Friday, January 26, 2018

Thu Jan 25th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. 

No editorial today due to centrelink

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 "Send in the Clowns"

"Send in the Clowns" is a song by Stephen Sondheim from the 1973 musical A Little Night Music, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night. It is a ballad from Act II in which the character Desirée reflects on the ironies and disappointments of her life. Among other things, she looks back on an affair years earlier with the lawyer Fredrik. Meeting him after so long, she finds that he is now in an unconsummated marriage with a much younger woman. Desirée proposes marriage to rescue him from this situation, but he declines, citing his dedication to his bride. Reacting to his rejection, Desirée sings this song. The song is later reprised as a coda after Fredrik's young wife runs away with his son, and Fredrik is finally free to accept Desirée's offer. Sondheim wrote the song specifically for the actress Glynis Johns, who created the role of Desirée on Broadway. The song is structured with four verses and a bridge, and uses a complex triple meter. It became Sondheim's most popular song after Judy Collins and Frank Sinatra recorded it in 1975. Subsequently, Grace Jones, Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey, Zarah Leander, Tiger Lillies and many other famous artists have recorded the song, and it became a jazz standard.


=== from 2017 ===
Incompetence should never be rewarded. Neither should evil ever be rewarded. A local Subway shop has a lot of advantages that others miss. It was a Subway in 1949, decades before the chain existed. Pictures show the shop which now resides in the industrial area of Dandenong, close to the railway station. There should be a lot of foot traffic and cars. It is adjacent to a Shell service station and Coles express. But it is awful. Often closed during the day. Often the bread is not ready when it is opened. The salad display looks fly struck. I contacted Subway and pointed out these things. They got me in touch with the owner who facetiously emailed that the manager was sacked. It is their loss if they don't want to make money. Visiting a bubble tea shop I like when experienced staff are away. Their sealer dispenser had 'broken' and so the new staff were using special open lids normally used for their frozen ice products. Such things happen, but it is telling and disappointing. I normally take my drinks home, kilometres away, but because they weren't sealed that was not going to happen. And I'd already bought it, they had made it when I discovered the issue. It is ok for me, but the shop is eating into its profits with those lids. 

Obama gave about $220 million to the terrorist organisation Hamas on his last day in office. Hamas uses that money to pay families reward money for killing Jews. There are no degrees of evil. Obama also had a security team handling the Trump inauguration. Christian Democrat Leader (Australia) Fred Nile was declined permission to go to the inauguration because Obama thought he was a security risk. Can anyone find anytime when Nile did something like Hamas? It is rewarding evil to not prosecute Obama, and yet, unnecessary too. We know who he was as President. He will never be voted President again. However President Trump is brilliantly trolling Rahm in Chicago. Trump has threatened to send in federal agents if gun crime is not cleaned up. Rahm can clean up gun crime, but he will have to allow good people to have guns to achieve it. Trump cannot really send in federal agents without being invited. But if Rahm does nothing it will look very bad too. Democrat ideology is killing their own people. Trump is not allowing that evil to prosper. Tellingly, some have said that if Trump fixes things in Chicago, they are leaving. 
=== from 2016 ===
I love Australia. She isn't perfect, except she is perfectly Australian. In Canada there is debate about who contributed to her federation. In Australia we build for tomorrow. In the Middle East virtuous women wear Islamic clothing to fit in. In Australia, shameless hussies wear Islamic clothing to stand out and sometimes challenge the law. In Australia, you can choose to be faithful to God. In the Middle East, outside of Israel, you can be killed for it. In the US, the greatest day in sport is known for its' advertisements. In Melbourne any sport will attract bumper supporters every day of the year, keen to watch the sport. But best of all, Australia attracts the best in the world, who will work a hundred and twenty hours a week, doing drudge work for an education which will be recognised everywhere in the world. And the law turns a blind eye. The most known Australian in the world is an ethnically Vietnamese girl whose first name is Community. Some people will die for their faith. But in Australia we live for our BBQ. 

Don't forget the Aeroguard, and 'ave a good weekend. 'Straya, mate. 
=== from 2015 ===
Marriage of Anne Boleyn to Henry VIII on this day in 1533. She had held out for years to be married, but conceded to a promise. She had been 'married' or entangled twice before, since returning from France to England age 21. She was 32 when she married Henry. Elizabeth was born on the seventh of September, 1533. Henry was a genius, but the murder of his wife, Anne was a monstrous wrong nothing he did reconciled.

Tatiana of Rome was martyred on this day in 235. And so Moscow University was founded on this day in 1755. Under Emperor Severus in 235, Rome had been tasked to get religious icons from religious institutions. This was intended to promote the old religion as it was feared that secularism was corroding Roman resolve. However Christians were the only large religious group who would not do that. The alternative was execution. According to legend, Tatiana was the daughter of a Roman civil servant and was secretly Christian. When commanded to pray to Apollo, she prayed instead to Jesus and an earthquake struck the statue of Apollo and broke it. So Tatiana was left at the feet of a lion, but the lion didn't eat her. So Tatiana's head was cut off. She died on this day in 235. Her story is similar to Prisca and Martina, In 1755, the lover of the Russian Empress Elizabeth had a mother named Tatiana. He was minister of Education (snigger) and Russia approved his application to found Moscow University.

Shay's rebellion flowered on this day with the largest confrontation outside a Springfield Armoury. The rebels were rebelling against high taxes following the end of the war of independence, as well as corruption. The rebellion temporarily brought George Washington out of retirement as a General on his way to inauguration. It caused a significant rethink as to federal powers over state powers. 

Today, most people marry to Mendelssohn's wedding march, but on this day 1858, Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, married Friedrich of Prussia. Their fruitful union produced the Kaiser who took Germany to WW1. The musical piece was produced for Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 

In 1881, Edison stood next to Bell as the two formed a partnership, founding Oriental Telephone Company. In 1890, Nellie Bly, a journalist, completed her journey around the world in 72 days. Nellie, whose real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, was a beautiful young woman who had earlier exposed a deficient mental asylum by pretending to be insane. She effected real change for the patients. In 1971, three of Manson's female companions were found guilty of murder. On the same day Idi Amin seized power in Uganda. In 1981, Mao's wife was sentenced to death for her corruption, but the sentence was commuted to life and she suicided ten years later rather than be treated for cancer. In 2003, some left for Iraq volunteering to be human shields. In 2004, Opportunity rover landed on Mars. 
From 2014
Grants are necessary to support arts. Australia is not alone in the world in which the arts community has diverted public funds for left wing causes. It is not solely in the arts that funds are diverted to left wing causes. But the arts community is quite shameless about it. If you question it, you may be confronted with an attack "Back off, I'm an artist" and if you persist, your own credentials are questioned. What credentials do artists require? It is ok to question how public money is spent. It is understandable some might feel sensitive about their income. The lack of accountability, the apparent embezzlement and misuse of public funds is a threat to the art community. And it isn't artists who are defending it, but liars and thieves. Retaliation in the form of reduced funding is unlikely to hurt the thieves as much as it will hurt struggling artists reliant on the stream to further their skills. 

The issue was driven home for me when, having lost my career through ALP government corruption, I tried to start a back up career in the arts community. I have no visual arts talent, and my musical talent is best employed as a backdrop for Monsters Inc. But I can write and churn out video. I have attracted some 1.8 million hits between iCompositions and Youtube (the iComposition account was killed by corrupt AGW advocates). I made enquiries from others who were attracting grants and put forward a proposal. I was willing to produce a video on the issue of community and policing. My subject matter was the case of Nicola Cotton, a young, pregnant, post Katrina police recruit who was alone when she was ordered to apprehend a deviant. They fought, he got her gun and killed her with it, then waited to be arrested. My target was youth who were offside with police in the community, kids need to know about the work police do and sacrifices they make, and a dramatic kung fu interpretation showing Nicola's last day seemed to serve that purpose. Naturally, the project was refused funding. It apparently didn't address youth issues as well as a drug harm minimisation project. 

I made it anyway, without the dramatic recreation. One US based police remembrance group thanked me for it. I called it Picking Cotton. In working to establish a business, I am hoping to establish an independent production group that would produce local cultural material for video in High Definition (television ready) with a client licensing set up to produce income .. so an Ethiopian Pastor I know could produce material he could use in Ethiopia or in that community in Australia. I tell a producer friend of mine about it and they comment "But ICE (Information cultural exchange) already do that." Except, they fail.
Historical perspective on this day
In 41, after a night of negotiation, Claudius was accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate. 750, in the Battle of the Zab, the Abbasid rebels defeated the Umayyad Caliphate, leading to overthrow of the dynasty. 1348, a strong earthquake struck the South Alpine region of Friuli in modern Italy, causing considerable damage to buildings as far away as Rome. 1494, Alfonso II became King of Naples. 1515, Coronation of Francis I of France. 1533, Henry VIII of Englandsecretly married his second wife Anne Boleyn. 1554, founding of São Paulo city, Brazil. 1573, Battle of Mikatagahara: In Japan, Takeda Shingen defeated Tokugawa Ieyasu. 1575, Luanda, the capital of Angola, was founded by the Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais.

In 1704, the Battle of Ayubale resulted in the destruction of most of the Spanish missions in Florida. 1755, Moscow University was established on Tatiana Day. 1765, Port Egmont, the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands at the southern tip of South America, was founded. 1787, Shays' Rebellion: The rebellion's largest confrontation, outside the Springfield Armory, resulted in the killing of four rebels and the wounding of twenty. 1791, the British Parliamentpassed the Constitutional Act of 1791 and split the old Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. 1792, the London Corresponding Society was founded. 1858, the Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn was played at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia, and became a popular wedding recessional. 1879, the Bulgarian National Bank was founded. 1881,  Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bellformed the Oriental Telephone Company. 1890, Nellie Bly completed her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

In 1909, Richard Strauss's opera Elektra received its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera. 1915, Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco. 1918, Ukraine declared independence from Bolshevik Russia. 1924, the 1924 Winter Olympics opened in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games. 1932, Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese National Revolutionary Army began its defence of Harbin. 1937, The Guiding Light debuted on NBC radio from Chicago. In 1952 it moved to CBS television, where it remained until Sept. 18, 2009.

In 1941, Pope Pius XII elevated the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It became the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. 1942, World War II: Thailanddeclared war on the United States and United Kingdom. 1944, Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained in China, becoming the first woman Anglican priest. 1945, World War II: The Battle of the Bulge ended. 1946, the United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor. 1947, Thomas Goldsmith Jr. filed a patent for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", the first ever electronic game. 1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club the first Emmy Awards were presented. 1955, the Soviet Union ended the state of war with Germany. 1960, the National Association of Broadcasters reacted to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records. 1961, in Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivered the first live presidential television news conference. 1969, Brazilian Armycaptain Carlos Lamarca deserted in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him ten machine guns and 63 rifles.

In 1971, Charles Manson and three female "Family" members were found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders. Also 1971, Idi Amin led a coup deposing Milton Obote and became Uganda's president. 1979, Pope John Paul II started his first official papal visits outside Italy to the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Mexico. 1980, Mother Teresa was honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna 1981, Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, was sentenced to death. 1986, the National Resistance Movement toppled the government of Tito Okello in Uganda. 1990, Avianca Flight 52 crashed into Cove Neck, New York due to fuel exhaustion. 1993, Five people were shot outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Two were killed and three wounded. 1994, the Clementine space probe launched. 1995, the Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launched a nuclear attack after it mistook Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile. 1996, Billy Bailey became the last person to be hanged in the USA. 1998, during a historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demanded political reform and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country. Also 1998, a suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth killed eight and injured 25 others. 1999, a 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hit western Colombia killing at least 1,000.

In 2003, Invasion of Iraq: A group of people left London, England, for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields, intending to prevent the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations. 2004, Opportunity rover (MER-B) landed on surface of Mars. 2005, a stampede at the Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India killed at least 258. 2006, three independent observing campaigns announced the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star. Also 2006, Mexican professional wrestler Juana Barraza was arrested in connection with the serial killing of at least ten elderly women. 2010, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed into Mediterranean Sea. All 90 passengers and crew were killed. 2011, the first wave of the Egyptian revolution began in Egypt, with a series of street demonstrations, marches, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria, and throughout other cities in Egypt. 2013, at least 50 people were killed and 120 people were injured in a prison riot in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
=== 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 Kayley Ann Harris and Chantha Sok. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
Nellie Bly
Anne made her mark. Bly went around the world. Idi hurt the world. We've run out of fuel. Egypt has left the dogs for the cats. Let's party. 
Deaths
===
Tim Blair 2018

HOPEY CHANGEY DI NATALE’S MISSION INCOMPLETE

Greens are like that slow kid next to you in a maths exam – the innumerate loser who’d always fail no matter how much you helped him cheat.
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Tim Blair

BOKO BABIES BLOW UP SO FAST

In Nigeria, it’s Take Your Child to Work Day.
25 Jan  16 comments

WEDNESDAY NOTICEBOARD

Today’s noticeboard is brought to you by dull feminism.
25 Jan  65 comments

THE NEW AMERICAN RESISTANCE

It’s the first resistance movement in history to come with tour riders, concert merchandise and footsoldiers paying off sociology degrees.
25 Jan  97 comments

TRADING PLACES

Fairfax continues shrinking as the New York Timesinvades our nation. Probably this is because of Donald Trump.
25 Jan  51 comments

THIS IS LIBRARY

Every good library needs a good library cop – especially during an era of idiot student activism.
25 Jan 
===
Andrew Bolt

Why did a Fairfax story on a Sydney escort drag in Trump?

 The Sydney Morning Herald peddles more fake news to smear Donald Trump,  inserting in a story about a Sydney escort a completely gratuitous mention of ludicrous claims that Trump hired two Russian prostitutes.    
25 Jan  73 comments
===

IT WAS JUST SHOCKING TO WATCH

Tim Blair – Monday, January 25, 2016 (4:42pm)

The ABC’s Fran Kelly weeps for some old trees in a Sydney park: 
“It was horrible to watch, I have to say, I drove past, it was awful,” lamented Kelly. “I do know how upsetting it was to see those huge fig trees being slashed down, it was just shocking to watch, and they did it in the dead of night …”
“So it’s too late for those trees,” Kelly went on. “Should we have, or do we have, some kind of overarching federal legislation that could stop this … ?” 
Chris Kenny’s response: “Yep, that’s the answer. When a tree in your neighbourhood faces the chop, get a billion-dollar federal broadcasting behemoth to campaign on the airwaves for a federal government intervention in a footpath controversy that should hardly trouble the local councillors. And we wonder why we face economic problems.”
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IN HIS OWN WORDS

Tim Blair – Monday, January 25, 2016 (12:27pm)

Alleged conservative Donald Trump:

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MAN IS NOT MADE FOR THE STATE

Tim Blair – Monday, January 25, 2016 (2:06am)

In 1949, a remarkable young man spent his Christmas holidays attempting to work out the appeal of communism. Although religious, he went in with an open mind. The exceptional 20-year-old waded through Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto and, being evidently able to absorb considerable punishment, also took in some interpretative pieces on the reasoning of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
Communism’s contempt for religion turned out to be something of a barrier for our youthful fellow of faith, but far more troubling for him was what communism elevated in place of religion. A few years after his Christmas study, the US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr wrote: 
“In communism, the individual ends up in subjection to the state … and man is only a means to that end. And if man’s so-called rights and liberties stand in the way of that end, they are simply swept aside. His liberties of expression, his freedom to vote, his freedom to listen to what news he likes or to choose his books are all restricted. Man becomes hardly more, in communism, than a depersonalised cog in the turning wheel of the state …

“Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself.”
The left’s idolatry of the state was still prevalent when King was assassinated in 1968 and it also survived the collapse of European communism in the early 1990s. Some 67 years after Dr King’s revelation, there are still those who elevate state above humankind. We saw echoes of this in the pre-Christmas complaints from leftists about the allegedly insufficient taxes paid by various large companies, as though paying tax – in other words, maintaining and advancing the state – is a measure of goodness.
This is absurd. Rather than the amount of taxes paid by businesses, a preferable goodness measure is how many employees are paid. After all, if you’re going to be throwing money around, you may as well throw it at someone who might spend it on something useful. Giving money to the government just gives everyone more damn government – and, therefore, the further sweeping aside of rights and liberties.
Happily, 2016 is a federal election year, so sooner or later you’ll have your own opportunity to gauge where your local candidates stand on the whole state versus individual issue. When those candidates come knocking on your door, be prepared to ask one simple question which goes right to the heart of Dr King’s thesis.
(Continue reading Man is Not Made For the State.)
===

THE BEST NUMBER IS ZERO

Tim Blair – Monday, January 25, 2016 (1:48am)

Not so long ago, various caring progressive types delighted in characterising Australia as an international disgrace over our sensible measures to prevent asylum seekers arriving here in huge numbers or dying en route.
They’re gradually waking up. “It’s comforting to think of Australia as a global pariah on the world stage, pursuing racist policies against asylum seekers from war-torn nations,” wrote the Guardian‘s Antony Loewenstein last week. “But it’s untrue. Canberra’s militarised ‘solution’ to refugees is admired in many parts of Europe.
“Today it’s more likely European officials will ask Australian officials for advice on how to ‘stop the boats’ than chastise it.”
There’s a telling admission in Loewenstein being comforted by the idea that Australia is evil. Nothing makes a leftist happier. In any case, it is a fact that sophisticated Continental types are now looking to duplicate Australia’s excellent example.
Following the arrival of more than one million mostly Islamic refugees in Europe last year, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Norway, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Hungary and France recently introduced six-month temporary frontier controls that may turn out to be not so temporary.
Germany and France have already indicated the controls won’t be lifted when they are scheduled to time out in May.
“The patience of many Europeans has reached its limit,” Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told German newspaper Die Welt. “We have talked a lot, now we must act. It is about protecting stability, order and security in Europe.”
This need became urgently apparent following the New Year’s Eve molest-a-thon in Cologne, Germany, where hundreds of Islamic refugees assaulted terrified young women. The area’s government last week released a “list of shame” detailing 359 sexual offences arising from that evening, amid crimes ranging from pickpocketing to gang rape.
So far, police have only managed to identify 30 suspects. All are described as North Africans. Half of them are recently-arrived asylum seekers.
Hungary, which is not unfamiliar with the trauma of invasion, was the first European nation to take a stand against millions of unwelcome Islamic arrivals. Like Australia, Hungary was initially denounced. Not any more. As the London Times reports, Austria has now slashed its refugee intake for 2016 to just 37,500, down nearly 60 per cent on 2015’s number.
“Common sense has prevailed,” declared Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban earlier this month. “Europe can’t take in huge masses of foreign people in an unlimited, uncontrolled manner.” On national radio, Orban offered this target for future refugee intakes: “The best number is zero.”
So much for Australia being an outlier nation of hateful bigots and xenophobes. Faced with their own unsustainable levels of refugee arrivals, Europe realises that the Australian way should be their way, too.
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Australia a shining beacon in dark times

Piers Akerman – Saturday, January 24, 2015 (11:34pm)

AS we plan to celebrate Australia Day tomorrow – OK, most of us began celebrating yesterday – it’s worth thinking about what we are celebrating, what we should really rejoice in and what we are doing to protect those precious things we embrace.
It’s nearly thirty years since Lyrics by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton set down the lyrics to I Am Australian but the chorus still remains an essential theme that resonates with Old and New Aussies alike.
“We are one, but we are many/And from all the lands on earth we come/We share a dream and sing with one voice:/I am, you are, we are Australian!”
We can hope that those who call themselves Australian do share that dream but unfortunately we know that it’s not necessarily so.
There are monsters that have been born here who subscribe to the barbaric death cult of Islamism who want to destroy that dream, who want to bloodily impose the most vicious form of theocratic government upon us and constantly plot to destroy the harmony which largely exists.
This year “we” commemorate the Anzac tragedy and the horrendous loss of a generation of young men who fought in a just war against a repellent Kaiser even as our armed forces are engaged in suppressing the evil Daesh movement which rapes and murders and enslaves young girls in the name of a mediaeval caliphate cult.
But the “we” of Woodley and Newton’s anthem are “many” and still set the agenda - though it remains permanently under threat from the multiculturalists and multinationalists who would prefer to see Australia’s independent sovereignty eroded and made subservient to international treaties that have no force in Australian law.
The “we” should not only recognise but also revel in the priceless liberties “we” almost unconsciously enjoy and “we” should fight with all our will against those who incessantly work to undermine and limit such irreplaceable principles as freedom of speech with restrictions and prohibitions against offense and ridicule.
“We” should reject the politically correct who seek to find fault where none exists, to impose their remedies where no harm is done, to create division and pit Australians against each other.
“We” take pride in our flag. It’s a great symbol of our nation, the Southern Cross belongs in our skies and has done so since our universe was formed. “We” should challenge those who claim it is in some bizarre fashion a symbol of racism or colonialism and we should not permit it to be marginalised by idiots who use it to mask their antisocial behaviour with phoney patriotism.
There is an awful lot wrong with Australia but by any comparison with other countries “we” are a very fortunate people and there is plenty to celebrate.
“We” should be wary of people who talk of their vision for the nation, particularly if the vision is derived from some failed political experiment.
“We” are cynical and disenchanted with many in political life at all levels, particularly those who believe symbolic gestures can bring about genuine change, whether they be apologies to various groups or radical additions to the Constitution.
That great Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies was on the money over 70 years ago when he said: “One of the great blots on our modern living is the cult of false values, a repeated application of the test of money, notoriety, applause. A world in which a comedian or a beautiful half-wit on the screen can be paid fabulous sums, whilst scientific researchers and discoverers can suffer neglect and starvation, is a world which needs to have its sense of values violently set right.”
“We” only need to look around at the meaningless Facebook friends, the emptiness of the internet, the soullessness of so much of what purports to be social media, and the kneejerk nonsense that counts as commentary in the Twitterverse to see how prescient he was.
This country’s strength has always been its people whether they were the earliest Aboriginal inhabitants struggling in a harsh environment or the later waves of settlers and migrants dedicated to building a better society than the ones they had left. Sir Robert Menzies said “leaners grow flabby; lifters grow muscles”.
The United Nations is dominated by totalitarian states and tinpot dictatorships.
Amongst these Australia, still, remains a dream worth sharing and celebrating.
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Why is the public so determined to misread American Sniper?

Miranda Devine – Sunday, January 25, 2015 (5:21pm)

BEST picture nominees Birdman and American Sniper represent the schizophrenia of the western mind, circa 2015.
 Continue reading 'Why is the public so determined to misread American Sniper?'
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NEVER THE TWAIN THEY MET

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 25, 2015 (2:19pm)

In the grand tradition of ex-Fairfax columnist Terry Lane, the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Richard Glover completely butchers Mark Twain.
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POLL PROPHECY

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 25, 2015 (4:41am)

Sydney-raised Islamic terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohammed Elomar, currently murdering, raping and kidnapping their way across northern Iraq, draw ever closer to their fate. But what might that fate be? Will they become part of Islamic State’s extensive Middle Eastern soil fertilisation project, or will these two caliphate-crazed cavemen cavaliers somehow charm their way back into Australia?
Let the influential BlairPoll decide their destiny:
Thank you for voting! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Total Votes: 4,418
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BATS CURED

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 25, 2015 (3:32am)

James and Amber text from the Sunshine Coast: 
We are sitting in Noosa making up new lyrics to The Cure’s Love Cats:
Fright bats! Don’t ever, ever, ever call them pretty! 
Readers are invited to offer their own Love Cats/Fright Bats lyrics.
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#ILLWALKWITHYOU

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 25, 2015 (3:07am)

Journalist Peter Lindgren wears a kippah and a Star of David during a stroll through the streets of Malmo, Sweden: 
The result: “He received direct threats as he walked through the city,” according to expressen.se.
Lindgren, walking with a hidden camera and microphone alongside, recorded every step. The report showed the reporter enduring verbal abuse by a man who called him a “Jewish s***” and told him to “leave.” Another person hit him and shouted “Satan Jew,” at him.
As they approached the the city’s neighborhoods with higher Muslim populations, the threats only increased. Some 20 percent of the 300,000 residents of Sweden’s third-largest city are Muslim, according to statistics. 
(Via Jill)
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DEWAYNE DEWIMP

Tim Blair – Sunday, January 25, 2015 (2:26am)

American journalism academic DeWayne Wickham bows to the authority of Islamic tyrants: 
If Charlie Hebdo’s irreverent portrayal of Mohammed before the Jan. 7 attack wasn’t thought to constitute fighting words, or a clear and present danger, there should be no doubt now that the newspaper’s continued mocking of the Islamic prophet incites violence. And it pushes Charlie Hebdo’s free speech claim beyond the limits of the endurable. 
Wickham is using the same gutless weasel-reasoning earlier offered by the Guardian‘s First Yellow Dog on the Moon, firebomb-frightened Islam appeaser Andrew Marlton. Mark Steyn takes Wickham’s pathetic cowardice to its logical conclusion: 
If you’re in DeWayne Wickham’s class at Morgan State and you’d like to get an A, why not threaten to kill him? Indeed, it would be heartening if his entire class were to issue a mass death threat unless they’re instantly upgraded to magna cum laude.
That’s what Wickham’s concessions on free speech do: Incentivize violence. 
Precisely. Further from Steyn here.
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Our grants aren’t meant to sponsor McCarthyism

Andrew Bolt January 25 2014 (7:33am)

The new McCarthyists should not be subsidised by taxpayers. Nor should fools unable to distinguish rational, conservative democrats from genocidal Nazi totalitarians.

Quadrant’s Roger Franklin on the latest example of state subsidies being used by the far Left to police thought:
When such a featherhead is in a position of influence, able to advance or retard reputations and careers at the stroke of a pen, a closer look is warranted… In this instance the individual is Peter Minter. poetry editor and academic, whose pulpit for proclaiming on the moral worth of lesser mortals is that little-read and much-subsidised quarterly Overland, “the most radical of Australia’s long-standing literary journals.” 
As singer, songwriter, poet and sometime-Quadrant contributor Joe Dolce noted on our website over the weekend, Minter informed him in writing and on the record that his verse would no longer be published in Overland, which just by the way of background was blessed with $399,000 in Australia Council grants between 2010 and 2013. The reason: his association with Quadrant. Dolce, who admits to voting Labor last September, was taken aback by Minter’s zeal in appointing himself Australian poetry’s blacklister-in-chief and, as the policy of exclusion sank in, by the thought that the policy might be at odds with the Australia Council’s goals, standards and procedures. He would seem to be right about that, going by the organisation’s mission statement in regard to literary journals:
“The Literature Panel aims are to encourage the writing and reading of Australian literature, to open up opportunities for our writers to earn from their creative work, and to keep the avenues of debate, discussion, analysis and criticism open.”
....Students of the left and its conceits will need no prompting to guess at Minter’s defence of his edict. Writing on the Facebook page of theatre critic, “best-selling author” and friend Alison Croggon, herself a recipient of $40,000 in 2013 from the Australia Council’s Literature Board, ... Minter in his prolix style laid out a case that might be summed up thus: Quadrant and Nazis, same thing really.... 
Peter Minter – “ Joe, let me end with a very simple (perhaps brutal) analogy....Let’s imagine we are in Germany in the 1930s. We are writing what we think are good poems, free of any overt political substance, and we decide to send them to the “Nazi Literary Weekly” for publication, because the poetry editor loves poetry and everyone thinks he is going to win the Nobel Prize and so they all suck up to him in order to gain the satisfaction of feeling that they are being ordained by the holy poet. The Big Poet publishes the poems and everyone feels nice. Nevertheless, and this is the crux, history will shine its irrevocable truth upon the poets who submitted their poems to the “Nazi Literary Weekly” and they will be forever stained by the association… 
So you can say whatever you like about how wonderful it is to be published by [Quadrant poetry editor] Les Murray (those of us who know also know that this is not what it seems!!) the fact remains that those who choose to publish in Quadrant will be forever stained by the association (or by being published in Overland, depending on your perspective). 
I believe in free speech, but observe that in law Murray may well have a case for defamation against Minter. But let Minter rant and strut and see Nazis under the bed if that makes him feel more heroic. At least he’s now getting read.
But the question for the Australia Council and Arts Minister George Brandis is whether taxpayers really hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars to a literary magazine so a McCarthyist can play such crude politics-by-association.  Is the national culture being enriched or constrained while we have a Minter as a gatekeeper?
UPDATE
More food for thought about our grants industry. Franklin mentions writer Alison Croggon. Turns out last year was another good one for the Croggon household, now with a second generation in receipt of Australia Council funding as well:
But I’m puzzled. How can an artist get a grant to start a “sustainable” career, but then a second months later? Did the career not turn out that sustainable, after all?
How many grants exactly is any one artist entitled to before we must expect them to find their own paying public or go without?
Eight years ago, after Alison Croggon had received her first four Australia Council grants (and others beside), I was pondering this very question and received a heated defence from Croggon, who protested:
I am one of those artists supported - as Les Murray says - in order to be paid now what otherwise posterity will owe me. 
Posterity seems to be a slow payer in Croggon’s case. Or maybe she has an exaggerated estimation of what she is due.
If posterity finally decides that Croggon’s work isn’t actually worth that much at all, will we taxpayers get a refund? I’d like that money back so I can decide for myself which artists to support with my business.
UPDATE
Reader History with numbers:
Diana West has put numbers on Sen. McCarthy’s cases, there were basically all verified (and even more so).  Given the left is now the establishment and Sen. McCarthy really was fighting against subversion (see Gramsci’s teaching that subversion of institutions was necessary since the revolution had failed) it might be better to use terms like state sponsored ideological enclaves, tribal warfare, using public monies in neo-feudal war games.
Reader Correllio:
@alisoncroggan’s twitter profile says she’s also the ABC Online’s arts critic (as well as approved by the taxpayer funded McCarthysists at the Overland). And she still has her hands in our pockets for more?
Reader David:
I read Croggon’s her poem Small Things. Thought there was some irony in the lines “and those with flexible tongues they can look after themselves”. Those who win arts grants in Australia mostly do so mostly on the wording of their grant applications rather than their talent. In other words, arts grants tend to go to those who least deserve them.
Reader Lord Stockton:
I think 5 years support of 3 grants is sufficient for a ‘struggling’ but creative artist to get established. If they are not successful in that time maybe, just maybe, their creativity is not creative. As a taxpayer I believe the next struggling but creative artist needs the assistance not the failure.
Reader BoyfromTottenham:
Did I read that correctly - ms croggan justifies her multiple taxpayer handouts by saying “...in order to be paid now what otherwise posterity will owe me”? I am absolutely gobsmacked!! Why don’t we all get paid now for “what otherwise posterity will owe me”? Because in the REAL world, people don’t get paid until they do the work!! Luv a duck, these people and all those that support this obscene gravy train are beyond outrageous.
Reader Win:
Sixty thousand for the Croggan family and the Quadrant funding was reduced to twenty thousand by the Literature board. Who sits on the Literature board and what are their salaries?
Reader Bazza McKenzie:
Andrew, your reference to “McCarthyist” in this context perpetuates a leftist lie. Senator Joe McCarthy investigated US government officials who were communists, though usually concealing their affiliations, and aiding the Soviet Union at the expense of the US. Post the collapse of the USSR, Soviet archives confirmed his allegations.Yet McCarthy was hounded from the Senate by the usual leftist MSM and his reputation besmirched. 
And before anyone yammers on about Hollywood blacklists, McCarthy had nothing to do with them. The investigation of communists in Hollywood was by the House UnAmerican Activities committee (McCarthy was a Senator, not a member of the House of Representatives). And as we have seen recently, most of the “blacklisting” in Hollywood is undertaken by its leftist powerbrokers.
Reader Viperous:
On the goodreads site, three of her books have about 30 editions printed and a fourth has 25. I’m sure that she can stand on her own two feet by now. Giving her a grant would be like giving Cate Blanchett a grant to fund a theatre company for her own amusement.
UPDATE
And to my arguments about arts grants - how many is enough, and to what purpose is our money being spent on Croggons - Alison Croggon offers the following reasoned responses:
I have no idea how I have defamed Croggon’s daughter - aged 24 - and if if can be explained to me I will of course apologise and retract. But so far I see only a how-dare-you touchiness from someone happy to take my money but offended at being asked to justify it.
Let’s start with a simple question that I as a taxpayer have a right to ask: how much taxpayers’ money has Alison Croggon received in arts grants?
Here are some I know of: 1989 Victorian Council for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, a Victorian Ministry for the Arts fellowship, 1993 Australia Council Fellowship, 1995 Australia Council Fellowship, 2000 Australia Council Writers Fellowship, a 2004 Australia Council grant of $25,000, and a 2013 Australia Council grant of $40,000.  One biography states she received Australia Council grants to write full-time in 2004 and 2005.  She has worked for taxpayer-funded magazines, supplied scripts for taxpayer-funded theatre companies, written for the taxpayer-funded ABC and penned a libretto for a taxpayer-funded opera. Exactly how much of our money should go in grants to Alison Croggon before some bureaucrat decides enough - let Croggon now find her own audience and let some new artist sup at the taxpayer trough? 
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If things are rocky, blame Indonesia first

Andrew Bolt January 25 2014 (6:58am)

Cameron Stewart is right to suggest that if our relations with Indonesia truly are as rocky as some of the public posturing suggests, much of the blame actually lies with Indonesians:
When it was reported this week that 10 asylum-seekers claimed to have been burned and beaten by Australian sailors, Security Minister Djoko Suyanto, who is leading Indonesia’s response to the turnback strategy, immediately accepted their claims as gospel. This was despite having no proof of their unlikely story, despite the obvious motivation for the returned asylum-seekers to fabricate such claims, and despite strong denials from the Australian government and from two of the country’s most senior military officers.
Regardless, Suyanto’s spokesman Agus Barnas described the alleged case of mistreatment as “torture” by Australian sailors…
While the Australian government is careful about what it says publicly about Indonesia, there is growing frustration in Canberra over what many see as hypocritical posturing by Jakarta.
Last week, when Border Protection Command discovered several of its ships had accidentally entered Indonesia’s 12 nautical mile territorial waters in the course of turnbacks, Australia informed Jakarta of the breach, apologised profusely and ordered a formal review to ensure such a mistake is not repeated…
But what was lost in the resulting furore was that this mistake occurred through good intentions. The navy was trying to escort asylum-seeker boats as close as it legally could to the Indonesian shore to try to maximise their chances of a safe return.
Indonesia’s angry response was to accuse Australia of trampling on its sovereignty and to boost naval patrols in the areas where the breaches had occurred…
The irony is that Canberra has been wanting Indonesia to increase its naval patrols in these waters off southern Java for years, to help stop people-smugglers from launching their boats as well as to save the lives of asylum-seekers in distress on the high seas… If the safety of returned asylum-seekers is genuinely worrying Indonesia, then it could simply give permission for Australian navy ships to escort asylum-seeker boats through its territorial zone all the way back to shore, guaranteeing a safe return each time. 
Here’s an example of an Indonesian MP - Foreign Affairs Commission member Tantowi Yahya - making ludicrous claims to push his kick-Australia agenda:
TANTOWI YAHYA: I say many, many times that the asylum seekers are not Indonesians and they came to our territory without our knowledge and then their intention is going to Australia. So, as a matter of fact we don’t have anything - we don’t have anything to do with this except for the reasons of humanity...: Well, if you set aside the humanity reasons, the asylum seekers are not Indonesian, obviously. They were - and then their destinations is also Australia. So, in fact we have nothing to do with this. 
Indonesia has “nothing to do with this”? Indonesia really has “nothing to do with” Indonesian boats with Indonesian crews smuggling in people from Indonesian territory, often with the connivance of corrupt Indonesian police?
This man takes us for fools.
UPDATE
On Catallaxy Files, a reminder to the anti-Abbott Left - so keen to hype up Indonesiam anger against our boat policies - that it is being used as Indonesia prepares to go to elections:
Partai Demokrat, GOLKAR, PKS, PAN, PPP and PKB coalition partner officials are cheerfully beating the ‘vote for us because we stand up to foreigners’ drum secure in the knowledge that Canberra will not say a word about it. And both benefit from the free publicity flowing from the Narrative. Reports of Indonesian warships going to the area, hysteria about turnbacks, the baseless ABC allegations of beatings and burnings all act to deter new customers for the transnational criminal gangs running the people smuggling trade. Both countries benefit from this. 
What the left will refuse to understand is that their predictability makes them perfect for co-option, and so they and their Narrative have been co-opted by political operators vastly more worldly and sophisticated than they. As the left just knows itself to be morally and intellectually superior to both governments, they are unable to acknowledge this or to change their MO. Their worldview does not permit them to realise they are being played like a violin. 
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Other parts of the world laugh at our warmists screaming “warming”

Andrew Bolt January 24 2014 (6:26pm)

Global warming - propaganda

Warmists - from the Climate Council to Time magazine - treated last week’s heat wave in Victoria and South Australia as evidence of world-wide warming. Such deception is as typical and it is disgraceful, and worse is that so many media outlets seem to consider it their duty to promote it rather than expose it.
Meanwhile in the US:
The US east coast has been hit by the second major winter storm of the year, with up to 12in (30cm) of snow, strong winds and bitter cold forecast… 
The storm comes two weeks after a weather pattern known as the polar vortex brought heavy snow and record low temperatures to the eastern half of the US.
In Thailand:
The unusually long cold spell across the North, Northeast and Central regions has killed 63 people in the past three months and Bangkok has suffered its coldest night in three decades.  
In Sweden:
Residents living in far northern Sweden woke up to a temperature of -41.2 C on Sunday as the harsh winter continues to bite across the rest of the country… The recorded temperature of -41.2 was a record for that region which is right on the Finnish border.
Dr David Whitehouse gives the context almost always withheld by the ABC and Fairfax newspapers:
In a joint press conference NOAA and NASA have just released data for the global surface temperature for 2013. In summary they both show that the ‘pause’ in global surface temperature that began in 1997, according to some estimates, continues. 
Statistically speaking there has been no significant trend in global temperatures over this period… Given that the IPCC estimates that the average decadal increase in global surface temperature is 0.2 deg C, the world is now 0.3 deg C cooler than it should have been.
(Thanks to reader Michelle.) 
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“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” - Galatians 6:1
Secular law does not dictate conscience. Lots of things are legal that a moral person should not do. And it is by living by the Spirit that one becomes aware of it. People immersed in the World are not aware of the numerous transgressions they do. Chief of which is to insult God. 

It seems to be a compulsion for unbelievers. But insulting God is a way of finding out who He is. And it should not go unchallenged. But disputing it should not be aggressive either. Because the point is not to be right, but to allow God to work in their lives. 

The scriptures are the inspired work of those who knew God. But unbelievers don’t understand it. The Islamic prophet Mohammed claimed to have flown over the desert on a magic carpet so as to fight two battles at once. Jesus healed the sick. Can you not see how confused the unbeliever becomes? God is real. God has authority on Earth. Arguing aggressively with an unbeliever doesn't illustrate it. 

And believers get confused too. Being saved does not mean one is smart. But the spirit filled believer has not got a license to usurp God just because they are a follower. 
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

January 24: Morning
"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler." -Psalm 91:3
God delivers his people from the snare of the fowler in two senses. From, and out of. First, he delivers them from the snare--does not let them enter it; and secondly, if they should be caught therein, he delivers them out of it. The first promise is the most precious to some; the second is the best to others.

"He shall deliver thee from the snare." How? Trouble is often the means whereby God delivers us. God knows that our backsliding will soon end in our destruction, and he in mercy sends the rod. We say, "Lord, why is this?" not knowing that our trouble has been the means of delivering us from far greater evil. Many have been thus saved from ruin by their sorrows and their crosses; these have frightened the birds from the net. At other times, God keeps his people from the snare of the fowler by giving them great spiritual strength, so that when they are tempted to do evil they say, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" But what a blessed thing it is that if the believer shall, in an evil hour, come into the net, yet God will bring him out of it! O backslider, be cast down, but do not despair. Wanderer though thou hast been, hear what thy Redeemer saith--"Return, O backsliding children; I will have mercy upon you." But you say you cannot return, for you are a captive. Then listen to the promise--"Surely he shall deliver thee out of the snare of the fowler." Thou shalt yet be brought out of all evil into which thou hast fallen, and though thou shalt never cease to repent of thy ways, yet he that hath loved thee will not cast thee away; he will receive thee, and give thee joy and gladness, that the bones which he has broken may rejoice. No bird of paradise shall die in the fowler's net.
Evening
"Martha was cumbered about much serving." - Luke 10:40
Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. "I serve," should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had "much serving." We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master's service. It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the Master. Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest; and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement. Her fault was that she grew "cumbered with much serving," so that she forgot him, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites; but Moses, on the top of the mountain in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the hardest to rear: the most heavenly graces are the most difficult to cultivate. Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, which are good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Saviour's feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing him service. The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for his glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world.
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Sisera 
[Sĭs'eră] - meditation, battle array or sees a horse.
1. Commander of the Canaanite army which held northern Israel in subjection. He was killed by Jael (Judg. 4:21, 22; 1 Sam. 12:9; Ps. 83:9). In his flight after battle with the Israelites under Barak, Sisera, overcome by fatigue, sought shelter in the tent of Jael, who treacherously slew him while asleep - the death prophesied by Deborah (Judg. 4:9 ). The most tragic aspect of the murder of Sisera is that of his anxious mother awaiting the return of her son. Jael's cruel act broke a mother's heart.
2. One of the Nethinims whose descendants returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:53; Neh. 7:55).
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Martha
The Woman Who Was More Practical Than Spiritual
Scripture Reference: Luke 10:38-41;John 11; John 12:1-3
Name Meaning: As a Chaldee or Syriac word, Martha is the feminine of moro or more, meaning "lord," "master." We find this in the form maran in the well-known phrase Maran-atha, "The Lord cometh" (1 Corinthians 16:22). There are those who think that Kyria, translated "lady" in 2 John 1, is a proper name, the Greek equivalent of this word. Carpzov supposes that this Kyria was the same person as Martha of Bethany.
Family Connections: Of the history of Martha, the Bible tells us nothing save that she was the sister of Mary and Lazarus, and lived with them at Bethany. Some early writers have made Martha, the daughter, wife, or widow of Simon the Leper, and that on his death the house became hers, hence the reference to the house when the resurrection of Lazarus was celebrated (Matthew 26:6; Mark 14:3 ). Others think that Martha may have been a near relative of Simon for whom she acted as hostess. But the narrative seems to suggest the home belonged to Martha and being older than Mary and Lazarus, she carried the responsibility of all connected with household affairs in a home where "Jesus found the curse of the sojourner lifted from Him, and, in reversal of His own description of His loneliness and penury, found where to lay His head." What strikes us forcibly is that after Jesus left His natural home at the age of thirty to enter upon His public ministry we do not read of Him returning to it for rest and relaxation. It was to the warm, hospitable home at Bethany to which He retired, for He loved the three who lived in it, Martha, Mary and Lazarus-in this order-which is something we do not read concerning His own brothers and sisters according to the flesh.
Martha and Mary seem to belong together in God's portrait gallery, just as Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau do. Expositors also bracket the two sisters together, comparing and contrasting their respective traits. Martha, busy with household chores-Mary, preferring to sit before Jesus for spiritual instruction. Martha, ever active and impulsive-Mary, meditative and reticent. Truly drawn are the characters of these two sisters, Martha usually busy supervising the hospitality of the home, Mary somewhat indifferent to house work, anxious only to seek that which was spiritual. But we have no Scriptural warrant for affirming that the difference between the quiet, pious Mary and her industrious sister is that of the opposite of light to darkness. In the church there are vessels of gold and others of silver, but we are not justified in saying that the character of Mary is worked in gold and that of Martha in silver. These two sisters in that Bethany family had their respective, appropriate talents, and each of them served the Master accordingly.
George Matheson deprecates the effort to always bracket Mary and Martha together. Each figure stands for itself alone. These sisters have "both suffered from being uniformly viewed in combination, and the bracketing has been more injurious to Mary than to Martha. To say that Mary stands in contrast to Martha is true, but it is inadequate." Too often "Martha has been held up to fine scorn as a worldly-minded and jealous creature, and Mary exalted for an indifference to the duties of hospitality, concerning which, for aught that we know, she may at various times have been quite as zealous as Martha." Let us, therefore, take these female characters separately, and beginning with Martha note how she nobly fulfilled her mission in life.
The majority of the women of the Bible are revealed to us in passing hints. None of them are as fully pictured as we would like. But when we look at Martha it does seem as if her character is more fully revealed than that of many other females. Luke gives us our first glimpse of her in "a piece of writing which is one of the marvels of literature," as H. V. Morton expresses it. "There is not one word we could do without, yet the picture is complete, and framed, as it were, by a kitchen door. Luke tells it in ninety-eight words" (Luke 10:38-42 ). We have scattered evidence as to Martha's ability to care for Jesus and the saints in the practical ways she did. Her home at Bethany was one of the few of social standing and substance with whom Jesus was on friendly terms. The hospitality afforded Him, the supper of some pretensions Martha provided for invited guests, the number and quality of friends who gathered around the sisters in the hour of their deep grief, and the wealth displayed in the anointing of Jesus, all alike bespeak of affluence. When Bethany is referred to as "the village of Mary and her sister, Martha," the implication is that they were important figures in the community and that their home was the chief one in the village.
What, then, are the characteristics of Martha, the only Bible woman to have her name repeated, as Jesus did, when affectionately He said, "Martha! Martha!"?
She Was Most Hospitable
The first glimpse we have of Martha is that of one "given to hospitality," for we read she "received Jesus into her house"-her house, suggesting she was its owner. Then, when Jesus was sent for to hurry to the aid of her sick brother, Lazarus, we read that when Martha heard that Jesus was coming "she met Him," and bade Him welcome (John 11:20, 30 ). And the provision of that home meant much to Jesus. One day we have Him saying, "The Son of man hath not where to lay his head," but the next day, "He came to Bethany ... and Martha made him a supper." His lonely heart found in that loving, hospitable home a woman waiting to minister to His weariness and exhaustion, and from the swift-handed care of gentle womanhood Jesus received the physical refreshment He needed. Even when there was death in the home, the energetic and practical Martha dried her tears and went out to meet the Lord of life, leaving the mystical Mary sitting in the house still weeping. What a superb life-like touch that is! "Martha went and met Him: but Mary sat still in the house."
Knowing Martha as we do, we can be assured of this fact, that whenever Jesus visited Martha's home she never had any need to apologize for untidy rooms, a neglected household, or lack of necessary provisions. To her, home responsibilities were never a drudgery. Martha loved her home, was house-proud, kept it "spick and span," and was ever ready to entertain her divine Guest or others seeking a refuge beneath her hospitable roof. Eugenia Price expresses this aspect of Martha's character when she says-
The superb hospitality He found in Martha's home was extremely important to Him. No one enjoyed her cooking more than He enjoyed it. No one found her spacious home more beautiful, more inviting. But always He had the real issues in full view. He could not be distracted from them, even by His tired body and His human need of Martha's services.
She Was Meditative
We do not read the record of Martha and Mary aright if we think that the former did all the serving, and the latter all the sitting. Too often, we think of Mary as the meditative one, and Martha as the practical one. But the next glimpse we have of Martha shows us that she was found at Jesus' feet-"which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word." So both sisters studied in the College of the Feet. Conversely the phrase, "she has left me to serve alone," suggests that Mary joined her sister in the reception of Jesus, and worked with her for a while but betook herself to her place at Jesus' feet. We must not for a moment feel that Mary thought serving beneath her, or that Martha had the idea that sitting was beyond her spiritual capacity. Both sat before the Master, but while Mary thought that listening was better, Martha felt that feeding Jesus was just as necessary as waiting upon His word. Martha's practical service on His behalf was inspired by what she had heard from His lips and came of her love for Him. As George Matheson puts it-
Every article on Martha's table was constructed out of sympathy, built of the fibres of her heart. The feast which she devised was the fruit of solicitude for Jesus and would have had no existence apart from that solicitude.
She Was Guilty of Complaint
Luke, who must have gone with Jesus to the house, noticed that "Martha was cumbered about much serving." The word "cumbered" means "distracted." It is God's will "that we attend upon the Lord without distraction" (1 Corinthians 7:35 ). But being the one who managed the household and served, Martha found herself drawn hither and thither by conflicting cares. She loved Jesus and wanted all in the house to do their best for Him. So we have her double complaint, with the first part of it directed to Jesus Himself, "Dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?" The next half of the complaint was a command, "Bid her therefore that she help me." This means that if Jesus were still speaking to Mary sitting at His feet, her somewhat vehement complaint must have interrupted our Lord's calm demeanor while conversing with Mary. It irritated Martha to see Mary, cool and idle, while she was busy getting the meal ready for the visitors, and most likely their accommodation for a night or so.
It may have been that Martha was "secretly vexed with herself as much as with Mary, that the latter enjoyed the privilege of hearing Jesus' word seated at His feet, while she could not persuade herself to do the same for fear that a varied enough repast should not be served up to Him." It was as if Martha had said to Jesus, "Lord, here am I with everything to do, and this sister of mine will not lay her hand to anything; thus I miss something from Thy lips, and Thou from our hands-bid her, therefore, that she help me."
Martha would not presume to call her sister away from Jesus to help. In her vexed state of mind she included Jesus in her rebuke, and asked Him to release Mary from the season of meditation to help out with practical duties.
She Was Rebuked by Jesus
In our Lord's answer to Martha's complaint there was no condemnation of her activity, for He must have appreciated her warmhearted, practical management of the household. He knew that she was seeking to entertain Him with her best, and so lovingly warned her of the danger of forgetting amid her many cares the one thing needful. In the repetition of her name, Martha! Martha! there is an affectionate reproof. The only other example of a twofold utterance of a name during our Lord's ministry was when He said, Simon! Simon! (Luke 22:31). From glory He said Saul! Saul! ( Acts 9:4). Following His repetition in which there was a gracious blending of kindness, sadness and surprise Jesus went on to remind Martha that she was careful and troubled about many things but that one thing was needful-the good part Mary had chosen and which He would not take away from her.
Jesus did not tell Martha that she had neither part nor lot in Him, or that she was allowing the cares of this life to choke the seed. He recognized that she was working for Him, but reminded her that she was permitting her outward activities to hinder her spiritually. Because of wrong emphasis regarding her necessary labor, her inner communion with her Lord was being hindered. In her restless activity Martha felt that her sister carried "her quiet, peaceful, faith-engendered mysticism" too far. H. V. Morton says that in our Lord's reply to Martha's complaint there can be traced a play of ideas, and that His words can be interpreted-
Martha, Martha, you are busy with many courses when one dish would be quite sufficient. Mary has chosen the best dish, which shall not be taken away from her.
The term "careful" refers to inward worrying anxiety. Martha was mentally solicitous, anxious with a divided mind which is forbidden (Matthew 6:22-31; 1 Corinthians 7:32). "Troubled," means disturbed, distracted outwardly about many things or dishes. Fausset comments that "Much serving has its right place and time (1 Thessalonians 4:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Timothy 5:14), but ought to give place to hearing when Jesus speaks, for faith whereby the good and abiding portion is gained, cometh by hearing" (Romans 10:17). The "good part" Mary chose was bias in the direction of that which is spiritual.
She Was Loved of the Lord
In a marvelous way John takes up where Luke leaves off, and with his skillful brush fills in the details of the character study of Martha the "practical." First of all, the "apostle of love" tells us that "Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus." How different were their personalities and temperaments, yet Jesus loved each of them with an equal love! He had a human heart enabling Him to love those who loved and cared for Him. So all three in that Bethany home had a place in His heart, and were embraced in His holy kindness. Such a love must have knit those sisters and their brother more closely and tenderly together than did even the bond of natural affection. Knowing all about Martha, Jesus loved her, and she in turn ardently loved Him and shared His confidence and became the recipient of a sublime revelation of her Lord.
She Was a Woman of Deep Sorrow
Sickness and death shadowed that loving, hospitable Bethany home. Lazarus fell sick, and his sister sent word to Jesus, "Behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick." Jesus did not hurry to Bethany but abode where He was, and by the time He reached Bethany Lazarus had been in his grave four days. Was He indifferent to the call and grief of Martha and Mary? Loving them, how could He be? He wanted them to learn that His delays are not denials; that He knows the exact moment to display His power. He knew that this was a death that would result in Him being glorified as the Son of Man (John 11:4).
While many of the Jewish friends came to comfort grief-stricken Martha and Mary, they eagerly awaited the coming of the divine Comforter Himself and as soon as they heard He was on the way, Martha dried her tears and went out to meet Him, leaving Mary sitting disconsolate in the house. As soon as Martha met Jesus she uttered a rebuke in her usual blunt fashion, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Then uncovering the real depths of her soul she hurried on to say, "But I know, that even now [with my dear brother in the grave] whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee."
What unbounded faith and confidence in her Lord's omnipotence she had! A most remarkable conversation on the Resurrection followed between the Master and Martha. Immediately Jesus healed her broken heart by assuring her that her brother would rise again. No explanation of His delayed arrival was given. Jesus began right away to unfold the truth He meant both His delay and the death of Lazarus to convey.
A desolate heart now, in the presence of the Prince of Life, expressed its faith in a resurrection of the dead in "the jubilee of the ages," as Martha knew the ancient Hebrew Scriptures taught. What she was not prepared for was the revelation that the One before her was the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus sought to lead the thoughts of Martha away from her dead brother to Himself, the One in whom the yonder becomes the here. Martha thought of the resurrection of her much-loved brother as a far-off event, but Jesus asserts His claim to be in Himself the power by which the dead are raised. Martha's reply provided the Master an occasion to present one of the most outstanding statements in the Bible as to His deity, power and authority-"I am the resurrection and the life." How astounded Martha must have been as she listened in awe to the tremendous truths flowing from the lips of Jesus. When He challenged her with "Believest thou this?" she uttered a remarkable confession of faith which some professed Christians today, alas, cannot subscribe to-
"Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art
The Christ,
The Son of God,
which should come into the world."
Although Martha could not fathom the depths of the Master's revelation of Himself, she believed and implied three well-known titles to Him who loved her-
The Christ-The One of whom glorious things had been predicted as the anointed prophet, priest and king.
The Son of God-A confession of His deity, for this is a title pertaining not to His office or position, but to His nature and Person as the Only Begotten of the Father.
He that should come into the world-This was a common description among the Jews of Him who was at once the heart of prophecy, the object of the aspirations of all illuminated and reborn souls, and the desire of all nations (Haggai 2:7; Matthew 11:3).
With her heart stilled by the mighty and mysterious message of the Master, and yet more by the calm majesty of His presence, Martha confessed her faith, and while she did not fully understand the depth of her own words, the Lord's Resurrection from the dead enabled her to understand in some measure why He came into the world. Leaving Him after such an overwhelming experience, Martha went back to the home and called her sister "secretly," perhaps for fear of the Jews. This precious touch reveals how concerned Martha was for the safety and cause of Him who had done so much for her. Mary was told that the Master asked for her, and rose up "hastily" and went to Him.
'Tis love that makes our willing feet
In swift obedience move.
Meeting Jesus, she fell down at the feet she had loved to sit at, and between her sobs repeated the complaint of Martha, "Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died." Mary was in no way behind her sister in her love for her departed brother (John 11:19), her faith in the Lord Jesus (John 11:21), and in her belief in the final resurrection. The tears of Mary and of the mourning Jews moved the sympathetic spirit of Jesus, and affected by such sorrow He groaned in His spirit ( John 11:33, 38). The groaning here was possibly an innner indignant feeling over the mockery of sorrow of the Jews whom He knew would try to kill Lazarus after his resurrection (John 11:47; 12:10), as well as kill Jesus also (John 11:53). It was this hypocrisy that stirred His spirit to anger so intense that it caused nerve and muscle and limb to tremble beneath its force. Then came the spectacle of "A God in Tears," for we come to the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept!"
How true it is that in every pang that rends the heart, the Man of Sorrows shares a part! Here was the evidence of His humanity.
At the grave Martha gives vent to her feelings again, and implied by her statement that as her dead brother's body had passed to corruption, it would be terrible to see him thus. But the miracle happened and the glory of God was manifested. Jesus uttered the all-commanding word, and Lazarus came forth, with a body fresher than it had been for years. Thus Jesus justified His claim to Martha of being "The Resurrection," not merely able to raise the dead, but also the Life-Power conquering the death-power in its own domain. The great I Am is the Resurrection for in Himself He has the keys of death. Then when He spoke of Himself as "The Life," He gave utterance to one of the most profound expressions in the Gospel (John 14:6). He is Life-the primal, all-originating, all-comprehending, everlasting life. It is in Him we live.
She Was a Joyful Woman
What tears of joy both Martha and Mary must have shed as they embraced their brother risen from the dead! That physical miracle resulted in spiritual miracles, for many believed on Jesus. The last mention of Martha was at the supper in her home to celebrate the resurrection of Lazarus, and as usual she was active and served. While the guests were seated at her hospitable table, Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with costly spikenard, but Martha raised no objection. She acquiesced in her sister's preparatory act associated with Christ's own burial. For all that we know Martha may have had a large share in the purchase of the precious ointment, which Judas Iscariot thought was being wasted. While the service of Martha was the same, her spirit was blessedly changed. She was no longer "distracted" over her tasks, nor mentally anxious and outwardly bustling, but calm, trustful and in full agreement with her sister's act of love and devotion to the Master. At last Martha, too, has chosen that good part which could not be taken from her. It is more than likely that Martha was present with the two Marys and other devout women at the cross and then at the empty tomb of the Saviour, and joined them as a herald to the disciples that Christ was risen indeed (Matthew 28:1-11).
What are some of the lessons to glean as we think of the life and character of Martha? One of her noblest acts was to open her home to Jesus and entertain Him. She little knew at the beginning of His visits that He was the Son of God with power, and when we receive Him into our hearts as Saviour we do not know all there is to know of His majesty and power. Eternity alone will bring us the full revelation of why and what He is.
Further, Martha represents those dear religious women who allow themselves to be distracted overmuch with their home cares and obligations. Some are all Martha, and no Mary. Others are all Mary and no Martha. The happy combination is that of Martha and Mary, the practical and the spiritual making possible the glory of the commonplace. The church requires both the Marys and the Marthas for both are necessary to complete the Christian character (1 Timothy 4:13-16; James 1:25-27 ). From the records we have considered we surely learn, do we not?-

1. To sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him.
2. To keep so-called secular service in its right place, conscious that both serving and learning are duties, and in both we should honor God.
3. To trust the Lord with our cares, responsibilities and sorrows knowing that He is able to undertake for us. If His help appears to be delayed we must remember that He is never before His time, and that He never lags behind.
4. To offer our best to Him who broke the alabaster box of His own body that heavenly forgiveness and fragrance might be ours.
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Today's reading: Exodus 9-11, Matthew 15:21-39 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Exodus 9-11

The Plague on Livestock
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me." 2 If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, 3 the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field-on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats. 4 But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die....'"

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 15:21-39

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly."
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."
24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.
26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs."
27 "Yes it is, Lord," she said. "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."
28 Then Jesus said to her, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed at that moment....

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