Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Wed Nov 8th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. The Australian parliament is tied up on citizenship. The Liberals have a one seat majority and they could lose that easily. The ALP clearly have membership issues, but they are obfuscating. The ALP possibly hope they can sneak into government through a bye election before they have to front up. The issue affects me. I ran for federal parliament in Jason Clare's seat in 2010. I knew I needed to get rid of my US citizenship, but I hedged my bets, and approached the US embassy. The Embassy was willing to expedite it immediately, but I said I would be very unhappy if they were to move hastily. They said "What if you are elected and it is decided that you had not vacated your dual nationality." I pointed out the document wording was to have taken the appropriate steps, and should I be elected I would immediately finalise the process I initiated. I understood that had I run again, I would need to have completed the process. Thing is, my grandmother was born in London. I can work in the UK because of that. So it may be deemed that I have citizenship of the UK. I had not even considered renouncing UK citizenship. That is a problem the High Court has stupidly dropped on the parliament. There is a reason why such retrospective laws are being enacted internationally. They are humanitarian grounds so people don't get abused as stateless Jews were prior to WW2. But it is ridiculous that the High Court interprets the constitution in a way that the framers never intended. They have read between the lines before. 

 Four of the same anecdotes, spread over time. I was at a Sydney Institute event when I got onto an elevator circa 2014. Michael Kroger was there with two other senior Liberals, possibly Ruddock was one. I was star struck and embarrassed. I was wearing swim shorts as they were the only pants that fit me. I was sweaty, carrying several bags. I wanted to talk to them because I needed their help. But I froze and they turned their backs to me and spoke in low tones. Twenty years ago an aunt of mine had gone to an ALP fundraiser, $3k a head. She was dressed to the nines. Paul Keating got in the elevator with security, and turned his back on her. Tom Pocock, Horatio Nelson's biographer, records a young couple were outside the Admiral's office in the UK circa 1803. They have an awkward wait with a short, one armed veteran that turns out to be Nelson. Nelson spoke shallowly and vapidly, referring to the 'Nelson's Touch' and his exploits. He finds out that the male is a soldier who had served in India, and suddenly Nelson speaks with knowledge and insight, humorous, not boring. And the last anecdote is Donald Trump as President calling a parent of a fallen soldier and thanking them for their sacrifice. The call had been anticipated and a family friend, a Democrat Congress member, was able to overhear the call and verbal Trump. 

 I have nothing but praise for Kroger, who was gracious and gave me an opportunity before going private. I have nothing but contempt for Paul Keating who thought little of his supporters. It is enlightening that we know so much of the conversation between Lord Nelson and that couple. But because of our ability to now make such connections and bring them into the public domain, politicians need to be .. diplomatic. It was despicable that a congress person politicised a personal call from President Trump. I'm sure Trump takes no pleasure from the sacrifice, and I'm also sure the President was Presidential, and humble. 

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 "Clancy of The Overflow"

"Clancy of The Overflow" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889. The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, and is one of his best-known works. The music is from Albert Arlen's setting in 1955


=== from 2016 ===
IPA Review features a Professor Stewart Franks article “Climate Change After a Fashion.” Despite increased understanding of natural multi decadal climate variability, AGW alarmists have stuck with failed models to make predictions. Australia under an El Nino has different expectations to Australia during La Nina. The Southern Oscillation phenomena includes the Pacific Ocean which covers some 30% of the globe. The statistical likelihood of flood in El Nino conditions is substantially different to La Nina conditions. But that has nothing to do with carbon dioxide. Plant food is still good for plants.

The US election is on a knife edge. But it is unlikely to be close. The polls shown that have Hillary with an unbeatable lead are merely an invention. Clinton may win the election, or she may not. The voting public have been harangued, but not informed by media. Some people believe that Trump said something bad eleven years ago and therefore he should not be President. Clinton as Secretary of State lost control of spending and foreign policy agenda. She has become extraordinarily rich through her failures. Clinton says she stands on her achievements. Even Obama has said she has done her best. Vote for Hillary to leave the US poor, impotent and divided. Hillary will chase away rich people. Hillary will mandate AGW religion. US debt will sky rocket, but the good news is it is only American money. Trump will unite the nation. Trump will negotiate with world leaders to improve outcomes for US peoples. Trump will #DrainTheSwamp and #MakeAmericaGreatAgain 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s accusers get markedly less. It is apparent they are like the Democrat paid inciters at GOP crowds. Trump has been tireless and resilient. When a Democrat activist called out ‘gun’ in a crowd, secret service acted appropriately, so the Democrat supporter still lives. As does Donald Trump. Trump’s last advert for the campaign is masterful. He rises above the low abuse of Hillary supporters and speaks of a greater America. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #DrainTheSwamp

Australia is poorly positioned to capitalise on a Trump Presidency with both the foreign affairs Minister Julie Bishop and the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talking out to personalise antipathy to Trump. One understands they prefer Hillary Clinton because they prefer working with corruption. They had insisted Abbott give over $10 million aid to the Clinton Foundation in 2014, and rolled Abbott after he stopped the payments. But neither Bishop nor Turnbull has explained how Australia will be better off with a corrupt Clinton as President, compared to a GOP backed Trump. Trump is not Reagan. Trump is very good at negotiations and knows how to run an executive team. Reagan was more reliant on insiders from GOP. Trump can deliver on promises better than Turnbull can. Turnbull has portrayed himself as being a good business executive. With Trump as President we will see a real one. Trump would never have put himself in the ridiculous position Turnbull has. All Turnbull can do now, constructively, is resign.

Meanwhile Trump’s progressive opponent is loved by the press and demonstrably corrupt. And the Libertarian candidate is trying to find Aleppo. Or a head of state.
Rumour now runs internationally that the apparent Saudi Spy who partners Hillary Clinton kept a life insurance policy of emails left in her ex husband’s computer. And the FBI found it. And so the insurance policy has been cashed in early. And the FBI investigating a witch on Halloween have found incriminating evidence on her familiar’s Weiner.

One person who knows how to profit from central planning is Hillary Clinton. The Chicago Tribune is withdrawing support from her, and suggesting that Democrats replace Hillary. But corrupt news, like the Tribune, knew everything now known about Hillary as they supported her days ago. Maybe they are only backing a tribe, but not a policy? And Maybe they want to find another crook. I note that press, who had accepted Hillary's corruption, are now denouncing her Saudi Spy Handler

Donald Trump's speech at Gettysburg is frightening media. They have supported and protected insider corruption for a long time. Trump will clean up the festering wound, and make America great again. 
=== from 2015 ===
The Australian Senate refuses to make cuts to spending that are necessary. The cuts would not unduly affect service, which all agree is sub par and needs to be better. Throwing money at things doesn't make it better. Many better performing nations do with less. In High School education in Australia we have dysfunctional schools and classes that are dysfunctional even when given more. We have excellent schools and classes that are .. excellent. Money and fads won't address the needs of dysfunctional schools. There have always been dysfunctional schools. The challenge is to improve them without harming excellent ones. One Sydney Met South West school was dysfunctional circa 2008. It chose to suspend classes and get its welfare kids who identified as Aboriginal to make Aboriginal signs that were never part of Aboriginal culture. One bored teen boy attacked a bus one day, and showed a large knife to his mates outside the same bus another day. The bus driver got into trouble for reporting it to the school. Imagine if, for reasons of fairness, a good school had the money to behave that way? That is what the senate wants. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
From 2014 
Fear itself
Islamo Fascists target the Queen. Four arrested following months of surveillance. The attack was planned for memorial day. Meanwhile a Lakemba mosque teaches children how to decapitate sheep. Meanwhile Obama who refused to leave ten thousand troops in Iraq when his advisers begged him, has decided to post 1500 troops after the Iraqi PM begged him and after many innocent people have died. 
Culture of insanity
ABC which has a charter to be balanced is broadcasting a two part hagiography of Bob Hawke and his family, has just deified Gough Whitlam, has called for the killing of Chancellor Abbott and is playing a musical tribute to Gillard. One could not make up those examples of bias. 

Culture cannot be a legal excuse for breaking the law, but Andrew Bolt posts more than a few examples of how judges are giving lenient sentences for just that reason. Feminists don't help women, they support the institutionalised Left. A basic skill for artists is that they can draw, but modern art schools are neglecting that skill and producing artists who don't have another discipline to replace it. 
Live free or die
Greens are contemplating reform to modernise their policies. Hard to know what they go for, but let us hope it isn't limited to horse drawn carriages. In Victoria, Greens are hoping to take lower house seats from the ALP. The ALP don't stand for anything either. 

Conservatives have to stand for something to get re elected. They can't allow ALP policy which hurts industry and cultural assets to stand. But if they do they will lose office, even to the corrupt. 

Palmer struggling to keep PUP alive, facing allegations of theft from a Chinese business partner and possible de-registration from lack of membership by the electoral office. Note, the electoral office verified all of my signatories and it took me days to get the fifty required.
From 2013
Today I include abuse by lefties I have fielded during the day. Not an exhaustive list, but three who happened to post on the Bolt Report Supporter's Group. Their advocacy is not that of intellectual elite, or competent. It is abusive, obfuscating and false. Much like the IPCC reports into Global Warming. Petty, inflating fine points .. The 'debate' has been lost before the left have begun to address the issues. 

A movie is being made about Gillard. To truly capture the hopes and dreams of Gillard in office, one would have thought the optimal format would have been cartoon. 

An anti semitic terrorist says he wants to be understood. But he is. A report that Adelaide will no longer be the capital of South Australia in five thousand years seems to fail in the panic motivating stakes. However, Snowtown has the pedigree and culture to take the mantle. Green activists kill a forestry worker, sparking regulations they don't like. Islamic moderate peoples call for death penalty for marital infidelity. Indonesia leans to nationalism prior to their coming election. Fairfax misleads readers. Time to repeal bad law. 
Historical perspective on this day
This day in history is marked with involvement in Vietnam, Nazism and war in Iraq. In 960, none of that was at issue as Orthodox Christians had an unusual win against Muslims at the Battle of Andrassos: Byzantines under Leo Phokas the Younger scored a crushing victory over the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla. In 1278 Vietnamese leader Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of the Trần dynasty, decided to pass the throne to his crown prince Trần Khâmand take up the post of Retired Emperor. In 1519, Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlán and Aztecruler Moctezuma welcomed him with a great celebration which would be betrayed. In 1520 the Stockholm Bloodbath began: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces results in the execution of around 100 people. In 1576, unity is briefly found in the Eighty Years War Pacification of Ghent – The States General of the Netherlands met and united to oppose Spanish occupation. Netherlands nonetheless have retained a national anthem pledging themselves to Spain. 

In 1602, The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford was opened to the public. In 1605, Robert Catesby, ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, was killed. He had been facing 200 armed troops with a small retinue of his own. He was found shot dead, clutching an icon of the Virgin Mary. In 1614, other religious troubles saw Japanese daimyo Dom Justo Takayama exiled to the Philippines by shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being Christian. In 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, was enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China. In 1745, Charles Edward Stuart invaded England with an army of ~5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden. 

In 1861, during the American Civil War: The "Trent Affair" – The USS San Jacinto stopped the British mail ship Trent and arrested two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between Great Britain and the US. In 1892, the New Orleans general strike began, uniting blackand white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time. In 1895, While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the X-ray. In 1898, The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, the only instance of an attempted coup d'état in American history. It happened in South Carolina, post reconstruction. Many businesses and government positions were in the hands of hard working black people. Meanwhile white supremacist Democrats ran the pup to overthrow that and empty the town of black peoples. The governor did not ask the President for help. Democrats passed martial laws on Black peoples and restricted their vote through intimidation, securing the governorship the following election and preventing a black candidate for the senate for most of the twentieth century. One successful Democrat bigot, Hugh Macrae has a park named after him.

In 1917, The People's Commissars gave authority to Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin. In 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler led the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government. In 1933, the Great Depression: New Deal – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed. It effectively prevented or limited growth until WW2 and today is a tyranny to basic freedoms, seeing many unemployed in a generational cycle of poverty. FDR was highly lauded for it. In 1937, the Nazis exhibited Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") in Munich. In 1939, the Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS were captured by the Germans. In 1939 in Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. In 1940, the Greco-Italian War: The Italian invasion of Greece failed as outnumbered Greek units repulsed the Italians in the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas. It was a temporary setback, and Nazis successfully supported the Italians in another invasion later.

In 1950 the Korean War: United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, while piloting an F-80 Shooting Star, shot down two North KoreanMiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfightin history. In 1957, Operation Grapple X, Round C1: the United Kingdom conducted its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific. In 1960, John F. Kennedydefeated Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States. Nixon had conceded so as to not do what Gore did, and divide the nation and weaken the presidency. History shows Nixon had the better numbers. In 1965, the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 was given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom. In 1965, the 173rd Airborne was ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War, while the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment fought one of the first set-piece engagements of the war between Australian forces and the Viet Cong at the Battle of Gang Toi. In 1966 Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke became the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction. In 1966, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnsonsigned into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League. In 1968, the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is signed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by standardising the uniform traffic rules among the signatories. In 1973 the right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million. In 1977, Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovered the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina. In 1987, Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb exploded in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded. In 2002, Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". In 2004, War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in history hit the Visayas region in the Philippines. The typhoon killed 6,201 people as of 29 January 2014 and was considered the deadliest typhoon to hit the country. It caused around $1 billion in damages unofficially. 
=== 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, those born on this day, across the years
Shunzhi Emperor
We have peace. The throne is full. We have the mail. Those stories are over. We remember. Let us party
Deaths
===
Tim Blair 2017


===
Andrew Bolt 2017


===
Tim Blair


TRIGGS JIGS - PLUS READER PHOTOSHOP RESULTS



“Gillian Triggs,” writes The Australian’s Hedley Thomas, “is either completely deluded or deliberately deceptive.”
8 Nov  

POLLS ARE GOOD UNLESS THEY’RE BAD

Labor MP Emma Husar performs a whiplash-worthy reversal during a fantastically awkward press conference.
8 Nov  

IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE AN OUTCRY

Today’s outrage target is former Australian cricket captain Ian Chappell.
8 Nov  

GREEN CARD 2: MANUS ISLAND EDITION

Asylum-seeking Gerard Depardieus at off-shore detention centres are winning their way to Australia via a local version of the old green card marriage scam.
8 Nov
===
Andrew Bolt


How to interpret polls, by Emma Husar

When is a poll a damning indictment, and when is it irrelevant. It depends on precisely what question you've asked Labor MP Emma Husar.
8 Nov  

On my show tonight - Milo Yiannopoulos

On The Bolt Report on Sky at 7pm - new conservative star Milo Yiannopoulos, fresh from his Dangerous Faggot tour, on the victim politics of Hillary Clinton, and whether it will win her tomorrow's election. Plus Malcolm Turnbull's big flip on Gillian Triggs.
8 Nov  
===

Which hunt will the sinister ICAC try next?

Miranda Devine – Saturday, November 07, 2015 (9:42pm)

OUR justice system is built on the presumption of innocence. The basic principle is that it is better for 100 guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to suffer.
 Continue reading 'Which hunt will the sinister ICAC try next?'
===

Bludgers and fools that drag us down

Piers Akerman – Sunday, November 08, 2015 (11:58am)

The Howard Coalition government’s greatest challenges were tax reform and unchecked illegal immigration.
 Continue reading 'Bludgers and fools that drag us down'
===

Teen terrorists aren’t born — they’re made

Piers Akerman – Thursday, November 05, 2015 (11:09pm)

THE Baird government is still pussyfooting around the growing problem of teenage terrorism. Accountant Curtis Cheng’s murder at the hands of a ­15-year-old Muslim boy outside Parramatta police station last month prompted its latest response.
 Continue reading 'Teen terrorists aren’t born — they’re made'
===

MARGO AWAKES

Tim Blair – Sunday, November 08, 2015 (2:20pm)

“What is the difference between conservatives and the Left?” asks Andrew Bolt. “Just time.”
Very true. In Margo Kingston’s case it’s taken 14 entire years to realise that Islam might present certain problems: 
At last silence broken. Islamism misogynist, homophobic, anti-free speech. Must be defeated …
Tired of biting your tongue on the trouble with Islam? Freedom to speak out with pride here. 
The silence Kingston speaks of was her own. She’s always been free to speak out, but chose not to – along with so many of her gutless fellow leftists. Still, it’s nice to finally have an A-list frightbat on board.
===

CARSON’S SCORE

Tim Blair – Sunday, November 08, 2015 (2:02pm)

Because he’s a Republican, presidential candidate Dr Ben Carson is facing the sort of intensive media attention never endured by his Democrat rivals: 
Carson made it clear that he’s going on the offensive to counter the recent onslaught of media attacks.
“What I’m going to have to do is think seriously about what kind of example I set, because this is really a test to see whether somebody who is not part of political class can succeed and can prevail over all the forces that will do everything they can to keep you out,” Carson added …
Carson then provided some insights into his strategy.
“I’ll punch back gently, and then say ‘Are there any important things you would like to talk about?’
“I may say something like, ‘let’s talk about that after you investigate the academic records of all the Democrats who are leading this nation right now,’ “ Carson said.
“I can spend all my time every day answering your questions about what I did when I was 14 or 13 or 12 … or we can talk about about ISIS, we can talk about the global jihad movement, we can talk about the financial infrastructure of this nation which is about to collapse under debt. We can talk about the educational system that is the foundation of our greatness,” Carson explained. 
Carson’s explains why he is suddenly a media target: “I believe they’re all extraordinarily concerned, particularly having seen the recent poll numbers that show me beating Hillary fairly substantially.”
===

NOW IT WILL NEVER COME BACK

Tim Blair – Sunday, November 08, 2015 (11:10am)

A goofy old novelty song is forever banished by the ABC: 
Complaint: A 936 ABC Hobart listener complained that an offensive song was played on the Weekends program.
Complaint Finding Status: Upheld.
Audience and Consumer Affairs response: The broadcast of the song ‘My Boomerang Won’t Come Back’ was not in keeping with the ABC’s editorial standards for harm and offence; there was no editorial justification for playing it. The song was not on a regular ABC playlist but was aired because it was requested by a listener. This error was due to staff not being familiar with the track’s lyrics. The ABC apologised to the complainant, removed the track completely from the system and took steps to ensure that this would not happen again. 
Curiously, in recent years only the ABC has bothered to even reference Charlie Drake’s elderly tune (although Andrew Denton mistakenly thought it was performed by Rolf Harris). This may be the first George Martin-produced track to be banned by the ABC following one complaint from a solitary Tasmanian.
(Via Jill.)
===

THEY CRY AND PLAY WITH CHALK

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 07, 2015 (2:31pm)

Three hours of “emotional confrontation” at Yale University: 
The impromptu gathering … ballooned out of a chalking event on Cross Campus in support of Yale’s people of color …
Many students burst into tears as they spoke …
Shortly after the gathering on Cross Campus, a crowd of students moved to the Silliman courtyard to continue chalking there. “Our culture is not a costume,” they wrote in bright colors on the ground. 
(Via Iowahawk, who has the perfect description of these pathetic students.)
===

ABC more shocked than it’s been for 56 years

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (3:58pm)

The ABC bans a popular song after a single listener complained, 56 years after it was first recorded:
Pathetic. 
===

Tribal trouble

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (11:09am)

There is usually something tribal about mass brawls.
Brawl one:
TWO men were arrested and police were forced to use capsicum spray to subdue a 20-person brawl in the city early this morning. The large fight broke out at Chambers nightclub on Elizabeth Street shortly before 1.30am, with more than 30 police cars responding to the incident which spilt out onto the road.
The pictures give a clue.
Brawl two:
A NERVOUS peace hangs over Angurugu today as senior community people meet in an effort to prevent a repeat of yesterday’s violence that left two men — aged 19 and 29 — dead and more injured… 
Commander Tony Fuller said the spear fight of 50 to 60 residents of Angurugu began as a family feud…
“Police attempted to disperse the crowd but were forced to retreat due to the overwhelming number of armed persons who had gathered on each end of the street brandishing spears at each other,” Commander Fuller said… Groote Eylandt has a troubled history of intra-clan violence and while yesterday’s deaths were sparked by new sequence of events, feuds go back generations.
===

On The Bolt Report today, October 8

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (5:55am)

On Channel 10 at 10am and 3pm:
Editorial:  Nine years after Al Gore’s deceitful film, proof that sceptics rule, after all.

My guests: Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, former Treasurer Peter Costello, former NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Costa and Piers Akerman of the  Daily Telegraph.
Shorten in the clear? Turnbull in a GST tangle? Is anti-Catholicism the new racism of the intellectuals? Should politicians dance?
The videos of the shows appear here.
===

Obama cancels project and jobs to “save” planet

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (5:02am)

Global warming alarmism costs jobs. President Barack Obama lets a scare dictate his policies:
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: After extensive public outreach and consultation with other cabinet agencies, the State Department has decided the Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t serve the national interest of the United States. I agree with that decision. 
JUDY WOODRUFF: With that, President Obama formally rejected TransCanada’s application to extend the controversial pipeline. The massive network would have connected oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast, adding to existing pipelines. It would have carried 800,000 barrels of oil a day. The company, along with many Republican lawmakers in the U.S., argued the project would create thousands of jobs and lower gas prices. But Mr. Obama disagreed, pointing out gas prices are already lower. More importantly, he said, the pipeline wasn’t in line with his administration’s efforts to combat climate change. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: 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.
Amazing.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill,) 
===

Sweden tells illegal immigrants it’s full

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (5:01am)

Sweden, which prided itself on welcoming immigrants, says it’s now full. Taking in the equivalent of more than 3 per cent of its population of 9.6 million in just two years is too much:
Overwhelmed by a massive influx of migrants, Sweden is approaching its fiscal and emotional limit and this “humanitarian superpower” is now being forced to hit the brakes. 
The Scandinavian kingdom, in which one in every five residents is of foreign origin, is expected to receive up to 360,000 new immigrants in 2015 and 2016. That’s roughly the equivalent of Germany dealing with 3 million new migrants or 2.2 million arriving in France.
”The situation is no longer tenable. Sweden can no longer take refugees in the way it has before,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven warned this week…
Immigration Minister Morgan Johansson reiterated the government’s line when he said: “We cannot guarantee housing to all refugees. If you have a roof over your head in Germany, then it’s probably best for you to stay there.”
In a sign of the problems involved in dealing with the huge influx, the Migration Agency reported that it had to set up beds for 50 migrants at its own headquarters on Thursday night.

In a bid to address the urgency of the situation and to put a lid on public spending, the Ministry of Finance began suggesting that development aid be cut by up to 60 percent in next year’s budget to help pay for the influx.
Then, turning towards the EU, Sweden is seeking to relocate some of its asylum applicants to other EU Countries.

Which do not want them either.
UPDATE
Austria also cracks down:
Austria will shorten the currently indefinite term of asylum to a maximum of three years and will tighten the process for refugee family reunions amid a large-scale migrant crisis, the country’s government said on Tuesday… 
Under proposed legislation, a three-year asylum term may be prolonged after an investigation can prove the likelihood of persecution or violence in their home country.
Currently, refugee status gives a right to bring family to Austria after a year of residence. The new law will extend this period to three years.
And then? Forcible deportation?
Germany dithers over bringing in temporary protection visas to stem the flow:
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday many Syrians should get “subsidiary protection,” which carries a one-year renewable residence permit and wouldn’t allow them to bring relatives to Germany for two years. Hours later, he shelved the idea, saying things remain unchanged for now. De Maiziere apparently hadn’t consulted other members of the governing coalition. Members of Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel’s Social Democrats sharply criticized him.
But Germany is still slowly cutting the size of the welcome mat:
Germany plans to speed up repatriations of rejected asylum seekers from new central hubs, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her coalition allies agreed Thursday, vowing to bring order to a record migrant influx. 
While refugees from Syria and other war zones would continue to be granted safe haven, those deemed economic migrants, mostly from “safe origin” Balkan countries, would be sent back within three weeks, said Merkel…
Berlin has already taken a firmer line against asylum seekers from nations not at war, leading to a sharp drop in October of arrivals from Balkan states. Germany has also begun looking at limiting arrivals from Afghanistan, where the German army has been part of NATO efforts to stabilize the country…
[Germany] registered more than 758,000 asylum seekers from January to October, the interior ministry said, with Syrians making up one third, and many others coming from war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. In October alone, 181,000 migrants arrived, surpassing the previous record of around 163,000 in September.
Norway cuts benefits:
Justice Minister Anders Anundsen says the current center-right government plans to reduce benefits for refugees up to 20 percent and introduce tighter immigration rules to stem the flow of asylum seekers to Norway. 
Officials estimate that Norway, a nation of 5 million, will see up to 25,000 refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, this year.
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No one leaving this “sinking” island. So what gives?

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (4:56am)

Al Gore claimed climate refugees were fleeing drown Pacific islands. Bill Shorten visited Kiribati this week to see for himself the great danger.
Yet the islanders don’t seem to feel in any imminent danger at all:
The New Zealand immigration department sets aside 75 places a year in a lottery for migrants from Kiribati, and at the moment it can’t fill them. President Anote Tong suggests that is because things aren’t desperate enough yet.
No, they aren’t. Not when 80 per cent of those “sinking” Pacific and Indian Ocean islands are in fact growing or stable.
(Thanks to reader Low Profile.) 
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High-flying anti-Semite attacks Jew

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (4:47am)

Just another Jew-hater at high altitude:
A MUSLIM man has been detained after trying to kill an Israeli passenger on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Chad to Ethiopia… 
“He came up behind my seat and started to choke me with a lot of force,” [54-year-old victim Arik said]..
“He hit me over the head with a metal tray and shouted ‘Allah akbar’ (God is greater) and ‘I will slaughter the Jew.’..” The attacker, identified as Sudanese national Ahmed Mohamed, reportedly spent the last moments of the trip attempting to convince his fellow passengers to help lynch the Jewish flyer, repeatedly shouting, “Let’s finish him off.” 
(Thanks to reader Jon.) 
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Turnbull Government now giving in to arts bureaucrats, too

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (4:24am)

Retreat on almost every funding and cultural front. Today:
A controversial funding scheme for the arts introduced in this year’s budget is set to be wound back with money restored to the Australia Council. 
Arts Minister Mitch Fifield has given his strongest indication yet that significant changes will be made to the National Program for Excellence in the Arts.
A gathering of more than 100 arts sector leaders from across Australia held in Sydney on Friday was left with the impression that Senator Fifield will restore some of the $105 million stripped from the Australia Council for the widely criticised NPEA. “What I said was that I was giving careful consideration to the shape of the program and the extent to which it might be varied,” Senator Fifield told Fairfax Media after the meeting. “I’d be likely to be in a position to announce something within two weeks.”
Former Arts Minister George Brandis had proposed the NPEA to make sure more arts funding went to excellence and not stuff like this.
UPDATE
Greens Senator Adam Bandit has a telling measure of whether a meeting of arts administrators with the Arts Minister is a success:
“I hoped I’d be walking into a room of clinking champagne glasses but it didn’t happen,” Mr Bandt said. 
That would be champagne the rest of you paid for, by the way. 
===

Just another government scheme

Andrew Bolt November 08 2015 (4:12am)

I didn’t understand the point of the scheme, either. Why spend taxpayers’ money on getting people to take jobs that in many cases others could have done without a subsidy?
A federal government program designed to get older Australians back into work has been branded a dismal failure, with only 1700 people joining the scheme meant to benefit 32,000. 
Department of Employment documents reveal just 1735 people took advantage of the Restart scheme in its first year of operation – about 5 per cent of the government’s target. Announced with much fanfare in the 2014 budget, the program provides a wage subsidy of up to $10,000 to employers who give jobs to people aged over 50 who have been unemployed for more than six months.
Not as if these schemes hadn’t failed before:
Indeed, just 230 employers took advantage of a $1000 annual subsidy under the two-year life of the Rudd/Gillard government’s Experience+Jobs Bonus scheme, which was also designed to get over 50s into work. It was meant to benefit up to 10,000 employers.
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FEMINISTS AREN’T

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 08, 2014 (12:48am)

A plain fact: 
The professional feminist is not there to help women, but to promote the agenda of the institutional left. 
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A RABID ANTI-DENTITE

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 08, 2014 (12:25am)

This is good:

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Four more Islamists arrested in London. UPDATE: Queen reportedly the target

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (10:55am)

Britain counts the mounting cost of mass migration from the Middle East and Pakistan:
Four Islamist terror suspects were being held by police last night amid fears of a Remembrance Sunday gun plot. 
Armed officers seized the men following months of surveillance and ahead of events honouring the nation’s war dead tomorrow…
The home of Yousaf Syed, the 19-year-old suspect, had been raided before – in April during an investigation into potential jihadists… When [a neighbour] challenged the teenager’s mother, she told him: ‘I’m sorry, it’s my son. He’s young and he’s just discovered his faith.’ 
UPDATE
Claim:
A SUSPECTED plot to kill the Queen at a Royal British Legion event ahead of Remembrance Day at the Royal Albert Hall has been foiled by police. 
British tabloid The Sun reports four Islamic terror suspects are thought to have been planning a knife attack on Her Majesty, 88.
UPDATE
Given all this talk of cutting throats and spilling blood, is it really smart for Lakemba mosque to be teaching children how to decapitate a sheep - albeit here a stuffed one with fake blood?:

Lakemba mosque toddler decapitates sheep YT1080p by vlad43
UPDATE
Barack Obama disastrously refused to leave troops in Iraq to safeguard the peace. His generals urged him to at least keep 10,000 in place, but no…
Now, thousands of deaths later:
The White House authorized up to 1,500 additional troops to be sent to Iraq, the Pentagon announced Friday, doubling the size of the U.S presence there.
(Thanks to reader Rita.) 
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Buster was nervous

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (10:30am)

Brilliant:
Just brilliant:
(The work of Huw Parkinson. Thanks to reader Andrew. Tim Blair has another.) 
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An ABC concert for Julia Gillard, featuring goldfish

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (9:59am)

Reader WaG311 is right - you could not make this stuff up:
The details:
Join Julian Day and the Hon. Julia Gillard live on air and in the Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney, for this Australian Music Month special live broadcast event. 
The concert features the 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. The broad collection of works includes a 6-girl choir, instructions from goldfish, spoken phrases turned into musical gestures, mouth organs and more. 
I believe the goldfish are being played by Bruce Wilson, Fran Kelly, Steve Conroy, Bill Ludwig and Craig Thomson.
From the ABC, of course, fresh from deifying Gough Whitlam and broadcasting a joke about killing “Chancellor Abbott”.  
UPDATE
The Left is brilliant at steering public money into Labor propaganda. These works, this concert and this broadcast are brought to you by:
- the taxpayer-funded ABC
- the taxpayer-funded Tura New Music
- taxpayer-supported composers and performers
Friday’s rehearsal:
UPDATE
On Monday, the ABC screens another tribute to yet another Labor leader:
Australian Story 
Monday, 8pm, ABC
The reporter-less format of this terrific series is perfect for getting inside the mind of Bob Hawke… He talks with sadness about the death of his older brother Neil (from meningitis) at a young age; his almost fatal accident on a motorbike ("God spared my life so I had to make sure I made the very most of it"); his and first wife Hazel’s decision to have an abortion; and, with humour, about his mother making him sign a temperance vow at the age of nine. (Of course he famously didn’t keep it.) His second wife, Blanche d’Alpuget, says: “He was not a nice drunk.” But he was a brilliant advocate. “When he joined the ACTU he was a flamingo in the henhouse,” she says, “and he became like a rock star.” A grandson admires “his passion for life, for his country. That’s why he was never voted out.” Others talk about the way men and women still gravitate to him when he appears in public. But when Hawke left Hazel for Blanche it tore the family apart. In part two next week, they talk about how they’ve embraced Blanche since Hazel died and have all become close. It also tracks Hawke’s rise through the ALP ranks to lead Labor to victory in three elections. 
The ABC is now just laughing in Tony Abbott’s face.
(Thanks also to readers Big Skinny Geek and Jack Black.) 
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Why are we importing danger?

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (9:40am)

Not for the first time the courts tell us - even if inadvertently - that refugees and asylum seekers should be expected to be more prone to breaking our laws and injuring us. And, of course, that’s why they should be excused the usual punishments.
Which raises again the question: how fair is that to the Australians who must then pay the price of our “compassion”?
Today’s example, a judge excuses a dangerous driver from the full consequences of his actions on the grounds that being a refugee we must expect he might flee police trying to stop him:
AN IRANIAN refugee who crashed his car into a Cairns CBD power pole while fleeing from police had a “psychological and physical fear” of authorities built on terror from his home country.
Reza Kazimi Se Shanbeh, 25, received an 18-month jail term with immediate parole for dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm after the passenger in the car suffered facial fractures from smashing into the windscreen during the high-speed crash last year.
The Cairns District Court heard that when he saw a police car pursuing him about 2.45am on June 22 last year he took off at speed, failed to negotiate a turn from Sheridan St into Aplin St, then mounted the median strip, became airborne and hit the pole.
But Judge Dean Morzone said it was clear his turbulent past, which also included a harrowing boat trip from Indonesia and several months in detention on Christmas Island, had prompted the response.
He said Shanbeh’s fear of authority related to encounters with the Iranian police and the country’s Basij militia.
“Your experience in Iran was only made worse by your experience in travelling to a safe haven in Australia,” he said.
“You unfortunately trusted your journey to others which saw you unexpectedly take the frightening voyage through rough seas through unexpected events on a small boat which ultimately saw your detention on Christmas Island for several months.”
Here are some past examples of judges and magistrates whose mercy suggests refugees should be expected to be more dangerous:
A TRAUMATISED former asylum-seeker was last week placed on a good behaviour bond after threatening Department of Human Services staff in Dandenong with a bottle of petrol and a cigarette lighter. 
The defendant, 28, had threatened to “burn down the place” if he didn’t secure a public housing property “by the end of the day” ...
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said “the circumstances in which you came to Australia are highly relevant to the circumstances you’re in now”.
Before his arrival, the man had been under “constant threat” from an Iraqi militia and the “subject of severe abuse” in his homeland. The man fled Iraq after the same militia killed his brother.
While coming to Australia, he survived a “very tragic incident” at Christmas Island. Many of those who died were relatives and close friends of his.
Mr Vandersteen found those events led to the accused’s “multitude of mental health issues” and to his “unacceptable” threats to DHS staff.
Another example:
AN Afghan refugee who raped two women within a week in 2008 has won a reduced sentence because of his traumatic upbringing… 
“Although (the sentencing judge) accepted that the appellant suffer[ed] from a post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result of [his] experiences in Afghanistan and consequent depression and anxiety, his Honour does not appear to have related this finding to the burden of imprisonment upon the appellant,’’ the Court of Appeal ruled. 
And:
... he’s still here: 
Ali Jaffari, an Afghan ­refugee on the sex offenders register, is under police investigation over his behaviour ­towards young children at footy training and Auskick near Albert Park…  
Jaffari was convicted and placed on the sex offenders register for 15 years over the assault of a boy at Geelong’s Eastern beach in August but received just 300 hours of community service… 

In January he was accused of child stealing and unlawful assault of a four-year-old girl at a Geelong West oval… When interviewed, Jaffari told police: “For us, is not an issue."…
Magistrate Ron Saines stood the matter down in March, advising police if he were hearing the matter he would have reasonable doubt finding Jaffari guilty, citing cultural differences.
The charges were dropped.  
(Thanks to reader withheld.) 
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Drawing to a close

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (9:13am)

An example of - or metaphor for - a wider cultural crisis:
ON the eve of the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial at the Art Gallery of NSW, artist and former National Art School director Bernard Ollis claims Australian art schools are “in crisis” and that drawing skills are in serious ­decline.

Ollis, a 2012 Dobell prize finalist, says the demise of drawing, once regarded as the foundation of all art-making, is “partly due to art schools pushing for new technologies and new directions, and thinking that drawing belongs in the last century’’. 
“I think drawing in art schools is going through a poor time. A lot of people said, ‘out with the old, in with the new’, but they don’t know what to replace it with. They say, ‘here’s all this wonderful technology to play with’, but it doesn’t necessarily make you a better artist…

“Drawing has been going downhill partly because I don’t think curators really have a particular empathy with drawing, and partly because it’s never been pursued or pushed in art schools or curating courses, so it’s really been marginalised.
“It’s much more sexy to work with new technologies than to draw something, which is a bloody hard thing to do.” 
The best could do it easily:
UPDATE
Reader Clownfish:
I was rigorously trained in drawing skills, which even in the 1990s was a bit of an anomaly. Today, art schools actually boast of being entirely theory-based. Which leads one to wonder: if the schools aren’t teaching their students to actually draw - what the hell are they teaching them? And why would any decent artist pay for such nonsense? Today, of course, I work almost entirely with digital technology - but the root skill behind all of that is the technical rigor of putting pencil to paper. Hence, I still attend life-drawing groups, and carry a sketch book with me everywhere. Photoshop and an Intuos tablet can’t magically make you an artist if you just can’t bloody draw in the first place.
Reader Jaysyd:
As an artist who can draw, (thanks to Julian Ashton art school) the curators, artists and dealers all went to the same uni and learnt from the same lecturers.
Reader pennyoz:
I went to the Nat. art School. Life drawing classes were a joke. In an attic there were all the old casts that once students used. Neglected and some of them stolen. They were used by advertising agencies in the main but so little stuff was left up there, even they never found what they wanted. Life drawing classes were sessions of deconstruction. The art of making colors didn’t exist. Once it was THE SCHOOL to go to. Today it is just a shadow of itself.... The best teachers were part timers. If you didn’t abstract you need not apply.  
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Please help the Greens move into the modern world

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (8:28am)

Any tips?
THE Australian Greens will consider how to move their party into the modern, professional political era at their national conference. 
Trying not to make us give up cars, cheap electricity and jobs might of course help. Tree worship is another thing that really did go out of fashion a few millennia ago.
UPDATE
Reader TT:
Yeah, one observation.The Stasi plus the Sierra Club is not political formula.
Reader Arch:
The party reached its zenith with the Velcro fastened sandal.  
Reader IainC:
They have a long way to go. 
Economic policies from the 1850s (Marxian)
Science policies from pre-1550 (reformation, Galileo, Newton)
Social policies from 1500 BC (pre-Mosaic)
Agricultural policies from 5,000 BC (pre-farming)
Environmental policies from 10,000 BC (pre-city dwelling)
Technology policies from 2,000,000 BC (pre-fire) Move all their policies into the modern world (say, post-1900) and they wouldn’t be the Greens. 
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The Bolt Report tomorrow, November 9

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (8:00am)

On The Bolt Report on Channel 10 tomorrow at 10am and 4pm.
Editorial: Whitlam memorial service - the political messages, good, bad and nasty.
My guest:  Top marketing guru David Chalke analyses the Islamic State’s propaganda videos.
The panel: Australian columnist Niki Savva and former Labor strategist Bruce Hawker.
NewsWatch:  Sharri Markson, media editor of the The Australian.
And lots more, including Palmer’s party imploding, Obama’s humiliation and the strange complacency of some Liberal ministers. And a great conservative cause launched.
The videos of the shows appear here.
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Memo to Liberals: keeping your mouth shut and acting like Labor doesn’t work

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (7:50am)

The Victorian Liberal Government did nothing for its first couple of years.
It did not create and build. It did not explain itself or its beliefs. It did not vigorously attack monuments to massive Labor waste and ideological folly such as the mothballed desal plant.  It endorsed symbols of Leftist authoritarianism and judicial activism such as the overreach of the federal Racial Discrimination Act and state Racial and Religious Tolerance Act as well as the Charter of Human Rights. It endorsed the divisive multicultural project.  It retained the Labor infrastructure of a dangerous new tribalism, such as the Koori Court.  It did not call out Leftist media shills on the ABC, notably Jon Faine. It rejected candidates for preselection with an unapologetic conservative agenda, such as IPA boss John Roskam.  It did not fight the greens agenda preached in schools. It did not call out the global warming madness. It resisted renewal, with party elders trying to block the preselection of young achievers such as Tim Smith. It shrank from ideas and retreated into the blandest managerialism. It governed as if petrified or impressed by the far-Left opinions of the dying Age or state-bloated ABC. It gave Leftists public money to reward Leftist writers who attacked conservative ideas.
In short, it governed as if it actually had no animating philosophy or lacked the wit or courage to argue it. And it wonders why it is on the brink now of an historic defeat of a first-term government.
Professor James Allan:
Wouldn’t it have been nice for the voters of Victoria, at least those on the right side of politics, if the state Coalition government had found two core beliefs to rub together these past few years. Wouldn’t you Victorians like them to have done something? Anything? 
Yes, a government should not alienate the middle. But if it can’t enthuse its base, who will make its case for it?
As it is, I hear the party has trouble even getting volunteers to staff booths. I don’t actually sense an anger with this Government, just an inability to see its point - other than to stand in the way of the undoubtedly greater damage of a Labor-Green government.
UPDATE
James Allan draws a contrast:
No one would suggest that Wisconsin is the natural home of Republicans. 
And yet, for the last three years Wisconsin has had a Republican governor by the name of Scott Walker.  He’s a small-government man and isn’t ashamed to say it.  He came into office and immediately took on the public sector unions — think Campbell Newman and then go up an order of magnitude or two.  He so infuriated the vested interests that they soon triggered a special recall election, which you can do in Wisconsin.  By history’s standard, that should have been the end of Walker. No governor facing a recall election had won one in ages.  Walker romped home, despite massive union support for his opponent and constant, noisy headline-grabbing mass rallies by activists, many from out of state.
There was also a struggle over the top judiciary.  And then came Tuesday election and Walker faced the electorate once more.  The Democrats poured everything they had into this race.  Obama desperately wanted a Walker loss.  So did the public sector unions.  The polls suggested it would be a nail-biter.  And yet, once again, Walker romped home.  He cleaned up.  He has now won three elections in four years.
Here’s another, closer to home:
Former Treasurer Peter Costello compares and contrasts:
In Victoria Labor is ahead according to opinion polls. The Liberal Party only narrowly won the last election… They got off to a slow start. Not much happened… 
In Queensland the Liberal-National Party was elected after Labor was smashed. Labor had governed for 14 years and was well on the way to destroying the financial position of the state. A comprehensive Audit (which I chaired) recommended a far-reaching program to cut waste and restore financial discipline. The Government had a mandate and it exercised it. For a while, it went behind in the polls. Now that the state is turning around, it is back in front…
No Liberal minister in Victoria would have dared send the message Campbell Newman sent two years ago (albeit with finances in a far more desperate shape): 
PREMIER Campbell Newman has scrapped the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards in a move that has shocked and outraged arts and publishing identities.  
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Victoria threatened by the party of poverty and unreason

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (7:32am)

The Greens have already had their usual destructive impact, panicking Labor into promising to tear up a huge contract if it wins office in Victoria. More can be expected:
The Greens are poised to seize two inner city seats from the ALP at this month’s state election, a new poll suggests. 
A Lonergan research poll, commissioned by the Greens, shows the party is on track to win its first lower house seats in Victoria, leading Labor in both Melbourne and Richmond.
The news comes as Labor Leader Daniel Andrews rejected a preference deal offer from the Greens… Mr Andrews said he turned down the deal because he wanted to end the instability and chaos that had plagued Victorian politics. 
If the Greens win those seats, Andrews might not get his wish.  
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New documents: Clive Palmer steered $6 million of Chinese money into his party

Andrew Bolt November 08 2014 (7:11am)

Clive Palmer has got problems far bigger than Jacqui Lambie - ones I suspect will make this term in Parliament his last:
New evidence in a fraud and dishonesty case against Clive Palmer shows he used Chinese cash to fun­nel $6 million to the coffers of his Palmer United Party and $97,000 to pay a credit card bill, using funds that were meant to pay for the operations of a remote port. 
The PUP founder drew a cheque for $6m on August 8 last year and directed it to the bank ­account of his political party, one month before the federal election in which he narrowly won the seat of Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast and his party secured the balance of power in the Senate.
China’s state-owned international investment company, which accuses Mr Palmer of dishonesty and fraud, filed documents in the Supreme Court in Brisbane yesterday that reveal all of the details of a series of cheques drawn by the resources tycoon for his personal and political benefit after he took $10m from a bank account, called “Port Palmer Operations”.
The funds in the National Australia Bank Port Palmer Operations account were meant to pay for operating costs at the West Australian port of Cape Preston, which Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy was neither in possession of nor operating at the time the money was taken.
The new evidence shows that after the August 8 cheque for $6m to the PUP, Mr Palmer paid a further $799,763 and $1,247,844 to a Brisbane agency, Media Circus Network, for its role in buying ­advertising for PUP before the election. Media Circus, separately, received another $2.167m from the Port Palmer Operations account…
The seriousness of the allegations in China’s legal actions against Mr Palmer, who as the first defendant will face a Sup­reme Court civil trial in Brisbane from November 26, mean that the claims of fraud and dishonesty are likely to be referred to police.
Mr Palmer has repeatedly and emphatically denied wrongdoing....
In their legal reply yesterday, the Chinese state-owned companies in the Citic Pacific group disclosed that, two weeks ago, Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy wrote to say that it “wishes to make an ­unconditional payment” of $12,167.065.60. A follow-up letter from Mr Palmer’s side “indicated the payment (offer) did not constitute an offer to settle the proceeding”. The offer was rejected by the Chinese companies.  
UPDATE
The court battle over Palmer’s missing millions makes his other court dramas seem trivial, even though they mark the astonishing collapse of his party:
CLIVE Palmer has launched legal action to block the possible de­registration of his fledgling party in Queensland... 
Just weeks after boasting of thousands of paid-up Palmer United Party members in Queensland, the federal MP is also trying to stop Electoral Commission Queensland ­officers requiring people on the list to confirm that they are members of the party. The legal action, filed late on Thursday in the ­Supreme Court in Brisbane, follows reve­l­ations that a PUP membership list supplied last week to the commission contained names of people who had never formally joined or had since resigned.
The PUP must prove it has 500 members to maintain its polit­ical registration in Queensland, after it lost its status as a parliamentary party with the resignations of MPs Alex Douglas and Carl Judge — both defectors from the Liberal National Party.
Shame on the media outlets and journalists who did so much to promote this man and help him and some of his minions into Parliament.  
===
Pastor Rick Warren
If you change how you see people, the people you see will change.
“Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Mark 10:21
=
"A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers." Ruth Graham
=
“You must hold on, so you can do what God wants and receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:36
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US Campaign for Burma
Today, 37 organizations submitted a letter urging Obama to update targeted financial sanctions (i.e. the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list) and to publish clear criteria for removing & adding people to the list. Over the past few years, the Administration has failed to update the list, not even adding major rights abusers like the top Burmese army commander warring against the Kachin.

Accurate financial sanctions keep US money away from bad actors in Burma. The Obama Administration's delay maximizes the serious risk that persons responsible for corruption & human rights abuses may benefit from US business relationships.

We urge the Obama Administration to add persons who are blocking reform & engaging in human rights abuses. We also recommend criteria for removing reformed civilian persons, including requirements that such persons must provide restitution to victims, cut ties with the military, comply with an audit, & account for their past crimes.
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Larry Pickering
MID-OCEAN STANDOFF, Fairfax claims

It was not a mid-ocean anything as HMAS Ballarat last night responded to a distress call a mere 57 kilometers from the Indonesian coast and well within their own search and rescue zone.

A wooden boat intending to illegally enter Australia with least 50 people on board, called for assistance due to an engine breakdown but on arrival the Australian crew determined that the engine was in good working order so they notified the Indonesians and left.

Responding to a further distress call showed the engine had been sabotaged and HMAS Ballarat stood by to await Indonesian assistance to return the boat to port.

It was reported the Indonesians had refused to respond, which was a departure from their recent willingness to accept the return of “asylum seeker” boats.

Apparently, Indonesian authorities had originally agreed to respond but the matter was quickly handed over to Indonesia's ‘Ministry for Politics’ and they had moved to instigate the current standoff.

There is no doubt the Indonesians are peeved at the political implications of spying accusations and are looking to capitalise electorally on the claims.

Australia’s espionage is centred on foiling Islamic terrorist activities that have claimed hundreds of Australian lives but it appears Indonesia has little concern for Australian lives and even less concern for our border security.

This aberrant corrupt nation must now be shown that we respect our sovereignty even if they don’t.

It is inconceivable that we support this obscenely rich nation to the extent of $600 million per year.

In return we are treated like swine at a Ramadan fast.

We have tried the softly softly approach and now it’s time for the big stick.
===
Matt Granz
I don't know quite how to take this... I am a bassist, so on that level... um.... well, here's the story:

The origins for the group and movie Spinal Tap came from Christopher Guest hearing a conversation at a table next to him at the Chateau Marmont back in 1974.

Manager: All right, well, we’ll take our instruments up to the room.
Bassist: Don’t know where my bass is.
Manager: I beg your pardon.
Bassist: I don’t know where the bass is.
Manager: Where is it?
Bassist: I think it’s at the airport.
Manager: You have to get back there, don’t you?
Bassist: I don’t know, do I?
Manager: I think you better.
Bassist: Where’s my bass?
Manager: It’s at the airport.
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I was looking for rules on Continental Jo .. and came across this article I felt you might like. I gather penalty points are 25 for an Ace or joker, 20 for King, 15 for queen, 10 for jack and Ten, face value for other cards. I recall Marita plays the game for 13 rounds .. up and down. I seem to recall you asking after this, once, years ago.
Continental Rummy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Rummy
Continental Rummy (also called Continental, May I?, and Double-deck rummy) is a progressive partnership Rummycard game related to Rumino. It is considered the forerunner of the whole family of rummy games using two packs of cards as one. Its name derive from the fact that it is played throughout the...
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Is Pope Francis a student of Rahner's ecclesiology?
By Ged MacMahon
This essay explores the ecclesiological understandings of Karl Rahner and Pope Francis. There are many understandings which are held in common between these two prominent men of the modern era. Karl Rahner, SJ (1904-1984), was a German theologian who is considered one of the most influential theologians of the 20th Century. He was regarded as an expert, or peritus, during the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and had an important role in bringing about some of the significant changes that occur…
Continue reading...
A great essay on the Catholic Church's current Pope. - ed
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“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” 1 Timothy 2:1-2 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning


"Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands."
Isaiah 49:16
No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word "Behold," is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. Zion said, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me." How amazed the divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favoured people? The Lord's loving word of rebuke should make us blush; he cries, "How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands? How darest thou doubt my constant remembrance, when the memorial is set upon my very flesh?" O unbelief, how strange a marvel thou art! We know not which most to wonder at, the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of his people. He keeps his promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt him. He never faileth; he is never a dry well; he is never as a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a melting vapour; and yet we are as continually vexed with anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of the desert. "Behold," is a word intended to excite admiration. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of infinite love as to be written upon the palms of his hands. "I have graven thee." It does not say, "Thy name." The name is there, but that is not all: "I have graven thee." See the fulness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy case, thy circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy weaknesses, thy wants, thy works; I have graven thee, everything about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put thee altogether there. Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when he has graven thee upon his own palms?

Evening

"And ye shall be witnesses unto me."
Acts 1:8
In order to learn how to discharge your duty as a witness for Christ, look at his example. He is always witnessing: by the well of Samaria, or in the Temple of Jerusalem: by the lake of Gennesaret, or on the mountain's brow. He is witnessing night and day; his mighty prayers are as vocal to God as his daily services. He witnesses under all circumstances; Scribes and Pharisees cannot shut his mouth; even before Pilate he witnesses a good confession. He witnesses so clearly, and distinctly that there is no mistake in him. Christian, make your life a clear testimony. Be you as the brook wherein you may see every stone at the bottom--not as the muddy creek, of which you only see the surface--but clear and transparent, so that your heart's love to God and man may be visible to all. You need not say, "I am true:" be true. Boast not of integrity, but be upright. So shall your testimony be such that men cannot help seeing it. Never, for fear of feeble man, restrain your witness. Your lips have been warmed with a coal from off the altar; let them speak as like heaven-touched lips should do. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand." Watch not the clouds, consult not the wind--in season and out of season witness for the Saviour, and if it shall come to pass that for Christ's sake and the gospel's you shall endure suffering in any shape, shrink not, but rejoice in the honour thus conferred upon you, that you are counted worthy to suffer with your Lord; and joy also in this--that your sufferings, your losses, and persecutions shall make you a platform, from which the more vigorously and with greater power you shall witness for Christ Jesus. Study your great Exemplar, and be filled with his Spirit. Remember that you need much teaching, much upholding, much grace, and much humility, if your witnessing is to be to your Master's glory.
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Today's reading: Jeremiah 40-42, Hebrews 4 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 40-42

Jeremiah Freed
1 The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had released him at Ramah. He had found Jeremiah bound in chains among all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being carried into exile to Babylon. 2 When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, “The LORD your God decreed this disaster for this place. 3 And now the LORD has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the LORD and did not obey him. 4 But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.” 5However, before Jeremiah turned to go, Nebuzaradan added, “Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the towns of Judah, and live with him among the people, or go anywhere else you please.”
Then the commander gave him provisions and a present and let him go. 6 So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left behind in the land....

Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 4


A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts....”
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Sarah, Sarai, Sara


The Woman Who Became Mother of Nations
Scripture References - Genesis 11:29-31; 12:5-17; 16:1-8; 17:15-21;18; 20:2-18; 21:1-12; 23:1-19; 24:36,37; 25:10, 12; 49:31; Isaiah 51:2;Romans 4:19; 9:9; Hebrews 11:11; 1Peter 3:6
Name Meaning - Among the classified names of the Bible are those known as sacramental names, and are so-called because they were names given by God Himself, or under His inspiration in association with a particular promise, covenant or declaration of His, as to the character, destiny or mission of those distinctly named. Thus a sacramental name became a sign and seal of an established covenant between God and the recipient of such a name. Two Bible characters bearing sacramental names are Abraham and Sarah, both of which signify the gracious purposes and promises of God.
The wife of the patriarch was originally known as Sarai, meaning "princely" or "a princess." Elsdon C. Smith suggests it may signify "contentious" or "quarrelsome," but was changed, not accidentally, or by the whim of the bearer, but by God Himself that it might be a sign of His purpose, into Sarah, implying the princess, a princess or princesses, the source of nations and kings. Sarah or "chieftainness," the feminine of Sar, meaning a "captain" or "commander" is repeatedly used in this sense as a common noun as, for instance, by Isaiah who renders it "queen" (Isaiah 49:23 ). It has been observed that among ancient Jews there was a sort of a cabalistic translation that "the Hebrew letter yod signifies the creative power of God in nature, while the letter hay symbolizes the state of grace - that state into which Sarah had entered after receiving the covenanted promises." The promise of ancestorship of many nations came with the change of the name of Sarai to Sarah. "I will bless her and she shall become nations." She was thus associated with her husband in the great blessing of the covenant whose name was also changed from Abram toAbraham . The former, original name means a "high, or honored father," the latter, "a father of many nations." The Apocrypha speaks of Abraham as "a great father of a multitude of nations" (Ecclesiasticus 44:19-21).
The root idea of Sarah means "to rule," and fits the personality of the bearer. It was a name intended as a seal of the promise given to Abraham, "kings of peoples shall be of her." Paul has an allegorical reference to Sarah as one who typified the gospel dispensation, "Jerusalem which is above ... which is the mother of us all" (Galatians 4:26). Thus, Sarah was to be the princess, not only "because she was to be the ancestress of a great nation literally, of many nations spiritually , but also because the rank and power were to be possessed by her descendants, or rather because the people descended from her were to be ruled over by a regal dynasty, by a succession of kings of their own race and lineage, is derived from her." In the genealogy of the descendants of Esau, Sarah's grandson we read, "These are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel." The line of kings descended from Sarah terminated in God's Anointed One, the Messiah, whose "kingdom is not of this world." The sacramental name of Sarah, therefore, also symbolizes the spiritual seed, the whole multitude of believers of all nations who are "kings and priests unto God."
Then the personal application of the changed name must not be forgotten. Called Sarah by God and the Angels (Genesis 17:15;18:9 ), she exhibited the traits of a princess, "wielding a sceptre by the magic of which she could lord it over men's hearts after her own will, even bring kings to her feet. If she came into the world with a will of her own as her dowry, nature further assisted her in developing it by the great beauty of her face and the grace of her stature. By these gifts she made her wish a command and disarmed opposition." Both in bearing and character she illustrated the significance of her name. Through the long, long years of the quiet and stedfast devotion of Abraham to Sarah, peace reigned in the matrimonial tent more because of Abraham's gentleness, kindness and forbearance, even though he lived so long with the more expressive and possessive ways of Sarah. Twice over in the kjv of the New Testament she is referred to as Sara, but the asv uniformly gives us Sarah (Hebrews 11:11; 1 Peter 3:6).
Family Connections - Sarah came from Ur of the Chaldees, Babylonia, and her former name Sarai, "princely," identifies her as coming from an honored family. She was the daughter of Terah and was therefore half-sister to Abram, her senior by ten years (Genesis 17:17), whom she married in the Ur of the Chaldees. While Abram and Sarai had the same father, they had different mothers (Genesis 20:12). Marriages between near relatives were countenanced in those days and were sometimes common for religious reasons ( Genesis 24:3, 4;28:1, 2), but not marriages between those actually by the same mother. Sarai was well past middle life and childless when with Abram she left her own country and with him went out "not knowing whither they went" ( Genesis 11:29, 30).

There are various ways of looking at this remarkable woman who through a long span of life was the faithful wife of a prophet known as "The Friend of God."
Her Uniqueness
Strange though it may sound and seem, the first Jew was a Gentile, for Abraham who came from beyond the Euphrates was the first man to be called a Hebrew, "Abram the Hebrew" (Genesis 14:13). The word Hebrew itself means, "the immigrant," and was no doubt the usual designation among the Canaanites. As his wife, Sarah was the first Hebrewess - the joint fountainhead of the great Jewish race (Genesis 11:29-31;Isaiah 51:2 ). Abraham has been fitly called, "The fountainhead of the Hebrew hero life," and Sarah is the heroine of such life. She remains the first unquestionably historical woman of the Hebrews, and their first mother. She is, therefore, one of the most important female figures in the world's history, as the natural source of the Jewish people, through whom the nations of the earth were to be blessed. Only two women are named in the illustrious roll of those conspicuous for their faith: Sarah is the first, and Rahab the second (Hebrews 11:11, 31), both of whom lived by faith and died in faith (Hebrews 11:13). Sarah or Sara have always been popular female names both among Jews and Gentiles.
Her Beauty
The testimony of the Bible is that Sarah was unusually beautiful (Genesis 12:11, 14). The lines of Keats were true of her -
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams ...
Hebrew folklore has kept alive stories of her remarkable beauty and ranks her next to the most perfect woman the world has known, Eve, "the mother of all living." Sarah seems to have had beauty that grew more attractive with the passing years. "Of the things that are unfavourable to the preservation of beauty, the Orientals count travel as one that is most baneful, even fatal to it," says Gustav Gottheil. "Yet when Sarah arrived, after a long journey through dusty deserts and under a scorching sun, at the frontiers of Egypt, she was more beautiful than ever, and this explains the curious speech of Abraham to his wife at that juncture: 'Now I know that thou art a woman beautiful to look at.' Did he not know that before? Not so convincingly, explains the rabbi, as after he had seen that even travel had left no touch on her countenance."
Isaiah says that, "Beauty is a fading flower" (Isaiah 28:1), and a song of old has the stanza -
Beauty is but skin deep,
And ugly to the bone.
Beauty soon fades away,
But ugly holds its own.
But with Sarah it was different, for even when she was 90 years of age she was so lovely that Abraham feared that kings would fall in love with her bewitching beauty - which Pharaoh and Abimelech did, as our next glimpse of her proves. As one of the most beautful women who ever lived we can imagine that wherever she journeyed the admiring eyes of all were cast upon her. "Grave is all beauty," and Sarah's renowned loveliness certainly brought its trouble.
Her Peril
When famine drove Abraham and Sarah into the land of Egypt, and they felt that hostile kings might take them prisoners, Abraham came up with the abject, base proposal that if taken prisoners then his wife should represent herself as his sister. Fear of death unmanned him and led him to risk the dishonor of his wife and thereby save his own neck. She dearly loved her husband, and his life was too precious to her to make her think of the shame she might incur. Sarah was utterly wrong in yielding to her husband's plot. How nobler she would have been had she stoutly refused Abraham saying, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" But she called her husband "lord," and evidently he was lord of her conscience.
Abraham felt that if oriental despots knew that Sarah and he were married they would slay him and add the lovely woman to their harem. Married to a conspicuous beauty caused Abraham to be afraid, and he resorted to a falsehood to save his life. If taken, Sarah was not to say that she was his wife but his sister. This pretense was not an outright lie, but a half-truth, seeing that she was his half-sister. They were children of the same father, but not the same mother. It seems hard to believe that such a good man could deliver his lovely wife over to a heathen monarch, but he did, and Sarah entered Pharaoh's harem. But God protected her by sending plagues upon the monarch. Pharaoh sent her back to her own husband, untouched. The same unworthy plan was carried out when Abimelech, king of the Philistines, admiring her bewitching beauty had her taken to his harem. But again God interfered and commanded the king to restore Sarah to Abraham, seeing she was his wife. Threatened with violent death, Abimelech obeyed, but severely rebuked Abraham for his deceit (Genesis 12:10-20; 20). Years later Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, used this same form of deception ( Genesis 26:6-13, see Rebekah).
God expressed His displeasure with Abraham and his wife because of their ill-conceived plot. As the Righteous One, He could not condone such trickery. Had He not called them out from their country for a specific mission? And was He not able to protect and preserve them from harm and danger in a strange land? Was not the halflie told on two occasions an indication of the lack of faith in God's overshadowing care and power to fulfill His promise? Abraham's lofty soul suffered an eclipse of the virtue of faith for which he was renowned when he adopted such a plan of deception, exposing his wife to great peril, and also thwarting of the divine plan for and through Sarah. (Compare Hagar.) Abraham's deception was followed by an attempt to ease an offense, and the patriarch was more blameworthy than Sarah who should have resisted the dangerous plan of exposing herself for the sexual gratification of other men.
A lie that is half a truth
Is ever the worst of lies.
A half-truth is always a lie. While it was true that Sarah was Abraham's sister, the assertion was in reality a falsehood. After the severe rebuke from Pharaoh for their deception, they should have learned their lesson, but to commit the same sin again a few years later, and further imperil God's plan to make of them a great nation, leaves Abraham and Sarah without excuse. How slow we are to learn from our past failures?
Her Sorrow
The one great grief of Abraham and Sarah was that through their long life together they had no children. To a Hebrew woman, barrenness was looked upon as a gnawing grief, and sometimes regarded as a sign of divine disfavor. Childless, even when back in Babylonia (Genesis 11:30; 16:1-8 ), Sarah remained so until at 90 years of age God miraculously fulfilled His promise and made her the mother of the son of promise. Through the long years, "side by side with the prosperity, beat for beat with the pulse of Abraham's joy, there throbs in Sarah's heart a pulse of pain ... There is as yet no heir." The constant grief of barrenness caused Sarah to become "The Woman Who Made a Great Mistake." In spite of the fact that, along with her husband, she had received the divine promise, that from her nations would spring, the possibility of ever becoming a mother died in her heart. Such a cross as barrenness inflamed and intensified her pride, and forced her to find a way out of this embarrassment to her husband. "Sarah sacrificed herself on the cruelest altar on which any woman ever laid herself down; but the cords of the sacrifice were all the time the cords of a suicidal pride: till the sacrifice was both a great sin in the sight of God, a fatal injury to herself, to her husband, and to innocent generations yet unborn."
Sarah revealed the sad defect of her qualities when she said to Abraham, "Take Hagar my maid, and let not the promises of God fail through me. Through her I can continue your hereditary line." But all poor Hagar could do was to produce an Ishmael. It was only through Sarah that the promised seed could come. Although it might have been a custom of the time for a man with a barren wife to take a concubine in order that he might have an heir, Abraham, as a God-fearing man, should have stoutly refused to go along with the unworthy scheme, which in the end produced jealousy and tragedy. "Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai," but the voice was the fatal siren of Satan who sought to destroy the royal, promised seed (Genesis 3:15). As one modern writer expresses it -
Little did Sarai think when she persuaded Abram to take Hagar, that she was originating a rivalry which has run in the keenest animosity through the ages, and which oceans of blood have not quenched.
In our cameo of Hagar we sought to show all that followed the blunder of Sarah, when she intervened in God's plan and chose her way to continue her husband's posterity.
Her Joy
In His forgiving love and mercy God appeared to Abram when he was 99 years old, and assured him that his long barren wife, although now 90 years old, would conceive. To confirm His promise God changed the name of Abram to Abraham, and of Sarai to Sarah (Genesis 17; 18). At such a revelation of God's purpose, "Abraham fell upon his face and laughed." Although he marveled at the performance of the naturally impossible, Abraham yet believed, and his laughter was the joy of a man of faith. Laughter is sometimes mad (Ecclesiastes 2:2 ) but that of Abraham was highly rational. He rejoiced in the thought that Isaac should be born, and perhaps at that time he had a vision of the Messiah. Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day" (John 8:56). As for Sarah, what was her reaction when she overheard the Lord say to her husband, "Sarah thy wife shall have a son"?
The record says, "Sarah laughed within herself," but hers was the laugh of doubt. Yet when her son was born he was named Isaac, which means "laughter" - a memorial of her sin (Genesis 18:13), and of her husband's joy (17:17). Sarah's joy knew no bounds, "God hath made me to laugh" (21:6; 24:36). She had laughter before, but God was not the author of her laugh of doubt. The joy of Sarah in the birth of Isaac reminds us of "the great joy" proclaimed by the angels who made known to the shepherds the birth of Christ who came of the line of Isaac (Luke 2:10; Romans 4:18-21 ). Paul reminds us that it was by faith that Sarah conceived beyond nature (Hebrews 11:11). It was not only in itself a miracle wrought by faith, but also in earnest of something far greater, even the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Her Longevity
Sarah is the only woman whose specific age is stated in Scripture. A girl's approximate age is given us in the gospels. The only daughter of Jairus whom Jesus raised from the dead was "about 12 years of age" ( Luke 8:42). Sarah called herself old when she was 87 (Genesis 18:12), but she was 127 years of age when she died. Abraham had reached the patriarchal age of 175 when God called him home. Godliness has always been favorable to longevity. The "good old age" (Genesis 15:15 ) was a signal proof of the faithfulness of the Lord. When the Countess of Huntingdon came to die she said, "My work is done, and I have nothing to do but to go to my Father." Surely the same contentment was experienced both by Sarah and Abraham who were not satiated with life, but satisfied with it. Abraham lived for another 38 years after Sarah's death before his God-given task was completed.
The day came, then, for Sarah to leave the world in which she had sojourned so long, and hers is the first grave to be mentioned in Scripture. Although Abraham and Sarah were nomads living in their tent in a desert land, the aged patriarch wanted a more permanent resting place for his beloved wife than the shifting sand of the desert. Here vultures and beasts of prey would wait to gorge themselves off the dead, leaving behind nothing but white bones. Breaking with the ancient custom of the desert burial, Abraham purchased a cave at Machpelah as a sepulcher for his dear Sarah, and when Abraham himself came to die his sons "buried him beside Sarah." Thus, in death, symbolically, they were unseparated as they had been through their long and eventful life together. When Cornelia, the mother of Caius and Tiberius Gracchus, whom she called her "jewels" died, on her monument was inscribed, "Cornelia, the mother of Gracchi." Had a monument been erected for the noble woman we have been considering, the simple inscription in enduring marble would have been sufficient -
Here lies
Sarah,
the devoted wife of Abraham
and
mother of Isaac.
There is a legend that Sarah died of a broken heart as she learned of God's command to Abraham to offer their son Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. The sword pierced her heart, as it did Mary's when she witnessed the slaying of her illustrious Son at Calvary. When Sarah saw her husband and son leaving the tent, taking with them wood and a large knife she became terrified with shock and died. When Abraham and Isaac returned - Isaac brought back from the dead as it were - it was only to mourn and weep for Sarah. Had she lived she might have received her dead son back from the hands of God, and heard from her husband how his hand had been restrained by the angel, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." But in the legend it goes on to tell us, eye and ear of the devoted wife and mother were closed to earthly things, and her heart stilled forever beyond the reach of the terrors, to which human flesh, and especially mothers' hearts, are heirs.
Her Example
When Paul came to emphasize that law and grace cannot exist together (Galatians 4:19-31 ), and uses the two sons of Abraham to illustrate the contrast, he mentions Hagar by name, but not Sarah. The Apostle called her "the freewoman" and "mother of us all." In Hebrews, however, which we believe to be Pauline, the Apostle mentioned Sarah as being one of the cloud of faithful witnesses (Hebrews 11:11, 12). The reason she received strength to bear Isaac when she was so old was because she came to believe in the faithfulness of God. If Abraham is "the father of all them that believe" ( Romans 4:11;Galatians 3:7), surely Sarah is their mother. "Sarah speaks of that which is in faith, and by promise, and is free - and therefore is carried on in those who live on God's promises by faith in Christ, and have that perfect freedom which is alone found in His service, and thus belong to the Heavenly Jerusalem."
Then Peter takes his brush and adds another touch to the portrait of Sarah ( 1 Peter 3:5-7), where she is especially distinguished for obedience to her husband, becoming thereby a model of wives in subjection to their husbands. Beautiful, strong-willed and determined, Sarah, although on two occasions she lost her temper, never disobeyed her husband. From the moment she left Ur of the Chaldees with her husband, she became the obedient wife. Martin Luther once declared that if he wanted an obedient wife he would have to carve her out of marble. But Peter, exhorting wives to obedience, holds up Sarah as their model. She called Abraham "my lord" ( Genesis 18:12), still her declaration of her husband's lordship suggested incredulity rather than the obedience of faith. Yet Peter was right because all through her wanderings in desert places, and her occasional waywardness there ran the golden thread of a beautiful and loving submission to her husband's interests, and in this respect is a pattern for "holy women" to copy. Sarah and Abraham were "two lives fused into one," with Sarah conspicuous in sacrificial submission. How apropos are the lines of Longfellow as we think of her -
As unto the bow the cord is,
So unto the man is the woman.
Though she bends him, she obeys him,
Though she draws him, yet she follows,
Useless each without the other!
With peculiar force Peter describes Christian wives who manifest conjugal obedience, as daughters of Sarah, as long as they do well and are unafraid (1 Peter 3:6 ). By her faith and obedience, a Sarai became a princess among women, and she teaches us the lesson that if "Man proposes: God disposes." It was only after much suffering and sorrow that grace was hers to look up into the face of God and say, "Thy will, not mine, be done!" Applying the life of Sarah with Abraham, Mary Hallet draws attention to Sarah's weaknesses of jealousy and selfishness as being akin to ourselves, but by sharp contrast her fine qualities point to us an ideal of perfection. Her remarkable physical beauty may be regarded as indicative of inner grace.
We cannot doubt that, living with Abraham in an atmosphere of reverence and worship, Sarah developed a spiritual loveliness. Perhaps this can serve as a suggestion to girls of a modern day to take time for communion with God. For only in quietude, only as we listen, can we hear His unmistakable Voice.
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Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar, Rezzar

[Nĕbu chad nĕz'zar] - nebo, defend the boundary. Son of Nabopolassar and king of Babylon, who figures prominently as an enemy of God's people (2 Kings 24:1, 10, 11; Dan. 1-5).

The Man Whose Pride Turned Him Mad

This first Gentile monarch was the one who captured Jerusalem and destroyed both city and temple. The inhabitants were carried into Babylon as slaves. Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image in Dura, and the three Hebrew youths who refused to bow down to the image were thrown into the fiery furnace but divinely preserved. Drunk with pride, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams Daniel interpreted. Driven out for a time from men, and living among oxen, he became a new man and turned from his humiliation to honor God.
The encyclical letter written by the first head of Gentiles, for Nebuchadnezzar was "a king of kings," reaches far and wide in the lesson it teaches to all Gentile powers, until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled (Dan. 4:34-37; Rev. 11:15-17). In this letter we have:
I. The dream of a tree reaching in its height to heaven, and seen by all the world. This related to the king himself, who swayed the scepter of a universal empire, and whose power led to pride (Prov. 16:5-18).
II. The wise advice received from Spirit-anointed Daniel made clear how the king's error could be healed. God has been speaking to the Gentile nations ever since he gave them dominion, but a deaf ear has been turned to divine entreaties. In the face of appalling perils Gentile monarchy is crumbling today.
III. The patience of God is manifest in that twelve months have elapsed before the threatened judgment overtook the proud monarch. How long-suffering God is!
IV. Sore punishment led to deep humiliation and to a noble confusion in the presence of the world. God abased Nebuchadnezzar, and the day is coming when He will likewise abase the Gentile nations of earth. When the mightiest of all monarchs returns, He will lay hold of Gentile government and introduce His own world-kingdom and reign as the King of all Gentile kings. The scepter of universal dominion will rest in His pierced hands.
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