry Bruckheimer (1945), Stephen King (1947), Faith Hill (1967), Nicole Richie (1981) and Christian Serratos (1990)
Armand Călinescu
You've cleared the joint. The Sun has declared it so. Wrestled with it forever. Forget the Iron guard. Rock the joint until it closes.
Deaths
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Tim Blair 2017

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Andrew Bolt 2017

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Andrew Bolt

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HILLARY IN THREE WORDS

Tim Blair – Monday, September 21, 2015 (5:30pm)

After decades in public life, Hillary Clinton is still trying to connect not just with voters but with the human species:

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SIGNS OF OUR TIMES

Tim Blair – Monday, September 21, 2015 (4:37am)

Australia has now endured so many leadership challenges that certain patterns have emerged. The next time a prime minister is set for a back-stabbing, look for these events to once again occur in sequence:
TEXT MESSAGE VIGILANCE
Sky News presenters spent almost as much time looking at their phones last Monday as they did looking at the cameras.
During future leadership spills it might add to the viewing experience if incoming text messages were displayed onscreen, complete with goofy emoticons, dumb abbreviations and pleas for Sky to observe child labour laws by limiting Peter van Onselen to fewer than two hours of continual broadcasting.
THE DANCE OF THE DELAYED TECHNICIANS
During the long wait for a result it’s always fun to observe camera crews and sound engineers milling around in a parliamentary hallway, trying to set up their equipment in the best possible location.
Then some clumsy journalist trips over a power cord and they have to start all over again.
WALK OF DESTINY
Possibly the grimmest piece of theatre in the entire pre-spill process, the walk of destiny involves the two combatants striding towards the party room in the company of their (presumed) allies.
Because this is the last we’ll see of them until the result is known, much analysis is given to the walk. Was the challenger’s step light and lively? Did the incumbent’s gait indicate confidence? And was Julie Bishop’s solo arrival due to the fact that no one at all in the Liberal Party can ever trust her again for the rest of her career?
(Continue reading Signs of Our Times.)
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MAHER REES, DEFENDER OF OUR NATION

Tim Blair – Monday, September 21, 2015 (4:16am)

It’s all about quality journalism and respect for women at our ABC. Here’s how the billion-dollar broadcasting behemoth reported Marise Payne’s ministerial promotion:

(Via Maurie, who writes: “Mind you, it is Sunday and they probably have to pay triple time for staff – so maybe they’ve got a voice-to-text app doing all the work.") 
===

DIESEL WEASELS

Tim Blair – Monday, September 21, 2015 (4:11am)

In 1990 I bought an old Volkswagen Beetle from a guy named Jesus with a view to driving the elderly Bug across the US. Before I could begin, however, my Los Angeles-purchased Beetle had to pass California’s vehicle emissions test – no easy task for an 18-year-old air-cooled engine without any anti-pollution equipment.
After driving around LA for a day or so I found a testing site that would conspire with me to defeat the emissions test. Working with the garage’s owner, I cranked back the engine’s fuel/air mixture until it was running so dangerously lean that the Bug barely breathed.
Then we hooked it up to the measuring device, passed the test and I was free to go – having reset the engine to a survivable mixture. I think the entire procedure cost around $30. 
Now, a quarter of a century later, Volkswagen faces a slightly more substantial outlay for a very similar scam.
(Continue reading Diesel Weasels.)
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ACCIDENTS HAPPEN

Tim Blair – Monday, September 21, 2015 (4:05am)

Making up for lost time, the latest Hildebrand/Blair podcast accidentally ran a little longer than usual.
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ROCKEFELLER STOMP

Tim Blair – Monday, September 21, 2015 (4:03am)

The ABC’s Media Watch once railed against US funding of a local climate sceptic group, worth about $100,000 for two years. Then-host Jonathan Holmes feared the US-funded group “might well influence what people think about the science they’re putting forward”.
We’re yet to hear from Holmes, now a Fairfax columnist, about the latest intrusion of American money into Australia’s climate debate. Last week Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore appointed “experienced sustainability professional” Beck Dawson as our city’s official chief resilience officer.
Dawson’s $220,000 salary will be paid by the New York-based Rockefeller Foundation, established with good intentions in 1913 by oil baron John D. Rockefeller but which now wastes money on stupid things such as chief resilience officers.
(Continue reading Rockefeller Stomp.)
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James McGrath gives me hope in Turnbull

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (3:18pm)

So far Malcolm Turnbull has stuck to his implied word not to wrench the party to the Left.  True, he is no conservative, but he is a libertarian, and that’s perhaps more important - a virtue I expect he’ll try to emphasise, not least to prove to the base he really is an authentic Liberal leader.
His Ministerial reshuffle, for instance, did not fundamentally alter the ideological balance of the team. Take Senator James McGrath, a plotter who was rewarded with promotion. Here he is in Parliament last Wednesday:
I wish to speak this afternoon on the evils that pertain to the nanny state. In the eternal war against the Left, our opponents take many forms—unwashed student socialists on campus, latte-sipping hipsters in trendy inner-city hangouts, bureaucrats, leftie journalists, and Labor and Green politicians in their ivory towers of condescension. The one thing they all have in common is their hostility towards the fundamental principles that we fight for as warriors of freedom: the liberty of the individual, a free market, small government and low taxes… 
In Australia today, the war against the Left is being waged on numerous fronts, particularly in relation to freedom of enterprise, freedom of speech and individual liberty. Indeed, this nanny state approach advocated by the Left, founded upon feigned moral outrage and a government-knows-best mentality, should only embolden us to champion our cause for freedom.
UPDATE
One clue to Turnbull’s philsophy is that, like me, he is a fan of The Leopard, which we have discussed with enthusiasm.
(Via Alan Moran, who has more thoughts on the reshuffle.) 
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The ABC revealed

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (2:54pm)

Classic ABC priorities:
MALCOLM TURNBULL: And with great respect, distinguished journalists like you have got to change. We have got to talk about the real issues that affect people’s lives, and that’s, why don’t we do that? 
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Well let’s do that. You’ve been a strong advocate for a republic, for same-sex marriage, for stronger action on climate change.
(Thanks to reader Tony - a different one.) 
===

Turnbull says economy first. Crusades second

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (9:11am)

Malcolm Turnbull gives his first television interviews since becoming leader -and the first of all to the wife of his good Republican mate Peter FitzSimons:
Speaking on the Today show this morning, Mr Turnbull laughed off suggestions he faced a stiff challenge from internal Liberal Party dissent, including dissafected former ministers such as Kevin Andrews and Eric Abetz ... 
When challenged about past comments on the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard leadership challenges, Mr Turnbull said this time things had been different.
“The removal of Kevin Rudd as leader of the Labor Party came as a complete bolt from the blue, as a surprise,” he told David Koch on Sunrise later. “You know, he was actually ahead in the polls when it happened.”
Mr Turnbull said Mr Abbott had been given a ‘warning shot across the bows’ early this year.
“There was clearly an issue that he was given time to change the party’s or the government’s fortunes and as it turned out, the party room concluded that he had not done that,” he said.
When Today asked about the potential of Australia becoming a republic under his leadership, Mr Turnbull said it was not a priority.
“While I’m a Republican, I have to say to you, there are much more immediate issues facing me and the Government than the republic,” Mr Turnbull said. “The key ones all relate to economic growth. We have to ensure that we are more productive, so that we have higher living standards, that we can maintain this high wage, generous social welfare net, first world economy. That’s going to require a lot of reform, a lot of leadership, a lot of confidence, a lot of optimism, a lot of innovation. That’s what is on my agenda.”
Koch challenged Mr Turnbull on the future of Liberal Party policy. What of same-sex marriage? What of climate change?
Mr Turnbull emphasised the Cabinet-based nature of any future changes of course.
“The government, under Mr Abbott’s premiership, this is a cabinet decision, this was not his decision ... agreed to take to the Paris conversation of the parties at the end of the year a 26-28 per cent cut in emissions from 2005 levels. That remains our policy.”
As for same-sex marriage, Mr Turnbull was also cautious in reply.
“Our policy is that there will be a plebiscite, a vote which every Australian can participate after the next election,” he said. “...Normally an issue like this would be dealt with by a free vote in the parliament. It is there. You can say it costs too much or it takes too long but you can’t say it’s not democratic...”
Let’s see if the media will accept from Turnbull what they scorned from Abbott. If they do, it’s a sad comment on the media. But it would be good news for the Liberals - and Australia.  
===

Turnbull gambles on youth over experience

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (8:06am)

That’s one dangerous bruise Malcolm Turnbull will rub better:
Joe Hockey is set to replace Kim Beazley as Australia’s ambassador to the United States after losing the treasury portfolio and deciding to quit Parliament.
There are still others, of course:
[Turnbull] announced the massive overhaul which sees the demise of seven ministers, including Tony ­Abbott…
Phillip Hudson puts Turnbull’s gamble well:
The six cabinet ministers departing, including Abbott and Joe Hockey, have 50 years of ministerial experience between them. Abbott’s supporters who survive are on notice and have pledged themselves to the new king. 
Turnbull’s gamble is he has judged that the energy and enthusiasm of Kelly O’Dwyer, Josh Frydenberg, Mitch Fifield, Christian Porter, Michaelia Cash and Simon Birmingham outweigh the experience lost. But it is curious Turnbull did not wish to retain in cabinet the government’s most enthusiastic minister, Bruce Billson. 
The worst loss of experience will be in Defence. Marise Payne is now in charge?
Greg Sheridan:
A new wave of boats filled with asylum-seekers will test the resolve­ of Malcolm Turnbull’s government team. Australia’s intelligence agencies understand the highly developed people-smuggling industry is readying to test the new Prime Minister and his new national securit­y team, epitomised by a completely inexperienced new Defence Minister in Marise Payne… 
The people-smugglers have been following­ Australia’s political changes closely. They know the new PM has a reputation for coming­ from the soft-hearted end of his party and they will quickly be informed that the same is true for the new Defence Minister…
Kevin Andrews ... should not have gone and Payne has so far shown nothing in her career to suggest she can do the defence job well… [H]er appointment must be read as a significant downgrade to the importance of defenc… In five minutes’ time she will have to present a defence white paper, full of the most intricate strategic, financial and force structure decisions, about which she presently knows next to nothing, and in the formulation of which she has had no role.
Peter Smith:
I ask who else, but Abbott, would have had the courage to protect our borders by taking on the Labor Party, the Greens, Fairfax Media, Their ABC, the refugee lobby, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the United Nations, Q&A;audiences, Geoffrey Robinson and the rest of the limp-wristed bleeding hearts, not to mention the Indonesian Government. No one is the answer. 
Scott Morrison got the credit for administering Operation Sovereign Borders, but there is absolutely no reason to think that he would have had the necessary courage to lead the charge. Look around at the leading lights in the Liberal Party. None of those who voted Abbott down would have taken it on; laden as it was with such high political risks. Abbott is a giant in my eyes.
And while I remain an admirer of Scott Morrison’s performance in stopping the boats - and in handling the media - do not underestimate his challenge in getting on top of his new job as Treasurer, when he has no real financial background.
UPDATE
There is also one other contender for Ambassador to Washington that Turnbull would hope to keep on side, former Treasurer Peter Costello, a kind of mentor to Scott Morrison. Costello’s verdict on the coup:
If Malcolm had challenged and lost he would have done the wrong thing, but he challenged and won so the Liberal Party regards it as the right thing. 
The Liberal Party doesn’t give you any great rewards for loyalty. That’s not what it rewards, the Liberal Party rewards success. 
Costello is right - but the real test of rightness is not toppling Abbott but winning the next election, and by more than Abbott would have.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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No poll bounce in Canning for Turnbull, who now badly needs Liberals to forgive him

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (8:02am)

T HE Liberals should worry after the weekend’s Canning by-election — is Malcolm Turnbull their Julia Gillard?
Have they repeated Labor’s fiasco of 2010 — replacing a leader in trouble with one actually worse?
The scary truth is that Turnbull’s coup has not yet given the Liberals a poll lift big enough to justify this treachery.
Turnbull is in his honeymoon days, with the media pack frantically pumping the tyres of this usurper Prime Minister to prove they were right to help destroy Tony Abbott.
Yet Turnbull’s Liberals won the by-election in Perth by less than Turnbull would have hoped
(Read full article here.) 
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The preferred victim

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (8:00am)

Only some victims of absurdly officious US bureaucrats get the media’s attention - the ones that fit the Left’s narrative.
Kyle Smith:
By now you’ve heard the story of Ahmed Mohamed, crowned by the Daily Beast “The Muslim Hero America Has Been Waiting For” after the 14-year-old brought to school a beeping, strange-looking homemade concealed device that turned out to be a clock.
School officials, thinking, as 95% of Americans would, that it kinda looked like a bomb, hauled him out of class. Police put him in handcuffs and, even after the confusion passed, the boy was suspended from school.
That earned Mohamed a planned trip to the White House, a message of support from Hillary Clinton, an offer to stop by Facebook to meet Mark Zuckerberg and an invitation to be an intern at Twitter.
The police overreacted. Yet the device did look like something Ethan Hunt would lob out of a helicopter at the last minute in “Mission: Impossible.” As National Review’s Charles Cooke pointed out on Twitter, the scary-looking tangle of wires “looks a lot more like a bomb than a pop tart looks like a gun.” 
Josh Welch, a white Maryland kid with ADHD who was 7 years old when he was kicked out of school for chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a pistol and pretending to shoot other students with it, must be puzzled.
Where’s his White House invitation? Where’s his chance to start networking at Facebook?…
“I stand with Ahmed, too. But I also stand with Alex Stone,” noted Reason writer Robby Soave. Alex Stone, a 16-year-old white kid from Summerville, SC, wrote a short story in which he imagined using a gun to kill a dinosaur. For this his locker was searched and he was arrested, handcuffed, charged with “disorderly conduct” and suspended from school for three days.
Obviously the White House and Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t be bothered to comment… The main difference between the Ahmed Mohamed case and the others is that the mainstream media and the leftist point of view it presents just can’t let go of Ahmed. Ahmed is too useful to their narrative to be a one-day story… For 14 years and two weeks now, the left has been desperate to find some evidence, any evidence, that Muslims in general are facing deep-seated discrimination because a few Muslims attacked us on 9/11. 
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Turnbull’s real job is the economy

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (7:57am)

Henry Ergas is right - Malcolm Turnbull’s biggest policy challenge is the economy, where hard choices must be made. And in that field he may be better than Tony Abbott in carrying the argument:
...the challenge Turnbull faces is that there are fault lines in the political battle that cannot be wished away… 
Nowhere is that clearer than with our budget predicament. The figures are stark: on Treasury’s projections, the accumulated defic­its over the decade to 2018-19 will amount to $363 billion, which is roughly $16,000 per Australian man, woman and child. And while public debt mounts, the real per capita income out of which it will have to be serviced has fallen by 4.5 per cent since the end of 2011.
To all that, Labor has a simple answer: increase the effective tax burden on the 40 per cent of the population who, in net terms, alread­y pay for 90 per cent of federal expenditure. Not that Labor is proposing anything as honest as raising income tax rates; instead, it intends to achieve the same outcome by slicing a bit off super­annuation here and a bit off negative gearing and capital gains tax there, while clamping down on what few benefits flow to the upper-income earners it detests… [B]y concentrating the pain while spreading the gains, it cloaks Labor’s time-worn recipe of “tax and spend” in the rhetoric of fairness…
The Coalition has failed miserably in countering Labor’s narrative. Its attempts at convincing voters that instead of economically harmful tax hikes, public spending should be restrained, have fallen victim to a predictable scare campaign…
With Labor and the Greens sure to remain­ obstructive in the Senate, Turnbull therefore faces the prospect of going to the next election without a credible budget strategy.
But contentious as the fiscal choices are, they pale compared with those required to protect the economy’s growth potential… Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens has suggested that our trend rate of growth may be “lower than the 3 per cent or 3.25 per cent we have assumed for many years”.
Ensuring the fullest use of our productive capacity should therefore be an unquestioned priority if living standards are to rise in line with community expectations. Yet there are powerful forces pushing in the opposite direction.
Mining is a crucial case in point....  With the terms of trade deteriorating by 35 per cent since 2011, ... but that will scarcely blunt the environmental movement’s demands, nor its pressure on Turnbull to prove his “green” credentials…
The same is true in industrial relations…
In the struggle over Australia’s future, it is not the illusio­n of a warm glow, but the capacit­y to take hard, well-argued choices, that will make or break the Turnbull government. 
===

The ABC gloats over Abbott’s fall

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (6:15am)

Chris Kenny calls out the ABC for not just celebrating Tony Abbott’s defeat but airbrushing out his achievements:
If, as a personal friend and ­former chief of staff to Turnbull, I can recognise the achievements of Abbott’s leadership, the brutal ­injustice of the way it ended, and the political realities that will limit Turnbull’s policy options, then you would hope some of the ABC’s myriad of journalists might be able to do the same. 
Yet in their mean-spirited ­triumphalism they could not even find it within their hearts, heads or sense of common decency to invite on to their main political programs commentators who might be ­capable of relaying or explaining Abbott’s achievements. After five days of Fran Kelly, Paul Bongiorno and Michelle Grattan on RN Breakfast they managed to wrap up the week with another couple of Abbott antagonists in Lenore ­Taylor (perhaps the most climate-focused journo in the gallery and one of the closest to Turnbull) and Mark Riley…
On Insiders yesterday it was a similar story. Former Labor staffer Barrie Cassidy hosted anti-­Abbott cheerleader David Marr, welcomed back another anti-­Abbott agitator in George Megalogenis (he once linked the booing of Adam Goodes to Abbott) and included as the only nod to ­centrism, former Liberal staffer Niki Savva, who just happens to have been the commentator who has led from the front in revealing and critiquing the role of Peta Credlin in Abbott’s downfall…
But for sheer deception, nothing beats ABC TV’s news story from last Wednesday. It recast one of Abbott’s most impressive achievements into a major failing. “Australia’s largest neighbour appears to be welcoming the change of leadership in Canberra,” said the newsreader. He introduced a misleading story suggesting Indonesia wanted Abbott gone. It was based on the flimsiest of evidence — a newspaper editorial.
“Good riddance,” said The ­Jakarta Post in a spray about as representative of Jakarta’s diplomacy as The Canberra Times is of Australia’s....
The [ABC] report noted Abbott’s first trip to Jakarta went “smoothly” (it was, in fact, a roaring success just weeks after his election). “But after that it was dramatically downhill,” declared Hawley, “amid revelations Australia had spied on the former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife.” The ABC did not mention these were revelations about spying under Kevin Rudd’s Labor government, or that they came via malicious leaks from US traitor Edward Snowden which were published by the ABC in cahoots with The Guardian. The spying leak was a major test for Abbott’s diplomatic skills early and he handled it well, refusing to confirm or deny the allegations, refusing to blame his predecessor and committing to restoring the relationship — which he then did. But Hawley wasn’t done. “Over two years of Tony Abbott’s prime ministership there was barely a time that there wasn’t a diplomatic row with Indonesia — spying, boat turnbacks, the executions and beef — there was constant friction which led both nations at various times to withdraw their ambassadors.” Omitted again was how the beef issue was another diplomatic disaster delivered by Labor, and triggered by another ABC report… Again it was a mess that Abbott repaired. And the boat turnbacks were Abbott’s policy triumph that Labor not only said was unachievable but would create “conflict” with Indonesia. 
===

Credlin speaks

Andrew Bolt September 21 2015 (6:12am)

This could be interesting, because the lynching of Peta Credlin has a been a disgrace, involving more than a whiff of sexism:
Peta Credlin will speak publicly about the challenges facing women at a televised event tomorrow night. In a discussion about these challenges, there may be no one better qualified to offer personal insights on the topic.

After a week of wall-to-wall media coverage where she has been blamed, sometimes fairly and sometimes not, for playing a role in the events that led to Tony Abbott’s supporters deserting him, Credlin has chosen to honour a commitment she made to The Australian Women’s Weekly ­editor-in-chief Helen McCabe to speak at her Women of the Future Awards. 
Credlin will speak on a panel alongside ABC journalist Annabel Crabb and model Jesinta Campbell at the glamorous, invite-only dinner, hosted by Sky’s David Speers, with former Governor-General Quentin Bryce as the patron.
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Lefties have led us down this evil path

Piers Akerman – Sunday, September 21, 2014 (12:36am)

THE war against terror in Australia will count for nothing ­unless it is accompanied by a war against the culture that permitted terrorism to gain a foothold in the country.
That would be the invidious policy of multiculturalism promoted by the Whitlam government’s notorious minister for immigration Al Grassby.
 Continue reading 'Lefties have led us down this evil path'
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We defeat terror by living normally

Miranda Devine – Sunday, September 21, 2014 (12:40am)

TODAY, in defiance of the terrorists, Sydneysiders will flock over the Harbour Bridge for the Blackmores Running Festival.
They’ll roam around Hyde Park with their children at the City of Sydney’s Art and About event. Just as they turned out to Allianz Stadium on Friday night, and last night for the NRL semi-finals, and to ANZ stadium to watch the Swans beat North Melbourne.
 Continue reading 'We defeat terror by living normally'
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THINK GLOBAL, ACT STUPID

Tim Blair – Sunday, September 21, 2014 (3:30pm)

Check out the skyline in the sign at right, carried during today’s Melbourne climate march:

That’s London, Miss GetUp. Nice that you’re not going back, though. Should save a whole bunch of carbons. What is it with climate crybabies and locations in the UK?
UPDATE. Thirteen idiots, three children and a dog stand in the rain.
UPDATE II. Drama at the Melbourne rally: 
American man jumps on stage, grabs the mic and says he’s speaking on behalf of Leonardo di Caprio. He’s bundled away. 
Let him talk, oppressors.
UPDATE III. A terrifying warning in Brisbane:

UPDATE IV. The ultimate MILF is up to something:

I say we take her down before the tyrant hag mother kills us all.
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GIVE THE MONEY BACK

Tim Blair – Sunday, September 21, 2014 (11:16am)

Climate change is over in New York: 
The curtain has come down on Climate Change: The Musical and reviews of the taxpayer-funded play about global warming are downright icy.
The play, which is actually entitled “The Great Immensity,” and was produced by Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians, Inc. with a $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, ended its run early amid a storm of criticism from reviewers and lawmakers alike. It opened a year late, reached just five percent of its anticipated audience and likely fell short of its ambitious goal of informing a new generation about the perceived dangers of man-caused climate change.
Plus, it apparently wasn’t very good. 
This is the finest showbiz fail for climate change since Ten’s Cool Aid debacle of 2007.
(Via Brendan R.)
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The Bolt Report today, September 21

Andrew Bolt September 21 2014 (6:43am)

On The Bolt Report on Channel 10 at 10.30 am and 4pm for eastern states, and 10am and 4pm for everyone else.
Editorial:  Terror raids - have we woken up yet? Naming some names…
My guest:  Major General (ret.) Jim Molan, one of the architects of Operation Sovereign Borders, has just quit as advisor to Defence Minister David Johnston after just three weeks. Can’t work with him.
The panel: Australian columnist Niki Savva and Sean Kelly, press advisor to both Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
NewsWatch:  Nick Cater, columnist and head of the Menzies Research Centre, on journalists playing down the Islamist threat.
And lots more, including has Tony Abbott gone too far on changing our constitution?  Ministers facing the chop. And one in line for promotion.
A little about Waleed Aly, too....

The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
From my interview with Major-General Molan:
ANDREW BOLT:  Jim, this week you resigned from working with the Defence Minister. You only just started going on his staff after Operation Sovereign Borders. Why did you quit? 
JIM MOLAN: Well, I’ve had an incredible couple of years, Andrew. I had a long period of time where we co-authored Operation Sovereign Borders. I then launched it with the Prime Minister and with Scott Morrison, I then argued it through the campaign, spent 10 months travelling almost continuously through every transit country. Some I visited four times. And after that, I accepted a request from the Defence Minister to act as his adviser on the white paper. It took me three months, sorry, three weeks, unfortunately, to realise that this was not feasible. Now I don’t want to talk about this in any detail at all but I would like to say that it’s certainly… the reason for this being not feasible had nothing to do with the professionalism of the Department of Defence, of the ADF, of the Chief of the Defence Force or the Secretary of the Department. But apart from that, I just decided that the job was not feasible and I could be more effective doing what I’m doing now, talking openly about things.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, it seems to me that you’re narrowing your criticism down to the minister, David Johnston.
JIM MOLAN: Well, that’s a conclusion you can come to and that’s something that I would discuss in private with others.
ANDREW BOLT: Jim Molan, thank you very much for your time.
JIM MOLAN: In fact, Andrew, I would say that that is probably an on water activity. 
Full interview follows:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today, September 21'
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Our soldiers now fear to wear their uniforms at home

Andrew Bolt September 21 2014 (6:02am)

No soldier should fear to wear their uniform on their home soil:
Some commanding officers in the Australian Defence Force have been advising their personnel not to wear their uniforms to and from work and on public transport for safety reasons in the wake of increased terror alerts. 
The move may be extended around the country at the discretion of individual officers, although it will not become official ADF policy, as it would be seen as a victory for the Islamic State (ISIL).
Victory already achieved, though, it seems.
I bet no Australian realised this would be the deal when they signed up to mass immigration on non-discriminatory principles. 
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Obama promises to fight the Islamic State with one hand behind his back. And no boots on the ground

Andrew Bolt September 21 2014 (5:47am)

Wouldn’t you be scared if the US president declared war on your army?
Wouldn’t you be relieved if he promised not to use any soldiers?
George Will: 
Seven days passed since the president used prime time to warn the nation of the gravity of all this. And those seven days have been an extremely good week for ISIL, because it is now clear that under no circumstances, will there be troops from the United States or anyone else. [General] Dempsey said we need troops, not ours, not us. The fact remains, they will not be defeated from the air and no one’s coming on the ground.
David Brooks:
(T)here are sort of two strategies here from the president. The first is, we will degrade ISIS. The second is that we will not commit ground troops. Well, those two things may not be true. And so which one is he going to choose? Is he really going to leave office with the Islamic State as powerful as it is now, holding as much ground as it is now? 
I suspect he’s going to begin to give ground. It’s not a big invasion if it’s special operations forces...The strategy is to degrade ISIS, so you should leave all your means on the table. That doesn’t mean you want to do it, and that doesn’t mean the American people support it or I particularly would want to do it. But sending special operations forces to locate terrorists ... may be necessary ... (I)f you are committed, as the president said he was, to mission, then you should have maximum flexibility about how to get there.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Palmer says no to cutting handouts and saving the Budget

Andrew Bolt September 21 2014 (5:18am)

Just keep spending and spending and spending, says Clive Palmer:
Clive Palmer has declared the Palmer United team will oppose “everything” in the government’s social services budget bills that are due to be debated in Parliament this week, setting his party on another collision course with the Coalition in the Senate… 
The bills contain some of the budget’s most controversial measures, including the government’s plans to make people under 30 wait six months before they can receive the dole, indexing pensions at a lower rate and raising the pension age to 70. They bills will also make changes to family payments, limiting Family Tax Benefit Part B to families with children under six years of age instead of 18, and reducing the income test for the primary earner from $150,000 to $100,000. 
It’s borrowed money for handouts, but in Palmer world that’s fine. 
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No free vote, says Laundy, who has learned about pressure to abandon beliefs

Andrew Bolt September 21 2014 (5:11am)

Liberal MP Craig Laundy doesn’t want a free vote on same sex marriage, after all:
Mr Laundy had been one of the only Coalition MPs in the class of 2013 who had come out publicly in support of a free vote on same-sex marriage, even though he did not support same-sex marriage himself for religious reasons. Last December, he told Fairfax Media, he had “zero interest” in forcing his views on other MPs. 
But after a year in Parliament, the member for Reid has reviewed the situation. Mr Laundy said his experience as a politician had taught him that if the Liberal Party allowed a free vote on the matter, MPs would become the victims of vigorous lobbying to make them “vote against what they believe”. 
Laundy holds a marginal Sydney seat with the biggest Muslim vote of all Liberal seats. Lobbied heavily, he campaigned against the Government’s own free speech reforms to the Racial Discrimination Act.
He’d know about pressure to vote against what Liberals should believe:
Mr Laundy said his first year in Parliament had been an education in political reality versus political idealism. “Twelve months in, I now get how political lobby groups work,” he said, noting that people in marginal seats would be particularly vulnerable. 
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Gillard: I’m not brutal

Andrew Bolt September 21 2014 (5:08am)

Julia Gillard says she wasn’t treacherous, just uncertain:
Ms Gillard is asked about the night she knifed Mr Rudd in June 2010 and concedes that in a moment of hesitation she falsely gave him hope. 
“The reputation I have from that night is one of political brutality. Actually, in the moment, I was hesitant. A conversation went too long. I certainly fed hope. I shouldn’t have done that.” 
Did guilt feelings cost us?:
Correspondence between Mr Rudd and his successor Julia Gillard has revealed for the first time the severance package that the ex Labor PM was offered for his ‘unfair dismissal’ as PM… 
Ms Gillard’s offer to Mr Rudd included three additional staffers on salaries over $100,000-a-year costing taxpayers around $400,000-a-year in total.
That cost did not include the cost of providing Mr Rudd with a second office in Brisbane’s CBD in addition to his electorate office and a range of other travel perks.
In a letter dated June, 2010, Ms Gillard also reassures the globetrotting ex-PM that he will secure access to a taxpayer-funded chauffeur and driver, a private-plated car, with the option of appointing a driver on his personal staff, plus access to existing ComCar pool transport… While Ms Gillard offered no objection to the release of the private correspondence following an Freedom of Information application by The Sunday Telegraph in February, Mr Rudd fought the application at every turn.
===
Australian artist John Peter Russell
Vincent van Gogh, six months before his suicide, writes to Russell: 
My dear friend Russell
Today I’m sending you a little roll of photographs after Millet which perhaps you may not know.
In any event, it’s to recall us, my brother and myself, to your good memory. Do you know that my brother has since married and that any day now he’s expecting his first-born? May it go well – he has a very nice Dutch wife.
How it pleases me to write to you after a long silence.
Do you remember the time when, almost simultaneously, you I think first and I afterwards, met our friend Gauguin? He’s still struggling on – and alone, or almost alone, like the good fellow he is. Am sure, though, that you don’t forget him.
He and I are still friends, I can assure you, but perhaps you’re not unaware that I myself am ill, and have more than once had serious nervous crises and delirium. This was why, having had to go into an asylum for the insane, he and I separated. But prior to that, how many times we talked about you together! Gauguin is currently still with one of my fellow-countrymen…
I assure you that I myself owe a lot to things that Gauguin told me as regards drawing, and hold his way of loving nature in high, very high esteem. For in my opinion he’s worth even more as a man than as an artist. Are things going well with you? And are you still working a lot?
Although being ill isn’t a cause for joy, I nevertheless have no right to complain about it, for it seems to me that nature sees to it that illness is a means of getting us back on our feet, of healing us, rather than an absolute evil.
If you ever come to Paris, take one of my canvases from my brother’s place if you wish, if you still have the idea of making a collection for your native country one day.  You’ll remember that I’ve already spoken to you about it, that it was my great desire to give you one for this purpose…
It never happened.
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OK this one the Kids will absolutely love!!!!
Ingredients::
•2 packs (3 oz) Raspberry jello
•1 pkg unflavored gelatin (for extra firmness)
•3/4 cup whipping cream
•3 cups boiling water
•15 drops green food coloring
•100 flexible straws (or enough to fill your container)
•Tall container (1 quart or 1 liter carton of milk)
Directions::
1.Combine gelatin in bowl and add boiling water.
2.Let it cool to lukewarm and then add the whipping cream and 15 drops green food coloring.
3.Gather your straws (don’t forget to flex them out) and put them in the container. It’s important that the straws have a tight fit so the jello stays in the straws. For this reason, a 1 liter carton may be better; you will probably get longer worms since there is a tighter fit. If you have a bigger container, a rubber band around the straws is helpful. Or you could just add more straws to fill the container.
4.Add the gelatin mixture to the straw-filled container and let it set until firm.
5.There are multiple ways you can remove the worms from the straws. You can roll a rolling pin over the straws and squeeze them out or you can hold the straws over warm water. The worms will slip right out.
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Phillip Jensen
Who are your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you?
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Larry Pickering
INDONS WILL TOE THE LINE WITH TONY

If you watched the ABC you would believe Abbott had no hope of stopping the boats. The Left would like you to believe that, but the truth is a long way from it. 

Abbott will stop the boats and with the assistance of the Indonesians, simply because it’s the Indonesians themselves who have kept the trade going. And now the game is up.

Rudd and Gillard were treated with sniggering contempt but Abbott has them standing to attention with little beads of sweat on their slanty foreheads. And he hasn’t even arrived there yet.

The Indonesians know their weak excuses won’t cut it with this administration and they are about to co-operate to safeguard their little yearly aid gift of $600 million.

They need to top up their Swiss bank accounts and refurbish a few weekend palaces.

Jakarta Airport customs agents know full well who arrives from Iraq and Afghanistan etc, with valid passports, and they know their intentions.

These well-off arrivals are not in Jakarta for the hookers or for a rub of Buddha’s tummy.

The boats can stop with Jakarta customs agents, it’s just a matter of compensation for bribes lost.

Forget the white-noise nonsense of turning back or buying boats. Forget “regional solutions” and TPVs... our broken border problems start and end in Indonesia’s corrupt Immigration Department.

A little more payola and that problem is fixed. Except it’s not called payola, it will be called, “Illegal Entrants Repatriation Fund” or the like.

And the cost will be minimal when compared the $14 billion cost of Rudd’s open border policy so far.

The ABC used the old sordid tactic of trawling for a maverick to iterate its own view. Pathetic! In no way could that little germ represent the Indonesian Government.

More likely he was on the take and could see his corrupt income dissipating.

But that’s our ABC... (in its current form).

Within weeks boats will not be leaving from Indonesian shores. If they do, it will be because Tony Abbott doesn’t understand how third world countries work.

I don’t believe that’s the case.
===
A MID-AIR disaster was avoided by seconds over Adelaide yesterday when two Qantas pilots ignored traffic-control directions that put them on a collision path.
The passenger jets came within about 200m of a mid-air disaster just 19km west of the city about lunch time.
The planes flew into the recognised danger zone in clear skies over Gulf St Vincent after a traffic-control blunder resulted in one plane being given permission to fly directly towards the other.
The pilots reacted to on-board warning systems and changed the positions to avert a mid-air catastrophe.

Read more: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/national-news/south-australia/qantas-pilots-praised-for-averting-midair-crash-over-adelaide-following-airtraffic-control-blunder/story-fnii5yv4-1226724017862#ixzz2fWXUqVmW
This is not an auto pilot lesson or remote pilot. This is an air traffic control problem. ed
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A new study that claims to present evidence of alien life is being met with a healthy dose of skepticism in the scientific community.
On July 31, a team of British researchers sent a balloon into the stratosphere over England, where it collected samples at an altitude range of 14 miles to 17 miles (22 to 27 kilometers). The balloon's scientific payload returned to Earth toting the cell wall, or frustule, of a type of microscopic algae called a diatom, the scientists report in the Journal of Cosmology.
While bacteria and other tiny lifeforms have been found high above the planet before — storm clouds are teeming with microbes, for example — the new discovery is potentially of monumental importance, study team members say. [5 Bold Claims of Alien Life ]
If alien life is pervasive in space, it will be pervasive on Mars. ed
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THE slayer of Jill Meagher had discussed what it would be like to kill before he raped and murdered her in a crime that shocked Melbourne.
A former workmate and friend of Adrian Bayley told police last year that he had had conversations with Bayley about having sex with drunken girls, and about how it would feel to kill someone.
The pair allegedly discussed the Claremont serial killer in Perth, who abducted and killed three women in 1996 and 1997 and has never been caught.

Read more: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/national-news/victoria/adrian-bayley8217s-evil-fantasy-revealed-on-the-anniversary-of-jill-meagher8217s-death/story-fnii5sms-1226724013541#ixzz2fWYH1L00
The idea "it is better to allow a hundred guilty people to be free than to let an innocent man serve time" .. it doesn't mean that it is good that guilty people are freed. - ed
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TUNISIAN women have travelled to Syria to wage 'sex jihad' by comforting Islamist fighters battling the regime there, Interior Minister Lotfi ben Jeddou has told MPs.
'They have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100' militants, the minister told members of the National Constituent Assembly yesterday.
'After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of 'jihad al-nikah' - (sexual holy war in Arabic) - they come home pregnant,' Ben Jeddou told the MPs.
He did not elaborate on how many Tunisian women had returned to the country pregnant with the children of jihadist fighters.
Jihad al-nikah, permitting extramarital sexual relations with multiple partners, is considered by some hardline Sunni Muslim Salafists as a legitimate form of holy war.
The minister also did not say how many Tunisian women were thought to have gone to Syria for such a purpose, although media reports have said hundreds have done so.
Hundreds of Tunisian men have also gone to join the ranks of the jihadists fighting to bring down the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
However, Ben Jeddou also said that since he assumed office in March, 'six thousand of our young people have been prevented from going there' to Syria.
He has said in the past that border controls have been boosted to intercept young Tunisians seeking to travel to Syria.
Media reports say thousands of Tunisians have, over the past 15 years, joined jihadists across the world in Afghanistan Iraq and Syria, mainly travelling via Turkey or Libya.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/tunisian-women-waging-sex-jihad-in-syria/story-fndir2ev-1226724083566#ixzz2fWYaZFaC
They are prostitutes that are selective. The religion would not accept the excuse "I thought he was a jihadist" or "He told me he was waging holy war" in many places .. ed
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Allen West
Quote of the week comes from President Obama at the Business Roundtable, “raising the debt limit does not increase our debt.” Imagine what those business leaders were thinking: Not so fast, my friend. Look at it this way, what if Lee Corso on ESPN's College Gameday said, “scoring more touchdowns does not get you more points.” So America, when the credit card collectors call on you, just use President Obama’s logic. After all, going from $10.6T in debt in Jan 2009 to $16.9T now, well, it’s just a grand illusion as the rock band Styx would say...and our President is singing the same tune.
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TO: All the Better National Reporters
FROM:  The Coach.
SUBJECT: The Appearance of Credibility.
Listen people, you’re doing great work. Our guy’s holding up very well considering how rough the economy is. No jobs, sky high dependency. Best part: people don’t blame him. They think he’s an innocent bystander rather than president for the last five years. We’re getting it done!
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Pastor Rick Warren'
Laws never change hearts. Love does.
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EVERY PARENT NEEDS TO WATCH THIS NOW: “Parents, you need to question these people!:” Shock video of dad ARRESTED at school meeting after challenging Common Core/Fed Ed scheme==> 

http://michellemalkin.com/2013/09/20/parents-you-need-to-question-these-people-shock-video-of-dad-arrested-at-school-meeting-after-challenging-common-core/
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Archaeologist and explorer Harrison Ford plummed the mysteries of the past in the 1981 film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Many intriguing archaeology puzzles remain unsolved.
Source: Lucasfilm Ltd.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/slideshow/2013/09/20/history-mysteries-archaeology-mysteries-from-past/?intcmp=features#slide=1#ixzz2fWBEeSsJ
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A passenger on a train in Germany was stung with capsicum spray and then beaten for allegedly not having a ticket, mobile phone footage has revealed.
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Catholics around the world may be especially tuned in during Sunday's homilies, following Pope Francis' bombshell interview in which he urged the church to take a softer line on the hot-button issues that have become increasingly polarizing in recent years.
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods," Francis said in a 12,000-word article published Thursday in Jesuit journals in 16 countries. "We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/20/religious-figures-overjoyed-by-pope-francis-comments-marking-new-dawn-in/#ixzz2fWBkdZsI
Clearly the Pope worships God .. do any of his critics who campaign on issues? - ed
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Initially, it was a massacre that much of the world greeted with silence.
While controversy raged about chemical weapons in Syria, in neighboring Iraq 52 Iranians living in an exile camp were killed.  Relatives of the victims say Iraqi-backed forces committed the Sep.1 slaughter. Iraq denies the allegation.
Among the dead was Amir Emadi’s 56 year old father. He says the Iraqis “were there to execute.” 
 Emadi, a U.S. citizen living in San Diego, claims they “were not just there to scare people off. They had targets and they shot every single one of my friends and my father’s friends and my father in the head.”


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/20/massacre-52-iranians-at-exile-camp-in-iraq-draws-international-attention/#ixzz2fWC6bEnZ
Will Obama want to hit Iran too? - ed
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"I'm not your friend. I'm your mother,'' she writes.
"And I am here to give you the boundaries that you need to become a functional responsible adult.
"You may hate me now...But I don't care. Its my job to raise a responsible adult...not nurture bad habits in my teenage child.''
♥

Read more: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/breaking-news/angry-mum-launches-internet-tirade-against-her-8216lippy8217-teenage-one-direction-fan-daughter/story-e6frfkp9-1226724321675#ixzz2fViQmacq
오사렘 The apple doesn't fall far from the tree?? Sounds like this woman let her daughter walk over her too many times in the past, why is she even angry her daughter pulled such a stunt? You can't let them have it easy for so long & get away with deceit & disresepect & then suddenly get angry when they don't give you the respect that you desire. I would never have to do such an extreme thing to my daughters, they know from the get go what is expected from them. Trying to clean up the mess after the fact its a little too late.
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In the 1980s, some members of Germany's Green Party advocated the legalization of sex with minors. Now the party wants to come to terms with this dark chapter via an independent review of internal documents -- some of which show that the influence of pedophiles on the young party was much stronger than previously thought.
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A BOARDING school education, gifts at Christmas and birthdays … Charlotte Colquhoun may have been illegitimate, but her baronet father ensured she enjoyed at least some of the privileges of an aristocratic background.
Now the eldest child of Sir Malcolm Colquhoun is quite literally trading on her heritage - by selling herself for sex.
Miss Colquhoun, 37, alludes to her blue blood on explicit websites where she advertises herself as a $250-an-hour 'escort' under the name Charlie Foxtrot - claiming her public school education makes her even more desirable.
And the mother-of two has posted photographs of her Old Etonian father, her titled grandfather, the family crest - even her birth certificate - on her Facebook page, alongside intimate photographs of herself semi-naked.
Confronted about her work, Miss Colquhoun told the Daily Mail: 'I'm sure my father would have a fit if he found out.'
Sir Malcolm, 65, who owns two private schools in London and a 40,000-acre country estate, fathered Miss Colquhoun when he was 28, after a fling with interior designer Susan Armstrong.
He went on to marry twice - first to an American in 1978, while his current wife Katharine is Australian - but kept in touch with his first child and funded her schooling, even after producing an heir, Patrick, now 32.
it doesn't matter, it is all a joke .. right? - ed
===

A COUPLE didn't report that their 10-year-old daughter had been shot for more than five hours because they thought she was menstruating, police have revealed.
The girl was sleeping in her Hayward home in California around 2am on Thursday when a stray bullet from drive-by shooting wounded her in the buttocks, Sergeant Mark Ormsby said on Friday.
When the girl woke up in pain and had blood in her underwear, her parents thought she had started her period, police said.
They also found no indication she had been shot when they took her to the bathroom.
Ormsby said when she woke up for school and was still in pain, her parents inspected her bed and saw bullet holes.
The girl's doctor told investigators the bullet's entry wound was small and could have been easily overlooked if the family thought she was menstruating.
The girl remained hospitalised in a stable condition on Friday, Lieutenant Mark Stuart said.
Police don't have a motive for the shooting and no arrest has been made.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/couple-thought-shot-girl-had-period-after-10yearold-hit-in-driveby-shooting/story-fndir2ev-1226724385210#ixzz2fWNKqDeX
She lives .. but society and culture are dying .. ed
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"If Europe thinks Jews will return to the days where we were forced to mark our products, you can forget it. Delegitimization of parts of Israel by Europe is the new anti-Semitism. The old anti-Semitism led to the destruction of our people in gas chambers. We will not allow the new anti-Semitism to hurt us." — Ayelet Shaked, Member of Knesset
A group of former European leaders have called on the European Union not to ease or delay the implementation of new rules that would prohibit the EU from funding Israeli institutions based or operating anywhere beyond theGreen Line, including eastern Jerusalem.
In a September 16 letter addressed to the foreign ministers of the 28 EU member states and to EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton, 15 members of the so-called European Eminent Persons Group expressed "great concern" at attempts to "delay, modify or even suspend the European Commission guidelines on funding of Israeli entities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967."
The letter -- signed by longtime Israel critics including former EU foreign policy chief and NATO secretary-general Javier Solana, former French foreign minister Hubert Védrine, and former Spanish foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos -- argues that the "strict application" of the guidelines "serves to reiterate that the EU does not recognize and will not support settlements and other illegal facts on the ground."
The "guidelines" refer to a new directive -- the long title is "Guidelines on the Eligibility of Israeli Entities and their Activities in the Territories Occupied by Israel since June 1967 for Grants, Prizes and Financial Instruments funded by the EU from 2014 Onwards" -- that forbids EU organizations and institutions from funding or cooperating with any Israeli entities based in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
The directive -- which was published on July 19, 2013 and will take effect on January 1, 2014 -- includes a requirement that all future agreements between the EU and Israel include a clause in which Israel accepts the EU position that none of the territory beyond the Green Line belongs to Israel.
Needless to say, Israeli officials have rejected the directive out of hand and are refusing to sign any new agreements with the EU which include such a clause.
The issue came to a head after Israel threatened to cancel its participation in Horizon 2020, an €80 billion ($110 billion) scientific cooperation program sponsored by the European Union.
The EU and Israel both stand to benefit from Israel's involvement in the lucrative program, which begins on January 1, 2014 and will run for a period of seven years.
Israel -- the only non-EU country that has been invited to join Horizon 2020 -- is expected to invest €600 million in the program and receive €900 million in inbound research grants and other investments. For its part, the EU will benefit from Israeli research and technology, which is widely believed to surpass the capabilities of many EU member states.
Officials from the EU and Israel met in Jerusalem on September 10 and in Brussels on September 12 in talks aimed at hashing out an agreement that would modify the EU guidelines in such a way that Israel would be able to participate in the project.
Although the talks in Brussels continued for seven hours and included nearly a dozen participants from each side, EU negotiators refused to budge. Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is now expected to raise the issue directly with Catherine Aston, the EU foreign policy chief.
Any agreement over Israel's participation in Horizon 2020 would have to be signed by the middle of November, and negotiations are expected to continue up until then.
Thus the apparent purpose of the September 16 letter issued by the European Eminent Persons Group is to provide Ashton with political cover for maintaining her hardline stance vis-à-vis Israel.
Indeed, the letter is vehement that the new EU guidelines be enforced with regard to Horizon 2020. The letter states: "We urge you to uphold this commitment by supporting the guidelines and their full application by EU institutions, notably in regard to the ongoing negotiations about Israel's participation in Horizon 2020... If the EU were to delay or suspend the guidelines, or not fully apply them to the agreement with Israel on Horizon 2020, this could further undermine the Palestinians' trust in the negotiation process and their ability to continue the talks. In other words, delaying or suspending the guidelines is likely to undermine negotiations, which we want to see succeed, not help them."
The letter also comes in response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has urged the EU to suspend implementation of the ban in order to show the Israeli public the benefit of pursuing a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
On September 7, Kerry asked for the suspension in a closed-door meeting of EU foreign ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he also discussed the current status of the talks, which resumed on July 30 after a nearly three-year hiatus.
A senior US State Department official who was at the talks in Vilnius said, "There was strong support for his efforts and an openness to considering his requests." But Ashton has been characteristically unapologetic, saying only that the EU would send a team to Israel to make sure the implementation of the new guidelines was done sensitively.
Ashton has support from other quarters as well. On September 11, a group of nearly 500 European academics sent a letter to Ashton urging her not to water down the new guidelines. The letter states: "Reports in the media that you are thinking of softening or postponing the implementation of the EU Guidelines on Israeli Settlements have shocked academic opinion across Europe and beyond. We, and the nearly five hundred European academics who have signed the attached petition in the last 48 hours, applaud your Guidelines, and urge you not to weaken or abandon them at the first sign that Israel, or the United States, takes objection to them. Principles are principles. Please stick to yours."
Not to be outdone, a group of far-left Israeli intellectuals, academics and artists also sent a petition to Ashton in support of the EU guidelines on funding of Israeli entities. The document states: "Our government has threatened to end its participation in the EU's research program -- a move that would be, in the first place, to Israel's own great detriment. We urge the EU not to be misled by this tactical maneuver, and to insist on full application of the guidelines when negotiating Israel's participation in that program."
Meanwhile, the European Jewish Congress (EJC), a Paris-based umbrella group for Jewish communities in Europe, criticized the former EU officials for sending the letter, calling it a "danger to peace as it hands one side a political victory without having to compromise and deepens the Palestinian feeling that they can gain more outside of negotiations than in them."
In a full-page advertisement published by the London-based Financial Times on September 16, EJC President Moshe Kantor described the EU guidelines as "discriminatory" and a reflection of "the desire for the EU to score political points." Kantor continued:
From the well over one hundred territorial disputes in the world, the European Union has mandated the creation of a clause in every agreement denying European funding to, and cooperation with, institutions from only one nation involved in a territorial dispute: Israel. It has not placed similar criteria on Turkey, Morocco, China, or any other nation involved in a territorial dispute.
...
What makes the situation far worse is that the European Union is abrogating agreements that it signed and witnessed. The Oslo Accords, the basis for the peace negotiations, specifically stipulated that the current status of the territories, and its residents, will not be changed or harmed ahead of final status negotiations, to which the parties have recently returned.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, the Greek ambassador to Israel, Spiros Lampridis, said he understood Israel's objections to signing the territorial clause because it is so "explicit."
"If I put myself in the Israeli shoes I can see why they are not able to sign it," he said. "Therefore our task as European states is to find alternatives to make this thing workable for both sides. We are not here to fight, we are here to cooperate, and if Israel cannot cooperate with the EU, and vice versa, then that means that the EU is not really understanding the importance of Israel in the framework of the Western family."
Other Europeans have also shown themselves sympathetic to the Israeli position. On September 17, the Vice Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, Italian politician Fiorello Provera, organized what has been described as an "historic" conference to help MEPs better understand the harmful impact of EU policies in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank).
The conference -- entitled "EU-Israel Relations: Impact of the New EU Guidelines on Israel and Their Effects on the EU, Israeli and Palestinian Economies" -- was held at the Foreign Affairs Committee hall inside the European Parliament.
The event was attended by 20 MEPs, representatives of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the Israeli ambassador to the EU, David Walzer, and a wide array of journalists.
Member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home Party, Ayelet Shaked, told the European politicians attending the conference that she feared the evacuation of West Bank settlements and the creation of a Palestinian state would only lead to increased missile attacks against Israel:
Europe's forcing us to cede land, in order to achieve the type of agreement it sees fit for the Middle East, will only mean that these missiles will continue to rain down on Israel not only from Gaza, but from Qalqilya and Ramallah [Palestinian cities in the West Bank] as well.
If Europe thinks Jews will return to the days where we were forced to mark our products, you can forget it. Delegitimization of parts of Israel by Europe is the new anti-Semitism. The old anti-Semitism led to the destruction of our people in gas chambers. We will not allow the new anti-Semitism to hurt us.
Such conduct creates a sense among Israelis that Europe is lost, that it is occupied by the forces of radical Islam. If that is the message you have been trying to send, you are doing a good job in getting it across. I want you to understand that you are important to us. We hold your support in high regard, but you cannot push us to commit suicide.
Shaked also called for a change in the terminology employed within the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict. "It is time to say the truth: Judea and Samaria are not occupied territory, but disputed territory. That is the truth as far as international law is concerned."
Provera summed up the conference, saying that "MEPs in this house [the European Parliament] are not familiar with the facts. Did you know that Jews and Arabs work side by side in the factories of Samaria? The idea of putting pressure on Israel and slapping sanctions on it is unacceptable. It will not bring peace, but may only bring unemployment to the Palestinians, as a result of which they might turn to terror."
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
===
Did US President Barack Obama score a great victory for the United States by concluding a deal with Russia on Syria's chemical weapons or has he caused irreparable harm to the US's reputation and international position? By what standard can we judge his actions when the results will only be known next year? To summarize where things now stand, last Saturday US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov concluded an agreement regarding Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. The agreement requires Syria to provide full details on the size and locations of all of its chemical weapons by this Saturday. It requires international inspectors to go to Syria beginning in November, and to destroy or remove Syria's chemical weapons from the country by June 2014.

Obama and Kerry have trumpeted the agreement as a great accomplishment. They say it could never have been concluded had the US not threatened to carry out "unbelievably small" punitive military strikes against the Syrian regime in response to its use of Sarin gas to massacre 1,400 civilians in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

And then there is the perception of an "Iran dividend" from the US-Russian deal. Just two days after last Saturday's agreement, speculation mounted about a possible breakthrough in the six party negotiations with Iran regarding its illicit nuclear weapons program.

According to Der Spiegel, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani may consider closing down Iran's illicit uranium enrichment facility at Fordo under IAEA supervision in exchange for the removal or weakening of economic sanctions against Iran's oil exports and its central bank.

The White House has not ruled out the possibility that Obama and Rouhani may meet at the UN General Assembly meeting later this month. These moves could pave the way for a reinstatement of full diplomatic relations between the US and Iran. Those relations were cut off after the regime-supported takeover of the US embassy in Teheran in 1979.

Obama's supporters in the US media and Congress have hailed these developments as foreign policy victories for the United States. Thanks to Obama's brilliant maneuvering, Syria has agreed to disarm from its chemical weapons without the US having had to fire a shot. The Iranians' increased willingness to be forthcoming on their nuclear program is similarly a consequence of Obama's tough and smart diplomacy regarding Syria, and his clever utilization of Russia as a long arm of US foreign policy.

For their part, critics have lined up to condemn Obama's decision to cut a deal with Russia regarding Syria.

They warn that his actions in that regard have destroyed the credibility of his threat to use force to prevent Iran from developing or deploying nuclear weapons.

To determine which side is right in this debate, we need to look no further than North Korea.

In April 1992 the IAEA concluded that North Korea was hiding information on its nuclear program from the UN and declared it in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it signed in 1985. In March 1993 North Korea announced its intention to vacate its signature from the NPT. Later that year, it later offered to begin negotiations related to its illicit nuclear program with the US.

Those negotiations began in early 1994, after the US canceled planned joint military exercises with South Korea as a goodwill gesture to the North. The talks led to the Agreed-Framework Agreement concluded later that year under which North Korea agreed to shutter its nuclear installation at Yongbyon where it was suspected of developing plutonium based nuclear weapons. In exchange the US and its allies agreed to build light water nuclear reactors in North Korea, and to provide North Korea with oil for energy production until the reactors were up and running.

In November 2002 the North Koreans acknowledged that they were engaging in illicit uranium enrichment activities. In January 2003 Pyongyang announced it was withdrawing from the NPT.

In February 2005 it announced it possessed a nuclear arsenal. And on October 9, 2006, North Korea launched its first test of a nuclear bomb.

The US suspended its talks with North Korea in 2003. It responded to the nuclear test by renewing those negotiations just weeks after it took place. And in February 2007 the US and North Korea reached an agreement under which Pyongyang agreed to close down Yongbyon in exchange for a resumption of shipments of free oil.

In September 2007, against the strenuous opposition of then secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who was the architect of the US's renewed push to cut a deal with North Korea, Israel destroyed a North Korean built nuclear reactor almost identical to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor in the Syrian desert. Had it become operational, Syria would likely have developed a nuclear arsenal by now.

In June 2008, the North Koreans demolished Yongbyon's cooling tower.

Amidst fears that North Korea had reopened the reactor in the fall of 2008, the US removed North Korea from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Six months later, in April 2009, Pyongyang resumed its reprocessing of spent fuel rods for the production of plutonium. And the next month it conducted another nuclear test.

In 2010, North Korean scientists at Yongbyon told Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory that the plutonium reactor had been shuttered.

Later in 2010, the North Koreans began open enrichment of uranium at Yongbyon.

Enrichment activities have doubled in scale since 2010. US experts now assess that with 4,000 centrifuges operating, North Korea produces enough enriched uranium to build three uranium based nuclear bombs every year. On February 12, 2013 North Korea conducted a third nuclear test. Experts were unclear whether the tested bomb a plutoniumbased or uranium-based nuclear weapon.

On September 11, the media reported that the latest satellite imagery indicates the North Koreans have resumed their plutonium production activities at Yongbyon.

Although the media claim that this represents an abrogation of the 2007 deal, it is unclear why that deal was considered in place given that North Korea began its reprocessing activities in April 2009 and tested another nuclear weapon the next month.

Although it issued a strong statement condemning the reopening of the plutonium operation at Yongbyon, the Obama administration remains committed to the sixparty talks with North Korea.

When viewed as a model for general US-non-proliferation policy, rather than one specific to North Korea, the North Korean model involves a rogue state using the Chinese and Russians to block effective UN Security Council action against its illicit development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Faced with a dead end at the UN, the US is forced to decide between acting on its own to compel a cessation of the illicit behavior, or to try to cut a deal with the regime, either through bilateral or multilateral negotiations.

Not wishing to enter into an unwanted confrontation or suffer domestic and international condemnations of American unilateralism, the US opts for diplomacy. The decision is controversial in Washington. And to justify their decision, the champions of negotiating deals with rogue proliferators stake their personal reputations on the success of that policy.

In the case of Rice, her decision to open negotiations with North Korea following its nuclear test was staunchly opposed by vice president Dick Cheney. And once the policy was exposed as a failure first by the intelligence reports proving that North Korea was proliferating its nuclear technologies and know-how to Syria, and then with its early suspension of its agreement to the 2007 agreement, rather than acknowledge her mistake, she doubled down. And as a consequence, under the nose of the US, and with Washington pledged to a framework deal to which North Korea stood in continuous breach, North Korea carried out two more nuclear tests, massively expanded its uranium enrichment activities, and reinstated its plutonium production activities.

Just as importantly, once the US accepted the notion of talks with North Korea, it necessarily accepted the regime's legitimacy. And as a consequence, both the Clinton and Bush administrations abandoned any thought of toppling the regime. Once Washington ensnared itself in negotiations that strengthened its enemy at America's expense, it became the effective guarantor of the regime's survival. After all, if the regime is credible enough to be trusted to keep its word, then it is legitimate no matter how many innocents it has enslaved and slaughtered.

With the US's experience with North Korea clearly in mind, it is possible to assess US actions with regards to Syria and Iran. The first thing that becomes clear is that the Obama administration is implementing the North Korean model in its dealings with Syria and Iran.

With regards to Syria, there is no conceivable way to peacefully enforce the US Russian agreement on the ground. Technically it is almost impossible to safely dispose of chemical weapons under the best of circumstances.

Given that Syria is in the midst of a brutal civil war, the notion that it is possible for UN inspectors to remove or destroy the regime's chemical weapons is patently absurd.

Moreover, since the agreement itself requires non-compliance complaints to be discussed first at the UN Security Council, and it is clear that Russia is willing to do anything to protect the Syrian regime, no action will be taken to punish non-compliance.

Finally, like his predecessors with regard to Pyongyang, Obama has effectively accepted the continued legitimacy of the regime of Bashar Assad, despite the fact that he is an acknowledged war criminal.

As was the case with Pyongyang and its nuclear brinkmanship and weapons tests, Assad won his legitimacy and removed the US threat to remove him from power by using weapons of mass destruction.

As for Iran, Rouhani's talk of closing Fordo needs to be viewed against the precedents set at Yongbyon by the North Koreans. In other words, even if the installation is shuttered, there is every reason to believe that the shutdown will be temporary. On the other hand, just as North Korea remains off the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism despite the fact that since its removal it carried out two more nuclear tests, it is hard to imagine that sanctions on Iran's oil exports and central bank removed in exchange for an Iranian pledge to close Fordo, would be restored after Fordo is reopened.

Like North Korea, Iran will negotiate until it is ready to vacate its signature on the NPT and test its first nuclear weapon.

The critics are correct. And the danger posed by Obama's decision to seek a false compromise rather than accept an unwanted confrontation following Syria's use of chemical weapons will only be removed when the US recognizes the folly of seeking to wish away the dangers of weapons of mass destruction through negotiations. Those talks lead only to the diminishment of US power and the endangerment of US national security as more US enemies develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction with the sure knowledge that the US would rather negotiate fecklessly than contend responsibly with the dangers they pose.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post. 
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“Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.” Joel 2:23 NIV
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Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening

Morning


"The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon."
Judges 7:20
Gideon ordered his men to do two things: covering up a torch in an earthen pitcher, he bade them, at an appointed signal, break the pitcher and let the light shine, and then sound with the trumpet, crying, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" This is precisely what all Christians must do. First, you must shine; break the pitcher which conceals your light; throw aside the bushel which has been hiding your candle, and shine. Let your light shine before men; let your good works be such, that when men look upon you, they shall know that you have been with Jesus. Then there must be the sound, the blowing of the trumpet. There must be active exertions for the ingathering of sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified. Take the gospel to them; carry it to their door; put it in their way; do not suffer them to escape it; blow the trumpet right against their ears. Remember that the true war-cry of the Church is Gideon's watchword, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" God must do it, it is his own work. But we are not to be idle; instrumentality is to be used--"The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" If we only cry, "The sword of the Lord!" we shall be guilty of an idle presumption; and if we shout, "The sword of Gideon!" alone, we shall manifest idolatrous reliance on an arm of flesh: we must blend the two in practical harmony, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" We can do nothing of ourselves, but we can do everything by the help of our God; let us, therefore, in his name determine to go out personally and serve with our flaming torch of holy example, and with our trumpet tones of earnest declaration and testimony, and God shall be with us, and Midian shall be put to confusion, and the Lord of hosts shall reign forever and ever.

Evening


"In the evening withhold not thy hand."
Ecclesiastes 11:6
In the evening of the day opportunities are plentiful: men return from their labour, and the zealous soul-winner finds time to tell abroad the love of Jesus. Have I no evening work for Jesus? If I have not, let me no longer withhold my hand from a service which requires abundant labour. Sinners are perishing for lack of knowledge; he who loiters may find his skirts crimson with the blood of souls. Jesus gave both his hands to the nails, how can I keep back one of mine from his blessed work? Night and day he toiled and prayed for me, how can I give a single hour to the pampering of my flesh with luxurious ease? Up, idle heart; stretch out thy hand to work, or uplift it to pray; heaven and hell are in earnest, let me be so, and this evening sow good seed for the Lord my God.

The evening of life has also its calls. Life is so short that a morning of manhood's vigour, and an evening of decay, make the whole of it. To some it seems long, but a four-pence is a great sum of money to a poor man. Life is so brief that no man can afford to lose a day. It has been well said that if a great king should bring us a great heap of gold, and bid us take as much as we could count in a day, we should make a long day of it; we should begin early in the morning, and in the evening we should not withhold our hand; but to win souls is far nobler work, how is it that we so soon withdraw from it? Some are spared to a long evening of green old age; if such be my case, let me use such talents as I still retain, and to the last hour serve my blessed and faithful Lord. By his grace I will die in harness, and lay down my charge only when I lay down my body. Age may instruct the young, cheer the faint, and encourage the desponding; if eventide has less of vigorous heat, it should have more of calm wisdom, therefore in the evening I will not withhold my hand.
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Today's reading: Ecclesiastes 4-6, 2 Corinthians 12 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Ecclesiastes 4-6

Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness

1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
2 And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
3 But better than both
is the one who has never been born,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.

4 And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind....

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Corinthians 12

Paul’s Vision and His Thorn
1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong....
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Jephthah, Jephthae

[Jĕph'thah,Jĕph'tha ē] - he doth openor set free. A Gileadite, illegitimate child expelled by his brother from the paternal abode. He became a Judge in Israel and delivered the people from the Ammonites. He judged Israel for six years (Judg. 11; Heb. 11:32).

The Man Who Made a Vow

While Jephthah is described as a "mighty man of valour" and one upon whom "the Spirit of the Lord" descended, he is conspicuous as a man who in all sincerity made a rash vow. He vowed a vow to be fulfilled if the Lord would deliver the Ammonites to him. As a thanksgiving to God, he said he would offer up whatever came out of his house at his return from battle. Jephthah defeated the Ammonites, and on his return, his daughter, an only child, came out to meet him. He told her of his vow and declared he could not go back upon his word. The daughter begged for two months'respite in order to go away and bewail her virginity. On her return, her father fulfilled the vow.
In those twilight, uncivilized times there was the practice of the sacrifice of human beings at times of special stress, but whether Jephthah offered up his daughter as a human sacrifice or surrendered her to perpetual virginity in fulfillment of his vow may be debatable. We do know that it was the custom for the daughters of Israel to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days every year. And we can imagine how they would return softened, sobered and sanctified as the result of their act of remembrance.

For the preacher these aspects can be developed: Jephthah was an outcast (Judg. 11:1, 2 ); rose to leadership (Judg. 11:4-10); was moved by the Spirit (Judg. 11:29); made a rash vow (Judg. 11:30, 31); saved Israel from his foes (Judg. 11:33); kept his vow (Judg. 11:39).
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