Thursday, February 08, 2018

Thu Feb 8th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. US sells oil in Middle East, but Australia does not exploit her reserves. But Melbourne is moving towards solar powered rubbish bins. Brandis' valedictory speech is sad. He fails to acknowledge the awful position of the paralysed Liberal Party is directly due to awful decisions made by Turnbull, Bishop and Pyne. 

 The miracle of what Putin has done with the Russian economy is key to understanding his popularity. In the final days of the Soviet Union, Reagan increased US expenditure on weapons to 5% GDP. The Soviets lifted their expenditure to over 100% GDP, but the US out spent the soviets on arms. US was that wealthy. Russia is much smaller than the old Soviet Union. but her economy is modernised. No one who loves Russia prefers the old ways. 

 EX NK spy who killed 115 before '88 olympics has regrets. NK still wants to kill her to silence her. She just wants to move on and lead a good life. 

 Dan Andrews state machinery gives a violent offender who attacked police a walk after one month in prison. Dan Andrews has also trashed Australia Day and has looked for alternative dates to Australia Day. 

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 for people supporting Che Guevara

Capture and execution
The hunt for Guevara in Bolivia was headed by Félix Rodríguez, a CIA agent, who previously had infiltrated Cuba to prepare contacts with the rebels in the Escambray Mountains and the anti-Castro underground in Havana prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion, and had been successfully extracted from Cuba afterwards. The Bolivian Special Forces were notified of the location of Guevara's guerrilla encampment by an informant. On 8 October, the encampment was encircled, and Guevara was captured while leading a detachment with Simeón Cuba Sarabia in the Quebrada del Yuro ravine. According to some soldiers present at the capture, during the skirmish as they approached Guevara, he allegedly shouted, "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead." 
Script from Wikipedia, or modified, images sourced Google Image and related.
cf http://conservativeweasel.blogspot.com/2007/12/why-che-guevara-is-monster.html

This comment is prevented by youtube from my approval 
THE AVENGER 10 months ago (edited)
Under orders of Che Guevara 1285 prisoners were executed the first six months of the Cuban revolution.The total of Cuban murdered by firing squads 18 000. The total of Cubans murdered 70 000.We have to understand that the Cuban population is only 12 million people.

Here are comments Youtube approves
GamingBrains 6 months ago
Che...the filthy savage that deserved a painful death
old school 1 year ago
Che the mass MURDERER.
David Ball 3 years ago
I will leave you abusive comment as an example of the baseless accusations you make. 
Halil Uskuri 3 years ago
yes u r right , all american troops accidently killed kids in ıraq. History writes the kids killed by america . U r an idiot facist , simply.
Guevara Zoe 3 years ago
thank you! this is what Che-haters will never be able to comprehend.
batsky 2 months ago
You are a mentally ill subhuman beast. Guevara was sadist and murderer, he enjoyed executing people in front of their families, and he was a rapist. He was a white supremacist, he hated indians and blacks. He hated homosexuals. If you admire this man then i can't find a way to relate to you as a person, I don't recognize your humanity
Wenceslao Futanki 3 years ago
fucking murderer u mean, same as hitler, bush, obama, putin, mao, another asshole thinking that the world will be a better place by killing and use of weapons, fuck him and the mentioned above!
tiberias111 3 years ago
I'm tired of an idea being blamed instead of the people responsible. That is such a silly logic.
David Ball 3 years ago
He certainly labelled his victims without taking the ordinary steps of demonstrating they were guilty. If you assume he never made a mistake despite never investigating .. but that doesn't matter to a true believer .. 
Telmo Monteiro 3 years ago
The people you call victims of Che, were: war criminals, rapists, desertors, spies. Do you have any proof that he killed an innocent person? All his independent biographers, state that they dont have ny knowledge of an innocent person killed by Che.
Telmo Monteiro 3 years ago
Where are the proof that Che targeted civilians? Talking without any knowledge of the real facts is very easy....
ProletarianTakeover 3 years ago
Rest in Peace Che Guevara. A True Freedom Fighter.
David Ball 3 years ago
Neither Abu Ghraib nor Gitmo are death camps under the US. Abu Ghraib was under Saddam. Meanwhile, your hero Ghandi sided with people who killed for his cause and on the grounds of nationalism tried to ensnare over a hundred million Islamic peoples in a Hindu nation. Mandela's people killed people as a warning to others .. he was fighting a dirty war. 
Roger Hjallstad 3 years ago
I agree. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay detention camp are just "accidents". The closest we come true heroes in this world are people like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. 
David Ball 3 years ago
US trains lots of good soldiers. Most are not trained to kill. Those that are, are trained to kill a particular way. They follow orders that match known expectations. Despite the lies that underlay Billy Jack, a highly lauded movie, US troops tend not to kill civilians. Republicans tend to use troops to maintain precision. Democrats like to bomb to avoid criticism. Accidents happen. Che targeted civilians to threaten others. 
Roger Hjallstad 3 years ago
And how do you win a war? By kissing people? Good soldiers are trained to kill without being killed themselves...
AbsolutelyNoOne Ever 3 years ago
This is not pederloh, this is just me really, and a CIA front would know that critisizing peoples videos are´nt punishable at all. Again you show your lack of knowledge about the CIA, we never said anything about Che´s victims, we just critisized that you did´nt involve CIA, which we think is very central in this case. Unbutthurt yourself and answer like a real man for once...
David Ball 3 years ago
Why didn't you use Absolutely no one ever's account to reply? Aren't you afraid that the CIA will track you to your tin hats? brevity can introduce ambiguity .. a polemic doesn't need to be addressed. You really do hammer home that unicorn of the CIA .. do you really feel that I issued a death threat? How do you know that I'm not a CIA front? Why don't you admit that the balance argument is an enormity? Have you no compassion for Che's victims? Chavez lives in your lies ..

Roger Hjallstad 3 years ago
A polemic is also a comment, as far as I know. You haven't really answered my comment, so I guess you don't have a good answer (which is fair enough, since you not are a historian or a professional debater). The only time you mention CIA at all, is when you wish me dead (which talks for itself, really). 
David Ball 3 years ago
pederloh posted a polemic, not a comment. I addressed it. He also posted on Blogger. I addressed it there too. And I'll say it again. This is about Che and his behaviour was unjust. His victims had families and they will never have justice or balance. The facts are substantiated and verifiable as to Che's atrocities. As for the CIA, they disappoint me. After all .. they let you two live .. 
AbsolutelyNoOne Ever 3 years ago
Nice job blocking pederloh so he cant answer the question. Now everybody will think you really owned that guy. Unfortunately for you, pederloh has friends... pederloh`s comment: I´m just trying to tell you that if you want to act like a serious debater, you have to look at several sides of the case. When you say that Che is a monster, whitout mentioning CIA, you make CIA look like "good guys", which not was the reality during the cold war. Reality is not a novel with a good and an evil side. 


=== from 2017 ===
Malcolm Turnbull and his followers have come out demanding Cory Bernardi do the 'honourable thing' and resign, so that he can re-contest the seat he has already won. Bernardi won the seat a few months ago under the Liberal banner. He should retain it for six years. If Trunbull really wants the seat he can call a double dissolution election and let the Australian people decide. In the last election, Trunbull ran falsely under the Liberal banner as leader. He even paid for adverts which did not promote the Liberals, but himself. Whereas Cory ran as a Liberal party member and he remains true to their values. Time the utterly humiliated Prime Minister did the honourable thing. 

Malcolm Turnbull was highly lauded today for calling ALP leader Bill Shorten a parasite. A parasite is an insult unionists tend to call good workers. The workers that don't toe the union line on industrial relations. But Shorten has been calling Mr Turnbull "Mr Harbourside Mansion" and Turnbull is brittle in the face of insults. One does not need to name call Mr Shorten. To correctly attack Mr Shorten's political record, all a good leader need do is point to Mr Shorten's political record. Shorten has never done anything worthwhile in political office. Shorten has taken members of unions he managed for granted, and exploited them. He has used their money to achieve high office. Often without their permission. Mr Turnbull has not done precisely the same, but he has been no better. 
=== from 2016 ===
The outrage of ABC's Media Watch at reports Mr Abbott met with Obama at a meal recently, is enjoyable to watch. Their investigative journalists found out it happened. But Media Watch did not want to miss out on their scoop. So they claimed the private meeting was not a legitimate meeting. It had not taken place for long enough to qualify as one, according to Media Watch. It had not taken place behind closed doors. Media Watch hate Mr Abbott so much they refuse to accept accurate reports. 

What would have diverted Media Watch from their Abbott Phobia? Not Mr Murdoch who went to the same lunch as Mr Abbott. And yet there may have been a private meeting with Mr Murdoch and President Obama. What about a bogus report of a 5 yo being raped in detention? An actual story of a teenage Aboriginal girl being gang raped in detention was covered up over fifteen years ago too. But back then it might have embarrassed an ALP government.  

For some at the moment, the sex party has more credibility. 
=== from 2015 ===
A rumour doing the rounds has it that Malcolm Turnbull is close to Clive Palmer and as treasurer or leader could deliver the PUP support needed to pass legislation. Were that true it would be a staggering indictment against the Communications Minister for failing to do so previously. It highlights the worthless nature of Turnbull's assertion he has been loyal to the Liberal Party. Turnbull's apparent subversive behaviour has cost Liberals government in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and in '07 and '10 federally. If the rumour is not true, Turnbull would be useless as leader or treasurer too. The Liberal Party does not need a spill motion on Monday morning, they need a resignation from the Member of Wentworth. Maybe Turnbull feels that if he were leader then no one would leak against him? If so, then he does not understand the press. 

There is a possibility that two Bali 9 inmates scheduled for execution won't be executed. Andrew Chan's and Myuran Sukumaran's former lawyer, who had been the one present when they were sentenced to be executed, has given testimony that the sentences were politically influenced. If this is true then the sentence has to be overturned because a judge is supposed to be unbiased. But then the news is supposed to be unbiased too. The Indonesian ambassador has downplayed the possibility, saying that the various appeals had been heard at the highest levels of Indonesian government. But then that is the allegation too. 

Kayla Jean Mueller, an aid worker, 26, from Arizona working in Syria, had been kidnapped by ISIL death cult. She had been working for Spanish Doctors Without Borders. Held in captivity for eighteen months, the terrorists are claiming she was killed by a Jordanian air strike. Presumably that means her jailers were killed too. 
From 2014
For a journalist, words are tools of trade. It goes to credibility if they don't write what they mean, as failure suggests they don't mean what they write. Andrew Bolt makes a good point about the ABC being savaged over a single issue by conservatives. The issue is either far wider, or it isn't an issue. I believe bias is a serious issue that needs to be addressed by the ABC. It colours their reporting in all aspects they have reach, which were it a privately owned corporation would be illegal. The reach of the ABC extends from foreigners hearing bias from international broadcasts through to children being inducted to hate conservatives. Political reporting is mere barracking on the ABC and it isn't out of place to hear, during an election where the ALP lose a seat to a conservative "We've lost another one." The issue extends to criminal justice where corruption is excused by those they support. People die from bad policy, but the ABC hold firm to those they favour. There are lots of ways it can improve, but those that apologise for ABC incompetence have only recently gotten past denial to acknowledge it is a serious issue. 

It won't be hard to change the ABC, but it is inconceivable that current management won't change. Highly paid senior journalists who offer their opinion aren't necessary, and actually devalue the ABC. Better would be less experienced journalists held to a standard that is higher than it has been. Dame Leonie Kramer did some magnificent work in the early '80s. That could be a template for moving forward. First there needs to be acknowledgement of fault. The ABC has a long history, but not a proud one. The ABC was founded in hope that a fierce independent broadcaster could improve Australian politics. It never has (I recognise the bald statement, and welcome counter examples). It will take time. Let the work begin.
Historical perspective on this day
In 421, Constantius III became co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. 1238, the Mongolsburned the Russian city of Vladimir. 1250, Seventh Crusade: Crusaders engaged Ayyubidforces in the Battle of Al Mansurah. 1347, the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 ended with a power-sharing agreement between John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos. 1575, Universiteit Leiden was founded, and given the motto Praesidium Libertatis. 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. 1601, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebelled against Queen Elizabeth I – the revolt was quickly crushed. 1693, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia was granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II. 1726, the Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.

In 1807, Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeated Russians under General Bennigsen and the Prussians under L'Estocq 1817, Las Heras crossed the Andes with an army to join San Martínand liberate Chile from Spain. 1837, Richard Johnson became the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate. 1855, the Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon. 1856, Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei abolished slavery in Wallachia. 1865, in the United States, Delaware voters rejected the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and voted to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratified the amendment on February 12, 1901.) 1879, Sandford Fleming first proposed adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute. Also 1879, the England cricket team led by Lord Harris was attacked during a riot during a match in Sydney. 1885, the first government-approved Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii. 1887, the Dawes Actauthorised the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

In 1904, Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, Chinastarted the Russo-Japanese War. 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated by William D. Boyce. 1915, D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premiered in Los Angeles. 1922, President Warren G. Harding introduced the first radio in the White House. 1924, Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber took place in Nevada. 1942, World War II: Japan invaded Singapore. 1945, World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada commenced Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine. 1946, the first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first serious challenge to the popularity of the Authorized King James Version, was published. 1948, the formal creation of the Korean People's Army of North Korea was announced. 1949, Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary was sentenced for treason. 1950, the Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, was established. 1952, Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom. 1955, the Government of Sindh, Pakistan, abolished the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km2) of land thus acquired was to be distributed among the landless peasants.

In 1960, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants would take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor". Also 1960, the first eight brass star plaques were installed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1962, Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists were killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police. 1963, travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba were made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration. 1963, the First full Colour Television program in the World, publicly advertised, was broadcast in Mexico City by XHGC-TV, Channel 5, due to technical breakthrough advances made by Mexican Engineer Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena. Also 1963, the regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Qassem was overthrown by the Ba'ath Party. 1965, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean and exploded, killing everyone aboard. 1968, American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who were protesting racial segregation at the town's only bowling alley, left three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina. 1969, Allende meteorite fell near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico. 1971, the NASDAQ stock market index opened for the first time. Also 1971, South Vietnamese ground troops launched an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration. 1974, after 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space stationSkylab, returned to Earth. Also 1974, Military coup in Upper Volta. 1978, proceedings of the United States Senate were broadcast on radio for the first time.

In 1981, twenty-one association football spectators were trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens FC. 1983, the Melbourne dust storm hit Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud enveloped the city, turning day to night. 1986, Hinton train collision: Twenty-three people were killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collided with a 118-car Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, west of Edmonton. It is the worst rail accident in Canada until the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec derailment in 2013 which killed forty-seven people. 1993, General Motors sued NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups could easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settled the lawsuit the next day. 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Communications Decency Act. Also 1996, the massive Internet collaboration "24 Hours in Cyberspace" took place. 2010, a freak storm in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistantriggered a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travellers. 2013,  A blizzard disrupted transportation and left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada. 2014, a hotel fire in Medina, Saudi Arabia killed 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 also injured.
=== 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 Mark Koch, Julie Huynh, Sokunthea Ing and Hoang Thanh Hai. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
February 8: Prešeren Day in Slovenia
Theatrical poster for The Birth of a Nation
Now that Mary has gone, we've seen the end of that line. It is about time we made the decision. The Nation has been born. Have a safe flight. Don't just feel the earth move, revel in it. Let's party. 
Deaths
===
Tim Blair 2018
===
Andrew Bolt 2018
===
Tim Blair

ALL OVER FOR THE McCORMICKS

More than two decades of marriage go down the tubes following a husband’s terrifying confession.
8 Feb  10 comments

BERLIN’S BOLSHEVIK BABIES

This is probably some kind of global uniform standard for left-wing activists: unemployed, living with their parents and raging against police.
8 Feb  24 comments

SINKING FEELING

A physical manifestation of Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership has materialised near the Prime Minister’s Sydney mansion.
8 Feb  23 comments

IT’S ON

Next Monday night, in an alarming escalation of the conservative commentariat conflict, I plan to angrily hang up on Chris Kenny during my regular Sky News appearance.
8 Feb  37 comments

RUNNING AWAY FROM MALCOLM

It emerges that Cory Bernardi wasn’t the first Coalition member to threaten a Turnbull-driven departure.
8 Feb  38 comments

RESISTANCE IS THE NEW OCCUPY

Just as the anti-capitalist Occupy movement came to be dominated by pervy weirdos and criminals, so too goes the anti-Trump Resistance movement.
8 Feb  28 comments

WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS

Honda’s 1989 Prelude was one of the company’s prettiest designs. A reclined engine allowed for a beautifully low bonnet line, which in turn emphasised the car’s elegant glasshouse.
8 Feb  43 comments

HILLARY LOSES TO TOM BRADY

Leftists have poisoned everything with politics, up to and including the weather, so they of course toxified the Super Bowl with their leftoid supremacy fantasies.
8 Feb  37 comments

SEVEN STEPS TO SUCCESS

Attention, Trump haters! You all want to get rid of the 45th President of the United States, and that’s fair enough, but you’re going about it completely the wrong way.
8 Feb 
===
Andrew Bolt

===

VERDICT DELIVERED, JURY DISMISSED

Tim Blair – Monday, February 08, 2016 (3:25am)

In certain circumstances, it is possible that some people may try to extend their time when serving jury duty. Perhaps you’re on Clive Palmer’s staff, for example, and you don’t want to go back to processing party resignation letters and fetching the boss’s cheeseburgers.
Or maybe you’re an ABC Media Watch researcher exhausted by those gruelling three-hour working weeks. Either way, the last thing you need is an early verdict. You want to keep things in doubt for as long as you can.
Which leads us to the CSIRO, and a stunning strategic error by the national science agency’s climate researchers. During the past decade, researchers at the CSIRO – along with global warming alarmists everywhere – have been telling us that the “science is settled” when it comes to climate change.
In other words, they’ve delivered their verdict. Bad move.
CSIRO chief Larry Marshall has recently been examining his organisation for areas where he might achieve some $110 million in budget cuts. Inevitably, his gaze fell upon the climate change crowd – the guys who, by their own admission, have already finished their jobs. Last week Marshall sent this memo to CSIRO staff:
“CSIRO pioneered climate research, the same way we saved the cotton and wool industries for our nation. But we cannot rest on our laurels as that is the path to mediocrity. Our climate models are among the best in the world and our measurements honed those models to prove global climate change. That question has been answered.”
Reasonably enough, with that question answered, Marshall is now taking steps to throw most of the CSIRO’s climate researchers out on the street like common circus midgets. More than 300 climate scientists are set to be dismissed over the next couple of years. “Climate will be all gone, basically,” one senior scientist told Fairfax as news of the cuts emerged.
Naturally, this caused an immediate reversal of opinion among Australia’s cashed-up climate change community. Suddenly the science wasn’t settled at all. In fact, the science was almost completely unknown! 
(Continue reading Jury Dismissed.)
UPDATE. A butterfly-killing CSIRO researcher has his say.
===

SAVAGERY ON THE MARCH

Tim Blair – Monday, February 08, 2016 (3:11am)

England is basically a third-world country coated with a micron-thin patina of fading civilisation: 
A case of female genital mutilation is reported in England every 109 minutes, official health figures show.
Some 2421 instances of mutilation were reported from April 2015 to September 2015 – the latest full six months of figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. 
Keep in mind that those are only the reported figures. Even so, there are substantially more cases of female genital mutilation in England than there are road deaths. England is gradually approaching Indonesian levels of girl-slashing brutality. 
Experts say the figures, released on the eve of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM on Saturday, are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ …
[Plan UK] chief executive, Tanya Barron, said: ‘FGM has been a hidden danger threatening girls in the UK and around the world – only now is the full scale becoming clear.’
But she warned there were still many ‘unseen, unheard cases’ that didn’t show up in official statistics.
The statistics, which were published monthly but are now released quarterly, show that between July and September last year 1385 cases were reported.
Of those, 758 cases were in London, 227 were in the Midlands and east of England, 245 were in the North of England and 155 were in the South of England. 
Damn those Anglican girl-hating bastards. Reminder: this is happening in the 21st century. Observe also that the Press Association’s report doesn’t offer any reasons why female genital mutilation is increasing in England.
(Via A.R.M. Jones.)
===

GREAT NACHO CRISIS

Tim Blair – Monday, February 08, 2016 (1:47am)

It began with some tasty nacho snacks among friends.
It ended in a full-scale medical emergency involving the hunt for a voodoo curse, a diner’s frightening confrontation with mortality, and the desperate intervention of two ambulance officers.

The terrifying true story of the great nacho crisis will be revealed this week at this site.
Visit if you dare.
===

MIDDLE EAST GOES GLOBAL

Tim Blair – Monday, February 08, 2016 (1:43am)

The arrival in Australia of 50,000 asylum seekers during Labor’s six years of disastrous government – and the deaths of more than 1000 who drowned trying to get here – was a significant factor in the Labor government’s removal.
That was an arrival rate of around 700 per month. To get an idea about the scale of Europe’s current asylum seeker debacle, consider the number of newly-registered Middle Eastern migrants in Germany during January alone.
Last month German authorities registered 92,000 new migrants. This follows the arrival in Germany of more than one million refugees in 2015, including upwards of 200,000 in November. That November figure is more or less the equivalent of Townsville’s total population, all turning up in just four weeks.
Now imagine the numbers arriving across the rest of Europe. The rate isn’t slowing despite the European Union’s comically-titled “action plan” put in place late last year. “This action plan was agreed more than two months ago and we are still not seeing a significant decline in the number of migrants,” European Commissioner Johannes Hahn said last week.
One reason for the continued arrivals is that European governments are still offering substantial incentives to asylum seekers.
(Continue reading Middle East Goes Global.)
===

THEY LIE TO YOU OUT OF IDEOLOGY AND MALICE

Tim Blair – Monday, February 08, 2016 (1:15am)

Milo Yiannopoulos on the gap between leftist mainstream media and the public (language warning):

UPDATE. Further from Milo.
===

Media Watch attacks correct story on Abbott meeting

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (9:54pm)

A particularly pathetic report from the ABC’s Media Watch tonight. It reveals that although the Daily Telegraph reported Tony Abbott having a meeting with Barack Obama at an “exclusive” dinner, the truth is that - er - Tony Abbott met Barack Obama at an exclusive lunch.
The desperation to trash the Telegraph and Abbott is clear. But only straw men are hurt, with the host Paul Barry sternly offering corrections to statements not made. The meeting might actually have lasted as little as minute, gloated Barry, before admitting it could well have been several minutes longer. This “exclusive” and “private” dinner was actually attended by 100 people, frowned Barry, not adding that the attendees were influential and well-connected guests of a powerful influence-broker in what was unquestionably an “exclusive” lunch, and so private that Barry could find only one blurry picture of the guests, as they emerged from the venue.
If Barry had wanted to pounce on real errors and bias in reporting he might well have looked closer to home - the ABC’s peddling of false claims that a five-year-old boy in detention in Nauru was raped. 
===

Ruddock to quit

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (4:01pm)

He did the nation fine service and was viciously abused for it by the media Left:
Philip Ruddock, the father of the House of Representatives, former Howard government Minister and an MP for 43 years is expected to announce his retirement from politics… Mr Ruddock ... developed almost cult status as the Liberal Immigration Minister during the election campaign on border protection in 2001...
===

Crusading ABC must apologise for false story on raped child on Nauru. UPDATE: It does, but fudges

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (2:43pm)

As I said last week:
IF there is one thing our politicians, police and press tend to lie about, it’s refugees.
And I noted this deception:
The misinformation continues. On Tuesday the ABC’s 7.30 reported claims that a five-year-old boy on Nauru had been raped, and there was “a report of a sexual assault every 13 days” in our detention centres, most involving children. 
The ABC report was designed to melt our hearts and open our gates, but nowhere did the ABC disclose whether the paedophiles who’d allegedly attacked these children were themselves boat people. Is that because Australians might not open the gates but lock them?
The ABC was not lying, of course. It was just not telling the whole truth.
But now it turns out that the ABC’s misinformation about this “rape” was even worse than I’d suspected:
The Immigration Department says it has uncovered “no evidence, whatsoever, anywhere” that a five-year-old child was raped on Nauru, savaging the ABC for “advocacy parading as journalism”. 
The report in question, sourced by the ABC’s 7.30 to paediatrician Karen Zwi, alleged last week that “a five-year-old boy who was raped on Nauru and risks being returned to his attacker”. Dr Zwi told the program that the child was “raped on Nauru” and “began to self-harm”.
However the department, in evidence to a Senate committee, today revealed the child in question was more than 10 years’ old and the alleged assault related to “skin-on-skin contact” by another asylum-seeker who was two years older.... Dr Zwi has told the department she did not tell the ABC the child was five years’ old, Ms Moy said.
So the “rape” story was false. Moreover, the alleged “rapist” was another child detainee, aged 12, which explains why the ABC (busily campaigning for freedom for child detainees) did not want to describe the alleged offender.
The ABC has already had to admit it peddled false or highly dubious atrocity stories about our navy “torturing” boat people.
Time it apologised all over again for its uncritical and one-side peddling of this latest untruth.
The ABC should apologise for this report, on 7.30:
KAREN ZWI: This child was actually raped on Nauru, according to the allegation, and obviously for a child, that is an intensely traumatic event… 
SOPHIE SCOTT: Dr Zwi tried and failed to get information from authorities about the rape, but she says its affect on the child was clear.
KAREN ZWI: He actually began to self-harm… SOPHIE SCOTT: This young child is now facing being returned to offshore detention. His alleged attacker is still there.
The ABC should apologise for this report, also on 7.30:
MATT WORDSWORTH, PRESENTER: The fate of more than 90 children, many of them born in Australia to asylum seeker parents, hangs in the balance tonight after a landmark High Court ruling… 
SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP [REPORTER]: Dr Karen Zwi is risking two years’ jail. Her crime: revealing the case of a five-year-old boy who was raped on Nauru and risks being returned to the island where his alleged attacker remains. 
The ABC should apologise for this interview, also on 7.30:
MATT WORDSWORTH: One of the children is a five-year-old boy, as we’ve already heard, that was allegedly raped on Nauru. What are you going to do with his case? 
PETER DUTTON: Well we’re going to look at the case individually. My department has been in contact with the medical provider today. There should, for example, if there is an allegation that’s been made, we want to make sure that the state authority has been notified of that if that’s appropriate…
MATT WORDSWORTH: Dr Zwi - sorry, minister. Dr Zwi told 7.30 last night, “You’d be sending him back to an absolutely traumatic and devastating environment.” That’s a doctor’s opinion. So, surely he can’t go back there.
PETER DUTTON: Well Matt, as I say, there are advocates who have very strong views in relation to this matter…
MATT WORDSWORTH: Are you saying that you’re going to put a sort of a situation where the limited number of people are put in an at best depressing situation and at worst in harm’s way to stop the previous situation, which was perhaps putting at risk people drowning at sea?
The ABC should apologise for this report, on ABC News:
The Government will consider medical advice before deciding whether to deport a five-year-old boy allegedly raped on Nauru back to the Pacific island, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says… The boy could be returned to Nauru, where his alleged attacker remains, after a decision is handed down today by the High Court about the legality of detention on the island.
The ABC should apologise for this report, on The World Today:
The High Court has cleared the way for the government to send 270 asylum seekers, brought to Australia for medical treatment, back to Nauru. They include a 5-year-old boy who is the victim of an alleged rape on the island and 37 babies born in Australia… 
TOM IGGULDEN: The five-year-old is not the only case that has opponents of the policy calling for compassion from the Government...
The ABC should apologise for this report, on the ABC website:
A five-year-old boy who was allegedly raped on Nauru is facing the prospect of being returned to the offshore detention centre where his attacker remains.
A question: why is the ABC so quick to believe atrocity stories about our treatment of boat people?
And another: will every ABC program which reported the false rape claim also report the correction?
UPDATE
I missed another report for which the ABC should apologise. Lateline also reported the fake claim:
EMMA ALBERICI: Is the five-year-old boy who was allegedly raped on Nauru among those likely to be transferred back to Nauru from Australia? 
PETER DUTTON: Well Emma, the approach that the Government’s - that we’ve taken note and consistently is that if there are allegations that are being made, we want those allegations to be properly investigated, because like any Australian, I won’t tolerate any thought of people being, in particular children being, abused by other refugees, by people otherwise, and obviously ...
EMMA ALBERICI: I’m sorry ‘cause we will run out of time. I am so sorry to interrupt you.
PETER DUTTON: Sure. EMMA ALBERICI: But to the question, obviously that case is still open, but he is here in Australia. Paediatricians have told the ABC he’s seriously traumatised and the worst thing that could happen to this boy is being sent back to Nauru. Will you take that into consideration? 
Lateline, too, should report that this claim has been proved fake.
UPDATE
The ABC admits an error, but serious questions remain:
Our source, the treating doctor told our reporters about two cases. One was an older child. The doctor stands by her statement that this child was allegedly raped on Nauru. 
She also told our reporters about another of her patients, a five-year-old old who was allegedly sexually assaulted on Nauru. Our story incorrectly used quotes about the older child in referring to the younger child. In addition, on at least one occasion the incident was referred to as a rape instead of an alleged rape. ABC News apologises for the errors and confusion. 
The questions:
The Immigration Department insists the 10 year old was not raped. How can the ABC stand by that claim?
The Immigration Department says the 10 year old was allegedly given “skin on skin contact” - whatever that is - by another child detainee. Why did the ABC withhold the identity of the alleged attacker? Did it withhold that information to avoid damaging its campaign to get children out of detention?
Why did the source of the ABC’s misreported claims, Karen Zwi, not issue a public correction as soon as the mistake was aired by the ABC?
What evidence does the ABC have to substantiate the claim that a five year old was also sexually assaulted? What was the nature of this “sexual assault”?
What steps did the ABC take to verify its false claims that a five year old was raped?
What steps has the ABC taken to verify its amended claim that a five year old was sexually assaulted?
What steps has the ABC taken to verify its amended claim that a 10 year old was sexually assaulted, given the Immigration Department’s denial?
Will each of the ABC outlets which publicised the false claim also issue the correction?
Does the ABC’s record of believing implausible and incorrect claims of atrocities committed against boat people being detained reflect an institutional bias?
(Thanks to reader CalJ.) 
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The Human Rights Commission’s justice of the pointed finger

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (10:12am)

The Human Rights Commission looks too much like a star chamber, with minimal interest in the innocence of those accused of crimes against Good Thoughts.
And the Racial Discrimination Act looks, of course, like an instrument of oppression and menace to free speech:
A jobless Queensland student in a racial vilification row has criticised the Australian Human Rights Commission for failing to alert him to a complaint, resulting in its escalation to the Federal Circuit Court as a fresh “18C case” with damaging ramifications. 
Jackson Powell is one of the students named by Queensland University of Technology administration officer Cindy Prior in her newly filed $247,470 claim.
She says in her claim that she asked three students whether they were indigenous when they wanted to access computers that were not being used in QUT’s Oodgeroo Unit in May 2013.
Ms Prior, who is indigenous, ­refused to let the non-indigenous students use the unit’s computer lab at QUT’s Gardens Point campus near state parliament, leading to Facebook posts by students, ­including Mr Powell. Several stud­ents mocked the refusal, calling it racial segregation.
Mr Powell said he was trying to make an ironic point when he wrote: “I wonder where the white supremacist ­computer lab is.”
Ms Prior alleges in her racial vilification case in the Federal ­Circuit Court that the Facebook posts and the related actions of QUT and its staff have caused her hurt and psychiatric injury and stopped her from working for two years. But Mr Powell reveals in his affidavit that the AHRC had never alerted him to Ms Prior’s initial complaint or to a conciliation meeting in July last year.
The AHRC has a legal duty to inquire into all complaints which it accepts and to attempt to conciliate them. If the commission determines that the complaints cannot be resolved, they are given a green light to advance in the courts…
Mr Powell’s lawyer, Tony ­Morris QC, will argue that the commission, headed by Gillian Triggs, had “improperly and ­unlawfully” mismanaged the complaint and the conciliation, resulting in significant stress, cost and reputational damage…

Ms Triggs said last night she could not comment on the individual case but “generally, the commission notifies all respondents about complaints made against them to gain their version of the facts and to invite participation in conciliation wherever appropriate”. “There will be times however when this is not possible,” she said. 
Would a real court allow a trial of someone who has not even been told of the charges against them? 
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Don’t bring them here. Help them there

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (9:17am)

FOR once, refugee activists are right, or sort of. We have bungled our aid to Syrian refugees.
The activists are angry Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has donated “just” $25 million to a United Nations appeal to help Syrians caught up in the civil war or fleeing it.
“Extraordinarily low,” snapped deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek.
“We have to lift our game,” the Australian Council for International Development agreed.
Oxfam and Care Australia back demands that we lift our donation by more than $100 million.
And guess what? They have a point.
(Read full column here.) 
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Another dud warming prediction: crops boom and food prices fall

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (9:09am)

Global warming - dud predictions

Where are the warming catastrophists now? Global warming is giving us booming crops and cheap food:
World food prices fell to almost a seven-year low at the start of the year on the back of sharp declines in commodities, particularly sugar, according to the latest data from the United Nations (UN). 
The Food Price Index, published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), ... tracks international market prices for five key commodity groups—major cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat and sugar – on a monthly basis…
The main factors underlying the lingering decline in basic food commodity prices are ”the generally ample agricultural supply conditions, a slowing global economy, and the strengthening of the U.S. dollar,” the FAO noted… Signaling no let-up in production, the food agency raised its forecasts for worldwide cereal crops in 2016. “As a result of the upgraded production and downgraded consumption forecasts, world cereal stocks are set to end the 2016 seasons at 642 million tons, higher than they began,” the agency noted.
This season’s predicted grain harvest is close to the record set last year, despite a strong El Nino:
With large harvests of wheat, barley and sorghum more than outweighed by a drop in the maize crop, world total grains (wheat and coarse grains) production in 2015/16 is estimated to be down by 2% y/y. However, because of large opening stocks, overall supply nearly matches the previous year’s record. 
This is the exactly opposite of what the warmists warned, and which journalists of the ABC and other Leftist outlets repeated without question :
Mark Rosegrant, International Food Policy Research Institute , February 2013:
FRAN Kelly [ABC host]: Dramatic falls in staple crop production, and a jump in malnutrition are predicted across the Asia Pacific in coming decades due to climate change. . . (Dr Mark Rosegrant) . . . according to your research which crops would be most affected? Rosegrant: We’re finding that the key staples of rice, wheat and maize are going to have very large declines through most of Asia—anywhere from 15 to 25 per cent compared to a no-climate-change scenario.
Professor Ian Lowe, president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, December 2012: 
For example, the United Nations food agency has warned that it will be less and less likely that we can feed the human population if climate change continues on its present trajectory. 
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001: 
Acute water shortage conditions combined with thermal stress should adversely affect wheat and, more severely, rice productivity in India even under the positive effects of elevated CO2 in the future. 
German Advisory Council on Global Change, 2007:
The Climate Change as a Security Risk report by the German Advisory Council on Global Change called on governments meeting this week at the climate change conference in Bali to adopt deep emissions cuts to avert disaster.... According to the report… India, Pakistan and Bangladesh could see falls in wheat and rice yields as the monsoon changes.
David Lobell, Stanford University, 2008:
Impoverished farmers in South Asia and southern Africa could face growing food shortages due to climate change within just 20 years, a new study says… 
“The majority of the world’s one billion poor depend on agriculture for their livelihoods,” said the lead author of the new study, David Lobell of Stanford University. “Unfortunately, agriculture is also the human enterprise most vulnerable to changes in climate.”
Elizabeth Ainsworth, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2008:
Rice is arguably the world’s most important food source and helps feed about half the globe’s people. But yields in many areas will drop as the globe warms in future years, a review of studies on rice and climate change suggests. 
...when the evidence from some 80 different studies is combined, the outlook is bleak, says Elizabeth Ainsworth of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Green activist  Cameron Scott :
Most major political shifts are caused at least in part by economic pressures. Food prices are now at an all-time high. Those prices have, according to a wide range of analysts, contributed to the political revolts first in Tunisia and now in Egypt… But here’s the kicker: Food prices aren’t just some arbitrary economic statistic. They measure (inversely) the planet’s success at sustaining its human population. And right now, it’s not doing so well. The reason? Erratic weather spurred by climate change. 
(Thanks to reader Mark M.) 
===

If Muhammad is “the Prophet” to the BBC why is Christ not “the Saviour”?

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (8:53am)

So when will the BBC style guide decree that Christ should at first mention be referred to as “the Saviour Christ”, and either “Christ” or “the Savior” at second reference?
Or do double standards apply?
Journalists at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) should refer to the Islamic prophet, Mohammed, as “the Prophet”, according to the corporation’s in-house style guide. Under the section labelled “Muhammad”, the guide says: “For the founder of Islam, our style is the Prophet Muhammad; at second reference Muhammad or the Prophet. 
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.) 
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Julian Assange and the very fashionable diplomacy of Ms Julie Bishop

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (8:18am)

Julie Bishop’s period as Foreign Minister is distinguished by her attention to fashion shows, fashionable parties and fashionable causes, at least among the Left.
For instance:
FOREIGN Minister and unofficial fashion ambassador Julie Bishop has been splashed across Instagram partying in New York with the beautiful people at an exclusive invitation-only rooftop lounge. 
Currently in the USA to promote Australian innovation, the glamorous MP was snapped with the ‘it’ crowd of A-list models and socialites at New York City’s Top of the Standard… Ms Bishop jumped from the fashion world to Hollywood for the Tourism Australia launch of its new campaign which has enlisted Hollywood A-lister Chris Hemsworth to sell the nation to the world.
And:
DFAT sponsored five Australian designers to attend the Paris Fashion Week… Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australian diplomats had also hosted industry events in New York, London, Paris, Istanbul, Jakarta and New Delhi to advance global recognition. 
Ms Bishop has routinely used the #fashiondiplomacy hashtag on social media to publicise department and industry initiatives, including the opening of fashion events in Sydney… At the opening of a fashion event in Sydney last month, Ms Bishop said she had embraced fashion diplomacy as a pillar of foreign policy under the umbrella of economic diplomacy.
Where’s her #coaldiplomacy and #ironorediplomacy hashtags?

Still, it gives Bishop acres of coverage in social pages:
But personally helping Julian Assange goes too far:
Help from the very top for Julian ­Assange. AAP, Saturday: 
Julie Bishop has offered the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, consular assistance and is seeking legal advice about the implications of a UN panel ruling that the UK and Sweden caused him to be arbitrarily detained… Bishop met members of Assange’s legal team in London on Thursday.
Three views of the man from left-leaning publications. Oliver Kamm, Prospect, February 5: 
Julian Assange is ... holed up in the ­Ecuadorean embassy not because he’s a whistleblower but because he skipped bail rather than answer allegations of rape and sexual assault ... Assange is confined not by the mighty state apparatus of Sweden or the UK but by his own volition and caprice ... At every stage in his campaign, ­Assange has sought to evade the rule of law and frustrate the exercise of due process ... The case of those women he’s alleged to have assaulted and raped has meanwhile never been heard … The moral evasions offered by Assange’s dwindling fan base have become increasingly bizarre … Craig Murray, a former diplomat … claims that the charges ... are founded on political correctness … The spirit of ­Assange’s campaign is misogyny ... Its methods are conspiracy theories ... contempt for due process ... (and) heaping calumnies on his alleged victims. What a man, what a cause — and what a disgrace.
Joshua Rozenberg, The Guardian, Saturday:
Assange was detained pending possible extradition. If his detention had been arbitrary he could not have challenged it, and been released on bail. But that was not what happened. The ... years he has spent as a fugitive from justice cannot affect the lawfulness of his original imprisonment.
Marina Hyde, also from Saturday’s The Guardian:
The right to insufferable superiority is not specifically enshrined in the UN declaration — and yet it continues to be extended to Julian Assange … It is notable ... that the higher he has gone in his “quest for justice”, the smaller he has looked … He can issue limitless portentous statements, and declaim from all the Juliet balconies he likes, but for my money he looks more and more like just another guy failing to face up to a rape allegation.
But Assange’s legal team are delighted with Bishop:
The team made an informal request for consular assistance in person to Australia’s foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop… 
Mr Assange’s Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson ... said she had had a “very positive” meeting on Thursday with Ms Bishop, who was “very open” to their requests.
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Turnbull breaks his big promise

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (7:31am)

 LIBERAL MPs are losing confidence in Malcolm Turnbull, and no wonder.
He has broken the big promise he made five months ago.
“Prime Minister (Tony Abbott) has not been capable in providing the economic leadership our nation needs,” he thundered when he knifed Abbott last September.
“We need a style of leadership that explains those challenges ... and sets out the course of action we believe we should take and makes a case for it. We need advocacy, not slogans.”
But in the five months since, Turnbull has failed to deliver.
Where is his “economic leadership”? His “advocacy”?
Is Turnbull going to raise the GST to 15 per cent or not?
Is he going to cut more spending? Raise taxes overall? Reform workplace laws?
No one knows.
Until last week, it seemed Turnbull would indeed raise the GST and use some of that extra money to cut taxes, as Treasurer Scott Morrison repeatedly hinted.
(Read full column here.) 
===

What would Turnbull actually fight for?  UPDATES: Weatherill whacks

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (7:26am)

There is a wider question to ask as Malcolm Turnbull retreats on tax reform. What policy would he actually fight fight for to the death? What are his core beliefs - ones on which he’d stake his career?
We already know he won’t fight for a republic, same sex marriage, global warming, reform of the 18c restriction on free speech, spending cuts, labour-market reform or a higher GST.
Never mind that four of the seven are actually misguided policies or already half won by others. The point is that Turnbull suggested or hinted he’d fight for all seven but now won’t for any.
His latest retreat will cost him credibility.
David Crowe:
Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have been so wary of making the case for substantial tax reform that they now find the opportunity for change is slipping through their fingers. 
Turnbull told voters in September that the government needed a new leader because the old one, Tony Abbott, was not explaining the “challenges and opportunities” facing the nation. Now the Prime Minister’s retreat on tax reform suggests he is having the same problem.
Actually, Abbott did explain the challenges of mounting deficits. Turnbull has not done even that.
Paul Kelly, with more faith in the GST reform that I have:
He is creating a serious policy dilemma for his government by signalling his rejection of the GST option. Put simply, where does the growth dividend he badly needs come from once ambitious tax reform is rejected? 
The Coalition is likely to win this year’s election on a big vote with a small mandate. That means short-term kudos and long-run frustration. Consider the Coalition’s record since the 2013 election: it won’t run on major new budget savings on grounds of unpopularity; it is gun-shy on significant labour-market reform and Turnbull is now killing off the idea of GST-led tax reform for many years.
Henry Ergas:
You may well ask why the government ever floated the idea of raising the GST, given that by far the best tax reform would be bringing public expenditure under control. 
After all, if long-term spending obligations continue to increase at a rate that exceeds trend growth in national income, changing the clippers the taxman uses to fleece us will do nothing to stem that rise or reduce its economic costs. But instead of advancing ­reforms that would put health, education, social security and ­defence outlays on a fiscally sustainable basis, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have allowed the discussion to be hijacked by the tax addicts, who want the Coalition to cop the pain involved in raising revenues for the next Labor government to squander.
Fairfax’s Peter Martin:
Of all the questionable claims in the tax debate, the biggest is that it’s been a debate… Even the Treasurer Scott Morrison hasn’t made the case, apart from to say that pushing up the GST would be a bit like turning back boats, and that if the proceeds were used to cut income tax, fewer people would suffer bracket creep.
Business Council Of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott:
I am concerned that tax reform runs the risk of being the latest victim of Australia’s dysfunctional political debate, and every single Australian will be the loser as living standards decline.
UPDATE
There are two big losers from Turnbull’s retreat from the GST rise he’s toyed with for months.
The first is Treasurer Scott Morrison, who Turnbull encouraged for far too long to push a tax rise that never made sense. Morrison’s credibility and air of ruthless competence have been badly damaged.
The second is South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, who was encouraged to defy the wrath of his Labor colleagues to back the tax rise that Turnbull has now trashed.
Weatherill, unlike Morrison, is not holding taking this lying down, and unloads on Turnbull big time:
AUSTRALIANS were promised a mature debate by the Prime Minister, but it now appears even he is not capable of having a debate that addresses both national revenue and expenditure together… It’s infantile.... The Prime Minister’s comments on tax are self-contradictory… It’s glib, it’s blame-shifting and it’s the opposite of taking responsibility and demonstrating the leadership that he promised.... 
The Prime Minister’s lectures on fiscal responsibility are also a bit hard to take. His Government, despite all the cuts, has increased the deficit.... After softening up the public for months on the GST the Prime Minister has now gone to water.  
===

A minister promoting a mate is still a minister

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (7:10am)

It is ludicrous to suggest that a minister trying to impress Chinese officials in his spare time for a mate isn’t really a minister. Did the Chinese officials think he was there as just some private citizen?:
Human Services Minister Stuart Robert told the Herald Sun he was acting in a “private capacity” when he attended a signing ceremony with Nimrod Resources’s Paul Marks and high-ranking Communist Party ­officials who run Chinese Government-owned company Minmetals. 
Mr Robert has previously said Mr Marks was a “close personal friend” and he’d bought shares in two of the Melbourne millionaire’s companies.
Mr Marks has also donated $2 million to the Liberals in the past two ­financial years…
Minmetals’s website says that at the August 18, 2014, event in Beijing, Mr Robert, then assistant defence minister, spoke “on behalf of the Australian Department of Defence”.
It says he presented to a senior Communist Party official “a medal” bestowed by the prime minister.

“He expressed his full confidence in this co-operation ... adding that the good relationship between Nimrod and the Australian government will effectively promote the success of the co-operation,” the website says.
The minister’s office said: “Mr Robert was on approved leave and ­attended in a private capacity.” Ministerial Standards state: “It is critical that Ministers do not use public office for private purposes.”
If Minmetals is quoting Robert correctly, how could Robert possibly argue that his intervention for a mate and donor would not seem to have the weight of the then Abbott Government behind it?
If Robert was just there “in a private capacity” and not as a minister why was he making speeches at all? On what basis did he speak? How was he introduced? 
===

Rubio stumbles

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (7:08am)

There is a difference between being on-message and being a broken record. It’s the difference that suggests you don’t actually have the experience or the wit to think beyond some slogans:
 This was devastating. FOX News put together a montage of Marco Rubio’s rehearsed Obama line at tonight’s GOP Debate. Marco used the same rehearsed line about 5 times at debate.Even after Governor Christie called him out on it he couldn’t stop repeating it. It was like listening to a scratched record.
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Palmer falls, but remember the ABC’s role in his rise

Andrew Bolt February 08 2016 (7:02am)

As Clive Palmer sinks, and his workers lose their entitlements, remember which media outlet promoted him for so long.
Chris Kenny:
It has become the regular date night of the nation’s political debate, Clive Palmer joining Tony Jones on Lateline. “Well we don’t want to give you all the headlines in one night, Tony,” said Palmer in April, 2013. “We want to come back — even though you’re the best journalist in Australia.” 
And he did come back, the dating continued again and again…
Truth was that Palmer got an easy ride from the ABC. He was an irritant on the conservative side of politics, a breakaway whose barbs were indulged rather than questioned. And the self-declared billionaire portrayed himself as a victim of the evil Murdoch empire. He even claimed green credentials by staging a photo op with Al Gore. So by hurting Tony Abbott, attacking Rupert Murdoch and pretending to save the planet, Palmer endeared himself to Auntie, even though he was a former National Party operative and would-be coal magnate who had fallen out with the Queensland LNP because it wouldn’t do his commercial bidding. Late in 2013 The Australian’s Gold Walkley-winning journalist Hedley Thomas became frustrated. He was reporting on holes in Palmer’s claims and problems in his business empire, yet watched the Palmer United Party founder and leader sail through ABC interviews where he wasn’t pressed. “While spruiking his madcap plans to stimulate the economy, he was not asked to explain anything of his own apparent failure to currently operate any profitable business in Queensland (his nickel refinery in Townsville and resort at Coolum seem to be sinking like the Titanic),” wrote a prescient Thomas, detailing his annoyance. It was as though the ABC interviewers hadn’t even read Thomas’s reports. Instead, Palmer sat ... at Mark Scott’s table at the Parliamentary Press Gallery’s Midwinter Ball. 
It really amounted to no more than this: any enemy of Abbott was a friend of the ABC’s.
The ABC is too bloated and too biased. It is out of control. It is now a threat to democracy and debate.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

It’s a decisive time for Prime Minister Tony Abbott

Piers Akerman – Saturday, February 07, 2015 (11:50pm)

TONY Abbott’s political life is on a knife edge. 
 Continue reading 'It’s a decisive time for Prime Minister Tony Abbott'
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Why the Jitterati need to stick with the PM

Miranda Devine – Saturday, February 07, 2015 (11:52pm)

ONE of the tragedies of Tony Abbott’s current predicament is that if he’d had a Peter Costello as treasurer and an Arthur Sinodinos as chief of staff he could have been riding high. 
 Continue reading 'Why the Jitterati need to stick with the PM'
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ABC quotes some pet troll to attack Abbott

Andrew Bolt February 08 2015 (7:14pm)

How low can the ABC go? In tonight’s main TV news bulletin it quoted anonymous twitter abuse of Tony Abbott by someone known only as “JS”.
No one knows who this anonymous person is, or why their opinion is worth more than that of any other Australian. The reporter just fished the comment out of the sewer to attack Abbott.
Would the ABC have ever quoted anonymous Twitter abuse of Julia Gillard?
This is not reporting but editorialising by proxy. 
===

Turnbull vs Abbott - which is the more likely to change?

Andrew Bolt February 08 2015 (4:43pm)

How Malcolm Turnbull could lead the Liberals to victory: by being less like the real Malcolm Turnbull. You know - arrogant, headstrong, contemptuous of critics, embarrassed by the Liberal base.
How Tony Abbott could lead the Liberals to victory: by being more like the real Tony Abbott. You know - humble, honest, respectful of critics, loyal to the Liberal base.
Which is more likely?
More on this in tomorrow’s column. 
===

The polls six years ago also said Turnbull was more popular than Abbott

Andrew Bolt February 08 2015 (4:03pm)

Remember when the polls last warned the Liberals not to choose the “unelectable” Tony Abbott.
It was 2009:
The parliamentary members of the Liberal Party had just chosen to elect a leader that most of them considered to be unelectable. 
Now they had replaced Turnbull, a man nominated as preferred Liberal leader by 32 per cent of voters in the Herald’s Nielsen poll, with a man preferred by only 20 per cent.
The polls would have had the Liberals stick with a leader who’d destroy them.
And note: at least Abbott had the guts then to resign and put his job on the line before challenging:
MP Sophie Mirabella’s resignation followed senior Liberal Tony Abbott’s decision to resign from the shadow ministry, sparking a new round of leadership speculation.
===

Compare Abbott’s “captain’s call” to Turnbull’s

Andrew Bolt February 08 2015 (3:41pm)

Tony Abbott makes a perfectly understandable call - to hold the vote to spill leadership positions tomorrow rather than Tuesday, so Labor doesn’t make the government a laughing stock in Parliament.
Malcolm Turnbull jeers:
It is the Prime Minister’s decision to hold the meeting on Tuesday — he’s the Prime Minister he’s made a captains call and changed the date of the meeting…
But Malcolm Turnbull made his own captain’s call as Liberal leader in 2009:
At the close of business last night, asked whether a majority of his colleagues opposed the deal with the Government on emissions trading, Turnbull responded: ’‘I’m the leader, I’ve made the call.” 
Abbott’s captain’s call saves the Liberals embarrassment. Turnbull’s captain’s call would have destroyed the Liberals - and cost the country millions.
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.) 
===

Turnbull calls for secret ballot. Makes clear he will stand. Mocks Abbott

Andrew Bolt February 08 2015 (7:59am)

Malcolm Turnbull calls for a secret ballot on the leadership spill. This - incidentally - means there is no way of checking whether ministers do what the rules say they must and vote against a spill.
Turnbull also doesn’t want the spill motion brought forward to tomorrow. This - incidentally - means Tony Abbott would be left a sitting duck in Parliament and vulnerable to the Newspoll expected on Tuesday. [NOTE: Newspoll is being brought forward to tomorrow, in The Australian.]
But Turnbull still won’t resign and announce a challenge.
UPDATE
Abbott brings forward the spill motion to tomorrow.
Next challenge: to ensure there’s a vote in which ministers are seen to fulfill their duty to vote against a spill.
UPDATE
Turnbull, to shore up support, makes clear this morning he will stand for election as leader if the spill motion is passed. He does this by noting even ministers are free to stand for election as leader if the spill motion tomorrow is passed, and he is ringing colleagues.
He mocks Abbott’s decision to move the ballot to tomorrow as another “captain’s call”.
Given Turnbull doesn’t want to be seen as a plotter, his comments suggest he feels he needs more votes on his side.
That said, it is noticeable that Abbott has been given very little public support by female frontbenchers and members of the Mitch Fifield/Kelly O’Dwyer grouping.
UPDATE
Now Turnbull goes for a stroll in the street with Julie Bishop at a fundraiser. Side by side.
UPDATE
I’m told I’m unfair to single out Fifield and co. Many others are in the same boat. 
===

Galaxy poll: Turnbull still wouldn’t lead Liberals to a win

Andrew Bolt February 08 2015 (6:01am)

This confuses the picture for Liberals considering a switch to Malcolm Turnbull, thinking he’s their savior:
An exclusive Galaxy poll shows Mr Turnbull as prime minister would probably save the Liberal party seats, but would not guarantee them an election win… 
(T)he poll found 55 per cent of voters thought the Prime Minister should stand down… [and] 35 per cent ... believe Mr Abbott should stay on. 
But the poll also found the Coalition would still trail Labor even if Mr Turnbull was installed as Australia’s 29th prime minister ... with a 49:51 two-party preferred vote…
Support for the Prime Minister remained ­unchanged from last week’s Galaxy poll and would deliver a crushing 57:43 Labor victory if an election was held now… The two-party preferred vote if [Julie] Bishop was leader was 53:47.
Of course, this poll puts a hypothetical and is only the roughest of guides.
But consider: it measures Turnbull when he’s at his mint-fresh best and Abbott after his cripplingly worst week as PM. But it suggests Turnbull would still put the Liberals behind Labor (and therefore can’t expect much of a honeymoon before the onslaught) and that Abbott has been strong enough this past week not to let the destabilisation destroy him.
And then there’s Bishop. Could Turnbull be gazumped?

So is this a sign of Turnbull getting nervous, or of yet more misinformation? From Sam Maiden and Simon Benson:
MALCOLM Turnbull is prepared to serve as treasurer — if asked — to avert a divisive leadership spill… 
But it would mean Tony Abbott cutting loose his friend Joe ­Hockey, whom colleagues believe has failed to sell the Budget....
A source close to Mr ­Turnbull said that as of last week he was prepared to cut a deal for the Treasury portfolio and as of late Friday night, it was still a live option.
“That is still an option available to the PM,” a source close to Mr Turnbull said. “It could be the ­circuit-breaker.” 
Turnbull replacing Hockey would seem a no-brainer for many in the Abbott camp, especially if it guarantees some peace for a while.  Turnbull would probably be better in the job and the move could be sold as a convincing sign of unity after all this destruction. But it would be high stakes for Turnbull. Success in the job would make him the natural successor to Abbott, but would delay that succession, too. Failure could bring him down and open the way for the next generation - a Scott Morrison, say.
But is this just an attempt to split Abbott from Hockey, one of his big defenders?
UPDATE
If Turnbull or Bishop are truly serious about needing to replace Abbott they should resign their positions and announce a challenge. Staying on as ministers requires them to vote against the leadership spill and also suggests they aren’t quite sure or serious enough to risk their jobs.
Signs of panic:
Worried Liberals are urging Malcolm Turnbull to declare his intention to challenge Tony Abbott before Tuesday’s proposed leadership spill, to give the party a clear choice between staying with the Prime Minister or opting for a new direction. 
“Malcolm needs to step forward, sending out hints isn’t going to cut it when the stakes for everyone else are this high,” said one MP…
“We could be going through all of this for nothing,” said one MP, who complained it was impossible to count the numbers in the absence of a candidate. “What’s the plan, just to leave Tony more wounded?” said another, “that’s crazy, and it won’t go down well with members.” 
UPDATE

Many Liberal MPs will surely have been left a little uneasy by footage in last night’s news bulletins of a brusque Lucy Turnbull shutting the great iron gates of Turnbull’s massive Point Piper mansion and telling reporters to go away. How would the Turnbulls go in campaigning in the critical western Sydney marginal seats?
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Paul.)     
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Conservative commentators have backed a principle, not a side

Andrew Bolt February 08 2015 (5:30am)

Judith Sloan says Tony Abbott shouldn’t feel betrayed by conservative commentators who don’t cheer Liberals as Leftist commentators cheer Labor:
(N)o matter how bad the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government was, the friendly press gallery and its mates in the ABC/Fairfax never really had a rude word to say about their policies… 
[W]ho can’t remember [Laura Tingle’s] endorsement of Gillard’s Medicare Gold policy at the 2004 election as an idea of pure genius that was likely to lead to Labor winning the election?
And who also can’t remember the Press Gallery’s unqualified endorsement of Labor’s carbon tax package...?
And then there was the almost hysterical endorsement of Gonski even though none of the political journalists had the faintest clue of how it would work…
Of course, the [allegedly pro-Liberal] ‘friends’ in the press of which I am thinking quite rightly don’t regard themselves as ‘friends’, but rather as defenders of good policy, small government, freedom of speech, freedom of contract and the like.
Any party that delivers good policy along these lines is fine by them. They do belong to a tribe, it’s just that the tribe is not defined as Labor or Liberal. I’m not sure this is a point that the Liberal Party quite understands.
There is no doubt that very many commentators (and Coalition supporters) peeled away when Abbott cowardly backed away from his promise to amend 18C… When it is illegal to offend someone, we are in real trouble when it comes to civil liberties in this country.
And what was all that rhetoric about the Budget (and the ongoing ludicrous claim that the Coalition has shaved some $170 billion off Labor debt – hmmm)? The Budget settings were as soft as blancmange but Hockey seemed to be happy with the description that it was tough … again, hmmm…
GP co-payments could have been sold, but in the context of the ridiculous Future Medical Research Future Fund … again, more peeling off of commentators. Higher education reforms – too complex…
(T)here is no sense that Abbott and his team should feel betrayed by commentators in the press. They always knew that that very many [leftists] in the commentariat would never be impressed, irrespective of the policies… But the other commentators have just been looking for principles-based policies and clear explanations… If Tony is looking for people to blame for his current predicament , just don’t go looking at your ‘friends’ in the press.
But Peter of Bellevue Hills objects:
To be fair, has the government blamed its ‘friends’ in the press?  In his NPC address, the PM did touch on one of the most significant media issue facing the government: outlets publishing Labor’s talking points without proper critique: 
I know that whatever we say or do Labor will run a scare campaign – I know that. And ... your job, if I may say so, is not to just run the scare campaign. Your job is to hold all politicians and all political parties to the same standard of accountability.
As you mentioned yesterday, what has been surprising is that the government has ignored the warnings and critiques provided by conservative commentators since its earliest days in office. It has also been quite startling how aggressively the progressive media has co-opted the criticisms of conservative commentators into their attacks on the government.
True, I’ve been surprised - and left feeling a bit guilty - by the hay the ABC gleefully made over my own criticisms. From Media Watch:
And how come the thoughts of one of Murdoch’s scribes then got to be first story on ABC Radio News next morning? 
JOHN LOGAN: Leading this bulletin, right wing commentator Andrew Bolt delivers a jolt to the Prime Minister in the ... continuing row over a knighthood for Prince Philip. — ABC, Radio National, 29th January, 2015
ABC Online also ran Bolt’s jolt as its lead story, while News 24 devoted almost 25 minutes to his comments in just 3 hours between 6 and 9 am. 
I don’t mind attention, but that was simply absurd. 
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People aren't disposable, but some don't value themselves
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I lose .. I fought God .. and surrendered .. to His love
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ISABELLE’S ABC INVESTMENT

Tim Blair – Saturday, February 08, 2014 (5:43am)

Mark Scott this week accepted a $40 cheque from six-year-old Isabelle to help fund his $1.2 billion tax-financed media operation. The ABC’s managing director must now properly invest this windfall. Let’s help him out.
Thank you for voting!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Total Votes: 2,405
Return To PollCreate Your Own Poll 

(Salary calculations based on 46 38-hour weeks per year)
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SOURCES TELL

Tim Blair – Saturday, February 08, 2014 (5:16am)

SMH columnist Mike Carlton’s good points – not history’s longest list – include his appreciation of and contacts within the Royal Australian Navy: 
Here’s what my navy sources tell me about those refugees with the burnt hands. Somewhere north of Christmas Island, a party of sailors from the frigate HMAS Parramatta boarded an Indonesian fishing boat.
Some went below to secure the engine-room and were accosted by angry male passengers who were trying to disable the engine. A scuffle broke out. One man apparently set fire to a fuel-soaked rag. A sailor used pepper spray to subdue them. In the uproar, blinded by the fumes, two panicked asylum seekers grabbed hold of hot engine pipes.
The refugees have another story, but I accept this one. Deliberate torture would be impossible to keep secret in the confines of a naval vessel. Such an episode would have got out eventually. It just didn’t happen. 
Meanwhile, from the it so did happen branch of Australia’s left: 
“It’s time for an Australian investigation into this incident,” the party’s Immigration spokeswoman Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told reporters in Adelaide.
“It is the government’s obsession with secrecy that is tarnishing the navy’s reputation,” she claimed.
“It falls squarely at the feet of Tony Abbott and his Minister.” 
Sarah Hanson-Young is the ideal person to lead that investigation. 
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HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE WITH LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES

Tim Blair – Saturday, February 08, 2014 (4:54am)

The phrase is one fell swoop. Comes from Macbeth, you know.
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HIT AGAIN

Tim Blair – Saturday, February 08, 2014 (3:22am)

CNN’s Piers Morgan endures yet another karmic moment, following his delightful smiting in Melbourne:

Ian Chappell’s five-word summary should serve as an alert to all of Morgan’s interviewees.
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DYNING OUT

Tim Blair – Saturday, February 08, 2014 (1:23am)

Excellent travel advice from Piers Akerman: 
Have a tortilla for me at Mi Tierra in San Antonio. I was once eating there when a woman at the next table collapsed and died.
Then they took my order.
Whatever she didn’t have. 
In other travel news, Mark Steyn will return to Australia this year. Further details shortly. 
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Verballing Johnston

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (12:15pm)

Tony Wright of The Age scoffs at the Defence Minister:
And when confronted with Fairfax’s report of an extensive interview with the asylum seeker who acted as interpreter on the boat in question, and who insisted he’d seen with his own eyes the alleged mistreatment, Senator Johnston dismissed the claims as a ‘’small number of misbehaviours’’.
False. A journalist uses that phrase “a small number of misbehaviours” (from around 3:50 ofthe video) and Johnston repeats the phrase with disdain before telling the journalists to be more careful is using such loaded language:
“Small number of misbehaviours”. Misbehaviours? Let’s be a bit careful about what we say here, please.
(Thanks to reader Barbara.) 
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“Absolutely no evidence” is rather strong

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (11:43am)

Jacqueline Maley in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: 
Gillard was then damaged by historic allegations against her from her time working as a solicitor for the Australian Workers Union. There was absolutely no evidence Gillard had done anything wrong,
Michael Smith in The Australian in December:
On May 15 ... detectives from the major fraud squad visited the Melbourne Magistrates Court to give sworn evidence in an application for a warrant to search and seize documents from Slater & Gordon. Magistrate Lance Martin heard their evidence and duly issued the warrant… Before Martin could issue the warrant, he - not police - had to believe on reasonable grounds that a serious crime had occurred and that the things he specified in the warrant would afford evidence of that crime. 
We know Martin’s warrant directed police to seize all documents held by Slater & Gordon relating to Wilson, Blewitt, Gillard, the AWU Workplace Reform Association (the slush fund) and a property at 1/85 Kerr Street, Fitzroy, bought with the slush fund’s money by Wilson, who attended the auction with Gillard, and put in Blewitt’s name.
The warrant described further evidence: Gillard’s personnel files; her invoices/billings, time sheets and travel records; personnel files in the name of her former secretary; and any record of the exit interview conducted by Peter Gordon with Gillard on September 11, 1995… Martin included documents pertaining to Gillard and the AWU, the conveyance and mortgage file relating to the $150,000 loan advanced to Blewitt for the purchase of 1/85 Kerr Street and deed registers involving the AWU.
By May 17, police had seized the documents set out in the warrant, leaving the Slater & Gordon premises with boxes of material…
On September 2, Victorian Chief Magistrate Peter Lauritsen heard Detective Sergeant Ross Mitchell’s application for the remaining 360 documents to be handed to the custody of police… During the proceedings, Lauritsen granted The Australian’s request for the release of Mitchell’s written application. That document included the details of the search warrant clearly naming Gillard. It closes by saying that, should Wilson make a claim of privilege, police will argue the claim should be rejected because the documents seized from Gillard’s former office “were made in the furtherance of fraud”.
Gillard insists she did nothing wrong. She says she did not know what her boyfriend did with the slush fund she helped him to set up.
Yet for a star it is certainly arguable that Gillard at the very minimum should not have acted as solicitor for her boyfriend, should not have kept her partners in ignorance of that work, and should not have kept the firm’s big client - the AWU - in ignorance of the work she was doing on her boyfriend’s Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.
Also unresolved is the allegation of client Ralph Blewitt that Gillard did not witness his power of attorney in favor of her boyfriend in Blewitt’s presence, used by Wilson to purchase a house for himself with his slush fund’s cash.
Again. Gillard insists she did nothing improper. 
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Corby inspires our tribes of bogans

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (11:37am)

The hullabaloo here over Schapelle Corby’s release on parole should help Indonesians think we really are the barbarians we seemed on her arrest. 
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Putting a ruler through another alarmist

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (11:24am)

Two men armed with a ruler expose the deceit of White House science advisor John Holdren, who presented a wild graph showing runaway warming.
UPDATE
More cheating.
(Thanks to readers Anna C and Barney.) 
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Palmer turns a 650-workers business into a 90-worker one

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (8:59am)

Clive Palmer’s credentials as a man who knows how to run an economy are looking suspect:
THE Sunshine Coast golf resort and dinosaur park controlled by federal politician Clive Palmer was hit with up to 90 job cuts yesterday amid community and staff concerns that the iconic destination will be shut to stem its rising financial losses… 
Insiders said that as many as 90 staff were being made redundant, leaving about 90 people still employed there, compared with more than 650 when Mr Palmer acquired the resort three years ago… Investigations by The Weekend Australian have previously highlighted serious financial problems and mounting losses in Mr Palmer’s key companies and businesses, many of which are not profitable.  
Not what Palmer promised last November:
LEIGH SALES: Let me also ask you: does your Coolum resort in Queensland operate at a profit? 
CLIVE PALMER: No, it’s where I live and where I enjoy myself and that’s - I keep people employed at a great subsidy ‘cause I love the Sunshine Coast and I love spending my money to keep people employed in the greatest state in Australia.
LEIGH SALES: And how long are you prepared to sustain that loss? CLIVE PALMER: Well probably until I die.
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The vanity of the ABC’s apologists

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (8:29am)

Lisa Wilkinson says we pay the ABC to be Left to balance censorious and unnatural Right-wingers:
WILKINSON: If you look at media in this country ... a lot of media that leans towards the Right. So if the ABC balances things a bit, I think that’s a darn good thing.
Glover: That’s not the ABC’s view though ... that’s not the charter, that you’re there to make up for others’ errors, the idea is you’re there in the middle of things, that you’re unbiased. Wilkinson: Which I tend to think is something that leans more towards the Left than to the Right because it’s about free speech, and it’s about natural conversation ...
This is part of the conceit of Leftists to which former ABC host David Marr gave such memorable voice:
The natural culture of journalism is a kind of vaguely soft left inquiry, sceptical of authority. I mean, that’s just the world out of which journalists come.  If they don’t come out of this world, they really can’t be reporters.  I mean, if you are not sceptical of authority – find another job.  You know, just find another job.
Odd thing, though. When I had my own free speech taken away by a court it was to the cheers of the Left. When laws were proposed to puts newspapers under state supervision of “bias”, they were drafted by a Labor Government and again cheered by the Left. When the need was urgent to be sceptical of the authorities who swore the world was warming fast and dangerously, the Left refused to challenge the scare and even howled down those who did.
Fact: the ABC is not funded to “balance” the Right-wing media any more than it is funded to “balance” the Left-wing Fairfax media, SBS,  Guardian Australia, Canberra press gallery, Lisa Wilkinson, Laurie Oakes, The Project, 2UE, FM hosts,, The Conversation, Crikey, The Monthly and the rest.
Fact: if you want a “natural” conversation, go out into our city streets and towns. What you will hear will make the ABC’s obsessions with boat people, same sex marriage and global warming sound most unnatural.
Fact: the Left has not been the defender of free speech but the enemy.
Still, it’s good that the ABC’s apologists are abandoning the deceitful “ABC isn’t biased” stand, and retreating to the “yes but”. 
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Damn that click-bait Blair

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (8:18am)

I don’t know what Tim Blair is paying Owen to be his new publicist, but he’s worth every cent despite his struggles with English:
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Importing this kind of ignorance does not seem wise

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (8:11am)

The question then is how wise we are to import people not just so ignorant about Australia, but so tolerant of grown men marrying girls just 13:
FORCED marriages of underage girls might be commonplace in certain communities in Sydney, according to the NSW Minister for Community Services, Pru Goward, who spoke yesterday following the arrest of a 26-year-old man charged with 25 counts of sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl… 
Police claim the man and child were married in a religious ceremony last month. Appearing in court yesterday speaking through an Arabic-language interpreter, he made no application for bail, which was formally refused… Eman Sharobeem from the Immigrant Women’s Health Service ...  said new-immigrant communities were often ignorant of local laws and customs.
What other “local laws and customs” as fundamental as these are they ignorant of and likely to breach?
Oh, and why this coyness about “certain communities”? Why no mention in the report of Islam?
(Thanks to reader Ian.) 
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Sheridan vs Tingle: claims “foolish”, “untrue”, “infantile” and “almost deranged”

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (7:55am)

I share Greg Sheridan’s astonishment at Laura Tingle’s extraordinary bias, which leads her to write the most ill-informed slop:
The question is whether the political and commentator class is capable of analysing and responding to a policy disagreement between Australia and Indonesia with anything approaching calmness, rationality, balance, a sense of proportion and some basic knowledge. 
By far the most foolish analysis, important only because it is representative, was written by Laura Tingle in The Australian Financial Review. She wrote that: “The Indonesian navy is now not patrolling looking for asylum-seeker boats but for the Australian navy.”
This is completely untrue and was never true at any point.
Tingle went on: “Indonesia watchers also warn of even darker currents. They point out that China has already provided naval patrol assistance to both Fiji and Vanuatu. An overstretched and very pissed-off Indonesia might be prepared to consider also accepting some assistance.” To compare the strategic outlook of Indonesia with that of Vanuatu is almost deranged. But to think that a disagreement with Canberra over boatpeople would lead to a fundamental pro-Chinese strategic realignment by Jakarta, or that sovereignty-obsessed Indonesia would allow the Chinese to take over patrolling duties in its coastal waters, is beyond absurdity. That a senior member of the Canberra press gallery could print such infantile nonsense, which could only emerge from a complete lack of knowledge about anything to do with Indonesia’s strategic culture, demonstrates how extremely ill-equipped many mainstream commentators are to deal with anything related to Indonesia at all. 
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Tim Flannery is as accurate about me as he is about the climate

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (6:57am)

Another false claim from warmist Tim Flannery, who has said so much that turned out wrong:
Flannery says he does not like to talk much about his living arrangements, as the famously temperate broadcaster Ray Hadley revealed the location of Flannery’s house on the Hawkesbury River, and News Ltd’s mild-mannered columnist Andrew Bolt published details of his mortgage.
I have never published details of Flannery’s mortgage and, what’s more, do not know anyone who has, although a  Daily Telegraph reporter once mentioned only that the mortgage on Flannery former home was held by the ANZ Bank . I have no idea how Flannery could even begin to justify that slur, but I have some idea why The Sydney Morning Herald would believe such an unlikely thing and publish it without checking its truth.. 
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Yes, the ABC is biased. But Liberals need more than one contested story to prove it

Andrew Bolt February 08 2014 (6:32am)

There is a danger in basing the case against the ABC’s bias exclusively on the ABC’s eager reporting of the “torture” claims, given those claims cannot be entirely ruled out on the evidence before us.
Rather, the fury of so many Liberals should be explained by making explicit the long history of ABC bias, coupled with the ABC’s extraordinary and dangerous size:
TONY Abbott faces a push from within his cabinet to call a wide-ranging inquiry into the ABC’s editorial standards, after his Defence Minister launched an extraordinary attack on the broadcaster for airing unsubstantiated claims that navy personnel physically abused asylum-seekers. 
Venting his anger, David Johnston accused the ABC yesterday of having “maliciously maligned” the navy and said he was dissatisfied with “weasel words of apology” from senior management.
The minister’s comments ... reflect widespread sentiment in the Abbott government that the ABC’s news and current affairs coverage has a left-wing bias against Coalition policy, and should be reined in.
The Prime Minister shares the concerns of his colleagues about the ABC’s balance, after declaring that it too often took the side of others and not Australia, although he declined yesterday to lend his support to a wider inquiry into standards at the government-funded broadcaster…
Senator Johnston said yesterday he was “absolutely sick to the stomach” that the ABC would attack the navy in the way it had… In a separate interview with The Weekend Australian, Senator Johnston stepped up his attack on the ABC, saying that a review of editorial standards should focus on the organisation’s annual budget, which he believed was “too big”, and its inclination to “make the news” rather than report it.
But to really expose ABC bias, Liberal MPs would have to speak frankly about the ABC’s global warming catastrophism. Are they up for that fight?
UPDATE
Same brawl now in Britain:
THE BBC has a “cultural leaning to the left” and needs to work on its impartiality, a British cabinet minister says. 
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said the BBC did things that were not “right and proper” for a public broadcaster, saying the problems were not just confined to current affairs programs but also affected entertainment shows. “I think there’s still an inclination to cover issues in a way that is very much about the culture of a slightly left-leaning, metropolitan group of people who are disproportionately represented there,” he said.
UPDATE
Yes to inquiry:
Border Protection officials will make fresh inquiries into claims that its sailors deliberately burned the hands of asylum seekers after a witness gave Fairfax Media a detailed account of the alleged abuse.
No to inquiry: 
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that the government had no intention of investigating further the veracity of claims about navy brutality against asylum-seekers ...
UPDATE
Even Mike Carlton: 
So here’s what my navy sources tell me about those refugees with the burnt hands. Somewhere north of Christmas Island, a party of sailors from the frigate HMAS Parramatta boarded an Indonesian fishing boat. 
Some went below to secure the engine-room and were accosted by angry male passengers who were trying to disable the engine. A scuffle broke out. One man apparently set fire to a fuel-soaked rag. A sailor used pepper spray to subdue them. In the uproar, blinded by the fumes, two panicked asylum seekers grabbed hold of hot engine pipes.
(Thanks to readers Leigh, Uncle Quentin and Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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John Butler on, um, how great leaders, you know, er, kind of Green or stuff

Andrew Bolt February 07 2014 (7:56pm)

ABC News 24’s One Plus One seeks the views of musician John Butler on leadership, on the apparent assumption there were insights to gain:
Like all things in life, it’s a balancing act. And, ummm, to be a good leader I think you have to be on the same level as the people that you’re leading. I think the minute you, you, hear of, you there’s a hierarchy that takes place where you can’t be told that you’re being a jerk or that, nah, you’re a bit off, I think you’re wrong, I think this is a bit [sic]. “I don’t think you’re listening to me John, or I don’t feel like I’m being respected or heard”. If I don’t have that kind of two way street of dialogue and respect, I feel that you’re then not being a good leader. 
At the same time, yeah, I am the leader of this thing and I should be – If it’s something I think about, if it’s something I get anxious about and think about too much, is offending people and how to kind of lead in a way that doesn’t disenfranchise people and doesn’t disempower people. But, you know, doesn’t step on their toes. And we live in a country that the the tall poppy [sic]. So like, you know, lead but not too much because then they will hate you. Uumm, ummm, so, you know, I think leadership is an amazing thing. Someone told me the other day, which was really great, a leadership is not being a delegator of all the information. It’s about being a visionary. It’s about having the big ideas and then having the great people around you that you respect and you trust and you [sic] can do things that you can’t do to help dedicate that and help bring that to life.
Hmm. Sounds like a Green. You know, irrational, unformed, undisciplined in thought. Evelating feelings above reason.
But Butler doesn’t like being typecast as the caricature of a Green - you know, like he, um, sort of,like, is:
Jane Hutcheon : In your view in Australia, who is a good leader, who’s a visionary?
John Butler: I think there’s a great senator, a great Greens’ senator called Scott Ludlam, he’s a great visionary. I think people like Tim Winton are great visionaries.
Jane Hutcheon : Any of our politicians?
John Butler: Umm, I think, I think, I think Peter Garrett actually is a very brave and, um, powerful visionary. Somebody who’s, he was happy to put everything on the line in what he believed in. So, I, I, I, admire bravery – and bravery to throw reputation to the wind almost in a way because you believe in a cause. So, um, Christine Milne I think she stands for – I think Bob Brown is great. I mean, I think all the viewers are going to go “Oh classic Greenie” here. But two-party, two-party politics in this country or America is a joke. It’s an absolute joke. I think Labor and Liberal are exactly the same thing and I think Tony Abbott, is, is, is an embarrassment to have as a leader, personally.
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“Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” - Psalm 97:10
In David’s time, God’s focus was on nations and tribes. He still worked with individuals. So the national character was needed to love God as well as the individual. 

As the Psalm opens, 
“The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
    let the distant shores rejoice.
Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
    and consumes his foes on every side.
His lightning lights up the world;
    the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
    before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    and all peoples see his glory.”
But there is a warning
“All who worship images are put to shame,
    those who boast in idols—
    worship him, all you gods!”
And a promise.
“Zion hears and rejoices
    and the villages of Judah are glad
    because of your judgments, Lord.
For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
    you are exalted far above all gods.
Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
    for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
    and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light shines on the righteous
    and joy on the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
    and praise his holy name.”
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

February 7: Morning
"Arise, and depart." - Micah 2:10
The hour is approaching when the message will come to us, as it comes to all--"Arise, and go forth from the home in which thou hast dwelt, from the city in which thou hast done thy business, from thy family, from thy friends. Arise, and take thy last journey." And what know we of the journey? And what know we of the country to which we are bound? A little we have read thereof, and somewhat has been revealed to us by the Spirit; but how little do we know of the realms of the future! We know that there is a black and stormy river called "Death." God bids us cross it, promising to be with us. And, after death, what cometh? What wonder-world will open upon our astonished sight? What scene of glory will be unfolded to our view? No traveller has ever returned to tell. But we know enough of the heavenly land to make us welcome our summons thither with joy and gladness. The journey of death may be dark, but we may go forth on it fearlessly, knowing that God is with us as we walk through the gloomy valley, and therefore we need fear no evil. We shall be departing from all we have known and loved here, but we shall be going to our Father's house--to our Father's home, where Jesus is--to that royal "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." This shall be our last removal, to dwell forever with him we love, in the midst of his people, in the presence of God. Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help thee to press on, and to forget the toil of the way. This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country: this world of woe is but the stepping-stone to a world of bliss.

"Prepare us, Lord, by grace divine,
For thy bright courts on high;
Then bid our spirits rise, and join
The chorus of the sky."
Evening
"And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither." - Revelation 11:12
Without considering these words in their prophetical connection, let us regard them as the invitation of our great Forerunner to his sanctified people. In due time there shall be heard "a great voice from heaven" to every believer, saying, "Come up hither." This should be to the saints the subject of joyful anticipation. Instead of dreading the time when we shall leave this world to go unto the Father, we should be panting for the hour of our emancipation. Our song should be--

"My heart is with him on his throne,
And ill can brook delay;
Each moment listening for the voice,
Rise up and come away.'"

We are not called down to the grave, but up to the skies. Our heaven-born spirits should long for their native air. Yet should the celestial summons be the object of patient waiting. Our God knows best when to bid us "Come up hither." We must not wish to antedate the period of our departure. I know that strong love will make us cry,

"O Lord of Hosts, the waves divide,
And land us all in heaven;"

but patience must have her perfect work. God ordains with accurate wisdom the most fitting time for the redeemed to abide below. Surely, if there could be regrets in heaven, the saints might mourn that they did not live longer here to do more good. Oh, for more sheaves for my Lord's garner! m
ore jewels for his crown! But how, unless there be more work? True, there is the other side of it, that, living so briefly, our sins are the fewer; but oh! when we are fully serving God, and he is giving us to scatter precious seed, and reap a hundredfold, we would even say it is well for us to abide where we are. Whether our Master shall say "go," or "stay," let us be equally well pleased so long as he indulges us with his presence.
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Jehoshaphat 

[Jēhŏsh'aphăt] - jehovah is judge.
1. A recorder during the reigns of David and Solomon (2 Sam. 8:16; 1 Kings 4:3; 1 Chron. 18:15).
2. One of Solomon's purveyors (1 Kings 4:17).
3. A son of Asa, king of Judah, who succeeded his father (1 Kings 15:24; 22).
The Man with a Good Record
Because he carried out the religious reforms of his father, history gives Jehoshaphat a good name. What a beautiful expression that is " . . .he walked in the first ways of his father David" - meaning in the former or earlier ways of David, as contrasted with his later conduct. Because of his godward bent, "the Lord was with Jehoshaphat." Negatively, he "sought not after Baalim."
Here was a man who in every point was equally strong, a man of foresight, a man of reverence, a man of an honest heart, a man who felt that idolatry and true worship could not coexist in the same breast. He did not concern himself with "the doings of Israel." His was a blessed, spiritual singularity. He laid down a clear program for himself, and followed it out with patient and faithful endeavor. He did not seek riches and honor. No wonder the Lord "established the kingdom in his hand"! Points for the preacher to develop are:
I. He was one of the best kings of Judah (1 Kings 15:24).
II. He had a godly father whose example he emulated (2 Chron. 14:2).
III. He developed a system of religious instruction for the people (2 Chron. 17:7-9).
IV. He commanded the judges to be just (2 Chron. 19:6-9).
V. He trusted God for victory in a crisis (2 Chron. 20).
VI. He manifested weakness in his alliance with wicked kings (1 Kings 22:1-36).
4. Son of Nimshi and father of Jehu, who conspired against Joram, son of king Ahab (2 Kings 9:2, 14).
5. One of the priests who assisted in bringing up the Ark from Obed-edom (1 Chron. 15:24). Also the name of a valley east of Jerusalem which figures in coming judgment (Joel 3:2, 12). See also Josaphat.
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Dinah
The Woman Whose Sightseeing Had Fatal Results
Scripture Reference: Genesis 34
Name Meaning: Dinah means "justice" or "one who judges," and was doubtless given her as a token of her parents' belief in divine justice.
Family Connections: She was a daughter of Jacob and Leah, and as a member of a family under covenant blessing should have been more careful regarding her personal obligation in maintaining the honor of her home and nation.
Dinah's love for sight-seeing set off a train of tragic consequences. Young and daring, and curious to know something of the world outside, she stole away one day from the drab tents of her father, to see how the girls in their gorgeous Oriental trappings fared in nearby Shechem. Roaming around, the eyes of Prince Shechem, son of Hamor lighted upon her. He saw her means he lusted after her (see Job 31:1), and then as the record puts it, "he took her, lay with her, and defiled her" (Genesis 34:2 ). Although Dinah's vanity was flattered at Shechem's attention so that she went to his palace, she never meant to go so far. Took her implies he forced her, and although she may have resisted his advances, resistance was futile and she was seduced.
Had Dinah been content to remain a "keeper at home" (Titus 2:5), a terrible massacre would have been averted, but her desire for novelty and forbidden company spelled disaster. Josephus tells us that Dinah went to the Canaanite annual festival of nature worship (Numbers 25:2) - a forbidden association for an Israelite. Sin, shame and death came to Dinah and Shechem through the windows of their eyes and ears (seeGenesis 39:7 ). The young prince offered the usual reparation for his seduction of Dinah - marriage and a payment to her father which was sufficient according to Hebrew law (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). Evidently there was more than lustful desire on the part of Shechem, for we read - "His soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto her." When Hamor went to Jacob and his sons to discuss the matter of marriage between his son and Dinah, he said, "The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter. I pray you give her him to wife."
The sons of Jacob, angry over the shame brought to their sister and nation, said that such a thing "ought not to be done." By what Dinah had become - a seduced woman - she caused her father to be a "stink among the inhabitants of the land."
Seeming to acquiesce in Hamor's suggestion that his son and Dinah should marry and that there should be established a friendlier association between the Israelites and Shechemites, the sons of Jacob, particularly Simeon and Levi, said that they would agree to Hamor's proposition on one condition. The condition was that all the male Shechemites submit to the rite of circumcision - an act of priestly consecration. When the pain of the operation was at its height and movement was difficult, on the third day, Simeon and Levi attacked and slew all the males in the city, including young Shechem himself. For centuries, among the Arabs, seduction was punishable by death, the judgment being generally inflicted by the brothers of the one seduced. For their crime, Simeon and Levi received a curse instead of a blessing from Jacob their father, as he came to die.
One salutary effect of this tragedy was the reconsecration of Jacob who had lapsed somewhat as the result of his settlement near Shechem (Genesis 33:17-20). Remembering his vow to make an altar at Bethel to God who had appeared to him while fleeing from Esau years before, his family surrendered their strange gods and purified themselves, and at Bethel the forgotten covenant was fulfilled. In this way God overruled evil for good (Genesis 35:1-5).
How many young Dinahs there are today captivated by the glitter and glamor of the world, and, tired of life at home, leave without warning, and become lost in the whirl of a large city. There is an alarming increase in the numbers of girls who, anxious for change and wanting to see something of the world, turn aside from the shelter of a good home and are never heard of again. Many of them end up in sin, crime and degradation. May we never cease to pray for those who try to seek out and restore the lost, young womanhood of our day!
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Today's reading: Leviticus 1-3, Matthew 24:1-28 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Leviticus 1-3

The Burnt Offering
1 The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When anyone among you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.
3 "'If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD....

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 24:1-28

The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2"Do you see all these things?" he asked. "Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

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