Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Wed Jul 17th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Isaac Watts (1674), John Wilbur (1774), James Cagney (1899), Fred Ball (1915) and Donald Sutherland (1935). Born on the same day, across the years. On your day, in 1453, The Battle of Castillon, the last conflict of the Hundred Years' War, ended with the English losing all landholdings in France, except Calais. 1771, Dene men, acting as a guide to Samuel Hearne on his exploration of the Coppermine River in present-day Nunavut, Canada, massacred a group of about 20 Copper Inuit. 1936, Nationalist rebels attempted a coup d'état against the Second Spanish Republic, sparking the Spanish Civil War. 1973, Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last King of Afghanistan, was ousted in a coup by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery. 1981, A structural failure caused a walkway at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, US, to collapse killing 114 people and injuring 216 others. Your hymn raises hope, which when all else is lost, retains Calais. And if the structure about you fails, if you lose your crown, if your plan fails, you can resort to the defiant snarl "You dirty rat."
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Kevvie’s carbon tax con

Piers Akerman – Wednesday, July 17, 2013 (12:19am)

LET’S be perfectly clear – Kevvie from Brizzie has not ended the carbon dioxide tax.
The closest he has come with his tinkering is to give a slew of unelected European bureaucrats control over the amount of tax Australians will pay in the future.
That’s right, the price we will pay for carbon credits – which went to $24-a-tonne under the Gillard Labor-Green-Independent minority government on July 1 – will now be set in Brussels.
The tax will still apply.
Kevvie’s coup was not even new.
His assassinated predecessor was going to introduce the same tax change in 12 months.
All Kevvie has done is try and save some votes for Labor by bringing forward the change and claiming that he has abolished the tax.
Hogwash. Power bills will still be astronomical.
Perhaps some Labor voters might believe it but thinking Australians should see right through the scam.
At his press conference with the training-wheel Treasurer Chris Bowen, RuddKevvie repeatedly said families would save $380 “per year”.
Bowen had to remind him it was just a saving of $380 in the 2014-15 financial year, but, naturally, Kevvie preferred his falsehood and continued to repeat his $380 “per year” claim.
As usual, there are flow-on repercussions that Kevvie has not taken into account or explained. Changes to the FBT treatment of cars will hit that embattled industry harder as it struggles, Toyota has warned that it could be the death knell of the auto industry and the floating price will add immeasurably to business uncertainty.
Perhaps another tear-streaked apology speech will be delivered in the months before the election.
As Opposition leader Tony Abbott told a media conference in Tasmania: “He is not the terminator, he is the exaggerator.

“He is not the terminator, he is the fabricator.

“He has changed its name but he hasn’t abolished the tax. All he has done is given Australians one year only of very modest relief.

“He has turned a $64 billion tax into a $58 billion tax. What he has done though is that he has essentially conceded the Coalition’s criticism of the carbon tax.”
This latest Labor policy backdown is an admission that the carbon dioxide tax was hurting Australian families and Australian businesses – something Labor denied or lied about for the past three years.
Kevvie got a big run on the ABC and Fairfax with his challenge to Abbott to debate the carbon tax – as he would.
But as Kevvie proposed a CPRS, which he delayed, then dumped, then supported a carbon tax, and now supports a floating carbon tax, it’s difficult to keep track on his position because he lacks conviction and principle.
Australians don’t want a debate, they want an election.
Question is: Why is Kevvie so afraid of asking the people what they want?

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Why virtual parenting raises virtual children

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, July 16, 2013 (6:56pm)

image
IT’S something we all know. Busy lives and technology are intruding on crucial family time.
We see the consequences around us in the rise of the unruly brat and a new lost generation of depression-prone adolescents. After all, if your parents don’t care enough to spend time with you, it’s hard to feel worthwhile.
The latest survey to sound the warning is from Virgin Holidays, which showed parents are spending less than eight hours a week of quality time with their children, on average; that breaks down to only 39 minutes per weekday, rising to just over an hour on Saturdays and Sundays.
Reasons parents gave for neglecting family time included that “the children are watching TV” or “the children are playing computer games”.
Who is the parent here? It is a woeful tale with worrying implications for the future.
A generation of children who are virtually bringing up themselves, with the help of whatever is beaming at them through their screens.
The latest survey comes off the back of another poll last year from the British Family and Parenting Institute, showing the number one thing children want is more time with their parents.
Six out of 10 kids complained their parents didn’t spend enough time with the family. Why aren’t we listening?
The one thing children need more than anything else is parental attention. It can be hard for busy parents, especially with taciturn teenagers whose idea of conversation is a sarcastic grunt.
But psychologists are warning we’re raising a generation of “Tamagotchi Kids” - children brought up by computers and TVs and smart phones.
With parents on their laptops while watching TV in one room and the children engrossed in their own digital entertainments in another, it can be easy to spend an entire evening communing less with your offspring than you did with the guy you bought your coffee from on the way to work.
It is really a facsimile of family life when everyone is isolated contentedly in their own activity.
You might be in the same house with your children but you are not doing your job as a parent. You’re not imprinting your values, imparting their worth, setting boundaries and teaching them how to be a good person.
Adolescent psychiatrist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg coined the term “Tamagotchi Parenting” after the electronic game that became a craze in Japan, in which you pressed buttons to feed and water a virtual pet.
He has been concerned about the rise of remote control parenting because it denies children the boundaries they crave. They become isolated from their parents by an “emotional firewall”, reserving their emotional relationships for friends, with whom they are permanently connected, electronically.
A Year 7 teacher once told me she saw a difference between the Generation Y she had been teaching and the new digital natives, the 12- and 13-year-olds of Generation Z coming through.
Born roughly since the mid-1990s, Gen Z is born virtually with a smart phone in their hands. They are the first post-technological revolution generation and their default reality is radically different from anything before.
But this teacher sees the dark side of her charges’ facility with digital technology. So immersed are they in their screens that she fears they are losing the ability to read facial expressions, a prerequisite for empathy.
Carr-Gregg predicts a “decline in civic connectedness and ... social capital” as a consequence.
Parenting is not like a My Three Sons episode where Big Daddy draws the children around for the latest sermon from the mount.
All the little incidental interactions when you are spending time with children add up to a coherent moral fabric with which they can fashion their character.
Mothers I know often say the best time to connect with their sons is in the car while ferrying them to sport, when they open up about their lives, comfortable with the parallel nature of the interaction, and mum too busy looking at the road to turn her laser eyes to his soul.
A full-time mother of nine children I know always makes a point of having a cup of tea alone after her husband has gone to bed so that any child who wants a private chat knows where to find her.
These surveys are a wake-up call to all of us to make spending extra time with our children the priority.
Turn off the screens, play a game, make a meal together, go for a walk, read a book aloud. Try to get that eight hours a week up to 15.
Yes, we’re all busy but most parents should be able to claw time back from less pressing activities.
Nothing is more important than bringing up the next generation. 

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TO BE NAMED, NAMES ARE NEEDED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 17, 2013 (7:44pm)

Fairfax’s Stephanie Peatling believes unidentified asylum seekers are dehumanised: 
On Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare concluded a press conference about the circumstances surrounding the latest boat tragedy.
He barely mentioned the people on board except as a body count …
Their emotional wellbeing is barely considered.
Instead, they will become the latest people to be talked about by politicians, journalists and commentators as “asylum seekers” or “illegal boat arrivals” or another anonymous group reference. 
I agree with Stephanie. All asylum seekers should be named. This process can begin as soon as they present theirpassports.

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KEVNI KNEW NOTHING

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 17, 2013 (11:28am)

An advertising agency is booted after offering interviews with Kevin Rudd in exchange for free pro-Labor pieces on youth websites: 
A spokesperson for Rudd told Mumbrella: “The actions of Naked Communications were conducted without the authority or knowledge of the Prime Minister, or his office.”
Labor national secretary George Wright, who will lead the party’s election campaign, told Mumbrella: “Naked Communications are no longer working on the ALP online campaign for the election. As I said yesterday the behaviour was not acceptable, and the document was not sighted by or authorised by the ALP, and certainly not by the PM’s office. No further comment will be made.” 
rouge employee is blamed for the mishap.

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THERE IS ONLY ONE QUESTION

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 17, 2013 (10:16am)

Who is better at throwing the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game - a South Korean actress or a South Korean gymnast?


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THE KINGSTON DECISION

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 17, 2013 (9:19am)

Attention, world: Margo Kingston has declared her vote. No response yet from the major parties.
UPDATE. Margo’s previous decision is now void: 
“I voted Green for first time in 2001, due to Tampa … Now, had enough,” Margo wrote. She rejects Greens asylum seeker policies “due to refusal to acknowledge obvious consequences” including “deaths at sea + overwhelming numbers.” 

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“FAIR WORK COMMISSION” ALSO SOUNDS RACIST

Tim Blair – Wednesday, July 17, 2013 (3:39am)

South African Mickey Arthur seeks $4 million in compensation after being sacked as Australian cricket coach: 
Arthur’s lawyers confirmed last night that he had “filed proceedings on a number of grounds in the Fair Work Commission (in) Sydney for being sacked and scapegoated. The grounds include racial discrimination.” 
Everything is racist in Australia. Arthur can’t possibly lose, which will be a change from his coaching career.
UPDATE. Australian captain Michael Clarke and his team seem to be coping.

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Justice trashed. Obama Adminstration goes after the “whiite” guy

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (8:05pm)

What a grotesque use of state power:

On Tuesday evening, Robert Zimmerman, brother of George Zimmerman, responded to reports that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice had solicited the public for information about George that could help a federal civil rights prosecution. The DOJ has even set up an email address for tips on Zimmerman.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Robert labeled the effort a “witch hunt,” asking, “How many other individuals has the DOJ witch-hunted in this way?”
It is sinister that the Obama Administration is stirring up racial tension for political gain, and using state power to undermine the rule of law in favor of the lynch mob:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about the “heartache” of the Trayvon Martin case in D.C. Tuesday evening while speaking to an African-American sorority group.
“My prayers are with the Martin family and with every family who loves someone who is lost to violence,” she said in an almost 30-minute speech. “No mother, no father, should ever have to fear for their child walking down a street in the United States of America.”
Clinton also referenced U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement Monday that the Justice Department will review the case.
“Yesterday I know you heard from the Attorney General about the next steps from the Justice Department and the need for a national dialogue,” she said. “As we move forward as we must I hope this sisterhood will continue to be a force for justice and understanding.”

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Rudd talks, people drown. UPDATE: Third boat sinks in a week

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (4:13pm)

Boat people policy
Kevin Rudd in 2008 scrapped the tough border laws which had cut boat arrivals to an average of just three a year. Since then more than 45,000 boat people have come to Australia, and more than 1000 have been lured to their deaths.
Last week another nine boat people drowned, and Rudd promised yet more talk:

This tragedy underlines the absolute importance for Australia to continue to adjust its policies to meet changing circumstances in the region and in the world when it comes to border security.
That is why our response in terms of elevating the work we do cooperatively with the Indonesians and others is now urgent.
Yesterday, more deaths:

FOUR asylum-seekers are dead after an asylum boat carrying about 150 people sank north of Christmas Island as Customs and Border Protection crews were trying to assist it.
Apart from just talking about fixing the lethal disaster he caused, what is Rudd actually doing?
And note: if these people drowned under Tony Abbott, especially after a boat turnaround, imagine the media uproar. Yet Rudd’s policy has contributed to the deaths of more than 1000 people and a complicit media lays no blame at all.
UPDATE
Rudd is now trying to fix what he broke, but so much damage has already been done:

Since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd returned as Prime Minister 2376 people have a arrived on boats, including 2138 already this month. This does not include survivors from the capsize or the group rescued earlier by HMAS Bathurst.
In addition to the baby boy from Sri Lanka who drowned this month and the eight missing, 220 asylum seekers have either drowned or vanished this year and more than 15,600 have arrived safely.
The surge has come amid warnings from Foreign Minister Bob Carr that arrivals, on track to be around 40,000 this year, could double to 80,000 a year.
UPDATE
Rudd is brilliant at seeming something different to what he is and does. The Sydney Morning Herald’s web page shows how easily he fools a willing press:
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UPDATE
If boat people drowned under Tony Abbott’s policies, would the Sydney Morning Herald care as little as it does about those who drown under Kevin Rudd’s?:

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UPDATE
A third boat now sinking in just one week:

An Australian PC Orion aircraft is making a mercy dash to drop liferafts to about 80 people on board an asylum seeker boat that is sinking north-east of Christmas Island.
(Thanks to readers Alan RM Jones, Dave and Mark 2.) 

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Who really dreamed up this $6 carbon price? As Ellis says, it will go up

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (3:16pm)

I wonder whether Climate Change Minister Mark Butler told the truth about who came up with the $6 figure of a likely carbon price next year:
CHRIS UHLMANN: Is it treasury figure or is it your figure? That price of six dollars is the price at the moment, that doesn’t mean that’s what it’s going to be in 2014/15. And you will be aware of course that the Europeans are trying to force that price up at the moment so where do you get six dollars from?
MARK BUTLER: Well your viewers will be comforted by the fact that I don’t make these figures, we ask Treasury for proper advice and proper forecasts about what they think the European price will be in 2014/15, and advice about whether our price, Australia’s price is likely to converge with that. That was the advice of Treasury and it is appropriate that once we get that advice that is the basis for our costings and our - ultimately our savings process.
I seriously doubt anyone in Treasury really thinks Europe’s carbon price 11 months from now will still be $6 in Australian money.
I may be wrong, but I’d like to see the Treasury documents that back up what Butler says.
UPDATE
Childcare Minister Kate Ellis has one of those awful moments on ABC radio when she realises she told the truth about Rudd’s carbon tax.
Let’s drop in on her chat with 891 ABC’s Matthew Abraham and David Bevan, with a contribution from the Liberals’ Christopher Pyne:

ELLIS: This is a complicated policy. Many people wouldn’t know what the difference between a carbon price and an Emissions Trading Scheme is to begin with, but what we’ve said is that we believe that we’d have a fixed price so you can get some certainty in the system, you can settle in, and then we were always going to a floating price in an Emissions Treading Scheme. Business has said that they’re ready to go, they’ve lobbied for this to be bought forward, we’re also hearing from the community that they have cost of living pressures and there are lot of claims, ….we heard about prices going up, prices going down. One thing that we have seen the whole time throughout this debate is a lot of different claims and counter claims about prices. And the one thing that’s been consistent is the accuracy of Treasury modelling. Now, Treasury is telling us that this will reduce both electricity and gas price prices and I think that’s good news for our community.

BEVAN: Well the same Treasury is also predicting that the price will go back upon to $25 a tonne by 2017/18, so in four year’s time, will we be paying a lot more for carbon?

ELLIS: And we will be paying what’s in line with the international trading scheme, we will be competing on a level playing field with other countries and other sectors and we think that’s a very good thing.

BEVAN: But you will be putting back up the cost of household power bills.

ELLIS: Absolutely, this will be a floating price and it will move up and down –

BEVAN: It’s only going to go up according to the Treasury officials that you say are on the ball.

ELLIS: Absolutely, and it will move in line with international markets so that we know that Australian consumers and Australian business is not disadvantaged.

ABRAHAM: When it moves back up, won’t all those electricity savings be wiped out?

ELLIS: One of things that – of course those savings will move which is one of the reasons why –

ABRAHAM: Oh no they won’t move, they won’t get better will they?

ELLIS: -which is one of the reasons why we are keeping in place all of our assistance packages…..
Later:

PYNE: ….the Labor Party’s deal is an absolute dud. I mean Kate Ellis just admitted on your program and you put it to her that prices will go up again. She said – absolutely. When you said to her – will the carbon tax price go up again? She said absolutely, so she’s twice on your show this morning …..
Later again:

PYNE: …He (Rudd) supported the carbon tax, he supported increasing the carbon tax on July the 1st, he voted for it. Now he says he’s terminating the carbon tax when he’s not actually abolishing the carbon tax and Kate Ellis has admitted that this morning on your program –

ELLIS: I’ve done absolutely no such thing Christopher.

PYNE: Well you did. You said absolutely electricity prices would go up again, your word. You said absolutely the carbon price would go up again, your word – and I’m sure that will come back to bite you for the rest of the day. 

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Albanese admits Rudd’s $6 carbon price could actually rise

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (9:14am)

Last night Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese conceded the carbon price could actually be higher than the $6 Kevin Rudd claimed it would fall to.

Albanese also could not deny that the Government’s own Budget, passed just two months ago, projected the European price would actually soar to $38 by 2019.
But he would not say whether he stood by that figure, which the Government relied upon in claiming it would raise enough money to pay for its disability and education schemes.
Listen to our discussion here.
And here is the Budget projection that Albanese suggested he was too unfamiliar with to discuss:

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Still no athlete charged. Which Minister will be sacked?

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (9:06am)

I have been astonished that so many leading sports writers couldn’t see through the stunt, and couldn’t distinguish between allegation and proof. As I wrote in February:

IT IS mad, how recklessly some politicians last week trashed the reputation of Australian sport.
Don’t blame athletes or officials for making sports codes seem riddled with “endemic corruption” - from rampant drug use to match-fixing and gangsters.
Blame instead the Gillard Government and commentators who on Thursday ballyhooed a desperately thin Australian Crime Commission report.
So five months after that press conference, how many athletes have been charged over drug use, matchfixing or organised crime?
Zero.
And now this, about the club under most scrutiny:
ESSENDON’S players will not face ASADA sanction from its use of AOD-9604, it was claimed last night.
The club’s confidence the players will escape penalty stem from their knowledge that the anti-obesity drug was not banned in 2012.
It was claimed last night, and later confirmed by Essendon sources, the club inquired to anti-doping body ASADA about its players taking the drug in early 2012 and was told it was not a prohibited substance…
Essendon has previously refused to comment on reports that a leading ASADA investigator told them on May 6 this year: ‘’I don’t believe it (AOD-9604) should ever have been on the prohibited list.’’
The Dons were allegedly told by ASADA the prospects of a prosecution for the use of AOD-9604 was ‘’very, very, very low’’.
So which Minister will be sacked for causing such terrible and needless damage to the reputation of Australian sport and to the good name of some of Australia’s most famous clubs?
UPDATE
Reader Worker answers my question:

The one that did not support Rudd
Reader Spinks:

In likely order they will try to pass off blame onto:
1. Tony Abbott. 2. Tony Abbott.
3. Tony Abbott.
4. Workchoices.
5. Brian Dixon, State Liberal Sports Minister in the 1970s.
6. Global Warming.
7. The GFC.
8. Look, this is a complex problem.
9. A good government losing its way again, unfortumately, sorry about that.
10. Not them.
Reader Viperous:

From Foxnews:


ASADA’s statement to Fox Footy stated: ‘’ASADA has not advised any party that AOD-9604 is permitted in sport. ASADA correctly advised ACC that AOD-9604 was not prohibited under S.2 of the WADA prohibited list, however made no reference to its status under S.0. There is no difference between the substances WADA and ASADA consider prohibited.

It’s like The Pink Panther:
‘Does your dog bite?
Non Monsieur. My dog does not bite.
Ouch. I thought you said that your dog does not bite!
That is not my dog. 

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How to grill an alarmist politician

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (9:05am)





Reader Evan is right. This is how to interview a warming alarmist:

Source: BBC2: The Sunday Politics

Date: 14/07/2013


Andrew Neil: Now, are you ready for a puzzle? Well, here’s one. Can global warming be happening as expected, when the world has stopped getting hotter? That’s the brain-teaser that’s troubling scientists and which threatens to shatter the consensus over global warming.
Global temperatures have increased by 0.8 degrees Celsius since the industrial revolution. But since the late 1990s, they’ve stalled, despite the fact that emissions of greenhouse gases have continued apace. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 400 parts per million for the first time earlier this year. The pause has led some climate scientists to question whether there could be something wrong with their models. One eminent German professor [Hans von Storch, University of Hamburg] has said: “So far, no one has been able to provide a compelling answer to why climate change seems to be taking a break. We’re facing a puzzle...”
The Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey, has said that this normal expression of scientific uncertainty is no reason to reconsider energy and climate change policies, even though his department says they’re already adding £112 to annual household bills, a number which is set to rise. Speaking last month, he described people who cast doubt on the scientific consensus as “crackpots and conspiracy theorists”, and he warned the press not to give an “uncritical campaigning platform” to people who deny that climate change is man-made.
Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, joins me now for the Sunday interview.

Andrew Neil: Ed Davey, welcome. In a speech on June 2nd you said that healthy scepticism is part of the scientific process. Then, a couple of weeks later, you described anybody who challenged the climate change consensus as - quote - “crackpots and conspiracy theorists”. So, what is it?
Ed Davey: Well, I do think we should always challenge the science - of course, we should - and there’s a healthy debate amongst climate change scientists. But the vast majority of climate change scientists believe that climate change is happening and that man-made activity is causing it. So it’s a tiny number of people who believe that it’s not happening and that man isn’t responsible for it. And I have to say that I agree with President Obama in his recent speech, when he said we don’t need another meeting of the Flat Earth Society. We need to get on and tackle climate change, and I agree with him.
Andrew Neil: So the scientists who challenge the consensus are “crackpots”.
Ed Davey: No, what I was saying - I was referring to a particular issue there. I do think there’s a - of course, we should have a debate, I’m not against debate. What we’ve seen in the press -
Andrew Neil: You said that newspapers shouldn’t publish their views.
Ed Davey: No, no, I didn’t say that. What I’ve actually said, and I completely stand by that, is that we’ve seen a completely unchallenged view of the climate change deniers. I think we need rather more balance in the debate, particularly when we saw recent analysis on 12,000 scientific papers, and of the scientists who expressed a view - on climate change papers - of the scientists who expressed a view, 97% said that climate change was happening and that it was human-made activities - human activity that caused it.
Andrew Neil: That survey, of course, has been substantially discredited.
Ed Davey: Well, I don’t believe it has -
Andrew Neil: Oh no, it has. Let me tell you - 35% of the abstracts were misclassified, and they were classified to the pro-global warming side. Professor Richard Tol, the expert most quoted approvingly in this report, has disassociated himself from this survey - he said it’s not reliable.
Ed Davey: If you look at -
Andrew Neil: That’s your survey.
Ed Davey: If you look at what the scientists are saying - take the Chief Scientist to the government who’s just stepped down, Sir John Beddington. You and I, through our taxes, pay for these scientists. He said, in his speech as he left, that the evidence was unequivocal, unambiguous. The Chief Scientist in my department, Professor David McKay, is of a similar view. So I have to say, the science is on the side that we need to take action. And let’s just - hang on for a second, let’s just imagine that the huge majority of scientists are wrong. Let’s just say that climate change deniers are right. Do you think it’s sensible that we gamble, that we say “Well, actually, even if most of the scientists say it’s happening, we should ignore them”? I say that we take a cautious approach and just as you, and many others - I hope, all your viewers - insure their houses against the very unlikely chance of fire burning heir house down, I think, given the risks of climate change are much greater, with more more devastating effects, we should - to humankind - we should invest in a little insurance policy to tackle climate change.
Andrew Neil: Right, well, let’s just look at this [shows graph of global temperatures between 1980 and 2012, rising and then levelling off] graph going up here - shows temperatures rising since 1980, it’s a trend. We’ve flattened it out a little bit, just to get rid of the ups and downs - that’s the trend. Then it sudden - it rises and then it suddenly, around 1997, it plateaus and it’s still plateauing. Isn’t that a bit of a puzzle?
Ed Davey: Well, actually no. When you talk to people at the Met Office, at the Hadley Centre, they expect, in their models, that there will be short-term variation in this century, a rather longer-term time series than you’ve shown there. If you took that much longer, you’d find that the beginning of the 20th century there was a plateau, in the 1950s there was a plateau -
Andrew Neil: That’s nothing to do with global warming.
Ed Davey: - so the short - of course, we were emitting -
Andrew Neil: No, the IPCC reports says that the real CO2 emission, rising temperatures, really kicked in after 1980. Now there is no -
Ed Davey: No, I’m afraid you’re wrong -
Andrew Neil: - there is no Met model, there is no Met model that predicted this plateau.
Ed Davey: First of all, you’re completely wrong to suggest that people in the climate change science community think it only started in 1980. That is simply not true. And in terms of the most recent decade, let’s remember - it was the warmest on record. And even if you look at the temperature analysis, that is pretty striking. But I think that’s a very narrow way of looking at climate change science. If you talk to the climate change scientist community, you’ve got to look at things like the temperature of the seas, because that’s surface - land surface temperature. The oceans have continued to warm. And you’ve got to look at sea levels - sea levels have continued to rise.
Andrew Neil: Let me show you this -
Ed Davey: No, no, no, it’s very important we hear the actual science, because you’re not showing the full picture there.
Andrew Neil: Let me show you this -
Ed Davey: If you look at the ice caps - the ice caps are continuing to melt. All that is part of the -
Andrew Neil: We still have a puzzle. [Shows graph comparing temperature rise and CO2 levels between 1980 and 2012, with a widening gap towards the end.] We still have a puzzle, because this is the temperature and here we have superimposed the carbon dioxide, the CO2 going up in quantity. Now, is there not, at least when you look at that, clear at least that there is a possibility - I put it not higher than that - that there is something of a disconnect, now, between CO2 emissions and temperatures.
Ed Davey: If you had a longer time series, most climate change scientists would say that is completely consistent with data we’ve seen previously. And I go back -
Andrew Neil: Climate scientists can’t explain this disconnect, at the moment.
Ed Davey: No, they can, actually. What they are saying -
Andrew Neil: Well, let me put you to - you may react to this, but this is just to amplify the question. [Screen shows a quote from Dr. Doug Smith, Met Office: “It’s fair to say that the world warmed even less than our forecast suggested… We don’t really understand at the moment why that is."] Dr. Doug Smith, climate scientist at the Met Office: “It’s fair to say that the world warmed even less than our forecast suggested… We don’t really understand at the moment why that is.” So we don’t know why there is a disconnect.
Ed Davey: And I went to the Met Office recently and did a speech at the Met Office, talked to the leading scientists - Doug Smith was there - and what they are saying is: you shouldn’t just look at surface temperature. You should look at the temperature of the oceans. You should look at the level of the sea, which are still rising. You should look at the ice caps, which are still melting. You should look at the increasing frequency of severe weather events. So if you just look at one bit of it, information, which is what you’re doing today, I’m afraid you’re not seeing the full picture.
Andrew Neil: Just sticking with that one bit of information - when this plateau started to develop, and some academics started to write about it in 2006, the people who advise you - so, Phil Jones at the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia, in a world centre of climate science - he described the idea of a plateau as nonsense and stupid. The Met Office denied that a plateau was even happening. 

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Rudd makes a carbon tax promise he cannot keep

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (7:31am)

Global warming - general
Kevin Rudd’s promise to terminate the carbon tax (in fact, switch to an emissions trading scheme in July 2014) cannot be delivered.
He would need to get any such plan through the Senate. But the current Senate will sit until June 30, 2014, and a Greens and Coalition majority is almost certain to block Rudd’s plan:

Greens leader Christine Milne made it clear the government would not win her support to get the changes through the Senate, dismissing the new plans as a “hypothetical” election promise.
“I do not expect that parliament will be recalled before the election, but suffice to say these changes cannot be introduced or legislated without the Greens,” Senator Milne said.
“The Greens do not support making it cheaper for the big polluters to pollute. And we certainly do not support slashing climate programs that are playing a vital role in helping Australia reduce emissions, address global warming and protect the environment.”
The Liberals would also oppose the switch, on current indications, if it means simply moving to an emissions trading scheme which could see the carbon price soar.
So how will Rudd deliver his promise? With a double dissolution election if he’s blocked?
Or will we just see a rerun of 2010 when another Labor Prime Minister also promised: “There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead?”
UPDATE
Paul Kelly:

Rudd did not terminate the carbon tax yesterday. Indeed, he does not have that power. The tax still exists. It is the law of the land. There is not the slightest suggestion from Rudd PM that he will recall the parliament to legislate his changes. That is because his model is rejected by both the Coalition and the Greens.
It cannot pass the Senate before the election and it cannot pass the Senate after the election. That is its beauty and its flaw. Rudd is campaigning, not governing. He is promising, not legislating…
Rudd is perfectly correct to invoke his emissions trading scheme mandate from the 2007 election and his first period as PM. The point, of course, is that Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme failed to pass the parliament because it was unacceptable to both the Coalition and the Greens.
He has now devised a new policy that is, once again, unacceptable to the Coalition and the Greens. This freedom makes his policy more popular yet also makes it unrealisable.

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NSW Labor under Rudd looks just like NSW Labor before

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (7:00am)

Which Rudd would you like?
I repeat: Kevin Rudd is expert at seeming. He is even more expert in seeming what he is not.
Rudd last week:

The reforms I announce today will give more power to everyday members of the Labor Party. They will ensure that power will never again rest in the hands of a factional few.
In fact:
The troubled NSW Labor head office will be asked this morning to investigate branch-stacking claims ahead of this Saturday’s preselection vote in retiring minister Peter Garrett’s seat of Kingsford Smith.
It emerged yesterday that dozens of names registered with the Malabar Labor branch - 58 of which The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed had been signed up as financial members of the party on the same day - did not exist on the electoral role.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has promised to clean up the scandal-ridden NSW Labor Party, yesterday refused to intervene to resolve the bitter rank-and-file preselection battle between former party boss Matt Thistlethwaite and local Labor mayor Tony Bowen, the son of former deputy prime minister Lionel Bowen.
But it was revealed that Mr Rudd tried last week to install his former staffer Andrew Charlton into the seat, in a warning to the party head office that if it couldn’t resolve the controversy he would.
Mr Rudd decided against the move after making his public declaration that all outstanding pre-selections caused by the retirement of seven ministers should be decided by local rank and file, and to impose his will would be hypocritical in light of his plans to reform the party to make it more democratic.
To underline the point:

Labor exile Eddie Obeid has thrown his support behind Matt Thistlethwaite in the battle to replace outgoing minister Peter Garrett in the seat of Kingsford Smith.
Mr Obeid, who is waiting on a decision in his hearing at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, said Senator Thistlethwaite had a stronger claim to the eastern beaches seat than his opponent, Tony Bowen.
But Senator Thistlethwaite immediately rejected Mr Obeid’s blessing, saying it was unwanted mischief-making and the ALP branches in Kingsford Smith would decide his fate, not a disgraced powerbroker…
Mr Obeid said: ‘’Matt Thistlethwaite has the credentials. He is a genuine local, he has worked the branches. He got knocked off in favour of Peter Garrett [who was parachuted into Kingsford Smith in 2004] and he deserves his shot.’’
UPDATE
New Labor indeed:

The Labor Party’s advertising agency has been offering “exclusive” interviews with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in exchange for free pro-Labor advertising and editorial on youth websites.
The deal, which also encouraged journalists to produce “entertaining content on the theme of the inadequacy of the Liberal NBN plan”, had been rejected on ethical grounds by Fairfax Media’s popular culture website, TheVine…
The deal was being spruiked by Naked Communications, the online and youth-focused advertising agency for Labor’s campaign.
Labor’s national secretary, George Wright, who is in charge of the election campaign, said he had never seen the advertising-for-access deal, despite the document carrying Labor Party branding…
Earlier a spokeswoman for Mr Rudd had said: “The actions of Naked Communications were conducted without the authority or knowledge of the Prime Minister, or his office.”
However, emails obtained by Fairfax Media suggest the Prime Minister’s office was informed of the negotiations.
(Thanks to readers miney and Peter.) 

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Making Indonesia spin Labor’s lines

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (6:49am)

Chris Kenny on Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s astonishing manhandling of Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, to make him criticise the Opposition’s boat policy:

[In] an interview with SkyNews, Mr Natalegawa made clear that Australia had every right to adopt its own “national” initiatives and said he was willing to discuss its turn back policy. He resisted many invitations to criticise that policy…
Seeing the political implications of this – the sudden removal of Labor’s excuse not to turn back boats – Mr Carr organised the late night interview [with Channel 10]. According to reports, Mr Carr’s office rang Channel 10 to offer the joint interview. What a sad, reactive and cheap way to deal with a party political issue. What disregard it showed for one of our most important relationships.
But it won’t work. Reality can’t be spun away. The dishonest echoing of Labor spin by the love media doesn’t even fool the electorate – never does – and won’t fool the Indonesians. The proof is there for all to see; we know boats were turned back before and the Indonesians did not publicly object; while the bilateral relationship deepened to an unprecedented level. 

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America’s real race-crime problem is not violent whites but blacks

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (6:44am)

Jason Riley on the dishonesty of so much of Left’s response to the George Zimmerman case - and America’s real “racial” (actually cultural) divide. And, note, Riley is himself black, so hopefully won’t be accused of racism:
Any candid debate on race and criminality in the US would have to start with the fact that blacks commit an astoundingly disproportionate number of crimes. African-Americans constitute about 13 per cent of the population, yet between 1976 and 2005 blacks committed more than half of all murders in the US.
The black arrest rate for most offences - including robbery, aggravated assault and property crimes - is typically two to three times their representation in the population…
“High rates of black violence in the late 20th century are a matter of historical fact, not bigoted imagination,” wrote the late Harvard Law professor William Stuntz in The Collapse of American Criminal Justice. “The trends reached their peak not in the land of Jim Crow but in the more civilised North, and not in the age of segregation but in the decades that saw the rise of civil rights for African Americans - and of African American control of city governments.”
The Left wants to blame these outcomes on racial animus and “the system,” but blacks have long been part of running that system. Black crime and incarceration rates spiked in the 1970s and 80s in cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia, under black mayors and black police chiefs. Some of the most violent cities in the US today are run by blacks…
Did the perception of black criminality play a role in Martin’s death? We may never know for certain, but we do know that those negative perceptions of young black men are rooted in hard data on who commits crimes. We also know that young black men will not change how they are perceived until they change how they behave.
The homicide rate claiming black victims today is seven times that of whites, and the George Zimmermans of the world are not the reason. About 90 per cent of black murder victims are killed by other blacks.
UPDATE
Is this what triggered the attack on Zimmerman, who then shot Trayvon Martin in self-defence?
Last night Trayvon Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel ...  explained to CNN’s Piers Morgan how she warned her childhood friend that Zimmerman—could be a gay rapist
MORGAN: You felt that there was no doubt in your mind from what Trayvon was telling you on the phone about the creepy ass cracka and so on, that he absolutely believed that George Zimmerman, this man, you didn’t know who he was at the time, but this man, was pursuing him?
JEANTEL: Yes.
MORGAN: And he was freaked out by it?
JEANTEL: Yes. Definitely after I say may be a rapist, for every boy, for every man, every—who’s not that kind of way, seeing a grown man following them, would they be creep out?
She continued:
“And people need to understand, he didn’t want that creepy ass cracker going to his father or girlfriend’s house to go get—mind you, his little brother was there. You know—now, mind you, I told you—I told Trayvon it might have been a rapist.” 

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Two Kevins #3

Andrew Bolt July 17 2013 (6:41am)

Which Rudd would you like?
Kevin Rudd, 26 June:

I’ve never changed my script or my belief. I never want to be Prime Minister of a country that doesn’t make things anymore. There’s a big future for Australian manufacturing under this government.
16 July:

TOYOTA has warned the Rudd Government’s changes to company car tax rules could cripple the automotive industry.
Or put it this way…
Kevin Rudd, 26 June:
And let me say this to Australian business: I want to work closely with you… And I’m saying it loud and clear to businesses large and small across the country, that in partnership, we can do great things for the country’s future… Business is a group that this government will work with very closely.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Tony Webber, 16 July:

This (fringe benefit tax) change affects all car sales in Australia, both imports and domestically manufactured. And the effects will flow right through the industry, including to dealerships and service centres.
I want to know if the Government truly understands the consequences of this decision and why the industry was not consulted on such a significant change.
(Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 

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Pastor Rick Warren
Every time you make a bad choice, it becomes harder to make a good one.

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Pastor Rick Warren
The more you fight a feeling, the more it controls you. Don't resist it, replace it.

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Pastor Rick Warren
I trust God completely, 
not because he always does what I want 
but because he always does what's right.

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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or imagine. 
God alone is able to overcome the circumstances beyond your control and cause you to be sufficient where clearly you are insufficient.

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How does this explain the NSW Rugby League record vs Queensland?
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4 her
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Are you a teacher? With the release and implementation of the Australian Curriculum, the Memorial is planning a series of educational web activities, teaching tools and stimulus materials that will allow us to help you. Most importantly we want to know what you need from us. Please read and comment on our blog and let us know where you are finding resource gaps and we will do our best to try and fill them.

http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2013/07/17/education-australian-war-memorial/
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like Hermione .. ed
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Today we announced our $8.5 billion plan to fix the Bruce Hwy- Locally if elected the Coalition will fund:

•Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway – Stage 1 part construction ($200 million) 
•Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway – Stage 2 planning and design ($50 million)
•Caboolture to Caloundra upgrade – ($122 million)
•Pine River to Caloundra interchange upgrade ($8 million)

I am proud that we will fix the Highway and give Queensland the modern highway that our State deserves http://bit.ly/1dDV482

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" The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. " - Sigmund Freud
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Vines. — in Calistoga, CA.
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Sunset over Mount St. Helena. I have been struggling with this image since taking it last night. The trouble that I'm having is that it looks fake, even straight out of the camera, even though the manipulation has been minimal. I blame the clear sky along with the orange glow.

I decided to take the long way home from Santa Rosa last night and was greeted with a wonderful sunset over the Sonoma County vineyards. I spent much of my life in these parts and miss them, being that I don't get out that way as often as I would like.
 — in Calistoga, CA.
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Warwick Poulsen
"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great man must, I think, have great sadness on earth..."
- Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment"...

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Dear God as I come before you tonight I thank you for another day of life. Thank you for your strength, love, favor and protection all throughout this day. Lord now I lift up every broken vessel, hurting heart, tired body or stressed soul right now. Turn around their day and grant them nothing but sweet peace. Renew, restore, refresh and uplift. Let your glory full their space. I ask these things in your precious name. Amen.

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fbtwytfw
Dear Friend,
Donate Now Button
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid announced Sunday that he will allow the Senate to vote on a ban on late-term abortions!
Public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of this measure.  The House has already passed it.
This is our opportunity to save the lives of millions of children!
I know the Senate.  If pro-lifers from across America band together now and fight, this late-term abortion ban will pass.
But it won't be easy.
The horrors of the Kermit Gosnell trial,  the diligent work of pro-life volunteers across America, and all the investigative reports of Planned Parenthood have turned the American people against the barbaric practice of late-term abortion.
That's why Harry Reid says he'll allow a vote.  His constituents and those of his Democratic colleagues who are up for reelection are demanding it.
Nationally, support for "abortion on demand" is crumbling fast.  Despite massive and vile protests, the Texas state legislature just easily passed a ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
And numerous other states are moving in the same direction.
However, a national law is what we really need.  And now we have a great shot at passing one. 
I know an overwhelming number of my Republican colleagues will vote for it.
I also know that a number of Democrats may go along as well.
Again, this is our golden opportunity.  The best chance we've had to roll back abortion nationally since Roe v. Wade!
You see, we are in for the battle of our lives.
Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the National Organization for Women will fight this bill with everything they have.
They will spend millions on attack ads.  They will swarm the Senate with crazed pro-abortion activists and accost pro-life Senators just like they did in Texas.
It will be ugly.  Probably the nastiest issue battle since the 1960s!
That's why Patriot Voices is taking the lead in this fight.   Pro-life America needs to organize, fundraise and work like never before to force the Senate to do what is right.
The news that Harry Reid will allow a vote on this abortion ban is HUGE.  It presents us with a chance to change history and save countless innocent lives.
But we all must band together now.
Thank you, and please keep praying for the pro-life movement.
Sincerely, 
Rick Santorum signature 
Rick Santorum
Donate Now Button 
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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for July 16th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Dershowitz: Holder should pursue civil rights violations in the Zimmerman case

The Department of Justice announced recently that they have a civil rights investigation open into the death of Trayvon Martin...

More From the Right Side of the Web

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Yesterday, Michelle talked with Martha McCallum about how Eric Holder is transforming the DOJ into the Department of Selective and Social Justice.

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Yikes. So grouchy!

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July 17Feast day of the Scillitan Martyrs (Roman Catholic Church); Constitution Day in South Korea (1948)
Damage caused by the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse

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