Friday, October 13, 2017

Fri Oct 13th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. US and Israel are pulling out of the corrupt UNESCO organisation. Singapore did so in 1985. UNESCO is the successor to the League of Nations lobby promoting world peace through technology and culture. How could a teacher training body mess up world peace? UNESCO supported Stalinist and Maoist communism until the Soviet collapse, and champions anti semitism now. UNESCO opposed free speech. UNESCO has made the life of Che Guevara part of they 'memory of the world register' UNESCO needs to be disbanded, not given funding. 

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 Victorian Flood Tribute 2011

Victorian Floods As with Queensland Floods involved neglect from the ALP who spent public money on their massive pork barrels and left the poor and defenseless to suffer. This pattern will be repeated so long as the ALP remain in government. This pattern will be repeated so long as Green policy enjoys power. Support those in desperate need. Give generously to charity. Remove the ALP from government locally, in the state and from the federal government. To the tune of "When will I be loved" "When Will I Be Loved" is a popular song, written by Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers and a #8 hit single for that duo in the summer of 1960. The track had been recorded in 1959 while the Everly Brothers were contracted to Cadence Records; by 1960 they had moved to Warner Brothers and recording in a more mainstream Pop/Rock style than previously. The belated release by Cadence of "When Will I Be Loved" provided the Everly Brothers with a final rockabilly style hit


=== from 2016 ===
I am blessed to live in a loving family home. I am not entitled in any way that I should. They are relative strangers I met on FB. My family have abandoned me. My friends have gone their own way. My church have a near depraved indifference to my welfare. But this loving family are Vietnamese and Christian. And refugees. The dad came here in the late seventies because a great immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock forced then PM Malcolm Fraser to be human when he wanted to copy Whitlam in hurting many. These Vietnamese took great risks coming to Australia by boat from Vietnam, not Indonesia. An estimated 50% perished on the journey. Vietnam was murderous and divided from civil war. The refugees were a proud people and did not assimilate as we now demand of refugees from the Middle East.

But the refugees from the Middle East are not the same people as the Vietnamese. The journey from Indonesia is not the same as that from Vietnam. And the purpose is different. Even were the refugees sourced from camps in Syria or nearby, the security issue is different to those refugees who came from Vietnam.

I thank god for my friends who have welcomed me into their home for a time. I think it a poor return for their hospitality to confuse them with terrorists and economic migrants. There is a solution to be found in the Middle East, and it isn't by depopulating it. It is not compassionate to subject people to people smugglers, but neither is it compassionate to ship over the pirates looking for greener pastures.
 

I suggest Red Gum ward vote for David Daniel Ball. And, after asking your local councillor about their views on Trump, Same Sex Marriage and Greyhounds, try and find out what it is they will do to make garbage collection cheaper and more efficient. Ask how they will make business more profitable. Ask what they will do to help address crime. Ask what they will do to improve public transport issues locally. 
=== from 2015 ===
The Gallipoli Club had a function from Sydney Institute where Professor Ann Tiernan spoke on her research into PM Chief's of staff. Fascinating research with powerful implications, but one known issue is the loss of institutional knowledge because the public service no longer provides the chief of staff. Impartiality is loss, but also the knowledge of how to deal with crises and routines that aren't crises but appear like them. Problem is, why would either major party ever choose a public servant when the public service is so clearly partisan. The Liberal Party would not want the disloyalty. The ALP would not know which faction the public servant supported. In NSW, were the judiciary fair and impartial then Nick Greiner would probably be still NSW Premier and the summer Olympics would be part of the state roster every four years. Rural NSW would have plenty of fresh water and several inland rural towns would be cities rivalling Canberra in size. 

The Peta Credlin issue was not part of the research. But Credlin had well served Turnbull previously, and her only fault was being in the way this time. But an academic can't say that. But the audience could. What happened to Abbott was not the same as what happened to Gillard or Rudd. It wasn't the problem of the chiefs of staff. Malcolm had to be prevented from further undermining the party. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014
News media is unbalanced, but so too are educational institutions. Students are not given balanced options, there are only marks for parroting left wing narratives without critical thinking. As an example, the Conservative Voice has the words of a pathologist who really believes in AGW alarmism.

Bob Lawson Your a blogger David Daniel Ball. Your facts don't even tally with the statement the other day from the federal weather people saying that an enormous chunk of the Antarctic ice sheet has recently broken off and is slowly heading north. Please mate before you put this nonsense in print at least try to refute the weather science first. While some of modelling I think is the worst possible scenario there is no doubt that the earth's climate is warming and greenhouse gases not just CO2 that are man made are the major cause.

Bob Lawson Before you challenge me on academic grounds David Daniel Ball. I have three degrees. One in biology, another in industrial chemisty and third a masters degree in medicine. So I know what I am talking about where as you obviously don't.

Bob Lawson Your understanding of physics is as flawed as your climate change sceptic blog mate. Here are the facts mate; the strengh of frozen H2O is reliant on temperature and temperature only. The warmer it gets the less ordered and therefore the less cohesive the water molecules become. The ice event I quoted has been completely stable for all of recorded history mate. Now all of a sudden it isn't. This is nothing to do weight Daniel just temperature. There you go you have eve learned some first year Uni physics.

Bob proceeded to claim injury when asked to make a verifiable fact. He claimed I had abused him when I had not. He claimed I had said I was an authority on global warming when I have not. He admitted that the world was not heating in line with the theory, but made the extraordinary claim that that was because the effect was logarithmic and so the more carbon dioxide released the less the world would respond with heat. His voluminous but irrelevant arguments can be followed in context at http://conservativeweasel.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/a-simple-blog-sparked-this-on-agw.html

Thing is Bob is highly educated. His spelling is poor, for example not knowing the difference between 'know' and 'no.' He is highly educated in making assertions, but poor in putting forward verifiable ideas .. a cornerstone of science being that theory be testable. When asked to show where he found the so called outrages, he became abusive, or ignored the question, and later conceded that there was no such instance. This is not critical thinking, but reflexive thinking and a condemnation of education which has rewarded him richly with three degrees. Tonight the news media have castigated Mr Abbott for saying he would shirt front Mr Putin over the MH17 tragedy. A reasonable person might have thought that that meant Mr Abbott would meet Mr Putin face to face and raise the issue. But the media ran with the idea from AFL (which is historically Victorian, while Mr Abbot is from NSW) that shirt fronting meant that Mr Abbott would grab Mr Putin's shirt and tackle him. Pravda responded for Mr Putin expressing outrage on Mr Putin's behalf at the rhetoric, but Pravda is the Russian equivalent of the Age and often reports on issues without understanding them. One can only wonder how far the legs of this inflation will take the outrage. No doubt the Greens will draft a warning to Mr Abbott that he must set his phaser to stun.

A tax on breeding is being called for by AGW alarmists and must meet with Lawson's approval. One interesting sidelight of Lawson's ridiculous writings is that Carbon Dioxide is not the main driver of his fantasy of Global Warming, but it should still be taxed, according to his mind. NOAA admits AGW is not resulting in increased extreme weather events. Disabled people can work. Lawson is proof.

Jihadism shirt fronted
ABC Encounter program imagines a 'nice' caliphate without interviewing concerned parties that might be affected by a nice caliphate. Like Jews, Islamic victims of terror, Yazidi, Kurd. What is a 'nice' Caliphate? Does it abhor female genital mutilation? Does it educate girls? Does it have a justice system which is not harsh on the oppressed? Does it practice secular administration? If not, why would it be called 'nice'? The West is paying Hamas to further terrorism. Hockey is correct that the ALP must have a policy on budget for paying for any war they support. The standby ALP policy of stealing from children won't work. Australia is at war with the IS, but not yet effectively facing the IS in battle.

Australiana
Howard explores the Menzies era and comes back with the truth that a good Prime Minister will gather around them a good ministry which they respect, good party support and a healthy relationship with the public. Three big ticks for Mr Abbott, and three big minuses for Shorten. Polls show ALP are in front of Libs, but good analysis suggests that that is illusory. Two young men foully abused a security officer on a train in Brisbane. The word "Racist" is thrown around, but no one is discussing applying the law article 18c. The regulation is a failure, and a limit on free speech.
From 2013
Bill Shorten is the new ALP leader, and it is time to examine the process the ALP employed. It has meant a conflict of interest with the Governor General (his Mother in Law) in which she has offered to resign, when she should have resigned. She has never had a problem working with clear conflicts of interest before. It may well be the case that she is eventually charged over the Heiner affair with obstruction of justice. But that is a side issue to the show that was the campaign. It was handled badly by an ALP wanting to heal from the personality divisions and failed policy of the recent past. It did not feature discussion on policy. Apparently, the dismal failed policies regarding AGW, Broadband, Immigration, Border Security, Health, Infrastructure, defence, IR and financing are all retained. Shorten promised multiple quotas which should dilute the power of a single gender quota, but be patently unfair on those who merit promotion.

The US Primaries are excellent at building support for the President. But US elections are not compulsory for voters. So those primaries work to gain support from party supporters. In Australia, it is compulsory to vote, so parties try to appeal to the centre, swing voters. The difference means a GOP advert might have a prospective member shooting a target. Whereas a (conservative Australian) Liberal Party advert would be for families, struggling workers and those aspirational peoples wanting a better deal. Maybe in the future such a process will be adopted by the Liberal Party, but at the moment it is redundant .. Mr Abbott is leader and Prime Minister for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, there is a big challenge regarding IR laws. Under Fair Work I was employed under a federal grant on less than minimum wage without conditions. When I pointed this out, the bastard boss sacked me. I had no cause of action for complaint. Under Work Choices, I had had protections against such abuse. But, such abuse, possible under Fair Work, requires special circumstances beyond the average employer or multinational unless they are endowed with political corruption. In fact Fair Work means it is hard to employ people and expensive and so business skip the opportunity cost. There is a need for reform. However, business has not made the case for it and unions are cashed up from the previous ALP government. There are slush funds available for much campaigning. If business want improvements in IR laws, they have to make the case .. and dismiss the ALP/Union partisan Fair Work leaders for reliable ones who are independent.
Historical perspective on this day
AD 54Emperor Claudius dies from poisoning under mysterious circumstances; his 17-year-old stepson Nero succeeds him.
409Vandals and Alans cross the Pyrenees and appear in Hispania.
1269 – The present church building at Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
1307 – Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a "confession" of heresy.
1332Rinchinbal Khan, Emperor Ningzong of Yuan, becomes the Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan dynasty, reigning for only 53 days.

1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1644 – A Swedish–Dutch fleet defeats the Danish fleet at Fehmarn and captures about 1,000 prisoners.
1710Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia, falls in a siege by British forces.
1773 – The Whirlpool Galaxy is discovered by Charles Messier.
1775 – The United States Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy).
1792 – In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid.
1793French Revolutionary Wars: Austro-Prussian victory over Republican France at the First Battle of Wissembourg

1812War of 1812: Battle of Queenston Heights: As part of the Niagara campaign in Ontario, Canada, United States forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaer are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.
1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is publicly proclaimed.
1843 – In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found B'nai B'rith (the oldest Jewish service organization in the world).
1845 – A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution that, if accepted by the U.S. Congress, will make Texas a U.S. state.
1881First known conversation in modern Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends.
1884 – The International Meridian Conference votes on a resolution to establish the meridian passing through the Observatory of Greenwich, in London, as the initial meridian for longitude.
1885 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is founded in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
1892Edward Emerson Barnard discovers D/1892 T1, the first comet discovered by photographic means, on the night of October 13–14.

1903 – The Boston Red Sox win the first modern World Series, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the eighth game.
1911Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, becomes the first Governor General of Canada of royal descent.
1914 – In Major League Baseball's World Series, the Boston Braves defeat the Philadelphia Athletics, at Fenway Park in Boston, completing the first World Series sweep in history.
1915 – The Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt marks the end of the Battle of Loos in northern France, World War I.
1917 – The "Miracle of the Sun" is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal.

1921 – The Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia sign the Treaty of Kars with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to establish the contemporary borders between Turkey and the South Caucasus states.
1923Ankara replaces Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.
1929Jože Plečnik unveils his memorial to Napoleon on the Square of French Revolution, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

1943World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
1944 – World War II: Riga, the capital of Latvia is occupied by the Red Army.
1946 – France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

1962 – The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone the equal of a Cat 3 hurricane. Winds measured above 150 mph at several locations; 46 people died.
1967 – The first game in the history of the American Basketball Association is played as the Anaheim Amigos lose to the Oakland Oaks 134–129 in Oakland, California.
1972 – An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62 crashes outside Moscow killing 174.
1972 – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountains, near the border between Argentinaand Chile. (By December 23, 1972, only 16 of the 45 total persons originally aboard were still alive when rescued.)
1976 – A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground).
1976 – The first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle is obtained by Dr. F. A. Murphy, now at U.C. Davis, who was then working at the C.D.C.

1983Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago.
1990 – End of the Lebanese Civil War. Syrian forces launch an attack on the free areas of Lebanonremoving General Michel Aoun from the presidential palace.
1992 – An Antonov An-124 operated by Antonov Airlines registered CCCP-82002, crashes near Kiev, Ukraine killing eight.
1994Kenzaburō Ōe wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.
2010 – The mining accident in Copiapó, Chile comes to an end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground awaiting rescue.
2013 – A stampede breaks out on a bridge near the Ratangarh Mata Temple in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 people and injuring more than 110.
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January

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

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

List of available items at Create Space
Happy birthday and many happy returns Hawky Le and Janna Crick. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
1162 – Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (d. 1214)
1756 – James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, English admiral (d. 1833)
1825 – Charles Frederick Worth, English fashion designer, founded House of Worth (d. 1895)
1853 – Lillie Langtry, English actress and singer (d. 1929)
1925 – Margaret Thatcher, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2013)
1934 – Nana Mouskouri, Greek singer and politician
1941 – Paul Simon, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Simon & Garfunkel)
1959 – Marie Osmond, American singer and actress
1969 – Nancy Kerrigan, American figure skater
1982 – Ian Thorpe, Australian swimmer
1993 – D-Pryde, Canadian rapper
October 13Thanksgiving in Canada (2014); Health and Sports Day in Japan (2014)
Roman emperor Claudius
You have been given your favourite cup. You have permanent possession. You are continuously operating. You witnessed the miracle. You have switched sides, and are winning. Time to party. 
Deaths
===
Tim Blair 2017

===
Tim Blair

CLEM AND FRIENDS MISFIRE

A social media hate campaign went horribly wrong in Melbourne, where the shamers are now themselves deeply ashamed.
13 Oct
===
Andrew Bolt

===

F. SCOTT IMPERILLED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 13, 2015 (3:30am)

The story so far: over the weekend, NSW federal Liberal MP Fiona Scott was interviewed by Sky News about the Islamic terrorist attack in Parramatta that killed police employee Curtis Cheng. During her interview, Scott said this
We’ve had a hundred years, more than a century of relationships with our Islamic communities where it’s lived quite peacefully, and one little incident over 100 years has been what we have had. 
Following criticism, Scott has now responded with one of the most unbelievable denials in recent Australian political history
Ms Scott angrily denied the suggestion she was referring to the Parramatta attack during the interview.  “To suggest I was referring to recent events in Martin Place and Parramatta is offensive and ridiculous,” she said in a statement.
“I was referring to an event in Broken Hill a century ago.” 
Oh, yeah. Sure she was. Here is Scott’s full quote, prior to which there had been no reference at all to Broken Hill: 
You can’t blame the entire Islamic community because, let’s face it, the Islamic community has been part of the Australian culture for over a hundred years, over a century. I mean, we have a train that comes from Sydney right across the country. It’s called The Ghan. It goes back to our Afghan cameleers that came here as part of the early exploring of our country.
We’ve had a hundred years, more than a century of relationships with our Islamic communities where it’s lived quite peacefully, and one little incident over a hundred years has been what we have had. So really, you know, what we have to look, is what we have to join together, we have to work together, we have to ensure that these families when they see their children being radicalised that they are the one that picks up the phone call to the Australian federal police. 
A few points:
• If Scott believes that the only aggressive Muslim “incident” in Australia for 100 years was 1915’s Battle of Broken Hill, how does she classify Curtis Cheng’s murder? And the deadly Martin Place siege? And the departure of Australian Muslims to Syria’s killing fields? And Numan Haider’s attempt to murder two police officers? And the Sydney riot of 2012? Did these “incidents” even happen? 
• It is difficult to accept that someone who thinks The Ghan leaves from Sydney (it leaves from Adelaide) and runs across the country (it travels south to north) had an historical awareness of the Battle of Broken Hill prior to yesterday’s criticism.
• The Battle of Broken Hill was neither an “event” nor a “little incident”. It was a massacre. Four people were shot dead.
• Is Scott aware that addressing the issue of radicalised youth in 2015 won’t stop mass murders in 1915? 
Your move, Fiona. Your move, Malcolm.
UPDATE. 2GB’s Ray Hadley takes aim and doesn’t miss. Listen from 6:45 and 17:20.
===

STOP SAYING THESE AWFUL THINGS ABOUT MURDERERS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 13, 2015 (1:14am)

If you worry more about opinions on Islamic terrorism than you do about Islamic terrorism itself, you just might be an overpaid ABC tax drain.
===

FOR THE RECORD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 13, 2015 (12:40am)

In no known universe and by no available criteria is Caroline Marcus a frightbat. In actual frightbat news, Margo Kingston’s great Twitter retirement lasted for just eight days.
(Via Cold-Hands.)
===

Shorten’s new shadow ministry - every one must have prizes

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (6:34pm)

Labor leader Bill Shorten has just had a reshuffle, promoting yet more people. He now has 45 people in his shadow ministry.
That is more than half of his caucus of just 86.
Is he too nervous to leave out people?
===

The approved new “moderate” journalism: telling untruths about Islamic terrorism

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (4:40pm)

Such are the standards of modern journalism that Media Watch, the ABC’s arbiter of media standards, decrees that telling lies in defence of Islam is being “moderate”.
The example chosen by host Paul Barry:
Turnbull and Baird’s decision to brand the shooting politically and not religiously motivated also riled the right-wing commentators.
Malcolm Turnbull and Mike Baird called the murder of Curtis Cheng “politically motivated” despite being committed by an Islamist who’d come from the mosque and shouted “Allah” as he killed.
What exactly was the “political” motivation here?
But Barry’s defence?
But this new moderate language from police and politicians was clearly deliberate…
So to tell untruths is now to be “moderate”?
In which case, of course, we have very many moderate journalists these days, being moderate about everything from global warming to Islamism.
UPDATE
From defenders of lying to the foul-mouthed The Drones, stamping on the ashes of the West’s musical traditions. Critics like these make me feel I’m offending exactly the right kind of people:
===

Costello: Australia’s bad form

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (12:03pm)

Peter Costello on the deadening bureaucratisation of Australia:
When I flew back to Australia on an international flight earlier this month, I was issued with a form about the disease ebola. 
Every passenger was instructed to fill it out with their name, address, contact details and even the seat they were sitting in on the plane. I guess if the guy sitting next to me gets ebola they want to be able to track me down and put me in quarantine. We were told the Australian Government required us to fill in these forms and warned of the consequences if we gave false information. Fair enough.
As I came through quarantine on the way out of the airport, I tried to give my completed form to the very polite official who was collecting the Customs Forms. He wasn’t interested. The form is of no use to me, so I asked him what I should do with it. He pointed to a rubbish bin that had been helpfully located by the exit. The bin was overflowing with all the other ebola forms that passengers had thrown away after clearing quarantine… 
The immediate threat of ebola has passed and we haven’t had any fatalities in Australia. So why does the Government still ask people to fill out forms that no-one is reading?
===

Be warned: Germany already pay a price for the immigrant invasion

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (12:00pm)

Nick Cater on what the mainstream media tends not to mention about the invasion of Germany by illegal immigrants:
The internet also reveals that the proportion of crimes committed by asylum-seekers in Germany has doubled in three years from 3.3 per cent to 7.7 per cent. There has been a sharp rise in personal injury, from 3863 to 9655. Shoplifting cases have risen from 4974 to 13,894.  
And where are the jobs for the 1 million illegal immigrants expected this year alone?
A 2010 study by the Institute for the German Economy found the unemployment rate for those without a German passport is 14 per cent. Among those from Islamic countries it was even higher: 55 per cent for Lebanese migrants, 46 per cent for Iraqis and 28 per cent for Afghans.
The same is true here:
A study of 8500 entrants under the humanitarian resettlement program conducted by the Gillard government in 2011 found that more than six out of 10 refugees had failed to get a job after five years. Eighty-three per cent received Centrelink payments. As in Europe, those from Islamic countries fared worse. Fewer than one in 10 Iraqi and Afghan refugees had found work; 94 in every 100 were receiving welfare.
How will that work out, do you think? 
===

Lomborg on his lynching by the media’s warmists

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (11:45am)

Bjorn Lomborg, already banned by the shameless University of Western Australia, meets the Australian media:
...some in the Australian press seem to have difficulty distinguishing between journalism and campaigning, especially when they misinterpret data and make up quotes.
Ah, so clearly the topic is global warming.
Lomborg’s proposed Copenhagen Consensus Centre has been blackballed by the UWA for allegedly being warming deniers.
That would be disgusting enough, but what makes it worse is that Lomborg is banned even though he actually pays homage to the warming faith. It’s just that he doesn’t worship as whole-heartedly as the new enemies of free speech demand:
Copenhagen Consensus has existed for a decade. With more than 300 of the world’s top economists and seven Nobel laureates, we have conducted nine major research projects highlighting the costs and benefits of different investments on topics from HIV-AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa to Latin American development priorities. Only one project — Copenhagen Consensus on Climate in 2009 — dealt exclusively with climate change. Top climate economists and three Nobel laureates asked where a dollar spent could do the most good for climate, for example with reforestation, carbon taxes or technology transfers.
Of 339 research papers published since 2004, just 51 tackle the economics of climate change. (Symptomatic of the state of debate in Australia, I feel compelled to add that all accept the reality of man-made global warming).
Lomborg cites The Conversation (and specifically a media academic) as well as the Guardian as organisations and people which had peddled false information. No corrections were made.
You see, being wrong when you are a warming alarmist is just evidence of an excess of virtue. What’s to apologise for? 
===

Another “refugee” jailed?

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (11:41am)

So why was he given refugee status?
A Melbourne man has been convicted of attempting to travel to Syria to wage jihad against the Assad regime. 
A jury this morning convicted Somali refugee Amin Mohamed, 25, of Sunshine West, on three counts of preparing to enter a foreign state to engage in armed hostilities.
The maximum penalty for each charge is 10 years.
The charges relate to him applying for a New Zealand passport, booking plane tickets to Istanbul, and accepting the contact details of a man known as Omar in preparation to travel to Syria.
===

Shorten discusses dodgy union deal, later disguised by false invoices

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (10:59am)

It stinks, but so far no Shorten fingerprints on the actual deal:
LABOR leader Bill Shorten discussed a $300,000 industrial relations deal during his time as a union boss that a building executive claimed was eventually paid for by “bogus” and “deliberately falsified” invoices. 
Mr Shorten told the royal commission into trade union corruption in July he could not recall ever discussing the deal with building bosses when he was the national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union.
But former Thiess John Holland executive Stephen Sasse yesterday told the commission he and Mr Shorten discussed the suggestion of an on-site union organiser for Melbourne’s giant EastLink project several times in late 2004.
“My recollection is that a figure was mentioned and it was $75,000 a year plus car,” he said, adding it totalled $100,000 a year and $300,000 for the life of the project.
Mr Sasse said the deal fell over when Mr Shorten “ratted” on their original discussion and it was never agreed to. The appointment of the union organiser was not part of the final deal between the builder and the union that saved Thiess an estimated $100 million in labour cost blowouts.
Mr Sasse handed over control of the project to another Thiess executive…
“It appears the total payments approximate the $300k initially discussed between Shorten and me, and that the relevant documentation was deliberately falsified,” he said in a tendered statement.
The commission was shown AWU invoices to Thiess for dinners and advertising that Mr Sasse said “stretch the bounds of credulity”. Asked if a union invoice for $33,000 for research into back strain was bogus, Mr Sasse said: “I fear so.”
EastLink project director Gordon Ralph told the commission there was no union organiser on site and that the money was paid to the union as part of an under the table agreement securing industrial peace…
Mr Shorten has denied any involvement in or knowledge of the bogus invoices. “Mr Sasse is right there was no side agreement,” a spokesman said.
UPDATE
More on that sick deal:
A former Thiess John Holland senior executive has admitted the construction joint venture issued tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of sham invoices to make secret payments to the Australian Workers’ Union, to complete a “side deal” instigated by now Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. 
Julian Rzesniowiecki, the HR and safety manager for Melbourne’s $2.5 billion EastLink tollway project, this morning told the Royal Commission into unions that payments to the union had been hidden by the construction company joint venture and the AWU.
Mr Rzesniowiecki said he and then Victoria AWU general secretary Cesar Melhem — currently a Victorian MP — had “sorted out an arrangement” whereby payments to the union would be disguised as for health and safety “research” or advertising in the union magazine.
===

Muffled Mufti: why didn’t he speak up?

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (7:59am)

I wasn’t the only one to wonder where the hell the Grand Mufti was:
A heated argument between two Muslim leaders has highlighted community divisions ahead of a high-level meeting to discuss the radicalisation of young people. 
Moments before Premier Mike Baird and Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione entered the meeting with Muslim community leaders on Monday, the chairman of Parramatta Mosque and the Grand Mufti of Australia had a volatile discussion in Arabic.
One community leader who was present said the two men were arguing over a perceived lack of community support from the Grand Mufti and they ended by telling each other to “shut up”.
Mr Neil El-Kadomi, the head of Parramatta Mosque, told Fairfax Media that he felt abandoned by the Grand Mufti, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, in the days after schoolboy Farhad Jabar? shot a police employee dead, hours after praying at his mosque.
“I was feeling under siege for 14 days, telephone calls, TV cameras, threats to my family, everything and he never came out to ask, ‘how are you?’ “ Mr Kadomi said. 
“I had the Anglican Church support me, the United Church support me, one of the Jewish Board of Deputies supported me. I asked the Grand Mufti, ‘where were you hiding?’ We need a Mufti who can speak English, who is qualified to be a Mufti… I said ‘you are the Mufti, you should stand up for the people and say something’. He can’t even speak English.”
===

Peddling paranoia

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (7:38am)

One of the most dangerous aspects of Muslim culture is an inflamed victimology. School chaplain Sheikh Wesam Charkawi demonstrated the syndrome on Q&A last night:
“I come across families all the time, mothers, fathers, where they tell me ‘please make sure my son doesn’t say the word ‘ISIS’, the word ‘terrorism’, or ‘extremism’. They have so much fear,” Mr Charkawi said… 
“When they go to a school, they are under such scrutiny. “You can literally be a young Muslim boy and say the word ISIS and end up in the principal’s office and led away in handcuffs. Society is very paranoid,” he said.
Can Charkawi give a single example of a Muslim boy being led away in handcuffs simply for saying “ISIS” at school?
The only example I can recall that goes anywhere close to what Charkawi claims is very, very different. If Charkawi is indeed referring to this example, then he is spinning wildly:
Police arrested a teenage boy in Parramatta about 8.30am after they spoke with him about Facebook posts in which he apparently comments about the terror attack: “Serves you right I hope them lil piggies get shot.” 
In another post, relating to NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, the student says: “Bahahja f--k you motherf--ker Yallah merryland police station is next hope they all burn in hell.”
The teenager allegedly threatened and intimidated police when he was spoken to and he was arrested.
===

“Free the children” means “let more drown”

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (7:18am)

Lisa Singh, Labor’s shadow parliamentary secretary for the environment, climate change and water, seems to believe good intentions are more important that vile consequences:
A Federal Opposition frontbencher has broken ranks and called for an end to “ongoing mandatory indefinite” offshore detention of asylum seekers. 
Labor restarted offshore detention and established regional resettlement while in government, and both remain the party’s official policy.
“I really think that the ongoing mandatory indefinite detention of people on Manus Island and Nauru has to stop,” Senator Lisa Singh told Q&A. 
I think that the children need to be taken out of Nauru and our detention centres...”
Here’s what will happen.  When you release the children, you must release their parents, of course. When you release every boat person with children, you will encourage more boat people with children to come. More children will drown on the way. Once again, thousands of people will land here, and, inevitably, political pressure will force whatever government is in power to detain them again, at least for as long as it takes to check their stories.
When you say “free the children”, you are actually saying “let thousands more come” and “let more drown”. 
===

Turnbull can’t pretend Islam is just Christianity in fresh robes

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (6:30am)

Speaking too frankly about Islam could alienate Muslims. Speaking too dishonestly about Islam could alienate non-Muslims, and make them fear they are being lied to by our leaders and journalists.
Denis Dragovich says Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t got that balance right:
Despite dropping the death cult slogan, Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t kept true to his promise of explaining complex political ­issues to the public. 
Research released last week by the Centre for Religion and ­Geopolitics found that 42 per cent of the three main Salafi-jihadist groups’ propaganda referenced the end of times. These groups, including Islamic State, have a theology that is centred on an apocalyptic view of the world, one in which humanity is counting out its final days. This world view is embraced because the life to come is of more value than the life we live today, which leads to a yearning for death — in other words, a death cult…
Similarly, the inevitable shutting down of debate by referring to Islam as a religion of peace is also damaging.
People who watch the news see Islamic fundamentalist violence around the world, from Boko Haram or al-Shabab in Africa to Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as al-Nusra Front, in the Middle East, or al-Qa’ida and the Taliban in South Asia. These groups openly and proudly justify their violence within the ideology of Islam. Yet people are told that Islam is a religion of peace. This creates a contradiction that must be explained, yet never is, leaving people with the choice of believing what we see or the slogans of commentators and politicians.
We need to move away from a head-in-the-sand approach of those who are afraid of engaging with the complexity of Islam and recognising the intelligence of the community.
UPDATE
Here is an example of Turnbull’s soft-soaping:
Now, the key to that mutual respect is that it is a two-way street. Every religion, every faith, every moral doctrine, understands the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 
That “Golden Rule” that Turnbull claims is common to all faiths is actually a quotation from the teaching of Christ, not Mohammad:
Luke 6:27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
This is a central teaching of Christ and Christianity, echoed in the Parable of the Good Samaritan and Christ’s defence of the woman caught in adultery.
Can Islam be seriously said to be the same in that respect, with its message of submission and the killing or subjugation of non-believers? From the Koran:
5:33 “The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger ... will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom.”
Take this difference.
Here is Christ on punishing adulterers:

John 8:7:  And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Here is the Koran:
24:2 “The [unmarried] woman or [unmarried] man found guilty of sexual intercourse - lash each one of them with a hundred lashes, and do not be taken by pity for them in the religion of Allah , if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a group of the believers witness their punishment.” 
The Koran and Hadith give repeated examples of Mohammad having his critics killed, even women who mocked him. There is no turning of the other cheek; no offering of his life. Christ would not even let his disciples fight to save him from capture and death.
Yet Turnbull would have you believe that Christ’s teaching is Islam’s, too. That Islam is just Christianity in new robes.
That is false.
UPDATE
A genuine fear that Muslim ideology is a threat to assimilation:
[A] survey on migration attitudes has indicated that almost one in two voters believes an increase in Muslim migrants has been “bad” or “very bad” for the nation. This compares with 8 per cent who think it has been “good” or “very good”, and 42 per cent who are neutral. 
The survey findings [are] from a Brisbane-based think tank, the Australian Institute of Progress ...  The hostility to Islamic ­migrants identified in the AIP research is most strongly felt among Liberal voters (75 per cent) and those who support minor parties other than the Greens (69 per cent). Among Labor and Greens voters, most respondents took a neutral position, but about 20 per cent said Islamic migration had been negative, and 15 per cent believed it to be positive.
AIP executive director Graham Young, a former campaign chairman for the Queensland Liberal Party, said he had been surprised at the depth of feeling uncovered in the survey. “There is a genuine level of concern,” Mr Young said. “People are in favour of immigration, so this is not, per se, xenophobia towards someone who does not have a European or Anglo-Saxon background. This is a specific group that we are specifically worried about.”
The qualitative survey, derived from questionnaires of almost 1400 people last November, cited concerns about a potential “clash of cultures” based on Islamic ­migrants holding beliefs that were not in line with widespread Australian values. Examples given from across the political spectrum included the perceived treatment of women and homosexuals, the wearing of the burka or niqab, and sharia law being incompatible with Australia’s legal system. 
“There is a very strong feeling that immigrants from Islamic countries are part of a culture war pitting their way of life and beliefs against ours,” the report says. 
===

Fiona Scott’s “one little incident”

Andrew Bolt October 13 2015 (6:06am)

 Tim Blair is astonished by Liberal MP Fiona Scott’s history lesson:
The story so far: over the weekend, NSW federal Liberal MP Fiona Scott was interviewed by Sky News about the Islamic terrorist attack in Parramatta that killed police employee Curtis Cheng. During her interview, Scott said this:
We’ve had a hundred years, more than a century of relationships with our Islamic communities where it’s lived quite peacefully, and one little incident over 100 years has been what we have had. 
Following criticism, Scott has now responded with one of the most unbelievable denials in recent Australian political history: 
Ms Scott angrily denied the suggestion she was referring to the Parramatta attack during the interview.  “To suggest I was referring to recent events in Martin Place and Parramatta is offensive and ridiculous,” she said in a statement.
“I was referring to an event in Broken Hill a century ago.” 
Oh, yeah. Sure she was. Here is Scott’s full quote, prior to which there had been no reference at all to Broken Hill: 
Read on. Ask also why Scott has airbrushed out of her “one little incident” version of history 21 jailed terrorists, hundreds of Islamic State recruits, the Lindt cafe siege, the murder of Curtis Cheng, some Australian head-hackers. Let’s also not forget the bombing the Israeli consulate and Hakoah Club in Sydney in 1982.
“One little incident”? 
===

Let’s all promote the caliphate with our taxes

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (12:39pm)

Sure, the ABC does not support the alleged caliphate established by the Islamic State’s terrorists. They’re not that crazy.
But how about a nice caliphate, the ABC’s Encounter program asks:
Does Islam need a Caliphate? The extravagant brutality of the IS group in Syria and Iraq has Muslims worldwide saying that if this is the restored Caliphate, we want no part of it. But what about the idea of a “proper” pan-Islamic polity, established and run according to Koranic principles? How might it work – and how likely is it to happen? This week we look at the past, present and possible future of the Caliphate.
A whole range of people are interviewed, or not:
Paul Heck Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. 
Shakira Hussein Research Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne
Mirja Ramzan Sharif National External Affairs Secretary, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Australia
Uthman Badar Media representative, Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia
Salman Sayyid Reader in Sociology and Social Policy, The University of Leeds
Hey, another platform for Hizb ut-Tahrir, which refuses to condemn the Islamic State, preaches Jew hatred, calls for the destruction of Israel and tells the West is at war with Islam. None of that stuff is mentioned, of course.  Still, it’s nice to hear Hizb ut-Tahrir ensure us that establishing a world-wide caliphate “does not necessarily mean war”. We could just surrender peacefully, I guess.
Other certain negatives of living under a caliphate are not mentioned either. A Jewish or Yazidi guest might have helped there.
(Thanks to reader David.) 
===

How universities teach tomorrow’s journalists to be good Leftist haters

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (10:02am)

After seeing how some journalism lecturers have preached wild diatribes against me and Murdoch papers, this doesn’t come as any surprise, unfortunately:
FIRST-year media students at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities are being taught ...  repeatedly that one of the world’s biggest employers of journalists, News Corp, uses “naked political pressure” to the detriment of democracy… 
The University of Sydney course in particular is leading students to form a critical view of News Corp.
Lecturer Dr Penny O’Donnell teaches students that News Corp newspapers’ 2013 election coverage was driven by a corporate fear of the NBN — a claim that has no factual basis and is incorrect…

“It’s all about Rupert Murdoch today,” Dr O’Donnell said.
“What is good for the commercial fortune of the media proprietor is not necessarily good for the democratic role. You need to go no further than the case study of Rupert Murdoch to get evidence that supports that statement,’’ she said.
O’Donnell encouraged students to read well known News Corp critic Rod Tiffin and said she “highly recommends” Nick Davies’ anti-Murdoch book Hack Attack, How the Truth Caught up with Rupert Murdoch…
“The Murdoch way is political pressure. Naked political pressure. Nothing subtle. Get them Out. Australia Needs Tony. This is the way Rupert exercises power.”
O’Donnell asked the class why Murdoch would want Abbott as Prime Minister instead of former PM Kevin Rudd.
With no reference to the fact Rudd was leading a dysfunctional government, she agreed with students that some of the reasons Murdoch supported Abbott were because: “All the elites stick together”; “We know Murdoch hates unions” but, she claims, it was primarily because of the NBN…
In the introductory lecture at the University of Sydney, Dr Bunty Avieson told students she hoped they were all subscribers to Crikey “if not, be so by next week.” She also recommended websites New Matilda, The Conversation, No Fibs and Media Watch, along with two newspapers a day.
In another lecture, students were advised not to present both sides of the argument on climate change because, similar to the old tobacco debate of the past, there only was one side. The argument was that balanced reporting allowed sceptics to be given airtime. The Australian newspaper was labelled a “repeat offender” of this crime. 
UPDATE
Slowly, slowly the Left’s stranglehold on state education is being relaxed - but only very slightly:
PRIMARY schools should focus on teaching literacy and numeracy, Australia’s Judaeo-Christian heritage should be given greater emphasis, and a “tokenistic” ­approach to key classroom themes must be dumped, according to a proposed shake-up of the national curriculum hailed yesterday by Tony Abbott as a “back to basics” approach to education. 
The federal government’s review of the national curriculum, conducted by Queensland University professor Ken Wiltshire and education consultant and senior research fellow at the Australian Catholic University Kevin Donnelly, calls for “immediate and substantial action” to reduce the overcrowding of the curriculum in primary schools.
The report, released yesterday, recommends subjects be removed or “slimmed down” and students in their first three years concentrate on learning the three Rs, under­pinned by a focus on teaching phonics, the letter-sound ­relationships in English, in a ­systematic way. 
The report criticises the lack of emphasis on “morals, values and spirituality”, and calls for a “rebalancing” in the history curriculum to “better recognise the contrib­ution of Western civilisation, our Judaeo-Christian heritage, the role of economic development and industry, and the democratic underpinning of the British system of government”. 
(Thanks to reader Baden and Lucinda.) 
===

Stop global warming! Charge families a carbon tax for breeding

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (9:41am)

Global warming - propaganda

Global warming is just the latest vehicle for Malthusians, authoritarians and assorted anti-capitalists.
Too harsh? Then explain this proposal to tackle global warming by making people pay for carbon credits for the privilege of having children.
Here are Associate Professor David Hodgkinson, from the University of Western Australia’s law school, and Adjunct Lecturer Rebecca Johnston, of the University of Notre Dame’s law school, writing in the taxpayer-funder Conversation:
Overpopulation is often argued to be the driver behind many of the problems the world faces — from climate change to food insecurity — driven by choices at the level of individuals and families.
One way to reduce the impact of population could be to include family planning in carbon markets....
Recent research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences also shows that slowing population growth could provide between 16 and 29% of emissions reductions necessary by 2050 to avoid the effects of dangerous climate change…
One approach would be the provision of carbon credits for having fewer children. Market-based mechanisms — emissions trading schemes (essentially cap-and-trade schemes) — are in vogue as a means to address the climate change problem. Why not use such mechanisms to address the population problem?
For example, a financial incentive could be provided in the form of carbon credits for individuals who chose to limit their family size.
In broad outline, the scheme could work as follows: families (or a female individual) would be offered carbon credits if they (or she) elected to have one child (which is less than the replacement fertility rate of roughly 2.1 births per woman for developed countries). 
For each additional child, credits must be purchased from the relevant carbon market that may be a local, national or international one depending on the scope of implementation of the scheme. 
Note that the world’s atmosphere hasn’t actually warmed for some 16 years, and the deep ocean for nine. Yet academics still can’t let go of schemes to reduce the number of humans or remove their freedoms.
It seems to me this is a wish in search of an excuse.
(Thanks to reader handjive.) 
===

NOAA rejects link between warming and many extreme weather events

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (9:23am)

Global warming - general

We have been seeing more science bodies starting to speak out against the warming alarmists, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now joins them:
According to NOAA’s new publication, Explaining Extremes of 2013 from a Climate Perspective, there is no discernible connection between global warming and 2013 extreme weather events such as the California drought, Colorado floods, the UK’s exceptionally cold spring, a South Dakota blizzard, Central Europe floods, a northwestern Europe cyclone, and exceptional snowfall in Europe’s Pyrenees Mountains....
The liberal Center for American Progress and its media allies such as the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Associated Press, and others have all published stories claiming global warming caused or worsened the ongoing California drought. Scientists, however, say just the opposite. “[F]or the California drought, which was investigated by three teams from the United States, human factors were found not to have influenced the lack of rainfall,” NOAA reported in an accompanying press release…

Similarly, global warming alarmists frequently claim global warming causes extreme cold temperatures and extreme snowstorms.... To the contrary, NOAA reported “Analysis of UK cold spring showed the probability of occurrence may have fallen 30-fold due to global warming.” ...Nevertheless, shameless alarmists such as National Geographic News claimed global warming was responsible for the extremely cold spring…
Global warming activists and their media allies wasted absolutely no time exploiting the victims of the deadly [Colorado floods of September 2013] to make irresponsible claims that global warming was to blame. NOAA scientists, however, report global warming played no role and may be making such tragic events less likely. Modeling of past and present Colorado rainfall events “found that the probability of another extreme 5-day rainfall, like the one that caused widespread flooding in Boulder, is estimated to have decreased because of human-caused climate change,” NOAA reported.
(Thanks to reader Old Fellah.) 
===

Blaming white Anglos doesn’t explain the new racism

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (8:19am)

A disgusting racist attack:
Two youths will face Brisbane Magistrates Court [after] a racist outburst – allegedly delivered by one and filmed by the other – surfaced and sparked a social media campaign to find and out them. 
The men, aged 17 and 18, were charged on Sunday night over the incident at Indooroopilly train station on October 2.
It’s alleged the younger of the two swore and racially abused a Queensland Rail-contracted security guard while the elder recorded it. 
Police will also allege the 17-year-old spat on a security guard.
Foul:
In the video - which attracted three million hits in under 24 hours - a 17-year-old man allegedly refers to a train guard as ‘n*****’ and a ‘black c***’ repeatedly before he continues to explode into a racist rant during the five-minute video. 
‘Do you want to come to Australia to learn some proper English?’ the teenager said in the video…
An attendant is heard telling the young man to ‘get off’ at the next stop…
‘I’m trying to get to the next station - l’ll sit on this f*****g train for hours if I have to,’ the teenager said.
‘I’ll hold all you f*****s up. I really don’t care. Especially this black c***. 
‘Do you even have an Australian citizenship, you f*****g n****r?’
Guardian readers leap to their stereotypical conclusions and claim this is “typical” Australian racism, with the evil Abbott Government whipping up “white” and Christian” Australians with its wars in Muslims lands and so on:
Mountwilliam… 
“I think it’s un-Australian to abuse people in a public place just because you don’t like the way they look, or you don’t like the way they dress, or you make assumptions about what they believe,” says Tony Abbott. What a hypocrite. Tony has been fanning the flames for weeks…
ReadyReader ... 
His Liberal-urging shills on talkback radio fan the flames as part of their job description…
Peter ...
UnAustralian?? Bulldust. I am Gay & I get abused in public regularly. Fuc$ing Faggot, stinking Poofter, etc etc. Abusing and assaulting people in public is 100% Australian. We are a warring nation of bashers and thugs, Iraq Afganistan, etc etc, and we reap and we will reap what we sow. aka CRIMINAL VIOLENCE.
jama251…
Australia has had its own problem with racism for many years now and it has never been seriously addressed. What has to be remembered is the existence of an all but in name apartheid state as a result of the White Australia Policy which governed immigration for a lot of the 20th century.
The treatment of the indigenous people was and still remains a disgrace. let no-one say that racism in Australia is not a real and serious issue…
Jamessss…
It’s as simple as the racist: Prosecute him for assault; Condemn him as publicly as possible; and perhaps investigate the link between the present govt’s racist policies / nationalism and the frequency of these outbursts which are on the increase. Australia you have a problem you need to overturn these stones and stamp on the creepy crawlies like this skinny white racist…
KriegersClones…
I see Australia as a bit like 1970s Britain. The macho culture, the pride in ignorance, etc…
Cfrees ...
I see Australia has many similarities with the UK in 2014. Islamaphobia for one, the pride in ignorance (UKIP), macho culture (culture of masculinity in the UK) etc etc. ...
AsDusty…
The ugly face of Abbotts Australia.
Bluetwo…
This is exactly the type of behaviour the captain of team Australia is promoting. He laps this stuff up. Winding up the populous with hate towards all non whites/Christians hoping for an incident to crack down further on our rights.
Vanessa Campbell…
They’re always the same, these people. White trash.
There is a rather big fact that the Guardian readers seem to utterly blind to, no matter how often they stare at the youth doing the abusing:
 And just in case they are still in doubt.
I’ve noticed this same blindness - or obfuscation - before when Victorian police, politicians and journalists repeatedly refused to explain that a terrible spate of assaults on Indians was  not really the work of the fabled white racists of Australia at all.
(Thanks to reader Greg.) 
===

Howard - and Menzies - on the art of governing

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (8:09am)

Henry Ergas reviews John Howard’s new book on the era of Robert Menzies:
... however illuminating Howard’s book is of the history, it is even more revealing of Howard’s own approach to government. 
A striking example is the discussion of the Gorton prime ministership, with its eerie parallels to the saga of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. John Gorton could have been an outstanding leader; but he put what he saw as his direct appeal to the Australian public uppermost. He therefore “operated at arm’s length from many of his senior colleagues”, “indifferent to the central role of cabinet” and “insensitive to power centres within his party, the states and the bureaucracy”.
Compounding the problems by “needless belligerence” and “unpredictability”, Gorton forgot that “the most precious commodity any political leader has is respect”, which must be gained through “competence in government” and for which “popularity and likability can never be substitutes”. To make matters worse, Gorton’s cavalier treatment of his colleagues fed increasingly bitter divisions; and (as Howard says of Whitlam) “no amount of soaring rhetoric can make up for disunity in a government, a faltering economy or a feeling that a government is incompetent”.
The lesson, which should make this book required reading for Tony Abbott, is that “the leader of a political party has three important relations: with the public, with his broad party membership, and with those he immediately leads, especially his ministers”. Only by nurturing each of those relationships can effective government be sustained; and the guiding principle must be that “in politics, whenever there is a conflict, common sense should trump all other considerations”.
It is that common sense, and an understanding of the overriding importance of party unity, which Howard sees as Menzies’ greatest asset. “A strong, confident leader”, Menzies knew how to “allow his more senior ministers plenty of leeway to pursue their policy instincts”. And he also knew, as his biographer Allan Martin put it, that success in Australian politics rests neither on “the radicalism of Labor” nor on “social privilege” but on the “firm bourgeois reality” of middle-class aspiration. 
That aspiration fed a “reformist tradition” which left a large place to public action. But it was also responsive to Menzies’ warning that “to forward the idea of the special supremacy of government” is to “set aside normal liberty of choice”, and so “is the antithesis of democracy”.
===

Hockey is right and Labor must help pay

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (7:19am)

Political things

SOMETHING is seriously wrong with a country that’s not just growing poorer, but thinks Joe Hockey is an idiot for minding the till.

The Treasurer is now being kicked by the media, whacked by Labor, distanced from his Prime Minister and even sneered at by his own colleagues for insisting politicians must pay for what they promise.
And that includes a war in Iraq estimated to cost us $500 million a year.
Last week, Hockey pointed out that Labor, having backed the war, could not wash its hands of the moral responsibility of funding it.
“Everything comes at a cost,” said Hockey, “and if Bill Shorten truly is honest about his commitment to deliver bipartisan support in relation to our defence efforts in the Middle East, he’ll provide bipartisan support to pay for it.”
Sure, Hockey then got a bit political by suggesting exactly how Shorten should help pay.
“It’s another good reason for Mr Shorten to immediately pass the remaining measures in the Budget.”
(Read full article here.) 
===

The war isn’t stopping the Islamic State

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (7:17am)

LAST week, Australia’s jets dropped just two bombs on the Islamic State. That is a lousy return for a war costing us $10 million a week.

But, worse, it suggests this war is not going to plan.
We didn’t drop more bombs because the Islamic State isn’t offering clear targets, proving this war cannot be won from the air.
In fact, progress is slower, the allies weaker and the strategy less clear by the day.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Polls say Labor ahead under Shorten. Liberals sure he’s way behind

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (7:04am)

Phillip Hudson explains why the Liberals think Labor is a sitting duck under Bill Shorten, even though he’s still ahead in the polls after a year in the job:
Shorten’s achievement has been to hold Labor together to fight the Coalition instead of each other. Newspoll shows the Opposition has been ahead in two-party terms for 16 of the 19 surveys taken since the election, including all 10 since the budget… 
But the poll lead is built on the back of an anti-Abbott, anti-budget sentiment rather than being pro-Shorten.
Labor’s primary vote, after a surge, has dropped back to 34 per cent, which is virtually the same as its election-losing level.
Liberal Party research, according to a senior Liberal, shows Shorten hasn’t cut through with voters yet, and was judged to be negative and not seen as having a big impact, in contrast to Clive Palmer, whom the research found to be more relevant as a political player. 
The senior Liberal says the research shows voters also think the Opposition has not reformed itself and is still “the same old Labor”, which is the exact line being used by Abbott.
And there’s this fundamental question: where’s the money, Bill? 
===

The West pays to save Hamas from the consequences of its damage

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (7:03am)

Rewarding terror.  The Hamas terrorist group attacks Israel, but then gets the rest of the world to pay for the damage when Israel hits back:
A donor conference in Cairo to raise money to rebuild the Gaza Strip after this year’s war between Hamas and Israel ended with pledges of $5.4 billion for reconstruction there, Norway’s foreign minister said Sunday… 
That’s far beyond the $4 billion initially sought by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Qatar pledged $1 billion toward the reconstruction, once again using its vast wealth to reinforce its role as a regional player as Gulf Arab rival the United Arab Emirates promised $200 million…
The Emirates, like regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, alleges that Qatar uses its massive wealth to undermine regional stability, primarily through meddling in other nations’ affairs and aiding militant Islamic groups like Gaza’s Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood… 
At the beginning of the conference, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged $212 million… France said it would contribute $50.5 million to the Palestinians, Germany announced it would contribute $63 million, and the British ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, told Reuters London would provide $32 million for reconstruction. 
And so Hamas not only escapes the consequences of its terrorism but gets a massive pool of money to play sugar daddy to the people it controls. 
===

Frank talk helps many of the “disabled” feel abled

Andrew Bolt October 13 2014 (7:00am)

Jesus also told the crippled to walk, making them feel a whole lot better:
MORE than 1500 Disability Support Pension recipients a month are being told to get a job as part of a sweeping clean-out of the welfare system that could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

A government review panel has identified more than 5000 people on the DSP who are capable of working at least eight hours a week. 

Out of the more than 2000 people a week who are attempting to claim the DSP, fewer than half are now being approved, after social services minister Kevin Andrews ordered the overhaul on July 1… There are more than 800,000 people on the DSP, claiming a maximum $776 a fortnight…

“These welfare programs keep people sick,’’ Rachael Sharman, head of psychology at the Sunshine Coast University, said. “If you behave like you are sick all the time you actually start to believe it — ‘my hip, my knees’ — you start to believe your own BS. 
“If you are offered some sort of inducement or reward a whole heap of people will jump on the bandwagon...” 
===

   ===
<I did want a juice from Topjuice in Rhodes until I saw the girl drop watermelon on the floor, pick it up and juice it then hand it to a customer.>
===
BRITISH detectives investigating the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal have reportedly arrested a man and raided his home.

The Sunday Mail last week featured claims from a lawyer who insisted a man he met at a party had seen the missing child on an island in the Mediterranean, now say an arrest has been made.

Following those reports, the paper said a man has been arrested by Greater Metropolitan Police and computers from a private home were seized.

"The arrest only happened as a result of a claim that Madeleine may still be alive," a source said to be close to the missing girl's family told the paper.
http://www.news.com.au/world-news/british-police-8216arrest-man-over-the-2007-disappearance-of-madeleine-mccann8217/story-fndir2ev-1226739118731

===
SIGN THE NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FACE BOOK GROUP , sounds good .. read the fine print . A link on their website to this , New Declaration Of Independence
See item 1 “13. The People hereby order instruction in all high schools on “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”, a plan written by the Rothschild family to enslave all of the inhabitants of Earth.”
The protocols of the elders if Zion," which is vehemently rabid anti semetic propaganda used by the nazis.
Please report this page. Thank you.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sign-the-New-Declaration-of-Independence/378536608931338

It is outrageous those bigots still spread the filthy lies ed
===
Matt Granz
Our National Parks are more and more resembling police states, where gates are closed and the threat of fines, towing and arrests are common fare. My friends Darvin Atkeson, and Miguel De La Cruz are visiting the east side of the Sierras to find and take pictures of Fall colors, and because the whole area is a National forest everything is off limits. Darvin says "According to some of the locals and other photographers they hsve been making arrests ticketing towing and sometimes all 3. Trespassing on federal lands." All the restrooms everywhere are closed and the police are busy being fascist in lands that should belong to the people. This is ridiculous.
===


LEADING Australian doctors do not think the tiniest premature babies - born below 24 weeks and weighing less than 500g - should be given life-saving resuscitation at birth.
Although doctors do not routinely resuscitate babies born this early, some do so at the request of parents.
But a new Australian study shows that in a six-year period at one hospital, no baby born this early, who was also very small, survived without disability.
Only one baby born before 24 weeks and weighing less than 500g survived, but was severely impaired, the research found.
The findings have prompted a team of Australian and American doctors to question whether parents should be given the option of resuscitation for babies this premature.
Dr Dominic Wilkinson, Associate Professor of Neonatal Medicine and Bioethics at the University of Adelaide, said there were two groups of babies.
"Babies born weighing less than pound of butter (500g) have a better chance of surviving if they are more mature, but small because of poor growth in the womb," he said.
But he said babies who were both extremely premature and extremely small had a very low chance of surviving without severe disability.
"In such cases it's hard to see that resuscitation is a wise choice," he said. "If they are told there is some chance of survival, many parents ask doctors to do what they could to save the baby".
But he said many doctors "would be reluctant to pursue intensive care treatment that may be very burdensome for the baby".
Outrageous .. killing healthy babies in the chance they might not be healthy? Even if they are crippled, they are still superior to those who would kill them  - ed
===
Jason J-Fo
Bill Shorten elected leader of the Labor party today. Gloomy skies and rain all day in the electorate of Maribyrnong. Gaia weeps too.
===
The situation in Sinai is deteriorating and is becoming of grave concern, not just for Israel, but first and foremost for Egypt, because violence in Sinai is infiltrating into mainland Egypt,” one Israel official told FoxNews.com. “It seems that jihadis are getting bolder every time, and with every action they pose a real threat to national security in Egypt, not to mention to security on the border, and potentially to Israel.”
===
Police closed in on Juarez and waited for him Friday outside a Manhattan restaurant where he worked as a dishwasher. He told them he killed the girl at the apartment of his sister -- Juarez-Ramirez. Then, the sister, who is now dead, helped dispose of the body. Kelly said they took a livery cab from Queens to Manhattan where they dumped the cooler.

The cooler, which contained the girl's remains and unopened cans of Coke, was later discovered by construction workers.

Kelly called the arrest a superb case of detective work, and he was proud of his officers. Juarez was being held on murder charges and was awaiting arraignment.

===

The fundamental Zionist idea about anti-Semitism was that once a Jewish State was realized, the problem of anti-Semitism in Paris, Berlin and Rome would be solved. Since Jews would have their own homeland, they could no longer be persecuted as religious and national strangers. But this neat packet of reasoning has turned out to be incorrect.
The Belgian Ministry of Education funds an organization, the Committee for Remebrance Education, which provides teachers with materials for their history lessons. One of the materials used is the cartoon “Never Again, Over Again”, which equates the treatment of the Palestinian Arabs by the Israelis today with the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis in the 40s.

“Never Again” means that what happened under Hitler should never happen again. And “Over Again” means that what is happening today is the same as in the past with Hitler, the Belgian school teachers are told. “In the past, the concentration camps were fenced off with barbed wire. Today, the border between Israel and Palestine is marked with barbed wire and a wall”.
Daniel Goldhagen devoted his entire academic research to the analysis of the Nazi genocide. His international fame came with “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”, the book-indictment of one hundred thousand “ordinary Germans” who killed millions of Jews. Now it is the turn of Goldhagen’s new book titled “The Devil That Never Dies”, published by Little, Brown and Company.
The book is most important as an analysis of “global anti-Semitism” as Goldhagen calls it, but it is also the indictment of Europe’s public opinion which depicts the Jews as “monstrous predators” who crush the Palestinians. Goldhagen enunclates Europe’s new anti-Semitism as follows: “Israel has no right to exist, so it is right and necessary to destroy the Jewish state. Two hundred million Europeans see the Israeli Jews as Nazis”.
That’s why, according to the Jewish People Planning Institute, 40 to 50 percent of European Jews are considering alyah. Because they do not feel safe.
And France is the most explosive example.

===
Words in the Xhosa tongue exposed the cover of anti-Zionists talking in mother tongues by the score. A riddle wrapped in a mystery – until the words are put into English.

‘Dubula iJuda:’ Kill the Jews, a boycott mob chanted at patrons of a campus jive
 in Johannesburg. The artists were Israeli and the promoter was a Zionist body – two combustible elements to ignite even a well-disposed mob. Dubula iJuda!

Boycott leaders had no choice but to recoil in horror. “We condemn any and all incitement to violence and racism -- including anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism” declared Farid Esack, Director of BDS South Africa. Not to be outdone by a Muslim, Jewish boycotters condemned the chant “in the strongest terms” and couldn’t fathom how Muhammed Desai, who runs BDS affairs, could defend the chanters.

Not even the Palestine Solidarity Forum offered an excuse. The chant had “unacceptable and explicit anti-Semitic elements” said different chapters of the Forum, demanding that comrades make a public apology. 

Were these public statements from stricken figures or just plain embarrassed ones?

Half and half. It both horrified and embarrassed boycott leaders to see the true colours of the movement unfurled to all and sundry. Reports and commentaries on the event got it all wrong. If there was a schism between the hooligan mob and contrite leaders it was over the mob’s stupid display of the Jew-hatred that leadership had been at great pains to hide.

Now the lid had blown. ‘Kill the Jews’ had always expressed the aspiration of boycotters, high and low, Muslim and Jew, Christian and atheist, spokesman and placard wielding chanter. Will sophisticated racists ever forgive their Xhosa comrades!

The lid was off; the emperor was stripped of his clothes, his unlovely soul bared to public gaze. Hence the ungainly scramble to higher ground. Farid Esack and company had to distance themselves from Dubula iJuda as far and as fast as they could. Frankenstein, their work of years, their indoctrinated monster taught to execrate devil Jews, had cut loose and was out of control.

All lies! the cry will go forth. Be ready for it. Prepare to demonstrate that Esack and cohorts are not pro-Palestinian but anti-Jew. Read them their own charter; lay at their feet their own behaviour. Go to the boycotter, oh sluggard. Consider his ways and be wise.

Take some object -- a leaf -- under a magnifying glass. Unfocused, the glass filters weak sunlight around the leaf. Now position it so that the sun's power is concentrated in a point no bigger than a pinhead. Hold the pinhead steady over the leaf until it burns hot enough to set the leaf aflame.

===

===
Israeli man killed in suspected Jordan Valley terror attack

Sariya Ofer, a retired IDF colonel in his fifties, fatally beaten by at least two men outside his home in Brosh Habika • Ofer's wife suffers minor injuries in the attack • Military and police forces conduct searches for the perpetrators.
Efrat Forsher, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters

===
'Don't say I didn't warn you,' Netanyahu tells EU on Iran

Just days before the world powers renew talks with Iran, PM Netanyahu holds series of interviews with European media outlets with aim of pressuring EU countries not to lift economic sanctions on Tehran • "No deal is better than a bad deal," PM warns.
Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hirsch, Dan Lavie, Zeev Klein and Israel Hayom Staff

===

Israel’s military leadership failure to notice, let alone grasp the strategic implications of, regional and international developments is not new. It has been going on for at least 40 years.


IDF Combat Intelligence Collection Battalion patrol. Photo: IDF Spokesman
During his visit to Israel in March, US President Barack Obama compelled Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to apologize to his Turkish counterpart for the actions of IDF Naval Commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara terror ship in May 2010.

The story is cloudier than that, imho, the Israeli leaders are making the best of a bad deal .. not because they feel that Israel cannot survive without the US but because of the reality that it would be hard to prosper without good US relations .. I don't blame Netanyahu for US voting in Obama. -  ed
===
At the UNHRC's "Hate Israel Day,"23 September '13, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan for the Islamic States accused Israel of violating the human rights of Syrians. Attacks by Islamic terrorists in Kenya and Pakistan were ignored. UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer asked why.
?! - ed
===

Israel should respond with “extreme force” to the murder of Seraiah Ofer, a retired IDF colonel, who was killed in an apparent terrorist attack outside his home in the northern Jordan Valley overnight Thursday, Ofer’s widow said Saturday.
===

Security forces arrested five Palestinians on Friday on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a former senior IDF officer in the Jordan Valley, and kept them in custody over the weekend.
Men carrying metal bars and axes set upon Col. (res.) Sraya “Yaya” Ofer when he stepped outside his home in Brosh Habika, according to his wife, Monique, who escaped.
The recent release of such killers becomes a strong argument for the death penalty - ed
===
"Israeli soldier"  "Arab girls" apartheid
Israeli soldiers walk on the same streets as Arab girls,
===
Daniel KatzJewellery & Gemstone Fashion DESIGN Gallery
Mary, Crown princess of Denmark, the Aussie Queen from Tasmania.

"Desiree Clary's Ruby Set"

Probably made by a Parisian jeweller, this ruby and diamond parure is undoubtedly one of the most impressive ones in the Danish royal collection.

It consists of a tiara, a pair of chandelier earrings, a brooch, a bracelet, a ring, and a necklace which has the particularity of being composed of several elements set with small rubies bonded to each other, in order to give the impression of a single large ruby.

Originally, the parure was a gift presented in 1804 by Emperor Napoleon to his ex-fiancee Desiree Clary (spouse of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, later King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden and Norway) on the occasion of the his coronation ceremony in Paris.

Upon Queen Desiree's death in 1860, it was bequeathed to her daughter-in-law, Josephine of Sweden (who became a widow and a dowager Queen one year before), who herself presented it to her granddaughter princess Louise Sweden, when she married in 1869 prince Frederik of Denmark, later King Frederik VIII.

That's how the parure became part of the Danish monarchs' personal collection. Thereafter, its use was reserved for the wife of the heir to the throne, who can't wear the Crown jewels (kept in Rosenborg Castle and reserved for the Queen) : princess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1898, princess Ingrid of Sweden from 1935, and finally Mary Donaldson since 2004.

Please note that the leaf tiara has undergone several contradictory alterations : if Queen Ingrid added two brooches to make it more substantial, princess Mary commissioned in 2010 the jeweller Marianne Dulong to remove three leaves and to transform them into hair pins.

Everyone loves a good Danish - ed
===
A high school in Indiana decided recently to ban the classic country song “Rocky Top” from football games because its references to “moonshine” are supposedly “politically incorrect,” asWNDU.com puts it.
===
Ok, I want all my Facebook friends to comment on this status, sharing how you met me. But, I want you to LIE. That's right, just make it up. After you comment, copy and paste to your wall so I can do the same. I bet HALF won't read the instructions right....Now GO (I did it for someone else...you can do it to!) It was at the BDS rally at Max Brenner in Wynyard. I got past the dumb protestors and I told you not tell my personal trainer as I ordered a hot fudge sunday with whipped cream .. and you said I didn't have the correct change ..
===
===
“Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:20-21 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"I will meditate in thy precepts."
Psalm 119:15
There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser's feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom. Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it. Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, "I will meditate in thy precepts."

Evening

"The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost."
John 14:26

This age is peculiarly the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, in which Jesus cheers us, not by his personal presence, as he shall do by-and-by, but by the indwelling and constant abiding of the Holy Ghost, who is evermore the Comforter of the church. It is his office to console the hearts of God's people. He convinces of sin; he illuminates and instructs; but still the main part of his work lies in making glad the hearts of the renewed, in confirming the weak, and lifting up all those that be bowed down. He does this by revealing Jesus to them. The Holy Spirit consoles, but Christ is the consolation. If we may use the figure, the Holy Spirit is the Physician, but Jesus is the medicine. He heals the wound, but it is by applying the holy ointment of Christ's name and grace. He takes not of his own things, but of the things of Christ. So if we give to the Holy Spirit the Greek name of Paraclete, as we sometimes do, then our heart confers on our blessed Lord Jesus the title of Paraclesis. If the one be the Comforter, the other is the Comfort. Now, with such rich provision for his need, why should the Christian be sad and desponding? The Holy Spirit has graciously engaged to be thy Comforter: dost thou imagine, O thou weak and trembling believer, that he will be negligent of his sacred trust? Canst thou suppose that he has undertaken what he cannot or will not perform? If it be his especial work to strengthen thee, and to comfort thee, dost thou suppose he has forgotten his business, or that he will fail in the loving office which he sustains towards thee? Nay, think not so hardly of the tender and blessed Spirit whose name is "the Comforter." He delights to give the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Trust thou in him, and he will surely comfort thee till the house of mourning is closed forever, and the marriage feast has begun.
===

Today's reading: Isaiah 39-40, Colossians 4 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 39-40

Envoys From Babylon
1 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. 2 Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil—his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”
4 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: 6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon....”

Today's New Testament reading: Colossians 4

1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Further Instructions
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Final Greetings
7 Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. 9 He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here....
===

Felix

[Fē'lĭx] - happy, prosperousA cruel Roman governor of Judea, appointed by the Emperor Claudius, whose freedman he was (Acts 23:24, 26; 24:2-27; 25:14). Felix is described by Tacitus as a bad and cruel governor, even though the title of "most excellent" was given to him.

The Man Who Procrastinated


As a true preacher, Paul pressed home the truth until it pricked the conscience of Felix so much so that he "trembled." He did not resent Paul's plain speaking but postponed the interview "till a more convenient season." Such a "convenient season," however, did not come, and Felix became a type of many whose consciences are stirred by the preached Word, but whose hopes of eternal security are ruined by a like procrastination. The two sworn enemies of the soul are "Yesterday" and "Tomorrow."
Yesterday slays its thousands. Past sins plunge many into darkness and despair. Priceless opportunities were trampled upon, and the harvest is past. But God says there is mercy still and free forgiveness through repentance.
Tomorrow slays its tens of thousands. Vows, promises, resolutions are never fulfilled. "Some other time," many say, when urged to repent and believe. They fail to realize that nowis the acceptable time. How pitiful it is that the convenient seasonnever dawns for them! The pathway to their hell is strewn with good resolutions, and as they cross "The Great Divide," the mocking voice cries out: "Too late! Too late!"
===

No comments: