Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wed Jul 31st Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Michael Huynh and Anthony Hunter. Born on the same day, across the years. Along with John Canton (1718), John Ericsson (1803), George Liberace (1911), Milton Friedman (1912), Ted Baillieu (1953), Wesley Snipes (1962), J. K. Rowling (1965) and Emilia Fox (1974). On your day, Ka Hae Hawai'i Day (Flag Day) in Hawaii; Feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. 1703 – English writer Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for seditious libel after publishing a pamphlet politically satirising the High Church Tories.
1917 – First World War: The Battle of Passchendaele began near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium, with the Allied Powers aiming to force German troops to withdraw from the Channel Ports.
1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to handle "the final solution of the Jewish question".
1975 – The Troubles: In a botched paramilitary attack, three members of the popular Miami Showband and two Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen were killed in County Down, Northern Ireland.
1991 – Soviet Special Purpose Police Unit troops killed seven Lithuanian customs officials in Medininkai in the most serious attack of their campaign against Lithuanian border posts. Avoid seditious libel that will get you pilloried. Also, avoid big battles. Try and solve problems without hurting people. Or you may become a joke. Sometimes, it might be best to turn a blind eye .. and just have fun.
===

Immigration in the hands of a right Burke

Piers Akerman – Wednesday, July 31, 2013 (12:13am)

THE big Labor border protection scam will be given an airing today when the first group of illegal boat arrivals is flown to Papua New Guinea since Prime Minister
Rudd back-flipped on the Pacific Solution and announced his copy-cat policy just over a week ago.
Since the announcement, Rudd’s policy has come under fire from informed PNG citizens and Manus Island locals where the illegal arrivals will be camped.
The ABC and Leftist groups are claiming the Rudd policy is tough and hardline but it is just idiotic.
It’s an election thought bubble designed to take the issue off the table until Rudd and his spin doctors can con their way through the next ballot.
They hope the electorate will not remember that the flood of illegal arrivals is entirely Labor’s fault.
Rudd’s fault to be precise, as he ensured that the former successful Howard policy which stopped the boats was destroyed.
The Opposition has plans to turn back the boats and also restore temporary protection visas and introduce a suite of other measures to try and fix Labor’s stuff-up.
Yesterday Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said a Coalition government would erect a 2000-person tent city on Nauru to process illegal arrivals who made it through the blockade.
Over five years, the capacity on Nauru would be expanded to house 5000,
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said expanding offshore processing in Nauru had merit and he’d raised a similar idea with the island nation’s leaders last week.
But, he claimed, the Opposition had been “grossly irresponsible” in rushing the policy out and putting a figure on the capacity for the proposed facility.
“People smugglers want to know the figure,” Burke told reporters in Sydney.
What a complete joke. The PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has made it clear that the Labor minority government has told him that Nauru will house somewhat less than 3000 illegal arrivals when the expansion is complete.
Or didn’t Burke know what Rudd was asking for?
Either way, Burke looks a right Burke.
Labor’s Manus Island plan is already creating health problems for the locals and has upset people across our region from Indonesia to the island states of the Pacific.
Despite what the tame media says, Labor doesn’t have a clue.
Spin, yes, practical solutions, no.

===

Criminal culture living and dying by the gun

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 30, 2013 (7:40pm)

image
ON a recent visit to NSW Police Forensic Services in Surry Hills, I was shown a dazzling array of weapons police have seized from criminals.
There were AK47 assault rifles, which officers say are “common” in the drive-by shootings currently plaguing southwestern Sydney. They take cartridges as thick as your middle finger.
There were .357 magnums, and Dirty Harry style .44 magnums. There were self loading Korean military firearms seized from bikies, which fire as fast as you can pull the trigger. There was a silenced 9mm assault rifle.
There were cabinets full of guns, pretty blue plastic guns, silver guns, black guns, in all shapes and sizes. They make the police standard issue Glock 22 look puny by comparison.
There was even an eentsy weentsy cufflink gun, whose tiny pellets could kill or maim. And there was a gold James Bond style .50 calibre semi automatic “Desert Eagle” pistol, which must have been some punk drug dealer’s pride and joy.
These firearms are all deadly and all were the prized possessions of people who have taken illegal gun ownership in this city to an artform. They are not just weapons, but extensions of the young criminal male ego in a city where gun violence has become commonplace, with warnings we are facing an explosion of gang violence to rival Los Angeles 30 years ago.
As fast as the police seize the weapons, there are dozens more to take their place.
This is the reality of what police are facing on the streets of Sydney, as lax border control, a dysfunctional Customs service, beset by corruption allegations, and increasing handgun theft feeds a growing appetite for guns.
On Monday night two men, aged 18 and 35, were fatally shot in two separate attacks in southwestern Sydney, in Bexley and Earlwood. The targeted attacks were reportedly linked to an ongoing lethal bikie turf war between the Comanchero and Hells Angels gangs.
But it’s not just turf wars.
One former counter terrorism officer, who asked not to be named, said the gun culture had become so ingrained among Middle Eastern males in southwest Sydney that they have taken to settling so-called “honour” disputes with guns.
“The culture is all guns and drugs. If someone looks at your wife the wrong way, you shoot them. They think they’re bulletproof and they have this wilful disregard for authority.”
For the past two years there has been more than one shooting incident reported to police every three days, centred in an arc from Punchbowl and Bankstown to Auburn and Berala, but with shootings as far afield as Kings Cross, Bellevue Hill and Birchgrove.
In the last month there have been 13 serious shooting incidents reported in southwestern Sydney, bringing this year’s total to at least 71. Houses have been shot up and one man was popped in the leg outside a Smithfield kebab shop.
The shootings are so brazen it’s only a matter of time before more innocents get hurt.
Who could forget the tragedy of truck driver Bob Knight. He was killed by a stray bullet as he drove past a gunfight in the KFC carpark in Bankstown in 2009.
Despite good detective work, three men received just a slap on the wrist for their role in his death, from the two-year good behaviour bond handed to Tarek Elbadar, 34, to the six-year jail sentence for Mahmoud Mariam.
The State Crime Command’s Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad launched Operation Apollo in February to try to get on top of gun violence. They have arrested more than 320 people, laid more than 600 charges, and seized more than 80 firearms.
But the shootings continue.
Police have better resources today, such as an American-built armoured assault vehicle with a battering ram on the front which they use to regularly knock down front doors in southwestern Sydney.
They have the forensic ability to trace bullets to firearms on an electronic database within minutes. Technology has also helped with surveillance.
But at the same time, the counter terrorism source says modern police are increasingly hamstrung by legislation and bureaucratic procedure requiring every conversation with an alleged offender to be documented. This is eroding, “the simple fundamentals being a detective to basically talk to a crook and flip that crook”.
“To say the NSW police can stop the crime alone is fanciful.” He is calling for more federal co-ordination across state borders, and for mandatory sentences for illegal possessions of guns.
Tapping into growing community disquiet, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare told an organised crime conference yesterday that he was “worried that a day will come when an innocent person is caught in the crossfire” in Sydney. He also flagged criminal asset seizures.
You might ask why the federal government is getting involved in Sydney’s gun battles on the eve of an election.
It is because qualitative polling is picking up a feeling in the electorate that law and order is breaking down.
That sentiment is coupled in the public mind with the government’s inability to control our borders.
Which is, of course, Rudd’s biggest problem.

===

What is Warnie up to?

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 30, 2013 (6:24pm)

image
YOU can frost his tips, bleach his teeth, dress him in Armani and pump his forehead full of botox, but you can’t take the Warnie out of Shane.
There he was, the pride of Australian sport, behaving in full Bogan style for all the world to see at Royal Ascot at the weekend. Our legendary larrikin former spin bowler, 43, sucking on a fag and chugalugging booze like a vacuum cleaner.
Not to mention the ostentatious public displays of affection with 48-year-old sex bomb fiancé Liz Hurley. Nuzzling, pashing, groping, squeezing her bottom, at the perfect angle for all the snapping paparazzi to capture.
But it all looked a little staged and desperate. He didn’t look as if his heart was in it.  What is he trying to prove?
It makes you wonder: is Shane bored? Has the fabled Warnie wandering eye been at it again? Me thinks he doth grope too much.
image

===

Tragedies at sea are the fault of Kevin Rudd and the bleeding hearts

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 30, 2013 (5:29pm)

image
IF there’s one group of people in this country who should hang their heads in shame, it is the bleeding hearts who recklessly sabotaged our border security.
I include Kevin Rudd – he is the chief sucker, whose moral vanity caused him to dismantle hard-won Howard-era policies in order to curry favour with compassionistas, whose votes are meaningless but who throw nice dinner parties.
Human rights barrister Julian Burnside is a ringleader. With his basset hound eyes and matinee idol hair, he was the doctors’ wives’ pinup boy railing against a “xenophobic” electorate.
He was mute as his push for open borders bore fruit under Labor: in unchecked boat arrivals and people drowned at sea.
No protests as Labor’s rotating band of immigration ministers tried one doomed and increasingly draconian solution after another.
He even found good news in Rudd’s latest announcement: “the PNG Arrangement is a shabby deal,” he tweeted, “but at least if might stop Scott ("illegals") Morrison becoming Immi Minister.”
But with the possibility of a Coalition government looming, the compassionistas have been cranking up their creaky consciences again, lest they be accused of hypocrisy in future.
Burnside applied a barrister’s sophistry to the topic in an interview with Chris Kenny on Sky, Sunday night. He labeled Howard’s policies Pacific Solution Mark 1 and Labor’s various attempts to close the door Rudd had opened as Pacific Solution Mark 2. Then he declared both were failures.
The real problem, he claimed, is not that the government has lost control of our borders and lured people to their deaths. No, it’s the fault of the Coalition which “made a point of demonising boat people, calling them illegals, which is a lie, calling them queue jumpers, which is a lie...”
“Of course people’s xenophobia will be scratched if they are told to fear these people… Scott Morrison is the prime offender here.”
Well, Burnside got his wish, and the result so far is 1200 people drowned, and more than 45,000 unauthorised boat arrivals since Labor came to office, with a recent exponential increase from 200 to 1200 a week.
Here’s an idea. Forget Manus Island. Let’s pitch the tents in Burnside’s lush garden in Melbourne’s Hawthorn, at his expense. We can call it the “Bleeding Hearts Solution”.

===

MONGOLIAN NEO-NAZIS CARE FOR THE PLANET

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 31, 2013 (4:17pm)

A subtle shift in political direction: 
Reuters photographer Carlos Barria spent time documenting Mongolian neo-Nazi group Tsagaan Khass, one of several ultra-nationalist groups that have expanded in the country. The 100-plus members of Tsagaan Khass have recently shifted their focus from activities such as attacks on women it accuses of consorting with foreign men to environmental issues. The group is rebranding itself now as an environmentalist organization fighting pollution … 
They’ve already got the appropriate costumes.

===

SACRED STEEL

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 31, 2013 (1:20pm)

Hear this and hear it loud: Praise You, by the Slide Brothers.
UPDATE. The studio version is even better, and this is epic.

===

KEVNI NEEDS BRAINS

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 31, 2013 (11:55am)

Following the success of John McTernan’s appointment, Labor again looks abroad for campaign advice: 
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has defended the use of foreign political strategists to help him win the federal election.
Tom McMahon, the former executive director of the Democratic National Committee, Joon Kim of the consulting firm New Partners and British social media expert, Matthew McGregor, will be part of Mr Rudd’s election campaign team for 2013.
All three have played key roles in Barack Obama’s US presidential election campaigns using sophisticated social media and field operations.
“We will draw upon the best brains in the world,” Mr Rudd said of his campaign team. 
So much for putting Australian workers at the front of the queue. It’ll be interesting to discover how much Kevni’s elite social media squadron is costing. Oh, and speaking of Labor and money …
UPDATE. In further strategic Labor developments: 
Former NSW energy minister Ian Macdonald has been found to have engaged in corrupt conduct for accepting the services of a prostitute, Tiffanie, in return for arranging meetings between the businessman Ron Medich and executives from state-run power companies …
Mr Macdonald told the inquiry that he had not known Tiffanie was a prostitute and was under the impression Mr Medich and Gattellari had arranged for a “remedial massage” in the hotel room after developing “neck tiredness” during lunch. 

===

IDIOT CONVICTED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 31, 2013 (11:10am)

Wikileaker Bradley Manning is headed to the big house after being found guilty of espionage. The former intelligence analyst is known to his followers as a “whistleblower”, but Glenn Reynolds argues against that definition: 
Manning isn’t really a “whistleblower,” though, since he didn’t even know what was in a lot of the stuff he turned over to Wikileaks, and when he did know, it was often stuff like troops’ personal information.
The most damning piece of news he got out was that we entrust secrets to idiots like him. 
Manning certainly took an unusual approach to his job: 
Writing shortly before he was deployed to Iraq as an intelligence analyst in 2009, [Manning said] that he was “delving deeper into philosophy, art, physics, biology, politics” in the hope of providing “more information to my officers and commanders, and hopefully save lives.” 
Julian Assange has defended WikiLeaks’ ability to protect its sources following the conviction of US soldier Bradley Manning on espionage charges …
“Our processes (to protect sources) have been successful,” he said. 

===

Rudd raises taxes for your own good

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (5:34pm)

The sanctimony is astonishing. Desperate to extract more taxes to pay for his spending, Kevin Rudd claims he’s just doing it so people live longer:
KEVIN Rudd has given a strong hint Labor will raise the price of cigarettes in this week’s economic statement saying it was “time to get serious” about tackling the devastating health impacts of smoking.
Touring the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s under-construction cancer centre in Sydney today, the Prime Minister singled out smoking as a top health priority for his government.
“We need to get serious on this major driver of cancer in Australia and around the world. The legitimate question is ‘well what are you doing about it?’.

===

Another boat. UPDATE: And another 104 boat people

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (1:04pm)

Another boat - but this one doesn’t arrive:
A boat carrying 61 undocumented immigrants en route to Christmas Island in Australia underwent engine failure and stranded off Cilacap waters in Central Java on Tuesday.
The boat’s passengers were rescued by a Liberian tanker at Tanjung Intan Port in Cilacap.
Cilacap’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) coordinator Tri Joko Priyono said 13 women and nine children out of the 61 passengers had been rescued from the boat.
UPDATE
Strange, but no announcement from the Home Affairs Minister that HMAS Maryborough today dropped off another 104 boat people on Christmas Island today.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority today confirmed to me the people were picked up after this alert:

PAN PAN
FM RCC AUSTRALIA 292332Z JUL 2013 AUSSAR 2013/5126
INDIAN OCEAN NORTHERN PART CHART AUS 4071
A WHITE IN COLOUR INDONESIAN STYLE VESSEL WITH APPROXIMATELY 85 ASYLUM SEEKERS ONBOARD REPORTED TO BE IN
THE VICINITY OF 06-58.8S 105-01.9E AT 292110UTC JULY 2013. VESSEL HAS REQUESTED ASSISTANCE AND MAY BE ON A SOUTHERLY COURSE. VESSELS TRANSITING THE AREA ARE REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT AND REPORT ANY SIGHTINGS TO THIS STATION OR RCC AUSTRALIA
Thanks to Michael Smith for alerting me. More on his blog.
Was the Government keeping mum to give the illusion its new threat to send all boat people to PNG was working?
In this one boat are enough people to fill a third of the available spaces at the Manus Island detention centre.
Have any other boat people arrived that the Government isn’t telling us about? 

===

Should we really trust the people who keep getting Budget numbers so wrong?

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (11:39am)

I don’t think Jessica Irvine realises the second bit in bold gives us ample reason to doubt the first bit in bold:
Rest assured that the numbers the Treasurer will unveil this week will have been through a rigorous process.
In early June, Treasury officials met with Reserve Bank representatives and public servants from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to compare notes. National accounts released since the Budget was handed down in May revealed a sharper fall in our commodity income than expected and this will be reflected in the forecasts. Chinese growth, too, has come off the boil.
Why should I rest assured about any numbers produced by a Treasury whose forecasts are - again - wildly wrong not three months after the Budget?
How many times has Treasury and Labor mucked up their Budget estimates now?

Treasury admits it underestimated revenue during the mining boom and overestimated revenue in the recovery.
Yet Irvine keeps telling us to rest assured about a Treasury which gives us no reason at all to be assured about anything it does:

So rest assured that the numbers you see this week are the best guess we have about the true state of the nation’s finances.
Irvine should let us into the secret: what has Treasury got so right that makes her so complacent about its next guess?
Or is this the key to understanding her analysis:

...it is not hard to have sympathy for [Treasurer Chris Bowen]… joblessness would have been higher and growth lower if the Rudd government had not acted quickly ...  the greatest legacy of the first Rudd government… This is not entirely a mess of Rudd’s own making. It is a shame the Howard government didn’t save more ... It now falls to Bowen ... Rest assured that the numbers the Treasurer will unveil this week will have been through a rigorous process… So rest assured...
As for the Opposition:
... they should not laugh so hard. The joke will be on them should the job fall to them to fix things.
Surely they couldn’t do any worse than what Irvine is defending. 

===

How The Age covers politics

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (11:18am)

Notice a pattern?

image
(Thanks to reader John.) 

===

ICAC finds former Ministers Obeid and Macdonald acted corruptly

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (11:07am)

Two former NSW Labor Ministers face possible criminal charges:

FORMER NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid and former mining minister Ian Macdonald have been found by the NSW ICAC to have acted corruptly and referred for possible criminal charges.
The long-running Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry has also made corruption findings against Mr Obeid’s son Moses.
The findings follow six months of sensational hearings and more than 150 witnesses.
ICAC has found the one-time head of the powerful Labor right faction Mr Obeid and his son Moses acted corruptly in the process of obtaining and selling a mining exploration licence on their property.

===

Pray the Governor-General ignores Altman and stays silent

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (7:17am)

Professor Denis Altman pretends he doesn’t actually want the Governor-General to get political - while urging her to do just that:

It would be quite inappropriate for the Governor-General to enter into the policy debate about our response to asylum seekers. But what she could do is address the misconceptions and demonisation that surrounds people fleeing persecution, who seek to find refuge in Australia.
Of course there will be a proportion of asylum seekers who are what the government calls ‘’economic migrants’’. But all the evidence suggests the vast majority of people prepared to risk their lives on shonky boats are desperate; they are unable to stay in their original homes because of fear of death or imprisonment, and equally unable to find a way of rebuilding their lives in the transit points from which they seek to get to Australia…
Where our political leaders cannot provide moral leadership - and both Rudd and Abbott have clearly lost the ability to transcend their desire to appear the toughest boy in the playpen - there is a role for the head of state. Not to suggest policy outcomes, which is a matter for elected governments, but to change the tone of the debate and persuade politicians and media to recognise there are thousands of human tragedies being played out in the joint horror of drownings and detention.
Note the trick. Asking the Governor-General to “persuade politicians” is indeed asking her to get political. Altman claims sweetly that he isn’t asking the Governor-General to do something as “inappropriate” as to “enter into the policy debate”, but he clearly is doing just that. He wants her to persuade us into treating the boat people not as economic migrants needing tough deterrence, but as desperate people fleeing for their lives - which, incidentally, seems at odds with the facts in many cases. He certainly doesn’t want the Governor-General to give a speech noting instead that every nation should attempt to control their own destiny - and therefore their borders. He’d soon scream then about “inappropriate” interventions.
Altman tries to wriggle out of his contradiction - tries to hide his trick - by claiming he’s not asking the Governor-General to propose “policy”, and therefore he’s not asking her to play politics.
But here he makes a virtue of a weakness of the Left. Striking a pose is easy. Following through with policy, and taking responsibility for the consequences, is the hard stuff. The work of adults.
It’s the difference between a Phillip Adams damning the immorality of those wanting tougher border laws while ignoring completely that the more “compassionate” stand he cheered lured more than 1000 boat people to their deaths.
I’ve had it with fine speeches. I want fine policy. The Governor-General is not there to urge us to do she knows not what. That is for elected politicians to propose and voters to judge. 

===

How the Sydney Morning Herald framed Morrison

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (6:55am)

The Sydney Morning Herald should explain how it “understood” the Coalition had a terrible conflict of interest that made its latest announcement on boat people look silly. Did it fall again for Labor spin?
Here is the paper’s big gotcha story:

A logistics company that stands to profit from the Coalition’s ‘’tent city’’ on Nauru funded the trip of its immigration spokesman Scott Morrison to the remote island to announce the plan to house up to 2000 asylum seekers in tents.
Here is how the story initially reported the central “fact”:
It is understood Toll Holdings chartered the flight for the Coalition and News Corporation.
“Understood”? That is usually a euphemism for “guessed”. And Fairfax guessed wrong.
Its story - which ran most of yesterday - now includes this late additional detail:
Toll Holdings told Fairfax Media late on Tuesday night that it had been invited by the government and the opposition to work on ‘’potential logistics solutions’’ to the asylum seeker issue.
‘’Part of this involved sending some senior executives to Nauru to assess the situation on the ground. There were spare seats available, which were offered to the shadow minister. There was no significant extra cost to allow non-Toll passengers on the trip,’’ a spokesman said.
The story’s second paragraph, which originally read “It is understood Toll Holdings chartered the flight for the Coalition and News Corporation”, has since been changed to this:
The trip to Nauru was facilitated by Toll Holdings...
Needless to say, there is a substantial difference between a company chartering a flight for the Opposition and merely offering spare seats.
But damage done, and Labor will laugh.
Good job, Sydney Morning Herald. The lack of an apology says plenty. 

===

Not changing this country for the better

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (6:49am)

Sydney’s bikie war keeps reminding us that our immigration and multicultural policies haven’t operated entirely in the best interests of the country:
Vasko Boskovski and Bassil Hijazi died in a hail of bullets in Sydney’s southwest on Monday night, the 20th and 21st person to be killed by assassins’ bullets since Barry O’Farrell came to power in March 2011.
Miranda Devine:

One former counter terrorism officer, who asked not to be named, said the gun culture had become so ingrained among Middle Eastern males in southwest Sydney that they have taken to settling so-called “honour” disputes with guns.
“The culture is all guns and drugs. If someone looks at your wife the wrong way, you shoot them. They think they’re bulletproof and they have this wilful disregard for authority.” 

===

Trading in air to make no difference to the temperature

Andrew Bolt July 31 2013 (6:44am)

Jo Nova on the carbon trading system Kevin Rudd is linking us to one year earlier:
Unfortunately, fraud has been a big, ongoing problem with emissions trading. This market needs auditors, and the auditors need auditing (the top two auditors in the EU emissions trading scheme were suspended in 2009 for irregularities). The EU has already lost €5 billion to carbon-trading value-added tax fraud. The mafia is laundering money in Italy through renewables schemes, and after one tax loophole was closed, market volume in Belgium dropped by up to 90 per cent.
The carbon market also depends on the honesty of people claiming: “We wouldn’t have built that dam without that carbon credit.” How would we know? The Xiaoxi dam in China was already under construction two years before the owners applied for credits “to build it"…
Most of the key factors in a carbon market are misnamed. The market is not free. An essential plant fertiliser is called pollution. The aim of the market is not to make clean energy but to change global temperatures by an amount that rounded to the nearest degree, equals zero. The US has no market but has reduced emissions (largely thanks to shale gas), while any reductions in EU emissions were largely due to falling gross domestic product. Yet the government wants to join the EU scheme.

===
No disrespect meant .. but no. However, how about a weekend of fantasy role play? I got dice. - ed
===

Stars can't shine without darkness
Joy has no value without sadness.
There is no many without a few
There is no life without you
===
not one, but two .. There needs to be a support network for everyone. I like my church for many reasons, one being that it is very good with raising children. - ed===

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. – 1 John 4:18

‪#‎god‬ ‪#‎holy‬ ‪#‎digitalbible‬ ‪#‎bible‬ ‪#‎holybible‬ ‪#‎love‬‪#‎jesus‬ ‪#‎prayer‬ ‪#‎power‬ ‪#‎fearless‬ ‪#‎soul‬ ‪#‎fear‬‪#‎anxiety‬
===

===

===
Joe Hockey
Launching the long overdue biography of Nick Greiner. And proud to do so.
===

I thoroughly enjoyed talking to students from Tara Anglican School for Girls. 

Listening to their dreams and aspirations was inspiring for me.

Young people like this are our future, and I will do everything I can to help them on their journey.

‪#‎TheHonBron‬ ‪#‎LiberalParty‬
===

Allyson Christy.
Lieberman: You Can't Make Peace with a Holocaust Denier - Israel National News
"PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is a Holocaust denier and did a PhD about it, reminds MK Avigdor Lieberman." - Elad Benari

===

Ben is joined by Michael Smith in the studio to talk about asylum seekers and to announce him as a new regular on his show.
You can now catch Michael Smith every Thursday at 4:30PM on 2GB.

===

“There’s a battle for the [Republican] party going on…" 

Rush Limbaugh sits down for rare, hour-long TV interview. Watch here: http://bit.ly/165eIY5
===

Maltese underwater statue of Jesus Christ
===

Problem: Warren reads 20 pages in 30 minutes. At this rate how long will it take him to read 66 pages?

That was a question in the Australian Mathematics Competition a couple of years ago. Tomorrow ACT students will join 500,000 kids in a giant multi-country maths test.

A lot of them would probably work that brain teaser out in seconds, maybe minutes. 

Do you know the answer?

Adam Shirley will reveal it on air after 4pm today.

Photo by doviende, Creative Commons
===

===

Someone asked a well known novelist, how do you write a novel.

The answer - every day.

If you write every day, not only do the words quickly mount, but the story and characters stay alive in your imagination.

This is one of the great pleasures of fiction.
===

Well initially this might look to you like any normal girl being treated by a doctor,the girl in the photo is not any normal living girl but the mummy of a 15 year old child who has been dead for about 500 years. 

She was found in 1999 near Llullaillaco's 6739 meter summit. An Argentine-Peruvian expedition found the perfectly preserved body and she was nicknamed "La doncella" which means “The maiden”. According to the Inca she was chosen to go and live with the gods. But in reality she was a sacrifice to the Inca Gods and had been brutally killed in the name of religion. 

Scientists say that her organs are intact and its as if she had died just a few weeks ago. From testing the samples of her hair they could determine the type of diet she was on before her death. This lead to the discovery that the Incan fattened their children before killing them. Months or even years before the sacrifice pilgrimage these children were given diets which were those of the elite, consisting of maize and animal proteins.

===

===
Craig Kelly
7 REASONS TO VOTE “NO” AT THE REFERENDUM

The planned constitutional changes will: 

1. Undermine our federal system of government 

2. Interfere with states’ powers local administration of their own state

3. Erode the legislative power of the states

4. Give the Commonwealth power to interfere in state policy

5. Weaken our current system that ensures that the regulation of the economy is decentralised and in not under the control of any one body.

6. Fail to improve local government (despite contrary claims)

7. Allow the Commonwealth to subvert the Australian Constitution.

The upcoming referendum is a power grab that undermines the Constitution that has served us well over the past 112 years. It won’t improve local governments, but merely bring them under the direct control of Canberra.
===

The Coalition will take strong action to ensure trade unions are more transparent and accountable – you can read our policy here:http://lbr.al/4kju

We will ensure that elected officers of trade unions operate to the highest standards.
===

Andrew Danger Nguyen
If I started a workout business it would be called Pecasaurus Pty LTD, and all the workout programs would be dinosaur based puns like BICEPatops, TRAPasaurus Rex, and instead of reps you take on REPtors‪#‎reasonswhynooneasksmeforhelp‬ ‪#‎awesomebusinessideas‬ ‪#‎dinobots‬

===

Australian test batsmen are wearing too much wool .. - ed
===
Sarah Palin was criticized for the telling the "biggest lie of the year" about ObamaCare in 2009. Now, the former head of the Democratic Party suggests she was right all along. 

How will this affect you? Plus, hear Palin's reaction on tonight's Hannity! Watch: http://tinyurl.com/lxyoury
===

Andrea Tantaros unimpressed by Left’s ‘binder full of weiners’ ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/07/30/andrea-tantaros-unimpressed-by-lefts-binder-full-of-weiners/
===


War is on the horizon. Victory demands collective sacrifice to prevent catastrophic disaster.http://bit.ly/IFwar

===

===

===

Wayne Matey Mattner.
familiar with this issue
, its about Kids sexually abused at schools in SA and the Premier and education ministers denying they received any warnings. The Current Premier who was education minister at the time had his email history wiped.>
===

The truth came out and it only took one day of peace negotiations to hear it. 

Those advocating for apartheid are from the Arab side. Their goal: A Middle East "judenrein" -- with no Jews in it. 

Evidence: This statement from Abbas, and the history of Jewish displacement from Arab lands over the last 70 years:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=555027591186706
===

===
<So wrong on so many levels. Irony meter just exploded.>
===
<"Progressive". Quite possibly the most misleading term ever employed in political discourse.>
===

===

===

Here's a pic from New Years Eve. The overlook was windy, wet, and freezing, plus the Island security was threatening to throw us out, but we made our case and they looked the other way. Trespassing fun on a San Francisco night!
===

===

Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
One thing that derails Christians from growing in faith is WORRY. 

This is very deceiving and in most cases taken lightly. That's why it's powerful and destructive. What am talking about is... worry. You see, lots of people are worried about their bills,their getting married, thinning hair, health, kids, wrinkles in their faces and all other things,taking the limelight from God and focusing it on their problems.

Listen. Matthew 6:25-27 says that we shouldn't be anxious about our life because "worrying" won't add a single hour in our life. In fact, it's a sin since we're seeing our problem as if it's bigger than our God. 

So how do we break the habit of worrying? There are several ways to break it but i will show you a better and long-term solution. Worrying is actually an act of meditation. It is focusing your mind on things that may go wrong. Here's a better solution. Instead of meditating on the negative, why not meditate on God's Words and promises to you? If bills and expenses are piling up, why not meditate this truth."But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 

Simply close your eyes and recite this verse meaningfully three times to experience its power. No doubt, scripture memorization and meditation is probably the fastest and easiest way to break the worry habit.Try it,you will be healed from this addiction of WORRY.Amen.

===
"That they have been able to live out their lives enjoying the freedoms of this country, after depriving others of freedom and life itself, is an affront to the memory of those who perished," said Paul Shapiro, director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
===

===

===

Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
KNOW THAT NOTHING CHANGES LIVES LIKE THE HOPE FOUND IN GOD.
Every one of us will leave a legacy – a lasting reminder of the difference our lives made.The question is…what kind of a legacy will we leave?
In our daily lives, thoughts like "God's plan" and "our legacy" can feel so far away.
But the truth is that every choice counts. Every thought matters. Even the smallest action makes a difference.

When you think about it, the greatest legacy that’s ever been given is the Word of God. It’s filled with stories of people who changed the world and left a legacy through their loving relationship with God.Hebrews 11 mentioned some of them.

I pray that my legacy will be that I gave my life to deliver the truth of God’s Word to as many people as I possibly could.That’s why my vision for this ministry is to offer the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.What is your legacy?
Father in heaven,Help me to leave an outstanding legacy,bearing fruits of the Spirit. I choose to praise and glorify You in all circumstances. Help me, by Your Spirit, to be a light and example to the world around me. Thank You for working in my heart. I bless You today and always. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

===

Pastor Rick Warren 
Your illness isn't your identity.Your sickness isn't your soul. Many have strong character and weak chemistry. 

===

What a loving church! Kay and I were encouraged by 33,350 who welcomed us back in services this past weekend!
===

““You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14,16 NIV
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

Font size"And when he thought thereon, he wept."
Mark 14:72
It has been thought by some that as long as Peter lived, the fountain of his tears began to flow whenever he remembered his denying his Lord. It is not unlikely that it was so, for his sin was very great, and grace in him had afterwards a perfect work. This same experience is common to all the redeemed family according to the degree in which the Spirit of God has removed the natural heart of stone. We, like Peter, remember our boastful promise: "Though all men shall forsake thee, yet will not I." We eat our own words with the bitter herbs of repentance. When we think of what we vowed we would be, and of what we have been, we may weep whole showers of grief. He thought on his denying his Lord. The place in which he did it, the little cause which led him into such heinous sin, the oaths and blasphemies with which he sought to confirm his falsehood, and the dreadful hardness of heart which drove him to do so again and yet again. Can we, when we are reminded of our sins, and their exceeding sinfulness, remain stolid and stubborn? Will we not make our house a Bochim, and cry unto the Lord for renewed assurances of pardoning love? May we never take a dry-eyed look at sin, lest ere long we have a tongue parched in the flames of hell. Peter also thought upon his Master's look of love. The Lord followed up the cock's warning voice with an admonitory look of sorrow, pity, and love. That glance was never out of Peter's mind so long as he lived. It was far more effectual than ten thousand sermons would have been without the Spirit. The penitent apostle would be sure to weep when he recollected the Saviour's full forgiveness, which restored him to his former place. To think that we have offended so kind and good a Lord is more than sufficient reason for being constant weepers. Lord, smite our rocky hearts, and make the waters flow.

Evening

"Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
John 6:37
No limit is set to the duration of this promise. It does not merely say, "I will not cast out a sinner at his first coming," but, "I will in no wise cast out." The original reads, "I will not, not cast out," or "I will never, never cast out." The text means, that Christ will not at first reject a believer; and that as he will not do it at first, so he will not to the last.
But suppose the believer sins after coming? "If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." But suppose that believers backslide? "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him." But believers may fall under temptation! "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." But the believer may fall into sin as David did! Yes, but he will "Purge them with hyssop, and they shall be clean; he will wash them and they shall be whiter than snow"; "From all their iniquities will I cleanse them."
"Once in Christ, in Christ forever,
Nothing from his love can sever."
"I give unto my sheep," saith he, "eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." What sayest thou to this, O trembling feeble mind? Is not this a precious mercy, that coming to Christ, thou dost not come to One who will treat thee well for a little while, and then send thee about thy business, but he will receive thee and make thee his bride, and thou shalt be his forever? Receive no longer the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby thou shalt cry, Abba, Father! Oh! the grace of these words: "I will in no wise cast out."
===

Today's reading: Psalm 51-53, Romans 2 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 51-53

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place....

Today's New Testament reading: Romans 2

God's Righteous Judgment
1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? 4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
===

===
   The Jerusalem Declaration
'Peace Talks' Starting: Support a United Jerusalem! 
The 'peace process' is about to begin. Israel has already paid a heavy price by agreeing to release terrorists to jump-start the talks, due to extreme pressure by world leaders. Whether you agree or disagree with that decision, Israel will no doubt come under tremendous pressure to give away parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority, for the sake of 'peace'. We cannot let this happen. 
NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT. We urge everyone who believes that Jerusalem must forever remain the undivided capital of Israel to sign and forward the 'Jerusalem Declaration'. With your help, our goal of presenting 250,000 signatures to Prime Minister Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Barkat can be reached very soon. We already have more than 150,000 names!
Please join Israel's friends around the world in showing strong support for a united Jerusalem. Everyone who signs will have their name added to the huge 'Keep Jerusalem United' banner that hangs from the Walls of Jerusalem!
If you've already signed, please FORWARD this email to everyone you know. If you have not yet signed, click below to sign right now:
Throughout history, the eternal connection between the Jewish People and Jerusalem has been unbreakable. We must do everything we can to keep Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, a united city. And only Israel can guarantee free and open access to Jerusalem for all peoples and religions.
We urge you to circulate this email throughout all of your personal networks.
HERE ARE WAYS THAT YOU CAN HELP:
1. Sign your name to show support --> www.jerusalemdeclaration.com
2. Become a 'Guardian of Jerusalem' --> www.guardianofjerusalem.com
3. Donate to United with Israel --> www.unitedwithisrael.org/donate

The People of Israel thank you for your support at this critical time.
We ask you to please FORWARD this email to everyone you know. 
united with israel
www.unitedwithisrael.org
info@unitedwithisrael.org		USA:1-888-ZION-613
Israel: +972-52-768-1179

===
mm banner28413-0
JensenSutta-Malkin-1
Photo credit: www.jensensutta.com
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for July 30th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Who’s up for Sheila Jackson Lee as Secretary of Homeland Security?

When you’re choosing a replacement for Janet Napolitano and the security level hasn’t exactly set at “Ft. Knox” to begin with, a switch to Sheila Jackson Lee would be more of a lateral move — like a transfer of power from Barney Fife to Paul Blart...

Howard Dean admits that Sarah Palin kinda-sorta might have been right about the Obamacare ‘death panel’ thing

Almost four years ago, Howard “YEAARRGGHH!!!” Dean said Sarah Palin’s “death panel” (“who lives and who dies” decisions caused by rationing) allegation was made up...

Anthony Weiner’s dwindling staff pretty good news, according to Weiner

Anthony Weiner’s campaign manager quit on Saturday, but according to Weiner that’s good, because it’ll make room for all the people who are clamoring to work for him...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Featured Video

Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 8.37.38 AM
Yesterday on "America Live," Michelle talked with Shannon Bream about Detroit's downward spiral and the government's plan to bail out the city through Obamacare.

Michelle's Top Tweets

Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 8.35.45 AM
Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 8.33.40 AM
Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 8.31.44 AM
Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 8.26.31 AM
Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 8.24.55 AM
Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 8.24.01 AM
Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 9.11.09 AM
Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 9.23.46 AM

And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

Screen Shot 2013-07-30 at 9.52.53 AM
Thanks for your viewership, girls!

===

Daniel Defoe

===

Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]




Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)