Thursday, January 11, 2018

Thu Jan 11th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. In Iran, people fight and die to be free. Left wing media don't care. 

Stephen Colbert comedy team put words in Trump's mouth for National Anthem. That is why they hate Trump? Yale Professor backpedals after 'diagnosing' Trump as mentally ill. 

 Proposal to open selective schools in NSW to local community. Actually it would improve things. There are already semi selective schools that are outstanding. But results for selective schools are awful. I don't like Stokes reported argument of equity. Right now, students exiting James Ruse, a top selective school, average in top 10% of UAI, but enter as top 1% of basic skills .. a drop in performance. But, local school kids get value added in good environments, when they are denied in dysfunctional schools without selective kids .. so the new style would be win-win.

Confused Vic Police Chief acts as ALP Police Minister while police minister drowns in brief. Similar thing happened in NSW at the end of the ALP reign (the last 12 years) the Police chief acted as a stand in ALP police minister. Press liked it.

Kangaroos at risk debunked by Jayrodin. Kites and falcons in Australia have been seen picking up burning twigs to spread wildfires and flush out prey. ALP backflip on School of Air closure in WA. EPA's highest paid employee is a fraud. 

Toyota's $1.6 billion plant in Alabama. Didn't Toyota, among others, shut down their plant in Australia? In October last year? How are those Aussie business taxes, regulations, union demands and wholesale electricity prices going? How's Trump going? Via JB 

didn’t trust children to make informed decisions to have sexual intercourse, but grow breasts and chop your genitals off...go right ahead!!> Via JF

I am a decent man and don't care for the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.























































































Here is a video I made "I Still Call Australia Home"

"I Still Call Australia Home" is a song written and performed by Peter Allen in 1980. In it, Allen sings of the Australian expatriate's longing for home. It has been used to suggest Australian patriotism and nostalgia: for example, in Qantas television commercials where it was sung by the National Boys Choir of Australia and Australian Girls Choir (sometimes the group is collectively called the 'Qantas Choir'). And in 1984 Summer Olympics's Opening Gala TV special (in Los Angeles), Olivia Newton-John who sung Allen's most famous song I Honestly Love You, performed this song from Sydney, Australia with the Choir as medley Waltzing Matilda. Later, both songs were also used in a musical The Boy from Oz, about Allen's life, which starred Hugh Jackman.


=== from 2017 ===
Fake news spread like wildfire through twitter and mainstream media sites today. The story goes that Trump hates Obama so much he went to a hotel in Russia that Obama had visited. Then Trump had prostitutes urinate on him in the same rooms so that when Russia made Trump President of the US then they could publicise the story to humiliate .. Obama? Trump? Apparently, the story is just believable to mainstream journalists because an intelligence briefing occurred and someone 'leaked' it. And such things are never made up when they smear a GOP figure? As with Dan Rather lying about Bush when he was President, modern journalists will cut their own throats to lie successfully about a conservative figure. 

It gets back to that taped conversation when Trump said bad things off the record. So now the BBC can claim that UK PM May felt uncomfortable talking to Trump because of that conversation. Yet she could have no qualms about meeting Erdogan? Hatred has blinded the left wing. 

One Trump hater reporting #FakeNews claimed Streep did a magnificent job in hating Trump and that Trump's son will sell his business to his mum. I have no idea what that would achieve, but I'll include the post

Anita Gold I disagree. To me her speech United America.
Anita Gold I've studied identity politics.. This includes the poor. Which will continue to grow. Just like here. only 3% of what trump said is actually true.
Anita Gold Face it. It's an electoral authoritarian state. He is getting his son in law into a position also, son in law will just sell his businesses to his mum no doubt. Things are not looking good.
This is #FakeNews

=== from 2016 ===
The left love Joseph Campbell. The anthropologist observed that there was an image of sacrifice in all post agrarian societies. The idea being farmers have to kill or harvest something they raised, and so need a way of dealing with the trauma. According to the Left, farming is unnatural. It is better to run free, killing unfamiliar animals and not worrying about burying droppings. 
Joseph Campbell
“The hero journey is one of the universal patterns through which that radiance shows brightly. What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco.
But there’s also the possibility of bliss.”

Or you can just be an ordinary, compassionate person and do the right thing.As the late David Bowie observed, "We can be heroes"

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.
=== from 2015 ===
Many are claiming to ride with Charlie, but they are highly hypocritical. Some, like the Australian Labor Party, Greens and related groups have recently marched for suppression of free speech over the 18C issue. Had Charlie published in Australia they would have been subject to the racial vilification laws where all that is necessary to have material banned is for someone to take offence with the material. It does not matter that the material is not offensive. When the Abbott government tried to amend the law to make it tighter, the ALP, Greens and independents said 'no.' But now they claim to walk with Charlie? It is bit late and very rich. 

The killing of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists was not the result of Islam being insulted. But the result of media and left wingers telling terrorists they should be insulted. And that narrative is being protected by Al-Jazeera which claims that Charlie Hebdo had insulted Islam with their cartoons. As with the recent finding in Egypt that Al-Jazeera have been aiding jihadists, they threaten to bring Islam into disrepute with their contempt for the prophet they claim to follow. Al-Jazeera inform the impotent Islamic leaders who softly support jihadism while sometimes opposing the violence with words. 

Journalists like Andrew Bolt, who are ideologically opposed to Charlie Hebdo's political stance still support and supported them because they believe in free speech. And Australia needs to amend or remove 18c. 
From 2014
What aren't the Australian press saying. The age criticised the Australian Government for denying the visa of a disfigured woman who had been offered free medical care in Australia. The government changed the decision. Only, it was the previous government that had made the decision to bar entry to the woman. The Age had reported the criticism and attributed it to the conservative government. Selectiveness in reporting is undemocratic and weakens the ability of a democratic nation to make free, informed decisions. In France, Hollande is accused of having an affair and he is upset it is reported. In his defence, she is acknowledged as being pretty and his doormat of a wife doesn't seem concerned. French people can still glory in their leader being an economic champion. 

But the disturbing question has to be asked, what is not reported in Australia? A mother and daughter die in Bali and the family demand a Queensland coroner examine the bodies. A school child dies in NSW at a school outing in 2002, and a public servant with relevant information gets silenced. The difference is ALP. The press will not criticise an ALP government if it can avoid it. And they are willing to lie to do it. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 532, Nika riots in Constantinople: A quarrel between supporters of different chariot teams—the Blues and the Greens—in the Hippodrome escalated into violence. 1055, Theodora was crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire. 1158, Vladislav II became King of Bohemia. 1569, first recorded lottery in England. 1571, Austrian nobility was granted freedom of religion. 1693, a powerful earthquake destroyed parts of Sicily and Malta. 1759, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company was incorporated. 1779, Ching-Thang Khomba was crowned King of Manipur. 1782, American Revolutionary War: French troops began a siege of a British garrison on Brimstone Hill in Saint Kitts. 1787, William Herscheldiscovered Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.

In 1805, the Michigan Territory was created. 1861, Alabama seceded from the United States. 1863, American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post – General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter captured the Arkansas River for the Union. Also 1863, American Civil War: CSS Alabama encountered and sank the USS Hatteras off Galveston Lighthouse in Texas. 1879, the Anglo-Zulu War began.

In 1908, Grand Canyon National Monument was created. 1912, immigrant textile works in Lawrence, Massachusetts, go on strike when wages were reduced in response to a mandated shortening of the work week. 1917, the Kingsland munitions factory explosion occurred as a result of sabotage. 1919, Romania reincorporated Transylvania. 1922, first use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient. 1923, Occupation of the Ruhr: Troops from France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its World War I reparation payments. 1927, Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announced the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.

In 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. 1942, World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur. 1943, World War II: The United States and United Kingdom gave up territorial rights in China. Also 1943, Italian-American anarchist Carlo Tresca was assassinated in New York City. 1945, Greek Civil War: Last day of the Dekemvriana clashes in Athens, Greece. 1946,  Enver Hoxha, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Albania, declared the People's Republic of Albania with himself as head of state. 1949, the first "networked" television broadcasts took place as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania went on the air connecting the east coast and mid-west programming. 1949, a record-setting snowstorm hits Los Angeles, California.

In 1957, the African Convention was founded in Dakar, Senegal. 1960, Henry Lee Lucas, once listed as America's most prolific serial killer, committed his first known murder. 1962, Cold War: While tied to its pier in Polyarny, the Soviet submarine B-37 was destroyed when fire broke out in its torpedo compartment. Also 1962, an avalanche on Huascarán in Peru causes 4,000 deaths. 1964, Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., published the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.

In 1972, East Pakistan renamed itself Bangladesh. 1973, Major League Baseball owners voted in approval of the American League adopting the designated hitter position. 1986, the Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia was officially opened. 1994, the IrishGovernment announced the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin. 1996, Space Shuttle program: STS-72 launched from the Kennedy Space Center marking the start of the 74th Space Shuttle mission and the 10th flight of Endeavour. 1998, over 100 people were killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria. 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois' death row based on the Jon Burge scandal. 2013, one French soldier and 17 militants were killed in a failed attempt to free a French hostage in Bulo Marer, Somalia.
=== 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 Thinh Quan, Andrew Thatcher, Casey Ye and Sue Stibilj. Born on the someday, across the years, along with
William Herschel
The earth moved, silly, be careful of the sand. They discovered a lot in Uranus. The fastest way to stop a war is win. Albania lost. The French tried. Let's party. 
Deaths
===
Tim Blair 2018

===
Tim Blair

WEDNESDAY NOTICEBOARD

Today’s noticeboard is brought to you by Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David.
11 Jan  

COASTIN’ TO EXPULSION

Numerology confirmation awaits, but right now it doesn’t look good for Ssuussaann Lleeyy.
11 Jan  

UNSTEADY NEDDY’S PIPE HYPE

Leftist journalists are now terrified of plumbers. This is further evidence of the terrible societal damage wrought by Donald Trump.
11 Jan  

ALLEGEDLY AXEY EVIE

Having been chopped herself, Sydney tranny Evie Amati allegedly sought to share the experience.
11 Jan

GIRLS GONE WILD

Momentum gathers pace for this month’s Wealthy Women Washington Wander against Donald Trump.
11 Jan
===

GET YER FADOOBADAS OUT

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (7:46pm)

Frightbats aren’t particularly interested in Melbourne mutilations, Rotherham rapes or intimate Islamic immigrants, but make one joke about dear little Bingo Badham and they erupt in a fadoobada frenzy:

That’s at least one superfluous comma, one misquotation and one factual error in a very brief call to arms … as it were. Perhaps this is a case of fat fingers.
===

DAVID BOWIE

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (6:05pm)

Glam rock star David Bowie has died at 69, his representative confirms: 
“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.” 
===

SLOW MAMA

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (4:52pm)

In a plainly reluctant, let’s-get-it-over-with fashion, Mamamia finally publishes a stand-alone piece on the mass Cologne sex attacks – and accuses others of being slow off the mark: 
The attacks were initially downplayed by Cologne’s police force … Cologne’s police chief came under fire for the inadequate response. 
In fact, as inadequate as was the Cologne police chief’s response, it came several days earlier than Mamamia’s weak effort.
===

LONGITUDINAL PROCESS IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA SPACE

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (4:43pm)

Journalism academic Julie Posetti is Fairfax’s latest star hire: 
Day one in my new job with Fairfax Media as head of Digital Editorial Capability. Looking forward to it! 
As are we all. By the way, if anyone is in the market for infuriating social media buzzwords, clichés and pointless time-eating jargon, Julie’s got a lifetime supply. 
===

SOMETHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (2:37am)

Even in the age of the internet, a cover-up is still possible given certain conditions. In Rotherham, England, for example, the systematic sexual abuse of some 1400 girls and young women was successfully concealed for 16 horrific years.
Part of this was due to the scale of the crimes, so massive that it simply defied belief. But another factor was involved. The accused men, whose years of abuse finally came to light in 2014, were mostly Pakistani. As the town’s former Labor MP Denis MacShane later confessed: “There was a culture of not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat, if I may put it like that. Perhaps, yes, as a true Guardian reader and liberal lefty, I suppose I didn’t want to raise that too hard.”
The media and authorities in the German city of Cologne were evidently not inclined to rock the multicultural community boat following a New Year’s Eve outrage that saw an estimated 1000 men, mostly of Arab and North African appearance, storm celebrations and set about sexually molesting and robbing at least 170 women. Two victims alleged they were raped.
“New Year in Cologne,” proclaims the city’s official website. “Now that really is something to write home about.” Except that nobody wanted to write about the mass sex attack. Nobody in any positions of authority even wanted to talk about it. The morning after New Year’s Eve, Cologne police described festivities as “largely peaceful”.
That phrase may become increasingly rare in Germany, which last year took in more than one million alleged Syrian refugees – almost an entire Adelaide’s worth, but without even Adelaide’s level of criminal restraint. “Suddenly we were surrounded by a group of between 20 and 30 men,” 18-year-old New Year’s Eve victim Michelle told German television. “They were full of anger, and we had to make sure that none of us were pulled away by them. They were groping us and we were trying to get away as quickly as possible.”
Michelle’s story, and the accounts of so many others who were attacked – “I had fingers on every orifice,” one young woman told a German newspaper – only emerged several days after New Year’s Eve when social media pressure became overwhelming. Up to that point, journalists and authorities clung to the “largely peaceful” myth, for the same politically-correct reasons cited by ex-Rotherham MP MacShane.
(Continue reading Something to Write Home About.)
===

SEAN PENNED

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (2:02am)

It is possible some people envy Sean Penn. After all, he is wealthy and famous and used to go out with Charlize Theron.
But trust me on this. You do not want to be Sean Penn, and not just because of how much you’d have to drink so you could forget being married to Madonna. You do not want to be Sean Penn’s friend or be in Sean Penn’s family. You do not want to even look like Sean Penn, for among other reasons this would mean resembling a homeless person who stole a rich guy’s wardrobe in 1998. 
In short, you do not want to be connected to Sean Penn in any way.
And here’s why.
(Continue reading Sean Penned.)
UPDATE. A sample of Penn’s superb work.
===

NEWEST NEW LOW

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (1:18am)

We’re only 11 days into 2016, and already I’m on the scoreboard: 
Tim Blair makes derogatory comments about female protesters. New low. 
Well, of course. Those KPIs don’t hit themselves, you know.
===

COLOGNE COMPLAINT COUNT CLIMBS

Tim Blair – Monday, January 11, 2016 (12:55am)

Today’s column on Cologne’s multicultural mass mauling mentions 170 criminal complaints following New Year’s Eve. In fact, that number is now significantly higher: 
Cologne police on Saturday said more than 100 detectives are assigned to the case and are investigating 379 criminal complaints filed with them, about 40 percent of which involve allegations of sexual offenses.
“The people in the focus of the criminal investigation are primarily from North African countries,” police said.  ”Most are asylum seekers or people living illegally in Germany.” 
Soon that number might even be high enough to convince various Cologne denialists. From the same Chicago Tribune article: 
Influential Hamburg broadcaster NDR said in an opinion piece posted online Friday that such crimes threaten to push xenophobia toward the “middle of the population” – which could lead to a backlash against refugees.
“And who is to blame mainly?” the editorial asked. “These young, testosterone-driven time bombs with their image of women from the Middle Ages.” 
There’s that terrible reality creeping in again.
UPDATE. AFP reports: 
Police said Sunday the number of cases filed over violence during New Year’s festivities in Cologne had reached 516, including 40 percent relating to sexual assault. 
===

Lefties prove to be a right bunch of Charlies

Piers Akerman – Saturday, January 10, 2015 (9:05pm)

In the knee-jerk world of the twitterati, hypocrisy and humbug reign supreme, nevermore than at moments of great sorrow.
As much of the civilised world stands to show its respect for the cartoonists and others who were massacred at the offices of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, there has been also been a grotesque display of double-standards by many of those who opposed the Abbott government’s attempt last year to protect free speech. 
 Continue reading 'Lefties prove to be a right bunch of Charlies'
===

THE DANGER ON OUR ROADS

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 11, 2015 (1:11pm)

Breitbart reports: 
You’ve heard of “manspreading,” that odious expression of white male patriarchy in which men sit on the subway or Tube with their legs too far apart and use up all the space, making the delicate wallflowers of the feminist literati feel violated on their way to work. You may also have heard of “manslamming,” in which conflict-hungry girl bloggers throw themselves into strangers on the street in an attempt to show that men don’t get out of the way for women on the sidewalk.
But Breitbart has discovered an even more pernicious gender-specific public nuisance that is endangering anyone on the roads. The phenomenon is known as “femsteering” … 
===

CHARLIE BATTLE

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 11, 2015 (11:46am)

It’s civil war at Al Jazeera.
(Via Dan F.)
UPDATE. Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls for the West to “finally put away its legion of useless tropes trying to deny the relationship between violence and radical Islam”: 
If there is a lesson to be drawn from such a grisly episode, it is that what we believe about Islam truly doesn’t matter. This type of violence, jihad, is what they, the Islamists, believe. 
===

MODERN DART

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 11, 2015 (1:07am)

A Victorian dart exhibition turns ugly: 
Mayhem broke out at a major darts championship in Melbourne, with police being called to subdue the crowd.

Piles of chairs and tables were upended at Etihad Stadium as witnesses reported people being body slammed into furniture and others urinating in the middle of the stadium floor. 
This is why Melbourne can’t have nice things. Here’s video of the action, via Matt Cunningham. I blame Hawaiian shirts.
===

Today’s column

Andrew Bolt January 11 2015 (9:10am)

PROTESTERS around the West, horrified by the massacre in Paris, have held up pens and chanted “Je suis Charlie” — I am Charlie.
They lie. The Islamist terrorists are winning, and the coordinated attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and kosher shop will be just one more success. One more step to our gutless surrender.
Al-Qaeda in Yemen didn’t attack Charlie Hebdo because we are all Charlie Hebdo.
The opposite. It sent in the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi because Charlie Hebdo was almost alone.
Unlike most politicians, journalists, lawyers and other members of our ruling classes, this fearless magazine dared to mock Islam in the way the Left routinely mocks Christianity. Unlike much of our ruling class, it refused to sell out our freedom to speak.
Its greatest sin — to the Islamists — was to republish the infamous cartoons of Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten which mocked Mohammed, and then to publish even more of its own, including one showing the Muslim prophet naked.
Are we really all Charlie? No, no and shamefully no. (Read full article here.)
(Sorry, there are no moderators for the blog while I am overseas. If you want to comment, comment on the column page itself.) 
===

===

WIG NOT FOOLING ANYBODY

Tim Blair – Saturday, January 11, 2014 (6:10pm)

James Delingpole is now writing for the Guardian under the name Zoe Holman.
===

FURTHER CHARGES PENDING

Tim Blair – Saturday, January 11, 2014 (5:37pm)

Alleged NYE attacker Shaun McNeil is presently charged with three counts of common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault occasioning grievous bodily harm. Time to add at least one more.
===

LEADERSHIP POSITION

Tim Blair – Saturday, January 11, 2014 (3:57pm)

Less than one year ago, Tim Flannery told a typically docile ABC interviewer about China’s great coal rejection: 
China was building a coal fire power plant every week or two. That’s now stopped. What we’re now seeing is a coal cap in place, so China has capped the amount of coal that they’re going to be burning, pretty close to current levels and instead are expanding renewables very quickly … they really are taking a leadership position. 
Australians used to pay Flannery $180,000 per year for these brilliant insights. As it turns out, China is showing leadership, but not in the direction Flannery claimed: 
China approved the construction of more than 100 million tonnes of new coal production capacity in 2013 – six times more than a year earlier and equal to 10 percent of U.S. annual usage – flying in the face of plans to tackle choking air pollution.
The scale of the increase, which only includes major mines, reflects Beijing’s aim to put 860 million tonnes of new coal production capacity into operation over the five years to 2015, more than the entire annual output of India …
Chinese coal production of 3.66 billion tonnes at the end of 2012 already accounts for nearly half the global total, according to official data. The figure dwarves production rates of just over 1 billion tonnes each in Europe and the United States. 
And what happened to those darling renewables? Senior commodities analyst Helen Lau explains: 
“The replacement of coal hasn’t been as fast as expected, and other sources of energy are not only expensive but also face a lot of technical and environmental problems,” said UOB’s Lau. 
As Brad Pitt recently discovered, everything green is invariably worse. It’s a quality of life issue. Meanwhile, check recent trends in Germany.
(Via the GWPF)
===
Male model: 'Fabio saved me from doomsday cult'
www.news.com.au
THERE was a moment in the 1980s at photographer Steven Meisel's holiday party when top male model Hoyt Richards looked around and realised this was about as good as life was going to get.
Seems like Sahaja Yoga - ed
http://www.freedomofmind.com/Info/infoDet.php?id=598
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahaja_yoga
===
Abbott's secretive ways have gone too far, says John Hewson
www.theage.com.au
Former Liberal Party leader John Hewson says Tony Abbott should be less secretive about his asylum seeker policies, suggesting the Prime Minister give proper briefings to the public and to MPs from other parties.
===
US Campaign for Burma

“The international community must stop being seduced by the Burmese government’s empty promises. Almost three years after Thein Sein became President, dozens of political prisoners remain behind bars. Those who are released face the constant risk of being re-arrested under Burma’s oppressive laws ,” said ALTSEAN-Burma Coordinator and FIDH Secretary-General Debbie Stothard.>
Burma: President Thein Sein fails to keep his promise to release all political prisoners by (...)
www.fidh.org
The international community should hold the Burmese government accountable for failing to fulfill its promise to release all political prisoners (...)
===
On a Northwest Airways flight from Atlanta, a well attired middle-aged woman found herself sitting next to a man wearing a kippa ('yarmulka' in Yiddish).

She called the attendant over to complain about her seating.

'What seems to be the problem, Madam?' asked the attendant.

'You've sat me next to a Jew!! I can't possibly sit next to this strange man. Please find me another seat!'

'Madam, I will see what I can do to accommodate,' the attendant replied, 'but the flight is virtually full today and I don't know if there is another seat available.'

The woman shoots a snooty look at the snubbed Jewish man beside her (not to mention the surrounding passengers).

A few minutes later the attendant returned and said, 'Madam, the economy and club sections are full, however, we do have one seat in First Class.'

Before the lady had a chance to respond, the attendant continued, 'It is only on exceptions that we make this kind of upgrade, and I had to ask permission from the captain. But, given the circumstances, the captain felt that no one should be forced to sit next to an unpleasant person...'

The flight attendant turned to the Jewish man sitting next to her, and said: 'So if you'd like to get your things, sir, I have a comfortable seat for you in First Class...'

At this point, the surrounding passengers stood up and gave a standing ovation while the Jewish man walked up to the front of the plane.

The lady then said indignantly, 'The Captain must have made a mistake..'

To which the attendant replied, 'No Ma'am. Captain Lipschitz never makes a mistake.'
===
The 3D printer that makes food and sweet treats
www.news.com.au
ADDING to the list of weird and wonderful bits of gear to come out of CES, is this 3D printer that can print delicious candy for you to eat, right in your living room.
===
23andMe genetic test reveals disturbing artificial insemination switch
www.foxnews.com
A young women conceived with help from a fertility clinic in Utah in the early 1990s is actually the biological daughter of the former clinic receptionist, genetic testing reveals
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Simple blood test may predict patients at risk of heart attack
www.foxnews.com
Imagine knowing if you’re about to have a heart attack.
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Education experts blast DOJ's apparent call for race-based system of punishment of schoolkids
www.foxnews.com
Education experts blasted a recent Department of Justice directive, which they say seems to advocate a racial quota system for punishing school kids for such transgressions as being late or chewing gum in class.
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What's the difference between the Pommies and a funeral director?
....A funeral director isn't going to lose the ashes.
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Andreas Herrmann'
“Kultur kostet Geld. Sie kostet Geld vor allem auch deshalb, weil der Zugang zu ihr nicht in erster Linie durch einen privat gefüllten Geldbeutel bestimmt sein darf. Vor ein paar Jahren, eben hier in Berlin, habe ich bei einer Ansprache vor dem Deutschen Bühnenverein ausgeführt, dass Kultur nicht etwas sein darf, was die öffentlichen Hände nach Belieben betreiben oder auch lassen dürfen. Substanziell hat die Förderung von Kulturellem nicht weniger eine Pflichtaufgabe der öffentlichen Haushalte zu sein als zum Beispiel der Straßenbau, die öffentliche Sicherheit oder die Finanzierung der Gehälter im öffentlichen Dienst. Es ist grotesk, dass wir Ausgaben im kulturellen Bereich zumeist “Subventionen” nennen, während kein Mensch auf die Idee käme, die Ausgaben für ein Bahnhofsgebäude oder einen Spielplatz als Subventionen zu bezeichnen. Der Ausdruck lenkt uns in die falsche Richtung. Denn Kultur ist kein Luxus, den wir uns leisten oder auch streichen können, sondern der geistige Boden, der unsere eigentliche innere Überlebensfähigkeit sichert.
Und Kultur hängt auch von Personen ab, die sie ins Werk setzen sollen. Es ist ein zentrales öffentliches Interesse, dass Leute, die das können und die schon in Berlin leben, die notwendigen Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten behalten oder bekommen. Und darüber hinaus auch, dass in möglichst großer Dichte und Qualität solche Menschen für Berlin gewonnen werden, wenn sie bereit sind, sich zu engagieren, damit sie hier ihre Kreativität und ihre Kenntnisse wie ihre Weltläufigkeit in den Dienst der Kultur der Stadt und des ganzen Landes stellen.” (Richard von Weizsäcker 1991)
The belt tightening hurts the poorest artists most. Those who have to work at other jobs to get the money to keep the skills of their trade. And the cost when these artists miss out is not felt immediately, but for decades after the arts community will miss leaders and shining lights. - ed
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“The hero journey is one of the universal patterns through which that radiance shows brightly. What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco.
But there’s also the possibility of bliss.”
Or you can just be an ordinary, compassionate person and do the right thing.  - ed
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Meretz MK Blasts 'Kerry Solutions' Ad
www.israelnationalnews.com
MK Nitzan Horowitz says that the satirical video 'defames' the US diplomat, demands urgent plenum debate.
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With fliers and Facebook, how Israel’s migrants birthed a movement
www.timesofisrael.com
Protests by African asylum-seekers are coordinated by a small group of highly capable leaders, catalyzed by shared discontent, with a little NGO assistance
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Written by Charles Krauthamer
Made more so when you consider the state of human rights in Israel’s neighborhood. As we speak, Syria’s government is dropping “barrel bombs” filled with nails, shrapnel and other instruments of terror on its own cities. Where is the ASA boycott of Syria?

And of Iran, which hangs political, religious and even sexual dissidents and has no academic freedom at all? Or Egypt, where Christians are being openly persecuted? Or Turkey, Saudi Arabia or, for that matter, massively repressive China and Russia?

Which makes obvious that the ASA boycott has nothing to do with human rights. It’s an exercise in radical chic, giving marginalized academics a frisson of pretend anti-colonialism, seasoned with a dose of edgy anti-Semitism.

And don’t tell me this is merely about Zionism. The ruse is transparent. Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. To apply to the state of the Jews a double standard that you apply to none other, to judge one people in a way you judge no other, to single out that one people for condemnation and isolation — is to engage in a gross act of discrimination.

And discrimination against Jews has a name. It’s called anti-Semitism.
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Pastor Rick Warren
"Anyone who loves to quarrel loves sin. And anyone who speaks boastfully invites disaster." Prov.17:19 (NLT)
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Doing small thing well is the path to getting great things done. It isn't a large leap but many small steps. See David's advice to his son Solomon in building the temple: 1 Chron. 28:20
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Deaths
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“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”” - 1 Peter 1:15-16
Sometimes, to win a debate after having lost it, one accuses the winner of being “Holier than thou.” The implied holiness is not the same as what Peter is referring to in his letter. 

Some say Peter could not have written his letter because they don’t believe in adult learning. After Peter’s education as a disciple of Jesus, Peter was privileged and had ample opportunity to learn advanced rhetoric. But the wording here is simple and pure. God is holy. God is exalted and above the sin of which people are immersed. In order to deal with sin, it is important not to deal in sin, but to look for God. The simplicity of the words is what informs those who claim Peter could not have written it. 

But, in not dealing with the trade of sin, a cheap shot is to say that the winner is unaware of the world in which they have stood in judgement. A populist argument at best, which can win from populism.
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

January 10: Morning
"There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." - 2 Timothy 4:8
Doubting one! thou hast often said, "I fear I shall never enter heaven." Fear not! all the people of God shall enter there. I love the quaint saying of a dying man, who exclaimed, "I have no fear of going home; I have sent all before me; God's finger is on the latch of my door, and I am ready for him to enter." "But," said one, "are you not afraid lest you should miss your inheritance?" "Nay," said he, "nay; there is one crown in heaven which the angel Gabriel could not wear, it will fit no head but mine. There is one throne in heaven which Paul the apostle could not fill; it was made for me, and I shall have it." O Christian, what a joyous thought! thy portion is secure; "there remaineth a rest." "But cannot I forfeit it?" No, it is entailed. If I be a child of God I shall not lose it. It is mine as securely as if I were there. Come with me, believer, and let us sit upon the top of Nebo, and view the goodly land, even Canaan. Seest thou that little river of death glistening in the sunlight, and across it dost thou see the pinnacles of the eternal city? Dost thou mark the pleasant country, and all its joyous inhabitants? Know, then, that if thou couldst fly across thou wouldst see written upon one of its many mansions, "This remaineth for such a one; preserved for him only. He shall be caught up to dwell forever with God." Poor doubting one, see the fair inheritance; it is thine. If thou believest in the Lord Jesus, if thou hast repented of sin, if thou hast been renewed in heart, thou art one of the Lord's people, and there is a place reserved for thee, a crown laid up for thee, a harp specially provided for thee. No one else shall have thy portion, it is reserved in heaven for thee, and thou shalt have it ere long, for there shall be no vacant thrones in glory when all the chosen are gathered in.
Evening
"In my flesh shall I see God." - Job 19:26
Mark the subject of Job's devout anticipation "I shall see God." He does not say, "I shall see the saints"--though doubtless that will be untold felicity--but, "I shall see God." It is not--"I shall see the pearly gates, I shall behold the walls of jasper, I shall gaze upon the crowns of gold," but "I shall see God." This is the sum and substance of heaven, this is the joyful hope of all believers. It is their delight to see him now in the ordinances by faith. They love to behold him in communion and in prayer; but there in heaven they shall have an open and unclouded vision, and thus seeing "him as he is," shall be made completely like him. Likeness to God--what can we wish for more? And a sight of God--what can we desire better? Some read the passage, "Yet, I shall see God in my flesh," and find here an allusion to Christ, as the "Word made flesh," and that glorious beholding of him which shall be the splendour of the latter days. Whether so or not it is certain that Christ shall be the object of our eternal vision; nor shall we ever want any joy beyond that of seeing him. Think not that this will be a narrow sphere for the mind to dwell in. It is but one source of delight, but that source is infinite. All his attributes shall be subjects for contemplation, and as he is infinite under each aspect, there is no fear of exhaustion. His works, his gifts, his love to us, and his glory in all his purposes, and in all his actions, these shall make a theme which will be ever new. The patriarch looked forward to this sight of God as a personal enjoyment. "Whom mine eye shall behold, and not another." Take realizing views of heaven's bliss; think what it will be to you. "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty." All earthly brightness fades and darkens as we gaze upon it, but here is a brightness which can never dim, a glory which can never fade--"I shall see God."
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Candace
Scripture Reference: Acts 8:27
Name Meaning: Queen or Ruler of Children
The exact name of this Ethiopian queen is not given by Luke. It was the name of a dynasty, not of an individual, and was used for many years by the queens of Ethiopia, just as Pharaoh was the hereditary title given to ancient Egyptian kings and Caesar to Roman emperors. The fascinating context Luke gives us is taken up with the eunuch, a man of great authority, a potentate in his way, returning through the desert to Meroe, Ethiopia, interested in Old Testament Scripture. Philip the Evangelist found him sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah 53, and from this chapter so full of the truth of the cross, preached unto him Jesus. The eunuch was converted to God, and baptized there in the desert, and returned to his country rejoicing. Tradition has it that he witnessed to the Candace of his newly-found Saviour and that she, too, embraced the Christian faith. Such was the influence of this converted eunuch, that many souls were saved and ultimately he became bishop of the first Christian Church in Ethiopia...
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Shechaniah 
[Shĕcha nī'ah] - jehovah is a neighbour or jehovah hath dwelt.
1. Head of a family of David's house, but not in succession to the throne (1 Chron. 3:21, 22).
2. A descendant of a family that returned with Ezra from exile (Ezra 8:3).
3. Another whose descendants returned from exile (Ezra 8:5).
4. A son of Jehiel who first confessed the trespass of taking strange, or non-Jewish wives (Ezra 10:2).
5. Father of Shemaiah who helped to repair the wall (Neh. 3:29).
6. Father-in-law of Tobiah, the Ammonite who opposed Nehemiah (Neh. 6:18).
7. A priest who returned with Zerubbabel (Neh. 12:3).
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Today's reading: Genesis 25-26, Matthew 8:1-17 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Genesis 25-26

The Death of Abraham
1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. 3Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites and the Leummites. 4The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 8:1-17

The Man With Leprosy
1 When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. 4Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

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