Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Wed Nov 6th Todays News

Babylon 5 was written by Joe Michael Straczynski. JMS wrote a few years ago about a basic premise of story telling. Two threads run through an episode as thesis and antithesis, leading to synthesis. Watching Blue Bloods this morning, I was struck as a policeman kills a guy who suicides by cop, calling the police to his location and waving a gun at school kids. The second thread involves the NY Mayor not testifying at a trial, he is witness for, in an election year. In the first thread, the cop is troubled after he killed the suicide. Why would a person do that? But in thread analysis, there is humor .. people want the Mayor to lie before an election, and not commit suicide politically. This feeds into analysis of the US President .. voters want him to lie .. but want the media to pursue it .. they want the chase, not a political suicide. I feel the hardest thing Israel can do .. and the best course for her atm, is to do nothing, because she is not being given good alternatives. I can't see a better alternative to Netanyahu in the Israeli parliament. This isn't to say criticism of him is wrong. But it does suggest it is overstated. Netanyahu must not commit political suicide. 
Over a million dollars had been spent, a few years ago, rehabilitating a horse with a broken leg. It took months. When it was over, the horse was led from the pool in which it had been standing .. tripped on some moss, broke a leg, and was put down. One day there will be rehabilitation options for race horses. But it is easier to put a man on the moon. But, what can be done with Obama. If he were a race horse .. 
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Karen Chu, Dave Imms and Stacy Host. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
Matches
Despatches
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Sneering Lefties love to hate Abbott

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, November 05, 2013 (7:30pm)

THE sneering foulness of the Left is bubbling up like overflow from an unblocked sewer at the realisation the Abbott government is here to stay.
From Jonathan Biggins’ cri de coeur playing at the Wharf Theatre, to the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Opera House, to the live audience of the ABC’s Q&A, lefties are suffering an existential crisis.
The letters page of the SMH is exploding with rage. Refugee advocate Julian Burnside has found his vicious tongue. Student protesters - suddenly enraged about cuts brought in by Labor - burn effigies of Tony Abbott.
Welcome back to the Howard years, those glory days when the Left laid claim to the moral high ground.
Much of the baggage Labor brought with it into office, and which eventually brought it down, was filled with progressive fancies. The last six years was an uncomfortable time for lefties as their wishes were granted by government (hello open borders, hello carbon tax).
None of it turned out well, but they now pretend it wasn’t the ideas that were the problem. Not that they want to think too hard because they’re too busy revelling in victimhood, post-election.
A selection from the Fairfax letters pages shows their fighting spirit: “Abbott’s neo-idiocrasy”; “Climate change deniers and coalminers will be dancing in the streets with Abbott”; “This is what happens when you send a boy to do a woman’s work”; “Please, Tony Abbott, couldn’t I just say an ‘Our Father’ and 10 ‘Hail Marys’?”; “Can we be sure it was The Lodge and not Rome he has been aiming for?”
Oh, yes, Abbott is worse even than Howard. He’s Catholic!
Herewith, some tales from the frontline.
At the Wharf Theatre on Monday night the chattering classes wallowed in the rueful melancholy of Whoops - The Wharf Revue. The mystery is that: “Abbott (deficient of faculty) delights not many … And yet he rules.”
In one skit “the last surviving Q&A panel”, including Bob Ellis and Marieke Hardy, cower as the Abbott forces storm the citadels of culture. Amid the sound of exploding ordnance, a football falls at their feet: “Oh no! Eddie McGuire is closer than we think.”
Yuk yuk. The barbarians are through the gate.
In another skit, Abbott is played as a lip-smacking Neanderthal: “a smug Catholic knob … a blokey bloke not worth two bob” whose only skill is producing “soundbites of unrelenting negativity”.
The same theme was taken up by the real Q&A on ABC TV later that night.
“For me the biggest mystery is that Tony Abbott is a Rhodes Scholar,” sneered Germaine Greer to howls of laughter from the audience.
The program was a classic in the genre of conservative-bashing.
The cleverest person on the panel was British conservative columnist Peter Hitchens, eloquently arguing against same-sex marriage, and other totemic issues of progressives. Or trying to.
He could barely complete a sentence without being interrupted by Greer, American homosexual activist Dan Savage (whose “dangerous idea” is making abortion mandatory for 30 years), and Hanna Rosin, author of The End Of Men.
Tony Jones gave all free rein - except Hitchens.
“I’m stopping you,” Jones told Hitchens.
“Don’t stop me … I haven’t finished my answer,” protested Hitchens. “You haven’t stopped anyone else.”
It’s always the way.
The audience is as bad. “It’s a rally,” Hitchens told them, waiting to speak over applause for a Savage interjection. “While you do this I can’t talk, and you know it, and that’s to your shame because silencing opponents is a very wicked thing to do.”
He even told his fellow panellists they were “fantastically intolerant”.
“This is the absolute seedbed of totalitarianism. When you start believing that the opinions of other people are a pathology then you are in the beginning of the stage that leads to the secret police and the gulag.”
Yes, it is true that Abbott has won the election. But conservatives have never yet won the culture war.
When Labor is in office, the Left do their work, quietly, inside the corridors of power, to change the nature of the country. The curriculum, the universities, the ABC, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the National Museum of Australia. They do it for posterity.
When conservatives are in power, they keep busy fixing the economy, controlling the borders, maybe switching off a money tap or two at the ABC.
But they are too polite to seize the narrative of history. In the culture wars it’s always two steps forward for the Left. The best conservatives have ever managed is to maintain the status quo.
When conservatives are in power, the Left make merry mischief. They bully and bluster and fill every cultural space.
Which is why, for all their moaning, they haven’t been this excited for years. 
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ONE RELIGION IS ENOUGH

Tim Blair – Wednesday, November 06, 2013 (12:19pm)

John Howard’s complete speech to the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
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DIVERSE DISASTERS

Tim Blair – Wednesday, November 06, 2013 (2:18am)

In Africa, plane wreckage. In Detroit, boat wreckage. In Western Australia, political wreckage.
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THE BIG QUESTION

Tim Blair – Wednesday, November 06, 2013 (2:13am)

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HOPE AND CHANGE … ESPECIALLY CHANGE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, November 06, 2013 (2:04am)

President Barack Obama told his enthusiastic supporters Monday night that he never promised what video recordings show him promising at least 29 times.
The videos show Obama promising 300 million Americans that “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan, period.”
But that’s not what he really said, Obama announced Monday … 
It sounds bad, but it looks even worse. Here’s the Big O telling big lies:



And here’s the US President this week in full-on used car dealer weasel mode:



At least Nixon made an effort.
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SLOANE RE-ARRANGER

Tim Blair – Wednesday, November 06, 2013 (1:14am)

After ten years of happy marriage, Daily Telegraph columnist and TV presenter Kellie Connolly is returning to her original name. Big decision for someone with a media identity.
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Abbott-hating Age complains of newspaper bias

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (7:25pm)

Media

On The Age website:
EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Rudd’s repeated claims of systematic anti-Labor bias in his treatment by News Corporation newspapers ahead of the September election were fuelled by an independent assessment of media reporting commissioned by the Labor Party.

On my website:
EXCLUSIVE: Tony Abbott’s private claims of systematic anti-Liberal bias in his treatment by Fairfax newspapers after the September election are fuelled by an independent assessment of media reporting commissioned by the An drew Bolt blog.
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An Age of AbbotAbbottAbbott hatred

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (5:32pm)


This morning The Age featured this crock of hate-Abbott story from a former Rudd staffer:
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This afternoon, it presents another hate-Abbott story, beating up some quotes from another predictable source:

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Tony Abbott should be careful. If he actually did anything wrong - like, say, breaking fundamental election promises on a carbon tax - The Age might blow a gasket.
So a challenge: guess tomorrow’s Age lead. Julian Burnside attacks “cruel” Abbott? Assange blasts Abbott secrecy?
Go your hardest…  
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Abbott says he can deliver conservatives. This conservative says he can’t

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (3:40pm)


Paul Kelly is briefed by Tony Abbott on his plans to change the constitution to recognise Aboriginal Australians:
Abbott is convinced that a conservative PM is in a far superior position to carry this change because he can deliver the conservative side of politics.
I’m equally convinced that Abbott cannot deliver the conservative side of politics on this racist proposal. Indeed, I will do my damndest to prove it, and know of others - both in the Liberal Party and out - who feel the same way.
Abbott risks splitting his party on a proposal that would institutionalise racism and do not the slightest practical good. I hope very much that he thinks better of this before real damage is done. 
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Q&A shows the triumph of the Ignoble Savage

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (9:56am)


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Q&A showed the triumph of the modern barbarian, best personified on the night by American activist and hypocrite Dan Savage.
British journalist Peter Hitchens, the lone conservative of the five on stage, noted the moment:

PETER HITCHENS: I know that you people have won. All that I seek to do…
DAN SAVAGE: Which is why you have to be gay married now and do drugs now with the rest of us.
PETER HITCHENS: No, all I seek to do is to tell the truth about you and what you want while it’s still allowed to do so because you are so fantastically intolerant.
TONY JONES: Now, Peter, I’ve got to interrupt. What do you mean when you say “you people”?
PETER HITCHENS: I mean the cultural revolution. I mean the cultural and moral revolution which has swept the western world since the collapse of Christianity.
DAN SAVAGE: I’m not intolerant.
Dan insists “I’m not intolerant”, but the truth soon outs.
DAN SAVAGE: You’re paranoid and you’re projecting by saying we are intolerant. You have…
PETER HITCHENS: See, this is the intolerance. Because I hold an opinion different from his, he has become suddenly a qualified psychoanalyst who can tell me – who can tell me that my opinions which I am entitled to hold.
DAN SAVAGE: You’re entitled to your opinions. You’re not entitled to your smears.
PETER HITCHENS: But are a pathology. And this is the absolute seed bed of totalitarianism. When you start believing that the opinions of other people are a pathology, then you are in the beginning…
DAN SAVAGE: You’re the one standing there pathologising other people’s choices.
PETER HITCHENS: ...in the beginning of the stage that leads to the secret police and the Gulags.
DAN SAVAGE: You are the one sitting there saying that society is sick and damaged because other people are now free as white men used to be.
PETER HITCHENS: You’ll have the whole world to yourself soon. You can’t imagine anybody else is entitled to hold a view different from yours without having some kind of personal defect. That’s what’s wrong with you.
And then this:
DAN SAVAGE: ... It’s a less intolerant world than it used to be because people like me are now empowered to look at people like you and say you are full of shit.
And this:
LISA MALOUF: Which so-called dangerous idea do you each think would have the greatest potential to change the world for the better if where implemented?…
DAN SAVAGE: Population control. There’s too many goddamn people on the planet. And I don’t know if that’s a – you know, I’m pro-choice. I believe that women should have the right to control their bodies. Sometimes in my darker moments I am anti-choice. I think abortion should be mandatory for about 30 years.
Dan “I’m not intolerant” Savage’s earlier contributions to a kinder, more tolerant world:

During the Republican primary in 2000, Savage traveled to Iowa and became a campaign volunteer for [Republican] Gary Bauer. During the trip, Savage became sick—"I had the flu in a big way"—and decided to use his illness as a bioweapon against Bauer and his staff. He boasts:

I went from doorknob to doorknob. They were filthy, no doubt, but there wasn’t time to find a rag to spit on. My immune system wasn’t all it should be—I was in the grip of the worst flu I had ever had—but I was on a mission. If for some reason I didn’t manage to get a pen from my mouth to Gary’s hands, I wanted to seed his office with germs, get as many of his people sick as I could, and hopefully one of them would infect the candidate.
So, much as it pains me to confirm a hateful stereotype of gay men—we will put anything in our mouths— I started licking doorknobs. The front door, office doors, even a bathroom door. When that was done, I started in on the staplers, phones and computer keyboards. Then I stood in the kitchen and licked the rims of all the clean coffee cups drying in the rack. 
More contributions from Dan “I’m not intolerant” Savage:

Carl Romanelli [of the Greens Party] should be dragged behind a pickup truck until there’s nothing left but the rope…
Any progressive who votes for a Green anymore after Nader and now Romanelli is a f...ing idiot and should be beaten with sticks....
If Carl Romanelli gets back on the ballot, someone should run him over with a truck.
Savage is indeed a savage, and the Q&A audience cheered him loudest and longest.   
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Being Aboriginal is not a disadvantage. The New Racism, however….

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (9:47am)


This intersection between the New Racism and the old victim politics is hurting the very people the advocates claim to support:

BEING born Aborigine should be a cause for pride but NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli fears the automatic label of disadvantage attached to indigenous students interferes with efforts to instil high expectations and achievement in students…
Mr Piccoli, the minister responsible for educating the largest number of Aboriginal students in the nation, said the ... focus on low-performing students to lift school improvement had some “unintended consequences”.
“Aboriginality is listed as a disadvantage in and of itself. We can’t, and I can’t, keep saying in effect that being born Aboriginal is a disadvantage,” he said…

“We need an exit strategy from this language."…
Mr Piccoli told The Australian he was making the distinction that Aboriginal people faced disadvantages in their lives but being Aboriginal was not in itself a disadvantage.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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The ABC is of the Left. It is a deceit to claim this is false or irrelevant

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (9:11am)


Former Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes, a Leftist like every one of the shows’ seven hosts, hears it finally from someone he’s obliged to treat seriously:
The occasion was an all-day Public Knowledge Forum put on by Sydney University’s United States Studies Centre. The topic was the changing face of modern journalism. My fellow panellists were foreign policy guru, blogger and all-round egghead Walter Russell Mead; and academic, media contrarian, blogger and tweeter extraordinaire, Jay Rosen of New York University.
Both made this point: what many of us think of as the ‘’new journalism’’ - the opinionated, argumentative, passionate and unpredictable world of the blogosphere - is actually old journalism in modern clothes…

Rosen contrasts that with what he calls ‘’new testament journalism’’: the more staid, more professional, more ‘’responsible’’ journalism of the great newspaper chains and broadcasters, which claims to publish the ‘’objective’’ truth…
In a recent and fascinating online exchange, Greenwald ... [said]: ‘’This model rests on a false conceit. Human beings are not objectivity-driven machines. We all intrinsically perceive and process the world through subjective prisms. What is the value in pretending otherwise?‘’
Holmes still can’t believe it. Not really:

Well, it’s a familiar enough meme, these days, and there’s a lot of truth to the critique. But, as I pointed out, the public broadcasters ... are legally bound to pursue the holy grail of unbiased reporting, however chimerical it may be. The ABC Act enjoins the ABC’s board ‘’to ensure that the gathering and presentation by the corporation of news and information is accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism’’.
But what else but bias - or a “subjective prism” - could explain some of the absurd rulings even by the ABC’s “Fact Check” unit?
But don’t say that to a Sydney University crowd:

To Kissel, [impartial journalism] is self-evidently a hopeless ambition, as well as an absurd one. Indeed, state-backed broadcasters in a democracy are ‘’an oxymoronic concept par excellence’’. But when she made a similar point in the forum, a discernible mutter of protest rolled through the audience. She tweeted later:
‘’Fascinating that my critique of @ABCAustralia received the biggest rise out of the crowd at #pkf13. Does no one here question it?’’
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Three reasons this Abbott hater just projects a prejudice. UPDATE: What the Age didn’t disclose

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (8:22am)


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Raoul Heinrichs, of the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, tells Fairfax readers exactly what they’d like to hear and Fairfax editors what they’d love to promote - that their Rhodes scholar prime minister is actually just a bumbling fool:
Even allowing for inexperience, the Abbott government appears to be setting a new standard for diplomatic ineptitude. The Prime Minister in particular has lurched from one mistake to another, with each episode more ham-fisted than the last.
Three cases illustrate the point.
When the Prime Minister left for Indonesia on his first overseas visit, he had a clear set of objectives. He needed agreement on one of three approaches designed to ‘’stop the boats’’… Abbott returned from his trip humbled and empty-handed. While the episode had been a disaster, he was spared the full embarrassment. A still-fawning press bought the distracting spin.
I think the only spin is Heinrichs’. Three cases illustrate the point.
One:

A group of 44 asylum seekers have been taken to a port in Java after being rescued by an Australian navy vessel in the Sunda Strait… A spokesman for the Indonesian search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, said the asylum seekers were picked up by HMAS Ballarat before being transferred to a coast guard vessel last night…
Also on Friday, the Australian Customs Vessel Triton saved 34 asylum seekers off the coast of Rote Island and transferred them on Saturday morning to the Indonesian rescue agency Basarnas.
Two:

When Rudd went begging to Yudhoyono for his help to stop the boats he himself had lured by, as Yudhoyono put it, putting “sugar on the table” he was fobbed off with yet another round of talks with countries from Iran to New Zealand. Those talks predictably went nowhere…
But when Abbott came calling Yudhoyono immediately promised him the one-on-one deal - Indonesia and Australia - critical to stopping the boats.
“Indonesia has striven to overcome this issue, but it would be much better if the co-operation was at the bilateral level,” Yudhoyono announced. Even Fairfax newspapers had to admit this was a “significant concession”.
Three:
Indonesia will offer to step up naval patrols in the ocean between Java and Australia in an attempt to combat people smuggling, a government spokesman has said…
Agus Barnas, a spokesman for [the chairman of Indonesia’s people smuggling taskforce], ... said Indonesia would offer Mr Morrison to “maximise our navy patrols in the south sea, because normally we don’t have that many ships there, because there has been no threat from the south”.
“But now we will intensify the sea patrols because these asylum seekers are trying to go south,” he said.
And now?

During last month, Lieutenant General Campbell said, five boats were intercepted carrying 339 “illegal maritime arrivals” but there were no arrivals in the week to yesterday morning. 
But Heinrichs is determined to see bumbling where there’s been success. On he ploughs:
Abbott’s second diplomatic imbroglio is likely to have more far-reaching consequences. It was to announce a one-year deadline on reaching a free trade agreement with China. On the surface, this might seem sensible… A deadline was intended to convey the government’s commitment to that goal and to building economic relations with China at a time when political relations are set to become increasingly difficult.
In fact, announcing a deadline was a blunder of the first order.... By injecting artificial urgency, the Prime Minister has pulled the rug from under his own trade negotiators and handed China a massive bargaining advantage. Abbott can’t back out of the deal or the deadline, except at significant political cost to himself, and the Chinese know it.
So what Abbott did “might seem sensible” but is a “blunder of the first order” because of what Heinrichs not only assumes China will do, but what he assumes Abbott will then foolishly agree to.
This is not proving Abbott is a bungler. This is just Heinrichs assuming he will be. Heinrichs is just begging the question.
Third example?
The government’s most serious foreign policy mistake so far, however, has been its embrace of schoolyard diplomacy. Both Abbott and Bishop have repeatedly, and unnecessarily, gone out of their way to describe Japan as ‘’Australia’s best friend in Asia’’.
At one level, this just sounds a bit desperate. Announcing hierarchies in our diplomatic relationships serves little purpose beyond aggravating China by highlighting its subordinate place in Australian thinking. It’s also inaccurate. Indeed, if friendship is a two-way street, and if Japan really is our best friend in Asia, why has Tokyo not publicly reciprocated the sentiment?
The more concerning aspect about this kind of language, however, is what it portends in future. Open declarations of affection for Japan appear intended to soften the ground for the resurrection of one of two unfinished Howard-era initiatives: a more comprehensive defence alliance with Japan, or participation in an alliance of democracies. Neither would serve Australia’s interests. Both are thinly veiled attempts at edging Australia into a more confrontational posture towards China, which is the the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
Pardon? Japan is not our best friend in Asia because it doesn’t say the same of us?  First, how does a failure to repeat a pledge of special friendship prove that friendship does not exist? Second, if if Japan did not regard Australia in turn as its best friend in Asia, how does that prove Japan isn’t ours? Third, who, then, would Heinrichs suggest is a better friend?
But the more fundamental flaw in Heinrichs’ claim is that he assumes merely expressing close friendship with a fellow democracy means Abbott could next be edged into a “more confrontational posture towards China”?
Where’s the evidence that Abbott would agree to that? Even if we did find ourselves one day confronting China, how can Heinrichs assume that was a blunder on Abbott’s part - and one he’d been “edged into” by Japan, rather than in defence of our national interests?
Again, Heinrichs is just assuming a clumsiness he is meant to be proving.
And this rates as Abbott’s worst of many blunders in foreign policy?
Heinrichs strikes me as a man who wants to believe Abbott is a fool, writing for people who want to believe it, too, and searching for any small twig to build their nest of prejudices.
UPDATE
Reader George:
From his bio: ”Raoul worked on foreign and security policy in the office of then Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd.”
Well, knock me over....
Why didn’t The Age disclose that to its readers? 
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What kind of judges produce “odd results”?

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (8:17am)


No comment, but no surprise at one detail revealed by Janet Albrechtsen:

Last week, enough judges on our High Court did their bit to bring this [entitlement] madness to an end. In Comcare v PVYW, four of the seven High Court judges decided that a female public servant, travelling for work, could not claim damages from her employer when a light fitting was pulled from the wall during a night of sex in a motel room. The woman wanted damages for physical injuries to her face and for what she claimed was post-traumatic stress syndrome following the sex-induced accident. The court said the employer was not liable for this mishap as having sex in the motel room was not “induced or encouraged” by her employer. In fact, the four majority judges made their consternation with the Federal Court’s decision obvious. “These are odd results,” said Chief Justice Robert French and judges Kenneth Hayne, Susan Crennan and Susan Kiefel. Translation: the Federal Court’s decision was dumb…
And it’s too bad that taxpayers had to fund a long and expensive journey to our highest court to set aside ridiculous decisions of judges at the Federal Court.
While the woman’s claim for damages incurred during sex were rejected by sensible tribunal members on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, it is telling that on two occasions the Federal Court decided that the employer was liable for the sexual misadventures of an employee. At first instance, Federal Court judge John Nicholas and on appeal, ex-Federal Court chief justice Patrick Keane and fellow judges John Buchanan and Mordecai Bromberg all decided that the woman was entitled to damages and the employer must pay up.
Apart from decisions such as this reigniting questions about the quality of judges at the Federal Court, the history of this case shows how deeply embedded the entitlement psyche has become.
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We still have friends in Indonesia, but only a year to be sure of them

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (8:01am)


Indonesia’s foreign minister may speak excellent English but strikes me as a man far too keen to prove he’s actually a red-hot nationalist. Or is he just the bad cop to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, beating up the “scandal” of our alleged spying on Indonesia? 
Greg Sheridan:

IT is ridiculous to imagine the Indonesian government is surprised by the news Australian intelligence agencies, in co-operation with US counterparts, intercept some of their phone calls and digital communications.
Indonesia itself has formidable intelligence agencies that are not exclusively directed at domestic targets…
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa seems to be putting things at their worst when he threatens to review co-operation on counter-terrorism and people-smuggling, and demands what he knows is impossible: an Australian promise never to spy on Indonesia again.
Natalegawa, whom I have previously always regarded as a consummate diplomat and a friend of Australia, seems to be taking too much pleasure in having a go at us lately. His recent action in releasing a record of a confidential conversation between himself and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was inexplicable and a gross breach of diplomatic protocol.
All this may reflect the intense nationalism that still animates much of Indonesian politics and public life.
Sheridan is right to believe this issue won’t stop Indonesian cooperation with the Abbott Government - at least under Yudhoyono, whose term ends next year. All the more reason for the Abbott Government to do all it humanly can to get Indonesian help in stopping the boats now, before next year’s election and a new president. Natalegawa’s positioning suggests that he, at least, expects the future to be bright for nationalists who poke a stick at Australians.
But there is one question Bishop might wish to gently suggest to Natalegawa. Can he in turn rule out Indonesia spying on Australia and its officials? 
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Howard admits he caved in on global warming, not from conviction but fear

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (7:27am)


Labor has often quoted former prime minister John Howard against Tony Abbott in defending a carbon tax. Here is Julia Gillard, for instance: 
“That’s an aim I share with (former Liberal Prime Minister) John Howard and (current Liberal front bencher) Malcolm Turnbull - an emissions trading scheme for our nation’s future,” said the Prime Minister.
I don’t think Labor will be quoting Howard any long after his speech last night, when he suggested what was always obvious - he backed emissions trading not from conviction but for expendiency:
FORMER PM John Howard thinks there’ll never be a worldwide climate change agreement and admits he only backed emissions trading before the 2007 election because he faced a “perfect storm” on the issue.

...he now says that was because by late 2006 his government hit a “perfect storm” with on-going drought, severe water restrictions, bushfires and the release of the Stern Review and Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth.
“To put it bluntly, ‘doing something’ about global warming gathered strong political momentum in Australia,” Mr Howard said in his written lecture…
But six years on, Australia’s second-longest serving prime minister insists the high tide of public support for “over-zealous action” on global warming has passed.
Howard’s desperate cave-in in 2007 legitimised the great scare without saving the Howard Government from defeat. Worse, it created nothing but trouble for the Liberals in Opposition as leader Brendan Nelson tried to row back from Howard’s position, only to fall to a challenge from warmist Malcolm Turnbull, who then took the party to where few Liberal members wanted to go.
Howard should apologise to his party. He did not act like a conviction politician in one of the most critical battles for our economy and for our reason.
But now, at least, he lets rip - and good on him:

Tuesday night’s speech was titled “One religion is enough”.
In notes for the speech distributed beforehand, Mr Howard said he chose the title “in reaction to the sanctimonious tone employed by so many of those who advocate … costly responses to what they see as irrefutable evidence that the world’s climate faces catastrophe."…
“The ground is thick with rent-seekers. There are plenty of people around who want access to public money in the name of saving the planet."…
He accused the IPCC of including “nakedly political agendas” in its advice…
Mr Howard also criticised “zealous advocates of action of global warming” and “alarmists” for attempting to exploit the NSW bushfires in October.
He pointed out that a big bushfire in Victoria took place 163 years ago, “when the planet was not experiencing any global warming. You might well describe all of this as an inconvenient truth"…
Speaking in London ahead of the speech, Mr Howard said climate change activists saw the issue as a substitute religion - “it’s the latest progressive cause,” he said…
“I am unconvinced that catastrophe is around the corner… I instinctively feel that some of the claims are exaggerated.” 
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Obama’s useful idiots in the media defend his useful lie

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (7:00am)


How many times did Barack Obama make that false claim?
Time after time, before and after the law went into effect, President Obama and his aides have promised that people who liked their current health insurance would be able to keep it under the Affordable Care Act.
“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period,” Obama said in a speech to the American Medical Association on June 15, 2009. “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”
The president and his people have repeated variations on this pledge countless times. 
Indeed he did:
The thing is, he wasn’t telling the truth:

So imagine the surprise of many Americans last week when they received notices that their health insurance policies were being canceled.
Right from the start, Obama’s team knew this was a lie, but approved it:
One former senior administration official said that as the law was being crafted by the White House and lawmakers, some White House policy advisers objected to the breadth of Mr. Obama’s “keep your plan” promise. They were overruled by political aides, the former official said. The White House said it was unaware of the objections.
Some aides believed that the (inadequate) grandfather clause was enough to make Obama’s assurance true enough, but the White House clearly didn’t want to confuse people with the full story of the disruptions that would occur under the law. “Simplification and ease of explanation were a premium, and that was true throughout the process,” former speechwriter Jon Favreau told the paper.
Now Obama is lying about the lying:

Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed.
So it is so very useful to Obama to have a Leftist paper like the New York Times spin for him, calling a lie something nicer:
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Misspoke? As in accidentally used the wrong words?
The New York Times is a disgrace. It lies to defend a lie by a liar who now lies about it, too. 
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What Gai did next

Andrew Bolt November 06 2013 (6:47am)


Who can predict their future? Did this actress in Dr Who (arrowed) know that the real stage she’d grace was not in any theatre but at Flemington, as the first Australian woman to train a Melbourne Cup winner?

image

Her competing interests were laid out in a TV Week interview of the time:
“There’s a disadvantage being the daughter of a well-known and extremely successful man. People tend to look at you as a little rich girl sitting on her daddy’s knee and playing at acting. I take myself seriously and I take my career seriously. I get offended when other people don’t take me seriously.”
Asked whether she would like to follow in her father’s footsteps Gai is quoted:
“Yes, in a way. I’ve ridden track work, helped a little in the office, raced horses, clocked them, but I have no aspirations to train. It’s very hard to follow a genius.”
UPDATE
Thanks to the many readers who corrected me. The first Australian woman. 
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Like two bald radio men fighting over a comb

Andrew Bolt November 05 2013 (2:42pm)


This was already the most stupid ad for a radio network in living memory:
image
Or put it another way: the ABC is just like Fairfax radio, except without those annoying ads. (I wonder how Ross, John and Neil of 3AW feel about being sold as ABC-type radio hosts.)
Going for that ABC audience was never a winning strategy, and even less so when it meant dumping or losing some of Fairfax radio’s best talent in Sydney’s 2UE and Brisbane’s 4BC.
And today some confirmation:
Fairfax Radio Network’s troubled talk station 2UE has become the lowest rating commercial station in Sydney, new numbers released today by Nielsen show …
The only stations in Sydney to fare worse the 2UE were from the ABC including Radio National and ABC News Radio.
(Actually 2CH is even worse.) 
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How to erase yourself from the Internet
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/11/05/how-to-erase-yourself-from-internet/?intcmp=obnetwork
The Internet is both Heaven and Hell.
Big brother, I'll do a deal on the books? ed
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Jaimie Alexander wears one of the most revealing dresses ever to 'Thor' premiere
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/11/05/jaimie-alexander-sheer-dress-thor-premiere/?intcmp=features
All eyes were on the star, (and her fantastic figure!
jaimie-alexander-thor-premiere-fashion-ftr
I thought I Thor a .. ed
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Sarah Palin
ng to the Faith & Freedom Coalition in Iowa this Saturday and launching the tour for my new book coming out next week! It's time to STAND UP, America, and declare good tidings & great joy! It's to our nation's detriment if we shy away from this battle & let the PC police win!>

See this article:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/05/hundreds-will-protest-islam-lovefest-history-textbook-foisted-on-high-school-students/
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In a two-part exclusive, Cleveland kidnapping victim Michelle Knight breaks her silence to reveal the story of what happened inside Ariel Castro’s house of horrors. http://bit.ly/DrP110513
#DrPhil
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Giant firework penis lights up the night sky in Glasgow; residents love it
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/giant-firework-penis-lights-up-the-night-sky-in-glasgow-residents-love-it/story-fnjpja3r-1226753770827
EVERYBODY likes a happy ending. Especially when it involves fireworks.
The ACT behemoth might find a home .. ? ed
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http://www.news.com.au/technology/asias-richest-man-li-ka-shing-invests-in-facebook-app-bitstrips/story-e6frfrnr-1226753860845
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Current Gallery on all Photographs

Please click on below link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/307958525882739/photos/

Jewellery & Gemstone Gallery

Colour your world with gemstones !

A Gallery of Jewellery, Diamond News,Gems & Gemology promoted bywww.diamondimports.com.au
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Aw .. our Nat is giving away ID piccies .. ed
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/feeling-the-heat-on-climate/story-e6frg6z6-1226753740807#
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The High Country 

...taken last summer up in the Sierra mountains.
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File:Smb5-s4.jpg
I was talking about Babylon 5 to Ty Tyrell recently, which was written by Joe Michael Straczynski. JMS wrote a few years ago about a basic premise of story telling. Two threads run through an episode as thesis and antithesis, leading to synthesis. Watching Blue Bloods this morning, I was struck as a policeman kills a guy who suicides by cop, calling the police to his location and waving a gun at school kids. The second thread involves the NY Mayor not testifying at a trial he is witness to in an election year. In the first thread, the cop is troubled after he killed the suicide. Why would a person do that? But in thread analysis, it is humorous .. people want the Mayor to lie before an election, and not commit suicide politically. This feeds into analysis of the US President .. voters want him to lie .. but want the media to pursue it .. they want the chase, not a political suicide. - ed
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Three bikini baristas arrested at Washington espresso stand
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/30/21253054-three-bikini-baristas-arrested-at-washington-espresso-stand?lite=obnetwork
Three scantily dressed baristas were arrested Wednesday at an espresso stand in Washington state after public complaints about inappropriate conduct, police said. The three women, who sold coffee drinks at the drive-through Hillbilly Hotties stand along a busy road in Everett, no …
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One religion is enough - The Spectator
http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-features/9071781/one-religion-is-enough/
We are all aware of the climate enthusiasts, who advocate quite substantial, and costly, responses to what they see as irrefutable evidence that the world’s climate faces catastrophe. By employing…
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Stormscapes
http://www.flickr.com/groups/stormscapes/pool/
This group is dedicated to showcasing High Quality Images of the beauty and drama of well structured intense looking storms and clouds, and their shapes which often result from atmospheric instability. This includes Thunderstorms, Lightning storms, Monsoons, Haboobs, Waterspouts, and even non-violen...
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Lenticular Sunset over the Diablo Hills — withMike Oria and John Dejesus at Round Valley Regional Preserve.
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Aprille Love
My loves @amandabaillie @dexevans88#melbournecup #marqueesydney #marquee#moetchandon #vip #amazingnight — withAmanda Baillie.
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Natalie Tran, YouTube Sensation, speaking at the 2013 National Radio Conference in Brisbane Friday 11th October

Copyright Andrew Jarvie Photographywww.andrewjarviephotography.com
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Aprille Love
#moetchandon #marqueesydney #melbournecup@ngulliver @adalberthutter @dexevans88 @amandabaillie
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Timothy Ly
Men's meating going down pho real! — with Ty Tyrell, Wayne Pham, Nathan Boyd, Sumer Putrus,David Daniel Ball, Shannon Souksavong, Josh Minnis, Rivera Siana and Binh Nguyen.
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Roma Downey
When you plant a seed of love, it is You that blossoms...
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French Rioting to Dump the Euro
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/11/03/French-Rioting-to-Dump-the-Euro
French riot police fired water cannons and tear gas at 30,000 truckers, farmers, fishermen, and food industry workers waving banners of “Right to Work” and hurling rocks and iron bars at police to protest a new “ecotax” on commercial trucking over the weekend.
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"If you like the plan you're on, you can keep it?"
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Edu-Kingdom Bankstown
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Climate Change LIES
The 17-year pause in global warming is likely to last into the 2030s and the Arctic sea ice has already started to recover, according to new research.


A paper in the peer-reviewed journal Climate Dynamics – by Professor Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr Marcia Wyatt – amounts to a stunning challenge to climate science orthodoxy.


Not only does it explain the unexpected pause, it suggests that the scientific majority – whose views are represented by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – have underestimated the role of natural cycles and exaggerated that of greenhouse gases.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2485772/Global-warming-pause-20-years-Arctic-sea-ice-started-recover.html#ixzz2jkT0OhC0
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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CrossFit Chipping Norton
Something amazing this morning at this morning's CrossFit Kids class, every one of the kids who finished already, helping to cheer on young Brendan to finish the WOD 'Annie'.

It's not just about moving and getting fit but creating an environment of support, motivation and encouragement for each other and it's great to see this attitude being instilled in our next generation, it doesn't matter if you finish first or last as long as you have a go! 
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President Putin signs law requiring terrorists’ relatives to pay for damages
http://rt.com/politics/putin-law-relatives-terrorists-166/
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that forces relatives of terrorists to pay for damages caused by their attacks. It also boosts penalties for launching, participating, or financing militant or terrorist groups.
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Sad news coming out of the Melbourne Cup, with confirmation French mare Verema was euthanised after the race. http://bit.ly/1bUgP3v Picture: Twitter/@RacingInsider
Over a million dollars had been spent a few years ago rehabilitating a horse with a broken leg. It took months. When it was over, the horse was led from the pool in which it had been standing .. tripped on some moss, broke a leg, and was put down. - ed
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Aprille Love
Got my bake on. Vanilla and blueberry protein muffins. #proteinmuffins #organic #glutenfree#vanilla #blueberry #wifey
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Post by I like trains.

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4 her
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Only In Israel – Deaf Hatikva – Israellycool
http://www.israellycool.com/2013/10/13/only-in-israel-deaf-hatikva/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Israellycool+%28Israellycool%29
The soldiers (who are not deaf) asked to be taught to sign the Hatikva national anthem.
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Sultana Rivkah Davda
Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi

A person can choose any facet which needs fixing, although some take priority as they are central and of essence because of their tremendous impact on improving ones overall spiritual state (for example, Torah study for men, modesty for women, being in a Torah environment, coming close to and honoring Rabbis, keeping kosher, observing Shabbat and the like). In fact, the choice is personal and greatly varies from one individual to another. Each person should examine himself and determine which are the personal and important areas that need improvement for his spiritual growth.
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Six Days in October
http://www.aish.com/jw/id/Six-Days-in-October.html
Nineteen years ago Nachshon Wachsman was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
<While burying his young son, Yehuda Wachsman was worried that his death might have brought about a crisis of faith amongst the hundreds of thousands who had prayed for his safe rescue. Just like a father cannot always give a child everything he wants, Yehuda explained, so God our Father cannot always give us what we most want.
Our prayers did not go unanswered, he explained, but this time, for reasons we humans cannot understand, the answer was “no.” But those millions of prayers uttered during the last week on his son’s behalf, were not in vain, nor were the tears shed pointlessly. Tears are never wasted. We don’t know when God will use them to save another soul.
How many times since that tragic, unforgettable week have I quoted Yehuda Wachsman’s words, often to myself? No we don’t always get what we pray for. We may not know if what we want is really the best for us. But, like Yehuda Wachsman who accepted the ultimate ‘no,’ we have to accept that we don’t make that final decision.>
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Israpundit » Blog Archive
Israpundit
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/63590688
This article points out the current attempts to wipe out Jewish history from Jerusalem but then shows it wasn't always so. Ted Belman The Latest in Islamic Revisionism By Joe Herring & Dr. Mark Christian, AMERICAN THINKER While the concept of a historically non-Jewish Jerusalem is increasing in popularity among the anti-Semitic left, it remains curious that 
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Brain Drain Rains on Israel's Plain
http://newsblaze.com/story/20131012094015nurg.nb/topstory.html#sthash.AULJ4jz0.gbpl
Israel needs stockpile of, not drain brain power.
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BREAKING NEWS: FAIRFAX reports "independent" study commissioned by LABOR shows News Ltd "bias" against LABOR.

Hahahahahahaha.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/news-corp-bias-against-kevin-rudd-showed-up-in-independent-study-diary-reveals-20131106-2x1ig.html
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The moral of the story: no lone drinking if you're single.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/cheerleader-effect-why-people-are-more-beautiful-in-groups/281119/
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Andy Trieu
Chilled out night with @lachlancosgrove @timomatictheone
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The Palestinian Authority is a Terror Entity
http://newsblaze.com/story/20131012141319nurg.nb/topstory.html
Isn't the government of Israel's policy is not to negotiate with terrorist?
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Dennis Prager: Conservative Parents, Left-Wing Children
http://jewishworldreview.com/1113/prager110513.php3#.UnoZ96Xlpa9
Dennis Prager
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013
Why Most of the Mass Media Can't Report Honestly on Israel—or Other Middle East Issues
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2013/11/04/why-most-of-the-mass-media-cant-report-honestly-on-israel-or-other-middle-east-issues/
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"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apparently believes the greatest threat the country now faces is an escalated European trade war. He’s wrong. The greatest threat we are now facing is a national leadership that cannot get its arms around changing strategic realities.

Over the weekend, Yediot Aharonot reported that during Secretary of State John Kerry’s seven-hour meeting in Rome last week with Netanyahu, Kerry warned that the price for walking away from the talks with the PLO will be European economic strangulation of Israel." - Caroline B. Glick
It’s time to reassess Israel’s strategic assumptions
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Its-time-to-reassess-Israels-strategic-assumptions-330602
All of Obama’s second term foreign policy goals are harmful to Israel. Everything that is good for Obama is necessarily bad for Israel.
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The Muslim Brotherhood’s Quest For Global Dominance – An Interview With Adina Kutnicki
http://www.inquisitr.com/1009405/the-muslim-brotherhoods-quest-for-global-dominance-an-interview-with-adina-kutnicki/
The Inqusitr welcomes Israeli journalist Adina Kutnicki for another no-holds barred interview on the Muslim Brotherhood and their efforts to restore the global
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EXPOSED: A LIST OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MAFIA OPERATIVES INSIDE AMERICA. Next Up:Their Linkage To Obam
http://paper.li/allysonchristy/1338794440
MANY alarmed readers have requested a concerted listing of Brotherhood Mafia operatives embedded within the U.S. The naming of names. Well, a running list is in progress at this end. Regrettably, i...
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Why has this position paper not been reported in America and why do Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO feel so emboldened as to make these demands?
Leaked PLO document calls for Israel to self-destruct - Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com
http://allenbwest.com/2013/11/leaked-plo-document-calls-israel-self-destruct/
A new document leaked over the weekend by the PLO reveals there is no chance whatsoever that the current negotiations with Israel will ever lead to peace. No doubt they feel emboldened by Obama's two-faced approach to our best ally.
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Hagel Credits Israel with Bringing Iran to the Table
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173624
"I think that Iran is responding to the constant pressure from Israel, knowing that Israel believes them to be an existential threat.”
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Report: Livni Offering Abbas More than PM Wants
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173627
Open disagreements in negotiations room between Netanyahu's delegate to talks and team head Livni, who is more generous to Palestinians.
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Rabbis: Women's Groups Pushing Out Religious Soldiers from IDF
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173633
Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai preparing new directives that will make service in IDF more difficult for religious soldiers. Rabbis protest.
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Insults, Threats as Arab MKs Disrupt Temple Mount Session
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173589
Debate over law to finally grant Jews the right to pray at their holiest site sparks angry response from Muslim MKs.
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Declare Your Freedom 2.0
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/575175/fblk
The highly acclaimed pro-Israel festival is back and its gonna better than ever, yawl! Featuring Kosha Dillz and other musicians! Food! Activities! Giveaways!
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5
NOVEMBER
2013

Irish Times: Graphically Illustrating Bias

Irish Times Hate

Why report on an anti-Israel organization when you can actively promote it? Free anti-Israel propaganda courtesy of the Irish Times. Read more...

Petition Update: Nearly 30,000 Signatures!

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===
   
 
This Hanukkah, Turn Terror Into Light
 
 Watch how one Israeli artist turns Hamas Rockets into beautiful Hanukkah Menorahs
Watch how one Israeli artist turns Hamas Rockets into Hanukkah Menorahs 		The Sderot Menorah
 Shop for Menorahs

Make this Hanukkah extra special by lighting the Sderot Menorah in your home. Made entirely from kassam rockets that landed in Israel, its intricate detail and beauty are powerful symbols of the endurance of the Jewish People. The Sderot Menorah demonstrates the triumph of good over evil and the light of Israel over the darkness of terror.

Each menorah is hand made by Israeli artist Yaron Bob. His metal art sculptures and menorahs create beauty from ashes and transform objects of war into expressions of peace and hope. In addition, a portion of every purchase will be donated to build bomb shelters and protect the lives the nearly one million residents of Israel living under daily threat of rocket attacks from Gaza. 
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
 
More Products From Kassam Rockets


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Friend, 
You've heard from me a lot about the United Nations Convention for People with Disabilities (CRPD) so if you read one thing from me about this issue, this is the email to read.
This troubling U.N. Treaty is being debated TODAY in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 
If you haven't called your senators to express your opposition to this treaty that threatens our national sovereignty and could interfere with the kind of care we give to our special needs kids, NOW is the time to do it. 
The hearing is happening today so it is top of mind for our U.S. Senators.  Their staff will be tracking how many calls in opposition and how many calls in favor that they get. 
So please call the capitol operator at 202-224-3121 and asked to be connected with the Senator from your state.  Once you get through, tell them to please vote NO on CRPD when it comes to the Senate floor.   Then, call back a second time and ask to speak to your other Senator.
You can also use our convenient email tool to send a letter to your Senators asking them to oppose CRPD.  Click here and you'll be directed to a customizable email that you can personalize and send in less than three minutes. 
CRPD threatens U.S. sovereignty and parental rights, and if ratified, it would effectively put us under international law when it comes to parenting our special needs children. While CRPD may on the surface appear to protect those with disabilities, it actually gives the government the power, with direction from the U.N., to decide what is best for our children.  That is wrong and not something we should see in the United States of America. 
If CRPD were ratified and enforced, it would give the U.N. discretion over decisions about how we educate our special needs kids and could potentially eliminate parental rights for the education of children with disabilities.
Help us defeat this treaty and call your Senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on CRPD.
Keep up the fight, 
Rick Santorum signature 
Rick Santorum
Donate Today button
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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for November 5th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Democrat plant alert in Virginia: Libertarian candidate backed by…Obama bundler

As Virginians head to the polls today, there’s valuable news they should know...

Obama: ‘If you like your plan you can keep it’ was a lie, and that’s why I’ve kept that promise

“If you like your plan you can keep your plan” is fast becoming the lie of the century...

HealthCare.gov & Obamacare: Bringing Americans together

Shortly before the election last year, Bill Clinton claimed that Obama was the candidate with the best plan to “bring America together”...

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Mmm ... kittens.
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Portrait of George Eliot by François D'Albert Durade
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

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“This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.” Romans 13:6 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper."
Isaiah 54:17
This day is notable in English history for two great deliverances wrought by God for us. On this day the plot of the Papists to destroy our Houses of Parliament was discovered, 1605.
"While for our princes they prepare
In caverns deep a burning snare,
He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
And the dark treachery brought to day."
And secondly--today is the anniversary of the landing of King William III, at Torbay, by which the hope of Popish ascendancy was quashed, and religious liberty was secured, 1688.
This day ought to be celebrated, not by the saturnalia of striplings, but by the songs of saints. Our Puritan forefathers most devoutly made it a special time of thanksgiving. There is extant a record of the annual sermons preached by Matthew Henry on this day. Our Protestant feeling, and our love of liberty, should make us regard its anniversary with holy gratitude. Let our hearts and lips exclaim, "We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us the wondrous things which thou didst in their day, and in the old time before them." Thou hast made this nation the home of the gospel; and when the foe has risen against her, thou hast shielded her. Help us to offer repeated songs for repeated deliverances. Grant us more and more a hatred of Antichrist, and hasten on the day of her entire extinction. Till then and ever, we believe the promise, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." Should it not be laid upon the heart of every lover of the gospel of Jesus on this day to plead for the overturning of false doctrines and the extension of divine truth? Would it not be well to search our own hearts, and turn out any of the Popish lumber of self-righteousness which may lie concealed therein?

Evening

"Be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
Psalm 100:4
Our Lord would have all his people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning his blessed person. Jesus is not content that his brethren should think meanly of him; it is his pleasure that his espoused ones should be delighted with his beauty. We are not to regard him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water, but as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing delight. To this end he has revealed himself as the "pearl of great price" in its peerless beauty, as the "bundle of myrrh" in its refreshing fragrance, as the "rose of Sharon" in its lasting perfume, as the "lily" in its spotless purity.
As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is had in beyond the skies, where things are measured by the right standard. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, his unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of him, as they count it their highest honour to veil their faces at his feet. Consider what the blood-washed think of him, as day without night they sing his well deserved praises. High thoughts of Christ will enable us to act consistently with our relations towards him. The more loftily we see Christ enthroned, and the more lowly we are when bowing before the foot of the throne, the more truly shall we be prepared to act our part towards him. Our Lord Jesus desires us to think well of him, that we may submit cheerfully to his authority. High thoughts of him increase our love. Love and esteem go together. Therefore, believer, think much of your Master's excellencies. Study him in his primeval glory, before he took upon himself your nature! Think of the mighty love which drew him from his throne to die upon the cross! Admire him as he conquers all the powers of hell! See him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before him as the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, for only thus will your love to him be what it should.
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Today's reading: Jeremiah 34-36, Hebrews 2 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 34-36

Warning to Zedekiah
1 While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. 3 You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.
4 “‘Yet hear the LORD’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; 5 you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, master!” I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.’”
6 Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 7 while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah....

Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 2

Warning to Pay Attention
1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Jesus Made Fully Human
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
7 You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
8 and put everything under their feet....”
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COUPLESenewsheader-Bibles-Sep2011

Waiting for a Sign

Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped.
Numbers 9:17
So often, married life feels like little more than a series of decisions: Should we buy that house? Is it the right time to start a family? Do we need to save more money for the future? So often, we look to God for some kind of clear answer telling us just what to do.
Early in our marriage, my husband began looking for a job closer to our home. He happened upon a job opening at a social service agency just a few blocks from our apartment. Not only was the job close, but it was the kind of work he was passionate about at the kind of organization he'd wanted to work for. The company was even willing to let him work flexible hours so he could be home with our baby part of the day.
My husband sailed through his interview and was offered the job right away. Before he said yes, we talked briefly about the wisdom of taking the job. As we reviewed the circumstances it seemed that God had dropped this opportunity in his lap. We didn't need to discuss the issue for long. We felt God's leading very clearly.
While wandering through the wilderness, the people of Israel knew when to move and when to stay put because God gave them a sign: if the cloud that covered the tabernacle stayed put, they were to do likewise; when the cloud moved, they were to move. In our situation, we felt that the "cloud" had moved, and that my husband should take the job.
But we don't always get a clear sign from God. There have been many, many times when we have prayed, sought the advice of friends and family, and waited for God to point us in the right direction, only to get . . . nothing. For example, when I was trying to decide whether I should quit my job, I agonized for months with no sense of what God wanted me to do. Where was our sign?
The truth is, God doesn't always move the clouds to show us which way to go. Instead, God asks us to be faithful, to make choices with our lives that honor him. He asks us to get our priorities in order, to turn away from worldly standards of success and achievement and to bend our will to that of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And as we follow his example, walking in his ways, we begin to think more like him. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 : "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will."
We will make our share of mistakes in life decisions. At times, we will undoubtedly go when we should stay and stay when we should go. But the promise that God gives us is that no matter where we go-to a new state, to a new job, to a new stage of family life-our God goes with us.
Carla Barnhill

Let's Talk

  • What choices have we made as a couple? Has there been a time when we've had to step out in faith without a clear sense of what the right choice was? How was God present with us in that uncertain situation?
  • What kind of decision makers are we? What are some ways we can show each other support and respect when we have a difficult decision to make?
  • What people do we trust to help us think through difficult decisions? If we can't think of anyone, maybe we should develop deeper relationships with a few other couples from church.
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NIVCouplesbibleToday's reading is from the
NIV Couple's Devotional Bible
by Zondervan

Designed to help you build your relationship on the one foundation you can count on: God’s Word!


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Once for All-the Template for Christian Stewardship

Today's reading: Hebrews 8:1-10:18
The author of Hebrews explains that the sacrifice Jesus made by offering himself "once for all" (Heb 10:10) was superior to the animal sacrifices and grain offerings that the Levitical priests made in the past. Under the old covenant the Levites offered sacrifices "day after day" (Heb 7:27) on behalf of the people. These gifts had to be offered again and again because they served a symbolic function. They were a "shadow" of what was to come in Christ's great gift (see Heb 8:5). Because the old covenant prefigured the new covenant that would be established permanently by Christ's blood, the gifts and offerings that were made under the law were ineffectual and ultimately unacceptable as payments for sin. Or, as the author of Hebrews puts it, they were not able to "clear the conscience of the worshiper" (Heb 9:9).
The shift from the old to the new covenant brings with it an enormous shift in the way that we are to think about giving. This is because under the old covenant, worshipers gave gifts in anticipation of Christ's sacrifice that would be made "once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin" (Heb 9:26), whereas today Christians give in response to and even "through" Christ's sacrifice that has already been made (seeHeb 13:15; cf. 1Jn 3:16-18). Interestingly, one thing has not changed. Under the old covenant, God gave specific instructions that regulated the way sacrifices were made and to whom they were to be given. In the new covenant, God has given his people instructions about how to give in response to Christ's sacrifice. Hebrews 13:16 tells us that we do this by doing good and sharing with others, "for with such sacrifices God is pleased." Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) weighs in on the kind of sacrifice we are to make.
Let this, therefore, be our rule for generosity and beneficence: We are the stewards of everything God has conferred on us by which we are able to help our neighbor, and are required to render account of our stewardship. Moreover, the only right stewardship is that which is tested by the rule of love ...
And lest perhaps we should not realize that this is the rule for the proper management of all gifts we have received from God, he also in early times applied it to the least gifts of his generosity. For he commanded that the firstfruits be brought to him ... Yet you wish to strive in vain to enrich the Lord by sharing your possessions; since, then, your generosity cannot extend to him, you must, as the prophet says, practice it toward the saints on earth ... And alms are compared to holy sacrifices so as to correspond now to those requirements of the law (Heb 13:16).

Think About It

  • Imagine what life would have been like under the Law. How would you have felt about bringing animals to be sacrificed at the temple?
  • What is your response to Jesus' once-for-all sacrifice?
  • What sacrifices are required of you in response to Jesus' gift?

Pray About It

God, thank you for the sacrificial gift of your Son, Jesus. I praise you and thank you for your great gifts.
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Today's reading is from theNIV Stewardship Study Bible
by Zondervan

Discover the remarkable privilege we have as stewards of God's design for life through the study of Scripture.


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