Friday, August 31, 2018

Thu Aug 30th Todays News

Scott Morrison deserves a chance as PM. An issue is being raised about Turnbull challenger Peter Dutton, who had been Immigration Minister. Dutton had acted on the issue of an au pair. He was allowed to do that, in fact he was supposed to. The issue has been investigated and Dutton has done no wrong. AFL supremo Gillon McLachlan had facilitated the issue being brought before Dutton. McLachlan has said he did no wrong and would do it again. He is happy to help those in need. Neil Mitchell, in interview with Mclachlan asked if McLachlan had raised the issue of Richmond player Dustin Martin's dad with Dutton. He had not, because the issue was already public and McLachlan had not campaigned for the au pair, Martin's dad was already known as an immigration issue. Meanwhile, News.com.au has posted an article conflating Dutton's responsible issue with that of an Afghan interpreter who is being hunted by Islamic terrorists for working with Australian forces in Afghanistan. That had been nixed by the ALP, and protocol prevents the Minister from revisiting that without significant new information. Dutton has done no wrong, but has responsibly exercised power which he cannot extend at public whim. The Afghan interpreter and their family should not be abandoned to the Taliban, but the ALP have made that difficult. I get the frustration, ALP have done the same to me on another issue. Thing is, Turnbull dirty tricks were harnessed when he was PM, and now just move undirected, as they used to. 

Corbyn's Zionist remark, accusing British Jews of not knowing their history when he clearly does not understand the history of those he supports is telling. Corbyn seems to feel that the Palestinians, who were named in 1967 so as to persecute Jews, have no history before 1967. The name, Palestine was the Roman word describing Jewish administrators of Jewish lands.

From my article on Quora
How can Dandenong's Palm Plaza, McCrae St and Walker St be tiled or paved beautifully and cheaply?

Built on a mound of dirt, the promenade has been tiled for pedestrians, but council has approved trucks to access supply business over the tiles. The result is subsidence and every ten to fifteen years the tiles need to be relaid at a cost of millions of dollars. But the relaid areas quickly become pedestrian trip hazards.

Council needs to commission a site survey with a view to anchoring elements of the land and paving appropriately for land use.

Things have changed since that tower in Pisa was built.
= =
A daily column on what the ALP have as a policy, supported by a local member, and how it has 'helped' the local community. I'll stop if I cannot identify a policy. Feel free to make suggestions. Contact me on FB, not twitter. I have twitter, but never look at it.

Gabrielle Williams was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Carers and Volunteers, working with the Minister for Housing, Disability and Ageing and the Minister for Families and Children. Williams was given those titles when elected in 2014. It is difficult to find what value she has been to Dandenong, but clearly the ALP see her as the future. Workers around Palm Plaza have highlighted to me their desire for better lighting. The leave work after sun down and come to work before first light. The area is dim and with the issue of crime being high, people are naturally concerned. Council claims they have recently upgraded the lighting to be event friendly. I get it Greens are concerned with light pollution, but people have to be able to make a living. If I'm elected, my first act would be to cut all funding to Dandenong Observatory which allegedly is disturbed by ambient lighting which makes local workers feel safe at night in industrial areas. (Jokes, Dandenong does not have an observatory, just Green activists who seem to hate people).

As part of the November 24th Vic election campaign I have a petition I want to bring before the Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. I believe Matthew will be the next premier of Victoria and so I am petitioning him as I raise the issues of Employment, Crime and Education in Dandenong. I am also seeking money for my campaign. I don't have party resources, and so my campaign is on foot, and on the internet. Any money I receive that is not spent on the campaign will go to Grow 4 Life. I am asking questions like "What do you love about Dandenong?" and "If you could change something in Dandenong to make it better, what would it be?" I'm not limiting the questions to state issues. I'm happy to discuss anything, and get things done.
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 Diary 

Single released April 22, 1972
Bread was a rock band from Los Angeles, California. They placed 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1970 and 1977 and were a prime example of what later was labeled soft rock.
Baby I'm-a Want You was the fourth album by Bread, released in 1972. Its singles included the title cut (which reached #3 on the Billboard Top 100), "Everything I Own",(#5), "Mother Freedom" (#37),and "Diary" (#15). This was the first Bread album to feature keyboards player Larry Knechtel.



=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. Australia loses to Bangladesh at test cricket and the public reaction is of horror when it should be joy. The competition needs to be competitive. If it worries some old timers, let them think back to Kim Hughes captaining Australia, and smile for the memory. And Hope for the West Indies who defeated England. Cricket is the winner.  

Tony Abbott sign got given coverage when Malcolm Turnbull gave $50 to a guy with a sandwich board calling the then PM a "c#nt" on each side of the boards. The sandwich board guy was charged, but a judge excused him. The guy had argued he had strategically placed a character to make it look like "can't" and the judge decided it was ok. It was lucky Andrew Bolt had not written it, because there are two laws in Australia. Meanwhile, someone in the Libs has leaked details of Mr Abbott's expenses. Abbott is a sitting MP who has campaigned for the Libs. The other former PM's only manage self interest. 

Constitutional expert predicts that the high court will boot the government and deny a postal vote on gay marriage. It might too, but only because judges seem politically active. It would be absurd to boot Barnaby Joyce from parliament on a technicality when he immediately disavowed on discovery. But judges can read between the lines. They are that smart. 

Trump in Texas. Press go wild denouncing Trump for going to Texas, and claim the clothes he wore promotes Trump products. Trump is worth $2 billion to Twitter. All anyone need do on Twitter to get an extra order of magnitude in likes and shares is to denounce Trump. That is why admins have not cashiered Trump's account. NYT 12% support from US readers. The paper is that bad, left wing partisan. 

SSM and Safe Schools. What is the link between the two? Clementine Ford went to a school and refused to speak to male students. Ford is an appalling choice to showcase democracy or civic virtues. One feels that if they could, schools would invite Trump to Ford's theatre. 

























=== from 2016 === 
It is ok to die old and blessed. But Gene Wilder could have had better. Better memories and the consolation of family. Only, the wife he intended for children died of cancer and he succumbed to Alzheimer. But his life's work provided great joy. He died aged 83. He was an actor, screenwriter, director and author. 

Clinton's quest to be the first doormat as President of the United States was highlighted when disgraced former congressman David Weiner was outed sexting again. This time to a Trump supporter. His wife, who was his doormat, is also a key adviser to Clinton. Clearly there is much in common. Weiner described his sexting as appropriate, but it includes an image of his erect penis next to his baby son, in bed. It might not have been his penis, being shielded by his boxers. It could have been a duck. That is the top level of Democrat talent. Those are the people who tell the US that they cannot possibly balance the budget or legislate responsibly. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility. 
=== from 2015 ===
The Skaf rapes were a hate crime. There are many hate crimes that go unpunished because they are also other crimes. Rape is wrong. Aggravated rape is wrong. Gang rape is wrong. Threatening and intimidation is wrong. Abduction is wrong. Hate crimes are wrong. It is apparent that Skaf was jailed for the rapes, but not for the hate crime. A number of people have played down the nature of the hate crime. It isn't clear there really are laws against it. Sometimes, when people are heard to publicly abuse each other, they resort to race and ethnicity and gender and disability. It is almost unimaginable that the garden variety playground style abuse could be considered a hate crime on its own. Hate crimes are aggravating features of crime. Rape can also be a hate crime. In the case of the Skaf gang, by their own admission at the time of the rapes, it is apparent that that was exactly the case. And yet members of the press, and public servants, have acted to shield the criminals from their activity. And that may still be the case today. 

Bart Cummings died old and blessed. He was Australia's greatest horse trainer.  
From 2014
Last year, just prior to the federal election, Rudd was revealed as having lied to the electorate. He promised policies would be costed and he claimed they had been by treasury. But treasury said it hadn't. Rudd walked into the election without a policy platform, but assuring voters he would increase spending while simultaneously cutting it. And he had cut spending by not having declared income sources for the few policies he had, creating land mines for the new government in Education and Health. His successor has tried to exploit those land mines, claiming the government has cut spending on Education and Health as it increased .. because he knows years from now the policies have not been paid for and will have to be cut. The media have joined in the dance and have been quite successful, according to the polls, at making the electorate forget how bad the Rudd government was. But one reminder today was Garrett being named as responsible for three deaths in the Pink Batts debacle which also claimed over a hundred houses from house fires. If the judges hadn't blamed Garrett they would have had to point at Rudd, and no left winger wants that. Shorten has continued the bad agenda of the ALP, still having no policy beyond the reactionary tax and spend. The problem that poses in the future for Australia's children is obvious. The children will not be able to live as well as their parents, and will have to repay their parent's debts. Meanwhile, Mr Abbott is accused of saying that the sailing of the first fleet into Sydney Harbour is defining in our national character. Apparently the lobby groups want him to call it something else, like a holocaust. But Mr Abbott is correct. 

The blood is still flowing in Syria and Obama dithers. Some say there is no peace when the US is at war, in which case there has been a year of peace in Syria, but those that make the claims of US aggression are often wrong. US are wrong to unquestioningly support Ukraine. Ukraine have questions that need to be answered. They have turned their cities into war zones where their people are ethnically Russian. This cannot be excused. The Ukrainian government is illegitimate. It would be impossible to hold a fair election at the moment. We do not know exactly what happened with the shooting down of MH17. Ukraine acted to prevent international police from collecting bodies. Ukraine has support from Washington, and Putin does not have support from Washington. Washington needs to explain her position. If Obama has backed the assassins of MH17 he needs to be impeached. Last year Obama wanted to bomb Syria in support of ISIS/ISIL/IS. This year he is bombing IS in Iraq. The only consistent thing is Obama wasting money. Meanwhile Putin is smeared as having said that Ukraine are like Nazis. What he had said was the the sieging  of Russian Ethnic Ukrainian cities was as barbaric as the Nazis had been at Leningrad. Putin is right. 
From 2013
A son of Syria's murderous leader wants the world to attack Syria. UK parliament says it wants peace. What would peace look like in Syria? Would the civilian population be shelled with a mixture of ordinary and chemical ordinance? Would the local population be threatened with sectarian violence? Would a new leader be worse? What is the path of hope? When Obama was running for President he said he would be better than President Bush. The only area Obama has excelled the previous President is in spending. Bush was strong and effective, even as a lame duck. NK and Syria would not have taken the liberties they have, under Bush. Suggesting Bush would have acted sooner than the dithering Obama, without escalating the affair. Thing is, Syria is bad without being the cause of the problem. Iran is the puppet master in this situation. And in this high stakes game, the threat is to the only place in the Middle East where Arabs can walk the streets unmolested, Israel. 

Rudd's election plan is in tatters. He had apparently intended to run on the denunciation that the Liberal National Parties would cut responsibly into spending. Something Rudd would never do. However, in taking insurance out on unannounced policy by using treasury figures of worst case scenarios .. something the ALP have never done for themselves, losing over $107 Billion in shortfalls, Rudd made a mistake. He claimed Treasury had costed policies. Treasury have had to release to media the detail that it hadn't costed anyone's policies. Showing that Rudd is now a liar and called out as one by senior public servants. That would never happen if those public servants thought Ruddite ALP would be elected at any time prior to the end of their careers. So now we have senior public servants saying they expect the LNP will be in office for multiple terms of office. Maybe Mr Abbott will be the longest serving Australian PM? It is difficult to imagine anyone in the ALP with the talent to take office. 

Update on the drugs in sport issue. It looks increasingly as if a young sportsman has been cornered into admitting he had done something wrong when he had done nothing wrong. The Canberra 23 year old is being offered a reduction in penalty if he confesses and names names before the election. Jason Clare should not be rewarded for this smear. 
Former ALP minister is found guilty of corruption by the ICAC. They really need to look at sitting members too.
Historical perspective on this day
526 – King Theoderic the Great dies of dysentery at Ravenna; his daughter Amalasuntha takes power as regent for her 10-year-old son Athalaric.
1282 – Peter III of Aragon lands at Trapani to intervene in the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
1363 – The five-week Battle of Lake Poyangbegins, in which the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders (Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang) meet to decide who will supplant the Yuan dynasty.
1464 – Pope Paul II succeeds Pope Pius II as the 211th pope.
1574 – Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
1590 – Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle. (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)

1727 – Anne, eldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain, is given the title Princess Royal.
1791 – HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef the previous day.
1799 – The entire Dutch fleet is captured by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the War of the Second Coalition.

1800 – Gabriel Prosser postpones a planned slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia, but is arrested before he can make it happen.
1813 – First Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
1813 – Creek War: Fort Mims massacre: Creek "Red Sticks" kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.
1835 – Australia: Melbourne, Victoria is founded.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union forces under General Horatio Wright.
1873 – Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Sea.
1896 – Philippine Revolution: After Spanish victory in the Battle of San Juan del Monte, eight provinces in the Philippines are declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Arenas.

1909 – Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.
1914 – World War I: Germans defeat the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg.
1917 – Vietnamese prison guards led by Trịnh Văn Cấn mutiny at the Thái Nguyênpenitentiary against local French authority.
1918 – Fanni Kaplan shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, which along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.
1922 – Battle of Dumlupınar: The final battle in the Greco-Turkish War ("Turkish War of Independence").

1940 – The Second Vienna Award reassigns the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Alam el Halfa begins.
1945 – Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
1945 – The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthurlands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
1945 – The Allied Control Council, governing Germany after World War II, comes into being.
1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty.

1962 – Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
1963 – The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.
1967 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1974 – A Belgrade–Dortmund express train derails at the main train station in Zagrebkilling 153 passengers.
1974 – A powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industriesheadquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo. Eight are killed, 378 are injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.

1981 – President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing committed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Azerbaijan declares independence from Soviet Union.
1992 – The 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff ends with Randy Weaver surrendering to federal authorities.
1995 – Bosnian War: NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serbforces.

1998 – Second Congo War: Armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo(DRC) and their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies recapture Matadi and the Inga dams in the western DRC from RCD and Rwandan troops.
1999 – East Timor votes for independence from Indonesia in a referendum.
2002 – Henri Kuprashvili swam the Dardanelles using the old Georgian military-training style "Mkhedruli Kolkhuri" (Military Colchian) i.e., with hands and feet bound tightly at four places. He swam 12 km in 3 hours and 15 minutes.
2014 – Prime Minister of Lesotho Tom Thabane flees to South Africa as the army allegedly stages a coup.
=== 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 to those born on this day, across the years Peter of Castile (1334), Samuel Whitbread (1720), Mary Shelley (1797), Ernest Rutherford (1871), Nancy Wake (1912), Ted Williams (1918), Warren Buffett (1930), Cameron Diaz (1972), Andy Roddick (1982) and Emily Bear (2001). On your day, Constitution Day in Kazakhstan (1995); St. Rose of Lima's Day in Peru; Victory Day in Turkey
1813 – Creek War: A force of Creeks, belonging to the Red Sticks faction killed hundreds of settlers in Fort Mims in Alabama.
1835 – European settlers landing on the north banks of the Yarra River in Southeastern Australia founded the city of Melbourne.
1909 – American paleontologist Charles Walcott discovered the Burgess Shale, one of the world's most celebrated fossil fields, in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia.
1959 – The title of National Hero of Indonesia was first given, to the writer-cum-politician Abdul Muis.
1995 – Bosnian War: NATO began its bombing campaign against the Army of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The campaign has begun, The title is given. Fossils celebrate. Gathering on the north bank, we survive the creek. Enjoy your day.
Deaths
===
Tim Blair

===
Andrew Bolt

===

TOM JACKSON

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 30, 2016 (6:00pm)

The hero backpacker who risked all to protect a young woman has now died: 
British man Tom Jackson has died in hospital today from injuries sustained in a violent knife attack that resulted in the death of Mia Ayliffe-Chung in Home Hill last week.
Mr Jackson, 30, was stabbed in the face, head and torso when he attempted to save Ms Ayliffe-Chung after she was attacked at the backpackers hostel. 
Ayliffe-Chung’s funeral will feature a reading from the Koran. Make of that what you will.
===

MEATY MIKE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 30, 2016 (5:39pm)

You may be a meathead if: 
You wear sleeveless shirts … and  cross your arms to make your biceps look bigger. 
Over to you, Mike Carlton.
===

TEAR DOWN THIS LEGISLATION

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 30, 2016 (4:15pm)

The crusade is on: 
All but one government backbencher in the Senate has signed on to conservative firebrand Cory Bernardi’s bill to remove legal restrictions on offensive and insulting speech just days after Malcolm Turnbull said the issue wasn’t a “priority”.
As parliament returns Senator Bernardi has been inviting “every single one” of his colleagues to add their name to the introduction of his private member’s bill, which would remove the words “insult” and “offend” from section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
Senator Bernardi said 20 senators had co-sponsored the bill, including the bloc of four One Nation senators and independents Bob Day, David Leyonhjelm and Derryn Hinch, making it “one of the largest signatories” to a piece of legislation. 
The solitary Coalition holdout is Victorian senator Jane Hume.
UPDATE. Was Bill Shorten misquoted?
UPDATE II. According to Reuters, unpopular Malcolm Turnbull is now the US vice president:
===

GENE WILDER

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 30, 2016 (2:39pm)

The wonderful Gene Wilder has died at 83:

Der feeling is moochal.
UPDATE. For some reason, the Guardian‘s Wilder obituary twice mentions Donald Trump.
===

PROM NIGHT WAS AWKWARD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 30, 2016 (1:24pm)

It’s the same old story. She ended up leaving her first love for a handsome French point de repère: 
“I didn’t realise I was different until my teens when others started dating each other and I had deep feelings for a local bridge.” 
===

JUST A FLESH WOUND

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 30, 2016 (2:07am)

A curious diagnosis from the ABC:

===

CAPTAIN NO TO THE RESCUE

Tim Blair – Monday, August 29, 2016 (10:26pm)

Whenever and wherever gender injustice occurs, Captain No will set things right: 
Australian of the Year and Diversity Council Australia chair David Morrison is to act as a “high level mentor” to Geocon managing director Nick Georgalis in the wake of Friday’s construction site nudity scandal in Canberra. 
Once he’s finished in Canberra, David is off to New York and another nudity outbreak. Onwards, Captain No!
===

On The Bolt Report and radio tonight - scares, porkies and how greens will raise your power bills

Andrew Bolt August 30 2016 (3:51pm)

On The Bolt Report on Sky News Live at 7pm tonight:
Editorial: The great new scare that greens are using to make us broke.
Guests:
Turnbull Government faces a stunning backbench revolt on free speech. The priest who bailed up Bill Shorten and made him tell a porkie. Have the new anti-racists gone too far, now bullying an innocent boy in grade four?

Podcasts of the show here but also now on our Facebook page here.

On 2GB, 3AW and 4BC with Steve Price from 8pm.
Listen live here. Talkback:  131 873.  Listen to all past shows  here.
===

Why won’t Turnbull say it’s a plebiscite or nothing?

Andrew Bolt August 30 2016 (11:01am)

My editorial from The Bolt Report last night - the same-sex marriage threat to Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals he may yet betray:
===

Who let them in?

Andrew Bolt August 30 2016 (8:36am)

Actually, we know who let in more than 1 million last year, and will let in another 250,000 this:
A 16-year-old German-Moroccan national accused of stabbing a police officer in the neck in the city of Hanover has been charged with attempted murder and supporting a foreign terrorist organisation. 
Safia S, whose last name was withheld in line with privacy laws, carried out a “martyrdom operation” on behalf of Islamic State at Hanover’s main train station in February, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
UPDATE
The invasion of Europe continues. On Monday:
Italian naval ships and vessels from non-government groups rescued thousands of migrants off the Libyan coast, the latest surge in desperate attempts to flee to Europe… 
Groups such as Proactiva Open Arms and Doctors Without Borders helped take on some 3000 people who had been travelling in some 20 small wooden boats.
Fewer than last year, overall, yet still many:
Migrant and asylum seeker arrivals in Italy rose 12% in July compared to the same period last year, EU border agency Frontex said Friday. At least 25,300 people, mostly from Eritrea and Nigeria, reached Italy last month. A total of 95,000 people arrived in the first seven months of 2016, a number Frontex said is “in line with last year”. 
Also in July, the migration flow from Turkey to Greece dropped by 97%, with just 1,800 asylum seekers intercepted… Implementation of an EU-Turkey accord on asylum seekers along the eastern Mediterranean route has brought the numbers of people intercepted down from 151,000 [so far this year] to 8,500. 
(Thanks to reader Rob W.) 
===

The savagery of the tolerant Leftist comedian

Andrew Bolt August 30 2016 (8:30am)

Once again, I am astonished that Leftist claiming to be more moral and tolerant then unleash such vicious abuse. It seems that they somehow give themselves an excuse to be as evil as they they imagine their enemies to be:
On Saturday night, conservative columnist and diehard Donald Trump booster Ann Coulter attended a Comedy Central roast, and things went about as well as you might expect. Coulter was there as one of the assigned roasters for Rob Lowe, joining a gallery of comedians and Hollywood celebrities ready to poke fun at the 52-year-old actor. However, the event’s meanest, most brutal one-liners were directed not at the subject, but at fellow roaster Coulter. 
“Ann is one of the most repugnant, hateful, hatchet-face bitches alive,” standup comic Jimmy Carr asserted. “It’s not too late to change, Ann. You could kill yourself!”
“The only person you will ever make happy is the Mexican who digs your grave,” comedian Nikki Glaser said.
“If you are here, Ann, who is scaring the crows away from our crops?” Pete Davidson, a comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member, asked. Davidson also called Coulter a “racist #” during the taping. “I do want to say as a feminist that I can’t support everything that’s been said tonight,” singer-songwriter Jewel said. “But as someone who hates Ann Coulter, I’m delighted.”
The Left is now the natural home of the barbarian and the thug.  There seems to be a few misogynists among them, too.
Coulter will soon be my guest on The Bolt Report.
(Thanks to reader Ian.) 
===

Good luck getting the crossbenchers to agree

Andrew Bolt August 30 2016 (8:20am)

To overcome any Greens-Labor opposition, the Turnbull Government would need to get the votes of Pauline Hanson’s four senators and Nick Xenophon’s three, plus two more of the remaining four Senators.
Just how hard that could be to get them all on the same page was exposed by Paul Murray on Sky News last night:
Eight of the 11 Senate crossbenchers including Pauline Hanson, Nick Xenophon and Derryn Hinch laid bare their competing interests in a fiery Sky News discussion which illustrated a vast gulf in opinion on issues including free speech, Family Law court reform and climate change… 
The Prime Minister looks set to have a tough job on his hands with senators-elect largely glossing over Coalition priorities of budget repair and banking reform in favour of personal agendas ranging from small business to tougher action on sexual abuse in the defence force, and loftier social reforms tackling predatory gambling practices, child sex offenders, online predators and welfare rorting…

But other issues sparked more intense debate, particularly One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s call for reform of the Family Law Court into more of tribunal system, while other crossbenchers pushed for a Senate inquiry.
“It’s unconsititional and it’s crazy because the last time they tried to do something like that taking Family Court judges out of wigs and gowns, they started shooting and blowing up people ... like in Sydney,” independent Senator Derryn Hinch said of Ms Hanson’s plan. “It’s unworkable and its rubbish.”
In a sign that relations in the upper house could also be marred by petty grievances, Senator Hinch accused Ms Hanson of telling her party not to deal with Mr Hinch or his staffers during Senate School…
“One of your staffers I have no time for, I’m telling you that now,” Ms Hanson retorted, adding “I must say, I didn’t appreciate you saying I talk a load of s*** when I am actually talking about the Family Law Act..” Mr Hinch wasn’t the only Senator to take aim at Ms Hanson who also enraged Mr Xenophon when she spoke against polygamy among Muslim families claiming welfare…

“It’s not legal in this country ... you can’t single out one religion and pick on them,” Mr Xenophon said. 
It seems there’s not a spotlight big enough for Hanson, Xenophon and Hinch to share. 
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Turnbull tumbles but Labor can only tie

Andrew Bolt August 30 2016 (8:07am)

I am surprised the Coalition vote hasn’t fallen further - to at least the 49 per cent to Labor’s 51 that the Essential Poll claims. Bill Shorten isn’t getting the rewards you’d expect, and Labor will want to know why:
Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity has tumbled to new lows and support for the Coalition has slipped since the election eight weeks ago, leaving the government and Labor deadlocked at 50-50, according to the first Newspoll since the government’s narrow victory… 
The Newspoll, taken over the weekend exclusively for The Australian, reveals satisfaction with the Prime Minister’s performance has fallen to 34 per cent, his lowest level since he toppled Tony Abbott almost a year ago and down six points since the last measure on the eve of the July 2 election. Dissatisfaction with Mr Turnbull has reached its highest point of 52 per cent, up five points since the election.
For the first time Mr Turnbull’s net satisfaction rating — now at minus 18 points — is worse than the same measure for Bill Shorten, who scored minus 14 points…
The poll of 1696 voters taken from last Thursday to Sunday shows the Coalition returns to parliament with a primary vote of 41 per cent, down from the 42.1 per cent result on election day. It is only the third government in the past 30 years to have suffered a fall in its primary vote in the first poll following an election…
The only other governments to have suffered a fall in their primary vote in the first poll after an election were John Howard’s in 2004 and Julia Gillard’s in 2010, and both were defeated at the next election. 
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Labor loses, no matter which way Heydon goes

Piers Akerman – Sunday, August 30, 2015 (12:58am)

LABOR is in a lose-lose position whether or not royal commissioner Dyson Heydon recuses himself tomorrow from continuing to hear evidence before the Royal Commission Into Trade Union Governance And Corruption. 
 Continue reading 'Labor loses, no matter which way Heydon goes'
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Left still thinks Skaf rapes weren’t racist

Miranda Devine – Sunday, August 30, 2015 (12:56am)

THEY were hate crimes, racist crimes. The Lebanese Muslim gang rapists who rampaged through Sydney on the eve of the 2000 Olympics chose their young victims on the basis of religious and ethnic identity.
 Continue reading 'Left still thinks Skaf rapes weren’t racist'
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The NSW Bar Association should explain itself to Dyson Heydon

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (9:37am)

Michael Smith raises very interesting questions about the role of the NSW Bar Association - and particularly that of its publications manager, Greens candidate Chris Winslow - in the witchhunt against Dyson Heydon.
Note that Winslow is the first person I know to have wrongly characterised the law lecture Heydon was about to give as a “Liberal Party fundraiser” - a deeply misleading appellation soon taken up the Greens, Labor and certain journalists, especially those apparently tipped off by someone.
The NSW Bar Association needs to explain its role fully, and also explain the very lukewarm defence of Heydon by its Left-leaning president, Jane Needham.
Talk about the march through the institutions. Something very worrying needs to be cleared up here.
Mr Winslow’s retweeting habits, by the way, seem to me very unfortunate and juvenile for a person in his position.
(Thanks to reader W.) 
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On The Bolt Report today, August 30

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (7:00am)

On Channel 10 at 10am and 3pm

My guests:  Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, former Labor campaign strategist Bruce Hawker, Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen and Gerard Henderson, Australian columnist and head of the Sydney Institute.
So many fake scandals to explode - the Border Force one, Tony Windsor’s despicable conspiracy theory, the Dyson Heydon smear, Ray Martin’s wag-the-dog-nonsense and more such craziness. Plus more on Tim Flannery and Jon Faine.
Talk about burning bridges.

The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
I will be appearing every second Tuesday on Neil Mitchell’s 3AW program at 10am. Mitchell says he has an advantage over me.
UPDATE
Transcript of my interview with the Foreign Minister:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'On The Bolt Report today, August 30'
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An ugly swamp for Labor to exploit

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (5:54am)

Lots for Labor to exploit with its racist the-Chinese-are-coming campaign:
A cluster of people carrying placards and flags caused a bother at several lower north shore auctions on Saturday, when they turned out to protest foreign ownership of real estate. 
The presence of the group, shouldering signs that bore phrases such as “Keep the Aussie dream alive” and “We don’t your want dirty $$"(sic), motivated auctioneers to bring the waiting bidders indoors for privacy at several properties.
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Muslim arrested over Bangkok bombing

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (5:50am)

An arrest, but not necessarily of the bomber:
Police have arrested a key suspect in the Bangkok shrine bombing in a seedy apartment building in a predominantly Muslim area of the Thai capital. 
The 28-year-old man, believed to be Turkish, was found in possession of a stack of passports and bomb-making materials, including motorcycle ball bearings similar to those used in the bombing of the Erawan shrine on August 17.
He was late Saturday charged with being in possession of bomb making materials including pipes and fuses pending further investigation…
The arrest has reinforced suspicion that an extreme right-wing Pan-Turkic group was behind the bombing that killed 20 people and injured more than 120 in the worst attack in Thailand in years.  The group known as Grey Wolves has been linked with Muslim Uighurs in western China. Thailand’s deportation of 109 Uighurs in July infuriated Uighurs who regard themselves as being of Turkish origin.
Different grievance, different part of the world, but same faith. 
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Peter Hartcher smears again

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (5:09am)

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hatcher falsely suggested Tony Abbott could be “homophobic” on the basis of a false claim that he snubbed the gay partner of our ambassador to France.
Hartcher never apologised for that smear, which showed his preparedness to believe the ludicrous worst of the Prime Minister.
Today Hartcher gives another example of how his evident hatred for Abbott makes him believe a plainly idiotic but nasty slur, although at least this time the paper has issued a correction:
CORRECTION: This column incorrectly asserts that the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was involved in the decision to launch a planned Border Force operation in Melbourne. Fairfax Media accepts unreservedly that Mr Abbott was not involved in this decision, and also accepts that Mr Abbott had no foreknowledge of the Border Force plan to stop and speak to people about their visa status.
The trouble is that this false assertion is the whole basis for yet another anti-Abbott tirade, since the column still starts like this:
If you were wondering why the Prime Minister, without consulting his cabinet, decided to launch Friday’s ham-fisted assault on Australians’ freedom of movement, his poor poll ratings are only part of the answer. 
We already have a national reform summit – it meets in Canberra for about 20 weeks of the year at taxpayers’ expense. It’s called parliament. He invents faux security measures in a transparent effort to look tough. And, whether it’s stripping citizenship or ordering the stopping and questioning of ordinary citizens in their daily lives, Abbott hopes to inflame Labor into opposing him so that he can point gleefully and shout “Labor is soft on terror!”
Why hasn’t this whole spiteful and plainly false article been removed?
UPDATE
Why does the ABC treat a typical slur from protesters at a Socialist Alternative rally as national news?
(Thanks to readers Nathan, John, WaG311, Peter of Bellevue Hill and Josh.) 
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The Australian “race”?

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (5:01am)

From Honi Soit:
When I was about nine or 10 years old, I saw a clip on the evening news about the second intifada. I had no idea what it was but I knew one thing; they were Arabs. As a mixed-race Australian-Egyptian, I was born an identity crisis but something about this clip had me wandering down the hallway in search of dad to ask him some questions. Who were they? Why were they fighting? And stones? Don’t they have guns? Do we know them?
What race is “Australian”? 
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The Islamic State grows stronger

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (5:00am)

David Brooks on a threat the Left fails to fully understand or even acknowledge, let alone fight:
The ISIS atrocities have descended like distant nightmares upon the numbed conscience of the world. The first beheadings of Americans had the power to shock, but since then there has been a steady barrage of inhumanity: mass executions of Christians and others, throwing gay men from rooftops, the destruction of ancient archaeological treasures, the routine use of poison gas. 
Even the recent reports in The [New York] Times about the Islamic State’s highly structured rape program have produced shock but barely a ripple of action…
State-sponsored slavery seemed like a thing of the past, but now ISIS is an unapologetic slave state. Yazidi women are carefully cataloged, warehoused and bid upon....
This wasn’t supposed to happen in the 21st century…
Meanwhile, it offers a confident vision of the future: a unified caliphate. It fills the vacuum left by decaying nationalist ideologies…
President Obama has said that ISIS stands for nothing but savagery. That’s clearly incorrect. Our military leaders speak of the struggle against ISIS as an attempt to kill as many ISIS leaders and soldiers as possible. But this is a war about a vision of history. ISIS ideas have legitimacy because it controls territory and has a place to enact them.
So far the response to ISIS has been pathetic… It’s time to stop underestimating this force as some group of self-discrediting madmen. ISIS is a moral and political threat to the fragile and ugly stability that exists in what’s left in the Middle East. ISIS will thrive and spread its ideas for as long as it has its land. We are looking into a future with a resurgent Iran, a contagious ISIS and a collapsing state order. If this isn’t a cause for alarm and reappraisal, I don’t know what is.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Economics too tricky for the ACTU

Andrew Bolt August 30 2015 (4:02am)

The quality of leadership at the ACTU has fallen far since the days of Bob Hawke, Bill Kelty and Martin Ferguson:
Former Treasury boss Martin Parkinson and ACTU president Ged Kearney have clashed over the best way to raise more tax revenue without punishing the poor. 
Mr Parkinson, who was Treasury secretary until late last year, took a swipe at Ms Kearney after she declared herself to be open to changes to payroll tax but disinclined to support a GST increase.
He argued the taxes were similar because both are paid at a flat rate and not according to a person’s capacity to pay.
“You’re too tricky by far,” said Ms Kearney, who was on stage.
“That’s not me being tricky, it’s economics,” he retorted.
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LOUD SILENCE

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 30, 2014 (4:38pm)

Seven’s Sunrise gives a platform to Old Leatherface: 
Watch the special extended online cut of Andrew O’Keefe as he sits down with journalist John Pilger to talk about the unmentionable truths of Australia. 
Er, guys? You’re mentioning them. By the way, Pilger can’t count and knows nothing about Aborigines.
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NATION UNITED

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 30, 2014 (4:32pm)

Israel is a famously argumentative place, but the nation isn’t arguing any more: 
We were used to rockets, even if not in these quantities, and we feel largely protected by a virtually miraculous Iron Dome system. But the images of tunnels so well-constructed that Hamas terrorists could ride motorcycles in them – that was something different.
When the IDF killed Hamas men who had come through the tunnels and found them equipped with weapons, handcuffs and injectable sedatives, it was clear that the movement’s intent was to kill as many Israelis as they could, then kidnap others and take them to Gaza. That, more than anything, struck horror so deep into the hearts of Israelis that, for the most part, internal politics have disappeared.
Yes, there is a left-wing fringe that wants to end the war, but most Israelis know that’s absurd. And there’s a right-wing fringe that wants to retake Gaza, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has made it clear he has no interest in that. But the fringes are small, and Israelis are united as almost never before. The petty fighting that often consumes us is now a luxury we simply cannot afford. 
(Via Jill)
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MUH-MUH-MUH MIKE

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 30, 2014 (4:29pm)

Mike Carlton likes to tailor his accent to suit his various employment circumstances. Now that he’s turning up inCrikey, I suggest he goes with this one. Or maybe he should go the full Milo.
UPDATE. Further analysis from Mike: 
Sure fire way to radicalise young Muslims is for News Corpse and the right wing shock jocks to savage their religion and culture. 
I’m not sure that this is how things work. After all, Mike has savaged – as best he can – us peaceful conservatives for years, yet so far not one of us has severed even a single head. Catholics and Jews also seem immune to psychopath conversion via savaging. Anyway, fans of Carlton’s work should fast-forward to 3:30 for a superb example of investigative journalism.
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BJORN WALDEGAARD

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 30, 2014 (4:22pm)

1979 world rally champion Bjorn Waldegaard has died at 71:

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SORE GEORGE

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 30, 2014 (2:34pm)

A beating for anti-Israel British MP George Galloway, who is now in hospital suffering a suspected broken jaw: 
His spokesman said he did not know whether the attacker was an Israeli, an EDL-supporter, or whether he had another motive. 
It’d be a long list. Galloway was previously assaulted with a rubber stress ball in 2008. Three years earlier, Gallowaytook refuge after a bunch of Hizbies threatened to kill him. 
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The Bolt Report tomorrow, August 31

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (11:21am)

On Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial:  The Left learned the wrong lessons from Iraq, and now we must pay.
My guest:  Dick Warburton, slimed as a denier, on the renewable energy target he’s investigated for the Abbott Government..
The panel:  Health Services Union manager Kimberley Kitching and author and Australian columnist Niki Savva.
NewsWatch:  The Australian’s media editor Sharri Markson.  Why did the ABC give a platform to an Islamist extremist?  And did the Canberra press gallery protect Julia Gillard from the AWU scandal?
Lots more, including the shortcomings of grubby Paul Keating, Liberal divisions and a great sign of hope for the Abbott Government - signs of crumbling of the farcial Palmer “United” Party.
The videos of the shows appear here.
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This Age of Seeming, not doing, comes at a terrible price

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (11:01am)

As I’ve often argued:
Judging people and policies by what they do, rather than how they seem, is a key division today between conservatives and the Left.
And so:
Creepy, yes, but how many such Seeming Ceremonies we’ve had. There was last year’s apology to the “stolen generations” that no one can actually find, and now a sorry to the “Forgotten Australians” for having been removed from lousy parents for their own safety… They’d dance at Make Poverty History concerts that didn’t raise any money; they’d acknowledge traditional owners whose descendants weren’t present; they’d stage naked protests against fur that attracted only the sticky-handed; and they’d catch jets to signings of accords that only pretended to cut the gases they’d just belched. 
Once you had to show your goodness by doing something practical, like slogging through malarial swamps to build a health clinic in a jungle. Now you do it by jogging with mates to “raise awareness” - which means asking someone else to do the real work. 
I knew this obsession with seeming good rather than doing it was deadly:
Here is the link I’ve often warned of - between preaching the “stolen generations” myth and attacking attempts today to save Aboriginal children from dangers from which we’d rescue them if they were white. How many Aboriginal children have died already, thanks to the poison of this myth? 
But even I could not predict quite the ghastly depths this Age of Seeming would take us.Here is Brendan O’Neill on Britain’s Rotherham scandal, where authorities were too scared to seem racist by confronting the fact that Pakistani gangs were raping and trafficking in hundreds of girls:
So this is more than a story of opportunistic men taking advantage of vulnerable girls from a poor, postindustrial town. It speaks to the elevation of offense-avoidance above everything else, even the basic civilized requirement to protect the vulnerable. This is why the Rotherham story has rattled so many. They feel that the abuse is partly a consequence of the moral cowardice of modern-day politicos more concerned with appearing right-on than doing what is right.
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British PM deflects attention from Abbott’s Budget. UPDATE: ISIS bubonic plague threat

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (10:59am)

Labor’s Sue Lines on “hyping” of terrorism threats:
[The Prime Minister] is just using this as a shield to try and deflect from the awful mess they’re in with their budget.
Now even the British Prime Minister is trying to deflect attention from Abbott’s Budget:
BRITAIN has raised its terror threat risk level to “severe” because of fears over the situation in Iraq and Syria, meaning an attack is thought to be “highly likely”.
Friday’s move follows the killing of US journalist James Foley, apparently by a man speaking with an English accent who belonged to the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). While there was no intelligence to suggest that an attack was imminent, Prime Minister David Cameron said there was “no doubt in my mind” that IS had its sights set on targets in Europe.
UPDATE
Foreign Policy investigates a computer seized from an Islamic State volunteer:
The information on the laptop makes clear that its owner is a Tunisian national named Muhammed S. who joined ISIS in Syria and who studied chemistry and physics at two universities in Tunisia’s northeast. Even more disturbing is how he planned to use that education: 
The ISIS laptop contains a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals. “The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge,” the document states.
Denial, as noted by Gerard Henderson:
Nicholas Reece ... a taxpayer subsidised Public Policy Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Public Policy .... was on Sky News’ Paul Murray Live last [Thursday] night alleging that the Islamic State fighters are “a couple of thousand lightly armed thugs running around the desert” and would not fare well if attacked by an efficient army like that of Iran or Syria. He seemed totally unaware that IS terrorists/militants have captured sophisticated United States weapons from the Iraqi Army and have already fared well in battles against the Syrian Army. IS also captured Mosul in Iraq ... 
Scott Burchill ... Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Deakin University ... on the ABC 1 News Breakfast’s “Newspapers” gig last Tuesday ... indicated to viewers that he was none too happy about the response to the Abbott government’s attempt to prevent Aussie Sunni Muslim jihadists travelling to the Middle East to kill Sh’ia Muslims. Burchill thinks this is over the top… 
The front page of the Courier-Mail and the Daily Telegraph this morning are contributing to the sense of a moral panic that we’re all supposed to be experiencing at the moment about the threat that is posed by Jihadis – home-grown Jihadis – going across to fight in Syria and Iraq. And for some unspecified reason they’re going to return to Australia and continue to fight us. Even though the cause, of course, that motivates them is one really between Sunni and Shia in Syria and Iraq.

So, nevertheless we’re being subject to headlines this morning in Brisbane and in Sydney about how we can stop our young Muslim youth from becoming Jihadis and also how easily [sic] it is to transition from being someone is just an average guy and all of a sudden wants to go and start decapitating people in Syria.
It was your typical left-wing sneer at national security… It seems that Scott Burchill believes that Sunni and Sh’ia Muslims only oppose one another in the Middle East. If he had read beyond Page 1 of Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph, Dr Burchill would be aware that there are Sunni versus Sh’ia gang battles taking place in Western Sydney right now. Senior Lecturer Scott Burchill seems to believe that the division in Islam is only important outside of Australia and has no implications for Australians.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and anotherscaredaussie.) 
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Arctic not melting away at all

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (10:49am)

Nearing the end of the northern hemisphere summer, and Arctic sea ice isn’t anywhere near melting clean away as the likes of Al Gore and Tim Flannery once suggested:
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Abbott’s critics should say sorry instead

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (10:36am)

Remember all the ABC, Fairfax and ex-Labor commentators telling us Tony Abbott had stuffed the relationship with Indonesia and only a sorry might fix it?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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We’re not ready yet to divide ourselves by “race”

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (10:32am)

There is actually no case for changing our constitution to divide us on “racial” grounds, and it will be a grim day if one is ever made:
AWARENESS and understanding of the push to acknowledge indigenous Australians in the Constitution have not reached a point where the nation can proceed directly to a referendum, a panel headed by former deputy prime minister John Anderson has warned Tony Abbott. 
The Prime Minister and Bill Shorten have been briefed on the contents of Mr Anderson’s report, which urges Mr Abbott to turbo- boost a national campaign on the issue. After the briefing, Mr Abbott gave the strongest indication yet that a referendum before or at the next federal election was unlikely and that he believed his government needed to invest in a much bigger campaign for change to win people over. “It is one thing to commit to a referendum on constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians and another to deliver a successful referendum outcome,” Mr Abbott told The Weekend Australian.
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Who are we letting in?

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (10:30am)

Gee, our refugee program seems not to be working entirely to our advantage:
Afghan-born “Abu Yusseph” — whose real name is believed to be Zia AbdulHaq — left behind a son and ex-wife when he moved from Brisbane to Aleppo to be part of Islamic State… 
Another fighter, identified only as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi but who is believed to be a former Melbourne man of Fijian and Cambodian ancestry, is set to be the star in an upcoming propaganda video from Islamic State, which has previously released footage and images of gruesome executions and crucifixions, including the filmed beheading of American journalist James Foley.
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Palmer’s political position used to intimidate Chinese partners

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (10:07am)

Utterly disgraceful and dangerous to Australia’s reputation abroad. How dare Clive Palmer’s minions use his political position in what seems to me to an attempt to advance his business interests:
CLIVE Palmer’s political power was raised by his top executive in a written warning to the heads of China’s state-owned investment company to back off in their legal case accusing the tycoon of dishonesty over $12 million 
In a formal letter obtained by The Weekend Australian yesterday, Mr Palmer’s general manager, Vimal Sharma, warns the Chinese company’s Beijing and Hong Kong-based heads that they are attacking “Australia (sic) fourth largest political party of which our chairman is leader”.
The document was sent on official letterhead from Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy company on May 12 to Chang Zhenming, the chairman of Citic Group Corporation in Beijing, as well as two other executives in Hong Kong and Perth. The letter was sent days after The Australian revealed the Chinese company was formally accusing Mr Palmer of wrongfully taking its money. The letter claims it is “against the foreign policy of China” for Citic to be pursing legal actions and making serious courtroom allegations against Mr Palmer, who denies wrongfully siphoning $12.167m of Chinese funds to bankroll his Palmer United Party’s campaign for the federal election last year. The letter claims that China’s “scandalous” actions are damaging as China’s foreign policy “is for the non-interference in the domestic political affairs of a country” (Australia).
This is so shameful that Parliament must surely investigate this apparent abuse of office.
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan:
Using a parliamentary position to bully and threaten a foreign business while declaring what was in China’s interest from any other federal MP would cause an outcry sufficient to lead to expulsion from their party.
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Abbott: First Fleet arrival “defining moment” of our history

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (10:05am)

As I’ve said before, your enemies will always advertise your virtues more loudly than will your friends.
So Tony Abbott repeats himself to make sure there’s no mistaking him:
The arrival of the first fleet was the defining moment in the history of this continent. Let me repeat that: it was the defining moment in the history of this continent… 
It was the moment this continent became part of the modern world. It determined our language, our law and our fundamental values. Yes, it did dispossess and for a long time marginalise Indigenous people… Still it’s British settlement that has most profoundly shaped the country that we are. It has provided the foundation for Australia to become one of the freest, fairest and most prosperous societies on the face of the earth. So Arthur Phillip is as significant to modern Australia as George Washington is to the modern United States.
The occasion:
... addressing the launch of the Defining Moments Project today in Canberra and also marking the 200th anniversary of the death of Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of NSW...
There is a great gain to Abbott from saying something plainly true that will cause the tribalists and grudge-mongers of the Left to rage. It makes him seem the voice of reason against the representatives of division and unreason.
And indeed, ABC’s AM this morning was full of criticism. Unfortunately, but increasingly predictably, one of the critics was Abbott’s top adviser on indigenous affairs, Warren Mundine:
It was also a disastrous defining moment for indigenous people? ... Does that mean that Aboriginal people would have prospered from that? Of course not.
Mundine should check what Abbott said before rushing to criticise him - again. Abbott did not deny dispossession. He did not say everyone benefited or benefited equally. He is not talking in the absolutes of the Left.
Mundine however is talking in those absolutes that go with being a leader of the “race” industry. His own family history, his own relative prosperity and his own freedoms should tell him that, yes, he has indeed prospered, too, from British settlement. Look at the society around him and the benefits that he enjoys in full measure. How much of that would be there had no British - or, indeed, European - settlement occurred?
And even to point this out is to be diverted from Abbott’s main point. He is talking first and foremost about the most defining moment of this society. Given our laws, language, culture, habits of work, homes and dominant faith, it is simply beyond any rational argument that British settlement was the single event which most shaped how the vast majority of us live today.
Yet the ABC finds a string of other critics to rage against Abbott - or rage, rather, against a truth which does not fit their preferred narative.

There’s Matilda House, who does Welcome to Country ceremonies at Parliament, and who in her own mode of life and ancestry betrays the profound influence white settlement has had on her, too, yet protests:
I can’t fathom how a ship or a boat that sailed into Sydney Harbor could overtake the 60,000 years before.
Look around you, Ms House. You may not fathom it, but the fact that more than 23 million Australians speak English, not some Aboriginal language, and abide by English-derived laws, not Aboriginal, tells you just how profoundly those 60,000 years were overtaken.

Then there’s Kirsty Parker, National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, who must also know how defining an event white settlement was on her own family, too:
This notion that the real Australia, the true Australia, the good and modern Australia started in 1788 is of course offensive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Once again, note how Abbott’s critics need to verbal him in order to damn, suggesting that what he actually did say can’t be demonised to their satisfaction.
And note the word “offensive” - so threatening now that we have laws against free speech that make the giving of offense unlawful.  Parker rebuts an alleged fact not by proving it wrong but by damning it as “offensive”. This is one of the greatest poisons in public debate today.
But while it may be “offensive” to some, Ms Parker, that does not make it untrue.  If what Abbott says is false tell us his error. But do not retreat behind the imagined walls of “race” that so artificially divide us. Even your own life is more complex than this “us” and “them” dichotomy suggests. We have all been profoundly shaped by British settlement, and, not incidentally, overwhelmingly for the good. 
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Ricky Muir’s top five cars

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (8:29am)

Motoring Enthusiasts Senator Ricky Muir nominates his dream five-car garage:
AC Cobra - Classic Anglo-American muscle car. 
XC Cobra - His dream car is a ‘70’s Bathurst winner.
Shelby GT 500 - The ultimate in American muscle.
Holden EH Premier - Classic Aussie family car “for my wife”. Holden VN Commodore drag racer - “It’s in the shed in pieces at the moment”.
But he scores only four out of nine on a car-buff’s quiz:
Q: What is the current model designation for a Holden Commodore? 
A: I wouldn’t even have a clue with the new one.
Q: Who won last year’s Bathurst 1000?
A: I watched it… but I can’t remember his nickname.
Q: What iconic badge has been resurrected for the final GT Falcon?
A: GT-F
Q: How many car makers are actively building cars in Australia?
A: Three
Q: What is an Eaton twin-screw?
A: That’s a supercharger
Q: How many spark plugs are there in a modern, four-cylinder turbo diesel engine?
A: None
Q: Name the three top-selling cars in Australia in 2013?
A: The Camry was up there. I’d have to put a Commodore in there. And Territory. I’m more into my second-hand cars.
Q: Who was Australia’s last MotoGP world champion?
I don’t know. Q: What is the world’s fastest production car?
He seems nice, though.
Getting out and building a persona was a little bit awkward, but now that I’m here the public perception is definitely going to go however it goes. Hopefully I gain a little bit of support along the way.
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Kathy Jackson’s clown show

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (8:13am)

Kathy Jackson is doing her best to deflect the media’s attention from the real issues - her bizarre financial arrangements - that are being probed by the royal commission into union corruption:
DAVID SPICER, REPORTER: Kathy Jackson is no shrinking violet when it comes to talking about her sex life. After concluding her evidence today, she again raised concerns that a barrister she had an affair with more than 20 years ago was allowed to ask her questions at the hearing. 
KATHY JACKSON, HEALTH SERVICES UNION: I just could not believe that he had the audacity to sit there and want to cross-examination me. Forget the former lover stuff; everybody makes mistakes and has a charity shag along the way.
Jackson says she’s innocent. Of the allegations against her, I mean.
UPDATE
Jackson drags Shorten into the mess:
Speaking outside the royal commission into trade union corruption on Friday, Ms Jackson, who is on sick leave as national HSU secretary, accused Mr Shorten of being part of a “corrupt little gang” that put the troubled HSU into administration in 2012 for “their own political ends”. 
“It was about protecting their power base,” she said. “This is a minister of the Crown abusing federal crown resources about putting this union into administration to advance his own political needs. ”
Why was Shorten meddling with the union? 
===

Julie Bishop “one of the very best”

Andrew Bolt August 30 2014 (8:02am)

Julie Bishop is paid a handsome tribute:
Julie Bishop is one of the very best foreign affairs ministers among the world’s 196 nations, according to the US ambassador to Australia. 
“She’s in the top tier of the highest, most effective and most capable foreign ministers in the world,” says John Berry…
“She’s impressed all of Washington with her command of detail, her creativity, her effective interpretation of events and her hands-on leadership. One example of that was when she grabbed the bull by the horns, got on a plane to New York and engaged with the UN Security Council over the MH17 tragedy.

“That was a high-risk strategy. And with Russia as a permanent member there was a real question of whether it would succeed. It did and it did because of Minister Bishop and her alone. “For her first year in the job, she’s had an amazing debut on the world stage and she’s taken the world by storm.”
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Obama Furious After Vladimir Putin Unfriends Him on Facebook

By 
WASHINGTON – The turmoil that was generated between Russia and the United States after President Vladimir Putin granted asylum to Edward Snowden earlier this month escalated even further when President Obama cancelled his private meeting with the Russian president before September’s G-20 conference of world economic leaders in St. Petersburg. But the delicate fragments of alliance that remained between the two countries may have been irretrievably shredded in the proverbial fan today after Vladimir Putin unfriended President Obama on his Facebook page.
Sources inside the administration say President Obama learned of the Russian president’s Facebook coup during his morning White House briefing. Obama became quite upset when he was told the news, but upon learning that Vice President Biden and Vladamir Putin remained Facebook friends the president became enraged, forcing everyone out of the Oval Office before angrily kicking the door closed. Moments later it was discovered President Obama had signed onto his personal Twitter account and unfollowed President Putin.
About an hour later reporters managed to corner Vice President Biden outside a Duncan Donuts after he’d purchased his daily chocolate eclair and Diet Coke. When asked about Putin unfriending the president on Facebook, Biden took a moment to swallow a bite of his eclair before answering.
JOE BIDEN:  That’s a might tasty eclair. Only in America!
(The vice president smiled and winked at reporters)
JOE BIDEN:  Now, to your question about President Putin. Politics is a high stakes game of deception, distraction and diversion that few have the ability to master. That’s why there’s only a handful of folks who attain the level of power that a President Obama or a vice president like myself do. That being said, the depth of understanding involved in comprehending President Putin’s Facebook maneuver cannot be easily deciphered, let alone explained in a manner simple enough for the common man to grasp.
REPORTER:  Mr. Vice President, did Vladimir Putin hurt President Obama’s feelings?
PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Oh, sure. Even the most stoic among us isn’t immune to the humiliation of being unfriended on Facebook. Although it’s quite easy to forget, President Obama is after all, human. No more special than I am.
REPORTER:  President Obama unfollowed President Putin on his Twitter account. Was that out of spite?
JOE BIDEN: (chuckling) Of course it was.
REPORTER:  Mr. Vice President, apparently you are still Facebook friends with President Putin. Do you plan to unfriend him to show your allegiance with President Obama?
JOE BIDEN:  I can assure you President Obama isn’t concerned with my Facebook friends. What happens between President Obama and President Putin is between them. Who am I to take sides?
REPORTER:  But according to a high level source inside the White House, the president is very concerned. Why do you think Putin unfriended President Obama but not you?
JOE BIDEN:  (Smiling)  Oh, gosh, who knows. I can say I heard Mr. Putin is still friends with Jay Z and the Clintons on Facebook. So it’s not like I’m a big deal.
REPORTER:  Do you predict Putin will endorse you or Hillary for president in 2016?
JOE BIDEN:  (laughs very loud) Oh, I don’t foresee Vladimir getting involved in our presidential race. I do know he’s more partial to me than Hillary, but that really doesn’t matter much here in America does it?
REPORTER:  So you think Putin would lean towards you in a presidential race?
JOE BIDEN:  Vladimir is a physical man. A man’s man. A meat and potatoes kind of guy. He’s old school. So am I. We have more in common than he and Hillary do.
REPORTER:  (jokingly) Didn’t people used to say Mrs. Clinton was kind of masculine in her pantsuits?
JOE BIDEN:  Well there’s no doubt that Hillary’s natural tendency is to be less feminine than most gals, but there’s no need to churn up all those rumors from the past. I mean, she did give birth to a baby. Ain’t nothin’ masculine about that. Vladamir and I sire offspring but then we go hunting or fishing, or participate in espionage.
REPORTER:  Mr. Vice President, are you saying that some of the rumors about Mrs. Clinton …
JOE BIDEN:  Let me just stop you right there and state unequivocally, I have no doubt whatsoever that Hillary truly enjoys the company of men. Let’s just nip any kind of tawdry rumors about Hillary Clinton’s personal life in the bud right now. Heck, if you want to know what kind of person Hillary Clinton is, ask her good friend Janet Napolitano. She’ll vouch for her in a heartbeat.
REPORTER:  Do you think Hillary Clinton would make a good president?
JOE BIDEN:  Without a doubt. And I assure you that these latest rumors about Hillary and Bill squandering tens of millions of dollars of their charity donations on luxury travel expenses will be proven false. They’ll justifiably evaporate in the same manner that Whitewater, Vince Foster, Benghazi and the seemingly endless array of baseless scandals have over the years. There’s absolutely no reason to go dredging them up again.
A source inside the White House said President Obama’s concern over President Putin was quickly forgotten after viewing Joe Biden’s interaction with reporters this morning.
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Life is a gift. Prayer is a thank you note."
--- Noah benShea
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Brown has done more to promote poverty than almost any other Australian .. and to deny plant food for plants - ed
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How to Talk With Your Sons About Robin Thicke

AUGUST 28, 2013 BY  260 COMMENTS
If you have ears, you’ve heard Robin Thicke’s hit “Blurred Lines.” If you’ve had any amount of spare time in the past few days and have access to the internets, you’ve heard about Thicke’s performance at the VMA’s with Miley Cyrus. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, congratulations! You must have looked past the headlines on CNN’s main page in order to read about “secondary” news like Egypt or Syria. You can find a video of the performance here.
If you’ve been on Facebook or Twitter with any kind of regularity over the past few days, you’ve probably heard countless friends or followers sounding off on any number of objectionable things about the performance. Undoubtedly, 99% of things written about it throw around words like “obscene”, “offensive”, and the like.
There have been a number of different parenting websites or blog posts who have come up withgood ways to talk to your daughter about Miley. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m all about parents talking to their daughters about sexuality.
But is no one going to hold anyone else on stage or behind the scenes accountable for that performance? Are we really going to have another one-sided conversation where we only talk to the girls about their sexuality while we completely ignore the boys in the room about their standards of behavior too?
There are next to no commentaries, articles, or blog posts that talk about how Robin Thicke was on stage with a woman young enough to be his daughter while thrusting his pelvis and repeating the line “I know you want it” while T.I. non-chalantly raps about much more graphic stuff. AsShelli Latham astutely points out:
Girls’ sexuality is so much the focus of our ire. Women who have sex are dirty. Men who have sex are men. Girls who dress to be ogled are hoes. Men who ogle are just doing what comes naturally. This is the kind of reinforced behavior that makes it perfectly acceptable to legislate a woman’s access to birth control and reproductive health care without engaging in balanced conversations about covering Viagra and vasectomies. Our girls cannot win in this environment, not when they are tots in tiaras, not in their teens or when they are coming into adulthood.
Issues of misogynistic attitudes and acts of violence toward women aren’t going anywhere until us men make some very intentional decisions about our behavior and about the way we act toward women. There are certain things that Robin Thicke and “Blurred Lines” re-inforce in our culture.
For instance… Studies have shown that viewing images of objectified women gives men “greater tolerance for sexual harassment and greater rape myth acceptance,” and helps them view women as “less competent” and “less human“. Certainly singing about “blurred lines” will at the very least reinforce a culture that already trivializes the importance of consent.*
There’s nothing blurry about Robin Thicke’s role in the VMA debacle. Even though he’s come out and defended his song, going so far as to call it a “feminist movement,” it’s pretty plain to see that’s far from the case.

Here’s where it starts

So what can we do? In order to change the way we view women culturally, we need to change the way we view women individually. We need to call bullshit on attempts to end domestic violence and misogyny towards women by only talking to our daughters. We need to talk to our sons and our brothers about respecting women and respecting themselves.
It starts in homes. It starts in small conversations that treat all people as worthy and equal. It starts with having the courage to speak out against the wide variety of forces in our society that objectify women.
It starts with understanding that as men, our value does not come from how much power we hold over women. Our value comes from being respected and being loved as we respect and love the people who matter to us.
Be brave enough to tell a different story. Be courageous enough to rise above the lies that our culture tells you about how to treat women. In doing so, you’ll help create a better world for your sons. And for your sons’ sons. And that’s something to which we should all aspire.
Cheers,
Eric
Boys are not animals .. It takes good will and moral discipline to be a man - ed
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C. H. Spurgeon
Prayer and praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into the deep waters of the knowledge of Christ.
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Pastor Rick Warren
"A glad heart makes a happy face." Prov. 15:13
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Imagine if Miley Cyrus had printed the number "17 trillion" across her twerking buttocks; think how many people would know our national debt. Without commenting on the quality of the current pop culture, it’s impossible to deny its power, although the right seems to be giving denial more than a day in court.

Where does this denial come from? Three immediate answers come to mind:
  1. It’s not really denial but rather a lack of understanding as to the aforementioned power.
  2. To embrace the power of culture is to admit to one’s own impotence particularly while protecting a K Street business model that garners revenue but not results.
  3. Denial is a fallback position when the truth is too painful or overwhelming.
All three possibilities are alarming. But our only hope is in #3, because it would mean that somewhere buried beneath charts, graphs, and policy is the subconscious understanding that we are outmatched, outgunned, and very few on our side have any idea how to reach another human being.
If you don’t believe me, digest the following: Katy Perry has roughly 6 million more Twitter followers than Barack Obama. 
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Terrorists wanted him dead because he worked for an NGO promoting female education. - ed

Full name Fawad Ahmed
Born February 5, 1982, Merguz
Current age 31 years 206 days
Major teams Australia, Abbottabad, Australia A,Melbourne Renegades, Pakistan Customs, Prime Minister's XI,Victoria
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Legbreak
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Several police departments in Illinois have cancelled their anti-terrorism training because an Islamic terrorist front group complained that the instructor is blatantly anti-Muslim.
It’s yet another one of those only in America stories! The Islamic group that reportedly raises money for Hamas, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), snapped its fingers and U.S. law enforcement agencies rolled over! It all started with anti-terrorism training for local police in Lombard, a small town located about 20 miles west of Chicago.
CAIR, which promotes itself as the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy organization, complained that the instructor (Sam Kharoba, who runs a Florida-based business called Counter Terrorism Operations Center) teaches extremist views about Islam that are inaccurate and biased. His training materials are full of inaccuracies, sweeping generalizations and stereotypes, according to CAIR.
As an example CAIR offered this; a 2011 article written by Kharoba that makes disparaging comments about the Prophet Muhammad and says that “anyone who says that Islam is a religion of peace is either ignorant or flat out lying.” Counterterrorism is much too important to be confounded with anti-Islam dribble, says CAIR’s Chicago director Ahmed Rehab.
Like a good lapdog the Lombard Police Department quickly cancelled its training and pulled officers out of the course, called “Islamic Awareness as a Counter-Terrorist Strategy.” Other police departments in Illinois, including Elmhurst and Highland Park, that were scheduled to take the course also caved in and cancelled the trainings. CAIR celebrated with a statementcommending officials for their “swift action in addressing the Muslim community’s concerns.”
Keep in mind that CAIR is a terrorist front group with extensive links to foreign and domestic Islamists. It was founded in 1994 by three Middle Eastern extremists (Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad and Rafeeq Jaber) who ran the American propaganda wing of Hamas, known then as the Islamic Association for Palestine. In 2008 CAIR was a co-conspirator in a federal terror-finance case involving the Hamas front group Holy Land Foundation. Read more in a Judicial Watch special report that focuses on Muslim charities.
Incredibly, the Obama administration is tight with CAIR. In fact, last year the president’s deputies held hundreds of closed-door meetings with CAIR officials. Little information was discussed publicly about the secret sessions, but the news organization that broke the story quoted a White House director saying that government departments and agencies discussed a “range of issues.”
Coincidentally, around the same time, the FBI purged its anti-terrorism training curricula of material determined to be “offensive” to Muslims. Judicial Watch uncovered this scandal and obtained the FBI records just a few weeks ago. CAIR is not specifically named but the records show that an undisclosed group of “Subject Matter Experts” (SME) determined the federal training material was offensive to Muslims.
JW had to sue the FBI and Obama Justice Department for the records, which include hundreds of pages of FBI memos and documents. The excised material includes references linking the Muslim Brotherhood to terrorism, tying al Qaeda to the 1993 World Trade Center and Khobar Towers bombings, and suggesting that “young male immigrants of Middle Eastern appearance … may fit the terrorist profile best.”

It isn't as if Illinois has ever experienced a terrorist hit from an Islamic group .. of the kind that turns a marathon into a sprint. ed
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Created by Iran in 1982 as unified resistance during Lebanon’s civil war, Hezbollah today is the de facto ruling party in Lebanon and the most lethal terror group in the world. Currently supporting Bashar al-Assad’s oppressive regime in Syria, the military wing of the Shiite “Party of God” is labeled a terrorist organization by the US and EU.
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Tzipi Livni's constituency is more likely to raise puppies than babies, making the demographic threat not so much the Arabs, but rather the fact that her kind is becoming vastly outnumbered by right wing Jews. Photo Credit: Gideon Markowicz/FLASH90 As Minister Tzipi Livni et al are ending their second week of negotiations over how many Jews to expel from Judea and Samaria in order to receive from the Arabs recognition of our right to exist, new figures have emerged that might explain the sudden urge of Livni and the Israeli left to finish this thing quickly, set it in motion and be done with it. It turns out the “demographic bomb” everyone, from President Obama to the lowliest lackey at J-Street, have been warning Israel about, does not exist. Or rather, there used to be a bomb, but events and the economy and whatnot have turned it into a pitiful firecracker. Not only are there more Jews than Arabs in the entire territory between the Jordan River and the sea, but the Jewish numbers are becoming even greater, while the Arab numbers are in the dumps. Dr. Guy Bechor recently published an explanation of a demographic study by Jacob Feitelson, using data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. The report compares Jewish to Arab birthrates in Judea and Samaria, as well as Israeli vs. Palestinian Authority demographics as a whole. The article was written in response to Israel’s Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni’s distress at what she believes is the demographic threat to the Jewish state, and why Israel must rush to disengage from Judea and Samaria to maintain a Jewish majority. The report shows that the demographic predictions that Livni has been basing her decisions on is incorrect. The original report can be read here. Source: Gplanet. (The blue line includes non-Jewish children of Jewish families) 1. Arabs across the Middle East and especially in Judea and Samaria are experiencing a collapse of their birthrate, from an average of 8 children per mother down to fewer than 3. The reasons are the rise in education and in income, and urbanization (smaller apartments, fewer children). 2. The most significant finding in the data are settler related births. Unlike Arab and even Haredi birth levels—which are going down, too, settler birth levels are not dropping off, but, instead, rising. In 1997, Arab births in Judea and Samaria were at 4.76 children per mother compared to the settler’s 4.69. But by 2011 that number changed significantly, with 5.07 births per Jewish settler mother versus only 3.06 per Arab mother. The difference between the two became even larger in 2012. Within pre-1967 Israel, Jewish birth-rates are currently around 3 children per mother, but the fashionable thing is increasingly to have 4 children per family. Altogether, out of 8.15 million residents in all of Israel, 6 million are Jews, 6.5 if you count family members who are not themselves Jewish. According to Bechor, at the current birth rate of 1 million every 7 years, Israel will hit 2 digits in 15 years, with the vast majority being Jewish. Source: Gplanet 3. The report pointed out another common error of previous demographic studies: overlooking the effects of the Oslo Accords on Arab demographics. The Oslo Accords introduced 40,000 foreign PLO Arabs into Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) from overseas, and Israel granted “family unification” to another 140,000 Arabs who became Israeli citizens. This added a significant, but temporary increase to the Arab demographic data. In addition, in 2003 Israel introduced a massive cut in child subsidies (it just did it again this week), ending a situation in which having children was, to some Arab families, a very real source of income. The fact that the Arab birthrate plummeted following the cut suggests the policy, though unkind, achieved the intended results. 4. Another important factor is immigration and emigration. Israel receives around 18,000 new immigrants a year (including 15,000 who leave and return), whereas Arab emigration is currently around 10,000 Arabs a year, with some years as much as 18,000-25,000 leaving each year. In 2007, Jordanian data indicated that 60,000 Arabs had left Judea and Samaria. Another figure not commonly discussed regarding Israeli emigration is that 15% of the emigrants are Israeli Arabs. The number of Arab emigrants from Gaza has declined in recent years due to Egypt’s blocking of its border with Gaza. Most of the Arabs leaving Judea and Samaria are looking for work in other countries. 5. The Palestinian Authority keeps changing its demographic forecasts, coming up with more and more exaggerated figures (4 so far), knowing full well that if it gave an honest accounting of its 1.5 million—and shrinking—population in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, it would no longer be able to scare the Jews and the world into new concessions. Finally, there are some psychological facts that cannot be measured but can certainly be assessed from these figures. A high birthrate means optimism, says Dr. Bechor. We have in Israel today an optimistic public, involved in the ongoing effort to increase families and the nation. A high birthrate also means an expectation of prosperity. It also means that aliyah, although still in modest numbers – around 20 thousand a year – is nevertheless constant and offers yet another optimistic note. The only segment of Israeli society that is not experiencing this optimistic growth is the left, which has, basically, given up the hope of leading Israeli politics in the foreseeable future. The only hope they have of getting back in the saddle has been laid out by Minister Tzipi Livni in a Kol Israe interview this week: Naftali Bennett and Jewish Home, which are the enemies of a land-for-peace solution, should leave government, and Labor should take their place. That’s the scenario. They don’t have the numbers, of course, they were relegated by a solid, right wing public to the basement of decision making history – but they still have Benjamin Netanyahu. For now. Stephen Leavitt contributed to this report.

Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/livnis-source-of-desperation-jewish-births-way-up-arabs-way-down/2013/08/23/0/
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<Folks, try not to hurt us too much on Sept 7.I've instructed Wongy to mail out bags of cash to the marginals. KRudd> #costingsgate
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"No! Go against the current of this civilization that is doing so much harm. Do you understand this? To go against the current; and this means to make noise, to go forward, but with the values of beauty, of goodness and of truth," the Pope urged. Pope Francis
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HIGH profile Labor minister Kate Ellis will retain her seat of Adelaide at the September 7 election, according to a new poll.
The Galaxy poll, conducted for the Adelaide Advertiser on Thursday night, put support for Ms Ellis at 54 per cent on a two-party preferred basis compared to 46 per cent for her Liberal opponent Carmen Garcia.
Ms Ellis holds Adelaide with a margin of 7.5 per cent.
The poll quizzed 571 voters with 42 per cent naming Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as their preferred prime minister compared to 39 per cent support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/poll-says-labor-to-hold-adelaide/story-e6frfku9-1226707715204#ixzz2dSGpaXZa
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A MAN in the US has posted a personal ad on a classified advertisements website looking for love.
The "professional gentleman" from Antelope Valley in California says he's looking for a "worthy and deserving girl" before revealing his epic list of dating requirements. Women who respond to the ad can expect to be 'tested', he says.
At least one thing's clear from the outset, Lothario's running this show.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/gentleman8217-seeks-8216worthy8217-woman-in-craigslist-ad/story-fnet0gly-1226707211560#ixzz2dSGyjZW7
John Tran It's like Borats finally finds Craigslist.. "I am Gentleman" "is nice"
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DON'T try this at home, folks.
A Polish woman is making a bizarre attempt to sleep with 100,000 men in a global sex marathon.
Ania Lisewska wants to travel to every city across the world, dedicating 20 minutes to each ... experience.
"I want men from Poland, Europe and all around the world. I love sex, fun and men," the 21-year-old said, according to the Austrian Times.
According to her Facebook page the mighty marathon began in Warsaw, Poland, last month. She hopes to weave her way across the country before embarking on her international voyage.
"In Poland the subject of sex is still taboo and anyone who wants to fulfill their sexual fantasies is considered a deviant, a whore or mentally ill," she said.
So far she's slept with 284 men, but she'll need a whole lot more notches on her bedpost before reaching her 100,000 goal. It's a visual which her boyfriend is "not thrilled" about, telling Polish website Fakt.pl he "had to come to terms" with it.
To complete her mission she needs to dedicate 33,000 hours to the task.
Calculating the numbers based on the fact an average Polish woman's life span is 81, with 60 years left she must sleep with 1,666 men per year. Or 32 men a week. Or approximately 4.5 per day.
Lisewska has claimed she will only partake in sexual activities on the weekend, which means she'll have to up her quota to 14 men each Saturday and Sunday.
I know someone who can give her what she needs. But it won't satisfy her goal. - ed

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/will-you-be-one-of-the-100000-men-to-sleep-with-this-woman/story-fnet09p2-1226707532443#ixzz2dSHOSlMl
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North Korea one of the last five countries to still perform public executions; the other four being Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/how-to-avoid-ending-up-in-front-of-the-firing-squad-in-north-korea/story-fndir2ev-1226707448497#ixzz2dQHUEnNT
 I'm, informed the execution has not been confirmed .. maybe a traffic accident? ed
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IF you want to see the best and worst of what the internet has to offer, just visit the comments section of any news website, Reddit thread, forum, Twitter stream or Facebook page on the web.
While comment sections contain some valid wisdom - debates about science, politics and religion - it also contains a lot of snark, nastiness and just downright weird remarks.
Here are 25 different kinds of internet commenters that make, or wreck, your day on the world wide web.
If you have more to add leave a comment in the section below.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/techknow/the-26-worst-kinds-of-internet-commenters/story-fnda1lbo-1226707447865#ixzz2dSHvaecY
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After the Holocaust, antisemitism was a word the entire world should have been afraid of, but it is not; and such behavior should have disgusted every person in the world, but it does not. Antisemitism is an incurable emotional and psychological disease, spread worldwide among non-Jews and even among Jews of all sorts. In light of what is happening in the world these days in general, and in Egypt in particular, I wrote in my previous article that the world needs reprogramming for peace to prevail. - See more at: http://newsblaze.com/story/20130824151923nurg.nb/topstory.html#sthash.WwPmPIAA.ZMnu9ZpH.dpuf
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JOBS are hard to get these days, that's no surprise. There is more competition and fewer opportunities.
In this environment, it's essential to stay up-to-date with the skills and personal traits the business world values.
That's no mean feat. As career expert Kate Southam explained to news.com.au, the most coveted employment skills change quickly in the Australian workplace.
Here are a list of her most recommended - they might surprise you.
Emotional intelligence
The ability to manage your own emotions and that of others is absolutely essential in the modern workplace. Don't let your emotions get in the way of decision making or ability to do your work. Remain calm and professional at all times, and help others do the same.
Be flexible
Change is inevitable. You must be able to move with the company, no matter what happens. What that means is moving with the changes, be it upskilling or a new role. Don't be the person who constantly says things like, "But that's not in my job description."
Champion your company
Every project or idea needs a champion, someone who will back the company cause. Be enthusiastic and jump into every idea and project but don't be afraid to suggest modifications. Ask questions, make suggestions and always show that you have the customer or client's best interests at heart. It's a great way to get noticed and demonstrate leadership skills. If you don't show this kind of energy you'll just be considered a follower.
Be self-sufficient
If you're the type of person who only does their best work when you're being observed - you're not a good employee. And if you're being micromanaged remember this particular habit is more a sign of an insecure manager than anything you're doing wrong.
Share information
Collaboration is absolutely key to successful business. This is partly because there is no such thing as long tenure anymore, so people need to share information and company knowledge so it won't get lost. Good information flow is absolutely crucial, so don't sit on your ideas or your knowledge of the business, be generous.
Be self-disciplined
Self-discipline is one quality most high power CEOs claim to have. Whether it is making the time to engage in a creative course in addition to a strategically focused job, or getting up at 4am to train for a marathon, self-discipline gets you places. It demonstrates effective time management skills, focus and drive.
Make company priorities your priority
Always keep the priorities of your business close to mind. If you spend all your time 'trying to be helpful' skirting around the edges, you won't be recognised. Also, don't be overtly self-interested and only spring into action when an opportunity looks to serve you.
Be likable
No matter what, being a person who is easy to work with will get you a long way in business. Take two qualified people, and one might be sharper in terms of their work, but the other might be easier to work with. The second person will always come up trumps. They'll do better because they make it easy for other people to get the job done.
Now it's over to you. What is the one trait or skill you wish others would value more in your workplace?
Keep this conversation going on Twitter: @KateSoutham|@lucyjk|@newscomauHQ
The original concept for this article came from Forbes.com

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-be-considered-irresistible-in-the-workplace/story-e6frfm9r-1226707428881#ixzz2dSITSvYF
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A NAPALM attack has killed 10 teenagers and left many more with serious burns after the incendiary device was dropped on a Syrian school.
Footage of the dead and injured schoolchildren was captured by a BBC Panorama documentary crew who responded to reports of an incendiary bomb being dropped on a playground in Syria's rebel-held northern region.
The camera team saw what they described as scores of children with napalm-like burns over their bodies.
Witnesses told the BBC the bomb was dropped by a fighter jet which had been flying back and forth overhead. It landed with a dull explosion, followed by columns of fire and smoke.
The release of the footage follows the failure of Britain, Washington's closest European ally, to reach a political consensus over plans to join expected US-led military action in Syria.
And today Australia's Opposition Leader Tony Abbott ruled out intervening in Syria if he is elected prime minister at the weekend, saying Australia should not overestimate its importance in the fight between "two deeply unsavoury sides".
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said there is a case for a robust international response on Syria, but has not given details.
At the start of the week, Prime Minister David Cameron had seemed ready to join Washington in possible military action against Assad over the alleged chemical weapons attack. But the push for strikes against the Syrian regime began to lose momentum as Britain's Labour Party - still smarting from its ill-fated decision to champion the invasion of Iraq in 2003 - announced its opposition to the move.
Members of the House of Parliament voted against the government motion to support a military campaign by 285 votes to 272 votes.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/middle-east/us-to-strike-syria-8216as-early-as-thursday8217-senior-defence-officials-report/story-fnh81ifq-1226705827932#ixzz2dSImnAK8
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Sledging the Prime Minister over an attack yesterday on Coalition costings that drew the ire of senior public servants, the Opposition Leader said Mr Rudd's attack had gone spectacularly wrong.
"It was a slap in the face for the Government," Mr Abbott said of the public admonishment by department heads.
"Mr Rudd's claims that there was some problem with our costings, some problems with our figures have exploded in his face."
He said taxpayers had "a pretty good idea that this is a Government which has got all of its costings, all of its forecasts wrong".
"What we've seen over the last couple of days in increasingly hysterical statements from Mr Rudd and his Ministers."
"They've got their own figures wrong, now they've got the Coalition's figures wrong as well."
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educational and entertaining - ed
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Disrespecting the truth and history in order to promote an agenda?

Here are the 5 biggest lies made at yesterday's 'March on Washington' 50th anniversary...
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Israeli authorities went out of their way on Thursday to calm fears of a regional war, even as military sources said they anticipated US-led intervention in Syria early next week..
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"Really? It is difficult to resist asking: “Myopic and amnesic?” Has Harris forgotten the wrenching concessions Israel has made over the past decades – the unrequited unilateral 10-month freeze on construction in the “settlements”; withdrawal from major populations centers in Judea-Samaria; unilateral evacuation of Gaza, and erasure of every vestige of Jewish presence there; the unearthing of its dead from their graves; the demolition of settlements in northern Samaria; permitting armed militias to deploy adjacent to its capital, within mortar range of its parliament?

To all these the Palestinians responded with Judeocidal terror and Judeophobic incitement." - Martin Sherman
Binyamin Netanyahu, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat
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The world is waiting for United Nations inspectors to announce their findings over the alleged use of chemical warfare in Syria. What are inspectors looking for? And how would they be able to tell if the weapons came from the Assad regime? Jeffrey Brown gets analysis from former UN and U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer.


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An American attack on Syria will result in the destruction of Israel and have severe repercussions for the US and its allies, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said.
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I want to talk to a little bit about what we are about to do. The president is ready to go it alone now for the second time without congressional approval. Remember when the left hated this?
His first unauthorized kinetic military action was in Libya. The bombing of Syria is now also on the horizon, and the Russians are telling us it could start as early as tomorrow. Reports say the bombings will last two days at the most. I think his attempt here is laughable, especially considering “one U.S. official who has been briefed on the options on Syria said he believed the White House would seek a level of intensity just muscular enough not to get mocked.”
Oh, is that our American threshold now? Let’s not go out there and win; let’s just go out there and do enough so people can’t make fun of us. Oh my gosh, lives are at stake. People will die, and we’re doing it just at the level to where we’re not mocked. Jay Carney all but assured – try this one – that Assad is of course going to remain in power.
VIDEO
Jay Carney: I want to make clear that the options that we are considering are not about regime change. They are about responding to a clear violation of an international standard that prohibits the use of chemical weapons.
Oh my gosh, so we are…we’re just gonna…we’re gonna…what? Here’s the real reason, somebody’s credibility is on the line, the president’s. That’s not a reason to kill somebody. There are many reasons to declare acts of war but never, never to save face. I honestly, I have looked at this problem over and over again, and I can’t find one good reason to do it.
You know why this map is behind me? Do you know why we originally put this map up? We put this map up because a few months ago I did a show where I said World War III is coming, and it’s going to happen in Syria. Well look, here we are. Now maybe World War III doesn’t happen. I know The New Yorker is finally coming to their senses, and they said in an article they published yesterday, they said, gee, it looks like 1914, doesn’t it? Yes, it does.
I can find a million reasons why we shouldn’t do this but not one why we should. Is it going to further destabilize Syria? Yep. Is it going to further destabilize the region? Yep. Will it, if this is our deal that we just want to do enough to not get mocked, what do you think the people in the Middle East are going to say about us then? Does it increase our credibility? Does it decrease your gas prices?
I don’t mean to boil it down to that, but that’s where most people are. They don’t give a flying crap about anything unless it affects their gas prices or their groceries, and most of ’em don’t even say anything unless the media is there to tell them oh you know… It’s going to make your gas prices go up. Oil is already at $110. Stock market’s had a rocky few days.
Hundreds of thousands have been murdered, hundreds of thousands, before the alleged chemical weapons killed a few hundred at most. I’m not saying that that’s not bad. It is, but may I just point out that they used machetes, they used machetes on 500,000 people in Rwanda, and we turned the other way. You’re appalled by a few hundred. You’re not appalled by tens of thousands that are dying.
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August 30: Paryushana begins (Digambar Jains, 2014); Constitution Dayin Kazakhstan (1995); St. Rose of Lima's Day in Peru; Victory Day in Turkey
Parliament House, Melbourne
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“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Have mercy upon me, O God."
Psalm 51:1
When Dr. Carey was suffering from a dangerous illness, the enquiry was made, "If this sickness should prove fatal, what passage would you select as the text for your funeral sermon?" He replied, "Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.'" In the same spirit of humility he directed in his will that the following inscription and nothing more should be cut on his gravestone:--
William Carey, Born August 17th, 1761: Died - -
"A wretched, poor, and helpless worm
On thy kind arms I fall."
Only on the footing of free grace can the most experienced and most honoured of the saints approach their God. The best of men are conscious above all others that they are men at the best. Empty boats float high, but heavily laden vessels are low in the water; mere professors can boast, but true children of God cry for mercy upon their unprofitableness. We have need that the Lord should have mercy upon our good works, our prayers, our preachings, our alms-givings, and our holiest things. The blood was not only sprinkled upon the doorposts of Israel's dwelling houses, but upon the sanctuary, the mercy-seat, and the altar, because as sin intrudes into our holiest things, the blood of Jesus is needed to purify them from defilement. If mercy be needed to be exercised towards our duties, what shall be said of our sins? How sweet the remembrance that inexhaustible mercy is waiting to be gracious to us, to restore our backslidings, and make our broken bones rejoice!

Evening

"All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk."
Numbers 6:4

Nazarites had taken, among other vows, one which debarred them from the use of wine. In order that they might not violate the obligation, they were forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine or strong liquors, and to make the rule still more clear, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor even to eat the fruit either fresh or dried. In order, altogether, to secure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil. Surely this is a lesson to the Lord's separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes, but even its spirit and similitude. Strict walking is much despised in these days, but rest assured, dear reader, it is both the safest and the happiest. He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the sea-bank in Holland lets in the sea, and the gap speedily swells till a province is drowned. Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul, and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins. Moreover, as the Nazarite who drank grape juice could not be quite sure whether it might not have endured a degree of fermentation, and consequently could not be clear in heart that his vow was intact, so the yielding, temporizing Christian cannot wear a conscience void of offence, but must feel that the inward monitor is in doubt of him. Things doubtful we need not doubt about; they are wrong to us. Things tempting we must not dally with, but flee from them with speed. Better be sneered at as a Puritan than be despised as a hypocrite. Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own which are more than a sufficient recompense.
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Today's reading: Psalm 126-128, 1 Corinthians 10:19-33 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 126-128

A song of ascents.
1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dreamed.
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
3 The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
4 Restore our fortunes, LORD,
like streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with them.

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 10:19-33

19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
The Believer's Freedom
23 "I have the right to do anything," you say-but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"-but not everything is constructive. 24No one should seek their own good, but the good of others....

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Isaiah, Esaias
[Īzā'iah,Ī za'ias] - jehovah is helper orsalvation is of the lord. The name of the greatest of the Assyrian group of prophets is synonymous with Joshua or Jesus and symbolic of his message. Little is known of this gospel prophet, often severe in tone. He is described as the son of Amoz, not Amos the prophet (Isa. 1:1; 2:1; 6:1; 7:3; 13:1 ). Some scholars suggest that Amoz was the uncle of Uzziah which, if true, would make Isaiah the king's cousin. Evidently Isaiah was of good family and education.

The Man of Many Parts

Isaiah's home and the scene of his labors was Jerusalem. His wife was a prophetess (Isa. 8:3) and bore the prophet two sons, whose names were symbolic of those aspects of the nation's history which Isaiah enforced in his prophecies:
Shear-jashub, meaning, "a remnant shall return" (Isa. 7:3).
Maher-shalal-hash-baz , implying, "Haste ye, speed to the spoil" (Isa. 8:1-4). Often names were given for signs and wonders in Israel.
Isaiah's original call to service is unrecorded, but in chapter six we have his vision and commission. A prophet of Judah, Isaiah ministered during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahab and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. He comes before us as a man of many parts - a man eminently gifted and called of God as the first and chief of Israel's prophets and poets.
I. The Writer. Isaiah wrote a history of the reign of Uzziah and Ahaz (2 Chron. 26:22; 32:32 ). No other Old Testament writer uses so many beautiful and picturesque illustrations, epigrams and metaphors as Isaiah, who was also a poet of no mean order (Isa. 1:13; 5:18; 12:1-6; 13:3).
The book bearing his name is made up of sixty-six chapters, and is a miniature Bible with its sixty-six books.
II. The Statesman. Isaiah was an ardent patriot, loving God and his nation. He was a bold, true statesman, seeking no court favor. How strongly he denounced all foreign alliances, (Isa. 7:5; 37:22 )! It is Isaiah who gives us the earliest recorded vision of world-wide peace (Isa. 2:1-4).

III. The reformer. Like Noah, Isaiah was also a preacher of righteousness, and exposed formalism as a bad substitute for spiritual life and conduct (Isa. 36-39). Yet, like all the greatest contributors to moral uplift, Isaiah, amid all his rebukes and denunciations of evil, was truly optimistic.
IV. The Prophet. In no uncertain language Isaiah foretold the future of Israel and Judah, and the downfall of Gentile nations. Many of his predictions in regard to ancient nations have been fulfilled. Then Isaiah was The Christ-Harbinger, prophesying the coming of the Messianic King and Suffering Saviour. Chapter fifty-three of his prophecy drips with the ruby blood of the Redeemer. No wonder Jerome described Isaiah as "The Evangelical Prophet."
V. The Teacher. To perpetuate his message and influence, Isaiah formed a group of disciples to whose teaching and training he devoted himself when his public ministry seemed useless. He was not only a counselor of kings and princes, but an instructor of those who were eager for his vision. He was an orator without peer - Jerome likened him to Demosthenes. This trait must have made an impact upon those he sought to train.
VI. The Theologian. This dreamer and poet, architect and builder, prophet and statesman was also a theologian able to discourse upon the sovereignty and holiness of God with utmost clarity. What an artist with words Isaiah was! Every word from him stirs and strikes, as he expounds the lordship of Jehovah - the need of all men for cleansing - the forgiving grace of God. The prophet insisted upon reverence for God whose usual title he gave as "The Holy One of Israel." Sometimes stern in tone, he could also be tender and compassionate (Isa. 15:5; 16:9).
The time of his death is unknown. Legend has it that he was placed inside a hollow tree and sawn asunder at the command of Manasseh (Heb. 11:37).
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Jael

The Woman Who Killed a Man While He Slept

Scripture References-Judges 4:17-22; 5:6, 24-27
Name Meaning-Jael means “wild or mountain goat” or “gazelle,” and as Dean Stanley expresses it, “a fit name for a Bedouin’s wife-especially for one whose family had come from the rocks of Engedi, the spring of the wild goat or chamois.”
Family Connections-The only association given of this woman who sprang from obscurity by a single deed which, because of its nature, hardly deserved fame, is that she was the wife of Heber, the Kenite. In those days everything connected with a tent was a woman’s job and the women became expert in all the phases of making, pitching and striking tents. This was why Jael was able to turn her skill to good account, as with a tent pin in one hand and with a maul in the other, she drove the pin home through the skull of Sisera as he slept-a deed not allotted to divine leading although the victory over Sisera was ( Judges 5:10).
How can we explain or justify such an act deemed treacherous according to the morals of Jael’s own time? “Hospitality was one of the most strictly adhered to, of all desert obligations, and was a matter of honor among the Hebrews,” says Mary Hallet. “In betraying Sisera, Jael broke this code of hers; but to us that is more easily understood than the revolting cruelty of her method of murder!” “So Sisera died”-and Jael’s treachery was forgotten in the more important fact of her courage. The circumstances occasioning such an act have already been touched upon. Israel chafed under the severe rule of Jabin, king of the Canaanites, and Deborah arose and with Barak went out against the armed force of Jabin. God intervened, and unleashing the powers of nature completely disorganized Jabin’s army. Sisera, captain of the host, and Israel’s cruel oppressor escaped and fell into the hands of a woman (4:9).
Sisera fled to the tent of Heber the Kenite, whose wife Jael met Sisera and urged him not to be afraid but to turn in and rest. Seeing how worn and weary Sisera was, Jael covered him with a mantle, and when he asked for water to slake his thirst she opened a bottle of milk for him to drink. Then, assuring him that she would shield him from any searchers, she watched him as he fell asleep. Going softly to his side, Jael drove the tent nail through his head and pinned it to the ground. Shakespeare says of woman that “she can smile and smile and be a villain.” Jael was not a crude or coarse woman, or a tiger of a woman. But with a husband who had allied himself with the enemy, she was caught in the politics of Israel and felt that she had to defend herself She resorted to trickery, for although she met Sisera with a beaming face, there was murder in her heart. Had Sisera attempted to rape Jael, and in defense of her honor she had killed him, that would have been another matter, but to kill him as an assassin kills a victim was something different. Her murder of Sisera reminds us of Judith of Behulia, who drove a sword through Olopernes' throat as he slept.
While divine judgment fell upon Sisera, Jael erred in that she did not allow God to designate the means of punishment. Perhaps she felt an irresistible impulse to slay the persistent enemy of God’s people, but she remains forever censurable for the cruel way she killed Sisera, even though Deborah gloated over the act and praised it in poetic form. When Deborah said, “Blessed above women shall be Jael,” perhaps she was only praising her faith and not her treachery. Any woman killing the country’s enemy must be the friend of Israel, and so the method of Sisera’s death mattered little to Deborah who doubtless thought that all was fair in time of war. What atrocious crimes have been committed in the name of patriotism! Jael had no conception that she was the one person at the opportune moment to render “stern justice on an enemy of God.” Knowing that the tide of battle had turned against the Canaanites she realized that Sisera would be captured and killed, therefore she acted as the executioner herself, thereby cementing a friendship with Deborah, the conqueror, who thought Jael worthy of praise because of her love for Israel.
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