Monday, March 25, 2013

Mon 25th Mar Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Joe Pulsar Lee andHeejin Baek. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you .. but on this day they Pass Over .. ?
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What is God's attitude toward you when you've failed? Can you still come to Him without fear to receive His love, forgiveness and help for your struggles? Let Joseph Prince show you from the account of Jesus' restoration of Peter why you can have bold faith today to run to Him even when you've failed. Be strengthened by the Lord's grace and discover how to grow in true spiritual maturity as you develop a strong sense of His love. Open your heart to the incredible magnitude of God's love for you today, and be empowered with bold faith to overcome every temptation and challenge! 

Get the full message at:
JosephPrince.com - 

Find us at:
http://www.facebook.com/josephprince
https://twitter.com/JosephPrince
http://bit.ly/15l4iBO

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Discover the power of right believing this year! Click on the link to find out more!http://events.josephprince.org/events/
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Don't rely on your own strength or abilities to bring you where you want to go. Trust instead in Jesus’ perfect strength that does not waver, and you will find that even in your weakest moments, you are still carried on His strong, steady shoulders.
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…Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.—Zech 9:12

I am sure that you have heard the expression, “When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade!” Well, I want you to know that when the devil throws lemons at you, God Himself will make lemonade for you! After all, the Bible says that God works all things together for your good. 

And He does it with style—He restores double for your trouble! Beloved, if you suffered any loss, God can restore double to you, so that you end up having more than before, if not in quantity, then in quality!

So when trouble comes, don’t give up and say, “It is hopeless!” Don’t worry or get angry. See that trouble as an opportunity for God to bless you with more than what you originally had. Because God has declared it, be confident that you will get double for your trouble!
http://josephprince.com/
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You have an inheritance in Christ which includes blessings of favor, fruitfulness and health. Check out today's devotional. Be sure to click "like" to help spread the word! Thanks, all! http://bit.ly/ZHaQcd
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In the midst of your changeable feelings and circumstances, know that two things remain constant: the Lord is good and He wants to be good to you.
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Instead of trying to change your circumstances, change the way you see yourself. 

Don’t see yourself as untalented, unlovable or unworthy. See yourself the way God sees you—blessed, highly favored and deeply loved. 

As you come into agreement with God, you’ll be amazed at how you’ll begin to triumph over your circumstances! 
http://josephprince.com/
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Albanese shows up Gillard weakness

Piers Akerman – Monday, March 25, 2013 (3:19am)

ANTHONY Albanese has wedged Julia Gillard in his bid to save his skin.
He said yesterday there was “no reason” for him to quit the ministry in the wake of last week’s abortive leadership coup but he was a key member in leadership talks with Kevin Rudd’s supporters over recent months.
As late as early Thursday morning, Albanese was still trying to cement himself in as deputy to Rudd should the coup be successful.
By Thursday afternoon however he was admitting that there numbers were not there for Rudd and he withdrew.
Now he is says there is no reason why he should resign.
“I continue to enjoy the confidence of the Prime Minister,” he said.
“I would never support a spill against a sitting prime minister, that was my view, that is still my view.”
But he would plot and he would try and ensure that he got a piece of the action.
If he wasn’t trying to bring on the action, he certainly wasn’t trying to dissuade the plotters during their meetings.
Fellow Labor MP Laurie Ferguson branded him a “gutless wonder” for not joining fellow Rudd supporters Chris Bowen, Martin Ferguson and Kim Carr in quitting the ministry.
Perhaps Ferguson is not far off the mark.
Even Rudd included Albanese amongst those who were involved during one of his press conferences Friday.
He was one of those who gave the bid oxygen.
He would have been one of those to demand Wayne Swan’s and Stephen Smith’s resignations had the coup come off.
It now looks worse for Gillard and worse for Albanese because he remains within her Cabinet.
She looks weak, he looks pathetic.
This is a test for Gillard. Albanese doesn’t even rate as Transport Minister having compromised himself by rejecting transport solutions for Sydney’s traffic which would have impacted on his and his wife’s electorates.
So the government limps on, whatever the new Cabinet, Albo will be there.
Compromised and compromising.
Gillard has failed her own toughness test.

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Unions own our government

Miranda Devine – Monday, March 25, 2013 (8:32am)

JULIA Gillard ”bought the leadership by giving the unions what they wanted”, according to an unnamed Kevin Rudd supporter. The unions: AWU, HSU, TWU.
In a new argument over how Ms Gillard held her position, caucus members said that unions had applied pressure to some MPs to reject Mr Rudd, even though that meant losing a chance to hold their seats at the September 14 election.

The accusation centres on cases where MPs told the Rudd camp that they would have to check with their unions before deciding whether to abandon Ms Gillard. “She bought the leadership by giving the unions what they wanted, and that is a corrupt process,” said one of Mr Rudd’s supporters.
Another said that the outcome continued Ms Gillard’s debt to unions that have backed her consistently over recent years.
“She’s always been beholden to the unions,” he said. “Do I think this has changed anything? No.”
Unions blamed for influencing the result include the Australian Workers Union, Transport Workers Union and Health Services Union. AWU national secretary Paul Howes hit back at the claim by insisting he made no calls about the leadership to MPs last Thursday. “It’s a ludicrous accusation, which most anonymous accusations are, and I haven’t made a single call,” he said.
The role of the unions goes to the heart of Labor’s internal debate over its future strategy, in the wake of calls from Mr Crean and Mr Ferguson - both former union leaders - for the party to reclaim the middle ground rather than fighting a “class war” that divided the electorate.
Ms Gillard’s supporters reject that criticism and describe their goal as an attempt to instil “Labor values” in government policy, declaring that this would continue through to the election.

Government measures that have helped unions include a plan to include penalty rates in workplace relations law, set “safe rates” for truck drivers and require aged-care homes to sign enterprise bargaining agreements in return for government payments. 
Why are the independents allowing this to continue?

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DEPARTMENT OF EVERYTHING

Tim Blair – Monday, March 25, 2013 (3:48pm)

Julia Gillard creates a monster: 
The Department of Climate Change will be merged with the Industry Department and will become the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. 
Add another one or two portfolios and she could call it “the government”. Meanwhile, Craig Emerson says Bunnygate is no big deal: 
Pressed about Ms Gillard’s invitation to Sandilands, Labor frontbencher Craig Emerson told the ABC the prime minister would not condone every utterance that came out of the mouth of every Australian.
“You just don’t write people off all over the place because of particular statements they make,” he said on Monday.
“Let’s not just dwell in the past.” 
Quite so. Let’s stay in the present, as the PM kisses the Easter Misogynist while asylum seekers drown.

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KNOW YOUR CITY

Tim Blair – Monday, March 25, 2013 (3:13pm)

If you ever doubted that Melbourne’s Age has lost its way, check this caption accompanying a piece by Age associate editor Shane Green: 
image 
The man identified merely as “Fitzroy footballer” is 1969 Brownlow medallist and former Fitzroy captain and coach Kevin Murray, a distinctive-looking fellow whom the Age has evidently forgotten.

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MRS RABBIT

Tim Blair – Monday, March 25, 2013 (5:03am)

Julia Gillard rages against claimed misogyny, but look at her new Prime Ministerial photo buddy:

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The apparent doom clown cosying up to the Prime Minister is none other than creepy radio loadKyle Sandilands, a fellow whose delicate feminist sensibilities are widely known.
UPDATE. “Even the world’s dumbest media advisor would have known that being photographed with that clown will only erode any remaining credibility,” comments Milton G. “Why didn’t 2DAY FM warn Sandilands?”
UPDATE II. Caroline Overington: 
Is that the same Julia Gillard who made headlines around the world with her stand against misogyny?
Why, yes it is.
And the fellow in the fluffy suit, that’s the Easter Bunny, right?
No, actually. That’s 2DayFM’s Kyle Sandilands, dressed up as the Easter Bunny.
That’s right, it’s the same Kyle Sandilands who last year found himself in a world of pain after telling a female reporter to “watch your mouth, girl, or I’ll hunt you down”.
Who said of the same young woman: “What a fat bitter thing you are. You’re a piece of s**t.”
Who added: “You little troll ... you should be fired from your job.”
And yes, that’s the same Gillard said of Tony Abbott:
“I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man.”
Who said:
“What I will never stand for is the Leader of the Opposition coming into this place and peddling a double standard.”
Who also said:
“This kind of hypocrisy must not be tolerated!”
Who said:
“Sexism should always be unacceptable.” 
UPDATE III:

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UPDATE IV. 3AW’s Neil Mitchell: 
The prime minister considers me a lower life form than that appalling piece of work, Kyle Sandilands.
Now, while I am banned by the prime minister for being sexist, grubby Kyle Sandilands is her best mate.
She is massively hypocritical. But what else is new? 
UPDATE V. Ten’s stupid Stephen Spencer finds an excuse for Gillard: 
2Day organised it. Gillard didn’t choose Kyle, 2DAY chose Kiribilli. 
Because that’s the way government works in Australia. Radio stations hold authority over the Prime Minister’s residence.
UPDATE VI. Feminist Clementine Ford last week attacked Sandilands and other male media identities who “have only been rewarded for their brutishness”: 
Kyle Sandilands, whose glass jaw led him to launch a tirade against another female journalist after she reported the negative audience response to a TV show he was involved in. In his tirade, Sandilands called her a ‘fat slag’ who needed ‘more titty’ to fill the clothes she was wearing. Then there was that stunt involving the interrogation of a 14-year-old girl, which had Sandilands responding to her disclosure of rape with the line, “And is that the only experience you’ve ever had.” Sandilands, or ‘Vile Kyle’ as he has been christened by members of the public, remains employed by the Austereo network. 
And he remains a pal of the Prime Minister.

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Five feminist reasons to not eat meat - or, rather, to avoid our universities

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (2:00pm)

I’ve read Fairfax writer Alecia Simmonds’ article twice to check for the slightest sign - other than the sheer loopiness of the arguments - that it is satire rather than serious. But, alas:

Here are five reasons why feminists should try to eliminate meat:
1. Eating meat is associated with male power in its most vile and repugnant forms… In rejecting meat, feminists – both women and men – are rejecting a potent symbol of patriarchal power.
2. The ill treatment of animals makes the abuse of women tolerable. Following on from my first point, if men get to eat the meat, then women, alas, are consigned to the less savoury role of being the meat. A woman can be hunted like a “bunny” and pursued like a “vixen” or “fox”. Women exist as prey… When women are likened to animals it means that they exist as objects to be possessed and consumed.
3. Vegetarians, like feminists, care about language. Violence is made possible through euphemistic or derogatory words that distance us from the feelings of the victim. Just as calling a baby cow “veal” makes it more appetising, so too does calling a woman “slut” make it easier to abuse her… Feminists have also spent decades explaining that rape is violence, not sex.
4. Feminists and vegetarians share a common project of ending discrimination based on arbitrary distinctions. We are all, at our base, animals. So why should one animal species be outside the realm of our compassion?…
5. Feminists and vegetarians believe that the personal is political. Just as we tell male partners that the minutia of who unpacks the dishwasher each night really matters, so too do we need to remind ourselves that what goes into our mouths also matters.
Oh, my goodness.
Prick with a Fork analyses the arguments and uncovers use of a dodgy survey.
Other Simmonds opinions help to explain not just why Fairfax but our entire civilisation may be in decline - and why more than a decade at university can really stuff up your thinking and your prose.


Simmonds shares “a teary, passionate love affair” with the earth - in this case a near barren part of Kimberley coastline selected for a $34 billion development - for which it ”is worth breaking all the rules to defend”.
Simmonds believes choice and capitalism conflict with feminism: “Choice is the language of capitalism and individualism and as such sits uncomfortably with a feminism based on collective rights.”
Simmonds also opposes the right to free speech of people whose opinions she doesn’t like. Not only can they be vilified, they should be jailed: “Imagine if Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt could be thrown in prison and charged money for vomiting venomous racist bile in public. Seriously… I think it’s high time that Jones and Bolt were sent to the clanger, but for their misogyny as much as their racism.”
Simmonds suggests only snobs prefer to learn French or Italian to Walpiri, and are making choices that hurt locals: “I’m all for us being an outward-looking, cosmopolitan society that draws talent from around the globe. But it shouldn’t be at the expense of people here. ... Why is speaking French or Italian any better than speaking Walpiri or Indonesian? Why do we lament not being able to find a good croissant outside of France but say nothing of the difficulties of finding tagine outside of Morocco?” (Simmonds herself does not speak Walpiri.)
So who is this person, so alarmingly keen to vilify and censor, so quick to assert the collective over the individual, and so slow to support the means by which we live lives comfortable enough to give windy lectures to a chop? Simmonds explains:

Back in the late nineties, when raving meant dancing and sun-dried tomatoes meant culinary sophistication, I joined a group at university called ‘The Activist Left’. It was the obvious choice for someone who had spent their high school years weeping over woodchips. I believed another world was possible but had no faith in parliamentary reform. Revolutionary overthrow sounded infinitely more exciting ...
I do believe I did detect the blight of a university education at the hands of the kind of people attending the Marxism 2013 conference (see post below). I do believe her writing places her squarely in a place and time - Australian universities teaching second-hand Derrida and deconstruction theory around a decade ago, with Greens rampant. Simmonds is not so much an individual but a cultural artefact, as instantly dated as Derrida himself.
Now Simmonds despairs that the new “spirit-crushingly boring” generation does not share her instantly-outmoded concerns:

All I know for certain is that there is nothing more tragic than a generation without spirit.
Oh, but there is. It’s a generation without brains. 

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The boat people disaster just got worse

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (1:42pm)

Boat people policy
Reader Gab on the extraordinary unravelling of our border laws, thanks to what the Press Council orders journalists not to call illegal immigration:

Andrew, more boat sightings, none of which have had any media citing.
Following on from your blog entry dated 20th March, Boat arrivals keep soaring, there was another boat on 19th March making it the third boat for that day.
Here’s the list since your last column on the subject:

24 March 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselACV Dame Roma Mitchell, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel east of Ashmore Islands yesterday. 24 March 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Pirie, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-north-west of Darwin yesterday.
24 March 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Broome, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-west of Ashmore Islands on Friday.
22 March 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Bundaberg, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north of Christmas Island this morning.
20 March 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Pirie, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel west-north-west of Darwin overnight.
20 March 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselHMAS Ballarat, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-west of Christmas Island last night.
19 March 2013 - Border Protection Command intercepts vesselACV Triton, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected irregular entry vessel north-west of Cocos (Keeling) Islands overnight.
That’s a total of 364 people and 7 boats.
In just five days.
UPDATE
Reports of a boat sinking off Christmas Island, with 95 on board. No news of any fatalities.
So far some 1000 boat people have been lured to their deaths since Labor dismantled John Howard’s boat people laws.
UPDATE

At least two people are dead after an asylum seeker boat carrying 95 people capsized off Christmas Island. 

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Gillard promotes survivor Albanese and her loyalists

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (12:08pm)

Anthony Albanese remains in Julia Gillard’s ministry despite being a plotter for Kevin Rudd, who planned to make him his deputy Prime Minister:

The Australian has been told by several caucus members that Mr Albanese continued his support for Mr Rudd until it became clear shortly before 4.30pm last Thursday that the numbers were not there to secure victory.
One of Ms Gillard’s supporters said yesterday it was “widespread knowledge” that Mr Rudd wanted Mr Albanese to become deputy leader if there was a challenge…
Mr Albanese… said there was no arrangement to become deputy leader in a Rudd government…
Mr Albanese said Mr Rudd had “sounded me out” about the deputy leadership as far back as 2005 and 2006 when Kim Beazley was leader.
Amazing survival skills:

Anthony Albanese looks set to retain his position in Julia Gillard’s cabinet despite being outed as a member of Kevin Rudd’s inner circle and of being in the former prime minister’s office when Mr Rudd was deciding whether to challenge for the leadership.
In the aftermath of Thursday’s uncontested spill, staunch Gillard supporter Laurie Ferguson described Mr Albanese and fellow minister Mark Butler as ‘’gutless wonders’’ for not resigning despite both men siding with Mr Rudd…
Mr Albanese, the government’s leader in the lower house, ... said on Sunday ‘’there’s no reason why I should [resign]’’. He also expressed ‘’confidence in the Prime Minister’’.
Define “confidence”.
UPDATE
Albanese would have been one resignation too many:
SENIOR Gillard ministers pleaded with Anthony Albanese not to resign over his support for Kevin Rudd, fearing the government would fall with the loss of his skills as its leader in parliament.
Key cabinet members and supporters of Prime Minister Julia Gillard last night confirmed they begged Rudd loyalist Mr Albanese to stay in his job - even as colleagues who had also backed the former PM in last week’s failed coup resigned en masse…
“We could not afford to lose him,” one cabinet minister confirmed yesterday.
UPDATE
Miranda Devine:

Would Julia Gillard still be prime minister if she were not a woman?
UPDATE
Chaos - or “fiasco”, as Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said today:

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be working with an ”L-plate cabinet” in the lead-up to the federal budget in 50 days’ time.
UPDATE
Simon Crean says Julia Gillard now has “fresh air” and “no excuses” with a Cabinet of loyalists and “no one else to blame”. And he repeats: no more class war.
UPDATE
The Cabinet reshuffle is announced. Amazing survival skills from Albanese, who stood to be Deputy Prime Minister under Rudd, but is still promoted by Gillard to Regional Development, taking over from Simon Crean.
Gary Gray is rightly promoted to Resources Minister. (Like Ferguson, he’s smart enough and brave enough to be a global warming sceptic - although the linked article falsely gives Gray, rather then father-in-law Peter Walsh, credit for helping to found the sceptical Lavoisier Society.)
Climate Change has been abolished as a stand-alone ministry, a sure sign of flagging interest in the great scare.
Gillard’s changes:

Gary Gray joins the Cabinet as Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Tourism and Minister for Small Business…
His current roles as Special Minister of State and Minister for the Public Service and Integrity will be taken by the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
Jason Clare joins Cabinet as a full member while retaining his current responsibilities.

Anthony Albanese is promoted and takes on the critical role of Minister for Regional Development and Local Government ... [and keeps] his existing role as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport.
He will be supported by Catherine King in the Outer Ministry as Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories, and as Minister for Road Safety.

Tony Burke adds Arts to his existing portfolio work.... He will be assisted by Michael Danby as his Parliamentary Secretary…
Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research will be taken by Craig Emerson. Craig will retain his current roles as Minister for Trade and Competiveness and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Asian Century Policy.
Craig will be assisted by two junior Ministers – Don Farrell, as Minister for Science and Research and Sharon Bird as Minister for Higher Education and Skills.
As part of today’s changes, the Department of Climate Change will be merged with the Industry Department and will become the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.
As such, Greg Combet is now the Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation and his Parliamentary Secretary, Yvette D’Ath will also have a revised title.

Jan McLucas is appointed Minister for Human Services…

Don Farrell will also be Minister Assisting on Tourism, and Bernie Ripoll will be Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business…

Andrew Leigh will be Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister…
Matt Thistlethwaite becomes Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs and Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs…

Amanda Rishworth … becomes Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water.... She will also be Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers.
Shayne Neumann … will be Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General and Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing

UPDATE
Liberals laugh:
UPDATE
Does a government department with this name suggest serious thought on good governance or political ad-hockery?

Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.

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Reds under the lecterns

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (9:29am)

It is astonishing that 24 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we still have people demanding Marxism be given another try.
Note how many speakers at the Marxism 2013 conference are warehoused in our universities:

Gary [Foley] lectures in history at Victoria University…
Antony Loewenstein is ...  a board member of Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies.
Jeff Sparrow is ... editor of the left wing journal Overland [sponsored by Victoria University].
Rick Kuhn ... is a Reader in Politics at the Australian National University.
Diane Fieldes ... teaches at the University of New South Wales.
Tom Bramble has been a socialist activist since the late 1970s. He is a senior lecturer in industrial relations at the University of Queensland. 
Max Lane … is a now a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party [and is a lecturer at Victoria University].
Roz Ward is a delegate in the National Tertiary Education Union at La Trobe University.
Jane Kenway is a Professorial Fellow with the Australian Research Council, a Professor in the Education Faculty at Monash University and an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; Australia.
John [Passant] has been a socialist for over 30 years. He has worked in the Australian Tax Office and academia. [He tutors at the Australian National University.]
Susan Price is the current national co-convenor of the Socialist Alliance… A member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) for over 13 years, Susan was NTEU Branch President at the University of NSW from 2006-2008 and has been Branch Secretary since 2010
Such people teach our young.

(Thanks to reader Rod.)
UPDATE
At an earlier, spontaneous conference on applied Marxism - one attended not by university lecturers:

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Labor MP still boasts of the “surplus” that never was

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (9:25am)

When will Laura Smyth, Labor’s member for La Trobe, correct her list of “achievements” of this government?
- The 2011-12 Budget: delivered 95% of our election promises as well as returning the budget to surplus in 2013 with significant savings measures. Some of the savings measures were not easy but we delivered the biggest fiscal turnaround in 30 years.
(Thanks to reader Rod.) 

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Labor chooses Gillard and the politics of hate

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (8:50am)


THE Labor Government is divided by something more deadly than Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
Rudd and the ministers purged for supporting him are fighting for Labor to drop its politics of hate.  

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Who’s that with the terrorist?

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (8:32am)

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Astonishing. Barack Obama holds a joint press conference in Ramallah under a giant banner featuring Yasser Arafat:
Arafat, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting has noted, “is known to many as the “father of modern terrorism.” Below is a timeline of some of the key events of his life and terrorist acts with which he was associated.”
CAMERA notes, “In fact, groups under Arafat’s direct or indirect command – including Fatah, Black September, Tanzim and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade – were responsible for hundreds of bombings, hijackings, assassinations and other attacks, including the 1972 murder of 11 of Israel’s Olympic athletes in Munich, the 1973 murder of the American ambassador to Sudan, Cleo Noel, and the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruiseship (resulting in the murder of wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer).”
Obama gets a lesson on the hatreds that make dreams of a peace just ... dreams:

Mr Obama was met with a colder welcome as he arrived in the West Bank this morning after his effusive reception in Israel yesterday.
Palestinians tried to wave away his helicopter, Marine One, as it landed in Ramallah. Around 150 demonstrators chanted anti-American slogans, saying they wanted weapons not presidential visits.
Early this morning, two rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip hit southern Israel. 

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Rumour: Assad shot

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (8:01am)

Unconfirmed reports that the Syrian dictator has been shot, and possibly killed:
According to Arab media http://www.eltira.org , Bashar al-Assad would have been seriously wounded by gunfire last night Saturday, March 23 by his bodyguard but Iran is not dead. He is currently hospitalized, between life and death, Shami Hospital in Damascus which the streets were closed.
(Thanks to reader Kevin.)
UPDATE
New York Daily News:
Assad was supposedly shot by his Iranian bodyguard Saturday night, with at least one website saying he had been ‘assassinated.’ But other online updates by Arab and Israeli media say the report was untrue.

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Did Gillard whisper “misogynist” to her Easter Bunny?

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (7:59am)

Julia Gillard after falsely vilifying Tony Abbott as a misogynist:

When I see sexism and misogyny I’m going to call them for what they are,
Hypocrite:

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FOR a woman who can spot a misogynist at 10 paces - “misogynist Tony is back”, she muttered across the parliamentary chamber last week - Julia Gillard is spending a lot of time in the company of Kyle Sandilands.
The radio DJ who questioned a 14-year-old rape victim on-air about her sexual experiences, and who called a journalist a “fat slag” without enough “titty” to carry off a low-cut blouse, is fast becoming a favourite with the Prime Minister.
On Friday, Sandilands and his 2DayFM offsider Jackie O landed one of only two radio interviews given by Ms Gillard after the Labor caucus had re-endorsed her leadership the day before.
Yesterday, she fulfilled a promise by inviting him to her official Sydney residence, Kirribilli House, to take part in an Easter egg hunt for a children’s charity, even posing with the DJ, who was dressed as a giant Easter Bunny, for “selfies” pictures that she later posted on Twitter.
Yes, so proud of posing with the “fat slag” hater that she tweeted this picture:

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(Thanks to reader Jason.) 

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Milne vs the consensus on stalled warming

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (7:35am)

If Greens leader Christine Milne cannot even tell the truth about a thermometer reading, what else is she saying that’s false?
From Channel 10’s Meet the Press yesterday:

TORY Maguire: One of the ongoing, really damaging things for Julia Gillard politically, has from the very beginning continued to be her backflip on the carbon tax. Are you starting to look now at the fact that you, the Greens, pushed her so hard in 2010 to make that deal, when, really, it is going to end up being counter-productive, because she’s going to get absolutely obliterated at the next election, and Tony Abbott has promised to overturn it.
Christine Milne: Well, the key thing is that global warming is accelerating.
Professor Myles Allen, head of the climate dynamics group at the University of Oxford, January 8:

A LOT of people (not the IPCC) were claiming, in the run-up to the Copenhagen 2009 conference, that warming was accelerating and it is all worse than we thought. What has happened since then has demonstrated that it is foolish to extrapolate short-term climate trends. We did see unexpectedly fast warming from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, but the IPCC, quite correctly, did not suggest this was evidence for acceleration.
Dr Richard Allan, reader in climate science at the University of Reading, January 8:

GLOBAL warming is not at a standstill but does seem to have slowed down since 2000 in comparison to the rapid warming of the world since the 1970s.
Professor Brian Hoskins, the director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London:
THE current news item that the Met Office now predicts no global warming in the period up to 2017 is based on the latest five-year forecast run with their new climate model . . . One interpretation of the forecasts is for little warming from 1998 until 2017. This is consistent with a multi-decadal fluctuation in temperature that presently opposes the continued upward trend.
David Shukman, science editor, BBC News, January 8:

THE UK Met Office has revised one of its forecasts for how much the world may warm in the next few years . . . If the forecast is accurate, the result would be that the global average temperature would have remained relatively static for about two decades.

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Teaching teachers not to teach

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (7:29am)

Ludicrous waste, like training hundreds of new journalists each year for dozens of jobs:
TENS of millions of dollars are being wasted training teachers who do not enter a classroom, with federal and state governments spending at least $16,500 on each student teacher every year despite up to 90 per cent in some states failing to find a job.
Universities graduate about 16,000 new teachers every year across the nation, half of whom are primary teachers, but ... about 90 per cent of teachers graduating university in NSW and Queensland fail to find a job, while about 40,000 teachers in NSW and 16,000 teachers in Queensland are on departmental waiting lists for a permanent job.
The Victorian education department says it employed about half its teaching graduates last year, but this still left about 2500 new teachers looking for a job.
Are universities too keen to train many rather than the needed best? Is this about having more concern for money than standards? 

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Abbott cannot waste this win

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (6:56am)

Tony Abbott’s biggest danger now is not losing the September election, but wasting the win.
The Opposition Leader has long worried his contest with Julia Gillard will get very tight. He’s a fretter.  

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Cut, cut, cut

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (6:43am)

Maurice Newman says a Coalition Government’s first great task will be to wind back the Age of Entitlement - which I suggested yesterday to Tony Abbott will need a bigger mandate than he’s seeking:
The cash surplus, originally promised at $1.5bn, has become a probable $15bn deficit.
And, because of the creative accounting adopted to achieve the illusory surplus, if nothing changes, the cash deficit for next year will be higher still…
Finding savings won’t be easy. Labor has encouraged an entitlement culture and promoted the myth that we can all live better at the expense of everyone else.
More than 50 per cent of Australian families now rely on some form of government handout and welfare has reached 35 per cent of the budget. Unless expectations can be lowered, reining in spending is likely to meet stiff resistance…
The Coalition will face Labor’s formidable allies. The mainstream media and academia remain largely solid in their support. Some government agencies have been captured, while many NGOs and not-for-profits have become government cheerleaders.
UPDATE
Alan Moran identifies an easy - and healthy - $25 billion savings:

Some $22.5 billion in program savings are identified below in addition to which are $2.4 billion savings in staffing costs…
Some of the major items include:


 More than $5 billion in foreign aid in the form of development assistance; this has never been instrumental in helping poor countries achieve economic relief…
$9 billion in Commonwealth duplication in housing, environmental and community amenities: these are state functions and the Commonwealth should leave them to that level of government.
Privatise the ABC and SBS, saving $1.2 billion; other media outlets raise their own revenues and so should the national broadcasters.
$2 billion in agriculture forestry and fishing; much of this deals with environmental barriers and industry-specific research activities, none of which have ever produced benefits significant enough to warrant their continuing funding.
$1.6 billion in general research grants; while much of the basic research of the CSIRO serves genuine collective needs, increasingly research in CSIRO, the Met Office and especially in the Australian Research Council has become politically oriented around climate change and social agitation.
Many functions should be cut entirely - the Climate Change Department being an obvious candidate.
In addition, most of Sustainability and Water, parts of Education, Health and Ageing, and Transport departments simply duplicate state functions and in some cases erect additional barriers to investment activity.

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Report: army must hire a Tim Flannery

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (6:16am)

If they can’t even notice that the world hasn’t warned in 16 years, can you really trust them to spot an enemy another decade from now?
Escalating climate change will have an impact on every aspect of Australian Defence Force operations, a report warns, with rising natural disasters and changes to the “physical battle space” affecting Defence’s mission, facilities and strategic environment.
Increased floods, fires, storms and cyclones will keep the ADF busy throughout summer, the report says…
The warnings are spelt out in a paper from the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute: Heavy Weather: Climate and the Australian Defence Force, released on Monday.
If these guys had appointed Major General Tim “permanent drought” Flannery, our soldiers would have been equipped for desert warfare in Queensland floods:

The authors, led by strategic analyst Anthony Bergin and the head of the Antarctic Climate Research Centre, Tony Press, say the Chief of the Defence Force should appoint a climate change adviser.
Why is it that the first suggestion of warmists is to employ more of them?:

Unlike the US and Britain, where military chiefs have appointed high-ranking climate change envoys, there has been “little interest” in climate change in the ADF or the defence department, the report states.
Britain’s army has a climate change adviser? Is Dr David Viner, who in 2000 advised there would be no snow?
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
If Viner is its man, the British army is now helping clear snow in their tropical fatigues:
Heavy unseasonal snow caused fresh disruption in Britain on Saturday, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power, shutting airports and causing an international football match to be called off…
Spring officially started on Wednesday but while the average temperature in England for March is 6 degrees centigrade, so far it has been 3.8 degrees centigrade, forecasters say.
UPDATE
Frozen reader Jack:
I have just experienced the coldest spring days in Poland in living memory - yesterday it was minus 15 in Warsaw at night, minus 6 during a day. Some global warming models need to be corrected, I think… All the best with fighting this new religion. 
UPDATE
Lord Monckton has two more lectures in Australia - in Melbourne tomorrow and then Geelong. For details, go here. 

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The union’s’ Prime Mate in the Lodge

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (6:02am)

Unions do seem to be the masters of the Gillard Government - and what unions they are...:

In a new argument over how Ms Gillard held her position, caucus members said that unions had applied pressure to some MPs to reject Mr Rudd, even though that meant losing a chance to hold their seats at the September 14 election.
The accusation centres on cases where MPs told the Rudd camp that they would have to check with their unions before deciding whether to abandon Ms Gillard. “She bought the leadership by giving the unions what they wanted, and that is a corrupt process,” said one of Mr Rudd’s supporters.
Another said that the outcome continued Ms Gillard’s debt to unions that have backed her consistently over recent years…
Unions blamed for influencing the result include the Australian Workers Union, Transport Workers Union and Health Services Union. AWU national secretary Paul Howes hit back at the claim by insisting he made no calls about the leadership to MPs last Thursday.
It was only last month that AWU president Bill Ludwig dangled Gillard as his prize catch:
image

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The Zygier case: fatal indiscretion?

Andrew Bolt March 25 2013 (12:09am)

I have no idea where the truth in this case lies:
THE Australian-Israeli Mossad agent found hanged in a Tel Aviv jail, Ben Zygier, had passed secrets to Hezbollah before his death, an influential German magazine has reported.
News weekly Der Spiegel said ... Zygier had started working for Mossad in 2003, investigating European companies doing business with Iran and Syria.
Zygier case:
It said Zygier - who was raised in Melbourne but moved to Israel about a decade before his death - was ordered back to Israel in 2007 because his bosses were unhappy with his work.
In 2008 he took a leave of absence, Spiegel said, and returned to Melbourne to finish his studies after trying to recruit new agents for Israel in a bid to restore his standing with his bosses.
In the process he came in contact with Hezbollah supporters, Spiegel said, and while trying to convince them to work for Mossad, disastrously spilled highly sensitive information.
This included the names of Lebanese nationals Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, who were arrested in May 2009 on charges of spying for Israel and later sentenced to several years of hard labour.
I have heard from someone who knew him that Zygier was notoriously indiscreet. I also count as significant that his grieving family, who visited him constantly in jail, has chosen to say nothing. 

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UFO over Pfeiffer Beach…

This is a quad that one of the students for Sunday's Aperture Academy workshop brought. It was equipped with a GoPro camera and saw a bit of action.
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Tactics watch - the Labor Party is recruiting for "word of mouth" spreaders of spin for its tele-marketing campaign
This email from Sam Dastyari today about Labor's plans to ruin your dinner and favourite TV shows with phone calls about how tough Julia is.

This is going to be a tough election for Labor.

More than ever, the efforts of volunteers, giving up their time to knock on doors and phone their neighbours, will be critical to returning local Labor MPs to Parliament.

Will you help by giving just two hours a week?

If you live in or near Sydney, we encourage you to join us for the launch of Operation Word of Mouth at the new Parramatta HQ this week:

When: 6pm, Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 March 2013
Where: Level 5, Gough Whitlam Plaza, 20-24 Whitlam Plaza, Parramatta

The only way to get Labor's message across is by word-of-mouth, and that's why we need the help of our valued members and supporters at our new phone bank.

Just a few hours of your time can make a real difference in electorates that will come down to the wire.

Whether you live in the country or close to our new headquarters in Parramatta, please let us know if you can help by signing up here.

Sam Dastyari
GENERAL SECRETARY

P.S. Please forward this email to your friends and neighbours who support Labor!
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Yum-O! Never lose this recipe - Just click "SHARE" to save this to the "photos" section of your page!

Chocolate Eclair Cake!!!
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 large eggs
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 large box (5.1 ounces) vanilla instant pudding
3 cups milk
1 8 oz. container cool whip (you won’t use the whole container) or one batch of homemade whipped cream
chocolate syrup or homemade chocolate sauce

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease a 9″X13″ glass baking pan.
Eclair Crust: In a medium saucepan, melt butter in water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in flour. Mix in one egg at a time, mixing completely before adding another egg. Spread mixture into pan, covering the bottom and sides evenly. *If the sides of your pan are too greased you won’t be able to get the mixture to stay up the sides so make sure to just lightly grease.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown (Mine only took 25 minutes.) You may want to check it occasionally-you don’t want to overcook the crust, it will ruin the cake! Remove from oven and let cool (don’t touch or push bubbles down).
Filling: Whip cream cheese in a medium bowl. In separate bowl make vanilla pudding. Make sure pudding is thick before mixing in with cream cheese. Slowly add pudding to cream cheese, mixing until there are no lumps. Let cool in fridge.When the crust is completely cooled, pour filling in. Top with layer of cool whip however thick you want it and serve with chocolate syrup. *If you want to make this even better use homemade whipped cream.

Recipe: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2009/06/chocolate-eclair-cake.html

Check out www.pamperedchef.biz/dawnnabours for more recipes and ideas there!
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Stick. n, means Gold in the dog dictionary
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"As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you."
~ Mere Christianity
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Where you put the sticker DOES matter!
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4 Her
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Well done Indian cricket. Walk tall.
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March 25: Fast of the Firstborn begins at dawn and Passover begins at sunset (Judaism, 2013); Independence Day in Greece (1821)
Percy Bysshe Shelley

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4 her

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So this explains which war? The terrorist attacks on the West? US involvement in Vietnam? Afghanistan? I am sure the propagandists which assert this simple notion would hurt anyone to defend it. 
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