Friday, November 10, 2017

Fri Nov 10th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. Scott McNeil asked the excellent question on his FB live event with me "How do you argue with members of the Left? Do you just immediately block them?" I am a teacher. I believe training works. Some people don't know the issues. I have an open invitation to discuss issues. I have friends or former students who have strong left wing values. In all my years, I have never had a rational response to AGW hysteria (Why spend over $100 trillion opposing plant food to achieve a fraction of a degree's change in 100 years?), or illegal migration (why expose desperate people to piracy and possible death while simultaneously lowering security against terrorism?), Capitalism (why oppose the means for poor people to escape poverty?), Israel (why support the mythical claim of Palestine and deny the valid need for Israel's security?). So effectively I give rope and they hang themselves. Some become desperate to talk to me, and yet they are rabidly antisemitic, hate people and are abusive. Here is a tip lefties, it is ok to think I'm a homophobic, racist taking money from big oil, but it is a poor argument to call me those things when I'm not. Hillary did a magnificent job with that, but even with your full support, failed convincingly and may yet go to jail for corruption. 

 The left tend to argue through abuse, not logic. Allegedly Manus Island illegal immigrants are 'living in squalid conditions' because they refuse to clean up after themselves with toilets and showers. AGW hysteric warn we are now producing so much food from excess CO2 that we'll get fat. Public health doctors in Victoria feel they cannot speak out in debate against euthanasia legislation according to NSW public health officials. I oppose the Euthanasia legislation proposed for Victoria because I know the safeguards are not in place to effectively manage it. It will work and people will die, but not necessarily the terminally ill in unnecessary pain, but the lonely and sad .. and the occasional victim of foul play. I know now why lefties are screaming at the sky a year after Trump won election. Because they do not reason in debate. 
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 "Fat Bottomed Girls"

ALP's sole promise was to wear pants, not swim suits in '07. They kinda broke that promise many times, but Keneally has demanded that as they go to lose the next election they should keep their pants on. She won't even look at the Hamidur tragedy. "Fat Bottomed Girls" is a hit single by the English rock band Queen. It was released in 1978 on the album Jazz. The song was written by Queen guitarist Brian May. It was one of the few Queen songs played in an alternative guitar tuning, "drop D tuning".



=== from 2016 ===
Hillary Clinton, the ‘safe pair of hands’ who was reliable, and shocked when Trump, in debate, said he might not endorse the winner of the election, refused to endorse Trump post election and so violence on US streets is occurring as her supporters run amok. Apparently HRC was willing to accept democracy so long as it agreed with her. Trump is President elect, not President, and so cannot yet drain the swamp. The illiberal and partisan press are manoeuvring to bring down a Trump administration. The Democrats are too weak to be a stumbling block in congress, so it is up to the press to oppose Trump, apparently.

Doing his bit from Melbourne on 3aw, Neil Mitchell interviews former NSW Premier Bob Carr, who got it dead wrong yesterday, again. Carr feeds the opening statements of Mitchell, who claimed he was confused and did not know what Trump stood for. Mitchell fears nuclear war. Mitchell fears a war on Mexicans and Russia and China. Mitchell thinks Trump will disgrace women and abuse the law. Bob Carr assures Mitchell that nuclear war is more likely under Trump and Australia is a larger target because of Pine Gap. Meanwhile, Mitchell won’t talk with me on or off air. I can tell Mitchell what Trump’s first hundred day plan is. No mention of nuclear war, war on Mexicans, women or blacks, but maybe things have been added recently? Trump wants to cut taxes to promote growth and strengthen the US economy. Trump wants to negotiate internationally from positions of strength. Bob Carr is simply out of his depth on political commentary. We are being told that the lesson of Brexit and the Trump election is that political elites need to listen to the average person. One gets the feeling that Mitchell never listens to the exceptional or gifted, and only really interviews himself or people that are safe for him.

IPA Review (Aug 2016) features a Matthew Lesh article “Triggering Censorship.” Political correctness censors free thought. It always has. A terrible status of illiberalism is developed and rampant under the left wing internationally. The world is smaller in the twenty first century, but not closer together. Freedom of thought is further away thanks to the unfettered power of political correctness employing tools like “Triggering” and legislation that prevents discussion and authorities who produce purity statements and persecute innocent people mercilessly. Isaac Newton would have faced charges of witchcraft had his research into alchemy been known. Imagine his groundbreaking research into lenses, into calculus and into modern banking never done for breaking a PC regulation? PC is pernicious, and it is up to good people to stand up and hold open the door of inquiry. It is not disturbing that PC exists at universities. It is heart wrenching it remain unopposed by authorities or individuals of consequence with vision. Clearly HRC (Human Rights Committee) in Australia has a depraved indifference to their responsibility. Malcolm Turnbull stood up today to remind us he is incompetent with his fulsome greeting of President elect Trump’s success. If the PM cannot champion free thought, who will?

I don't feel valued by the IPA. But I must note, and maybe gloat a little, I was right about Trump's win. I predicted it months ago. I was right in how it would progress. I was right in how it would be successful. The first GOP triple crown win of both houses of congress and White House since 1928. A Reagan like economic plan. We should be cheering. .. just a note for those grieving .. The world will keep turning. 

Here's text from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: 
Frodo: "I can't do this, Sam..." 
Sam: "I know... It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here... But we are... It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the ending, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr Frodo, I do understand... I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only the didn't. They kept going, because they were holding onto something... 
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam? 
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr Frodo... And it's worth fighting for.
=== from 2015 ===
Burma, or Myanmar, has had a win for freedom and democracy. An estimated 80% supported the party of Aung San Suu Kyi (not her name, so much as her title). It remains to be seen if the party can redirect the nation towards good things. A military that is connected to the opposition, a public service that is partial to the communists, a judiciary and police that have turned blind eyes to corruption and state sanctioned street killings are obstacles to the new government. The people want better. They want foreign aid and communication. They want to be proud in their history, and connected with the world. 

The cold war Obama has initiated, to deal with Syria, Ukraine and North Korea, is now entering sport with accusations that Russia has cheated better than the US. There is no evidence Obama has used performance enhancing drugs. But, swap out questions of birthplace and academic record and instead look at the same answers as with questions about the use of performance enhancing drugs and no court would hesitate to convict. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014 
Live free or die
Freedom regardless of race, creed or gender is a cultural asset. An asset the ABC denies with their criticism of Julie Bishop for saying she is a woman, but not a feminist. The totalitarian left prefer their own social order. ABC is out of control, praising ALP Icons without reference to reality, but trashing the virtuous conservatives out of hand.

Libya has a city joining ISIL. It seems that Gillard's intervention there worked as well as her others.

A vote for ALP in Victoria is a vote for a corrupt CFMEU to play a role in that government.
Not sorry to be wrong
Bill Shorten got a simple fact wrong three times in three interviews over 72 hours. It is like Rudd's "Michelle Corby" moment. Illustrative that he cannot lead, but still the press will follow him. China does not have a tariff on Iron Ore. The free trade agreement with China is good. Shorten doesn't want to say it.

CIA fact checks Argo. Nineteen things Argo got wrong .. and the reality shows the CIA to be more impressive.

Lambie, the PUP Tasmanian senator is arguing selfishly to hurt Australia. Soldiers get sacrifice. But they want it to be for something worthwhile. Meanwhile Lambie is trying to wreck the joint.
Embrace life 
Hearing is a sense, and for those without it, a gift that should never be held from their reach. Anthony Watts writes movingly about receiving his gift.
From 2013
The Abbott government has been stunningly effective very quickly. And the media who viciously attacked him have not got good explanations for it. But one can detect heaps of stretch marks on trumped up issues. One such issue involves a convicted terrorist and anti semite who regrets his confession. Another issue is on that of boat people. No one wants people to drown after subjecting themselves to piracy. Boats have stopped for three weeks recently. That is because of Abbott's effective policy reinstating a Pacific Solution Rudd had stopped. 

One can understand why so called moderates in the Islamic community have failed to speak out over their communities atrocities committed around the world on everyone, including other Islamic peoples. Speaking out can have one killed by stoning, hanging, crucifixion, disembowelling and result in the slaughter of their families and loved ones. It is gratifying to hear of a doctor asking for those who know of their loved ones involved in local shootings to speak out, because it is better to be in prison than dead. Quite so. 
It is heartbreaking to see little weight given a victim impact statement. Killing someone is a serious crime even if life for the killer was hard. It doesn't excuse AGW believers either, even though they have silenced their critics after stealing $trillions from the world economy and thrown the poorest deeper into poverty. Many will have died from deprivation as a result of their actions, and none saved for their belief. A very poor return from their religion.
Historical perspective on this day
In 1202, Fourth Crusade: Despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding it and threatening excommunication, Catholic crusaders began a siege of the Catholic city of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia). In 1293, Raden Wijaya was crowned as the first monarch of Majapahit kingdom of Java, taking the throne name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana. In 1444, Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw III of Poland) were crushed by the Turks under Sultan Murad II and Vladislaus was killed. In 1520, Danish King Christian II executed dozens of people in the Stockholm Bloodbath after a successful invasion of Sweden. In 1580, After a three-day siege, the English Army beheaded over 600 Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland. In 1619, René Descartes had the dreams that inspired his Meditations on First Philosophy. In 1659, Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Maratha King killed Afzal Khan, Adilshahi in the battle popularly known as Battle of Pratapgarh. This is also recognised as the first defence of Swarajya. In 1674,  Anglo-Dutch War: As provided in the Treaty of Westminster, Netherlands ceded New Netherland to England. In 1702, English colonists under the command of James Moore besiege Spanish St. Augustine during Queen Anne's War. In 1766, the last colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signed the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University). In 1775, the United States Marine Corps was founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas. In 1793, A Goddess of Reason was proclaimed by the French Convention at the suggestion of Pierre Gaspard Chaumette.

In 1821, Cry of Independence by Rufina Alfaro at La Villa de Los Santos, Panama set into motion a revolt which lead to Panama's independence from Spain and to it immediately becoming part of Colombia. In 1847, the passenger ship Stephen Whitney was wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board. The disaster resulted in the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse. In 1865, Major Henry Wirz, the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, was hanged, becoming the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes. In 1871, Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" In 1898,  began the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in US history.

In 1910, the date of Thomas A. Davis' opening of the San Diego Army and Navy Academy, though the official founding date is November 23, 1910. In 1918, the Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa and Washington, D.C.) that said on November 11, 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air. In 1919, the first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, ending on November 12. In 1940, the 1940 Vrancea earthquake struck Romaniakilling an estimated 1,000 and injuring approximately 4,000 more. In 1942, World War II: Germany invaded Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa. In 1944, the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood exploded at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371. In 1945, Heavy fighting in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, today celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan). 

In 1951, with the rollout of the North American Numbering Plan, direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States. In 1954, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1958, the Hope Diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston. In 1969, National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuted the children's television program Sesame Street. In 1970, Vietnam War: Vietnamization – For the first time in five years, an entire week ended with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia. Also in 1970, the Soviet lunar probe Lunokhod 1 was launched. In 1971, in Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attacked the city of Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine aircraft. In 1972, Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama was hijacked and, at one point, was threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane landed in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers were jailed by Fidel Castro. In 1975, the 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board. Also in 1975, United Nations Resolution 3379: United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution equating Zionismwith racism (the resolution is repealed in December 1991 by Resolution 4686). In 1979, a 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derailed in Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history. In 1983, Bill Gates introduced Windows 1.0. In 1984, the first Breeders' Cup took place at Hollywood Park Racetrack. In 1989, the longtime leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria Todor Zhivkov is removed from office and replaced by Petar Mladenov. In 1989, German citizens began to bring the Berlin Wall down. In 1995, in Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), were hanged by government forces. In 1997, WorldCom and MCI Communications announced a $37 billion merger (the largest merger in US history at the time). In 2002, Veteran's Day weekend tornado outbreak; a tornado outbreak stretching from Northern Ohio to the Gulf Coast, one of the largest outbreaks recorded in November. The strongest tornado, an F4, hits Van Wert, Ohio during the early to mid afternoon and destroyed a movie theater but the theater was evacuated prior to the hit. In 2006, Sri Lankan Tamil Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj was assassinated in Colombo. Also in 2006, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia was opened and dedicated by U.S. President George W. Bush, who announced that Marine Corporal Jason Dunham would receive the Medal of Honor. In 2007, ¿Por qué no te callas?incident occurred between King Juan Carlos of Spain and Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez. In 2007, 10,000–40,000 people march toward the royal palace of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur to hand over a memorandum to the King demanding electoral reform. In 2008, Over five months after landing on Mars, NASA declares the Phoenix mission concluded after communications with the lander were lost. In 2009, Ships of the South and North Korean navies skirmished off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea.
=== 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 Lucidel Resto and Dean Koenig born on the same day, across the years, along with
November 10: Remembrance of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk(09:05 EET/07:05 UTC, Turkey)
The Hope Diamond
We do it, although the Pope told us not to. I presume you are you. The earth moved. Thank Harry for the diamond. Assassination is wrong. Let's party. 
Deaths
===
Tim Blair 2017

===
Andrew Bolt 2017

===
Tim Blair

WHOLE WORLD OF WRONG

Fairfax’s Paul McGeough loses spectacularly before the eyes of the nation and the world.
10 Nov  

JUST END IT ALL

Sydney’s skies are currently cloudless and beautifully blue but all Mia Freedman can see is a terrible roiling darkness.
UPDATED 10 Nov  

HILLARY (EVENTUALLY) FOLLOWS A SACRED TRADITION

“One of the most sacred traditions in American politics,” wrote Newsweek’s Ryan Bort just prior to yesterday’s election result, “is the loser of presidential elections conceding victory to the winner.”
10 Nov  

LIVE TV IS DIFFICULT

Nearly seven hours of live television yesterday. Somehow, all of us – even me – managed not to say anything too offensive or ridiculous.
10 Nov  

WHERE WILL THEY BE WITHOUT THEIR WOMAN?

A brief musical dedication to our Hillary-lovin’ media friends.
10 Nov  

THEY’RE NOT LAUGHING NOW

Around 18 months ago, Ann Coulter – despised by US leftists – suggested Donald Trump might be a viable presidential candidate.
10 Nov
===
Andrew Bolt

Milo Yiannopoulos on the Trump Revolution

Milo Yiannopoulos predicted Donald Trump's win on election eve. What's more, he predicted the death of identity politics, Clinton style, given his reception on his wildly successful "Dangerous Faggot" tour. Watch excerpts from our chat here, here and here.
10 Nov  

Trump smashes the elites

DONALD Trump’s win is the biggest “f--- you” to all his enemies — the media, the politicians and Wall Street. The whole world now — and our own political class — has been given a shock and a warning. Stop bullying and patronising the silent majority or they will rise in terrible revolt.
COLUMN 10 Nov  
===

ZE GENERATION

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (3:55pm)

More and more colleges and universities are allowing students to choose their own gender pronouns, meaning instead of just “he” and “she,” the options now include pronouns like “ze,” which are intended to be gender neutral. 
Great. So now we’ll have entire campuses sounding like common island midgets. What a binary-busting breakthrough! According to Van Bailey, director of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Queer student life at Harvard, the kids just love their new pronouns: 
“The students are excited about it. They’re excited to have the control and the options. They’re excited that that doesn’t have to be a barrier to their classroom experience. You know, because that can be a really kind of chilling experience for a student.” 
He’s talking about the “chilling experience” of being referred to as “he” or “she”.  These people aren’t even fit for lab experiments.
(Via Adam I.)
===

AHEAD OF THE BAT PACK

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (1:44pm)

Blair leads, Newsweek follows:

Via Nellie C.. Do read on. 
===

THAT’S US TOLD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (12:57pm)

At the UN, a peaceful and democratic nation denounces Australia’s brutal human rights violations: 
“We still have serious concerns at the continued reports of … violence against refugees and asylum seekers and violation of the human rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia.” 
Thank you, North Korea.
(Via Puzzled.)
===

CAREENING!

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (12:26pm)

An important press release from our friends at the Climate Council: 
Earth is careening towards dangerous climate change with new research showing we’ve crossed the halfway point towards a global temperature rise of 2C.
Figures from January to September this year are already 1.02C above the average between 1850 and 1900.
If temperatures remain as predicted, 2015 will be the first year to breach this key threshold.
Well, let’s all go back to living like we did in 1850 then. I look forward to the Climate Council’s next message arriving via recyclable mammal rather than coal-fuelled electricity.
===

LET NEW YORK BECOME MAJORITY MUSLIM, AND THEN YOU CAN TALK

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (2:26am)

Not for the first time, the New York Times thinks it’s found an awesome conservative contradiction: 
In a past life he was France’s leading advocate for journalists, fighting to spring them from dictators worldwide, a fearless defender of freedom of the press on four continents and a hero to free-speech advocates.
That was then. Now, Robert Ménard, the man who founded Reporters Sans Frontières — Reporters Without Borders — has become a symbol of right-wing extremism in France.
No longer a journalists’ advocate but the mayor of the largest city under far-right control in France, he says there are too many immigrants in his town, too many veils, too many Muslim children and too much culture that is not French. 
So Ménard was a free-speech advocate and he evidently remains a free-speech advocate. The piece continues: 
Old colleagues at Reporters Sans Frontières are scratching their heads, stupefied at his apparent transformation. A number of them have denounced him. 
Oh, boo-hoo. 
But to Mr. Ménard, it is all straightforward. He wants most if not all of the immigrants to go somewhere else.
“I don’t want this city to be majority-Muslim, at all,” he said. “There is a majority of the Muslim population that is incapable of living within the norms of this country.”
“I love this country,” he said, ticking off France’s prowess in literature, art and architecture, even its “way of looking at women. I am as attached to them as to my own eyes,” he said. 
As am I. This fellow represents the best qualities of France.
===

CHANCE MISSED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (12:59am)

Fifteen years ago journalist Andrew Rule proposed a television documentary on the family of 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Michelle Payne. Even then his pitch was strong. Yet nobody was interested: 
The sort of people now desperate to hitch themselves to the Payne bandwagon could hardly hide their disdain behind corporate weasel words.
One said the Paynes’ story had “limiited appeal”. Others agreed.
The truth is that it was a chance to capture something that could never really be recaptured once those motherless kids all left home and scattered far and wide.
Only Neil Kearney of Channel 7 had the instincts 15 years ago to pull together parts of a truly remarkable Australian story that became a world-beater just after 3pm last Tuesday.
Kearney knew it deserved more than anyone could do in eight minutes of current affairs television, which put him lengths ahead of the ABC, SBS and the people who ran racing. 
“Limted appeal” never stopped decades of global warming propaganda.
===

OILS AIN’T OILS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (12:22am)

Barack Obama was pro oil in 2012: 
American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years. That’s right, eight years. Not only that, last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past 16 years. (Applause) 
But Obama is against oil in 2015: 
Today, we’re continuing to lead by example, because, ultimately, if we’re going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable, but uninhabitable, in our lifetimes, we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground, rather than burn them. 
Watch Obama lead by example over the next three decades, during which he’ll never fly anywhere to collect huge speaking fees talking about climate change.
(Via A.R.M. Jones.)
===

REVIEW THIS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, November 10, 2015 (12:11am)

Back in the day, leftists were in thrall to the authority of peer review. Times have changed: 
Two large publishers of scientific journals, Sage and Springer, have retracted more than 100 papers in the last year because of bogus peer review. 
The quality of peer review depends on the quality of the peers.
===

MPs warn Turnbull: no tax grab. UPDATE: McCrann - things could get ugly

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (6:02pm)

Cory Bernardi is someone to rely on these matters. To see Angus Taylor step up lately, too, is very interesting:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been confronted by Liberal MPs about plans to raise the GST.  
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi raised the issue in the Liberal party room on Tuesday morning to warn the Prime Minister that any increase to the GST must not simply be a revenue grab. He was joined by Liberal backbenchers Angus Taylor and Luke Howarth as well as Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who also voiced concerns at the joint-partyroom meeting…
Mr Turnbull has opened a debate about tax reform but has not specified whether he wants to raise the GST, potentially from 10 per cent to as high as 15 per cent. But that has spooked many Liberal backbenchers who are concerned an increase in the GST will not result in corresponding tax cuts. 
Turnbull’s response?
Mr Turnbull, who spoke on the issue for 25 minutes....
But of course. And his strategy is straight from Mr Micawber - waiting for something to turn up:
[He] said his aim was to promote economic growth, which he said would eventually repair the deficit by expanding at a faster rate than government spending.
Except, of course, the Reserve Bank says growth is slowing, not increasing.
UPDATE
Terry McCrann warns that Turnbull may need to dash to an early election before the bad economic news gets out:
There’s a very strong argument the Government can’t — politically — afford to bring down the Budget before the election. 
That would force it to shock voters by revealing its own big deficits and gloomy figures for the economy — forcing either a replay of 2014, not exactly what you’d consider the ideal pre-election exercise, or the abandonment of the core promise of deficit elimination.
That instead they would be wise to fight an election on the much better figures we will see in the 2015 Budget’s midyear update over the next month or so. That would also obviously ride the new Prime Minister’s (honeymoon or otherwise) popularity, in an election before May…
The current Budget assumes pretty healthy growth in the economy and relatively strong growth in the local economy and sustained jobs increase — both critical to generating more tax revenue and reducing demands on the spending side.
They in turn are built on the assumption of a pretty healthy world economy — and especially that of China. The Budget estimated world growth of 3.5 per cent this year, rising to 3.75 per cent next year. China would slow, but only from 6.75 to 6.5 per cent.
Last week, the IMF released its latest forecasts. They had world growth of just 3.1 per cent this year, picking up to 3.5 per cent in 2016. China was projected to fall from 6.8 to 6.3 per cent…
Then the second thing kicks in. The 2015 Budget — and the coming update — are both built on estimates for 2015-16 and 2016-17 and what are called projections for 2017-18 and 2018-19.
The projections assume the economy pretty much whirrs back to strong growth. That’s the key reason why the (projected) deficit suddenly drops sharply; from $26 billion in 2016-17, to $14 billion in 2017-18 and to just $7 billion in 2018-19 — all without any tax increases or spending cuts.
But, a formal Budget next May would have to make actual estimates for that key 2017-18 year, not just factor in upbeat projections. If the gloomy scenario is developing, suddenly the deficit would not be falling; indeed it could even be increasing. I don’t think even the “new” Turnbull-Morrison government could credibly bring down a Budget that, for example’s sake, projected $40 billion deficits out to the forecasting horizon. 
===

A low standard Labor accepts

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (5:23pm)

Former Treasurer Peter Costello is astonished at Labor’s silence over yet another union scandal involving the alleged misuse of members’ money:
Its criticism has been reserved for the royal commission — “a witch hunt”, “a political stunt"… 
It helps that at least 50 per cent of Labor’s MPs have been union officials. They understand how these things work, they’ve seen it and they’re not going to get too pious about it.
And so the unions are allowed to rot, contaminating even Labor.
UPDATE
Guilty of poor taste, at least:
Derrick Belan has stridently denied any misuse of union money while he was NSW boss of the National Union of Workers despite admitting he used the branch credit card while on holidays and to pay for a tattoo of his mother and late father and predecessor, Frank. Taking the stand at the trade union royal commission this afternoon amid revelations the union agreed to give Mr Belan a $328,000 termination payment, the former union boss said he used union funds when he “ran out of money” but asked his book keeper niece, Danielle O’Brien to repay the money from his wages.

Mr Belan said he was “embarrassed” and “humiliated” by “what’s come out” but stated “I am not a thief”.
===

The cost of Daniel Andrews scrapping a road we need: up to $861 million

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (5:19pm)

An utter disgrace. Taking almost $1 billion of taxpayers’ money and flushing it down the toilet:
DUMPING East West Link could cost Victorian taxpayers $221 million more than the Andrews Government previously admitted. 
The potential new costs, buried in financial reports and which have already increased by $26 million this year, are related to a deal done with the consortium contracted to build the ill-fated toll road.
Treasurer Tim Pallas blamed worsening financial situations in China and Greece for the increase in the government’s liability.
The revelation means the total amount of taxpayer money wasted on a non-existent road could now rise to $861 million.
That figure includes money spent setting up the deal and on geotechnical work, the settlement with the consortium, and costs to take on a multi-billion loan. Before the election, Premier Daniel Andrews said no compensation would be paid for walking away from the EWL, and that “the contracts are not worth the paper they’re written on”.
===

Speaking in defence of a culture while he’s still free to do so

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (5:12pm)

The New York Times somehow sees a contradiction between defending free speech and resisting a culture that endangers it:
In a past life he was France’s leading advocate for journalists, fighting to spring them from dictators worldwide, a fearless defender of freedom of the press on four continents and a hero to free-speech advocates. 
That was then. Now, Robert Ménard, the man who founded Reporters Sans Frontières — Reporters Without Borders — has become a symbol of right-wing extremism in France.
No longer a journalists’ advocate but the mayor of the largest city under far-right control in France, he says there are too many immigrants in his town, too many veils, too many Muslim children and too much culture that is not French… Old colleagues at Reporters Sans Frontières are scratching their heads, stupefied at his apparent transformation. A number of them have denounced him. 
I really can’t seen a happy future for Western civilisation when so many of its alleged custodians see nothing Western worth defending. 
===

Jake’s speech: Live, live for the now

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (1:08pm)

 Jake Bailey, facing death, delivers the school captain’s graduation address at Christchurch Boys’ High School:
None of us gets out of life alive — so be gallant, be great, be gracious and be grateful for the opportunities that you have… 
Forget about longterm dreams — let’s be passionately dedicated to the pursuit of short-term goals. Work with passion and pride on what is in front of us. We don’t know where we might end up or when it might end up. 
(Thanks to reader Jessica.) 
===

Facts drown

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (11:13am)

I doubt journalists even register the warming scares they mindlessly repeat. Never ask themselves whether the scares are remotely credible.
For instance, here is what the latest disaster porn from a green group’s study claims - and note the caveat:
Carbon emissions causing 4 degrees Celsius of warming ... could lock in enough eventual sea level rise to submerge land currently home to 470 to 760 million people globally… 
The sea levels described could possibly, but with low probability, occur sooner than 200 years from now (Kopp et al. 2014), or be reached as far as 2,000 years in the future (Levermann et al. 2013). 
So this could take 2000 years to manifest itself, provided the atmosphere suddenly warms by 4 degrees after essentially no warming for 18 years.
But here is how news.com.au, a hotbed of alarmism in the Murdoch media, reported this same survey:
This means major cities such as London, New York, Shangai and Sydney could end up underwater by 2100 — if we don’t change our ways.
How could a journalist write such garbage, both inherently ludicrous and unsupported by the evidence of the very report being quoted?
Funnily enough, even when news.com.au shows a mocked-up picture of this most apocalyptic scenario of Sydney “underwater by 2100”, we see nothing of the kind. Just a few forecourt umbrellas are submerged:
UPDATE
No, contrary to what almost every journalist on the subject claims, global warming is not drowning Pacific islands. From the Pacific Institute of Public Policy:
An increasing number of atoll studies are not supporting claims of Pacific island leaders that “islands are sinking.” Scientific studies published this year show, for example, that land area in Tuvalu’s capital atoll of Funafuti grew seven percent over the past century despite significant sea level rise. Another study reported that 23 of 27 atoll islands across Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Federated States of Micronesia either increased in area or remained stable over recent decades. 
Speaking about Kiribati, Canadian climatologist Simon Donner commented in the Scientific American: ‘Right now it is clear that no one needs to immediately wall in the islands or evacuate all the inhabitants. What the people of Kiribati and other low-lying countries need instead are well-thought-out, customized adaption plans and consistent international aid — not a breathless rush for a quick fix that makes the rest of the world feel good but obliges the island residents to play the part of helpless victim.’
These same climate scientists who are conducting ongoing research in Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands acknowledge the documented fact of sea level rise in the Pacific, and the potential threat this poses. But they are making the point, as articulated by Donner, that ‘the politicized public discourse on climate change is less nuanced than the science of reef islands.’ A recent report carried in Geology, the publication of the Geological Society of America, says Tuvalu has experienced ‘some of the highest rates of sea level rise over the past 60 years.’ At the same time, ‘no islands have been lost, the majority have enlarged, and there has been a 7.3 percent increase in net island area over the past century.’ 
(Thanks to readers The Lone Gunman and Ken.)  
===

No wonder Robyn Williams has given up interviewing sceptics like me

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (8:19am)

Robyn Williams, the ABC’s chief science presenter, says  he won’t broadcast the views of sceptics of the man-made warming scare:
How do I feel about some person like that doing the usual encyclical? It’s what put me off broadcasting them as I used to. 
Now all of the people who are deniers have been on the programs that my colleagues and I put out. We did so because most of us frankly like and enjoy contrarian views. We like a variety of opinion.
But then you find – as I did – that the people you are inviting in to give their contrarian views are always saying the same bloody thing. You can actually mouth the paragraphs. Here it comes again … just as if they were politicians rather than people considering science.... [T]hose deniers – I have not noted saying anything new in bloody years. Here it comes again. Favourite phrases are ... CO2 is a colourless harmless gas ... it’s good for growing plants ... and on and on it goes. It’s shameless. 
Those “favourite phrases” are repeated because they are true and remain true.
But the “favourite phrases” of warming alarmists such as Williams are ludicrous and remain ludicrous, yet still get a run in the ABC and Fairfax.
For instance:
Williams in 2007:
Andrew Bolt: I’m telling you, there’s a lot of fear out there. So what I do is, when I see an outlandish claim being made...so Tim Flannery suggesting rising seas this next century eight stories high, Professor Mike Archer, dean of engineering at the University of NSW… 
Robyn Williams: Dean of science.
Andrew Bolt: Dean of science...suggesting rising seas this next century of up to 100 metres, or Al Gore six metres. When I see things like that I know these are false. You mentioned the IPCC report; that suggests, at worst on best scenarios, 59 centimetres.
Robyn Williams: Well, whether you take the surge or whether you take the actual average rise are different things.
Andrew Bolt: I ask you, Robyn, 100 metres in the next century...do you really think that? Robyn Williams: It is possible, yes. The increase of melting that they’ve noticed in Greenland and the amount that we’ve seen from the western part of Antarctica, if those increases of three times the expected rate continue, it will be huge.
Sydney Morning Herald in 2015:
Hundreds of millions of people around the world are living in places that could eventually be submerged by rising sea levels triggered by unchecked climate change, new global maps suggest. 
An estimated 627 million people live in these places, including about 1.9 million in Australia and many more in the world’s great metropolises such as Tokyo, New York and Shanghai.
Except even the Sydney Morning Herald admits that latest scare might not happen until 2000 years from now, and only then if warming shoots up 4 degrees this century, after being essentially stable for the past 18 years:
That analysis - carried out by researchers at Climate Central - found that four degrees of warming could lock-in 8.9 metres of long-term sea level rise in the centuries to follow.
But wait: so the worst claim now is a sea level rise of 8.9 metres perhaps 2000 years from now? How does that square with Williams’ warning of 100 metres in just 93 years?
No wonder he won’t interview more sceptics.
(Thanks to reader Mark.) 
===

You think you know what’s really going on in detention centres?

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (7:44am)

Fascinating. A man claiming - plausibly - to have been a former detention centre worker on Christmas Island and elsewhere conducts a Q&A session.
Hope Sarah Hanson-Young is reading and learning.
But in case you think the thread is just one big attack on asylum seekers:
I think theres huge misconceptions on both sides about this issue. The right would have you believe they’re all dole bludging terrorists who are here to have as many babies as they can and muslimatically take over the country. The left would have you believe they’re all innocent little angels who have never hurt a fly and are all escaping the evil sunni/shia warlords who are trying to decapitate them for being gay and drinking whisky.
But read on.
(Thanks to reader Buster G.) 
===

Defy these hypocrites

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (7:09am)

A farce. A posturing. Here a review of a policy that has saved lives and secured our borders, conducted by a discredited body including a gaggle of dictators and authoritarians:
The UN Human Rights Council’s official review of Australia’s human rights policies took place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Monday… Countries including Brazil, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Bangladesh - even Rwanda, Iran and North Korea - expressed concern over Australia’s treatment of refugees. 
And this:
Countries taking part in the review also noted Australia’s inadequate treatment of Indigenous people, the high level of violence against women, and the spread of Islamophobia.
We have a “high level of violence against women” compared to whom? In what way is our treatment of Aborigines - as opposed to the outcomes - “inadequate”? And what is the distinction between “Islamophobia” and a well-founded concern on the rise of Islamist violence?
So much posturing, but check out some of the judges of our human rights - countries on the Human Rights Council that will determine if we meet their exacting standards:  Algeria, China, Congo, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.  
===

No point to Paris

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (6:38am)

Bjorn Lomborg measures the difference the Paris climate talks will make to the world’s climate if:
- countries really do back up their promises with action this time.
- the climate really is as sensitive to man’s emissions as alarmists claim.
Hardly worth the trillions of dollars, you might think:
Paris is being sold as the summit where we can help ‘heal the planet’ and ‘save the world’. It is no such thing. If all nations keep all their promises, temperatures will be cut by just 0.05°C (0.09°F). Even if every government on the planet not only keeps every Paris promise, reduces all emissions by 2030, and shifts no emissions to other countries, but also keeps these emission reductions throughout the rest of the century, temperatures will be reduced by just 0.17°C (0.3°F) by the year 2100.
And let’s be clear, that is very optimistic. Consider the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, never ratified by the US, and eventually abandoned by Canada and Russia and Japan. After several renegotiations, the Kyoto Protocol had been weakened to the point that the hot air left from the collapse of the Soviet Union exceeded the entire promised reductions, leaving the treaty essentially toothless.
The only reason Kyoto goals were almost achieved was the global 2008 recession.  Moreover, emissions were shifted from one country to another. The EU, the most climate-engaged bloc, saw an increase in its emission imports from China alone equaling its entire domestic CO? reductions. In total, 40% of all emissions were likely shifted away from the areas that made promises.
Negotiators in Paris are trying to tackle global warming in the same way that has failed for 30 years: by making promises that are individually expensive, will have little impact even in a hundred years and that many governments will try to shirk from.  
===

Turnbull extends lead to 53 to 47

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (6:27am)

Not making decisions, not offending anyone and just letting things drift is proving a winning strategy for Malcolm Turnbull, particularly against an Opposition Leader so unelectable as Bill Shorten:
The latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian, reveals the government is still making gains eight weeks after Mr Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, extending its lead over Labor to 53 per cent to 47 per cent after preferences.
Interestingly, the Greens vote hasn’t been this low since July last year. 
===

Greens choose a bird’s comfort above humans

Andrew Bolt November 10 2015 (6:22am)

Chris Merritt on the latest disgraceful attempt by the Australian Conservation Foundation to block a coal mine that will give Australians jobs and raise taxes for the poor:
One of the great obscenities of our time is the fact that the law of ­Australia is about to weigh the welfare of millions against the ­welfare of a godforsaken bird. 
This is the ugly reality behind the latest move by green ideologues to derail Adani’s Carmichael coal project in Queensland…
Now it’s the turn of something called the black-throated finch, set to become one of the two key ­aspects of the latest challenge.
The other, equally ludicrous ­argument, is that the government should have taken account of the fact that people elsewhere in the world will burn the coal. And, because this would allegedly harm the Great Barrier Reef.. This is not access to justice. It’s a sickening display of First World self-indulgence.
Blame Labor for letting this happen:
Months ago, ...­Attorney-General George Brandis developed a solution that could have stopped the latest challenge — had it been enacted in time. 
The Brandis plan would have removed the special treatment for green activists that is part of the main federal environmental law.
Instead of having “standing” to intervene in any development simply because they are green ­activists, Brandis wanted them to be treated like everyone else [by limiting legal challenges to those directly affected]. The great tragedy is this ­reform is stuck in a senate committee… Had federal Labor done a deal with the government, this ridiculous argument about some finch would never have happened.
===

Into Iraq again

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (8:23pm)

Australian special forces are going into Iraq on an “advise and assist mission” in the field. The US now has 3000 soldiers there.
One of US President Barack Obama’s biggest blunders was not leaving 10,000 US soldiers in Iraq in 2011.
Tony Abbott has announced the deployment after talks with Obama in China. 
===

Julie Bishop denounced on ABC for wanting to be judged as an individual

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (1:34pm)

Culture wars

There is a powerful moral argument for refusing to be judged by gender or race – for refusing to be judged or conscripted as a type.
It is to assert freedom and the primacy of the individual.
Here is Foreign Minister Julie Bishop:
[Feminist is] not a term I find particularly useful these days. I recognise the role that it’s played. It’s not something I describe myself as. I’m not saying I reject the term. I don’t find the need to self-describe in that way… 
It’s just not a term I use. I self-describe in many other ways. It’s not because I have a pathological dislike of the term, I just don’t use it. It’s not part of my lexicon, I don’t think anybody should take offense.
I’m a female politician, I’m a female foreign minister. Yeah well? Get over it.
Here is Republican Mia Love:
BERMAN:  You are the first black, Republican woman to be elected to the House of Representatives… 
LOVE: Well, first of all, I think what we need to mention here is this has nothing do with race. Understand that Utahans have made a statement that they’re not interested in dividing Americans based on race or gender, that they want to make sure that they are electing people who are honest and who are—who have integrity, who could be able to go out and actually make sure that we represent the values that they hold dear.
And that’s really what made history here. It’s that race, gender, had nothing to do with it.
Here is Martin Luther King:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Yes, there are powerful, inspirational and liberating moral arguments for rejecting the collectivists’ claims.
But not in the green-shaded cul-de-sac of Radio National Breakfast, advance guard of the ABC Army of the Left. There the likes of Bishop are denounced as hypocrites and selfish opportunists, exploiting their strength and fortune in a dog-eat-dog world and damn the weak:
Fran Kelly (ABC host): Is that a valid position to acknowledge that feminism has done its work but you don’t need to call yourself one these days? 

Dr Lauren Rosewarne (senior lecturer at Melbourne University who writes on sexuality, gender and feminism):  It’s a position that she needs to hold being a member of a very conservative political party that is trying to define themselves in opposition to Julia Gillard who defines herself as a feminist.. She couldn’t ever use the word because it stirs up in her support base too much ill will and bad feeling…
She is part of a political bent or a political party that is very much about pull yourself up by your bootstraps so you can’t have feminism with its notions about collectivity… She is tapping into an attitude I think a lot of women who don’t identify themselves as feminists would feel and that is it’s a dog eat dog world and they have to look after their best interests and the time for collective action is over. 
Not once do Kelly and Roswarne discuss freedom and individuality as moral virtues.
No. It’s: selfish Bishop! Demanding freedom! 
===

Third big trade deal in a year. UPDATE: Third Shorten stumble

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (10:37am)

First the trade deals with Japan and South Korea, and now this:
TONY Abbott and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to shake hands on a trade deal in Canberra next Monday that will lift exports and cut the price of consumer goods, adding at least $18 billion to the Australian economy over a decade…  
Tariffs are set to be phased out across some of Australia’s biggest mineral and energy exports, in a reprieve for coal producers slapped with a shock tariff last month that could have forced job cuts at their mines.
Food producers are set to gain from a dramatic increase in horticulture exports but The Australian understands that negotiators are still wrangling over the deadline to cut tariffs on dairy products.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten again goes negative, raising the Reds-are-coming scare and trying to criticise what he doesn’t even understand:
Mr Shorten questioned whether sugar exporters would gain anything and warned against allowing more Chinese workers into the country, but he stumbled by asking whether the deal would remove Chinese tariffs on iron ore exports.
There are no Chinese tariffs on Australian iron ore. Trade Minister Andrew Robb hit back by saying ...  “It is our biggest export and I would have thought he would have been well enough briefed...’’ 
That said, it is wise to watch that this deal is to our advantage, especially given the Government set itself a deadline of this year to secure it.
UPDATE
Amazing. Shorten does it again despite being picked up on his blunder by the morning papers:
BILL SHORTEN:  I agree with Andrew Robb that expansion of services into China is a great opportunity. What I’m not hearing though, is what’s happened with the new tariffs that China placed on our iron ore. What is happening with regard to sugar, what is also happening with regard to labour mobility agreements. 
CHRIS UHLMANN: What tariffs on our iron ore? I am aware of ones on coal but not on iron ore.
BILL SHORTEN: Well, my concern is that in the last few weeks China has introduced new tariffs in terms of a…
CHRIS UHLMANN: On coal. BILL SHORTEN: Yeah, I terms of our minerals industry, you’re right, I should’ve said coal, not iron ore...
The Australian:
Mr Shorten, in three interviews over 72 hours, claimed the Chinese government has imposed new tariffs on Australian iron ore. There are no Chinese tariffs on Australian iron ore… Mr Shorten yesterday made the same error during a press conference in Brisbane on Friday, and during an interview on ABC TV’s Insiders yesterday.
UPDATE
A song for Shorten:
===

Argo - making up history

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (8:34am)

 The CIA does a fact-check of 19 things Argo got wrong. 
===

Ben Roberts-Smith or Lambie? Hmm

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (8:25am)

Tough choice. Whose views on army pay should we give more weight? Those of Ben Roberts-Smith VC or Jacqui Lambie, whose most noteworthy action in combat was to have punched a colleague?. 
VICTORIA Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith has defended the meagre pay deal for soldiers, arguing the budget deficit required sacrifice.  

The controversial pay deal has prompted Palmer United Party Senator Jacquie Lambie to urge people to turn their backs on Coalition MPs at Remembrance Day ceremonies. 
Soldiers will secure a 1.5 per cent increase every year for three years, an effective pay cut while the ADF is deploying to the Middle East.
But the nation’s most decorated soldier said the decision of the Independent Defence Remuneration Tribunal was justified…

“Would I like soldiers to get more money? Of course I would. But I am also cognisant of the fact the government was left with a deficit and there’s only so much you can do with the money that you have. “We never did it for the money anyway. Should soldiers be looked after? Absolutely. Should families be looked after and get the best possible deal on the table? They should. Is that what’s happened? It would appear so. You can’t really argue about that.”
===

ABC bias out of control

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (7:36am)

Culture wars

HOW much longer will the Abbott Government let the ABC spit in its face — and in that of millions of other Australian conservatives?

Take the past week.
First, there was the ABC’s lavish and loving coverage of the memorial service for former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam — a service in which Labor presenter Kerry O’Brien was the MC.
Fair enough, you may well say.
But then there was the ABC’s 7.30 nominating the overblown eulogy to Whitlam from Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson as “possibly one of the best Australian speeches in history”, even asking viewers how it rated among those “of all time”.
Next, on Saturday, the ABC broadcast the After Julia concert featuring “world premieres of seven newly commissioned works by outstanding Australian composers reflecting on the Hon. Julia Gillard’s time as the first female prime minister of Australia”.
Even more surreal, this concert featured taxpayer-supported artists playing taxpayer-supported works which the ABC said included “instructions from goldfish, spoken phrases turned into musical gestures, mouth organs and more”.
Swear to God.
On it goes. Tonight, the ABC screens the first of a two-part biography called Just Call me Bob to honour a third Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke.
It’s a show which the ABC’s publicity department reveals asks the hard question: “Why was Bob Hawke so popular?” You get the picture.
Of course, the ABC understands it must by law be balanced, so it did also screen a show last week which briefly mentioned Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Life change

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (7:33am)

Anthony Watts has his hearing given back to him. 
===

Libya works out as well as everything else Gillard and Rudd touched

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (7:16am)

In 2011 Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd brought their management style to Libya:
Ms Gillard, who has spoken to President Barack Obama about the Libya issue, said both she and Mr Rudd shared the same concerns about the people of Libya… 
“I want the UN Security Council to consider a no-fly zone. We want to see further action to protect the people of Libya,” she said, adding that she was pleased both the US government and NATO were working on “contingency planning”. “Kevin Rudd and I are talking about exactly the same thing - we view as absolutely revolting and repugnant the violence we are seeing against the people of Libya, we are calling on Colonel Gaddafi to cease this violence and go.”
Now the Islamic State has its first city outside Syria and Iraq:
On a chilly night, bearded militants gathered at a stage strung with colourful lights in Darna, a Mediterranean coastal city long notorious as Libya’s centre for jihadi radicals. With a roaring chant, they pledged their allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group. 
With that meeting 10 days ago, the militants dragged Darna into becoming the first city outside of Iraq and Syria to join the “caliphate” announced by the extremist group. Already, the city has seen religious courts ordering killings in public, floggings of residents accused of violating sharia, as well as enforced segregation of male and female students. Opponents of the militants have gone into hiding or fled, terrorised by a string of slayings aimed at silencing them… A new Islamic State “emir” now leads the city, identified as Mohammed Abdullah, a little-known Yemeni militant sent from Syria…
The vow of allegiance in Darna gives the Islamic State group a foothold in Libya, an oil-rich North African nation whose central government control has collapsed in the chaos since the 2011 ouster and death of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. 
===

CFMEU mates on brink of ruling Victoria

Andrew Bolt November 10 2014 (6:56am)

Henry Ergas warns Victorians against voting for a party linked to criminals:
ACCORDING to the polls, the next premier of Victoria will be a man with close links to criminals. Not that Labor leader Daniel Andrews shows any embarrassment about his relationship with Victorian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary John Setka, who, Andrews claims, “has the confidence of his members”.

That Setka has dozens of convictions for offences that include assault, criminal damage and theft does not seem to trouble Andrews; nor do the submissions made by Jeremy Stoljar SC, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, that Setka and the Victorian CFMEU engage in blackmail and extortion. 
As for Stoljar’s submission that the governance of a company operated by the union, Building Industry 2000 Plus Ltd, is “abysmal”, with its directors repeatedly breaching their fiduciary duties, it has not led Andrews to change his view that the donations Labor has received are not “dirty money”.
Indeed, Andrews hasn’t batted an eyelid over the union’s ties with Mick Gatto and senior Rebels bikie Abuzar Sultani — ties that ­extend to George Alex, who was charged in September with threatening to kill a woman and her family and, it has been claimed, employed now Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf as a debt ­collector.
Unfortunately, Andrews’ tolerance of lawlessness is the not-so-new normal for Labor. After all, the most telling moment in Julia Gillard’s September 1995 exit interview with Slater & Gordon is when she says that the so-called “AWU Workplace Reform Association” was actually a “a re-election fund, slush fund, whatever”.
===
How depraved can some people be ?
Take a good look at the enemy folks.
This is the new terrorist song celebrating the dead assassin who killed a two month old baby.
The parents had been struggling for years to have a child.
These are the same type of people Bob Carr admires and supports.
These are the same type of people that the ALP are chasing for votes.
Remember a vote for the Australian Labor Party is a vote for sharia law.
Translation:
Run over the two-month-old baby
That is how we get them
For Al-Aqsa we will run over settlers
Run over settlers
Make the road become a trap
God will help you
The whole Arab nation calls you
Bless you Akari Ibrahim
Run over>
===
Larry Pickering
TALKING TOUGH IS NOT ENOUGH

Tony Abbott: "... and if any boat ever set out from Australia to Indonesia to enter that country illegally, we would do our damnedest to stop it." Well that’s pretty tough talk to a Liberal Party Conference but did the Indonesians hear that expression of gross unfairness?

The Fairfax press this morning is still insisting this boat debacle was a “mid-ocean” backdown. It was certainly a backdown but it was not “mid-ocean” and that’s what makes the difference.

We have international maritime obligations on the open sea, but not within Indonesian waters once we have established that a distress call was a sham and we have informed Indonesian authorities.

Although within sight of their shoreline, the Indonesians chose not to respond to the distress call, leaving the onus on Australia to deal with the false mayday.

HMAS Ballarat determined that the boat was not in distress and left the scene, as it should have done.

Upon responding to a further call, HMAS Ballarat found the boat’s engine had been disabled. [Indonesian search and rescue vessels had still not arrived, nor did they intend to.]

We again informed the Indonesians of the situation and again they refused to act, saying they would not accept the boat being returned to an Indonesian port.

Okay, this is what should have happened:

There is little doubt the people on this boat were the very same people who had been returned to Indonesia on two previous occasions.

We had no right to be in Indonesian waters without reason. It was found that the boat’s distress call was false and we quite properly departed the scene after again informing the Indonesians of the situation.

Responding to a second call the Australian crew discovered the boat’s engine had been sabotaged. This was also reported to the Indonesians who continued to ignore the call.

As there were no lives at risk and the boat was seaworthy, our responsibility had ended there as would have an Indonesian patrol boat attending a false distress call from a boat off the Gold Coast.

HMAS Ballarat should then have drained the fuel, leaving sufficient only to return to shore if the engine had miraculously become serviceable, and left. But they didn’t leave and the Indonesians knew they wouldn’t.

This petty game of brinkmanship has to stop. As The Pickering Post has reported ad nauseam, this is not a regional problem, it is an Indonesian Immigration and Customs problem.

They know who these people are and what their intentions are. It’s a problem of bribery within the Indonesian system, including the military.

The Daily Telegraph tried to justify Abbott’s capitulation suggesting he needed focus on the Carbon Tax Repeal Bill. Instead Fairfax and the ABC have been handed the opportunity to re-state their case that a naive Abbott cannot turn boats around.

He can, he should and he must! We have no reason to fear Indonesia, no other country will side with them in this matter, but our allies will side with us.

It’s time Abbott righted the wrong of this Rudd inspired treachery and Indonesian bastardry.

Thank Christ he is now making noises in that direction... albeit to a Liberal Party Conference.
===

David Daniel Ball I imagine it has a particular taste .. ?

Jason FoNg It tastes like a photographed Greek beer of the kind drunk by right-wing conservatives in Melbourne

David Daniel Ball My wife brews something similar?

Jason FoNg Your wife is already the proud sole owner of Carlton United Breweries. Bringing a Beretta to the annual shareholder meeting worked wonders.
David Daniel Ball Ahem, in her defence, she had a hired gun for the weapon .. and they were discreet.
===
===
““Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"So walk ye in him."
Colossians 2:6
If we have received Christ himself in our inmost hearts, our new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with him by a walk of faith in him. Walking implies action. Our religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry out into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks in Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him, his hope, his love, his joy, his life, he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and men say of that man, "He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus Christ." Walking signifies progress. "So walk ye in him"; proceed from grace to grace, run forward until you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge that a man can attain concerning our Beloved. Walking implies continuance. There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ. How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they ought to come into the company of Jesus, and may then give their hearts to the world all the day: but this is poor living; we should always be with him, treading in his steps and doing his will. Walking also implies habit. When we speak of a man's walk and conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenor of his life. Now, if we sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget him; sometimes call him ours, and anon lose our hold, that is not a habit; we do not walk in him. We must keep to him, cling to him, never let him go, but live and have our being in him. "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him"; persevere in the same way in which ye have begun, and, as at the first Christ Jesus was the trust of your faith, the source of your life, the principle of your action, and the joy of your spirit, so let him be the same till life's end; the same when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and enter into the joy and the rest which remain for the people of God. O Holy Spirit, enable us to obey this heavenly precept.

Evening


"His place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure."
Isaiah 33:16
Do you doubt, O Christian, do you doubt as to whether God will fulfil his promise? Shall the munitions of rock be carried by storm? Shall the storehouses of heaven fail? Do you think that your heavenly Father, though he knoweth that you have need of food and raiment, will yet forget you? When not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father, and the very hairs of your head are all numbered, will you mistrust and doubt him? Perhaps your affliction will continue upon you till you dare to trust your God, and then it shall end. Full many there be who have been tried and sore vexed till at last they have been driven in sheer desperation to exercise faith in God, and the moment of their faith has been the instant of their deliverance; they have seen whether God would keep his promise or not. Oh, I pray you, doubt him no longer! Please not Satan, and vex not yourself by indulging any more those hard thoughts of God. Think it not a light matter to doubt Jehovah. Remember, it is a sin; and not a little sin either, but in the highest degree criminal. The angels never doubted him, nor the devils either: we alone, out of all the beings that God has fashioned, dishonour him by unbelief, and tarnish his honour by mistrust. Shame upon us for this! Our God does not deserve to be so basely suspected; in our past life we have proved him to be true and faithful to his word, and with so many instances of his love and of his kindness as we have received, and are daily receiving, at his hands, it is base and inexcusable that we suffer a doubt to sojourn within our heart. May we henceforth wage constant war against doubts of our God--enemies to our peace and to his honour; and with an unstaggering faith believe that what he has promised he will also perform. "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief."
===

Today's reading: Jeremiah 46-47, Hebrews 6 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 46-47

A Message About Egypt

1 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations:
2 Concerning Egypt:
This is the message against the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:

3 “Prepare your shields, both large and small,
and march out for battle!
4 Harness the horses,
mount the steeds!
Take your positions
with helmets on!
Polish your spears,
put on your armor!
5 What do I see?
They are terrified,
they are retreating,
their warriors are defeated.
They flee in haste
without looking back,
and there is terror on every side,” declares the LORD.
6 “The swift cannot flee
nor the strong escape.
In the north by the River Euphrates
they stumble and fall....

Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 6

1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And God permitting, we will do so.
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned....
===

Abdon

[Ăb'dŏn] - servile, service or cloud of judgment.
  1. A son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, Abdon judged Israel for eight years, and because of a plurality of wives, had forty sons and thirty nephews, who rode seventy ass colts (Judg. 12:13-15). Perhaps the same as Bedan in 1 Samuel 12:11.
  2. A Benjamite in Jerusalem (1 Chron. 8:23).
  3. The first-born of Jehiel from Maachah (1 Chron. 8:30; 9:36).
  4. A son of Micah sent with others by king Josiah to Huldah the prophetess to enquire of Jehovah regarding the Book of the Law found in the Temple (2 Chron. 34:20). Called Achbor in 2 Kings 22:12. Also the name of a Levitical city in Asher (Josh. 21:30; 1 Chron. 6:74).
===
at

No comments:

Post a Comment