Saturday, September 15, 2018

Sat Sep 15th Todays News

Scott Morrison deserves a chance as PM. 

No article this year because I'm in Sydney without a computer


From my article on Quora



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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. 

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 A Lover's Concerto

"A Lover's Concerto" is a pop song written by American songwriters Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell and recorded in 1965 by The Toys. Their version of the song was a major hit in both the United States and the UK during 1965. It peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #2. Youtube


=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. A bridge has been built allowing direct access from the housing estate I reside in Dandenong to a Mosque. residential traffic has increased ten fold. I was walking to the local railway station and was passing this throughway when I spotted a scared looking guy, ethnically middle eastern, driving a scooby mobile. He spotted me, and slowed. I was waiting for him to pass, because I hate standing or walking in front of cars. Their rears don't hit you if they are moving forward. And he kept slowing, until he crawled past. I was thoroughly irritated, and stepped behind his vehicle as he went past. I hadn't seen the car behind him, with a driver waiting impatiently to get past the scooby mobile. Had the second driver not been driving defensively, I'd probably be dead. All because I was irritated by a driver trying to be considerate and failing. I had no right of way. 

It was raining, so the trains weren't running on time. Then the bus from Springvale to Glen Waverly got caught in traffic and was filled to standing capacity. A guy at the back, in high visibility gear, was calling out to ethnically Asian students, telling them where to stand so the bus could stack passengers optimally. He was taking up two chairs and drinking Crown Lager cans from a four pack he emptied before alighting near Lennox Catholic school for girls. I should have taken video of his activity, but didn't. He could have been a shop steward for the Transport Worker's Union. I am sure he likes Dan Andrews Facebook Page. 

It is enlightening to compare landmarks. Two years of Tony Abbott compare brilliantly to the dithering and incompetent Malcolm Turnbull. Eight Months of Trump compare brilliantly with the first eight months of Obama, but Trump hasn't been given a Nobel Peace Prize. I'm pretty sure that whomever is given the Nobel Prize this year, will not spend the next year in jail while Trump wines and dines the jailers. Obama did that.  






































=== from 2016 === 
Dams are flood mitigating.

It was horrible and predictable. An ice addict was booted from a share house, and he blamed a fellow tenant (me) who had nothing to do with it. Police were called after he threatened my life. But they were toothless. He assaulted my door while drunk on Saturday of a long weekend (Easter) and emergency were called at 10Pm. and 11:30PM, and 1AM, and 3AM. When the police arrived at 4:30 am my door was broken and my possessions unsecured and I was thoroughly terrorised. They asked me "Why did you keep calling emergency when we hadn't shown and he hadn't killed you in the first hour?"After the damage he had done, they could not protect me, or evict him, and so I was required to take what I could and go to emergency accommodation. Meanwhile, the Ice addict went berserk dismantling the house until SWAT took him into custody on the Tuesday. When I finally got to see the court the following week, he had not killed me, but he had damaged my few remaining possessions. And it turned out the landlord was not insured. And the court insisted on temporary mediation. And the landlord took half my bond because he could not access the ice addict's bond.

Niki reminds me of the Iraqi defence spokesperson who claimed Bush was losing the second Iraq war. She cannot be paid enough for this trashing of her own reputation.

I have no problem with Hanson speaking. But she isn't helpful in addressing the issues. But neither is the ALP or Greens.

Australian Jewish leaders who support 18c have failed in their duty to their own people and family. It is as if they had tried to convert their own family to another religion, to multiculturalism, in place of their faith.

Freedom of speech is important. I thought Neville Wran should have been jailed for corruption. I had no problem with what he said. I didn't agree with him much. I objected to what he did. Under Wran, it was like druggies and killers got leniency. It didn't begin or end with nifty.

I criticised her speech years ago. I still do so. But her concerns have validity. I wish she would talk with more precision. There are good people that are targeted by her mistakes. However, there are good people targeted by Greens mistakes too. And NXT are planning to be obstructive in senate. The dog's breakfast is entirely down to Turnbull's hubris.

Was the perpetrator a 'child' Dan Andrews previously released? Was it Wran?

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.  
=== from 2015 ===
 None for 2015 .. because of Melbourne promotional trip
From 2014
Food and fellowship at Islamic and Australian community BBQ and a headline and glowing article desperately call for hope. But hope is frequently dashed by pathetic Islamic leadership which undermines attempts to create a historical state where Jews, Christians and Muslims worked together in favour of a state where terrorists rule. By the bye, secular rule is the compromise medieval christians embraced, while the Ottoman's system was dismantled by young Turks who embarked on genocide from the mid nineteenth century through to the early twentieth century. There had been an Islamic kingdom that had had enlightened rule in which brilliant jewish or christian peoples prospered and the basic principles of such a state in modern time underpin nations like Australia, Israel and others, but demonstrably excludes every nation that claims to be Islamic. There are many examples when christians failed in the secular rule. Meanwhile Senator McCain has been howled at for suggesting that arming some vetted rebels in Syria would be a way forward. There is no worthwhile alternative that has been put forward. Obama has dithered for more than a year, and doing nothing has failed the region. 

The US President has a role speaking for the US peoples, not lying about them. Dr Ben Carsons "I know the President has said we are not a judeo-christian nation. But, guess what? He doesn't get to decide that, we get to decide that." The issue is confusing for some confused about the role of religion in a secular state. An administration may have every member who is religiously devout in some way, but secular means that they follow the constitution in addressing the needs of their people. It was said once that President George W Bush had prayer before making important policy decisions. That is ok, because the policy decisions could be defended on secular grounds and in many ways prayer is related to thought, in fact atheists might not observe a difference. Bad policy can't be defended on secular grounds. It is outrageous when some arrogant declares that God endorses some act of secular policy, as when the Uniting and Anglican churches in Australia spoke out in favour of medical cannabis or saying 'sorry.' The arguments are not clear. Similarly on abortion. There is a conscience issue the individual makes, not the state. But the US has a constitution based on principles of fairness that were established by peoples who were chosen and trained by God. Truths that are self evident. That all are created equal (US Constitution is different to the Australian one in referring to rights as the Australian document instead solely refers to the operation of the states in federation). Meanwhile, Australia is approaching a referendum that could divide her on race .. apartheid always fails. A state might kill a person for any number of secular reasons. Religions should not make that decision. 

In choosing a President who fails in their duty, who would vote for Hilary? It is certain that some day a woman will be President of the United States. It would be good if that woman embodied many ideals that made the US great. Many women do. Hilary does not. The doormat which convinced the US that her husbands philandering ways would not interfere with his office and then excused the behaviour when he did is not a good person. The Secretary of State that failed in Benghazi while Obama was dancing with Beyonce is not fit to be commander in chief. But Australian journalist  Clementine Ford doesn't worry about quality when gender ticks all her boxes. Tim Blair has his way with those who are blind to reason. Certainly Hilary is one guaranteed to fail in her duty. 

Cartoonist Larry Pickering is a long time ALP supporter and he feels betrayed at the way the ALP have drifted policy wise to the hard left. He has an article coming out soon regarding the victim of Shorten's rape allegation. Shorten has to deal with five particularly weak ALP members who endorse jihadis. Thing is, the ALP are so weak in so many ways regardless. It isn't as if they are planning to go to the middle east in support of jihadis, but clearly they feel they can be a point of difference with sensible border protection laws. There is an orchestrated attack on conservative government by media and ALP and it makes strange bedfellows. Church leadership endorsing medical cannabis is less related to belief or God than the fact that the government of WA is conservative. Similarly the ABC has raised an extraordinary unfair allegation of war crimes based on no evidence. It seems as if the producers are lying about how the allegation came to be made. 

Record ice in antarctica points to an old lie by AGW hysterics. Liuzho Chen at age 19 is admitted to legal practice in Victoria. She studied at Bond University, having begun schooling early in China and arriving at Australia  as a young teen. She still has a lot to learn about the compromise that exists in legal practice, but everyone should applaud her achievements. A Dutch girl faked a trip to Asia from Face Book as a university assignment. Well done.The truth is FB is a tool, not a life. A goat is accused of robbery in Nigeria. Superstitious villagers claim the goat is actually a sorcerer who stole items and turned themselves into a goat. One effective disproof is to make a goat curry and see if it is delicious. Meanwhile a headline refers to an ancient computer being found. The headline is very misleading. In fact the item was a very useful item for looking at stars and measuring time. It will be fascinating learning how it worked. 
From 2013
The left have strange ideas about success. Obama has found more dithering over Syria, by putting off a resolution until halfway through next year. UN like that delay. Syrian victims of violence might not feel it is acceptable, but you can't please everyone. In Australia, the PM elect has elected to stay in barracks with his security detail while the PM's ACT residence is being maintained. Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop has cancelled first class airfares in favour of business class flights on ministerial journeys. Rudd hasn't said that he would resign yet, but his heart doesn't seem to be in it with the perks gone. Antony Lowenstein despairs that the GFC did not deliver enough pain to keep his people in office. Gillard recognises that the Copenhagen junket hurt the AGW lobby, but hasn't yet worked out how. 

People said the Australian economy was being destroyed by the left. In fact, it was being badly damaged. Good policy can address it, but the lost opportunity for all of Australia is difficult to accurately describe .. a Bradfield scheme could have been funded several times over permanently lowering the temperature on very hot days and watering the central Australian desert with fresh water. But instead we have corruption issues we have to negotiate. The federal pedophile investigation began in NSW, without the inquiry looking into Education at this time .. what has schooling to do with young people? 
Historical perspective on this day
668 – Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.
994 – Major Fatimid victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of the Orontes.
1440 – Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes.
1530 – Appearance of the miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic in Sorianoin Soriano Calabro, Calabria, Italy; commemorated as a feast day by the Roman Catholic Church 1644-1912.
1556 – Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.

1762 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Signal Hill.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip's Bay during the New York Campaign.
1789 – The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs", established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties.
1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) sees his first combat at the Battle of Boxtel during the Flanders Campaign.
1795 – Britain seizes the Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa to prevent its use by the Batavian Republic.

1812 – The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow.
1812 – War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
1816 – HMS Whiting runs aground on the Doom Bar
1820 – Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal.
1821 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica jointly declareindependence from Spain.
1830 – The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens; British MP William Huskissonbecomes the first widely reported railway passenger fatality when he is struck and killed by the locomotive Rocket.
1835 – HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.
1851 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia.
1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia(present-day Harpers Ferry, West Virginia)
1873 – Franco-Prussian War: The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats Qing dynasty China in the Battle of Pyongyang.

1915 – The Empire Picture Theatre (now The New Empire Cinema), the oldest running cinema in mainland Australia, opens in Bowral, New South Wales.
1916 – World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
1918 – World War I: Allied troops break through the Bulgarian defenses on the Macedonian Front.
1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship.
1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika.

1940 – World War II: The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Forceshoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.
1942 – World War II: U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp is sunk by Japanese torpedoes at Guadalcanal.
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
1944 – Battle of Peleliu begins as the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Divisionand the United States Army's 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.
1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida and the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond.
1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077.
1948 – The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour (1,080 km/h).

1950 – Korean War: United States forces land at Inchon
1952 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.
1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 48.
1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

1962 – The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1963 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: Four children killed in the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.
1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

1971 – The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island.
1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholmis hijacked and flown to Malmö Bulltofta Airport.
1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
1975 – The French department of "Corse" (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse(Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica)
1978 – Muhammad Ali outpointed Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times at the Superdome in New Orleans.

1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1981 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.
1983 – Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
2000 – The opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics was held in Sydney, Australia.
2001 – President George W. Bush gives his first post September 11th weekly address.
2004 – National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces lockout of the players' union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.
=== 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.
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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
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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 Marco Polo (1254), William Howard Taft (1857), Joseph Lyons (1879), Agatha Christie (1890), Tommy Lee Jones (1946), Prince Harry of Wales (1984), Heidi Montag (1986) and Jake Cherry (1996). Born on the same day, across the years. On your day, International Day of Democracy; Independence Day in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua (1821); Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom
1440 – French knight Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, was taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Bishop of Nantes.
1831 – The John Bull, the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, ran for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
1916 – Tanks, the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the First World War, were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France, leading to strategic Allied victory.
1944 – American and Australian forces landed on the Japanese-occupied island of Morotai, starting the Battle of Morotai.
1963 – A bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, US, killing four children and injuring at least 22 others. My brother, fishing often caught fish by gills. And he is quite fit and determined, as John Ball should be. Tanks are great for tropical fish. The battle has begun. Remember to despise the KKK and all such bigots. Show compassion for their victims.
Deaths
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UNITED AGAINST ISLAMIC STATE

Tim Blair – Monday, September 15, 2014 (2:46pm)

Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, the not-so-moderate Grand Mufti of Australia, denounces Islamic State – but adds this curious line: 
Dr Ibrahim said people need to be reminded that the term “Islamic State” refers to an era when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in peace and harmony.
“That is why that terminology ‘Islamic State’ is attractive to Muslims,” he said. 
Sure it is. Dr Ibrahim, by the way, is a member of the International Union of Muslim scholars, which opposesmilitary action against Islamic State: 
The chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars has spoken out against the U.S.-led coalition of nearly 40 countries against the ISIL.
Academic Yusuf al-Qaradawi commented: “I have completely different ideas and methods from IS. On the other hand, I do not accept the United States action to fight against them because the US follows its own interests, not Islamic values.” 
Earlier this year Union of Muslim Scholars leader Qaradawi called for the destruction of Israel: 
Soon after arriving in the Gaza Strip, the 87-year-old Egyptian-born cleric called on Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims to work together to bring about the downfall of Israel.
“Our wish should be that we carry out Jihad to death,” said Qaradawi, who has gained a large following in the Muslim world thanks to regular appearances on Al Jazeera television. 
The Union of Muslim Scholars is, however, against Islamic State – but not because of beheadings and other acts of butchery. Rather, the union feels that Islamic State isn’t doing enough to establish shariah law. Seriously.
(Via Ganesh Sahathevan)
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SISTERS EMPOWERED

Tim Blair – Monday, September 15, 2014 (1:44pm)

A policy announcement from Clementine Ford: 
I have a policy of only ever suggesting women for jobs that involve writing, speaking on panels or appearing on TV or radio. 
Right on! In a shared spirit of feminist solidarity, I have a policy of only ever suggesting women for jobs that involve cooking, cleaning, ironing or appearing in Girls Gone Wild videos.
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STORY SHOT DOWN

Tim Blair – Monday, September 15, 2014 (1:08pm)

The ABC’s WWI execution fable is slammed: 
Veterans’ Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson has expressed his anger over an “insensitive” and “inappropriate” ABC report that claimed Australian service personnel had committed war crimes in their very first action in World War I.
The RN Breakfast program alleged last week that Australians had committed war crimes, with the report relying solely on a single, translated interview with a New Guinea villager named Bob conducted 50 years after the event to back up its claims …
“I was angry that on the day that the descendants of the first six Australian men killed in the First World War had gathered at Rabaul to commemorate their service and sacrifice, the ABC chose to run an unsubstantiated allegation,” [Ronaldson] said.
“It beggars belief the tape-recording the ABC relied upon to make these allegations had only surfaced the night before the report.” 
Quite so. The Australian‘s report also includes these lines: 
The ABC’s publicity department gave the report an extra push as it was previewed in at least two major morning papers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Telegraph. 
This is not accurate. I wrote the Daily Telegraph story, which was not compiled with any assistance at all from the ABC’s publicity people.
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Andrew Denton’s real problem is that he’s of the radical Left

Andrew Bolt September 15 2014 (7:15pm)

 Andrew Denton sounds like someone who talks only to people just like him, and therefore lacks any awareness of how far on the Left he is:
It’s the great tragedy… of our time, that we have the most radical right-wing government that we have ever elected in the history of our country, and a Labor party which apparently stands for nothing… There are great questions about the viability and the future of the Labor Party in this country. What makes that even harder is the Greens who have tremendous rhetoric, are strategically not very effective in what they do. 
The Abbott Government is our most “radical right-wing government” ever? Its workplace policies are in fact far less radical that the Work Choices changes pushed by the Howard Government in its last term. It is spending far more than did the Howard Government. The scale of its cuts are actually much smaller than those of the first Howard Government. It is pushing for constitutional recognition of Aborigines and has dropped its promise to restore free speech. It backs the sorry that the Howard Government refused to give.
The Abbott Government has also not tried to ban the Communist Party, as did the Menzies Government, and has not backed any White Australia policy, as did past governments of both sides. It is pushing an absurdly generous parental leave scheme.
Exactly what is Denton talking about?
What is actually radical is not the Abbott Government but Denton himself, who seriously argues that the Greens have “tremendous rhetoric”, and regrets only that they are “not every effective”.
(Thanks to reader Richard.) 
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Raid on arms storage foiled, say police

Andrew Bolt September 15 2014 (7:05pm)

More than 20 Muslims are believed to have returned from fighting for jihadists in Syria and Iraq. ASIO fears some will try “lone wolf” operations that are hard to pick up in advance.
Today:
Four men armed with machetes assaulted a security guard at the elite Scots College in Bellevue Hill in an attempt to reach weaponry stored on the school grounds, police say. 
The men confronted the guard on the school perimeter about 1am on Friday but failed to gain access to any building. It is understood the men demanded entry to an area where guns were stored but were refused by the guard.
The men fled in a car that was possibly driven by a woman, police said. The guard was not injured… The men armed with machetes were described to police as being of Middle Eastern appearance and wearing jumpers and pants.  
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How Obama’s Iraq strategy actually works

Andrew Bolt September 15 2014 (6:49pm)

President Barack Obama, September 10, on his strategy in Iraq and Syria:
This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.  
Meanwhile in Yemen:
Scores of al Qaeda militants have moved into Yemen’s capital San’a in an attempt to exploit swelling political unrest and destabilize the government, officials said. 
While President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government is bogged down with protests in the capital by the Houthis—a Shiite Muslim political and militant group—at least 60 al Qaeda militants have slipped in over the past few weeks and joined sleeper cells, according to Yemeni officials. Although Yemeni officials said al Qaeda’s strength in Yemen is growing, the U.S. administration is holding up its counterterrorism strategy in the country as a model for the campaign against the extremist group Islamic State, which operates in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. provides funding and training for Yemeni counterterror forces and conducts drone strikes targeting the militants.
Reader Alan RM Jones:
Fills you with confidence, don’t it?
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Record ice. Who are the deniers now?

Andrew Bolt September 15 2014 (7:04am)

Who are the deniers now? Satellites have never detected so much Antarctic sea ice before, which leaves warmists blaming ... you know what:
CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, Tony Worby, said the warming atmosphere is leading to greater sea ice coverage by changing wind patterns.
But what warming atmosphere?
Professor Ross McKitrick studied land and ocean temperatures since 1850. He also compared this to satellite data from 1979 to 2014.  Trends in this data revealed global warming has been on pause for 19 years.  And it has been on hiatus for between 16 and 26 years in the lower troposphere - the lowest portion of the Earth’s atmosphere. 
(Thanks to reader handjive.)                      
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Five Labor MPs show Labor weak on jihadists

Andrew Bolt September 15 2014 (6:20am)

BILL Shorten keeps saying he’s right behind Prime Minister Tony Abbott in our war with jihadism.
“When it comes to fighting terrorism, we are in this together,” the Labor leader said on Friday.
He’s said this for weeks.
“I and Labor recognise that national security is a matter which goes above day-to-day politics,” he declared last month.
I’m convinced Shorten believes it. He’s not that reckless with our security.
But can we trust the rest of his party? And is Shorten too weak to control it?
(Read full article here.) 
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No to these racist plans

Andrew Bolt September 15 2014 (6:11am)

TWO weeks ago, Senator Jacqui Lambie announced she, too, had Aboriginal blood. Descended from a Tasmanian chieftain, no less.
This surprised Clyde Mansell, chairman of Tasmania’s Aboriginal Land Council, who says he’s descended from the same Mannalargenna people and claims Lambie isn’t.
But no worries. Lambie maintains her claim and shut him up with threats to sue. That’s how things tend to roll in the blacker-than-thou industry.
Anyway, a week later, Lambie joined the debate over changing our constitution to recognise Aborigines.
At least 3 per cent of Federal Parliament’s seats should be given to Aborigines, declared the Senator, who, as matters stand, will struggle to be re-elected.
(Read full article here.) 
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Europe .. she fights, she fights .. she fights and fights and fights .. 
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"Clinton's State told Benghazi was a 'terrorist attack' minutes after it began" The Examiner, September 3, 2013 (thanks to Lynn)
Just minutes after 35 jihadists crashed through the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, nearly one year ago, the facility got word to the State Department, FBI and Pentagon that terrorists were attacking, according to a forthcoming book that provides the fullest review of the assault to date. 
  In “Under Fire, the Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi,” it is revealed that an unidentified security official in the Benghazi compound protecting Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens messaged the U.S. embassy in Tripoli: “Benghazi under fire, terrorist attack.” Stevens and three others died that night. according to authors Fred Burton, a former State Diplomatic Security agent and Samuel Katz, an author and expert on international special operations and counterterrorism.

 In Clinton's defence it was an election time and Obama was dancing with Beyonce. So hard to know what is the right thing to do in the moment. But looking back, it might not seem popular. ed
===
The Arab Spring has recalibrated the regional system by ushering in a tri-axial Middle East.
Turkish-Iranian posturing on Syria, with Ankara arguing for more than limited strikes against the regime and Tehran saying that whoever strikes President Bashar al-Assad must bear the consequences, serves as a harbinger for the birth of a new Middle East order.
Just as World War 1 transformed the Middle East by ending the Ottoman rule and creating contemporary nation states, so the Arab Spring has recalibrated this regional system by ushering in a tri-axial Middle East composed of: a Turkey-Kurdish-Muslim Brotherhood (MB) axis; an Iran-Shiite axis; and a Saudi Arabia-pro-status quo monarchies axis.
In this fluid re-alignment, nation states will technically not disappear, but borders will increasingly be transcended by these axes as they contest regimes across the region in pursuit of installing their respective allies.
Forces representing Iran's aggrandizing foreign policy, Turkey's pro-MB alignment and the Saudis' desire to keep the region's remaining regimes in place will grind against each other, cutting across existing borders and churning tensions, stoking sectarianism in the name of achieving their realist motivations.
The novelty is not in the competition, but in the way this rivalry is playing out.
In the pre-Arab Spring period, dominant Muslim nations of the region -- Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia -- challenged each other by standing for different models of statecraft and often promoting opposing values. Nevertheless, this competition did not usually turn acutely violent, with the exceptions of Lebanon, a weak state that was always exposed to regional and sectarian rivalries, and Iraq, where the Saudis and Iranians took advantage of the post-2003 vacuum to back warring Sunni and Shiite militia.
The tumult of the Arab Spring, however, has been a game-changer in expanding the scale and scope of these regional rivalries. Firstly, the uprisings weakened the authoritarian states in the region, thus providing new venues for them to play out. The Syrian civil war is a case in point.
Secondly, Egypt's paralysis has taken it out of the four-way regional game. Violent political polarization has transformed Egypt from "the anchor of the Arab world" into yet another theater for regional competition among the three remaining Muslim powers: Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Turkey, too, has changed. Under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, Ankara has abandoned its Kemalist world view. Once shunned as a hardline Islamist party but recently rehabilitated, the AKP sees itself as a model forward for the MB and has engaged regional MB parties to this end. Ataturk's Turkey used to look at the Middle East from the West. The new Turkey has embraced a new stance towards the region, looking at it from the AKP's pro-MB vantage point.
The AKP elites believe that if they could moderate and come to power through democratic elections in Ankara, like-minded Egyptian and Syrian MBs should be able to do the same in Cairo and Damascus. Hence, Turkey's dream: a region ruled by MB parties, looking to Turkey for guidance. This explains why Ankara is aghast at Washington's response to the ouster of the government of Mohamed Morsy, issuing a very rare public rebuke of Washington that harshly blamed the U.S. and the West for the bloodshed in Egypt.
While Washington has accepted the MB's ouster in Egypt, pro-status quo forces in the region, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates have actually supported military intervention against the MB. These monarchies abhor the tumult of the Arab Spring. The Saudis dislike the idea of an Islamic democracy led by the MB, because they still see it as tumultuous and destabilizing.
Iran meanwhile has taken advantage of the Arab Spring to mobilize a contemporary Shiite "mythomoteur." Tehran has cast the pro-democracy uprising against the Assad regime in Syria as a Sunni uprising against minority Alawites, an outlier sect of Shiism, and then used this to play to the persecution syndrome of the region's Shiites, mobilizing them from Iraq to Lebanon into Syria to rally behind the cause of propping up the Assad regime. Iran also supports the minority Shiite rebels in Yemen, who oppose a Saudi-backed government there. At the same time, the Saudis have cracked down on a pro-democracy uprising by Bahrain's majority Shiites.
These moves have helped trigger sectarian chasms in the region, especially in the northern Fertile Crescent. This arch being home to three weak states, namely Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, is accordingly the prime theater for regional rivalries, whose borders are increasingly bleeding together. The Shiites of the northern Fertile Crescent are coalescing with each other and with Iran in ways not seen before in living memory.
Turkey, whose regime change policy in Syria has been undermined by Iran, has entered the Fertile Crescent competition, throwing its support behind the Syrian and Iraqi MB parties. This move has cast Ankara and Damascus as enemies, and also cooled ties between Ankara and Baghdad, where the government is run by Shiites that Turkey considers Iran's peons.
The Iraqi Kurds, wary of the emerging central government rule in Baghdad, have taken advantage of the situation and edged closer towards Ankara, building on the nascent energy corridor already being developed between them. The Syrian Kurds, too, are seeking Turkey's protection. Turkey's recent peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which holds sway among not just Turkish Kurds but also Syrian Kurds, will help this rapprochement.
At the same time though, Turkey's MB policy has been, for the time being, upended. The Brotherhood has fallen from government in Egypt, failed to elect its candidate to lead the Syrian opposition, and has been sidelined in Libya. Qatar, which had hitherto allied itself with Ankara to fund MB style parties, appears to be changing its heart after an unexpected change in leadership in Doha.
The tri-axial Middle East includes tactical alliances. In Syria, for instance, although Turkey and the Saudis support different camps in the opposition, they are, nevertheless, united against Iran. At the same time, Ankara and Riyadh challenge each other in Egypt where Turkey stands with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party and the Saudis with General Sisi's government.
This leaves a tri-axial Middle East, in which Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia oppose each other in shifting alliances, vying to set a new regional order. Moving forward, it is unclear whether Riyadh will continue to use its financial and political leverage amongst Sunni regimes, particularly monarchies, to sustain its status quo posture.
For Iran, Syria is the linchpin of its effort to extend beyond Shia-governed Iraq, and will determine whether it can be a broader strategic hegemon or remain relatively contained. And non-Arab Turkey, by standing for just the MB anywhere in the region, will see its influence wax and wane as each national revolution unfolds, though Ankara's clout among the Kurds may be more permanent.
The U.S. has squandered the Arab Spring by not siding with liberal democracy, an agenda promoted by none of the three regional powers. Citizens across the region have once again returned to chanting anti-U.S. slogans to explain their tumult and plight. Moving forward, Washington must navigate the new Middle East. Otherwise, the region's political and ideological map will be redrawn by more influential anchor states.
Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. Parag Khanna is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
===

It isn't a policy .. it is a lifestyle ed
===
"Left-wing donors have directed their funding more towards frameworks that articulate/ propagate political agendas, such as the New Israel Fund, J Street and Peace Now.

Right-wing donors by contrast have focused funding on the far-more tangible: purchasing buildings from Arab owners, acquiring land, preserving and protecting sites of significance for Jewish heritage and so on. These of course are all worthy causes, but they will have little lasting value if the Left continues to control the discourse.

A plausible case can be made that disproportionate emphasis on enterprises such has these has allowed the Left to hijack the agenda and control the discourse, while leaving the major strategic front unattended – or at least, under-attended." - Martin Sherman
===
Over the past week, President Barack Obama and his senior advisers have told us that the US is poised to go to war against Syria. In the next few days, the US intends to use its air power and guided missiles to attack Syria in response to the regime's use of chemical weapons in the outskirts of Damascus last week.
The questions that ought to have been answered before any statements were made by the likes of Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have barely been raised in the public arena. The most important of those questions are: What US interests are at stake in Syria? How should the US go about advancing them? What does Syria's use of chemical weapons means for the US's position in the region? How would the planned US military action in Syria impact US deterrent strength, national interests and credibility regionally and worldwide? Syria is not an easy case. Thirty months into the war there, it is clear that the good guys, such as they are, are not in a position to win.
Syria is controlled by Iran and its war is being directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and by Hezbollah. And arrayed against them are rebel forces dominated by al-Qaida.
As US Sen. Ted Cruz explained this week, "Of nine rebel groups [fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad], seven of them may well have some significant ties to al-Qaida."
With no good horse to bet on, the US and its allies have three core interests relating to the war. First, they have an interest in preventing Syria's chemical, biological and ballistic missile arsenals from being used against them either directly by the regime, through its terror proxies or by a successor regime.
Second, the US and its allies have an interest in containing the war as much as possible to Syria itself.
Finally, the US and its allies share an interest in preventing Iran, Moscow or al-Qaida from winning the war or making any strategic gains from their involvement in the war.
For the past two-and-a-half years, Israel has been doing an exemplary job of securing the first interest. According to media reports, the IDF has conducted numerous strikes inside Syria to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry, including missiles from Syria to Hezbollah.
Rather than assist Israel in its efforts that are also vital to US strategic interests, the US has been endangering these Israeli operations. US officials have repeatedly leaked details of Israel's operations to the media. These leaks have provoked several senior Israeli officials to express acute concern that in providing the media with information regarding these Israeli strikes, the Obama administration is behaving as if it is interested in provoking a war between Israel and Syria. The concerns are rooted in a profound distrust of US intentions, unprecedented in the 50-year history of US-Israeli strategic relations.
The second US interest threatened by the war in Syria is the prospect that the war will not be contained in Syria. Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan specifically are threatened by the carnage. To date, this threat has been checked in Jordan and Lebanon. In Jordan, US forces along the border have doubtlessly had a deterrent impact in preventing the infiltration of the kingdom by Syrian forces.
In Lebanon, given the huge potential for spillover, the consequences of the war in Syria have been much smaller than could have been reasonably expected. Hezbollah has taken a significant political hit for its involvement in the war in Syria. On the ground, the spillover violence has mainly involved Shi'ite and Shi'ite jihadists targeting one another.
Iraq is the main regional victim of the war in Syria. The war there reignited the war between Sunnis and Shi'ites in Iraq. Violence has reached levels unseen since the US force surge in 2007. The renewed internecine warfare in Iraq redounds directly to President Barack Obama's decision not to leave a residual US force in the country. In the absence US forces, there is no actor on the ground capable of strengthening the Iraqi government's ability to withstand Iranian penetration or the resurgence of al-Qaida.
The third interest of the US and its allies that is threatened by the war in Syria is to prevent Iran, Russia or al-Qaida from securing a victory or a tangible benefit from their involvement in the war.
It is important to note that despite the moral depravity of the regime's use of chemical weapons, none of America's vital interests is impacted by their use within Syria. Obama's pledge last year to view the use of chemical weapons as a tripwire that would automatically cause the US to intervene militarily in the war in Syria was made without relation to any specific US interest.

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/obamas-bread-and-circuses?f=syria#ixzz2expVYUxS
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Ditherer in Chief failed to address basic questions before declaring intent for war - ed
===

Everybody knows the story of Columbus, right? He was an Italian explorer from Genoa who set sail in 1492 to enrich the Spanish monarchs with gold and spices from the orient. Not quite. For too long, scholars have ignored Columbus’ grand passion: the quest to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims.
During Columbus’ lifetime, Jews became the target of fanatical religious persecution. On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed that all Jews were to be expelled from Spain. The edict especially targeted the 800,000 Jews who had never converted, and gave them four months to pack up and get out.
The Jews who were forced to renounce Judaism and embrace Catholicism were known as “Conversos,” or converts. There were also those who feigned conversion, practicing Catholicism outwardly while covertly practicing Judaism, the so-called “Marranos,” or swine.
Tens of thousands of Marranos were tortured by the Spanish Inquisition. They were pressured to offer names of friends and family members, who were ultimately paraded in front of crowds, tied to stakes and burned alive. Their land and personal possessions were then divvied up by the church and crown.
Recently, a number of Spanish scholars, such as Jose Erugo, Celso Garcia de la Riega, Otero Sanchez and Nicholas Dias Perez, have concluded that Columbus was a Marrano, whose survival depended upon the suppression of all evidence of his Jewish background in face of the brutal, systematic ethnic cleansing.
Columbus, who was known in Spain as Cristóbal Colón and didn’t speak Italian, signed his last will and testament on May 19, 1506, and made five curious — and revealing — provisions.
Two of his wishes — tithe one-tenth of his income to the poor and provide an anonymous dowry for poor girls — are part of Jewish customs. He also decreed to give money to a Jew who lived at the entrance of the Lisbon Jewish Quarter.
On those documents, Columbus used a triangular signature of dots and letters that resembled inscriptions found on gravestones of Jewish cemeteries in Spain. He ordered his heirs to use the signature in perpetuity.
According to British historian Cecil Roth’s “The History of the Marranos,” the anagram was a cryptic substitute for the Kaddish, a prayer recited in the synagogue by mourners after the death of a close relative. Thus, Columbus’ subterfuge allowed his sons to say
Kaddish for their crypto-Jewish father when he died. Finally, Columbus left money to support the crusade he hoped his successors would take up to liberate the Holy Land.
Estelle Irizarry, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, has analyzed the language and syntax of hundreds of handwritten letters, diaries and documents of Columbus and concluded that the explorer’s primary written and spoken language was Castilian Spanish. Irizarry explains that 15th-century Castilian Spanish was the
“Yiddish” of Spanish Jewry, known as “Ladino.” At the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b’ezrat Hashem (with God’s help). Observant Jews have for centuries customarily added this blessing to their letters. No letters to
outsiders bear this mark, and the one letter to Diego in which this was omitted was one meant for King Ferdinand.
In Simon Weisenthal’s book, “Sails of Hope,” he argues that Columbus’ voyage was motivated by a desire to find a safe haven for the Jews in light of their expulsion from Spain. Likewise, Carol Delaney, a cultural anthropologist at Stanford University, concludes that Columbus was a deeply religious man whose purpose was to sail to Asia
to obtain gold in order to finance a crusade to take back Jerusalem and rebuild the Jews’ holy Temple.
In Columbus’ day, Jews widely believed that Jerusalem had to be liberated and the Temple rebuilt for the Messiah to come.
Scholars point to the date on which Columbus set sail as further evidence of his true motives. He was originally going to sail on August 2, 1492, a day that happened to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, marking the destruction of the First and
Second Holy Temples of Jerusalem. Columbus postponed this original sail date by one day to avoid embarking on the holiday, which would have been considered by Jews to be an unlucky day to set sail. (Coincidentally or significantly, the day he set forth was the very day that Jews were, by law, given the choice of converting, leaving
Spain, or being killed.)
Columbus’ voyage was not, as is commonly believed, funded by the deep pockets of Queen Isabella, but rather by two Jewish Conversos and another prominent Jew. Louis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez advanced an interest free loan of 17,000 ducats from their own pockets to help pay for the voyage, as did Don Isaac Abrabanel, rabbi
and Jewish statesman.
Indeed, the first two letters Columbus sent back from his journey were not to Ferdinand and Isabella, but to Santangel and Sanchez, thanking them for their support and telling them what he had found.
The evidence seem to bear out a far more complicated picture of the man for whom our nation now celebrates a national holiday and has named its capital.
As we witness bloodshed the world over in the name of religious freedom, it is valuable to take another look at the man who sailed the seas in search of such freedoms — landing in a place that would eventually come to hold such an ideal at its very core.

A new light on a great man - ed
===
Oh how the sanctimonious Left bemoaned the slightest criticism of Julia Gillard. Egged on by Gillard’s own rants, and abetted by heavy-hitting propagandists such as David Marr and Robert Manne, the leftist blogosphere and Twitterverse manufactured a strange demonology, wherein Tony Abbott and his supporters were transformed into a misogynistic army of haters.
Such character assassination remains the most overused technique from the Left’s current playbook: A deliberate reverse ad hominem manoeuvre whereby genuine political disagreements from opponents are spun to appear as personal hate-motivated slurs. Media attack dogs for the Obama administration overuse this tactic so often it borders on the comical. You don’t want Obamacare? You’re a racist! Want to keep your guns? How racist! Think tax rates are too high? Racist! You’re a Republican? RACIST!
While Gillard once complained of her internet detractors being ‘misogynists and nutjobs’, the recent federal election demonstrated, more than ever, on just what side of the political fence most of the web’s crazies reside. Andrew Bolt has already commented on the rapid appearance of hate-filled Facebook pages that sprang up post-election.
Including: ‘Tony Abbott should be assassinated’ and ‘Tony Abbott should just die’. A reader of Bolt’s blog was able to track the location of the Facebook user who created the assassinate Abbott page: a trade union hall. No real surprises there. One suspects Bolt was also aware of, but too much of a gentleman to even mention, other disgraceful Facebook hate pages such as ‘Furiously Masturbating To Tony Abbott’s daughters’, or the more innocuous sounding, but equally disgusting page titled ‘Tony Abbott’s Daughters.’ Both are filled with the vilest of sexual descriptions, including incest and bestiality, depraved fantasies that seem to resonate in the souls of too many sickos on the Left.
Like millions across this great land, I watched the election results on Saturday 7 September. One eye on the TV — as my friend Carlos surfed between the various channels’ coverages — the other on Facebook and Twitter. As heartening as the results coming through the TV may have been, the reactions from lefty netizens were beyond disturbing. I don’t exaggerate when I say much of what I read was unpublishable. A slew of deviant comments similar to those on the Facebook pages mentioned above filled my screen. Rage at how the majority of their fellow Australians had voted. Crass sexualised commentary aimed at Abbott’s wife and daughters. Even threats of rape and violence. Just despicable. A smattering of some of the more moderate tweets in this vein follows. In keeping with the Left’s relentless assertion of Abbott’s misogyny, it seems fitting to focus on those of a misogynist bent:
‘I don’t know much about art but I think you’re way, way ahead of your time’
@MusicMelbMary: ‘What would Tony Abbott do if one of his daughter’s became a prostitute?’ @AndyDwyerSays: ‘Tony Abbott’s daughters now snorting lines off toilets at Lib HQ #ausvotes’. @MichelleBlogna: ‘Can’t wait for a leaked sex tape of the @TonyAbbottMHR daughters #ElectionProject’. @mffyrg ‘Shower @TonyAbbottMHR’s repulsive daughters with rotten fruit and veg at every opportunity. The Whores of @LiberalAus.’ @vila900 ‘Tony Abbot’s [sic] daughters look like men. Ugly. #TonyAbbott’. @JcliffordSmith: ‘Tony Abbott’s daughters look like trannies 2nite #ausvotes’. @bernietb: ‘Tony Abbott groping his daughters live on national TV’. @dailydoseofjess: ‘Tony Abbott’s daughters glad they can finally stop playfully stroking their dad’s chest.’ @JazzyAds: ‘Tony Abbott lusts after his daughters. Margie looks like a man, no wonder perv Tony can’t keep his hands off them. #tonyabbott #pervtony’.
Again, as disgraceful as the above tweets may be, they pale in comparison to much of the abject filth that appeared on Twitter and Facebook attacking Abbott and his female family members. But don’t expect outrage from lefty moralists anytime soon. Any more than they ever criticised the treatment of Sophie Mirabella, who was a regular victim of internet abuse. (Indeed, when she looked set to lose her seat, multiple tweeters and Facebookers exclaimed in malicious delight: ‘The Witch Is Dead!’)
And what about the late, great, Margaret Thatcher, whose actual death was celebrated by glee-filled and hate-riddled leftists both on the web and on British streets? How about the relentless vilification of Pauline Hanson? Or the despicable belittlement of Sarah Palin? Hello progressive defenders of the sisterhood? Are you there? Any accusations of misogyny? Of course not. Any woman right of centre — or, as our most recent federal election as proven, even the female family of a centre-right politician — is grist for the Left’s vindictive mill.
When the practice of demonising your opposition is encouraged by Labor’s leadership and intellectual vanguard, it should come as no surprise that their goose-stepping followers start reaching for torches, pitchforks and nooses. Contra the wailing and finger-pointing of the Left, it’s not News Limited, Alan Jones, or even their great Satan — Tony Abbott — who are responsible for the ugly divisiveness in modern Australia.
The paranoid strain in Australian political thought originates from the Left’s own propaganda machine, long geared to portraying the ‘unelectable’ Liberal leader as a misogynistic, homophobic, racist monster. Thank God that most of Australia didn’t fall for their lies. But a seething minority of true believers and fellow travellers, their own souls overflowing with the hatred they project onto others, are still drunk on the poisonous propaganda they have long consumed. It is almost a case study demonstrating why the Left are always so ready to accuse others of the politics of hate. Because they know exactly what it looks like. And if they ever have to check, verification is always just a mirror away.
This article first appeared in the print edition of The Spectator magazine, dated 
===
Barack Obama has been running around the country taking credit for an “economic recovery”, but the truth is that things have not gotten better under Obama.  Compared to when he first took office, a smaller percentage of the working age population is employed, the quality of our jobs has declined substantially and the middle class has been absolutely shredded.  If we are really in the middle of an “economic recovery”, why is the homeownership rate the lowest that it has been in 18 years?  Why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by nearly 50 percent while Obama has been in the White House?  Why has the national debt gotten more than 6 trillion dollars larger during the Obama era?  Obama should not be “taking credit” for anything when it comes to the economy.  In fact, he should be deeply apologizing to the American people.
And of course Obama is being delusional if he thinks that he is actually “running the economy”.  The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy and the U.S. financial system than he does.  But the mainstream media loves to fixate on the presidency, so presidents always get far too much credit or far too much blame for economic conditions.
But if you do want to focus on “the change” that has taken place since Barack Obama entered the White House, there is no way in the world that you can claim that things have actually gotten better during that time frame.  The cold, hard reality of the matter is that the U.S. economy has been steadily declining for over a decade, and this decline has continued while Obama has been living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It is getting very tiring listening to Obama supporters try to claim that Obama has improved the economy.  That is a false claim that is not even remotely close to reality.  The following are 33 shocking facts which show how badly the U.S. economy has tanked since Obama became president…
#1 When Barack Obama entered the White House, 60.6 percent of working age Americans had a job.  Today, only 58.7 percent of working age Americans have a job.
#2 Since Obama has been president, seven out of every eight jobsthat have been “created” in the U.S. economy have been part-time jobs.
#3 The number of full-time workers in the United States is still nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.
#4 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers now make less than $30,000 a year.
#5 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.
#6 When the Obama era began, the average duration of unemployment in this country was 19.8 weeks.  Today, it is 36.6 weeks.
#7 During the first four years of Obama, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” soared by an astounding 8,332,000.  That far exceeds any previous four year total.
#8 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.
#9 When Obama was elected, the homeownership rate in the United States was 67.5 percent.  Today, it is 65.0 percent.  That is the lowest that it has been in 18 years.
#10 When Obama entered the White House, the mortgage delinquency rate was 7.85 percent.  Today, it is 9.72 percent.
#11 In 2008, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 268 billion dollars.  Last year, it was 315 billion dollars.
#12 When Obama first became president, 12.5 million Americans had manufacturing jobs.  Today, only 11.9 million Americans have manufacturing jobs.
#13 Median household income in America has fallen for four consecutive years.  Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span.
#14 The poverty rate has shot up to 16.1 percent.  That is actually higher than when the War on Poverty began in 1965.
#15 During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by an average of about 11,000 per day.
#16 When Barack Obama entered the White House, there were about 32 million Americans on food stamps.  Today, there are more than 47 million Americans on food stamps.
#17 At this point, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in our history.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.
#18 When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.85.  Today, it is $3.53.
#19 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#20 Health insurance costs have risen by 29 percent since Barack Obama became president, and Obamacare is going to make things far worse.
#21 The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row.
#22 According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration…
Bush Sr.: 11.3
Clinton: 11.2
Bush Jr.: 10.8
Obama: 7.8
#23 In 2008, that total amount of student loan debt in this country was 440 billion dollars.  At this point, it has shot up to about a trillion dollars.
#24 According to one recent survey, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
#25 During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans collecting federal disability insurance rose by more than 18 percent.
#26 The total amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has grown by 32 percent since Barack Obama became president.
#27 According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.
#28 As I wrote about the other day, American households are now receiving more money directly from the federal government than they are paying to the government in taxes.
#29 Under Barack Obama, the velocity of money (a very important indicator of economic health) has plunged to a post-World War II low.
#30 At the end of 2008, the Federal Reserve held $475.9 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds.  Today, Fed holdings of U.S. Treasury bondshave skyrocketed past the 2 trillion dollar mark.
#31 When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent.  Today, it is up to 101 percent.
#32 During Obama’s first term, the federal government accumulated more new debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.
#33 When you break it down, the amount of new debt accumulated by the U.S. government during Obama’s first term comes to approximately$50,521 for every single household in the United States.  Are you able to pay your share?
===

If you place 32 metronomes on a static object and set them rocking out of phase with one another, they will remain that way indefinitely. Place them on a moveable surface, however, and something very interesting (and very mesmerizing) happens.
The metronomes in this video fall into the latter camp. Energy from the motion of one ticking metronome can affect the motion of every metronome around it, while the motion of every other metronome affects the motion of our original metronome right back. All this inter-metranome "communication" is facilitated by the board, which serves as an energetic intermediary between all the metronomes that rest upon its surface. The metronomes in this video (which are really just pendulums, or, if you want to get really technical, oscillators) are said to be "coupled."
The math and physics surrounding coupled oscillators are actually relevant to a variety of scientific phenomena, including the transfer of sound and thermal conductivity. For a much more detailed explanation of how this works, and how to try it for yourself, check out this excellent video by condensed matter physicist Adam Milcovich.
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C. H. Spurgeon
He that reads his Bible to find fault with it will soon discover that the Bible finds fault with him.
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Pastor Rick Warren
You can now watch our service online ANY HOUR of your day! It repeats 168 times a wk, every hour, from ANYWHERE in the world!
Join me: http://www.saddleback.com/onlinecampus

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Happy Sunday everyone! 

Quote of the day: you gotta live to be truly alive 
big score for vampire diaries - ed
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President Vladimir Putin had the audacity to tell America that it is not exceptional and then after arming Israel's enemies to the tee, tried to show his false concern for Israel's existence. What a liar!!!

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/13833#.UjVocRYlUsw
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Dr Dennis Jensen MP has been the member for Tangney in the the House of Representatives since 2004. A PhD in Materials Science and Physics and former research scientist, he has the highest scientific qualifications of all MPs and Senators. He has made major contributions in the areas of defence and science and would make an excellent science minister.
But columnist Peter van Onselen abused him in the Sunday Telegraph on 15September, 2013, as a "star twit'' for daring to aspire to this role. You see, he doesn't accept without reservation the theory that global warming is principally caused by carbon dioxide emissions from human activities. Presumably he should believe the Australian government can change this by imposing a job exporting tax on CO2, including one tied to a shonky CO2 market manipulated by Brussels-based bureaucrats and politicians. But didn't the Australian people reject this in the election?
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Instead of working to improve the economy, Congress is wasting time passing these 25 ridiculous bills.
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Heroic rescue: A man saves a mother and daughter trapped on the roof of their car as deadly floods continue to sweep through Colorado.http://tinyurl.com/khhrxlz
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Larry Pickering
JULIA DUMPS HER 'BLOKE'... for Greener pastures

Left wing on-line rag ‘The Guardian’ yesterday was told by a shattered Julia Gillard that, “Labor unambiguously sent a very clear message that it cared about nothing other than the prospects of survival of its members of parliament at the polls."

Now there’s a bit more Julia woolly thinking for you because if your MPs don’t survive you may as well go fishing or knitting, or even lecturing at Adelaide Uni!

Scathing criticism of her former colleagues was peppered with her own feelings: “It brought forth a pain that hits you like a fist, pain so strong you feel it in your guts, your nerve endings... I watched the election results by myself.”

Well, according to an insider, not exactly by yourself Julia.

The estate agency handling the sale of the house with a $2 mil price tag had initially surveyed residents in the immediate area asking if Julia would be welcome in the up-market South Brighton beachside suburb.

“Not only did no-one object”, Pickering Post was told, “but there was a good level of excitement about having the famous redhead as a neighbour.”

One resident in the same street suggested her house value might even appreciate. Really?

Oh well, things must usually be boring in South Brighton because the whole suburb is now abuzz with Gillard goss.

Apparently Tim hasn’t made the Xmas card list, much less the lady’s boudoir list.

Julia’s new companion is a “lady friend” who moved in prior to Julia’s arrival.

I cannot identify the “lady friend” from various descriptions but it certainly isn’t her sister... and it appears her mum has also taken up residence.

But poor little red Reuben is nowhere to be seen.

Honestly, I couldn’t give a stuff about Julia’s preferences, good luck to her, but it seems the concocted farce of the Timmy dalliance was no less of a political PR stunt than the Rudd PR stunt Julia now complains of!

Actually, Julia has been quite open about promoting switch-hitting from her Uni student days and Adelaide (along with sister city Hobart) is a comfy nest for gay commos and loony Green activists... the sort of CV that will get you on the short list for a ‘lecturing’ job at the local Uni.

But I tend to link the word “Julia” to the word “disingenuous” because her Adelaide Uni professorial pals recently claimed, “Australia’s southern States will be inundated from alarming southern pole ice-melt. People in SA wetlands will need to relocate”, they warned.

Perhaps Julia doesn’t believe in global warming after all, or she would never have chosen a beachside suburb like the “soon to be inundated” South Brighton.
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POLICE in the US trying to subdue an emotionally disturbed man accidentally shot two female bystanders outside New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal Saturday night.
Police shot one woman in her leg as she hobbled with her four-wheeled walker; a second woman was grazed in the buttocks, police told the New York Post.
The officers may have opened fire - pulling off three shots, according to witnesses - in the mistaken belief that the deranged man was armed after a pedestrian shouted, "He's got a gun!"
A bullet to the leg sent the first unidentified woman sprawling to the sidewalk grate, still clutching her walker.
She was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was heading last night to speak to her, police said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/new-york-police-accidentally-shoot-two-bystanders-while-trying-to-subdue-man/story-fndir2ev-1226719572178#ixzz2exdkFuDW
That trolley will be useful for her, when she heals .. ed
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"Saturday's incident is the latest in a string of cross-border rocket attacks that have escalated as Hezbollah's involvement in Syria's brutal conflict has increased.

Initially Hezbollah said it wanted only to defend 13 Syrian villages along the border where Lebanese Shiites live, and the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine near Damascus, which is revered by Shiites around the world."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/171900#.UjUjsBaXtSU
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Pastor Rick Warren 

All weekend, I'm teaching NEVER WASTE YOUR PAIN! How to use it for God's 5 purposes in your life. http://bit.ly/ZvjGI9
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Inaugural journey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
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"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” Philippians 2:1-2 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"There were also with him other little ships."
Mark 4:36
Jesus was the Lord High Admiral of the sea that night, and his presence preserved the whole convoy. It is well to sail with Jesus, even though it be in a little ship. When we sail in Christ's company, we may not make sure of fair weather, for great storms may toss the vessel which carries the Lord himself, and we must not expect to find the sea less boisterous around our little boat. If we go with Jesus we must be content to fare as he fares; and when the waves are rough to him, they will be rough to us. It is by tempest and tossing that we shall come to land, as he did before us.
When the storm swept over Galilee's dark lake all faces gathered blackness, and all hearts dreaded shipwreck. When all creature help was useless, the slumbering Saviour arose, and with a word, transformed the riot of the tempest into the deep quiet of a calm; then were the little vessels at rest as well as that which carried the Lord. Jesus is the star of the sea; and though there be sorrow upon the sea, when Jesus is on it there is joy too. May our hearts make Jesus their anchor, their rudder, their lighthouse, their life-boat, and their harbour. His Church is the Admiral's flagship, let us attend her movements, and cheer her officers with our presence. He himself is the great attraction; let us follow ever in his wake, mark his signals, steer by his chart, and never fear while he is within hail. Not one ship in the convoy shall suffer wreck; the great Commodore will steer every barque in safety to the desired haven. By faith we will slip our cable for another day's cruise, and sail forth with Jesus into a sea of tribulation. Winds and waves will not spare us, but they all obey him; and, therefore, whatever squalls may occur without, faith shall feel a blessed calm within. He is ever in the centre of the weather-beaten company: let us rejoice in him. His vessel has reached the haven, and so shall ours.

Evening

"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."
Psalm 32:5
David's grief for sin was bitter. Its effects were visible upon his outward frame: "his bones waxed old"; "his moisture was turned into the drought of summer." No remedy could he find, until he made a full confession before the throne of the heavenly grace. He tells us that for a time he kept silence, and his heart became more and more filled with grief: like a mountain tarn whose outlet is blocked up, his soul was swollen with torrents of sorrow. He fashioned excuses; he endeavoured to divert his thoughts, but it was all to no purpose; like a festering sore his anguish gathered, and as he would not use the lancet of confession, his spirit was full of torment, and knew no rest. At last it came to this, that he must return unto his God in humble penitence, or die outright; so he hastened to the mercy-seat, and there unrolled the volume of his iniquities before the all-seeing One, acknowledging all the evil of his ways in language such as you read in the fifty-first and other penitential Psalms. Having done this, a work so simple and yet so difficult to pride, he received at once the token of divine forgiveness; the bones which had been broken were made to rejoice, and he came forth from his closet to sing the blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven. See the value of a grace-wrought confession of sin! It is to be prized above all price, for in every case where there is a genuine, gracious confession, mercy is freely given, not because the repentance and confession deserve mercy, but for Christ's sake. Blessed be God, there is always healing for the broken heart; the fountain is ever flowing to cleanse us from our sins. Truly, O Lord, thou art a God "ready to pardon!" Therefore will we acknowledge our iniquities.
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Today's reading: Proverbs 19-21, 2 Corinthians 7 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Proverbs 19-21

1 Better the poor whose walk is blameless
than a fool whose lips are perverse.
2 Desire without knowledge is not good—
how much more will hasty feet miss the way!
3 A person’s own folly leads to their ruin,
yet their heart rages against the LORD.
4 Wealth attracts many friends,
but even the closest friend of the poor person deserts them.
5 A false witness will not go unpunished,
and whoever pours out lies will not go free.
6 Many curry favor with a ruler,
and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts....

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Corinthians 7

1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Paul’s Joy Over the Church’s Repentance
2 Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. 4 I have spoken to you with great frankness; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.
5 For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever....
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Elkanah

[Ĕl'kănah] - god hath created or is jealous, possessing.
  1. A Levite of the family of Kohath and brother of Assir and Abiasaph (Exod. 6:24; 1 Chron. 6:23).
  2. The father of the prophet Samuel, and a descendant of No. 1 in the fifth generation (1 Sam. 1:1-23; 2:11, 20; 1 Chron. 6:27, 34).
  3. A descendant of Levi through Kohath ( 1 Chron. 6:25, 36).
  4. A descendant of Kohath (1 Chron. 6:26, 35). Perhaps the same person as No. 3.
  5. An ancestor of Netophathite villagers (1 Chron. 9:16).
  6. A Korhite who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chron. 12:6).
  7. A Levite, doorkeeper of the Ark (1 Chron. 15:23). Perhaps the same as No. 6.
  8. An officer in king Ahaz'household and second only to the king, who was slain when Pekah invaded Judah (2 Chron. 28:7).
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