Monday, August 19, 2013

Mon Aug 19th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Michelle Tran, Lisa Zhao, Jessica Tjong, Lisa Nguyen and Channel Pheanix. Born on the same day, across the years as Marcus Aurelius Probus (232), Orville Wright (1871), Coco Chanel (1883), Ogden Nash (1902), Richard Simmons (1913), Gene Roddenberry (1921), Johnny Nash (1940), Bill Clinton (1946) and Reeva Steenkamp (1983). On your day, Feast of the Transfiguration (Julian calendar); Independence Day in Afghanistan (1919)
295 BC – The oldest known temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, was dedicated.
1745 – Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands to begin the Second Jacobite Rising.
1942 – Second World War: Allied forces suffered over 3,000 casualties when they unsuccessfully raided the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France.
1981 – Two American F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan Su-22 Fitters while the U.S. Navy conducted military exercises in the Gulf of Sidra.
2003 – A Hamas suicide bomber killed 23 people and wounded over 130 others on a crowded public bus in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in Jerusalem. Your temple is dedicated. You have raised the standard. You can avoid suffering by not participating in the munchy raid. Stay clear of tomcats too .. or terrorists .. don't ask me why .. just avoid them ;)
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WAKE IN FRIGHT

Tim Blair – Monday, August 19, 2013 (4:17am)

The sweet, sweet sounds of September 8, as predicted by Greens candidate Simon Sheikh. You might want to turn the volume down a notch:



Apparently these unattractive people are sufficiently politically alert, in a paranoid lefty way, to be terrified by an Abbott government – but they somehow didn’t bother learning about the election result until the following morning. Maybe they celebrated too hard at one of the Greens’ infamous election-day cupcake parties.

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RUDD SLIDES

Tim Blair – Monday, August 19, 2013 (3:35am)

The latest Newspoll is all good: 
Labor’s primary vote, at 34 per cent, is now at its lowest level since Mr Rudd removed Julia Gillard as prime minister and the Coalition’s primary vote of 47 per cent is at its highest during the same time …
On a two-party-preferred basis, based on preference flows at the 2010 election, Labor’s support hasdropped two percentage points, to 46 per cent, and the Coalition’s support has risen to 54 per cent…
Voter support for Mr Rudd has now fallen 10 points since his peak of 53 per cent in the first week of last month and Mr Abbott’s has risen 10 points since his lowest support in the same week. 
A certain woman in Adelaide maintains her silence.

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THEY WILL ALWAYS BELIEVE

Tim Blair – Monday, August 19, 2013 (3:16am)

Labor’s support will probably never fall below 25 per cent, no matter how woeful or shattered the party becomes. This is due to the devotion of those described by Paul Keating after his election win 20 years ago as “true believers”.
They’re an ill-named mob, because they don’t really believe in anything much at all, besides Labor. If Labor relaxes laws on asylum seekers, they vote Labor. If Labor sends all asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea, they vote Labor. Labor sacks a male PM, they vote Labor. Labor sacks a female PM, they vote Labor.
True believers care more about Labor’s costume than Labor’s contents.

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ELECTRICITY SAVED

Tim Blair – Monday, August 19, 2013 (2:10am)

According to Labor, Tony Abbott is going make us celebrate Earth Hour all year long:


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NOT HAMSTERS AGAIN

Tim Blair – Monday, August 19, 2013 (1:57am)

When cartoon captions are accidentally switched.

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SOFT CORE

Tim Blair – Monday, August 19, 2013 (1:35am)

Another addition to the list: 
Global warming is causing apples to lose some of their crunch but is also making them sweeter, a study has found. 
(Via Linden)

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POSTER GIRL

Tim Blair – Monday, August 19, 2013 (1:10am)

Liberal supporters are vandalising their own campaign posters to deliver a message in Perth:

image

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Wong refuses to back Rudd’s tax thought bubble

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (7:31pm)

Excruciating. Finance Minister Penny Wong refuses to back Kevin Rudd.s latest thought bubble - a suggested one-third cut to company tax in the Northern Territory:
Sky News interview with Penny Wong
SPEERS
What is the plan in relation to cutting the company tax rate for the NT and how would you pay for that?
WONG
Well there are a number of aspects as you might recall to the Northern Australia plan, and you mentioned one of them. In relation to the company tax benefit - shall we call it - what we made clear - and the Prime Minister made clear in his press conference as well as the policy document is that we do have to go through a process of working through how you would deliver that tax benefit, and that would include how you would offset the effective spend. And we laid out a process of discussion and consultation with the territory and of course, that wouldn’t cut in till well after the end of the forward estimates. But not withstanding that, you would obviously have to go through an appropriate process.
SPEERS
Ok, but what would you like to see the company tax rate cut to in the Northern Territory?
WONG
Oh, look, I’m not going to pre-empt those discussions. I think, ah, there is, there is obviously a policy benefit in trying to ensure we gain some greater investment in the northern part of Australia, for reasons the Prime Minister outlined.
SPEERS
It’s not a gotcha question though, Minister. I’m just asking if you share the Prime Minister’s policy vision on this particular issue?
WONG
Oh look I think there is benefit in making sure we, we, we get the right investment environment for all of Australia, but in particular, Northern Australia and I’ll certainly support the policy position that was put out.
SPEERS
By doing what? By cutting the company tax rate by how much?
WONG
Well, that is one of the - giving a tax benefit is one of the things in the policy that is discussed and the Prime Minister has laid out a process for that.
SPEERS
But ok, but just to be clear, what would you like to see the company tax rate be?
WONG
It is not the only issue, I mean, there was a discussion about, it was a discussion…
SPEERS
But what do you want the company tax rate to be?
WONG
Well I’m not going to be drawn on that. The Prime Minister has indicated what his preference is. We’ll go through the process that has been outlined.
SPEERS
But do you share, do you agree with him or not?
WONG
And I’ll tell you the difference between us and the - oh come on David! He’s indicated what his preference is, which is a reduction of about a third, and I’ve said to you we’ll go through a process of working through what is the best way to deliver a tax benefit for companies in the Northern Territory. it’s not the only aspect of the policy. I know you want to focus on that.
SPEERS
I’m just wondering whether you agree with him or not. Do you share his preference?
WONG
...there are a number of other aspects...one of them is looking at how you might encourage greater foreign investment for the northern part of Australia. I think that is a very sensible public policy position. But you know - there were a number of aspects to that policy which were announced”
SPEERS
I just don’t know why you can’t say you share the Prime Minister’s view that the company tax rate should be 20 per cent.
WONG
We’ve said we want a tax benefit for, for companies which invest in the Northern Territory. The Prime Minister has indicated - you know - his preference and I’ve said there is a five-year process which the Prime Minister has also spoken about to take - to work out how that is to be delivered and how you’d offset that.

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Indonesia can turn back the boats - but only ones with Australians

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (5:42pm)

Indonesia can turn back some boats - but of Australians, not Iranians:

The Indonesian Military has been ordered to be prepared to intercept the journey of two boats carrying pro-West Papua independence activists from Australia, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto said on Sunday.
So it can be done.
Maybe Australia should try it. Maybe Indonesia could help.
UPDATE
One of Michael Smith’s readers on Christmas Island counts the latest number of boat people arriving, despite Kevin Rudd’s threats and ads: 388 on three boats in 24 hours.
That’s more people in a day than have so far been sent to Manus under Rudd’s scheme. 

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Essential Poll - 50/50

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (4:45pm)

The latest Essential Media poll, on the other hand, says the contest is 50-50. 

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Abbott nice to mothers, nasty to bosses and taxpayers

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (4:24pm)

Judith Sloan on Tony Abbott’s promise to pay working mothers up to $75,000 each in salary replacement over six months for having a baby:

There will be no requirement that mothers return to work, just as with the current scheme. And for those women who fail the work test before giving birth, there is now virtually no assistance from the taxpayer. It’s one rule for working mums, another for non-working ones.
The compliance costs will be considerable. What evidence will be required to establish replacement earnings? How will the self-employed be treated? What about workers on commission? Or with multiple jobs? The scope for rorting is obvious and preventing it will cost money.
This is absurdly generous welfare that will be rorted sideways and force many employers to leave jobs open for six months until finally hearing a new mother isn’t returning after all.
This is a mistake.
UPDATE
I suspect even Abbott now realises he was too exuberant in embracing a scheme that helped to counter his supposed “woman problem”. But he did not dare to compromise this close to an election:
Explaining his passion for the six-month replacement wage scheme yesterday [Abbott] referred to his “convert’s zeal” and a personal journey that has seen him stare down mounting dissent.
The campaign within the Coalition by social conservatives (largely the Nationals) and others ideologically opposed to “big government” calling for the scheme to be dumped has comprehensively failed.
Those who had accepted the Opposition Leader would not dump his signature policy had hoped he would at least tame it and scale it back.
But yesterday’s announcement proved that for Abbott the big-ticket policy is at the centre of the personal and political story he wants to sell - namely that he is a changed man who has adapted to the social times.
That is no basis for determining how governments spend taxpayers’ money, and I suspect the same kind of impulse is behind his equally wrong-in-principle and wrong-in-practice promise to make the constitution more fashionably racist by recognising Aboriginal Australians.
Conservatives can only hope that Abbott in government will continue to change as he seems to have over the past decade - not least into a man as careful with the public’s money as he is with his own.
If he doesn’t, there is one other policy Abbott could similarly change - change to (deliberately or sub-consciously) announce his niceness to people determined to believe he has none. I speak, of course, of same sex marriage:

Tony Abbott’s sister has revealed that the Opposition Leader felt “conflicted” about voting in Parliament against marriage equality last year.
Speaking on the ABC’s triple j Hack program, Christine Forster, who is gay, said her brother’s view that marriage is only between a man and a woman is slowly “shifting”…

“Almost every time it comes up, with him you see slight, very small shifts.”

UPDATE
Alan Kohler is rightly astonished that so much is being handed out in welfare, especially to the well-off, and how little is covered by the business levy:

The current scheme of the minimum wage for 18 weeks, introduced in 2011, was designed by the Productivity Commission in 2009, in a 585-page report that followed a long inquiry including public hearings and hundreds of submissions.
Tony Abbott has now made a ‘Captain’s Call’ – a phrase that means a totally unresearched and unsupported pronouncement – that the minimum wage is not enough money and that 18 weeks is not enough time. The Captain’s Call has further decreed that the increase will be funded by a levy on companies with taxable incomes over $5 million.
It looks like the levy will fall short by about $3 billion a year, although we have to wait till the end of the campaign to find out (and I doubt that we’ll really find out much then). 

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Not just a pretty face

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (12:05pm)

Labor and many sanctimonious journalists got that “gaffe” completely wrong, and I suspect voters will decide to put them in their place. In fact, Abbott is so sure of it that he today gave journalists another chance to overreact:



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Someone drove Gillard’s car very silently - for now

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (9:54am)

But you won’t be told until after the election:

THE Information Commissioner has thwarted a bid by Julia Gillard to prevent the release of four confidential documents about whether she breached rules on taxpayer-funded parliamentary entitlements with the use of a car...
The documents, held by the Department of Finance, were sought by The Australian last October under the Freedom of Information Act, after a source described the use of Ms Gillard’s private-plated, taxpayer-funded car in 2006 and 2007 when her partner, Tim Mathieson, was a promoter of hair products in Victoria.
The car was involved in minor accidents, which became the subject of insurance claims for repairs. Ms Gillard was the deputy leader of the opposition at the time…
“The central facts disclosed in the documents are that there may have been an incident of non-compliance with government guidelines on parliamentary entitlements; that (her) office identified this non-compliance; and that (Ms Gillard) took steps to remedy the possible non-compliance,” [the Information Commissioner] said…
The documents will remain unavailable for a further four weeks to give Ms Gillard time to decide whether to escalate the matter as a public hearing by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. 

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Fact-checking AAP’s “gotcha” on Abbott

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (9:08am)

Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer:

THE Liberal party has failed to live up to its promise to put the Australian Greens last on all how-to-vote cards. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promised to ensure the Greens would receive no preferences from the coalition at the federal election and challenged Labor to do the same.
But the Australian Electoral Commission website shows many coalition group voting tickets for the Senate ...do not put the Greens last.
What Abbott actually said:

I have directed the Liberal Party to preference the Greens below Labor in all 150 House of Representatives seats.
(Thanks to reader Gab.) 

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Damn. Is that all?

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (9:04am)

Must try harder to stop this waste and vandalism of our countryside:

About $4 billion in private funding would be sucked away from Australia’s solar power and renewable energy industries over the next three years if the Coalition wins government, confidential data obtained from banks and financial analysts shows.

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Rudd saves the Greens with a deal his team once deplored

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (8:30am)

Labor last year said it had learned that tying itself to the Greens was suicide:
“The Labor Party, particularly in NSW, has been giving the Greens a free pass for far too long,” [NSW Labor secretary Sam Dastyari] says. “We can’t treat them like they are part of our family. They have come to take us for granted.”
He wants Labor to consider stopping preferencing the Greens…
“The Greens have come to take the Labor Party for granted and have assumed we have nowhere to go,” Dastyari laments.
“Consequently they keep taking and have no sense of compromise and no desire to compromise. The truth is that they have put us in a position where sometimes anywhere else would be better with our preferences and that includes even the Coalition.”
Dastyari is now running the marginal seats campaign for Kevin Rudd, who has ditched principle for the sniff of power:

LABOR will preference the Greens in the Senate in all states except Queensland in a deal the ALP hopes will improve Kevin Rudd’s election chances.
Labor figures are furious:
The Victorian ALP is outraged the Greens-Labor agreement effectively blocks officials from negotiating with minor parties, such as Family First, for their lower house preferences to help save the seats of some marginal-seat MPs…
[ALP national vice-president Jane Garrett ], who is a leading voice in Labor nationally to take the fight up to the Greens, told The Australian yesterday that the Greens’ sole mission was to kill the ALP. “I believe that the Greens’ party has been very damaging, not only to the Labor Party but (the nation) more broadly,” she said while outlining her concerns about the federal preferences deal.
“They have made it clear - repeatedly made it clear - that they want to destroy the ALP… (T)hey continue to try to tear us down, which only hurts the implementation of good, progressive policy.”
No wonder they are angry. Labor could have started to destroy the Greens for good, but have now kept their tormenter alive:

The Greens need preferences—particularly since Newspoll has consistently shown their vote well down on its 2010 levels for much of the past three years.
Labor has come riding to the party’s rescue…
Three Greens are up for re-election at the poll: Peter Whish-Wilson in Tasmania, Sarah Hanson-Young in SA and Scott Ludlam in Western Australia.
Hanson-Young is struggling. She and popular local independent Nick Xenophon will battle it out for the state’s sixth senate spot. Even with Labor’s preference decision, she faces an uphill fight. But a tougher preference play from Labor could have guaranteed her fate, and perhaps also ended Ludlam’s career.
The Greens would have been down to seven senators. Some further hardball at the 2016 election—when six of those seven would face election—could see their numbers reduced to two or three.
They would become a fringe grouping. Worse, they would lack official party status and the extra staff and resources that brings. They would be emasculated.

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It’s cuts now or terrible surgery later

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (8:18am)

Maurice Newman, former chairman of the Australian Securities Exchange, warns against falling for a scare campaign against cuts to government spending:

After the 2010 election, prime minister Julia Gillard expanded Kevin Rudd’s agenda. The people-smuggling industry, climate change complex, trade union movement and public service, which expanded by 13,000 full-time positions, enjoyed enhanced patronage at great expense to the wider population.
Indeed, to pay for these ideological flights of fancy, Australians have picked up an open-ended tab currently running at more than $13,000 per person. That’s from zero in six years. For a family of four, this is equivalent to an unwanted debt of more than $52,000 with little tangible to offset for it.
True, ...  Australia’s debt-to-GDP ratio is still low when judged by the standards of near-bankrupt economies. But it is real and growing at a disturbing rate. So far, the government has demonstrated the same nonchalance to debt shown by countries now on the brink…
For those of us who have a passion for excellence, it would be tragic if voters opted for a continuation of the mediocrity, ideological experimentation and policy mistakes of the past six years. All scare and no responsibility may be fine for election campaigns but that won’t do in government. And while some Australians may find state dependency attractive, they should be aware of the brutal withdrawal of state welfare that has occurred in countries further along the dependency road than Australia.

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Marred vision of Abbott

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (8:01am)

How hard it is for a rabid Abbott-hater to admit he misjudged the man:
ABC1’s Insiders yesterday:

Gerard Henderson: The problem with that analysis is that you’re focusing all the time on the Labor Party and Kevin Rudd. Perhaps Tony Abbott’s doing very well.
Megalogenis: No, no. I’m answering the question Barrie asked me about how Kevin Rudd’s shaping up to Keating ...
Henderson: Tony Abbott’s done very well and a lot of the Labor campaign has been driven by advice from people like Bruce Hawker who said that Tony Abbott was unelectable, influenced by people like David Marr who said Australians never wanted, never want, Tony Abbott.
David Marr: I have never once said he is unelectable.
David Marr, The Sydney Morning Herald, December 2, 2009:


A NEW face will now join the black-and-white portraits of Liberal leaders staring down the room. So many hopeful new starts: a dozen leaders from Bob Menzies to Malcolm Turnbull, most of them torn down by their party colleagues. The photographer shouldn’t tarry ... Early in the day I found myself ... behind a National Party senator talking on his mobile phone. “Tony may get up, which personally pleases me,” he said. “But even my mother won’t vote for him.” 
ABC1’s Insiders yesterday:
DAVID Marr: I have always pointed out how unpopular he has been.
Henderson: You said Australians don’t want Tony Abbott.
David Marr, Quarterly Essay:

AUSTRALIA doesn’t want Tony Abbott. We never have.
ABC1’s Insiders yesterday:

HENDERSON: You said Australians don’t want Tony Abbott. On these polls clearly they do if the polls are right.
Marr: At the time I wrote, that was the case. Gerard, why start today with a misrepresentation of that kind: the national polls still say that he is unpopular. 
Deborah Snow, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday:

NEW polling commissioned by Fairfax in four hotly contested Sydney seats shows Tony Abbott trumping Mr Rudd as preferred prime minister. 

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Abbott haters choke on their bile

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (6:21am)

Tim Blair says Labor’s media friends are having trouble coping with their party’s collapse:

To say the least, their reactions aren’t pretty.
ALP speechwriter and Bob Carr confidante Bob Ellis is probably the ultimate study in Labor fandom. In the wake of recent polls, Ellis’s website has become a fury of foul four-letter abuse, strange sexual allegations about Coalition figures and accusations of national treachery.
Ellis is offended on a near-daily basis by what he claims are rigged polling figures. Lately he’s taken to demanding the imprisonment of pollsters, which is an interesting variation on the old theme of shooting the messenger.
And consider these lines from Labor-supporting Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton, who on Saturday presented a piece based on imagined comments from Tony Abbott. “Look at your Wogs and Lebs. They used to run fish shops and kebab joints; these days many of them are going to uni,” Carlton’s version of Abbott said.
In Carlton’s mind, Abbott is also capable of this slur: ‘I’ve come a long way on homosexuals over the years. Although I still wouldn’t want to be in a dunny alone with a homo. But I wouldn’t think of punching them out any more.’’
Ellis and Carlton are relatively mainstream identities. Matters shift from bad to worse on Twitter, where Labor’s more marginal mates are melting down. Excited by Tony Abbott’s mild comment that candidate for Lindsay Fiona Scott had “sex appeal”, Sydney actor and Twitter identity Ashraf Ghebranious wrote this to the opposition leader:

“Well if I cant have sex with your daughters, I am sure Fiona Scott will put out right?”
Actually, Ashraf went quite a bit further, using graphic sexual terms that aren’t even close to being acceptable in this newspaper.
The curious thing is that Twitter leftists tend to fly into total outrage at the slightest suggestion of sexism, but Ghebranious remains a warmly tolerated presence, building a 2000-strong following and frequently chatting with his Labor friends...
What struck me about Carlton’s truly pathetic column - and an effort almost as lame from his paper’s chief editorial writer - is that they are reduced to fabricating comments they clearly wished Abbott had made but won’t. Abbott simply isn’t the boor or idiot they’ve pretended in their vanity, and so they must invent dialogue for him - or project onto him their own savagery.
That’s a clear sign of people who simply cannot deal with reality. And they write for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Yet again, note how a conviction of superior morality licences such people to act viciously themselves.
UPDATE
I really don’t think a man depraved enough to tweet this and this and other sexual attacks on Abbott’s daughter so vile that his account has been suspended should still have his thoughts retweeted and legitimised by a political correspondent of a major network who also doubles a commentator on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast:
image
Yet again, for many it’s not the principle but the side. 

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The dying of the green vote

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (6:17am)

Politics - federal, The green movement
image
THREE weeks to go, but one election result is already in. The green movement has lost, even if the Greens party survives.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon found that out after the Greens asked him to back them over the Liberals in a preference deal.
“The feedback I got was extraordinary,” Xenophon said at the weekend.
“I had several hundred calls saying not to put the Greens above the major parties.” He won’t.
The Liberals have gone further, putting the Greens last on its how-to-vote tickets, with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott calling the party economic vandals.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hasn’t dared do the same, needing Greens preferences to save Labor seats, but he has sworn not to make any power-sharing deal with the Greens as Julia Gillard did before him.
Sure, the Greens party might still get close to its result in the 2010 election, an all-time high of 11.8 per cent of the vote. But polls for months have shown its support around 9 per cent, and if it now lifts it will be because its new bumper sticker causes are about people, not nature. 

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The AFL should charge, not blackmail. Else give up

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (6:10am)

image
THE AFL’s pressure on Essendon is becoming scandalous, and not just because the team now plays like beaten men.
Far worse are reported attempts to make the club confess to alleged crimes the AFL seems unable to prove. 

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Labor plummets to 46-54 - and it could get much worse

Andrew Bolt August 19 2013 (5:33am)

So far Labor’s overall poll support has been relatively good under Kevin Rudd. The real problem has been in the marginal seats, where the Coalition has been much stronger.
But now Labor’s national vote is falling too, as the Rudd’s sugar hit fades fast:

VOTER support for Kevin Rudd has sunk to its lowest level on record, leaving Labor headed for a large election loss with Tony Abbott now virtually equal as preferred prime minister…
Labor’s primary vote, at 34 per cent, is now at its lowest level since Mr Rudd removed Julia Gillard as prime minister and the Coalition’s primary vote of 47 per cent is at its highest during the same time.
Primary support for the Greens dropped from 11 per cent to 9 per cent…
On a two-party-preferred basis, based on preference flows at the 2010 election, Labor’s support has dropped two percentage points, to 46 per cent, and the Coalition’s support has risen to 54 per cent.
And I think it could get even worse for Labor over the next three weeks. Nothing in Rudd’s campaign suggests he has any petrol left. He has no more fresh policies, he has outstayed his welcome, his energy is down and Abbott has turned Labor’s fear campaign against it, characterising it correctly and successfully as desperation.
This could become a complete disaster.
Rudd is a man whose success has been built on portraying him as sunny, confident and completely on top of all the details. But now the screen has been pulled to reveal the real Wizard of Aus - frazzled, uncertain and rabbiting on about what he barely knows what while standing on a smoking ruin.
My tip: Abbott to win a majority of 30. That means Rudd’s return would have saved Labor maybe a dozen seats, making it worth the gamble - just.
But two things: Rudd was shockingly underprepared for a return he plotted for over three years. Even I’ve been surprised and his supporters must be shocked. Where are the policies? Where is this “new” Rudd they were promised?
Second, Rudd has - as I warned three weeks ago - actually made it harder for Labor to win the election after this one. He’s trashed any moral standing the party still had over boat people and climate change in particular by proposing a harsh (if unworkable) PNG solution and promising (albeit falsely) to “terminate” the carbon tax.
And a caveat: three weeks of campaigning could of course make my prediction look too hasty. But it’s more likely that Labor will perform worse than there is that it will perform better. It will get more desperate, and probably more divided. Rudd does not seem healthy and is campaigning particularly badly. Many voters now still backing Labor had under Julia Gillard decided to vote Liberal - and may be easy to shift back to their earlier decision.
UPDATE
Former Labor speechwriter Troy Bramston and his Labor briefers seem to me too hopeful:
Labor’s polling shows it slipped behind to 47-53 per cent on a national two-party-preferred basis last week but is now lifting again. Having recalibrated its national campaign and confident that its local campaigns are as strong as they can be, Labor insiders know that in the end it is up to Rudd to lift the party back into a competitive position.
Bramston and Labor see hope in Labor striking preference deals with the crazier parties - ones with policies to drive the country broke:

In what could prove to be a decisive move in several Queensland marginal seats, Labor will give its second preferences to Bob Katter’s Australia Party but preference the Greens in all other states and in the two territories.
In return, KAP will preference Labor in key seats it needs to win government.
And remember Rudd claiming he had ”zero tolerance for corruption”?
Here’s another Labor deal, showing the party prefers a Craig Thomson (who claims he’s innocent of all charges of misusing union members’ money) to four cleanskins, including the Liberal:
THE ALP will put Craig Thomson ahead of four candidates including the Liberal on its how-to-vote card for the NSW seat of Dobell, eschewing the opportunity seized by the Coalition to take a moral stand and preference the scandal-plagued independent MP behind the major parties…
The Australian can reveal that the Liberals, in an electorally risky move, will preference the Labor candidate for Dobell, Emma McBride, ahead of Mr Thomson on the Liberal how-to-vote card.
Labor has completely lost its moral bearings.
UPDATE
Rudd once insisted ”this sort of reckless spending must stop”. Two weeks ago Rudd promised ”an end to wall-to-wall negativity”.
Now Labor is pinning its hopes on a massive negative scare campaign to demonise Abbott and any attempt to restrain Labor’s out-of-control spending:

Aired from Sunday night, the high rotation TV ad has the slogan “If he wins, you lose” set against a close-up picture of the Opposition Leader in suit and blue tie.
The ads, which claim that an Abbott government would cut 12,000 jobs, feature the lights going out on families and builds on the theme of “cuts, cuts, cuts” being pushed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his campaigning across the country last week…
A senior Labor source said the message from the party’s first round of ads about cuts had started to gain traction…
“We’ve been picking up a point a night. By the middle of the week we think the complexion of this election will be different, much closer,” an ALP source said.
This from the party which on the eve of the election admitted the Budget had blown out by $33 billion, the economy was slowing and another 80,000 Australians would lose their jobs over the next year.
And note the lies - like Abbott allegedly planning to cut “billions” from schools.
Still, for a negative and deceitful ad, it’s reasonably effective. 

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Holly Sarah Nguyen
My help [cometh] from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. Psalm 121

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new lights on bay bridge span looks pretty good
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max brenner hijabs

On Saturday August 17th, the Palestine Action Group held a protest against Max Brenner at Parramatta.
According to Shirlee, there was a whole lot of fail on display, but the most priceless fail was undoubtedly this:

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4 her
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A former student of mine has opened a shop in Vietnam ..
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Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly. I don't feel an OHS study could adequately cover this kind of misadventure - edCanberra man inserts 10cm fork in penis
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riot

Rioting surf fans rampaged through Huntington Beach on July 29 and tore the place apart.
Hundreds brawled, looted shops, trashed property and clashed with police. Several officers and people received minor injuries.
Last week, after scouring video of the disturbance, the Huntington Beach Police Department posted photos of 25 suspects on Facebook and asked for the public's help identifying them.
Two days after the photos were posted, a friend of Luis Enrique Rodriguez, 18, of Anaheim tagged him in the comments of one photo, LAist reports.
Rodriguez responded by liking the post and sharing it on Facebook.
"Mr. Rodriguez, apparently proud of his actions, "liked" the Huntington Beach Police Department's picture #15 and shared it with his friends, which was noticed by numerous fans of our Facebook page and a series of tips leading to his identification," the police posted.
They say that made it pretty easy to track him down.
Anaheim Police Department have now arrested Rodriguez and charged him with vandalism.
He's accused of writing "**** the pigs" on police squad cars.
There's another photo of him on his Facebook profile that features him sitting on top of a squad car that same day.

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Allyson Christy.
US concern? How hypocritical. Perhaps the US ought offer an explanation of that hypocrisy to the many other terror victims' families who painfully watched the killers of their loved ones recently released amid US pressure to appease the PA.

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No hope .. but more money! - ed

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Our friend Parnelli Jones celebrated his birthday and the 50th anniversary celebration of his epic Indy 500 win. And he graciously shared his celebration (and cake) in little ol' Wasilla with Trig after a caribou hunt earlier that day! We had such a fun time with this amazing American whose accomplishments are ingrained in our memories and even our hopes for tomorrow. We were honored to share this day with him. Fellow motorheads and productive capitalists know what I mean. His work ethic must be emulated. Bless Parnelli Jones and the Greatest Generation.

- Sarah Palin
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Cory Bernardi.
It's about time a Federal government worked co-operatively with the states to fight crime. A coalition government is set to do exactly that. 
More at CoryBernardi.com

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ObamaCare is so awful that you can get punished just for getting married.

Check out how here: http://bit.ly/19CpsTW
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Pastor Rick Warren
You're on the road to healing when you can thank God for what you're learning from a painful experience.

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Hope is looking up - ed
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negative spin by those who oppose fracking
here we have a study showing the economic benefits and how a lot of the loony envro nazis have overblown the enviro effects.>===

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Baera - Ireland
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YouTube superstars ‪#‎Nigahiga‬ @peterchao‪#‎DevinGraham‬ ‪#‎Passion‬ ‪#‎peterchao‬ ‪#‎higaholics‬@devinsupertramp @therealryanhiga @notryanhiga ‪#‎instagood‬ ‪#‎tweegram‬ ‪#‎instadaily‬‪#‎asian‬ ‪#‎dude‬ ‪#‎igers‬ ‪#‎igdaily‬ ‪#‎love‬ ‪#‎youtube‬‪#‎vidinc‬ #2013 ‪#‎picoftheday‬ ‪#‎pictureoftheday‬
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What is more outrageous than releasing one murderer?
26 “prisoners” went home to a hero’s welcome and official greetings over night, in case you missed the list of “political prisoners”
Warning: reading the following should be upsetting, very upsetting.
But at the end, as comfort my friends, see a new video produced by a young man who spent time in Israel.
Guess that is what we do, keep on creating and making music in spite of what seems impossible to comprehend.
Fayez Khur: Aged 51, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On May 10, 1983, he murdered Menahem Dadon in the Gaza Strip, and was involved in the murder of Salomon Abukasis in the Gaza Strip on February 14, 1983. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Salah Mugdad: Aged 47, a Fatah activist from Kfar Bracha in Samaria in the West Bank. On June 14, 1993, he murdered Israel Tenenbaum, a guard at the Sirens Hotel in Netanya. Sentenced to life imprisonment, which was then commuted to a 32-year sentence.
Samir Na’neesh: Aged 46, a Fatah activist from Nablus in the West Bank. On February 14, 1989 he murdered a soldier, Binyamin Meisner, by throwing a building block at him in the Kasbah in Nablus. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Yusef Irshaid: Aged 45, a Fatah activist from Jenin in the West Bank. On June 15, 1992, he took part in the murder of a Druze Israeli citizen, Mufid Cana’an. In the years 1991-92 he took part in the murder of three Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel. He also planned a car bomb attack in Afula and made attempts to kidnap a soldier. Sentenced to five life imprisonments.
Mustafa al-Haj: Aged 45, a Fatah activist from Brukin in the West Bank. On June 17, 1989, he stabbed Steven Frederick Rosenfeld to death with a knife close to Ariel. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Salameh Musleh: Aged 44, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On May 20, 1991, he took part in the murder of Reuven David in Petach Tikva, when he and his accomplice beat him to death. Sentenced to life imprisonment, which was then commuted to a 30-year sentence.
Atiyeh abu Musa: Aged 42, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On March 29, 1993, he murdered Isaac Rotenberg with an axe on a building site in Bat Yam. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Salah Mukled: Aged 40, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On March 29, 1993, he stabbed Yeshayahu Deutsch to death with a knife in the hothouses of Kfar Yam. In that same year, he also carried out shooting attacks. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mohemed Sawalha: Aged 40, a Fatah activist from the village of Azmut in West Bank. On December 2, 1990, he took part in a stabbing on a bus in Ramat Gan, in which Baruch Heisler was murdered and three other passengers were injured. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Atef Sha’ath: Aged 49, a Popular Front activist from the Gaza Strip. He collaborated in the murder of Simcha Levy on March 12, 1993. Sentenced to 29 years imprisonment.
Yusef Abed al-Al: Aged 42, a Popular Front activist from the Gaza Strip. On April 18, 1993, he took part in the murder of Ian Feinberg in the Gaza Strip. On July 3, 1993, he murdered a Palestinian who was suspected of collaboration. Sentenced to 22 years imprisonment.
Midhat Barbakh: Aged 38, a Popular Front and Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On January 21, 1994, he stabbed his employer, Moshe Beker, a citrus grower from Rishon Letzion, killing him. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Ali Rai: Aged 56, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On January 21, 1994, he murdered Morris Eizenstat in Kfar Saba. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mohamed Nashbat: Aged 52, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On September 20, 1990, he took part in the stoning and lynch of a soldier, Amnon Pomerantz, in al Burej in the Gaza Strip. Sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
Samir Murtaji: Aged 42, a Hamas activist from the Gaza Strip. In the years 1993-94, he murdered four Palestinians who were suspected of collaboration. He was also involved in kidnapping other Palestinians suspected of collaboration. Sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Hosni Sawalha: Aged 39, a Fatah activist from Azmut, a village in the West Bank. He took part in a stabbing on a bus in Ramat Gan on December 2, 1990, in which Baruch Heisler was murdered and three other passengers were injured. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Faraj Rimahi: Aged 48, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. Murdered Avraham Kinsler on June 6, 1992 and planned to murder more Israeli citizens. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Ala Eddin Abu Sitteh: Aged 43, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On December 31, 1993, he took part in the murder of Haim Weizman and David Dadi in Ramle. After stabbing them both to death with knives, the murderers desecrated their victims’ bodies. Sentenced to two life imprisonments.
Ayman Abu Sitteh: Aged 42, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On December 31, 1993, he took part in the murder of Haim Weizman and David Dadi in Ramle. After stabbing them both to death with knives, the murderers desecrated their victims’ bodies. Sentenced to two life imprisonments.
Esmat Mansour: Aged 36, a Democratic Front activist from Deir Jarir, a village in the West Bank. On October 29, 1993, he aided the terrorist cell that murdered Haim Mizrahi in a chicken farm in Beit El. He led the murderers to a hiding place behind the chicken coops, brought rope to tie up the victim and helped them load the dead body into the trunk of the car. Sentenced to 22 years imprisonment.
Khaled Asakreh: Aged 41, a Fatah activist from Rafida, a village in the West Bank. On April 29, 1991, he murdered Annie Ley, a French tourist in Bethlehem. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Nihad Jundiyeh: Aged 40, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On July 14 1989, he took part in the murder of Zalman Shlein in Gan Yavne. During questioning, he admitted to planning two more attacks that were not carried out: a stabbing in Gan Yavne and forcing a bus off a cliff. Sentenced to 25.5 years imprisonment.
Mohamed Hamdiyeh: Aged 41, a Fatah activist from the Gaza Strip. On July 14, 1989 he took part in the murder of Zalman Shlein in Gan Yavne. Sentenced to 25.5 years imprisonment.
Jamil Abed al-Nabi: Aged 50, a Hamas activist from the Hebron area in the West Bank. He was involved in planning and carrying out the shooting in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron that occurred on October 25, 1992. In the attack, an IDF soldier, Shmuel Gersh, was killed and another soldier wounded. Sentenced to 21 years imprisonment.
Taher Zaboud: an Islamic Jihad activist from Silat al Harithiya, a village in the West Bank. He took part in a shooting that occurred on September 22, 1992 near the settlement Gadish. He was also involved in an unsuccessful attempt to murder a police officer in Umm al-Fahm. Sentenced to 21 years imprisonment.
Borhan Sabiah: Aged 42, a Fatah activist from Rai, a village in the West Bank. He was convicted of murdering six suspected collaborators. Sentenced to six life imprisonments.
Now, Comfort My Friend


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오사렘
On the phone to the ATO- 'if you are enquiring about natural disasters, please press 5'. Wtf?

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MAN RULES

AT LAST A GUY HAS TAKEN THE TIME TO WRITE THIS ALL DOWN
FINALLY, the guys' side of the story. ( I MUST ADMIT, IT'S PRETTY GOOD.)

WE ALWAYS HEAR 'THE RULES' FROM THE FEMALE SIDE
NOW HERE ARE THE RULES FROM THE MALE SIDE

THESE ARE OUR RULES!

PLEASE NOTE. THESE ARE ALL NUMBERED #1 ON PURPOSE!

1. MEN ARE NOT MIND READERS.

1. LEARN TO WORK THE TOILET SEAT. YOU'RE A BIG GIRL. IF IT'S UP, PUT IT DOWN. WE NEED IT UP, YOU NEED IT DOWN. YOU DON'T HEAR US COMPLAINING ABOUT YOU LEAVING IT DOWN.

1. CRYING IS BLACKMAIL.

1. ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT. LET US BE CLEAR ON THIS ONE:

SUBTLE HINTS DO NOT WORK!
STRONG HINTS DO NOT WORK!
OBVIOUS HINTS DO NOT WORK!
JUST SAY IT!

1. YES AND NO ARE PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE ANSWERS TO ALMOST EVERY QUESTION.

1.. COME TO US WITH A PROBLEM ONLY IF YOU WANT HELP SOLVING IT. THAT'S WHAT WE DO. SYMPATHY IS WHAT YOUR GIRLFRIENDS ARE FOR.

1. ANYTHING WE SAID 6 MONTHS AGO IS INADMISSIBLE IN AN ARGUMENT. IN FACT, ALL COMMENTS BECOME NULL AND VOID AFTER 7 DAYS.

1. IF YOU THINK YOU'RE FAT, YOU PROBABLY ARE. DON'T ASK US.

1. IF SOMETHING WE SAID CAN BE INTERPRETED TWO WAYS AND ONE OF THE WAYS MAKES YOU SAD OR ANGRY, WE MEANT THE OTHER ONE.

1. YOU CAN EITHER ASK US TO DO SOMETHING OR TELL US HOW YOU WANT IT DONE. NOT BOTH.
IF YOU ALREADY KNOW BEST HOW TO DO IT, JUST DO IT YOURSELF.

1. WHENEVER POSSIBLE, PLEASE SAY WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY DURING COMMERCIALS.

1. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DID NOT NEED DIRECTIONS AND NEITHER DO WE...

1. ALL MEN SEE IN ONLY 16 COLORS, LIKE WINDOWS DEFAULT SETTINGS..
PEACH, FOR EXAMPLE, IS A FRUIT, NOT A COLOR. PUMPKIN IS ALSO A FRUIT. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MAUVE IS.

1. IF WE ASK WHAT IS WRONG AND YOU SAY 'NOTHING,' WE WILL ACT LIKE NOTHING'S WRONG. WE KNOW YOU ARE LYING, BUT IT IS JUST NOT WORTH THE HASSLE.

1. IF YOU ASK A QUESTION YOU DON'T WANT AN ANSWER TO, EXPECT AN ANSWER YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR..

1. WHEN WE HAVE TO GO SOMEWHERE, ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING YOU WEAR IS FINE...REALLY.

1.. DON'T ASK US WHAT WE'RE THINKING ABOUT UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED TO DISCUSS SUCH TOPICS AS FOOTBALL OR MOTOR SPORTS.

1. YOU HAVE ENOUGH CLOTHES.

1 .. YOU HAVE TOO MANY SHOES.

1. I AM IN SHAPE. ROUND IS A SHAPE!

1.. THANK YOU FOR READING THIS. YES, I KNOW, I HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE COUCH TONIGHT.. BUT DID YOU KNOW MEN REALLY DON'T MIND THAT? IT'S LIKE CAMPING...

PASS THIS TO AS MANY MEN AS YOU CAN - TO GIVE THEM A LAUGH...
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THIS DAY IN HOLOCAUST HISTORY, 1943: The process of destroying the evidence of mass murder that took place at Babi Yar, a suburb of Kiev in the Soviet Ukraine, began. Jewish and Soviet prisoners were set to work, unearthing thousands of bodies and burning them in huge pyres. The Jewish prisoners attended to the horrible task knowing that they too would be shot and burned at the end they tried an escape. During attempt to hide the evidence of genocide, 311 out of 325 Jewish and Soviet prisoners would be killed in their break-out attempt.

Babi Yar: Jews (including babies) were rounded up and shot before being pushed into the ravine, Their dignity stripped from them..

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/babiyar.html
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4 her
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Below350.org
Headline from 1969
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John Howard
Tonight Christopher Pyne launched the campaign for Kevin Ekendahl, Liberal for Melbourne Ports. Help spread the message and make Kevin a great local member!

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August 19: Feast of the Transfiguration (Julian calendar);Independence Day in Afghanistan (1919)
Venus Anadyomene, Pompeii wall art

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Events[edit source | editbeta]

Births[edit source | editbeta]

Deaths[edit source | editbeta]

Holidays and observances[edit source | editbeta]


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“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house."
Jeremiah 51:51
In this account the faces of the Lord's people were covered with shame, for it was a terrible thing that men should intrude into the Holy Place reserved for the priests alone. Everywhere about us we see like cause for sorrow. How many ungodly men are now educating with the view of entering into the ministry! What a crying sin is that solemn lie by which our whole population is nominally comprehended in a National Church! How fearful it is that ordinances should be pressed upon the unconverted, and that among the more enlightened churches of our land there should be such laxity of discipline. If the thousands who will read this portion shall all take this matter before the Lord Jesus this day, he will interfere and avert the evil which else will come upon his Church. To adulterate the Church is to pollute a well, to pour water upon fire, to sow a fertile field with stones. May we all have grace to maintain in our own proper way the purity of the Church, as being an assembly of believers, and not a nation, an unsaved community of unconverted men.
Our zeal must, however, begin at home. Let us examine ourselves as to our right to eat at the Lord's table. Let us see to it that we have on our wedding garment, lest we ourselves be intruders in the Lord's sanctuaries. Many are called, but few are chosen; the way is narrow, and the gate is strait. O for grace to come to Jesus aright, with the faith of God's elect. He who smote Uzzah for touching the ark is very jealous of his two ordinances; as a true believer I may approach them freely, as an alien I must not touch them lest I die. Heart searching is the duty of all who are baptized or come to the Lord's table. "Search me, O God, and know my way, try me and know my heart."

Evening

"And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not."
Mark 15:23
A golden truth is couched in the fact that the Saviour put the myrrhed wine-cup from his lips. On the heights of heaven the Son of God stood of old, and as he looked down upon our globe he measured the long descent to the utmost depths of human misery; he cast up the sum total of all the agonies which expiation would require, and abated not a jot. He solemnly determined that to offer a sufficient atoning sacrifice he must go the whole way, from the highest to the lowest, from the throne of highest glory to the cross of deepest woe. This myrrhed cup, with its soporific influence, would have stayed him within a little of the utmost limit of misery, therefore he refused it. He would not stop short of all he had undertaken to suffer for his people. Ah, how many of us have pined after reliefs to our grief which would have been injurious to us! Reader, did you never pray for a discharge from hard service or suffering with a petulant and wilful eagerness? Providence has taken from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke. Say, Christian, if it had been said, "If you so desire it, that loved one of yours shall live, but God will be dishonoured," could you have put away the temptation, and said, "Thy will be done"? Oh, it is sweet to be able to say, "My Lord, if for other reasons I need not suffer, yet if I can honour thee more by suffering, and if the loss of my earthly all will bring thee glory, then so let it be. I refuse the comfort, if it comes in the way of thine honour." O that we thus walked more in the footsteps of our Lord, cheerfully enduring trial for his sake, promptly and willingly putting away the thought of self and comfort when it would interfere with our finishing the work which he has given us to do. Great grace is needed, but great grace is provided.
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Today's reading: Psalm 100-102, 1 Corinthians 1 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 100-102

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations....

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 1

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving
4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way-with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge- 6God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord...
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Ishmael

[Ĭsh'mael] - god heareth.
1. The son of Abraham, by Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian maid. Ishmael was born when Abraham was eighty-six years of age, and was circumcised when he was thirteen years of age, along with his father and his servants. He received the divine promise that he would beget twelve princes and become a great nation. He died at the age of 137 (Gen. 16:11-16; 17:18-26; 25:9-17; 28:9; 36:3). Ishmael was the founder of the tribal family called Ishmaelites, sometimes referred to as Midianites ( Gen. 37:25-28).

The Man Who Became an Outcast

Ishmael, who was some fourteen years older than Isaac, was not his father's heir and did not share his father's property. Abraham was tenderly attached to Ishmael (Gen. 17:18), and the casting out of the boy and his mother by Sarah was a great grief to Abraham. Such a hard transaction was necessary to keep the inheritance unbroken for Isaac's possession. "To thee will I give it" (Gal. 3:16; 4:30 ). Ishmael's name is a monument of God's goodness in answering prayer. "God shall hear." What did He hear? He heard the moaning of Hagar's broken heart. God said concerning Ishmael: "I will make him a great nation" (Gen. 21:18).
The names of Ishmael's twelve sons have been preserved but there is no record of any good they achieved (Gen. 25:13-16).
Paul tells us that the record of Hagar and Ishmael is an allegory (Gal. 4:24 ). Hagar and Sarah represent two covenants - Jewish and Christian. Hagar represents the law, and Ishmael, because he was born of the bond woman, typifies those who are under the law. Isaac, because of his super-natural birth, represents those born anew by the Spirit of God.
The casting out of Ishmael has been productive of bitter fruit, surviving in the religion of Mohammed. The wild hearts beat on in the bosoms of those who form the Arab world. Little did Sarah know, when she persuaded Abraham to take Hagar that she was originating a rivalry which has run in the keenest strife through the ages, and which oceans of blood have not stopped.
The Moslem Arabs claim descent from Ishmael. Ishmael's mother and wife were Egyptian, which differentiates them from pure Hebrew. Arabian tribes springing from Ishmael are scattered throughout the Arabian peninsula. When Ishmael received his name, the Lord said that he would be "a wild man," or "a wild-ass man" as the Hebrew expresses it.
2. An ancestor of Zebadiah who was one of Jehoshaphat's judicial officers (2 Chron. 19:11).
3. A Son of Azer and a descendant of Saul through Jonathan (1 Chron. 8:38; 9:44).
4. A son of Jehohanan and one of the military officers associated with Jehoiada in the revolution to raise Joash to the throne (2 Chron. 23:1).
5. A son of Pashbur and one of the priests persuaded by Ezra to put away his foreign wife (Ezra 10:22).
6. A son of Nethaniah, a member of the royal house of David who took part in the murder of Gedaliah. His vile conduct and character are fully described by Jeremiah (40:8-16; 41).
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