Friday, February 02, 2018

Fri Feb 2nd Todays News

Don't give up on hope. I was wrong when I read a story of a woman who wanted an autopsy for her husband and father of her children. He had recently died from cancer at a young age (thirties). He had been a cancer survivor and secondaries appeared while he was on remission. His widow hopes to make sure that risk factors are known for the children. It is possible that medical staff were negligent in missing the secondaries, but there is no prima facie case for foul play and usually the body is disposed of without autopsy. It is answered prayer for the widow, who might have had to spend many tens of thousands of dollars if the coroner had decided not to look. I tried to prepare her for an adverse decision, but I'm happy to be wrong. 

 Boy is the last straw. Nine years old makes a claim about straws and idiot authorities read about it in California and move to legislate. The fine is now nearly $10k for offering a straw to someone who does not want one. I just talk to the pretty girls at Cha Time Australia and they do as I ask without punitive legislation. As absurd as Deputy Principal KS's action on the welfare committee at CVHS. KS read an article that someone in the US sucking on a chupa chup blacked out, fell forward and hurt themselves and sued. So, welfare committee that rarely did anything sprang into action. Chupa Chups were banned. From canteen sales. Kids could still bring them to school and deputy KS would still hand them out on birthdays.
Then, one day, a JW student of mine got given their Chupa Chup on their birthday as they were late to assembly. They asked me what to do as they did not celebrate birthdays. I said to enjoy it. Student put it in their mouth. Principal GG saw and ordered they spit it out in the bin instantly. Mixed messages much. Democrat Maxine Waters wants a parental guide advisory every time Trump speaks on tv. Democrats and ALP just like legislation. 

Man executed for killing his two daughters seventeen years ago while his wife listened on the phone. In his Texas execution, his former wife as witness, he still had the presence of mind to gloat. His defending lawyers claimed he wasn't mentally competent to be killed. 

 Nine years on Fairfield Champion fails to correct misleading articles and fake letters to the editor. Four years ago the BBC proclaimed the Year of the Whore at the start of the Asian zodiac year of the horse. 

 The creeps and grave robbers who declared TC Yasi was the result of AGW seven years ago have been proven wrong by time. 

 Remember when Julia Gillard would not support Julian Assange seven years ago? Apparently ALP now feel that the government should support the Wikileaks guy with the incompetent penis. Last year Wong backed SSM after declaring it morally wrong when she was in government. 

 The awful, expensive recycling craze is failing now that China is not propping it up. Several Victorian local councils have already had their contracts cut. It might go state wide. 
JF wonders who would win between the Justice Department, FBI and military industrial complex vs a reality tv star. Trump answered that question well. Turns out the Democrats backed a bogus dossier and now their highly vaunted Russia probe is tanking. Fidel Castro's son committed suicide. Cuba is that good under communism. Or maybe he knew where Hillary's emails were? Or maybe he just wanted to talk with Harambe.  
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 "Farewell Angelina"

"Farewell Angelina" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the middle 1960s, but most famous in the hands of Joan Baez. Written in the middle 1960s, the song was planned to be included on Another Side of Bob Dylan and again for Bringing It All Back Home but failed to make the cut. Baez made the song the lead track of her 1965 album of the same name. Baez' version, though only about half as long as Dylan's recording, was very similar in structure and showed her moving away from pure folk music with the use of string bass accompaniment. Dylan's original recording of "Farewell Angelina" was eventually issued in 1991 on The Bootleg Series. Although "Farewell Angelina" is basically a simple folk love song, some critics have questioned the meaning of some of the more obscure lyrics like "The Jack and the Queen have forsaked the courtyard / Fifty-two gypsies now file past the guards". The tune seems to be inspired by the folk song "Farewell to Tarwathie".


=== from 2017 ===
I am a decent man and don't deserve 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. 

The anti Trump yowls that are headlining fake news media are not new. Here are some examples of how the centre left debate issues. 

 johnny yowie
what was tj wanted for? has he Been in trouble before? he was a crime?

Tristan Norton
Who is this gronk? Has he ever been down Redfern? FTPIGS specially those fukn American PIGS!!!

Skull Mask
A police women's death in the states has nothing to do with the Redfern Riots ... stop smoking crack

Tristan Norton
David Ball why don't you watch "Copping it Sweet by Jenny Brockie" Then tell us they're just cops doing their job.... You idiot!
Tristan Norton
David Ball you have no fukn idea!!! Police have been murdering Koori people for over 200 yrs! FUCK THE POLICE!!
Tristan Norton
COONBASHER666 your just a fukn nutless dog! Go breath under water you oxygen thieving mutt!!
Storm Lord
Masonic pig scum working for the gov that does not serve the ppl. They serve the hidden hand. We need to make example of them NOW

David Ball
@wahea17 You misrepresent what happened to Doomadgee. His blood Alcohol level was 0.29. 29% of his blood was alcohol .. he would have been lucky to live. He had drunk, among other things Meth. He was an abusive drunk. The police officers accused were not noted racists. The subsequent riots were politically charged.
David Ball
@Nxtgener8ion Those police who people easily abuse and malign were doing their job. There has not been another such incident following. I guess TJ died by his own hand. Why inflame the tragedy to abuse the police?
yelloquestion
@ddball1 i was saying that due to other racist comments
David Ball
@b2sfan I don't feel this is a race issue. I think there is an underclass of people in the West which is regardless of race. It wasn't a class of people responsible for these riots here or in London recently. Redfern riots seem to have been the result of professional lobbyists who are broadly ALP Green left
yelloquestion
im not a racist but look, black's in Australia want the same rights as everyone else and when they get the same treatment as other Australian's look what they do !!
David Ball
@lolsillyskop Or, the police are telling the truth, people don't mug people and dance in the streets, but some mug people and cower. 
David Ball
@dazzadidja I am sorry you are so aggressive regarding my piece. I don't like my relatives being taken advantage of, as many are by those claiming to be related, but not being disadvantaged. There are too many disadvantaged ones who miss out to those who exploit them. 
Darran Williams
@ddball1 , yeah wheres your tribe from and if it isn't stealing but saving, then i'm afraid you are sold out, so don't give me that saving crap.. what a load of crap.. ya sell out..

David Ball
@dihle12 I will leave the comment to show others why I blocked you.
john smith
oneless crim coon cunt on the streets for the taxpayer to pay for good on the police maybe its time for the kkk to come out and play
David Ball
@djRaized I would block you, but your account doesn't exist anymore? The issues I explore deserve to be heard, and argued by responsible people. 
Ryan Slack
RAWR
David Ball
@zeffman99 That opinion you hold is not shared. You don't get that from my videos. This is a tragedy. A predictable tragedy, but a tragedy nonetheless. The labels won't help. I want this tragedy to stop, not assign blame. It begins with respect, and we, as a people, need to respect what our ancestors did in trying to save my ancestors (I've both European and Aboriginal ancestry) and not denounce it as stealing, but saving.
zeffman99
1 less criminal black cunt on the street hey..where do ya think they learn crime from?..there fkn parents and uncles and couzins thats where...the cunts rape there family, they go up and down different streets at night getting into cars and getting into house in broad daylight, they leave broken bottles from drinkin in bus stops and kids goin to school have to stand there, thye wanna fight all the fkn time..they are a descrace to there culture!!!!
sillychops
your voice is as gay as kingscross in the 80's
David Ball
@ThomasGunnz I address those serious issues. You must have missed that.
ThomasGunnz
This video is fucked!!! You should remove this this bullshit. What you should make is a documentary exposing the government cover-ups about black deaths in custody over the past 40 years. It might even change your perception about the relationship between Indigenous People of australia and the motherfucking australian police! Rest In Peace T.J. Hickey
ThomasGunnz
@xshamousx how many white kids have you heard of that were killed by police officers just doing their job?They're killing aboriginal people for 250 years here in Australia. I'm so proud of my people for the retaliating
Reegan Carr
@COONBASHER666 oi mutha if i seen u ever i would fukin chop ya head ya fukn redneck mutha fucker
David Ball
Helen B, I accepted your dumb abuse and calling yourself "Don't really care" but this is too far. It is appalling. A child died, probably because of you. Please don't come back.
David Ball
Calchi writes with a fake accent.
David Ball
@veet84 have Australian Aboriginal ancestors too. Why you picking on a brother telling the truth? Why so rude? Do you enjoy racism? Maybe to make the world a better place you need to accept the difficult truths and do your best, don't give up and regret what you should have done.
Darran Williams
tru cuz, so tru, the truth hurts..a copper dogs...
David Ball
Racism belongs to racists. Most Australians aren't, but the ALP trade off the perception that people are. To allow a better tomorrow, don't vote for the ALP in elections.
David Ball
Before white man came to Australia, Aboriginal peoples had all the problems that are experienced now. They had drug use, poverty, bad people who ruined the lives of others. They also had the same dreams they have today .. a hope for a better life and world, a desire to improve things. Pride in achievement. The logical outcome of the situation is that their communities learn to work with others in harmony.

swiftymcfeat
tell TJ to obey the fucking law
Jordan L
Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.
David Ball
I normally allow such trash to remain so others can say how bad the postings of others can be. However I cannot allow this to remain as is. Racism will not be tolerated.
David Ball
The series is about Nicola Cotton, and the wider issue of the separation between police and the public. This particular issue explores the Redfern riots in terms of that separation between police and the public.
Kwah
Redfern is a shit hole. Alcohol, Drugs, Hobos.
David Ball
Yeah, the Aboriginal community has problems with that issue at the moment. My cousins in the Northern territory and North Queensland are showing up with STD's from the age of toddlers.
clubpenguin777
14 year old gf for 17yo? Where I come from, that is Paedophilia.

=== from 2016 ===
Trump is a man Democrats fear. So is Cruz. Cruz is an evangelical Christian and a constitutional conservative. One looks forward to a President Cruz or Trump or Rubio. Much will be made of their choice of running mate. Bush will remain in the contest in order to meet funding obligations, but he has no chance as President and he won't carry much as vice President. Also, Bush can't nominate for a vice Presidential position while he is running for President. The GOP field is narrowing. Meanwhile dumb and dumber are gunning for the Democrat nomination. And nobody knows who won Iowa for the Democrats. Hillary is a liar and Sanders is a fantasist. Some 90 Democrat caucus booths are late in getting results in. Almost as if the event was unexpected, or manipulated. 

Meanwhile, as the anniversary of Indonesia executing Sukumaran and Chan nears, the recent revelations of Julie Bishop's duplicity raises the question did she do what she could to support the two, or tank in favour of Turnbull? 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility 
=== from 2015 ===
Mr Abbott spoke well and strongly to the Canberra Press Gallery at their luncheon, today. But tellingly, what he said is no different to what he has said. Media had presented the speech as do or die, but the reality is that Mr Abbott is not under threat, has not done poorly, has been responsible, but has been cut by partisan media knives over .. nothing. One of the 'nothing' issues has been the knighthood of Prince Phillip which no one disputes is due to Prince Philip on just one of his philanthropic projects, "The Duke of Edinburgh Awards" which has been developing Australian Youth for some sixty years. Another 'nothing' issue is the family leave payments Mr Abbott has shelved. Such an award as maternity leave is a conservative issue, and naturally the ALP don't want it. Under Howard the great nation of Australia could give money to people to buy houses and to have babies .. and still there were budget surpluses. ALP grossly mis spent the budget in government and made record deficits even after dropping both the housing and the baby bonus. People should be mad at the ALP for dumping something that provides for strong families and a healthy Australia. But that would mess with the partisan media narrative. Mr Abbott, having survived this shadow boxing match will be much stronger as a result of this encounter. 

Queensland election is not yet certain. It is possible for the LNP to form a minority government, and possible for the ALP to form a minority government. ALP will find it easier as they have more seats. Tellingly it will be minor parties who make the decision. One might be Pauline Hanson. Another is the Katter Australia Party. While both will have responsibility, neither can be said to be responsible. Poor Queensland will have to suffer because of bad media journalism. Today it was announced Greste would be freed from Egypt. Many kudos are due to Mr Abbott. It is doubtful the media will acknowledge that.  
From 2014
Nguyen Van Lem and Daniel Pearl both died on February 1st on different years. Lem died in 1968, shortly after the Tet offensive failure of the Viet Cong. Pearl died in 2002. Both were different to the other. In each case the issue was terrorism. And in each case elements of mainstream press legitimised the terrorist point of view. 

The Tet offensive was a desperate coordinated attack on South Vietnam by North Vietnamese forces with Chinese expertise. Chinese generals advocated large strikes with land armies, Mao Zedong had advocated guerrilla warfare. A two day cease fire had been agreed to. As part of the guerrilla war, Lem was to find South Vietnamese police officers and their families and kill them. It is alleged he was successful. He was captured and interrogated before the famous scene with General Loan. 

The picture and video was used by the peace movement to justify their anti war stance, without compassion for the victims of those they supported. 

Daniel Pearl was a journalist for the Wall Street Journal. He was tracking leads from shoe bomber Richard Reid to Pakistan. He had Jewish ancestry and was Jewish. In Pakistan, he was captured by terrorists who made him read a card before beheading him and showing the film to the press. The card Daniel read had to do with his Jewish heritage, but the threat given by the terrorists was to all foreign journalists entering Pakistan. Pearl was not a spy. He was not a 'target.' He was a victim of terror. Much has been made of his heritage, but if he had been an Islamic rapist in Sydney, nothing would be made of his heritage.

There are myriad ways that the international press legitimise terror by not labelling it correctly. Daniel Pearl was an innocent victim of terror. Lem was a terrorist who was summarily executed. Same day, across the years, and the press collectively fail to report the facts.
Historical perspective on this day
In 506, Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgated the Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianumor Lex Romana Visigothorum), a collection of "Roman law". 962, Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowned Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years. 1032, Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor became King of Burgundy. 1141, the Battle of Lincoln, at which King Stephen was defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda, presented her with the unfulfilled opportunity to become the first queen of medieval England. 1207, Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, was established. 1461, Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross was fought in Herefordshire, England.

In 1536, Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1542, Portuguese forces under Cristovão da Gama captured a Muslim-occupied hill fort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente. 1653, New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) was incorporated. 1709, Alexander Selkirk was rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. 1848, Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. Also 1848, California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrived in San Francisco. 1868, Pro-Imperial forces captured Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burned it to the ground. 1876, the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball was formed. 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day was observed. 1899, the Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decided to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.

In 1901, funeral of Queen Victoria. 1913, Grand Central Terminal was opened in New York City. 1914, Charlie Chaplin's first film appearance, Making a Living premiered. 1920, the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed between Estonia and Russia. Also 1920, France occupied Memel. 1922, Ulysses by James Joyce was published. 1925, Serum run to Nome: Dog sledsreached Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race. 1933, working as maids, the sisters Christine and Léa Papin murdered their employer's wife and daughter in Le Mans, France. The case was the subject of a number of French films and plays. 1934, the Export-Import Bank of the United States was incorporated. 1935, Leonarde Keeler tested the first polygraph machine. 1943, World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad came to conclusion as Soviet troops accepted the surrender of 91,000 remnants of the Axis forces. 1957, Iskander Mirza of Pakistan laid the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage. 1959, Dyatlov Pass incident 1966, Pakistan suggested a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

In 1971, Idi Amin replaced President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda. Also 1971, the international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands was signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran. 1972, the British embassy in Dublin was destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday. 1976, the Groundhog Day gale hit the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada. 1980, reports surface that the FBI was targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation. 1982, 1982 Hama Massacre: the government of Syria attacked the town of Hama. 1987, after the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacted a new constitution. 1988, Auntie Anne's was founded by Anne F. Beiler in Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1989, Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Sovietarmoured column left Kabul. 1990, Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announced the unbanning of the African National Congress and promised to release Nelson Mandela. 2000, first digital cinemaprojection in Europe (Paris) realised by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments. 2004, Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he would hold for a record 237 weeks. 2007, the worst flooding in Indonesia in 300 years begins.
=== 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 Harry Lime and Daniel Ung. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
February 2: Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States
President F.W. de Klerk
You are crowned the highest. Sheep founded ba. The war is ended. The tired and starving can rest. Apartheid has ended. Let's party. 
Deaths
===
Tim Blair 2018

===
Tim Blair

TURNBULL, TRUMP IN TELEPHONE TIFF

Consider the source, but Donald Trump apparently doesn’t care for Malcolm Turnbull’s agile and innovative conversational gambits. 
2 Feb  16 comments

COLONEL ROBERT NEVILLE

A few years back I was invited to meet a blogger and commenter who went by the screen name Colonel Robert Neville. What a charming, enigmatic and thoughtful fellow he turned out to be.
2 Feb  4 comments

VINTAGE FAIRFAX WHINE

Fairfax’s Geoff Winestock, who believes “Anzac Day is a death cult", takes issue with The Australian’s Quebec mosque attack coverage.
2 Feb  12 comments

WHY BOTHER WITH ELECTIONS?

Judges know best. They are more knowledgeable and caring than politicians. They are also more knowledgeable and caring than the voters who electthose politicians.
2 Feb  104 comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE SPITEY FIGHTEY BITERS

“It’s remarkable,” notes David Thompson, “just how often ‘social justice’ activism is difficult to distinguish from spite and petty malice.”
2 Feb  24 comments

SEE YOU IN 2050, ALMIRAH

Martin Place murderer Man Monis’s girlfriend is jailed until mid-century for killing the Islamic maniac’s ex-wife.
2 Feb
===
Andrew Bolt

Get off the phone - day-care sign goes viral

A great sign on the door of a Texas day care, and the picture taken by a parent has gone viral.
2 Feb  99 comments

Trump haters are attacking democracy

THE protests against Donald Trump are so extreme that it’s clear what’s got many on the Left so mad. It’s democracy. They hate it. This is the most frightening thing about the campaign to stop the new US President from doing just what voters elected him to do.  
COLUMN 2 Feb
===

TRUMP DUMPED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 02, 2016 (2:44pm)

The Donald is defeated in Iowa by Ted Cruz:

In the Democrat fight, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are basically tied.
===

STRATEGIC ADVICE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 02, 2016 (1:52pm)

Via Quadrant, here’s the Australian navy’s Strategic Advisor on Islamic Cultural Affairs, Captain Mona Shindy, last year encouraging military personnel to enter a Saudi-run Koran memory contest: 
“With early planning and preparation it is possible that in the not too distant future, a Muslim member of the Australian forces might just win this goodwill Quran memorisation competition on the international stage while simultaneously gaining much personal reward from this highly appealing representational and spiritual opportunity.” 
It would be our proudest moment. Incidentally, the Australian navy only has 27 Muslim members – so why the need for a full-time Strategic Advisor on Islamic Cultural Affairs?
===

SWEET SILENCE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 02, 2016 (1:22pm)

Sometimes the best policing is no policing: 
A dreaded vuvuzela is lying on the harbour bed after a man grabbed it from a 13-year-old girl and threw it overboard from a Manly ferry on Sunday.
The girl’s aunt complained to the police but the police decided to take no action against the man because other passengers on the ferry said he had done everyone else on the crowded ferry a massive favour and that sooner or later someone else would have thrown it overboard. 
They should have arrested the girl.
===

THEN THEY WERE SACKED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 02, 2016 (12:59pm)

Rita Panahi’s mother and her friends in Iran before the Ayatollah outlawed progress:
===

TOO SCARY FOR FAIRFAX

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 02, 2016 (12:25pm)

Ex-Labor leader Mark Latham returns to the Daily Telegraph: 
The Mark Latham column deemed too controversial for The Age’s bleeding-heart audience after editor Andrew Holden lost his nerve will be published in The Daily Telegraph this week. It’s understood Telegraph opinion editor Joe Hildebrand will run the piece. It’s on federal politics, the Labor Party and the disconnect between urban elites and the suburban masses …
The paper believes Latham is one of the most honest, fearless and confronting voices on topics such as poverty, disadvantage, health and education. A natural fit for the paper’s audience in western Sydney.
Talks with Latham began several years ago when he was writing on politics for The Australian Financial Review. Latham was keen to write a column on sport in addition to the AFR gig. Back when New York Post editor Col Allan used to run The Daily Telegraph, Latham filed for the paper when he was a Labor backbencher. 
This’ll be fun. Here’s the column that the Age wouldn’t run: 
Identity politics is an indulgence of the privileged few: wealthy, media-savvy propagandists inventing claims about discrimination that nobody else can see. I’ve sat in the outer at hundreds of footy games in Western Sydney and never heard a word of racism directed at indigenous or Islander players. I’ve knocked around at pubs, sporting clubs and racetracks for 40 years and I can count the number of misogynistic and homophobic comments on one hand.
The suburbs the elites talk about are ones that I don’t recognise. 
Read on.
===

HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW ANY PLUMBERS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 02, 2016 (12:26am)

ABC boss Mark Scott apologised last year after incompetent Q & A staffers put to air an offensive Twitter title. The first Q & A of 2016 ran last night, and Scott needs to apologise again:

Stay classy, ABC. 
===

Rubio and Cruz strong in Iowa. Clinton struggles

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (2:53pm)

The Iowa primary has been good for Republicans Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who are confirmed as the two very strong alternatives to Donald Trump:
Big result for Rubio, in particular. Bush is finished, though, as is Christie and almost all the rest. Carson is on the way down.
It may all be a bit pointless, though. Trump is having the time of his life, and if he doesn’t win the nomination will probably run as an independent, despite his promises. That would probably destroy any Republican nominee.
The Democrats have a nightmare. How could an ageing socialist who isn’t even a member of their party run establishment candidate Hillary Clinton to almost a dead heat? How damaged has she been by her scandals that Sanders could poll so well?
Very early days, of course, and Iowa represents just 3 million Americans. But headaches for the leadership of both parties.
UPDATE
John Hinderaker says there really are just three serious contenders now for the Republican nomination, and one big winner in Iowa:
Rubio is overperforming, Trump is underperforming. The spin will go on for the next eight days, but one can’t spin away the obvious. It’s a big night for Rubio. Also, at this point no one other than the big three is in double figures.
UPDATE
Professor David Deming:
It’s disheartening that an avowed socialist is a viable candidate for president of the United States. Socialism is a dead end. For hundreds of years, it has failed everywhere it’s been adopted. The enthusiasm of our youth for the candidacy of Bernie Sanders is a symptom of our failure to educate them, not only in history, government and economics, but also basic morality… 
Socialism isn’t so much a legitimate economic system as it is a moral failing. It will always exist because ignorant people will always want something for nothing. If we want to retain our freedom and prosperity, then we must educate our children that the purpose of government is to secure liberty, not provide free lunches.
UPDATE
Huckabee and O’Malley suspend their campaigns.
Trump boasts that he’s added enormous interest to the Republican primaries, enthusing many. But the huge turnout in Iowa didn’t actually push him to victory. Nate Silver:
Republican turnout tonight now projects to be around 180,000, well ahead of 2012’s total of around 120,000 voters and somewhat ahead of where most political watchers expected it to be.
UPDATE
I long thought he looked too much like a boy, and that he had only one speech - about the rise of the son of Cuban immigrants in the wonderful USA. Sure, we got bits of that speech yet again, but Rubio could be the real deal:
===

A higher GST won’t be tax reform and won’t happen

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (12:11pm)

The NSW Premier offers the Turnbull Government a compromise on its proposal to raise the GST - a compromise that leaves a lot of the extra money free for tax cuts rather than yet more spending::
PREMIER Mike Baird wants the federal government to give the states $7 billion for much-needed hospital and school funding by increasing the GST to 15 per cent while compensating low-income households. 
He said the increase in the GST from 10 per cent would allow federal Treasurer Scott Morrison to address the $35 billion gap in health funding by 2030, while also delivering income and corporate tax cuts.
Terry McCrann says it’s still all make-believe:
Now the Prime Minister and Treasurer can keep repeating that ‘everything’s on the tax reform (sic) table’, but there really is only one thing on that table: lifting the GST from 10 to 15 per cent. 
The reason is simple: because that’s where the money is — especially if you genuinely and sensibly, and both are the case with Scott Morrison, want to (try to?) cut personal and corporate income tax.
Now maybe the ‘money should be’ on the spending side… Even slashing expenditures by 8 per cent would only generate $30 billion-plus or so a year — which, brutally, wouldn’t really touch the sides of the deficit or deliver serious tax cutting reform.
Just to emphasise the point: to raise as much money from spending cuts as you could get from increasing the GST from 10 to 15 per cent, you would have to slash all federal government spending, right across the board from defence through health and social welfare and on to everything else, by nearly $1 of every $10 spent. For good or for bad, nothing remotely like that is going to happen.
Nor is the money to be found in some magic method of taxing the Googles, the Apples, and the like. First, it’s just not going to happen; and secondly, again, there just isn’t enough money there anyway.
The same applies to the $2 trillion superannuation money pot. Yes, ‘the money’s there’, and I don’t doubt that future governments will be after it; but whatever is done, it isn’t going to deliver tens of billions of dollars a year. So we keep coming back to the GST; and we keep coming back to the same headbanging.
Right now Malcolm Turnbull has ahead of him an unlosable election. There is one way he can make it losable — promise to increase the GST…
Whatever Morrison might say, at best he might be giving back $60 to $70 in tax cuts for every $100 the GST raised. It’d be much less if he handed over money to Baird and Weatherill and Co.
So first off, if the Government actually took an increased GST to the next election, there’d be every prospect it could lose. But if it managed to win, in all probability it would still not get to do it. There’s the matter of the Senate; with indeed, the very exercise of going to the election with the GST likely to promote the election of more anti-GST senators. 
===

The Australian of the Year and the new tribalism

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (12:00pm)

Former Treasurer Peter Costello on the preaching of the new Australian of the Year - and the decline of the individual:
...it was a serving General who got up and apologised for taking the benefits of “masculinity and patriarchy”. 
This kind of language is music to the ears of modern social activists because it implies there are not only victims of racism and sexism but beneficiaries as well.
Whether they have done anything wrong or not, they believe these beneficiaries should apologise.
There is, of course, another view which says that none of us is responsible for our race or sex and that being white and male gives someone no more reason to apologise than being black and female.
This is the view that people should be judged for what they do rather than what they are.
It’s a belief about individual responsibility for individual behaviour.
It’s still the basis of our criminal law, if not the favoured view of the “human rights” movement at the moment. It’s not the kind of view that will get you to be the Australian of the Year.
===

Labor stirring up Jew-hatred

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (8:29am)

The modern Left seems to have a Jew problem. The obsession with Jews even within Labor is extraordinary - and ominous.
Sharri Markson:
Former Labor national president Warren Mundine has launched a blistering attack on the party, saying its move to ban sponsored trips to Israel is “verging on anti-Semitic’’ and is “sickening to watch”.... 
The NSW ALP international relations policy committee chairman Michael Forshaw told The Australian yesterday that 39 resolutions had been received concerning Israel and Palestine, compared with 17 resolutions dealing with other international issues, such as the Syrian war, the Myanmar junta, Paris terror bombings, China free trade and foreign aid.
There were none on Saudi Arabia or Iran.
There are moves to recognise Palestinian statehood and to boycott products from Israel that originate in settlement areas, and many concerning banning trips to Israel while Benjamin Netan­yahu is Prime Minister. The move by Labor is partly driven by political motivations to secure the vote from Muslim communities in marginal southwest Sydney seats..
Mr Mundine said Labor MPs should remember that Israel was the only democracy in the region with a parliament of Jewish, Arab, Christian and Muslim politicians sitting within a vast region of problematic countries… Members of the pro-Palestinian group include federal MPs Jason Clare, Sam Dastyari and Tony Burke, with former NSW premier Bob Carr a high-profile advocate.
One on five of Burke’s electorate are Muslim. The surrender of principle for votes seems only too clear. And that careful cultivation of religious bigotry and ethnic resentments leads to  the return of sentiments too similar to the kind I once thought the Left had disowned:
Jewish advocacy groups are “cancerous” and “malicious” and try to “deny, misinform and scaremonger”. 
A NSW Labor politician voiced these incendiary words — the first NSW Muslim MP, in fact, Shaoquett Moselmane. He didn’t utter them in the privacy of his own home. He felt comfortable enough broadcasting this anti-semitic sentiment within the walls of the NSW Parliament. This is terrifying in itself.
The MP, who ironically decried racism in his first speech to parliament, made the remarks just two years ago, in May 2013. He was not shouted-out of the high office he holds for racist commentary. On the contrary, Labor continues to support him and Moselmane is now a vocal advocate behind a push to ban Labor MPs from visiting Israel on trips funded by Jewish organisations… The father of the anti-Israel movement is Bob Carr, whose speeches have on at least one occasion, in July last year, elicited anti-semitic commentary from the audience, with a remark made about “the Jews” and their “3000-year fundamentalist influence.”
And I remain deeply concerned by comments by Burke which I reported two years ago - comments by a Labor frontbencher which seemed to legitimise Islamist terrorism against Israel:
Tony Burke, gave a frightening speech last month to the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network in which he savaged Israel as a child-killing, water-polluting, land-stealing aggressor.
He also gave what would have struck some there as praise for extremists fighting Israel: “For those who are political advocates within Palestine itself, I will never know the bravery that comes with putting your life on the line and at risk, in engaging in politics in different ways.” Burke’s Sydney seat has a Muslim vote of more than 20 per cent, but this is playing with fire. 
What is it with the Left and Jews? What is it with the Left and pandering to Islamists?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Trump is no conservative. Well, he wasn’t yesterday, anyway, and may not be tomorrow

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (8:02am)

Mark Kenny of the Sydney Morning Herald claims Donald Trump is ”ultra-conservative”, confirming how little this political commentator knows about US politics or political philosophy.
“Ultra”, like “neo”, is actually a word thrown in by the duller polemicists of the Left - the manic virtue-signallers - to signal their disapproval. So we know that Kenny has merely signalled his ideological hatred of Trump, without actually describing Trump himself. “Ultra conservative” tells us that Kenny is of the Left, but it actually tells us nothing about Trump.
In fact, to call Trump an “ultra conservative” is nuts.  He’s hardly a conservative at all.  Ben Shapiro explains:
I don’t believe Trump is a conservative… I’ve said that repeatedly… I’ve also said that Trump channels conservative anger against the establishment brilliantly, and that he has become a vessel for much-needed conversations on immigration… 
After a career of flip-flopping on immigration ...Trump has famously taken the most right-wing position on illegal immigration in this race…
Trump flipped on Muslim refugees. Originally he said the U.S. would have to take in Syrian refugees; then he said he would take in no Muslim immigrants at all. That position has proved surprisingly durable with the conservative electorate..
Trump’s been all over the place [on foreign policy]. He’s said we should leave the Islamic State to Russia and expressed sympathy for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, but also said that we should “bomb the s***” out of ISIS. He has both said that he would topple Bashar Assad and that he would not arm the Syrian rebels. In the end, he said he had a great idea for defeating ISIS, but wouldn’t tell anyone what it was. He’s said that he wouldn’t immediately get rid of the Iran deal, but he stumped against the deal....
Trump pledges to uphold religious freedom but has not commented on the Indiana Religious Freedom and Restoration Act or any other similar act protecting religious practice in the face of leftist non-discrimination laws designed to quash religious observance....
On Big Government, Trump has been all over the shop:
Trump ... supported Obama’s 2009 stimulus, TARP, and the 2008 auto bailout ... In 2009, he said that the government should cap executive pay… 
Trump says he’d dump Obamacare but ... continues to pump up nationalized health care systems… Trump also wants to leave mandatory union dues alone – or at least he hasn’t commented differently on the issue for several years...
Summing up:
Trump is far more populist than conservative — which means he has appeal to blue-collar Democrats, but also that he may not reliably stand by conservative principles in office. In fact, given his repeated position switching, the safe bet is that anything he says today will changed based on convenience. That should not encourage any conservative thinking of Trump in the primaries. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

The ABC: on the side of the big-spending politician and activist

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (7:34am)

Nick Cater monitors the relentless bias of the ABC’s AM, ever on the side of the kind of Big Government on which it relies for its funds:
Of the many matters of pressing national concern, few receive the attention [on AM] they deserve. Economics does not rate highly; fiscal management is reduced to a log of complaints about a mean-spirited, parsimonious government. 
Doctor’s union president Brian Owler, an AM regular, is given several minutes to complain that hospitals are running out of money.
The Australian Youth Affairs Coalition’s commonwealth grant has been withdrawn. Its soon-to-be unemployed officers fear “the voice of millions of Australians will be lost”. No funding cut is too small or organisation too insignificant to escape AM’s watchful eye.
When one works for a broadcaster that relies on government largesse, these losses must resonate. No wonder the ABC has become a cheer squad for raising the GST. When yesterday’s Newspoll in The Australian showed that 54 per cent of voters opposed increasing the tax, ABC radio took a different stance. More than a third of voters were open to the idea.
Raising taxes — particularly those that punish the pecunious — is virtuous… A government on a mission to reduce spending doesn’t receive a warm reception…
So what does excite AM? A rough count of stories covered over the past three months shows Islamic terrorism is top of the list, although the broadcasters are reluctant to use the “I” word. The coverage is heavily spiced with cautionary tales about Islamophobia.
When the program finally got round to reporting the mass sexual attacks on scores of women in Cologne by a swarming mob of migrants on New Year’s Eve — 12 minutes into its bulletin on January 7 — the determination not to cause offence took AM, along with the German government, into the realm of self-parody.
“The German government says there is no link between the attacks and its refugee intake,” Kim Landers asserted. Heribert Hirte, a German MP, told the program: “I’m more concerned about the discussion than about the facts that happened on New Year’s Eve because we see an escalation of the discussion and try to use or to abuse the facts and the events of New Year’s Eve for different purposes, mainly to argue against the refugees.” Climate change runs a close second with more than 50 items...
===

Former Islamist warns: the Left is helping extremists against the moderates

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (7:04am)

Left activists claim Islam has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism. Gay activists have been silentabout Islamist terror against gays. Feminists say next to nothing about Islam’s subjugation of women, or even defend or ape it.
A former Islamist extremist calls out the enablers of the Left:
Maajid Nawaz, who was formally a member of radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, ... told Yahoo7 that everyone has a role to play in how Islam can be reformed…

Nawaz has coined the phrase the ‘Regressive Left’, which he describes as a section of the Left wing of politics who “are abusing terms such as racism, bigotry and Islamophobia to shutdown debate”.
“Islam is not a race and it is certainly not racist to scrutinise Islam just as it is not anti-Christian to scrutinise, critique and satirise Christianity...”
Nawaz said it is “absurd” to state that the likes of ISIS are not inspired by Islam, as some liberal thinkers on the Left attempt to claim.
“It is self-evident that ISIS have got something to do with Islam,” Nawaz said.
“When ISIS throws gays off the top of buildings, they are using scripture. In fact there are traditions ascribed to the prophet where it says that is exactly the punishment that should be given to gays. “When they are stoning women to death, it is in scripture. When they are chopping off hands I can read you the Arabic in the Quran which tells them to do that…

“If you don’t recognise that Islam is being used by megalomaniac, totalitarian theocrats for their own project, what you are doing is depriving Muslim reform voices from the authority they need to reclaim their faith from those who are hijacking it.”
But calling out Islam is so dangerous - beware the vengeance of the media Left! - that even Tony Abbott as Prime Minister did not dare make the link, as I noted last year:
Abbott insists Islam had nothing to do with last week’s shooting of tourists in Tunisia, bombing of Shia worshippers in Kuwait and beheading of a man in France. 
“What’s being done by Daish (the Islamic State) has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with religion,” he claimed on Saturday.
Is he kidding us?
The Islamic State, which claims credit for the two worst attacks and is linked to the beheading, has nothing to do with Islam?
For heaven’s sake, we can all read. “Islam” is in the very title of this terrorist outfit…Let’s end this polite lie, which blinds us to the steps we must take to defend ourselves....  French President Francois Hollande claimed even the Charlie Hebdo killers “have nothing to do with the Muslim religion”, even though they’d bragged on tape they had “avenged the Prophet” by killing 12 people at the magazine that mocked Mohammad. 
(Thanks to reader LeftRightOut67.) 
===

Americans keep their cool in warming scare

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (6:58am)

The country of Al Gore remains immune to warmist scaremongering:
A YouGov poll of 18,000 people in 17 countries found only 9.2 percent of Americans rank global warming as their biggest concern. Only Saudi Arabians were less concerned about global warming at 5.7 percent. The biggest concern for Americans was global terrorism — 28 percent of Americans polled listed this as their top issue. 
Despite a big PR push by President Barack Obama to tout his administration’s global warming agenda, most Americans have been unconvinced it’s the country’s most pressing issue. A Fox News poll from November found only 3 percent of Americans list global warming as their top concern…
Polls have consistently shown global warming never ranks high on the American public’s radar. A CNN poll from January 2015 found that 57 percent of Americans did not expect global warming to threaten their way of life…
A Gallup poll from March 2015 found Americans’ concern about global warming fell to the same level it was in 1989. Global warming ranked at the bottom of a list of Americans’ environmental concerns — only 32 percent said they worried about it a “great deal.” “Importantly, even as global warming has received greater attention as an environmental problem from politicians and the media in recent years, Americans’ worry about it is no higher now than when Gallup first asked about it in 1989,” Gallup’s Jeffrey Jones wrote. 
===

Bishop attacks Abbott to save Rudd. Have the Liberals gone mad?

Andrew Bolt February 02 2016 (6:49am)

Julie Bishop is just making things worse, raising real questions about her judgment:
The dispute between Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop over Australia’s stand on a new UN secretary-­general has intensified, with Mr Abbott’s office yesterday publicly contradicting the Foreign Minister’s view on the former government’s position. 
A spokesman for Mr Abbott told The Australian yesterday that Ms Bishop as Foreign Minister was “well aware” that the Abbott government had taken a strong stand of support for former New Zealand leader Helen Clark to ­replace incumbent Ban Ki-moon.
Last night, in a statement to The Australian, Ms Bishop rejected the comments from Mr Abbott’s spokesman and dismissed any suggestion she was aware the former prime minister had pledged to support Ms Clark for the post.
Mr Abbott’s support for Ms Clark was contained in an agreement he reached with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in late 2014 and sealed in an ­exchange of letters between the leaders. The context is vital: Mr Abbott wanted to ensure his government did not back former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd for the post. 
Bishop didn’t know? When even I had a fair idea? And she still wants to back one of the worst Prime Minister’s we’ve had - a Labor Big Government man - to be king of the world? 
===

END OF CERTAINTIES

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (1:07pm)

Besides the Newman government, a few other things were wiped out in Queensland on Saturday night.
 Continue reading 'END OF CERTAINTIES'
===

UNLOCK THE MAGIC

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (11:46am)

Forget American Sniper or any other so-called blockbusters. The film I’m most looking forward to is a Byron Bay thriller called Who Unlocked the Gate?
 Continue reading 'UNLOCK THE MAGIC'
===

GAIA’S GANGSTERS

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (4:13am)

UK journalist David Rose experiences climate activist compassion: 
I’ve never supported the British National Party or the Ku Klux Klan. I’ve never belonged to the Paedophile Information Exchange, or denied the Holocaust, or made a penny from the banking crash.
But if you read The Guardian newspaper’s website, you might think otherwise. A commentator on it urged my own children to murder me.
He did so because of one of the many stories I’ve written for this newspaper about climate change. I first reported on the subject nearly six years ago: my article was about the ‘climategate’ scandal, where leaked emails showed university scientists were trying to cover up data that suggested their claim the world is hotter than at any time in the past 1,300 years may be wrong …
Last week on Twitter, someone else wrote that he knew where I lived, and posted my personal phone numbers. 
(Via PJ)
===

GWAYNDLER TWEMBLER

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (3:34am)

The Courier-Mail‘s Paul Syvret models the latest in Anthony Albanese action wear:

Readers may recall that Albanese’s lower lip was trembling as he delivered his line about fighting Tories. Kind of diminished the moment.
UPDATE. In other lefty media news, Mike Carlton takes a swing at two election night veterans: 
Did Sky REALLY have Richardson and Kroger on their election coverage? It’d be Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets. 
For the record, Graham Richardson is four years younger than Carlton. Michael Kroger is 12 years younger.
===

BEWARE OF THE CLOG PEOPLE

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (3:21am)

Remiss of me not to mark the return of Andrew Bolt. In related news, the Dutch have plans for you.
===

GLENN DOWN

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (3:17am)

Glenn Wheeler, one of the funniest and sweetest people you could ever meet, is in an induced coma following a scooter accident: 
The 54-year-old 2GB and Channel 7 presenter was on his way to work at the radio station when he was hit by a Mitsubishi wagon …
Wheeler’s family released a statement today saying he was facing a “long road to recovery.”
“The impact left him with a severed artery in one leg and other significant injuries to various parts of his body.
“There’s some bleeding on the brain but scans have come back with encouraging results,” the statement read. 
Wish him well. He’s one of the good guys.
===

MAYBE SHE’S AMAZED

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (1:09am)

Watch amazing Annastacia Palaszczuk say “amazing” an amazing ten times in just a few amazing minutes:

Amazingly, Palaszczuk has never had a real job: 
One of the criticisms levelled at the Opposition leader is that she has scant “real-life” full-time work experience outside of politics – although she did complete a summer clerkship in a law firm in 1997-98 …
“There are lots of different perceptions of real-life experience. My first job was at the Inala Plaza selling jewellery; I’ve seen all sorts of life; I’ve studied overseas; I’ve worked hard in my community; I can sit down with anyone from any sort of background and have a chat; I’m involved in community organisations.” 
So she’s some kind of community organiser? Good luck, Queensland.
UPDATE. Another massively qualified Queensland Labor MP: 
Kate Jones was a few years ahead of me at Kelvin Grove High. She was really good in the school musical. 
===

POLEYS UNPOLLED

Tim Blair – Monday, February 02, 2015 (12:34am)

Poor poley bears are the Queensland Liberals of the animal kingdom.
(Via Jill)
===

SOON APPEARING IN ANOTHER COURT

Tim Blair – Sunday, February 01, 2015 (11:42pm)

A refugee enthusiast invades the court during the Australian Open final:

These people don’t really understand the concept of borders, do they? Nice knuckle tatts, though.
(Via Patrick H., who emails: “Protesters just get more attractive by the minute – and I’ve only had one bourbon!")
UPDATE. Reffo fans are now camped on top of Tony Abbott’s electorate office:
===

Pauline Hanson leads in race for Queensland seat

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (7:23pm)

She’s plucky, and a lot better than Clive Palmer and the Greens, whose own bids for seats in the Queensland have failed::
PAULINE Hanson’s race for the seat of Lockyer in the state election is not over yet... 
With 77.5 per cent of the vote counted, Ms Hanson has 54.6 per cent of votes after preferences.
More fool the major parties, who continue to treat Hanson as a pariah:
Both the ALP and LNP refused to do preferences deals with Ms Hanson with only The Katter Australia Party doing a preference swap with her.
===

Sickly green

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (2:01pm)

At least it’s morally consistent, even to the point of potentially sick-making:
The owner of a popular Dickson vegetarian restaurant was morally opposed to wiping out a cockroach infestation because it would have involved “killing little insects”.
===

Abbott’s speech: the verdict

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (1:39pm)

Tony Abbott’s speech to the National Press Club was billed as critical to his survival.
Verdict: It was very good.
Abbott chose not to do what some commentators urged and do a huge mea culpa, begging forgiveness for errors. He chose instead to show himself as an unbowed and undeterred leader, firm and passionately focussed on the national interest in the face of great challenges.
He warned his colleagues that Australians had voted to end Labor’s instability and did not want more of it from the Liberals. They should not be making a bad situation worse. They should not panic but hold their ground.
His concessions were to scrap the paid parental leave scheme as unaffordable, leave the awarding of future knighthoods to the Council for the Order of Australia and be more collegial.
Abbott stressed that the Australian people should hire and fire leaders, and tt had elected him, Abbott, to fix the economy. That’s a message to the plotters. Julie Bishop in particular will not want to seem another Julia Gillard.
Abbott also pointed out that an Abbott Government would keep the carbon tax scrapped and Shorten’s Labor wouldn’t. This, in turn, could be read as a warning to backers of warmist Malcolm Turnbull. Electing him leader would remove a key point of difference with Labor.
One more thing: Abbott made crystal clear with words and demeanour that he will not resign. That ends the fantasy pushed by some backbenchers, who know they don’t have the numbers or courage for a challenge.
Lots of Ministers attended the speech to support Abbott. That’s another sign that Abbott is going nowhere soon. 
===

ABC gloats

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (11:31am)

ABC presenter Jon Faine:
Campbell Newman has been shown the door by the entire electorate of Queensland.
Entire?
Faine then makes a series of misleading comments on unemployment (as in denying the decline of manufacturing had hit the jobs market already) while interviewing Liberal frontbencher Josh Frydenberg. Faine then reads his text feed from like-minded listeners to shower Frydenberg with electronic-graffiti abuse.
UPDATE
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison calls out more soft-on-Labor spin from the ABC:
SCOTT MORRISON: ... And yes we’ve attracted our share of criticism and there are some things that we wish went better and there are some things we wish we were able to pass through the Senate, and that hasn’t happened. And when that happens the Government, as the Prime Minister was outlining last year, you have to reset, you have to refocus and I think you have to proceed at a pace of reform which gets the jobs done that you can bring the Australian people along with. But you’ve got to have a plan and you’ve got to be acting on that plan. Now that’s how you get things done. Bill Shorten has no plan. He expects to just sail into the next election. I’m noticing Bill Shorten’s getting pretty cocky at the moment. But you know if he wants to get that cocky he better be able to back it up with a plan. 
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: You can’t really blame him the way you’re going at the moment though can you? I mean is this the last chance…
SCOTT MORRISON: Well if you want to give him that leave pass Michael you may, but I’m certainly not going to give him that leave pass and I don’t think the Australian people will give him a leave pass for being cocky about the fact that he thinks he will inevitably become prime minister and it will be thrown at his feet. 
===

Never again? Ask Iran

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (8:52am)

Charles Krauthammer on the new Jew-hatred in Europe:
Amid the ritual expressions of regret and the pledges of “never again” on Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a bitter irony was noted: Anti-Semitism has returned to Europe. With a vengeance.
It has become routine. If the kosher-grocery massacre in Paris hadn’t happened in conjunction with Charlie Hebdo, how much worldwide notice would it have received? As little as did the murder of a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse. As little as did the terror attack that killed four at the Jewish Museum in Brussels…
Jew-hatred is back, recapitulating the past with impressive zeal. Italians protesting Gaza handed out leaflets calling for a boycott of Jewish merchants. As in the 1930s. A widely popular French comedian has introduced a variant of the Nazi salute. In Berlin, Gaza brought out a mob chanting, “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight alone!” Berlin, mind you…
From the Jewish point of view, European anti-Semitism is a sideshow. The story of European Jewry is over. It died at Auschwitz. Europe’s place as the center and fulcrum of the Jewish world has been inherited by Israel. Not only is it the first independent Jewish commonwealth in 2,000 years. It is, also for the first time in 2,000 years, the largest Jewish community on the planet.
The threat to the Jewish future lies not in Europe but in the Muslim Middle East, today the heart of global anti-Semitism, a veritable factory of anti-Jewish literature, films, blood libels and calls for violence, indeed for another genocide.
The founding charter of Hamas calls not just for the eradication of Israel but for the killing of Jews everywhere. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah welcomes Jewish emigration to Israel — because it makes the killing easier: “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.’’ And, of course, Iran openly declares as its sacred mission the annihilation of Israel… Former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, known as a moderate, once characterized tiny Israel as a one-bomb country… On the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz, mourning dead Jews is easy. And, forgive me, cheap. Want to truly honor the dead? Show solidarity with the living — Israel and its 6 million Jews. Make “never again” more than an empty phrase. It took Nazi Germany seven years to kill 6 million Jews. It would take a nuclear Iran one day. 
Richard Millet gives more examples:
Tuesday was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, but Tuesday night at the London School of Economics – at a joint Palestine Society and Feminist Society event – Israelis were portrayed as rapists. Also at the event, those who killed Israelis were applauded…
Rana B. Baker, a student at SOAS who also writes for the Electronic Intifada, said Leila Khaled‘s “hijacking of planes was amazing."…
Baker reserved her highest admiration for Sana’a Mehaidli, who she said “deserves a standing ovation.” She described how, in 1985 in south Lebanon, Mehaidli “drove a car full of explosives and blew it up near an Israeli convoy killing two Israeli soldiers and injuring between 10 and 12 more."…
Baker concluded by saying that Mehaidli’s “will calls for men and women to armed struggle against a colonial regime based on violence.”
Zena Agha portrayed Israelis as rapists of Palestinian women [see footage above]. She said that “in Israel the view of Palestinian women is very derogatory and that rape had become a very prevalent idea. Rape for Israelis was almost a weapon of war against Palestinian women."…
She urged the student audience not to adopt western narratives about Hamas, Hezbollah, and ISIS, etc. who, she said, are all referred to as “terrorists.” She complained that “calling Hamas ‘terrorists’ robs them of any agency and delegitimizes them."…And the event was chaired by Aitemad Muhanna-Matar, a research fellow at the LSE’s Middle East Centre, who said that the Palestinians had no choice “but to sacrifice their bodies” ...
===

Will voters let politicians save Australia from becoming another Greece?

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (8:05am)

Can Australia save itself from economic decline, or are voters now too addicted to handouts?
Henry Ergas:
Just a few weeks ago, Victorians turfed out a first-term Coalition government widely chided for being faint-hearted. Now Queenslanders have inflicted the same fate on a government no one could accuse of undue timidity… 
(T)he Newman government proved more than willing to make the tough decisions. Public spending, which in Labor’s last decade was growing by more than 6 per cent a year in real terms, actually fell in the LNP’s first two budgets and was then set to only grow at a sustainable 1.2 per cent annually.
Thanks to that expenditure restraint, the government was able to achieve a remarkable $8 billion budget turnaround in just four years, allowing an expected return to surplus in 2015-16. And as the budget moved into the black, a credible strategy was in place to bring the state’s liabilities, which had increased under Labor from 100 per cent of revenues in 2001 to 174 per cent in 2012, back to prudent levels…
But ... the message is clear: with a footloose electorate no longer erring on the side of giving first-term governments another chance, reforming governments simply cannot afford to make any mistakes. Unfortunately, the Abbott government’s problem is that it has already made so many. And with its political capital exhausted, it now faces an extraordinarily challenging second budget, made all the more difficult by a deteriorating international environment… It is surely breathtaking that a government spending more than any Australian government ever has, and proposing to continue to do so, allowed itself to be typecast as tight-fisted and uncaring. But that is inevitable if it persists in confusing retrenchment with reform.
Cut & Paste:
The new normal for economics? Don Aitken blogs, January 29: 
THERE has been a marked reluctance by the ALP, the parliament and the mass media to accept that the six-year Labor government spent far too much, and that it committed future governments to a continuation of that spending. The expectation that tightening our belt is really unnecessary, because Australia is doing well in comparison to other countries, seems a tad on the loony side to me, whoever says it. And it is loonier still when you look at the great decline in mining revenue, and the number of companies in that sector that are closing down mines, laying off people or having other troubles…
Bill Shorten follows the new line, Insiders, ABC TV, yesterday:... 
(P)eople seeing Tony Abbott, Campbell Newman, cuts to schools, cuts to hospitals, cuts to public services and I think that’s the nub of the issue. It’s the way that both levels of Liberal government have conducted themselves.
So does ACTU chief Ged Kearney in her media release from yesterday:  
QUEENSLANDERS have sent a clear message to the Newman and Abbott governments that they will not sit back while health, education, public services and workers’ rights are attacked. ACTU President Ged Kearney said nurses, teachers, doctors, paramedics and public servants were just some of the tens of thousands of Queensland workers that made their voices heard. “Tony Abbott is taking Australia where Campbell Newman took Queensland — slashing public sector jobs, cutting services and attacking rights at work”.
Mark Ludlow on Queensland Labor’s plan to win an election by promising not to make big savings:
Although the final result may not be known for a few days, it is likely Labor will be able to scrape into majority government or will have to form a minority government with independents. If this happens, Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk faces a quick reality check… 
Labor’s opposition to the LNP’s $37 billion asset sales plan may have won them votes, but it leaves them with the prospect of trying to turn around the state’s finances without the most effective weapon. State debt is tipped to top $80 billion by 2017-18. Without asset sales, the only way to chew into that to reclaim the AAA credit rating, is through government cuts to services or raising taxes. The real challenge for Labor and Palaszczuk starts now. And it will be a lot harder than a 26-day summer election campaign.
But reader Tim is less pessimistic than most:
Andrew, I think you are wrong to say that voters hate austerity. Jeff Kennett romped home to a massive victory in his second election. Howard managed a second victory despite bigger cuts overall than the current government is proposing, and while proposing a great big new tax on everything (the GST). 
Communicating your reasons and ideas will not work if the public is no longer listening.
How about a simple rule. Promise what is achievable and try very hard not to break those promises. Abbott would have easily won the last election whilst proposing modest cuts to education, the ABC and so on. He is being punished because he lied. Yes he dissembles (and so do you) about it being qualified, but people know they were lied to. The weasel-words and wriggling only make it worse. Maybe a new leader will allow Australians to start listening again, and that they will like what they hear. 
Good point, although I should point out that I have not at all dissembled about Abbott’s broken promises, which I’ve said from the start have been a terrible mistake.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Abbott still the best hope

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (7:18am)

Greg Sheridan:
TONY Abbott is still the best man to lead the Liberal Party, and the nation, through a difficult and unstable time in our politics. 
Abbott’s character and past career suggest he can do it, but only after a major mea culpa to the nation, and to his party…
Abbott must use today’s Press Club speech to make a new bargain with the people. Like Bob Hawke and Peter Beattie, he must acknowledge and apologise for the failures in his leadership style to date, show he understands he has been part of the problem and then commit to a new course that will address the nation’s core troubles…
The Australian people are social conservatives, but not social reactionaries. Never mention the monarchy again. The paid parental leave scheme is a dog with no support in the party. Chuck it overboard.
Peta Credlin is a fine and talented person, but it is utterly unsustainable to have a staffer with this public profile.
Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison, Greg Hunt, Josh Frydenberg and other frontbenchers have great political skills. Bring them on the inside of every decision with significant political consequences.
The electorate doesn’t like the government’s performance so far, therefore, change the government’s performance. But don’t enter that dark world of leadership chopping and changing and all the instability that goes with it.
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan:
TONY Abbott is in big trouble. But the Prime Minister isn’t terminal — yet.... 
After mistakes and missteps since this time last year Abbott has no leeway for further errors from his colleagues or the public.
Paul Kelly: 
SENIOR Liberals disillusioned with Tony Abbott have raised an alternative trifecta — Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, Julie Bishop staying on as deputy and Foreign Minister, and Scott ­Morrison as treasurer… 
The hope is to restructure mid-term on a platform that has at least some prospect of projecting a tenable “new-look” government…
There are no easy options as ­alternatives to Abbott and still no serious candidates. The fear is that Turnbull cannot unite the conservative side of politics, that Bishop lacks the economic mastery to succeed and that Morrison is too inexperienced for the top job…
The notion that Abbott as prime minister and Joe Hockey as Treasurer can be jointly and smoothly eliminated with the government marching stable, united and effective into the future under a new team is the sort of fantasy reserved for desperate and brainless backbenchers…
The party’s preferred position is that Abbott succeed as Prime Minister. Senior ministers, Bishop and Turnbull, are declaring support for Abbott. But much of this support is conditional…
Yet accepting Turnbull would torment the conservative wing of the Liberal Party. It would raise the threat of an even more bitter internal division. A party room execution of Abbott would fuel the risk of an eventual revolt from the conservative base.
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Abbott’s mistakes are nothing compared to Labor’s

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (7:13am)

Enough of this frenzy of hate. Cut Tony Abbott some slack for making a harmless mistake.
Yes, I, too, said it was “very, very, very stupid” for the Prime Minister to make Prince Philip a knight on Australia Day.
I meant politically stupid for making Abbott seem so out of touch and arbitrary.
Yet Abbott’s mistake is nothing compared to ones many of his media critics dismissed or even cheered - mistakes by Labor leaders Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd which cost hundreds of lives, thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.
For instance, in 2008 Prime Minister Rudd, implementing a plan drafted by deputy Gillard, scrapped our tough border laws.
Result: 50,000 boat people were lured here, and 1200 drowned. Taxpayers got a $12 billion bill.
So how did political commentators respond?

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Column - Abbott’s mistakes are nothing compared to Labor’s'
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Just as well Queensland voters didn’t get a say on Ange Postecoglou

Andrew Bolt February 02 2015 (6:49am)

Reader erasmus:
Let’s conflate the two major events of the weekend. Ange Postecoglou inherited a mess; the Socceroos were in turmoil. From the moment he took over, he made tough decisions. He discarded a generation of players who had served Australia well and replaced them with young, untried players and introduced a new, high possession, attacking style of play. 
Results were slow in coming. He was heavily criticised for both his selections and his game plan. He was criticised for going to the World Cup with an untried squad. After the World Cup, he persisted with the same group of players, rotating them and giving as many of his chose few as much game time as possible, often resting star players like Tim Cahill. Losses followed losses, even against ordinary opposion. Australia slipped to their lowest ever FIFA ranking. Critisism mounted. The tweets, of course, demanded his head on a platter. Had he been the Premier of Queensland he would have been sacked. Australian football is fortunate that the FFA are not as petulant as the Queensland (and Australian) electorate. They recognised that Ange Postecoglou wasn’t coaching the team just for the next game, but for the next generation. And because of the tough stance that Ange Postecoglou took in regard to the players he picked and the game plan they played, Australia won the Asian Cup. But with an electorate as childish in regard to tough but necessary policies as the one we now have in Australia, it is looking less and less likely that Australia will be capable of winning the Asian century. 
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Miss Judgement - Rita Panahi
Finally (finally!) a decent performance from the PM. Press Club speech was the first time in a long time we've heard him speak freely and with conviction. Of course hardline lefties won't acknowledge that he can do anything right but most voters are centre left or centre right and far more open-minded than the lunatic fringe.
But will it make a difference and why did it take so bloody long?
He said what he has always said .. the change is the perception of gatekeepers - ed
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PM must tear up any thoughts of a treaty

Piers Akerman – Saturday, February 01, 2014 (9:47pm)

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott reopened debate about recognition of Aboriginal Australians in the Australian Constitution when he chose Australia Day to reiterate his government’s commitment to preparing a draft of a formal wording by September.

 Continue reading 'PM must tear up any thoughts of a treaty'
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Family’s fight to escape tragedy

Miranda Devine – Saturday, February 01, 2014 (11:29pm)

THE freckled face of 13-year-old Jordan Rice made headlines around the world when he died with his mother in a flash flood that hit Toowoomba three years ago. 

 Continue reading 'Family’s fight to escape tragedy'
several great articles here - ed
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RACIST HAT

Tim Blair – Sunday, February 02, 2014 (4:30pm)

“I found this hat for sale at my local ‘cheap crap’ shop this morning,” writes reader Waxing Gibberish. “Should I beoffended or is it OK because the people selling the hat were Chinese?”
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EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHES

Tim Blair – Sunday, February 02, 2014 (11:13am)

Julia Gillard, during her recent Dubai speech: 
The majority of Australians when polled say that they do want Australia to become a republic. 
Support for an Australian republic has collapsed to a 20-year low, with just 39.4 per cent of Australians saying they support a republic. 
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THEY WANT ACTION NOW

Tim Blair – Sunday, February 02, 2014 (11:05am)

An email went out on Friday from “Cole, Zoe, Opal and the QLD Leadership Team” of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, urging the movement’s claimed 90,000 followers to protest against Tony Abbott in Brisbane: 
Tomorrow is our chance to get out, get on our feet, and show Abbott and his cronies that we support ambitious climate action, and that we want climate action now! 
And here’s the turnout:

(Via Habib, who reports that the dismal protest “still got air time on every network, despite there being more punters in the pie shop than involved in this fracas. 10AM on a Saturday was always going to be a big ask.")
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And the dolphin makes 13

Andrew Bolt February 02 2014 (5:45pm)

The Australian Youth Climate Council urges its alleged 90,000 members to rally in Brisbane today to show Tony Abbott how much “we want climate action now”.
By an astonishing coincidence, the turnout showed about as much demand for climate actionas  the amount of warming we’ve actually had.
I hope Abbott was watching. 
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The Cat catches three mice

Andrew Bolt February 02 2014 (3:30pm)

The Cat catches the mice of disinformation.
No, Harry Clarke, the pause in warming is not a falsehood and not mentioned merely by those fabled corrupt “deniers” in the pay of Big Tobacco (sic).
No, Insiders, it’s not false to say the SPC workers can get sick leave paid out (upon redundancy) or can get overtime.
No, Age/ABC/SBS, if you are going to hail Labor’s same-sex marriage campaign as a key election issue and big vote-winner, you can’t dodge the obvious conclusions when Labor’s vote gets hammered.
I’ve been worrying lately that there are just too many of “them” to fight. Thank heavens for a good Cat. Please feed it.
UPDATE
Reader the Old and Unimproved Dave:
Not too many to fight, Andrew. Simply a target-rich environment.
Reader Alan of Sydney:
Where the ABC has come unstuck this time is that, for the first time in 40-odd years, conservatives have had enough - and are pushing back - hard! This is what is is discombobulating the ABC as never before. They’ve never had to deal with a large and angry commentariet that says “no, what you are saying is biased and untrue”. Frankly, the ABC don’t have a clue of how to deal with “conservative resistance”.
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Wrong answer

Andrew Bolt February 02 2014 (7:23am)

This picture in 1999 of a man helping 16-year-old Andrew Johnson shoot up convinced the Carr Labor Government and many media outlets for some bizarre reason that a free heroin injecting centre was the answer:
So how did it work out for Johnson?
Not so good at all. Nor, indeed, for his three children, now in care.
But read today’s article at the link. Still not the slightest awareness that the wrong lesson was learned from that picture:
Dr Marianne Jauncey, medical director at the injecting centre, insists there is ‘’always hope’’. ‘’...[Johnson] is still only halfway through his story. While he is alive, there is a chance.’’
Tell that to his parents: 
‘’He’s beyond help now,’’ his mother, Roseanna, says. ‘’The police say we would be better off trying to forget we have a son.’’ 
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The ABC’s Jon Faine says he’s not biased. Really? Click these links

Andrew Bolt February 02 2014 (6:07am)

Media

Jon Faine claims he’s not biased, because the ABC also offended Bob Hawke by questioning his decision to help liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein:
I remember Bob Hawke getting tetchy with us when he thought we were less than enthusiastic over his determination to participate in the first Gulf War.
Strange definition of unbiased, really, to note that both Labor and Liberal think you’re too much to the Left. But this is how Faine interprets it:
We know, as does the audience, that when we cop it from everyone we are getting it about right. 
Faine is by no means a bad broadcaster, and I’d listen to him any day above his rivals. But the claim that he’s not biased is simply preposterous and I cannot tell if Faine is just trying to fool us or is just fooling himself. I suspect the latter, given that in the very same piece he likens Tony Abbott’s criticism of ABC bias to the real censorship and physical intimidation of journalists under the Putin government. Abbott equals Putin? Seriously, Jon?

But for those who need more evidence, here are some links about the completely ”unbiased” Jon Faine, a prominent Leftist in an ABC which lets only Leftists host its main current affairs shows, Note particularly Faine’s explicit refusal to cover the Climategate scandal, so embarrassing to his warmist cause, and  the reprimand he earned from the ABC for his unprofessional hostility to reporters uncovering Julia Gillard’s role in the AWU slush fund scandal, now the subject of a police investigation. (Gillard insists she did nothing wrong.)
And, just for a laugh, who can forget his serious suggestion that the Herald Sun have a ”cleansing” of conservative columnists to mark the election of the Rudd Government?
Note. I do not criticise Faine for being biased. I criticise him for pretending he isn’t. We all have our biases, which inform our judgements on what is important and what is credible. My argument with the ABC is not that it gives a platform for Leftist presenters to decide what to cover and how, but that it denies the same opportunities to conservatives.
UPDATE
A Reachtel poll suggests the public are now onto a bias that for too long was not called out:
.Overall, 32.2 per cent believed the ABC was biased towards the Labor Party, while just 8.2 per cent said it was biased towards the Coalition.
Reachtel should have also asked how much the ABC was biased to the Greens.
This perception of bias is likely to grow. Not only is the ABC’s bias more strident than I have ever known, conservatives are more angry and prepared to challenge it. The ABC brand is slowly crumbling.
(Thanks to reader Peter.) 
===

The elite confounded. Republic not so inevitable, after all

Andrew Bolt February 02 2014 (5:39am)

Everyone at the best and most elite parties agrees a republic is not just a good thing but inevitable. From 2008:
KEVIN RUDD ...  said the desire for a republic at the 2020 summit was overwhelming and “there was a sense of inevitability” about it… 
Of the 100 members of the [summit’s governance] group, everyone voted for a republic except for the former governor-general William Deane, who abstained, and the Liberal senator George Brandis, who opposed.
Labor luvvies should get out more:
Support for an Australian republic has collapsed to a 20-year low, with just 39.4 per cent of Australians saying they support a republic. 
Support was lowest among older Australians and Generation Y voters, with people aged 35 to 65 most supportive of abandoning the monarchy. An exclusive ReachTEL poll of more than 2100 Australians, conducted on Thursday night for Fairfax, shows 41.6 per cent oppose the country becoming a republic...
I suspect opponents are actually rejecting the elitists and dividers pushing the republic as much as they are rejecting the republic itself.

Incidentally, here is one more example of how governments - often with media help - can manipulate perceptions so that what is widely rejected can seem what is widely accepted.The 2020 Summit was among the most brazen attempts yet to defraud us and I was shocked so many media executives and stars took part in this farce.
UPDATE
Julia Gillard last month, showing again her famous talent for reading the public will:
The majority of Australians when polled say that they do want Australia to become a republic.
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ABC orders reporters to stop hypeing boat people stories

Andrew Bolt February 02 2014 (5:04am)

It says plenty about the ABC’s bias that this edict needed to be sent to ABC reporters:
Head of ABC news content Gaven Morris ...  instructed senior staff, including director of news Kate Torney and ABC News 24 editor Tony Hill, to provide advice to their teams about reporting on ‘’incidents at sea’’… 
‘’As you know, we currently have a set of claims by asylum seekers our editorial teams are continuing to work hard to get an accurate account of and to verify,’’ he wrote.
‘’During this process all our output should reflect the basic facts before us … we don’t need to interpret them beyond what we know, nor should be [sic] editorialising or seeking to add adjectives or any flourish. ‘’We’re not seeking to describe or embellish the allegations with descriptions like torture or mistreatment or violence and we’re not reporting whether we have proved or disproved anything the media has previously reported - the allegations and responses stand for themselves.’’ 
The edict has already had an effect. This is the ludicrous story the ABC published on Friday about an asylum seeker complaining the navy sprayed him during what turned out to be a fight over his boat’s sabotaged engines:
New details have emerged about asylum seeker claims that Australian sailors mistreated them during a boat interception operation earlier this month.
This is how it was quickly rewritten:
New details have emerged about a boat interception operation earlier this month …
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The Adventures of Dunsterforce

Andrew Bolt February 02 2014 (12:40am)

Your favorite books, poems and music - and mine

It is 1918. Lionel Dunsterville, Rudyard Kipling’s best friend from school, is now a Russian-speaking general in charge of a small force of soldiers, including Australians, on a ship. He writes:
A British General on the Caspian, the only sea unploughed before by British keels, on board a ship named after a South African Dutch President and whilom enemy, sailing from a Persian port under the Serbian flag to relieve from the Turks a body of Armenians in a revolutionary Russian town. 
An incredible story, and in passing a tribute to the British public schools which gave even boys destined for the army a classical education. Also a challenge to the popular prejudice that reckons British officers of World War One to be dunderheads of little imagination.
If anyone can tell me how I can lay my hands on an original hard copy edition, I’d be grateful.
UPDATE
Thanks to the many readers who sent me links to sellers of the book. Appreciated. 
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“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” - Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Called Shema Yisrael, this is a prayer that serves as a centre piece to morning and evening prayer in Jewish traditions. Mark quotes Jesus as saying it as part of the great commandment. “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

In Deuteronomy, the call is to Israel. Under the covenant of Christ, the call is to everyone. And if you think that Israel owed it to God for all that He did in freeing them from captivity, we gentiles owe Him no less under the new covenant. Rather, we owe more. And we must not forget through inaction. 

We do not measure up to the gift we have been given. But we must serve. We fall down, and we get up again, in service. And the Lord will hold us when we fail. 
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

February 1: Morning
"They shall sing in the ways of the Lord." - Psalm 138:5
The time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they first lose their burden at the foot of the Cross. Not even the songs of the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing--

"Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!"

Believer, do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place when Jesus met you, and said, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins; they shall not be mentioned against thee any more forever." Oh! what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy, that I wanted to tell every snow-flake that was falling from heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of his constant lovingkindness leads them to say, "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." See to it, brother, that thou magnifiest the Lord this day.

"Long as we tread this desert land,
New mercies shall new songs demand."
Evening
"Thy love to me was wonderful." - 2 Samuel 1:26
Come, dear readers, let each one of us speak for himself of the wonderful love, not of Jonathan, but of Jesus. We will not relate what we have been told, but the things which we have tasted and handled-of the love of Christ. Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful when I was a stranger wandering far from thee, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Thy love restrained me from committing the sin which is unto death, and withheld me from self-destruction. Thy love held back the axe when Justice said, "Cut it down! why cumbereth it the ground?" Thy love drew me into the wilderness, stripped me there, and made me feel the guilt of my sin, and the burden of mine iniquity. Thy love spake thus comfortably to me when, I was sore dismayed--"Come unto me, and I will give thee rest." Oh, how matchless thy love when, in a moment, thou didst wash my sins away, and make my polluted soul, which was crimson with the blood of my nativity, and black with the grime of my transgressions, to be white as the driven snow, and pure as the finest wool. How thou didst commend thy love when thou didst whisper in my ears, "I am thine and thou art mine." Kind were those accents when thou saidst, "The Father himself loveth you." And sweet the moments, passing sweet, when thou declaredst to me "the love of the Spirit." Never shall my soul forget those chambers of fellowship where thou has unveiled thyself to me. Had Moses his cleft in the rock, where he saw the train, the back parts of his God? We, too, have had our clefts in the rock, where we have seen the full splendours of the Godhead in the person of Christ. Did David remember the tracks of the wild goat, the land of Jordan and the Hermonites? We, too, can remember spots to memory dear, equal to these in blessedness. Precious Lord Jesus, give us a fresh draught of thy wondrous love to begin the month with. Amen.
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Jesaiah, Jeshaiah 
[Jēsā'iah,Jē shā'iah] - jehovah is opulent or hath saved.

1. A son of Hananiah and grandson of Zerubbabel (1 Chron. 3:21). 2. A son of Jeduthun and a musician in David's time (1 Chron. 25:3, 15).
3. A Levite, son of Rehabiah and grandson of Eliezer, son of Moses (1 Chron. 26:25).
4. A son of Athaliah and head of his father's house at Elam, who with seventy males returned from Babylon with Ezra (Ezra 8:7).
5. A Merarite included in the above seventy (Ezra 8:19).
6. A son of Benjamin, the father of Ithiel whose descendants dwelt in Jerusalem (Neh. 11:7).
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Today's reading: Exodus 27-28, Matthew 21:1-22 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Exodus 27-28

The Altar of Burnt Offering
1 "Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. 2 Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. 3 Make all its utensils of bronze--its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans....

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 21:1-22

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 "Say to Daughter Zion,
'See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"

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