Tuesday, May 08, 2018

Tue May 8th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. The Australian Federal budget was released today and predictably vested interests in news media continued to slag it. It is not a perfect budget, but a serviceable one. Treasurer Scott Morrison has done what the ALP claimed was impossible, bringing forward the date for a balanced budget. To be fair, were ALP to be in government soon, it would be impossible to balance the budget because of their high spending policy. Government spending is still unsustainably high, partly because ALP block spending cuts in the senate, along with so called independents and Greens. In opposition, ALP and Greens block the same. In government, ALP and Greens are allies. Critics were careful to blame Morrison and not Turnbull. Not long ago, they blamed Hockey too, when Turnbull wanted them to. Turnbull wants AMP leaders to resign for the same reason he should. 

A house was trashed in Melbourne while police looked on. The owner demanded action but the house had been short leased by people who had a party there. I got another related story. In 2016 I went to Melbourne to find work. I have done nothing wrong but cannot work in NSW. I moved to Hallam and shared accommodation with people from Afghanistan and one guy from Mauritius. The Afghan refugees were decent people, but the Mauritian had issues with drugs and had hooked up with a prostitute who was encouraging him to expand his use of drugs. He had been working productively, but when I'd moved in, he'd taken up ice. We got off on the wrong foot when he objected to my belongings being placed in the back yard, as they did not fit into my room. Over the next month, things deteriorated. He was often drunk and abusive. 

That year, 2016, Afghan New Year came with Easter, and the Afghan housemates were away, leaving me alone with the Ice user. The Landlord had had enough, and after the ice user assaulted a former tenant, got police to come to the residence to help evict the tenant. Police intervened saying the ice user, a registered sex offender pedophile they knew, had to stay until a set eviction date. The tenant agreed. But that was Tuesday night. By Friday he'd spent the night in jail, lost his job, assaulted the former tenant etc etc. He threatened to kill me and had me cornered in my room behind a locked door on Good Friday. His daughter refused to see him. As he began irrationally yelling and kicking my door I called emergency. They did not respond and I called the landlord who drove over and waited outside. We called emergency several times over the evening. They responded at 5am after the Ice user had begun to quiet down. They asked me "When he hadn't killed you last night, why did you keep calling?" I explained I was unused to the behaviour.

He had destroyed the lock and door. Police escorted me from the premises as they could not guarantee my safety, or prevent him from assaulting me at will. The landlord, Afghan, let me stay at his place over the weekend. The Ice user vandalised the place over the weekend, writing notes he had caused $200k damage (He hadn't, but it was over $10k and landlord was not insured). Police got special response officers to arrest the ice user on the Tuesday. I was allowed to move back. But police could not hold the Ice user and he broke and entered the broken premises several times in subsequent weeks. That is Dan Andrews Victoria.

I understand police took the view they had to protect the ice user's reputation from it being widely known he was a pedophile. The courts waited a week and then insisted on mediation. They promised a protective order could be made permanent .. they lied. While he was breaking in again, he stayed to shower one morning, 5am. Police came and let him finish his shower. After he finished, he confronted police who said he should go quietly. He went to his room to "collect my stuff" which I think was code for his stash. His prostitute girlfriend walked inside and police ordered her out. He collected some more of his things later we left in his shed so he did not have to break back in again. I believe police were using him as an informant. I saw him six months later on my way to markets. He saw me too. We avoided each other, but passed by a few metres.

I got lucky with a FB friend .. former refugee from Vietnam and family man. I help tutor the kids and pay rent .. heaven.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 Love 

George Herbert (3 April 1593 -- 1 March 1633) was a Welsh poet, orator and Anglican priest. Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education which led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, George Herbert excelled in languages and music. He went to college with the intention of becoming a priest, but his scholarship attracted the attention of King James I/VI. Herbert served in parliament for two years. After the death of King James and at the urging of a friend, Herbert's interest in ordained ministry was renewed. In 1630, in his late thirties he gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as a rector of the little parish of Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton St Andrew, near Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill, and providing food and clothing for those in need. Throughout his life he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits that was favoured by the metaphysical school of poets. Charles Cotton described him as a "soul composed of harmonies". Herbert himself, in a letter to Nicholas Ferrar said of his writings, "they are a picture of spiritual conflicts between God and my soul before I could subject my will to Jesus, my Master" . Some of Herbert's poems have endured as hymns, including "King of Glory, King of Peace" (Praise), "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing" (Antiphon) and "Teach me, my God and King" (The Elixir) . A distant relative is the modern Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert.

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back 
                              Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack 
                             From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
                             If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
                             Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
                             I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
                             Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
                             Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
                             My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
                             So I did sit and eat.




=== from 2017 ===
James Bolt from IPA has highlighted a decision of a committee to laud Australia's Human Rights Council President Gillian Triggs with their Voltaire free speech award. "Gillian Triggs, who last month said "sadly you can say what you like around the kitchen table", on Tuesday received Liberty Victoria's Voltaire Award for her commitment to freedom of speech. As Morgan Begg said in The Spectator Australia today, "by awarding a free speech prize to Triggs, Liberty Victoria not only makes a mockery of Voltaire, but also of themselves."" It would be difficult to find someone less deserving of that award. Who else in Australia has censored free speech of a journalist reporting on an issue of public interest? Who else has destroyed the careers of university students for pointing out segregation is wrong? Who else has hounded a political comic to death? My sister once asked the question, "Who is more free? Children in detention or Andrew Bolt?" Maybe my sister will get that award next year? 

Some things should not happen, but they do. Sophocles had predicted the France Presidential election with his great work, Oedipus Rex. The other weak alternative failed to ignite conservative voters who were not impressed with anti semitism, with protectionist economic policy or extreme right wing ideology. But it was a French election and so it is no surprise that no conservative was in the contest. The winner was Hollande, whose protege takes the reigns after the ruins of last term. Meanwhile in Australia, Mark Latham, former leader of the federal ALP has been booted from it after he joined the Liberal Democrats, a Libertarian mob. Latham is willing to engage in culture wars and stand for smaller government and free speech. It is interesting because Latham is the protege of Gough Whitlam. The Whitlam cult have diverged even from Whitlam's strong left wing position. The new extremist ALP are even further to the left, agonising over an advert where minorities were not represented. An ALP advert. The ALP is the party of choice for minorities wishing to be exploited. 
=== from 2016 ===
I have moved to a good home. I leave behind the ice house. Dan Andrews would rather I lived with an ice addict, and that you should too. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility. 
=== from 2015 ===
World War II ended in Europe on this day in 1945. A war that began as WWI was finished, with a victory that was ruined by compromise and self interest. An incompetent US administration that cared as little for the outcome as it did the loss of US lives in achieving it. Churchill was absent, rehabilitating his career after Gallipoli. Churchill was not doing little, he was instrumental in supporting Poland and stabilising the economies of Europe under the "Ten Year" rule, in which the premise was, war would not be fought in Europe for ten years following WWI. It meant that Herbert Hoover could be contracted as a civil engineer to feed Germany. But angry xenophobes like Hitler flourished in a culture which had become morally loose. But it wasn't loose morals that caused WWII. Britain was entrusted with Palestine, and failed in her duty, for which the world teeters today, because Israel should have it all. As a bloodied and broken Europe welcomed peace again, in 1945, war weary sailors in Halifax began looting. During the war, Halifax's population had doubled, but her services had not. Soon, the UK would elect a Labor Government which would badly run the union. But today, in 2015, it looks like a sensible conservative government will lead, following election. Left wing Scottish Nationals have eaten the heart of British Labor in Scotland, but offer nothing which wasn't already covered by a Labor administration which had said, on leaving government at the last election "There is nothing left in treasury."

In 1946, Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blew up the Soviet memorial which stood in front of the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn. In 1963,  South Vietnamese soldiers of Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diemopen fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis. In 1972, Four Black September terrorists hijacked Sabena Flight 571. Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos recaptured the plane the following day. In 1987, the Loughgall ambush: The SAS killed eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.

In 453 BC, Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeated the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin. In 1516, Trần Cảo Rebellion: A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murdered Emperor Lê Tương Dực and fled, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended. In 1886, Pharmacist John Pemberton first sold a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine. 
From 2014
For the Bolt Report Supporter's Group. I like to foster debate, not abuse. It matters nothing to me if you dislike someone. But if you have something to contribute, that is wonderful. It doesn't matter if you don't agree with me on anything. I am a Christian, conservative and I despise extremism that devalues human dignity. I'm not generally a social conservative. I generally embrace libertarian values and favour secular administration. What I choose to do I choose to do, not because it's the law, but because I try to model my attitudes. Some new members do not know what is expected of them. Recently, my admin team were begged to list rules and codes of behaviour. That is not going to happen. There are rules, but like laws, you have a choice to make and that means what you say and do is more important. You are responsible for your own behaviour. It is too hard to fish people out of the block list, so don't go there. I will block people who are being abusive or bullying. Maybe you find someone who doesn't belong? You can block them, or you can go .. One thing I learned working in one of the world's most successful multi cultural high schools is that a culture of learning is fostered, not enforced. Play to your strengths. I apologise I don't have the time to devote to every thread or individual. But, you are welcome to participate in any and all. The admin team try to find things worthwhile, make yourself known to them. They are busy too, but enjoy fostering the fandom of Andrew Bolt. Phil Box, John Tran, Mandy McLean and Stephanie Carroll are the champions who contribute to making the site great, just like you. 
===
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was a polymath genius. Born 1743, he was rich and well schooled. He became a lawyer, but never practiced. Today, he is remembered as the father of modern chemistry. He was one of the committee of writers who created SI units. And when one is successful, others become jealous. One very bad man was Jean-Paul Marat. Marat was a left wing journalist who denounced Lavoisier as selling adulterated tobacco. Marat was executed soon after by someone who did not sympathise with his rhetoric on human rights, but the smear remained for over a year. On one day, today, in 1794, Lavoisier was branded a traitor, tried, convicted and guillotined. He was guilty of being a genius. 

Another injustice was the Jack Cade rebellion of 1450 against Henry VI. Henry was a weak king and wealthy people got upset at being highly taxed, and losing French Normandy. We don't know much about Jack, who died in the rebellion. The upset rebels went to London and began looting there, just as Occupy protestors do today. The civil war that ensued with Yorkists vying for power with Lancastrians was related to the unrest of such Occupy protests. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 453 BC, Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeated the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin. 413, Emperor Honorius signed an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths. 589, Reccared I summoned the Third Council of Toledo.

In 1450, Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolted against King Henry VI. 1516, Trần Cảo Rebellion: A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murdered Emperor Lê Tương Dực and fled, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended. 1541, Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River and named it Río de Espíritu Santo. 1788, the French Parliament was suspended to be replaced by the creation of forty-seven new courts. 1794, branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotinedall on the same day in Paris.

In 1821, Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeated the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn. 1842, a train derailed and caught fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people. 1846, Mexican–American War: The Battle of Palo Alto – Zachary Taylor defeated a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war. 1861, American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia was named the capital of the Confederate States of America. 1877, At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opened. 1886, Pharmacist John Pemberton first sold a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine. 1898, the first games of the Italian football league system were played. 1899, the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin produced its first play.

In 1901, the Australian Labour Party was established. 1902, in Martinique, Mount Pelée erupted, destroying the town of Saint-Pierreand killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survived the blast. 1912, Paramount Pictures was founded. 1919, Edward George Honey proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of World War I. 1924, the Klaipėda Convention was signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania. 1927, attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappeared after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane. 1933, Mohandas Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.

In 1941, the German Luftwaffe launched a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby
1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The battle marked the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fought without visual contact between warring ships. Also 1942, World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealthsoldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War. 1945, Hundreds of Algerian civilians were killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre. Also 1945, World War II: V-E Day, combat ended in Europe. German forces agreed in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender. Also 1945, end of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic. Also 1945, The Halifax Riotstarted when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampaged through Halifax. 1946, Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blew up the Soviet memorial which stood in front of the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn. 1962, the Rabindra Bharati University, a prominent University in India, was founded. 1963, South Vietnamese soldiers of Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis. 1966, a plane crash at Connellsville, Pennsylvaniakilled Pennsylvania Attorney General, Walter E. Alessandroni, his wife, and other state officials. 1967, the Philippine province of Davao was split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.

In 1970, the Hard Hat Riot occurred in the Wall Street area of New York City as blue-collar construction workers clashed with demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War. 1972, Vietnam War – U.S. President Richard Nixon announced his order to place mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation. Also 1972, Four Black September terrorists hijacked Sabena Flight 571. Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos recaptured the plane the following day. 1973, a 71-day standoffbetween federal authorities and the American Indian Movementmembers occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ended with the surrender of the militants. 1976, the rollercoaster Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain. 1978, the first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.

In 1980, the World Health Organization confirmed the eradication of smallpox. 1984, the Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Also 1984, corporal Denis Lortie entered the Quebec National Assembly and opened fire, killing three and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the assembly, succeeded in calming him, for which he would later receive the Cross of Valour. Also 1984, the Thames Barrier was officially opened. 1987, the Loughgall ambush: The SAS killed eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland. 1988, a fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggered an extended 1AESS network outage once considered the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history". 1997, a China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashed on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.
=== 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 Allan Maurice Taylor, Taylor Rees, Emily Nguyen, Ana Rodas and Carol Lee. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The longer you live, the more you have.
Deaths
Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender
Is a day long enough? Take your medicine. Fly as the wind, but don't disappear. They surrendered. Don't fire. Let's party. 
===
Andrew Bolt 2018

===

It’s black and white - this Green’s got to go

Piers Akerman – Friday, May 08, 2015 (9:39am)

FORMER Greens leader Christine Milne’s decision to quit the senate at the next election was greeted by a chorus of blindingly hypocritical hyperbolically overly polite humbug. The political class was doing what it does best, protecting its own.

 Continue reading 'It’s black and white - this Green’s got to go'
===

UK ELECTIONS 2015

Tim Blair – Friday, May 08, 2015 (3:18am)

How close were the final polls before today’s UK elections? This close: 
A final seat prediction from YouGov president Peter Kellner, based upon their final poll: Conservative 284, Labour 263, SNP 48, Lib Dems 31, Plaid Cymru 3 and Green 1. Based on this, a combination of the Tories and Lib Dems would give a total of 315 – nine short of a Commons majority. A combination of Labour, the SNP, Greens and Plaid would curiously also produce a total of 315 seats. 
Here’s a fine seat-by-seat map. You know, a Labour win may be a good result, for three reasons:
One: It would teach yet another right-wing party yet again not to shift from their cultural and philosophical base. It’s amusing to watch these parties re-learn the basics every four years or so.
Two: For people outside of the UK and therefore safely beyond the immediate disaster area, Prime Minister Ed Miliband would be the funniest thing since the invention of Britain.
Three: I really want to see Miliband try to outlaw Islamophobia.
ELECTION UPDATE: 
There will be an exit poll at 10.15pm conducted by the BBC that will give us a strong impression of the overall picture. 
That’s 7.15am east coast Australian time.
===

THROW IT WAAAAY FORWARD

Tim Blair – Friday, May 08, 2015 (3:10am)

Attention, Tim Flannery! Christine Milne demonstrates the correct way to make ridiculous forecasts: 
“The Greens will be most effective when we form government ... and that will be at some point in this century,” she predicted. 
Brilliant. Milne’s time frame is perfectly non-specific and allows a potential conclusion well past the date when the former Greens leader has joined Gaia’s eternally operational recycling process. Learn from the lady, professor.
===

BRING ON THE LAB RABBITS

Tim Blair – Friday, May 08, 2015 (1:33am)

From Canada, a life-and-death tale of second thoughts: 
Teva Harrison has cancer, and it has changed her life in a lot of ways …
Harrison, who was raised as a vegetarian, says she’s never recognized a hierarchy of the value of a human life over that of an animal, and has always opposed lab tests on animals.
She says the diagnosis of cancer, and her subsequent enrolment in a clinical trial for an experimental treatment, has changed her views when it comes to potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals.
Harrison says she’s gone from being opposed to the practice, to being grateful for it …
“It’s personal now,” she says. 
With cancer, it always is. Best of luck to her.
(Via Simon G.)
===

AND THEN IMPRISON THEM FOR LIFE

Tim Blair – Friday, May 08, 2015 (1:21am)

Everybody involved in this should be charged with hate crimes against music, language and electricity.
===

VANISHING POINT

Tim Blair – Friday, May 08, 2015 (1:08am)

Ex-UN supremo Kofi Annan’s greatest fear for the future of our planet: 
That the world is reaching the tipping point beyond which climate change may become irreversible. 
Kofi’s tipping point has been a long time coming. It is impossible to tip the tipping point. It’s untippable.
===

On The Bolt Report on Sunday, May 10

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (4:25pm)

On the  The Bolt Report on Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 3pm.
Guest: Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, on drought, the banning of Bjorn Lomborg and the Budget.
Editorial: Tony Abbott falsely smeared as a homophobe. Why isn’t the reporter sacked?
The panel - former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa.
NewsWatch: Courier Mail columnist and Spectator Australia editor Rowan Dean on Struggle Street and Peter Hartcher.
Plus much more, including the shameful banning of Bjorn Lomborg, the Conservative election triumph in Britain, the Greens’ new leader and Joe Hockey’s last chance.
And much more, including the truth about capital punishment that most reports won’t admit.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===

University caves to group think: Bjorn Lomborg banned

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (4:17pm)

No guts. No commitment to debate and open inquiry.
If you were thinking of going to the University of Western Australia, think again. it has just caved to the pressure of group-thinkers and the ABC and cancelled its contract with the Abbott Government to house the Consensus Centre of Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Sceptical Environmentalist.
Lomborg has been attacked for not having the credentials that only group-thinkers can bestow. This real sin: to doubt that spending billions to “stop” global warming is smart when it makes such little difference.
What a terrible measure of the intolerance our universities have for debate.
Meanwhile, on Sydney University continues to employ Jake Lynch, the academic who cheered a protest to shout down a speaker who favoured Israel.
It says everything.
UPDATE
Not good enough for the University of Western Australia - a man ranked by Time Magazine in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Would a single UWA academic crack it on a list of even the most 100 influential Australians?
UPDATE
Paul Johnson, the UWA vice chancellor, announces the university’s humiliation - a craven surrender to staff, green groups and journalists, not one with the profile of Lomborg:
In early April The University of Western Australia announced it had secured $4 million in Federal Government funding to establish an Australia Consensus Centre to undertake detailed economic cost benefit analysis into many of Australia’s, and the world’s, biggest challenges. 
The Centre is unique in that it’s to deliver robust, evidence-based knowledge and advice to the Australian Government on potential policy reforms and other interventions that will deliver the smartest, most cost-effective solutions in areas ranging from poverty, social justice and food sustainability. Many of these issues will form the basis of the United Nation’s post 2015 Development Goals.
Constructively contributing to this agenda should be the domain of a world leading university such as UWA....
However, the creation of the Australia Consensus Centre attracted a mixed reaction from staff, students and the general public. The scale of the strong and passionate emotional reaction was one that the University did not predict…
Is it appropriate for Doctor Bjorn Lomborg to be associated with UWA?
I understand there are strong views on this issue. However, I believe that a man who has worked with many Nobel Laureate economists, has been named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people, and has published with Cambridge University Press meets the criteria of being made an Adjunct Professor – an honorary position that carries no salary.
Despite all this, there remains strong opposition to the Centre. Whilst I respect the right of staff to express their views on this matter, as all universities should be places for open and honest sharing and discussion of ideas, in this case, it has placed the University in a difficult position.
Therefore, it is with great regret and disappointment that I have formed the view that the events of the past few weeks places the Centre in an untenable position as it lacks the support needed across the University and the broader academic community to meet its contractual obligations and deliver value for money for Australian taxpayers… I have today spoken to the Federal Government and Bjorn Lomborg advising them of the barriers that currently exist to the creation of the Centre and the University’s decision to cancel the contract and return the money to the government. 
Pathetic doesn’t describe it adequately. 
===

Bureau and Sydney Morning Herald hype yet another El Nino disaster

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (11:29am)

Our Bureau of Meteorology announces an El Nino disaster is coming - one the Sydney Morning Herald hypes into a drought disaster for “the world”:
The world is headed into a major drought-bringing El Nino event, which will lift global temperatures and lead to bushfires and water shortages in eastern Australia, climate scientists have confirmed. 
Fairfax Media understands that Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology will announce next Tuesday that the El Nino event is all but certain.
“All but certain.” Is that more certain that last year’s dud prediction of a “90% chance” of an El Nino?:
The global El Niño weather phenomenon, whose impacts cause global famines, floods – and even wars – now has a 90% chance of striking this year, according to the latest forecast released to the Guardian.
We actually got no El Nino and floods instead.
The 2012 predictions of an El Nino also turned out to be duds:
The leading provider of seasonal forecasts in Australia is the Bureau of Meteorology, who issue a bi-weekly ENSO update. The most recent BoM ENSO update came on 5th June 2012, and states: 
… All seven models surveyed indicate conditions are likely to approach, or possibly exceed, El Niño thresholds during the late winter to early spring period. Large parts of eastern Australia are typically drier and warmer than normal in winter/spring as El Niño events develop. No climate models favour a return to La Niña…
Indeed, the BoM’s manager of climate monitoring, Dr Karl Braganza, seemed very certain of a coming El Niño this week when he spoke to ABC’s Radio National. While the strength of the coming El Niño was as yet unknown, Dr Braganza said, the modelling left little doubt it is on its way: 
Look, it’s looking reasonably straight forward now in terms of the way the models are going. When you get a whole lot of models going in one direction that increases your confidence that they’re doing something real.
Once again, we got more floods instead.
Maybe the Bureau is right this time, and we really will get the El Nino that keeps not turning up. Or maybe its climate models are biased too much to catastrophe.
UPDATE
The Age is gloating that a natural fluctuation could panic voters into punishing Tony Abbott for not believing more in man-made global warming:
While it is still early days – and unclear how severe the El Nino will be – weather could soon become a problem for Tony Abbott… 
The Abbott government faces a test this year as it heads into global climate talks in Paris. The international community has made it clear Australia should bring strong post-2020 emissions reduction targets and policies to the table. A change in the weather could see that pressure grow at home.
(Thanks to reader Mark M.)  
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Exit poll: Cameron scrapes back. UPDATE: Or strolls. UPDATE: no, triumphs

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (11:23am)

It is only an exit poll, and they can be very unreliable in a first-past-the-post system. But I’d rather be David Cameron than Ed Miliband right now:
Cameron has won more seats, which is just as well after the Liberal Democrats got smashed for being yes-men. overall, though, it’s a slap for the Government.  But Cameron should be able to cobble something together with the LD, possibly UKIP and others. It is virtually impossible for Miliband to form a coalition of his own.  See how Labor has been wiped out in Scotland, probably down to a single seat, thanks to a Scottish Nationals tidal wave.
The price, though, will be instability. The Liberal Democrats will feel they must assert themselves more or disappear forever.
But again: this is just an exit poll, and the truth could be very different.
UPDATE
A YouGov poll suggests a much tighter result:
Tories- 284 (32 less projected seats than Exit Polls) 
Labour- 263 (24 more projected seats than Exit Polls)
Liberal Democrats-31 (21 more projected seats than Exit Polls)
SNP-48 (10 less projected seats than Exit Polls)
UKIP-2 Greens-1
UPDATE
It could be an even more handsome win for Cameron:
Professor John Curtice, who led the exit poll operations, predicted the Tories could get an overall majority. 
He spoke out after Conservative Marcus Jones held on to the marginal seat of Nuneaton shortly before 02:00 BST.
The exit poll had expected a one point swing to Labour in that seat, when in practice there was a three point swing to the Tories… London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is also standing in Uxbridge and Ruislip South, said: “If these exit numbers are confirmed throughout the night then obviously it’s a very, very clear victory for the Conservatives and a very bad night for Labour.”
UPDATE
“A cruel and punishing night for the Liberal Democrats,” admits leader Nick Clegg, one of the few to have been returned. The Australian Democrats were decimated for cooperating with the Howard Government, now the Liberal Democrats are destroyed in the same way. This may well check the readiness of the Greens under new leader Richard Di Natale to cut too many deals with the Abbott Government.
Meanwhile, Labour is devastated by the Scottish independence monster it encouraged.
That the result is so different from the polls suggests one or more of three things:
- the “shy conservative” will give pollsters what is the “right” answer, as defined by the media, but in the privacy of the ballot booth will follow his true instincts.
- the Conservatives finished strongly with passionate campaigning with a shirt-sleeved Cameron, with Boris Johnson, the vote magnet now back in Parliament. Labour, on the other hand, ended poorly, with Miliband clowning with Russell Brand and carving his promises in stone.
- the instinct for many voters, when the result seems cloudy, is to vote conservatively (small c). 
UPDATE
So far:
- The SNP are on course for a landslide in Scotland and could take all of the seats but one...[UPDATE: actually two or three] 
- The Lib Dems are facing a wipeout and could end up with as few 10 MPs - a loss of 47..
- UKIP are polling strongly in the North of England and Douglas Carswell has retained Clacton but Nigel Farage could fail to win South Thanet
- The Green Party is predicted to get two MPs, according to the NOP/MORI exit poll for the BBC, ITV and Sky
UKIP has done worse than it hoped. It won lots of votes, but so far just one seat. It came second in a lot of others, but that’s no use in a first-past-the-post system.
John McTernan has jumped from the frying pan into the furnace - from Julia Gillard’s media chief to chief of staff of the Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy, who has just lost his seat and all but one of his MPs. Poor bastard.
Australian-born Green leader Natalie Bennett, whose campaigning was a complete joke, comes third in her seat.
UPDATE
Miliband speaks: a “clearly disappointing” result. He is ‘deeply sorry” to the Labour members who lost their seats in Scotland.
Spectator editor Fraser Nelson:
So far, Miliband has lost 33 seats - that’s 33 fewer than Gordon Brown was able to win in the middle of a recession in 2010. He’s a goner.
UPDATE
Now the BBC is predicting an absolute majority for Cameron. What a triumph. What a staggering surprise for anyone who believed the polls.
UPDATE
Desperately unjust:
There are 4.2 million voters in Scotland. They are represented by 59 members of Parliament. [56 of the Scottish National Party]. 
The signs are that more than 3 million people voted for the UK Independence Party in the general election. Ukip will have one or two MPs.
UPDATE
David Cameron is beside himself with joy. Watch here, talking to his staff:
I’m not an old man but I remember casting a vote in ‘87 and that was a great victory. I remember working, just as you have been working, in ‘92 and that was an amazing victory and I remember 2010, achieving that dream of getting Labour out and getting the Tories back in and that was amazing. But I think this is the sweetest victory of them all. 
There’s so many things to be proud of in this result: the fact that we held on in Scotland, the fact we extended our representation in Wales…
There’s so many things to celebrate: the fact the pundits got it wrong, the pollsters got it wrong, the commentators got it wrong — not to mention some of the people on the blogs, it sometimes annoys me they got it wrong. No, because the real reason to celebrate tonight, the real reason to be proud, the real reason to be excited is we are going to get the opportunity to serve our country again.
That’s what it’s all about — that brilliant, positive upbeat manifesto…
I never quite believed we’d get to the end of this campaign in the place we are now. But that’s what it’s about: so tonight — not tonight, this morning — this morning, celebrate.  
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Labor will be trapped if it keeps saying no to pension reform

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (10:20am)

Jennifer Hewett says Scott Morrison’s pension changes are modest but necessary - so why is Labor fighting what it should back?:
Scott Morrison’s pension proposals count as sensible if modest reform… The early signs are that [Morrison] has succeeded in a way that was clearly beyond the grasp of his predecessors. The independent Senators and even the Greens are sounding far more encouraging about this being a better option than last year’s. And, groups like the Australian Council of Social Services and the Council of the Ageing are also praising the proposals as a step in the right direction… 
That leaves Labor in the odd position of contradicting its usual allies against any economic changes and spending cuts proposed by the government and very possibly being in the minority in the Senate…
Bill Shorten was quick to argue that 320,000 recipients of part pensions have discovered they’re going to be “the big losers from Tony Abbott’s Budget"…
Nor will the Senate politics make this easy or quick to resolve. The Greens are already calling for yet another Senate inquiry to avoid unintended consequences and ensure the impact is not too severe. But for the government it means the chance to have this pass the Senate and wedge the Opposition by arguing it is committed to economically responsible but fair pension reform… Labor’s going to have to quickly re-set its ... rhetoric if it wants to avoid the obvious attack that the Opposition’s only tactic is to always increase taxes.
Judith Sloan isn’t buying Labor’s fantasy that we have billions to burn:
Labor elder Jenny Macklin ... claims that age pensions are utterly sustainable and nothing needs to change — not the indexation factor, not the taper rate, not the age of eligibility. 
The Age Pension is the single biggest expenditure item of the commonwealth government. More than 2.5 million Australians receive a full or part Age Pension. Of those, 70 per cent currently receive the full pension.
Spending on the Age Pension is expected to rise by 7 per cent a year. If nothing changes, the proportion of completely self-funded retirees is expected to increase very little in the next 40 years — by about two percentage points. By then, 80 per cent will be on the Age Pension, with close to 40 per cent still on the full pension.
None of these trends looks sustainable in my books. This is particularly so because we can expect a near halving of the number of taxpayers as a ratio to the number of older people in 40 years. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Mark Scott cannot get another year. Not if the Liberals want change at the ABC

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (9:49am)

An extension of term for ABC managing director Mark Scott?
James Allan says absolutely no:
(T)his is an ABC that blatantly does not meet its statutory obligation to be impartial. How many presenters and producers of the ABC’s top TV current affairs shows are there with a right-of-centre pedigree? Zero. Nada. None. 
For Mark Scott that is not a problem. He brushes it off with insouciant ease. Of course, he mutters, all these ABC lefties (I paraphrase for him) are able to put aside their personal views and act impartially and so provide a down-the-middle unbiased picture – on climate change, boat people, spending restraint…
He presides over a network that leans so far to the left (I steal this line from a British journalist) that it makes the BBC look like Fox News.
Well, this Abbott government that daily gets affected by the bias of the ABC (in terms of what news is run, what news is emphasised, who is interviewed, who is not interviewed, and so on) already looks pathetically weak when it comes to standing up to the ABC… It acquiesces in its own terrible treatment…
(T)he ABC Board will pick Scott’s successor. And the minister in charge is Malcolm Turnbull. So that is no comfort at all, not with an ABC so lacking in impartiality that I don’t want my taxes going to this billion-dollar-a-year behemoth. None a penny of them. But as there is no chance of the Abbott government doing anything remotely tough on this front, it can at least have the good graces to tell Mr. Scott and his three-quarters-of-a-million-dollar salary that hell will freeze over before he gets an extension. Do it openly, Tony. Say why Scott’s contract is not being extended. Demand that the board appoint someone who will make the ABC abide by its statutory obligations. That is the very, very, very least a Coalition government should do.
What chance that the board will extend Scott’s term to tide it over until the election, hoping to then have the cover of a new Labor government to appoint a successor to continue the bias as usual?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Anjem Choudary:  Geller should “face capital punishment” for insulting Islam

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (9:08am)

Islamism

 Prominent British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary says it on live TV and to the face of the woman he wants killed:
We’re talking about people who deliberately had a competition to insult the messenger Mohammad… If you saw the cartoons that Charlie Hebdo drew you would understand the anger. And now this woman was to draw cartoons or have people draw cartoons to insult the prophet knowing full well that this carries the death penalty in Islam… She should be put before Shariah court and tried and of course she would face capital punishment.
Pamela Geller admonishes Choudary:
I’m talking, sir… I know you’re used to stepping over women but you’re not going to have it here. 
Yet Geller is the one being damned by much of the media.
I don’t think enough journalists trouble to listen to the real hate preachers and to read their religious tracts.
UPDATE
Reader JJ notes that Charlie Hebdo reserved most of its criticism for Christianity, yet had its journalists slaughtered by Islamists:
Not understanding why this isn’t getting more press… It’s from Le Monde in France, a numerical breakdown of the subject matter of Charlie Hebdo covers throughout its history. 
Total of 523 Charlie Hebdo covers:  21 Christian, 10 other religions, 7 Islam
So 3 times more Charlie Hebdo covers on Christianity than Islam! 
UPDATE
Yet Australian feminists still pretend the faiths that truly oppresses women is Christianity. They barely dare even mention Islam.
Anne Summers in The Age this week:
Great news that the Pope is modifying the church’s antediluvian rhetoric on gender, but the so-called “stained-glass ceiling” won’t be cracked on his watch, given his recent affirmation that he remains opposed to the ordination of women… 
The power of religion, and its determination to keep women in their place (which, for all too many religions, means unemployed and pregnant), is one of the most formidable obstacles to gender equality. Whether it’s a Saudi Arabian regime forbidding women to drive cars, or American states legislating to shut down abortion clinics, the controlling and repressive tentacles of religion are far-reaching impediments to women’s independence…
So while Pope Francis might earn praise for his humility, his discarding of the lavish lifestyle of previous pontiffs, his embracing of gays and his compassion for asylum-seekers and other dispossessed people, he is evidently not willing to take that big step that would see the Catholic Church embrace women as equals. 
Clementine Ford in The Age:
...Christianity being equally as culpable in the state-sanctioned oppression of citizens as its more vocally condemned sibling, Islam.... 
.... the Southern Baptist Convention ... [had] a structure of intolerance that prioritised the leadership and moral superiority of men over that of women.
The first amendment to the United States constitution calls for a separation of church and state… There is irony in a government system that claims to be about liberty, but that remains in bed with both the free-wheelin’ gun lobby and the far-right religious fanatics determined to criminalise the behaviour of everyone who isn’t a wealthy white man of God....
A staunch Catholic, de Bruyn ... publicly backed John Howard’s calls to amend the Sex Discrimination Act in 2000 ... Nor can the influence of Catholicism be underestimated here… The question is, who suffers most when policy is passed according to the conservative doctrines of the Catholic Church? ... The Catholic Church has no qualms in expressing the view that men are the only earthly conduits for God 
These people are just not serious and just not brave. Compared to Geller, they are as blind mice to a lioness.
(Thanks to readers Gab and frank of malvern.) 
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Public says no to punishing Indonesia

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (8:01am)

A Lowy Institute poll and a Newspoll show the public does not sharethe hysteria of many actors and journalists over the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, and thinks even the Abbott Government’s tempered reaction goes too far in punishing Indonesia:
What sensible voters. 
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Wanted: the confident Joe. But Morrison at least gives Labor another headache

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (7:51am)

A stark difference:
Scott Morrison has emerged as the Abbott government’s chief salesman in the final week before its second budget is handed down, giving 16 interviews in seven days while Treasurer Joe Hockey has given just four. 
Mr Morrison has carriage of the budget’s families package and of the proposed pension changes, which will save $2.4 billion over two years and was revealed on Thursday. He is already on track for a major win with the Greens and the welfare lobby signalling they could support changes to pension asset testing that would boost pensions for low and middle-income earners but take away the part-pension for wealthier people.
Hockey can actually perform well, but he’ll need far more pep - and a better shirt - than this:
UPDATE
Morrison continues to play front man:
The Government is planning to spend an extra $850 million on childcare for disadvantaged families, children considered at risk and those living in regional or remote parts of Australia. 
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison told the ABC’s 7.30 program the money would be aimed at struggling families, communities and children vulnerable to abuse.
Mr Morrison said that while some of the money would come from existing programs, most of the funding for the newly-announced initiative and the Government’s broader families package remained contingent on savings currently being blocked by the Senate.
“That is tied to Family Tax Benefit savings that were put forward in last year’s budget,” he said. 
I do wonder about this bit of the package:
An additional childcare subsidy for children at risk, disadvantaged families and those deemed at risk of abuse, worth $156 million
If the children are at risk of abuse, childcare does not seem an adequate response.
But this must still pass the Senate, because the strategy is to pay for $850 million of spending with $4.5 billion in savings:
The Government wants to cut off Family Tax Benefit Part B when a family’s youngest child turns six and freeze all FTB payments for two years, measures that together would save an estimated $4.5 billion over five years.
Labor’s Jenny Macklin says Labor still won’t pass the Family Tax Benefit cuts although it supports extra spending on child care. It’s just spend, spend and spend even more with Labor. 
===

Global warmists threaten democracy

Andrew Bolt May 08 2015 (7:28am)

Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council, on the authoritarian heart of the global warming faith:
Perhaps Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN’s Framework on Climate Change has the answer? 
In Brussels last February she said, “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years since the Industrial Revolution.”
In other words, the real agenda is concentrated political authority. Global warming is the hook.
Figueres is on record saying democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming. Communist China, she says, is the best model. This is not about facts or logic. It’s about a new world order under the control of the UN. It is opposed to capitalism and freedom and has made environmental catastrophism a household topic to achieve its objective. Figueres says that, unlike the Industrial Revolution, “This is a centralised transformation that is taking place.” She sees the US partisan divide on global warming as “very detrimental”. Of course. In her authoritarian world there will be no room for debate or disagreement.
Remember then Greens leader Bob Brown’s great plan?
The Greens’ hero was met with a standing ovation when he delivered the 2012 Green Oration, which called for a single global and democratic parliament. 
“Let us create a global democracy and parliament under the grand idea of one planet, one person, one vote, one value,” he said. Senator Brown said he would call on the world’s 100 Greens parties to back his “earth parliament” at the third global Greens conference in Senegal next week.
Amos Aikman then warned:
Curiously, he went on to propose a bicameral (two houses) parliament with “equal representation elected from every nation”. Thus China—a nation of some 1.3 billion—would presumably have the same number of seats as, say, the Cook Islands, with less than 20,000 inhabitants.
Brown is gone, but Professor Clive Hamilton is still on our Climate Change Authority:
Very few people, even among environmentalists, have truly faced up to what the science is telling us. This is because the implications of 3C, let alone 4C or 5C, are so horrible that we look to any possible scenario to head it off, including the canvassing of “emergency” responses such as the suspension of democratic processes.
Other climate catastrophists agree:
For example, in an interview about her new book The Collapse of Western Civilization, Naomi Oreskes argued: “If anyone will weather this storm it seems likely that it will be the Chinese.” 
In the book, Oreskes and co-author Erik Conway imagine a future world in which the predictions of the International Panel on Climate Change have come to pass. With respect to China, the authors predict: 
China’s ability to weather disastrous climate change vindicated the necessity of centralised government ... inspiring similar structures in other, reformulated nations.
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Pain at pump could backfire on Abbott

Piers Akerman – Thursday, May 08, 2014 (6:16pm)

THE howling outrage over the soon-to-be introduced deficit tax will soon be drowned out if — as seems likely — mums and dads are forced to pay more for petrol after Tuesday’s Budget.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Pain at pump could backfire on Abbott'
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WA in strife after saving us for so long

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (6:39pm)

Once the boom state propping us up, but now another drag on our future - and a warning:
THE West Australian government’s debt projections show the state sliding deeper into the red, despite revenue raising and cost cutting measures. 
The 2014/15 state budget handed down today shows the goal of restoring WA’s AAA credit rating is a long way off, with debt creeping up to $27.5 billion by 2016/17, from $26.9 billion in the midyear economic review. A whopping $23.7 billion in planned infrastructure projects over the next four years will maintain the need for increased borrowings, Treasurer Mike Nahan told parliament as he delivered his first budget.
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Unemployment still below the expected

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (2:42pm)

Could the economy be going the Abbott Government’s way?
THE unemployment rate has held steady in April against expectations of a rise, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 
The total number of jobs in Australia rose by 14,200 to a seasonally adjusted 11.573 million in the month, compared to an upwardly revised 11.559 million in March. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 per cent in the month, the same as in March.
Labor last year tipped unemployment to rise this year to 6.25 per cent under its policies. 
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Teresa Gambaro vs the Abbott Government

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (11:13am)

Which party is MP Teresa Gambaro actually a member of?
This may provide context. From last September, when Abbott appointed his ministry:
Abbott has dropped six members of his shadow ministry: Senator Ian MacDonald, Teresa Gambaro, Andrew Southcott, Don Randall, John Cobb and Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, who becomes a parliamentary secretary.
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Spy chief: Edward Snowden a Russian puppet who will cost lives

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (9:33am)

Edward Snowden is a traitor: 
The longest-serving director of the US National Security Agency says former contractor Edward Snowden has become a Russian puppet and was responsible for the most damaging intelligence breach in history… 
General Keith Alexander told The Australian Financial Review Mr Snowden’s theft and leaking of over 100,000 classified documents meant lives would be lost as a result of adversaries being made aware of intelligence methods, and criticised the award of the Pulitzer Prize to newspapers who published the documents…
“At the end of the day, I believe people’s lives will be lost because of the Snowden leaks because we will not be able to protect them with capabilities that were once effective but are now being rendered ineffective because of these revelations,” he said.
“It’s the greatest damage to our combined nations’ intelligence systems that we have ever suffered. The biggest ever. And it has had a huge impact on our combined ability to protect our nations and defend our people.” General Alexander ... said only a fraction of the leaks had anything to do with Americans’ civil liberties and that he believes Russian intelligence is now “driving” Mr Snowden.
What a shame Snowden’s leaks didn’t blow the whistle on real threats - like Russia’s plans for Ukraine.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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If the problem is too much spending, why are taxes going up?

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (9:09am)


Government is just too big and growing too fast, and I really believed Tony Abbott’s argument before the election:
...revenue is up 7 per cent this year, it’ll be up 8 per cent next year. The problem is not a revenue problem, the problem is a spending problem.
Yet now:
TONY Abbott is struggling to quell unrest over a “deficit tax” in next week’s budget as his government considers another incendiary revenue proposal: lifting fuel excise for millions of motorists. 
As Liberal MPs attacked the “virtual confirmation” of the personal tax increase, the government faced mounting fears it would slug families at the fuel pump. The Australian understands that officials have canvassed making the first increase in fuel excise in more than a decade and that ministers have not ruled out the reform when confronted with industry concerns about the change. Lifting the fuel excise would rank as one of the most substantial “structural” changes to the budget as Joe Hockey talks of making long-term reforms and his colleagues privately warn of unpopular measures that will overshadow the deficit tax.
Locked in:
CABINET has backed Tony Abbott’s plan to slap a controversial tax on high income earners, “locking” the broken election promise into next Tuesday’s budget. 
Despite an election pledge to cut rather than raise taxes, the Prime Minister will introduce the new tax for workers on annual salaries above $150k-$180k in the hope of easing the former Labor government’s debt and deficit legacy.
UPDATE
Treasurer Joe Hockey tries another excuse:
We went to the last election promising to introduce a levy for PPL so claims that we said we would never introduce new taxes are just wrong.
UPDATE
Terry McCrann says he still cannot see the categorical election promise Abbott is meant to be breaking:
Commentator after commentator has screeched “broken promise, broken promise” — mostly, without identifying the supposed promise, or occasionally pointing to a Tony Abbott quote which in fact proved there was no broken promise…
The ... normally sensible Sinclair Davidson ... said [Abbott promised] “there will not be any new taxes as part of the Coalition’s policies”.
What Davidson did not point out, was that Abbott had said it, in 2009, before the 2010 election…
The Australian and Sky TV’s Peter van Onselen comes close to equalling Davidson for hysterical idiocy, claiming (yet again) last night that this was the day Abbott “broke his solemn promise that there would be no new taxes”. A “solemn promise” he did not make in the campaign…
But it’s hard to think of a more bizarre shark-jump than Christine Milne and Adam Bandt railing against the outrageous intent of Abbott and Hockey to — temporarily — increase the tax on people earning $300,000, $500,000 and indeed $1 million and more a year… Then we have idiots like former Liberal leader John Hewson demanding that the Government abandon a proposal that does not break any real election promise — only a Labor-Gallery-crazies mythical one — and substitute instead something that would break a very specific promise. By increasing taxation of superannuation.
UPDATE
Sinclair Davidson fires back:
Straight from the Lewandowsky school of analysis – people who disagree with you on matters of principle must be mentally ill. 
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Craig.) 
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It shouldn’t be this hard for a terrorism expert to see Boko Harama and say “Muslim”

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (8:34am)

 WALEED Aly is the model moderate Muslim, used by the media to persuade us we have little to fear from Islam but our own bigotry.
His rewards have been great. Once the spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria, he is now an ABC radio host, a Channel 10 co-presenter and an Age columnist.
He is even a politics lecturer at Monash University’s Global Terrorism Research Centre, despite having no doctorate and having qualified in engineering and law.
This week Aly showed the style that’s made him such a pet of the establishment Left but a worry to me.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram group last month kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from a boarding school and its leader announced they were “slaves” he would sell. Two are already said to be dead.
As so often when Muslim terrorists strike, Aly was brought on by Channel Ten’s The Projectto explain away our fears as “an expert in terrorism”.
“So who is this group exactly?” he was asked.
(Read full article here.) 
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Shooting the messenger: Costello under attack

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (8:07am)

Niki Savva on former Treasurer Peter Costello, for whom she once worked:
What some cabinet ministers did find difficult to stomach was Peter Costello’s column in News Corp tabloids on Tuesday… [H]ere was Costello, the man who they had appointed only a few months before to chair the Future Fund at an annual salary of almost $200,000, publicly criticising government policy… 
Cabinet ministers slogging away to put the budget together, to do what he did 18 years ago, put the budget back in the black, and in the way he did it, equitably, had one word for the former treasurer… Hypocrite.
For months now, the economic ministers have used Costello’s 1996 budget as a template, particularly one passage that he delivered ... which the Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann, quoted in part yesterday, hinting at the anger they felt. 
“...The tightening measures have to be fairly shared. “We cannot expect those who rely on pensions and allowances — low-income earners — to bear the cost. So we are asking high-income earners to make a contribution and business to make its contribution, too.”
Costello’s former colleagues ... read with dismay his words, which stepped away from his own budget of broken promises while disowning the very measure that symbolised its fairness and gave it its integrity — the superannuation surcharge on higher-income earners. Inside the government, there was speculation about Costello’s motives: jealousy, ego, relevance deprivation.  
Of course, Costello could have another motive: to get good policy and save the Government from a mistake.
UPDATE

Reader A. checks the 2006 Budget tax tables and adds:
Nikki Savva says Peter Costello is a hypocrite for arguing against an increase in the upper marginal tax rates. 
Peter Costello cut the top rate from 47% to 45% in the 2006 Budget (see above.) Ms Savva was a Coalition Staffer at the time. Hypocrisy would be to argue we need a 2% “levy” to reverse that cut. To say rates should stay the same, is called consistency.
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Gillard alerted

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (8:05am)

Let’s finally get to the bottom of this:
THE royal commission into union wrongdoing is alerting Julia Gillard and her one-time boyfriend, disgraced union boss Bruce Wilson, that its hearings will start next week with evidence from a corrupt former AWU official who has confessed to fraud involving a slush fund set up after legal advice from the former prime minister. 
Notifications are going out to parties who may be adversely mentioned in evidence from Ralph Blewitt, who returned to Australia from his home in Malay­sia this week to help the royal commission and an ongoing fraud investigation by Victoria Police. The notifications are being made by the commission’s lawyers to ensure that people have the chance to seek to be legally represented at public hearings.
Gillard and Wilson both deny any wrongdoing. 
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Occupy movement cost the 99 per cent

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (7:56am)

Protesters wanting more money for the poor and for the environment have instead fed lawyers and left a mess:
OCCUPY Melbourne protesters who shut down the city and vandalised buildings have left the public with a million-dollar bill in legal fees and clean-up and other costs. 
Documents obtained by the Herald Sun under Freedom of Information laws reveal the public cost of protesters suing the city council, police and the State Government in legal action that ultimately failed.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said he was outraged authorities had won in court, but the public still had to pay.
The City of Melbourne has paid over $554,000 to Hunt & Hunt Lawyers since 2011 after activists Sara Kerrison and James Muldoon sued, claiming the arrest and eviction of Occupy Melbourne protesters had been illegal. Council had to spend an extra $71,000 on emergency barricades and to clean up the area and remove graffiti.
And we actually fund these guys - to help the poor, we thought:
Fitzroy Legal Service, The Human Rights Law Centre - both partly government-funded - and top barrister Ron Merkel, QC, took on the case.
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Imagine a world led by the socialists who shut down Q&A

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (7:52am)

HERE’S how to judge protesters: what would our country look like if they were in charge?
Conclusion: worry about the ones who shut down the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday.
Want to be led by dictators?
Q&A was again loaded against conservatives from the start. It had just two conservatives against four from the Left, including host Tony Jones.

Jones claimed the studio audience, at least, was balanced, with 47 per cent backing the Coalition, 38 per cent Labor and 9 per cent the Greens.
But the audience vetting had again been rorted. Two of the first three pre-screened audience questions came from members of Socialist Alternative, a fringe Marxist group.
Their aggressive certainty was matched by contempt for those they disagreed with.
(Read full article here.) 
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Langton demonstrates the danger of what she recommends

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (7:08am)

Free speech, The politics of race

Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton says she’s against the Abbott Government’s plan to reform the Racial Discrimination Act because, among other things, it means Australians could get away with unconsciously being racist:
[Under the reforms] the point of view of the vilified group is no longer rele­vant in determining whether an act is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group if the act is done because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of the other person, or of some or all of the people in the group. The repeal bill proposes to replace the present provisions of the RDA with the wording: “Whether an act is reasonably likely to have the effect specified in sub- section (1)(a) is to be determined by the standards of an ordinary reasonable member of the Australian community, not by the standards of any particular group within the Australian community.’’ 
This could allow normative rac­ism to be the standard by which allegations of racial or ethnic vilification are judged. Many Australians are simply not aware of when they are being racist.
Here are some Australians who had no idea they were being racist until Langton, a member of a “particular group within the Australian community”, declared they were:
It strikes me that Langton is not at all fussy in labeling people as “racist” - a cheap-shot and plain nasty way to dodge arguments. She’s accused Germaine Greer, for instance, of racism: 
RACISM and the highly evolved strategies that some white Australians use to dismiss, obstruct and trivialise Aboriginal people are like a virus: just when you think you have inoculated yourself against it, another version of the attack hits you when you are unprepared. Germaine Greer’s astonishing attack on me in her slight essay, On Rage, struck me as one of these mutant attacks. It is a cleverly disguised but nonetheless racist attack on Aboriginal people.
She’s done it to Tim Flannery: 
ABORIGINAL academic Marcia Langton has accused former Australian of the year Tim Flannery of holding a racist belief that indigenous Australians are ‘’enemies of nature’’.
How quick she’s been to play the racism card: 
[Prominent Labor lawyer Josh] Bornstein tweeted, “Tim Flannery is racist and all black fellas are budding mining magnates. Did I get that right, Marcia Langton?”
Professor Langton replied: “No stupid, you didn’t.” After he commented on her “mild and unimaginative abuse”, the Melbourne University professor snapped back, “Doodums. Did the nig nog speak back? ...” 
And this is plainly false:
Section 18c is not a restriction on the freedom of speech, and has not limited the very robust public debates in Australia.
Two of my own articles have actually been banned under that law, as Langton well knows, stifling debate on people of mixed “racial” or ethnic ancestry publicly identifying with just one of those “races”, making them eligible for certain positions, assistance or benefits. 
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Giving in to class war

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (7:01am)

Judith Sloan on the Abbott Government’s proposed deficit tax:
What is the government doing? We know that higher-income earners already pay virtually all the income tax. The top 25 per cent pay more than two-thirds of the tax take. The top 10 per cent pay close to 45 per cent. Obviously, the government doesn’t think this heavy lifting is heavy enough. 
These top earners — and don’t we want everyone to aspire to be a top earner through education, hard work and risk-taking? — have already suffered through losing the private health insurance rebate. Most top earners send their children to private schools, saving the taxpayer along the way.
They look after themselves and their families with very little assistance from the taxpayer, but somehow it is seen to be fair that they should further shoulder the burden of repairing the budget. But, let’s face it, the sums of money being quoted by the government are not huge — maybe an extra $2 billion over four years. This is not because the higher marginal tax rate will not slug higher-income earners; it is simply the case that there are not very many of them.
The Government is not waging class war. It is doing the next worse thing: pre-emptively giving in the class war it expects from Labor. It does not want to defend “the rich”. 
===

Chinese company claims Palmer used its cash for his campaign

Andrew Bolt May 08 2014 (6:44am)

Clive Palmer spent big on an election that gave him the balance of power in the Senate. Now there is a court battle over an alleged source of those funds:
CLIVE Palmer’s private company Mineralogy has been accused of wrongfully siphoning more than $12 million from his Chinese business partners, with some of the funds allegedly used to cover political expenses for the costly federal election campaign by his Palmer United Party. 
The Federal Court in Perth was told yesterday that there were “serious questions” about the unauthorised use of large sums of money that Chinese-backed CITIC Pacific had put aside in a bank account for the operation of a port at its Sino Iron mining project in Western Australia....
Mr Palmer .... did not respond to questions from The Australian about the court proceedings.
The lawyer acting for CITIC, Andrew Bell SC, told the court that some of the money had been used to pay thousands of dollars to a PUP candidate, as well as taxi travel costs for party officials to attend the scrutineering of last year’s Senate vote count…
More than $12m was transferred out of the account in two transactions of $10m and $2.16m last August and September, with Dr Bell saying no invoices or remittance advice had been produced in relation to the two transfers.
The transactions occurred shortly before the federal election, when the PUP was fielding candidates throughout Australia and running a massive advertising campaign. Mr Palmer claims to have spent between $10m and $12m on the federal election…
Among those allegedly being paid with the CITIC funds was Vimal Sharma, a Mineralogy executive who was an unsuccessful candidate for the PUP in the West Australian seat of Cowan…

An affidavit sworn in Brisbane by a solicitor for CITIC, Bruce Wacker, ...  stated that two cheques totalling $12,167,065 were described by Mineralogy as “being for purported ‘Port management services’, however, no documentation has been disclosed in support of these payments’’....
The millions of dollars in funds had been set aside by CITIC to cover the day-to-day expenses of operating, maintaining and repairing facilities at the port at Cape Preston used by the Sino Iron project. But CITIC told the court that Mineralogy did not currently oversee those functions, and questioned how Mineralogy could have accrued more than $20m in administration costs over three years given it was playing no material role at the port. 
===
The motion to recognise the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek Genocide just passed the house unanimously. The Premier Barry O'Farrell just thankedAndrew Rohan, Liberal for Smithfield for his efforts to have the Genocide recognised. This is a historic day for the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek communities in Australia and world-wide. Thank you Premier Barry O'Farrell. - Zaya Toma
===
I am pleased to stand here today and speak in support of an important motion that was unanimously passed by this House, which recognises the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek Genocide by the Ottoman Empire between 1918 and 1923.

I thank the Premier of New South Wales, the Hon Barry O’Farrell MP for moving this motion. I thank him on behalf of my constituents;

I thank him on behalf of every victim of the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek Genocide and their descendants; and

I thank him on behalf of every activist for Genocide recognition around the world that has demanded history record the truth and that justice be done.

In my inaugural address to this house, I recalled that:

My journey into this place started in the summer of 1918 when my father was just a teenager and my mother a young child.

They and their families were among 90,000 Assyrian Christian refugees fleeing their ancestral homeland to escape persecution.

My parentsand the other refugees were fleeing from the Ottoman Empire to escape what would later be known as the "Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek Genocide".

By the graceof God my parents survived, for the reason they were protected, and protected by none other than an Australian soldier.

LieutenantGeneral Sir Stanley George Savige, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, ED, at that time a28-year-old captain, was selected to join "Dunsterforce", an elite task force assigned to resupplying the Assyrians fighting in Persia.
Unable to complete the task due to the fall of Urmia, he persuaded his British commanderthat he should stay back with the remaining refugees.

For six weeks, Captain Savige used all the means at his disposal to protect the refugees against the perpetual onslaught of the Ottoman forces. Reasoning that the Turkish commander would concentrate on killing him before harming the refugees, he strategically placed his command at the rear of the refugee procession and deliberately drew enemy fire.

By offering his command as a target, even though he was outnumbered one hundred to one, Captain Savige managed to slow the enemy advance long enough for most of the refugees to flee.

This act of courage and self-sacrifice was far beyond what was expected of a junior officer in the field.

Captain Savige was subsequently decorated with the Distinguished Service Order for his efforts.

Australian journalist, historian and official war correspondent, Charles Bean, wrote:

The stand made by Savige and his eight companions that evening and during half of the next day against hundreds of the enemy thirsting like wolves to get at the defenceless throng was as fine as any episode known to the present writer in the history of this war.

My parents survived the Genocide because of the heroic actions of Sir Stanley George Savige and as the Member for Smithfield; I pay tribute to him again today in this House.

During the First World War more than 750,000 Assyrians together with 1.5 million Armenians and 500,000 Greeks were murdered by the Ottoman Empire forces in an attempt to cleanse the land of all the Christian minorities from Turkey. This was the first genocide of the twentieth century.

Mr Gulseren Celik, the Consul General of the Republic of Turkey, recently wrote to all Members of Parliament to condemn a motion recognising the Assyrian, Armenianand Greek Genocide in the NSW Legislative Council by the Hon. Rev Fred Nile MLC.

Mr Celik doesn’t have to take my word for this account of the Genocide. It comes from the official records of the Australian War Memorial.

I ask Members of this House, why was Stanley George Savige, an Australian soldier given a Distinguished Service Order for protecting refugees from the Ottoman forces?

Why did the refugees need any protection from the Ottoman forces?

Why were the Ottoman forces targeting un-armed, defenseless refugees in the first place?

Madam Speaker, I needed no better reason than this to support the motion, which recognised the Assyrian, Armenian and Pontic Greek Genocide. - Andrew Rohan
===
Tomorrow’s hearings on Benghazi will define the Obama presidency if the truth is finally allowed to be told. I encourage everyone to tune in and hear the revelations that are long overdue. We’ll also see whether the president’s reliable lapdog cheerleaders in the media will continue to cover up for him and in so doing disgrace their profession. The following link is to something I posted way back on October 25th of last year asking questions that we should have had answers to long ago.

- Sarah Palin
There are many questions about the Benghazi attack that Americans deserve answers to. It’s been too long an “investigation” and too tragic for the families of lost loved ones for the White House and its friends in the media to ignore these questions:

- When and why did the YouTube trailer of the anti-Muhammad movie surface as any kind of credible reason for the attack?

- Where is the proof that that video was linked to Benghazi? It’s a weak excuse to claim some supposed rumored link between Benghazi and the attacks on our embassy in Cairo. Benghazi was very different. “Spontaneous” protestors don’t come armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

- What was the President’s response to the previous Benghazi embassy attacks in April and June? Why did officials ignore the requests for beefed up security to protect Americans after these attacks?

- Why did the Obama Administration assume a YouTube video was the reason for the Benghazi attack but not all the evidence to the contrary from the postings and emails that circulated that night in real time as the attack took place and Americans were being killed? And why weren’t those emails disclosed until this week?

- Why did the Obama administration spend our tax dollars to make and air television ads that ran in the Middle East apologizing for the YouTube video when they had so much credible evidence that it was nothing but a red herring?

- How much did President Obama know about this? In an interview he gave to CBS News on September 12, President Obama alluded to the fact that the Benghazi attack was not—as his U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and other officials were characterizing it—a “spontaneous” protest triggered by the Cairo embassy attack and the video. He told CBS News in that interview, “my suspicion is that there are folks involved in [the Benghazi attack] who were looking to target Americans from the start.” If he suspected this then why did he allow his administration to continue blaming the attack on the YouTube video? And why didn’t CBS News call him out on this when his comments in their interview with him, which they didn’t air until a month later, belie the administration’s YouTube narrative?

Someone in the media must demand answers. Until the media does its job to give us the Who What Where When and Why of this cover-up, there will be even less trust for this “cornerstone of our democracy” – if less trust and respect for the media is even possible today. We sincerely want to be able to trust the media. We need to be able to trust them. Their job is so important, and we appreciate all the good journalists in America. Our troops fight to protect all our freedoms including the freedom of the press.

- Sarah Palin
===
A glass of Coca-Cola
===

===
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all."
Matthew 12:15
What a mass of hideous sickness must have thrust itself under the eye of Jesus! Yet we read not that he was disgusted, but patiently waited on every case. What a singular variety of evils must have met at his feet! What sickening ulcers and putrefying sores! Yet he was ready for every new shape of the monster evil, and was victor over it in every form. Let the arrow fly from what quarter it might, he quenched its fiery power. The heat of fever, or the cold of dropsy; the lethargy of palsy, or the rage of madness; the filth of leprosy, or the darkness of ophthalmia--all knew the power of his word, and fled at his command. In every corner of the field he was triumphant over evil, and received the homage of delivered captives. He came, he saw, he conquered everywhere. It is even so this morning. Whatever my own case may be, the beloved Physician can heal me; and whatever may be the state of others whom I may remember at this moment in prayer, I may have hope in Jesus that he will be able to heal them of their sins. My child, my friend, my dearest one, I can have hope for each, for all, when I remember the healing power of my Lord; and on my own account, however severe my struggle with sins and infirmities, I may yet be of good cheer. He who on earth walked the hospitals, still dispenses his grace, and works wonders among the sons of men: let me go to him at once in right earnest.
Let me praise him, this morning, as I remember how he wrought his spiritual cures, which bring him most renown. It was by taking upon himself our sicknesses. "By his stripes we are healed." The Church on earth is full of souls healed by our beloved Physician; and the inhabitants of heaven itself confess that "He healed them all." Come, then, my soul, publish abroad the virtue of his grace, and let it be "to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off."

Evening


"Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk."
John 5:8
Like many others, the impotent man had been waiting for a wonder to be wrought, and a sign to be given. Wearily did he watch the pool, but no angel came, or came not for him; yet, thinking it to be his only chance, he waited still, and knew not that there was One near him whose word could heal him in a moment. Many are in the same plight: they are waiting for some singular emotion, remarkable impression, or celestial vision; they wait in vain and watch for nought. Even supposing that, in a few cases, remarkable signs are seen, yet these are rare, and no man has a right to look for them in his own case; no man especially who feels his impotency to avail himself of the moving of the water even if it came. It is a very sad reflection that tens of thousands are now waiting in the use of means, and ordinances, and vows, and resolutions, and have so waited time out of mind, in vain, utterly in vain. Meanwhile these poor souls forget the present Saviour, who bids them look unto him and be saved. He could heal them at once, but they prefer to wait for an angel and a wonder. To trust him is the sure way to every blessing, and he is worthy of the most implicit confidence; but unbelief makes them prefer the cold porches of Bethesda to the warm bosom of his love. O that the Lord may turn his eye upon the multitudes who are in this case tonight; may he forgive the slights which they put upon his divine power, and call them by that sweet constraining voice, to rise from the bed of despair, and in the energy of faith take up their bed and walk. O Lord, hear our prayer for all such at this calm hour of sunset, and ere the day breaketh may they look and live.
Courteous reader, is there anything in this portion for you?
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Today's reading: 2 Kings 1-3, Luke 24:1-35 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Kings 1-3

The LORD's Judgment on Ahaziah
1 After Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, "Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury...."

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 24:1-35

Jesus Has Risen
1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words....




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