Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Tue Oct 21st Todays News

A great man passed on this day. Or, as some noted, died. His name is plastered around Australia in lots of locations, some unlikely. He was a little bit shallow in some ways, but he towered for his achievements for which the world should applaud. Some despise him, but that is probably mere partisan politics. He was above that. The great man was Horatio Nelson and he died in 1805 at Trafalgar off the Spanish Coast, near Cadiz. An old chardonnay socialist also died this morning, Gough Whitlam, more about him later.

 To set the scene in 1805, England's greatest sailor was facing near certain death and humiliation off the Spanish coast on the morning. He had a desperate plan that had never worked successfully before. He was faced with a larger force of a combined fleet of Spanish and French fleet, under the command of Pierre-Charles Villeneuve for France and Federico Gravina for Spain. Nelson had 27 ships of the line to 33. Classically, the ships would form in two lines and shoot at each other with broadsides until the fleet with less guns and ships was annihilated or surrendered. But Napoleon had had plans to march his grand army into Britain and if Napoleon's fleet was free, her massive army would easily take London. So Nelson was faced with a battle he couldn't surrender or lose, but couldn't win through conventional means. So Nelson's plan addressed it by promoting the superiority of British ships on one to one combat. Britain had had better ships thanks to her guns having triggers instead of lit wicks for firing, better trained men and copper lined bottoms to her ships. Nelson's desperate plan was to sail his ships directly towards the enemy line in two lines at a right angle. He knew the front two British ships would have to weather about thirty minutes of direct fire from the enemy line, but when the closed, he would be able to fight ship to ship with the centre and vanguard of enemy ships, while the enemy ships in the top of the line would have to turn around an re engage. Nelson had two lines because when the tact had been applied in the past, the concentrated fire on one ship had sunk it and every subsequent one. Two lines, he calculated, would diminish the damage taken to either. Nelson led one line, Cuthbert Collingwood another. Nelson wanted to tell his men he was confiding in them, and he knew they would do their best. But the flag signal man told him he could transmit the message more easily if he substituted a few words. The message, approved by Nelson, is recorded in history and stirring. Instead of Admiral Nelson, the word used was England. Instead of confides, the word used was expects. The message had become "England expects every man will do their duty."

 In battle, the forecastle of Victory (Nelson's ship) had lines of marines. Some six were picked off before he gave instructions that they could break ranks and seek cover. Nelson's secretary was adjacent to him when a cannonball knocked his head in, splashing his brains onto Nelson, who remarked he didn't like the taste and regretted that the secretary would not experience victory. Nelson stood with full assignations on his uniform, including a stunning diamond. Smoke obscured the scene as Victory closed with Redoubtable and a sniper shot from Redoubtable's Mast Nest mortally wounded Nelson. Captain Hardy was on hand, and carried Nelson below deck to see the surgeon. Hardy could have been charged with negligence for deserting his post later. Nelson took some five hours to die. Near death, Hardy returned to report success. Nelson thanked God he had done his duty. Britain had not lost a ship, but captured 21 ships and destroyed another. Napoleon would march his Grand Armee on Moscow later. As a result, England would rule the waves around the world until WW2.

 I dispute that Gough was the worst PM at the time of his death. His abysmal foreign policy is still felt around the world, his debt crisis is still unbalancing the Australian economy and his bad 'reform' of ALP has kept it in the nineteenth century and prevented good people from achieving anything, but Rudd, then Gillard were worse. It is worth listing Gough's achievements. Gough distrusted the US who were allies, and embraced Communist China before Nixon went to negotiate freedoms. He ended conscription and pulled Australia out of Vietnam sooner than high command had planned. That meant when US pulled out in '75 that lots of weapons were left behind that were dangerous for the communist world to have. The threat that Communist Vietnam would sell those weapons to Timor's communist rebels meant Gough gave the nod to Indonesia to invade to prevent those communist Timor rebels from buying and using those weapons. The Timor invasion by Indonesia resulted in the apparently planned deaths of Australian journalists at Balibo by Indonesian special forces, some of whom vie for Indonesian politics today. Gough distrusted Southern Vietnamese who had been supported by the US and spurned their pleas for help. Because of his disastrous spending, Gough needed lots of money and sought to embroil Australia with Iraq. Gough had become leader of a disunited infighting ALP and he took steps to reform it by aligning it more closely with unions and producing the model that cannot be reformed now without disentangling from corrupt union leadership. In Australia, Gough spent unsustainably, and made reckless promises. He promised free education and made it harder for better students to study at university, ultimately making it more expensive for everyone. He promised fair access to health care but delivered a faulty product that needed to be reformed. He politicised the High Court and Governor General's position and created the family court which even today is highly criticised for poor decision making. Gough cared little for those he was responsible for and complained when his holidays were interrupted for disasters, like Cyclone Tracy and the Melbourne floods. Gough was the champion of empty symbolism and claimed to do things he hadn't done, like ending the White Australia Policy. He divided Australia on racial lines by creating a body which has failed to address needs of Aboriginals adequately. Gough felt betrayed by the governor general he appointed and he ruined the man who served faithfully, John Kerr. Gough was patron to notable ALP failures in Keating, Gillard and Clare. He was a charming man who could joke about his megalomania in a pasta advert. On the plus side, he got rid of McMahon as Liberal chief. But he ruined that with Fraser.

 World Series Baseball.
Pixar vs Disney vis San Francisco Giants vs Kansas City Royals. The rivalry is friendly and serious. US politics is dominated by the Presidential elections which have primaries which result in two opposed candidates. The process is pretty good in galvanising support behind each candidate. And so too the World series is an example where the main season is about demonstrating the superiority of each team that has their division. By the end of it, the best team of the season will have won four WSB games against the next best. May the best team win.

 Terrorists
Turkey allows Kurdish reinforcements after obstructing help from going to desperate Kurdish fighters. A 17 year old Australian ran away from home and now preaches hate in favour of ISIL against Mr Abbott. As he is now a terrorist, maybe his school report cards could be released for the public to know what a terrorist spokesperson was like at school.

 AGW Alarmism
Warmists should apologise to Bob Carter who was slammed by AGW alarmist scientists rather than debated. A basic tenet of academia is that anyone can have a good idea, and that ideas can be robustly debated. Instead Carter was smeared and his ideas not debated, but denied. That is anti intellectual which is a character of most AGW alarmism. People suffer from green alarmism. A lot of poor people who get denied what others get because they can't afford it because of Green policy. Greens might have good intentions. 

 Freedom of Speech
Barry Humphries defends Barry Spurr, the Sydney University poet whose privacy was invaded by a left wing magazine who denied him natural justice for saying things the magazine did not agree with. Luckily the NSA does not often behave like that. Celebrating on the ABC what diminishes women as a guest wears a hijab to obscure her face and says she likes it. ABC spreads Peter Carey conspiracy theory that US government dismissed Whitlam, and not the Australian people. Universities embracing freedom? A few universities have stopped terrorists from advancing their noxious claims. Oscar Pistorius got five years maximum for killing his girlfriend on Valentines Day. Oscar's success is not a great moment in freedom of speech, but the judge had determined it wasn't murder, so it must have been personal expression of a person who struggled to say what he meant. 

 Local politics
ABC is too big, dwarfing commercial media. Labor leads in polls which means little at the moment but is a big threat unless addressed. $433000 for each unemployed Aborigine placed in a job by a $1.5 billion ALP policy. I could have done a better job for half that. 

from 2013
The Abbott government is going to have to work hard to reform the economy. Workplace reform is a challenge. Bloated bureaucracy. Hockey is undertaking an audit. Media have patted themselves on the back recently, saying the economy is not that bad despite the abysmal ALP government. The audit will allow Hockey to best direct resources. But vastly increased debt is not a solution. 
Williamson is sorry he was caught embezzling from the poorest workers. But won't pay it back. 
Shorten's leadership foreshadowed as being challenged. He isn't very smart and he is being protected by the press gallery .. for now. But then so were his predecessors. His AGW policy is crippling the party. 
Flannery's conflict of interest not revealed by the ABC because, it was his conflict, not theirs? 
Gore's lie is exposed. Will he return his Nobel Prize? 
Disaster means cash splash? 
Abbott abusers highly lauded by Walkleys. Meanwhile, Abbott volunteers to serve. 
Adam Bandt and ALP's Andrew Leigh the vultures. 
ALP claim the drop in boat numbers is because of ALP policy. 
SMH and LA Times ban warming skeptics .. how is that for debate? 

Corruption at high levels of government is serious. Because I had not thought it had extended so far, I made a private complaint to the NSW Dept of Ed in '94 about a teacher at Campbelltown PAHS who was in the habit of walking into the girls change room of the year 7's and 8's, touched students inappropriately in activity (publicly groping a blond haired girl to illustrate an activity to other year 8 students in front of staff) denying medication to students (asthma inhalers to students who forgot them prior to activity, talking inappropriately to girls on the playground (telling a year 11 girl who was smoking a cigarette she might prefer his dick). I expected nothing to happen. I expected to be pushed aside. I hadn't expected the cover up to include the highest levels of bureaucracy and the then Premier's office. 

The complaint was 'dealt with' after some aggrieved students were interviewed by protection officers after they left school. They apparently told investigators that they did not feel like pursuing the matter. Investigators told me privately that as a result they would have to conclude nothing happened. I pointed out it had smoked my career and pushed me to a few schools and I would have to think twice before reporting again. 
The issue became important because I was working as a boarder tutor at Hurlstone AHS. A control freak who didn't like me because I was fat, who was my immediate supervisor, was having difficulties getting rid of me because I didn't mind doing more than other staff. I was placed on probation for being fat, but after a few terms that was 'forgotten.' I was asked to transfer to the school and offered a President position of LMTA (Liverpool Math Teacher Association) by the incumbent President who was HT Math at Hurlstone. But there was a meeting of Head Teachers Mathematics of Hurlstone AHS and Campbelltown PAHS and the Hurlstone Head changed his mind about wanting me to transfer, or offering me the Presidency. That gave the Welfare HT leverage. Firstly, I was moved from one accommodation place to another. Then my new place was declared unfit for habitation. I was housed in the staff common room which was used by the Olympic Road Traffic Authority as a headquarters. Then I was told my place was repaired, but a guy who was retiring would stay there, I found accommodation off site after a year of being moved around, after three years on site. 

I worked a few casual nights at Hurlstone during the 4th year (having started in '98, I was itinerant in '01). It was as the most senior person on duty that I met Hamidur Rahman over dinner and found out about his peanut allergy. I reported it to the HT Welfare, whom I thought would ignore me, and his boss, the Deputy Principal. Both warned me not to speak publicly about Hamidur's health issue. Both promised staff would be warned about the issue. I stopped working at Hurlstone soon after that, and appealed to the department over the unfair dismissal. 

In 2002, Hamidur died when a PE teacher who had not known of Hamidur's allergy ordered him to lick peanut butter from a spoon as a reward for an activity. The instruction to use peanut butter as a reward had come from the Head Teacher Welfare at a staff meeting when I worked there. Later that year, the Department took action against me, saying I was too fat to teach Mathematics. I was offered early retirement but declined when I was promised a new deal by a new Principal at my day school of Canley Vale HS. 

But harassment did not end there. In '03, I began blogging. In '04, I took long service leave, wrote my autobiography in the hopes of changing career and was treated for Sleep Apnea. In '05 I was contacted by an old school friend who was a legal adviser to the then Premier of NSW and whom I'd asked for advice in '95 about Campbelltown. I shared my autobiography with them. In '06, I was ordered by the Department of Education to stop writing online, and ordered to delete everything. This instruction was given under the auspices of the 2004 Teacher's Code of Conduct my school friend had claimed to have written. 

In '07, I waited until after the state election hoping for a new government, but ALP was reelected. I contacted the new Education Minister, Della Bosca through Tripodi and asked him to consider my issue. I threatened to resign and speak out if my issue was not addressed. The Coroner investigating Hamidur's death had meantime reported the parents had failed to inform the school of his allergy. 

Had the department not bungled the Campbelltown PAHS investigation, Hamidur might well be alive today. 
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This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR

Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Theresa Thutrang Nguyen and Duyz Khalifa. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
1328 – Zhu Yuanzhang (d. 1398)
1687 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1759)
1772 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher (d. 1834)
1833 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize (d. 1896)
1917 – Dizzy Gillespie, American trumpet player, bandleader, and composer (d. 1993)
1922 – Liliane Bettencourt, French businesswoman and philanthropist
1924 – Celia Cruz, Cuban-American singer (d. 2003)
1929 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American author
1940 – Geoff Boycott, English cricketer
1942 – Judith Sheindlin, American judge and television host
1949 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli politician, 9th Prime Minister of Israel
1956 – Carrie Fisher, American actress, screenwriter, and author
1962 – David Campese, Australian rugby player
1995 – Shannon Magrane, American singer
Florence Nightingale
We got the signal. Florence did her best work in bed. The oceans are ours. We have triumphed. We are flying high. Let us party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2014
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GOUGH WHITLAM

Tim Blair – Tuesday, October 21, 2014 (11:13am)

Five-time Labor Prime Ministerial candidate Gough Whitlam – elected in 1972 and 1974, defeated in 1969, 1975 and 1977 – has died at 98. During WWII, Whitlam enlisted in the RAAF and served as a navigator on bomber aircraft.
UPDATE. Julia Gillard: 
I honour Gough as a man of the highest political courage. A giant of his era. He was truly prepared to “commit and see what happens”. He transformed Australia and we are in his debt. 
That’s one way of putting it. As the IPA points out: 
Whitlam established universal healthcare, effectively nationalised higher education with free tuition, and massively increased public sector salaries. He more than doubled the size of cabinet from 12 ministers to 27 … Perhaps his most lasting legacy has been the increase in the size of government he bequeathed to Australia. When Whitlam took office in 1972, government spending as a percentage of GDP was just 19 per cent. When he left office it had soared to almost 24 per cent. 
UPDATE II. A memo from the ABC: 
Following the death of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, ABC and ABC News 24 have altered their schedules in order to broadcast condolence motions live from the House of Representatives.
ABC News 24 will continue with rolling coverage throughout the day including the condolence motions live from 12 noon AEDT. This could affect the previously scheduled broadcast of Capital Hill and Afternoons, depending on the duration of the condolence motions. ABC News with Ros Childs and Grandstand will not air today.
ABC will simulcast ABC News 24’s rolling coverage until 11am AEDT on the east coast (NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS), and until 11.30am AEDT in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Western Australia will simulcast ABC News 24 until 1pm AEDT, including the condolence motions from Parliament.
The condolence motions will air on ABC at 12-2pm local time in all states except WA (WA will broadcast them live from 9 – 11am AWST).
At 5.30pm AEDT, ABC and ABC News 24 will simulcast The Drum, hosted by Steve Cannane and featuring a panel of insiders to discuss the legacy of Gough Whitlam.
For all the latest news and commentary on the death of Gough Whitlam, go to ABC News’ live blog.
ABC News will present special coverage during the 7pm News presented by Chris Uhlmann in Canberra.
7.30 will feature a live interview with former Prime Minister Paul Keating and host Leigh Sales. 
Should just about cover it.
UPDATE III. “To show us what was possible.” The funniest line ever from the Guardian‘s cartoonist.
UPDATE IV. Earlier ABC coverage:

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Universities starting to shun their Islamist foes

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (3:57pm)

Universities are now taking a welcome standard against Islamist extremism, refusing to give a platform to an ideology which threatens not just lives but the freedoms on which universities depend:
An ANU spokesman confirmed its academics had pulled out of last night’s forum because a Hizb ut-Tahrir ­representative was invited to speak without the university’s knowledge. 
The forum — Rationality and Terror — organised on the Canberra campus by the university’s student newspaper “Woroni”, was then cancelled…
Last month Mr Badar was banned from speaking at the University of ­Sydney, on the anniversary of the ­September 11 terror attacks.
His appearance was advertised as a highlight of Islamic Awareness Week, run by the Sydney University Muslim Students’ Association…
In August the University of Western Australia (UWA) vice-chancellor ordered [Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Uthman] Badar to “give an explicit, written public assurance he is opposed to the cowardly and barbaric act of ­­so-called honour killings” before he spoke at a forum. After hesitation by Mr Badar, the UWA Islamic association cancelled his presentation.
Hizb ut-Tahrir can speak at its own conferences. It should not be privileged with a platform at a university.
But who are the people who keep inviting Hizb ut-Tahrir to come speak?
UPDATE
Another young idiot with a gun in his hand and Islamism in his brain:
A TEENAGE boy from western Sydney has been used as a new public face of Islamic State, starring in a propaganda video “especially” targeted at Australia and claiming that Tony Abbott should know the terror group will never surrender.
Abdullah Elmir, a 17-year-old who told his family that he was going on a fishing trip with a friend before leaving Australia to join the conflict in Syria and Iraq, is fighting with Islamic State and is now front and centre in the fourth episode of the series entitled Message of the Mujahid.
The video, released by Islamic State just hours ago, sees Elmir — identified as “Abu Khaled from Australia” — clutching an assault rifle while delivering a 90-second diatribe with between 70 and 100 heavily armed fighters stand behind him.
“This message, I deliver to you, the people of America,” he says in the video. “I deliver this message to you, the people of Britain. And I deliver this message to you — especially — the people of Australia.
“And I say this about your coalition. You threaten us with this coalition of countries. Bring every nation that you wish to us. Bring every nation that you want to come and fight us. It means nothing to us…
“To the leaders — to Obama, to Tony Abbott — I say this: These weapons that we have, these soldiers, we will not stop fighting. We will not put down our weapons until we reach your lands, until we take the head of every tyrant, and until the black flag is flying high in every single land,” he says.
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Labor demands our doctors be sent to where the Liberian president’s son won’t go

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (10:55am)

Labor is insisting the Abbott Government send health workers to Liberia to deal with the ebola outbreak, even though there is no guarantee of effective medical treatment if those workers get sick, given the distance from Australia.
The Liberian president’s son would understand:
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Sunday said “the whole world has a stake” in preventing an unfolding catastrophe in Liberia, calling on nations to provide more medical experts and supplies to confront the exploding Ebola epidemic. But illustrating the difficulties of heeding that call, her own son, a physician, has stayed in the U.S., saying he can do more for his country there than at home.
He is hardly alone. Officials and physicians here say far more Liberian doctors are in the U.S. and other countries than in the country of their birth…
Dr. Sirleaf runs the emergency room at a hospital in Albany, Ga. He heads an effort to ship protective gear to medical workers in Liberia, but hasn’t returned himself since a 10-day trip in August as the virus was spreading out of control.
“The symbolism of me going there and potentially getting Ebola when I have a nine- and a seven-year-old at home isn’t worth it just to appease people,” said Dr. Sirleaf. “I’ve made a commitment not to live in Liberia for many reasons, and I think my contribution means more.”
(Thanks to reader Jason.) 
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Gough Whitlam dies

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (8:13am)

Our 21st prime minister is dead at 98.
Whitlam explored the gulf between seeming and doing, and tumbled into the chasm.
His legacy endures. The Abbott Government is even today dealing with the costly consequences and culture of entitlement bequeathed by Whitlam’s decisions to give free universal medical care and university education.. We are also dealing with the terrible legacy of Whitlam’s decision to end the assimilation project - both for Aborigines and immigrants.
UPDATE
The ABC has thrown itself into an astonishing frenzy or grief and beatification of a Prime Minister who led for just three years, left the economy in ruins and left the public so scarified that he was rejected at the following two election by huge margins - 44-56 and 45-55.
Here is a taste of the coverage, from the ABC’s The World Today:
image
Will John Howard, a conservative who ruled four times longer and left the economy in wonderful shape, be given this massive and worshipful coverage? The ABC announces its schedule:
Following the death of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, ABC and ABC News 24 have altered their schedules in order to broadcast condolence motions live from the House of Representatives.
ABC News 24 will continue with rolling coverage throughout the day…
ABC will simulcast ABC News 24’s rolling coverage until 11am AEDT on the east coast (NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS), and until 11.30am AEDT in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Western Australia will simulcast ABC News 24 until 1pm AEDT, including the condolence motions from Parliament.
The condolence motions will air on ABC at 12-2pm local time in all states except WA (WA will broadcast them live from 9 – 11am AWST).
At 5.30pm AEDT, ABC and ABC News 24 will simulcast The Drum, hosted by Steve Cannane and featuring a panel of insiders to discuss the legacy of Gough Whitlam.
For all the latest news and commentary on the death of Gough Whitlam, go to ABC News’ live blog.
ABC News will present special coverage during the 7pm News presented by Chris Uhlmann in Canberra.
7.30 will feature a live interview with former Prime Minister Paul Keating and host Leigh Sales.
Whitlam achieved some fine things. But most the dreams his government realised came at the cost of the dreams many voters had for themselves. 
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Barry Humphries defends Barry Spurr and “some poor guy” from the cultural fascists

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (7:43am)

Free speech

Barry Humphries is astonished at the cultural fascists who want to hang a professor, Barry Spurr, for wild word play in private emails:
HAS Australia gone slightly mad? I read in the London press of some poor professor in Sydney who has been persecuted and suspended for sending emails to a friend in which he employs outrageous vernacular epithets for race which would be offensive if they were not so clearly jocular.
His reported response to the storm in a teacup which followed this revelation is, unsurprisingly, bewilderment. How could anyone take such deliberate touretting seriously? The answer, I fear, is that there are a lot of Australians these days who are totally bereft of a sense of humour. The new puritanism is alive, well and powerful.
Not long ago some poor guy was actually prosecuted for saying that the Aboriginal welfare services were sometimes exploited by faux Aborigines, even though we knew it was true…
We really ought to be aware of this malignant brand of cultural fascism, and restore our reputation as a funny country before it’s too late.
If this bizarre and often confected outrage-taking over mere words - even words said in private - is not resisted, half of Humphries’ stage act will end up banned, starting with Sandy Stone. Fascists always were the enemy of wit. By their frowns you will know them.
I repeat that the abusive terms Spurr used in private are ones I found offensive. But so? They were said in private to a friend, and said in clear jest. I find the huffsters far more sinister.
(Thanks to readers Correllio and Dianne.) 
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Celebrating what blots women out of the public space

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (7:17am)

A grown woman puts her head in a sack and explains to the ABC it’s about expressing her freedom.
Something like that. 
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Peter Carey tells an eager ABC about his conspiracy theory

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (7:00am)

ABC presenter Leigh Sales hears the maddest conspiracy theories from novelist Peter Carey without blinking or challenging. Is it because he’s of the Left?
LEIGH SALES: Your new book, Amnesia, let’s talk about that. It starts with a down-on-his-luck journalist, Felix Moore, who winds up getting inside access to the biggest story in the world, which is that a young Melbourne woman has mounted a massive cyber hack and it’s opened prisons in the US and Australia. It has touches of Assange and Snowden and Manning. Why was this an area that you wanted to explore?
PETER CAREY: Well, I mean, I’ve always been concerned about or angry about what happened to our country in 1975, where it is my belief and the belief of many serious journalists and writers that the US Government destabilised and helped overthrow our elected government. So, that’s something I don’t tend to forget terribly easily. Then Assange came along and he - I was talking to my American publisher, Sonny Mehta, about this - we had a long, long conversation about it in which I said, “Well, the whole thing about Assange, he’s Australian,” and the thing that makes me think, you know, the Americans - Americans overthrew our government, are they even thinking who he is? Might it matter that he’s Australian? And in the stead of they’re not saying he’s Australian, they’re saying he’s a traitor. How can he possibly be a traitor in America? He’s an Australian citizen. So, I always think - or once again, the United States has sort of got itself involved in something that it does not understand. I mean, the United States continually interfered in other countries’ internal affairs from the very beginning.
LEIGH SALES: Western governments have always had degrees of secrecy and surveillance. What level of that do you consider is acceptable in the interests of, say, diplomacy or national security?
PETER CAREY: Well how would one possibly establish what the level is? We certainly - I think we certainly live in an age where we daily give away enormous amounts of information to corporations who are perhaps more dangerous than nation states seeing as they basically determine the courses of nation states. And we do that thinking that - not expecting that we will live in a state of tyranny tomorrow or the next year or 10 years after that.
Gee, there I was thinking Governor General Sir John Kerr, after asking advice from Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick, dismissed the Whitlam Government to end a damaging constitutional crisis, with Australian voters then confirming at the subsequent election that they did indeed want wrecker Whitlam gone.
But silly me, it was the wicked Americans who did it all!  You know, the CIA and all that? And they did it all so cleverly that no one involved has said a word or left a trace.
Peter Carey should get a grip. And the ABC should learn to ask Leftists spouting such rolled-gold idiocy: “Are you nuts?”
(Thanks to reader Brian.) 
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The poor are collateral damage in the green war on coal

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (6:39am)

Former Labor Minister Gary Johns on the mad campaign against coal:
CONVICTED killer, now Anglican priest, Evan Pederick is the perfect poster boy for the fossil fuel divestment campaign. The convicted and self-confessed terrorist has been taken into the bosom of the Anglican Church and joined forces with other churches to divest their institutions of investments in fossil fuels (and some minerals).
That other church of green ideology, the Australian National University, has done the same.
Pederick willingly and knowingly set out to destroy a life, that of the Indian prime minister, by planting a bomb in Sydney in 1978. He missed and killed three others instead. Divestment activists, perhaps unwittingly, also will harm innocent people.
Instead of Killers against Coal, why not Christians for Coal?
The moral calculation is simple. An effective divestment campaign would increase the cost of power and harm the poor.
It would substitute the possible risk of some harm to life from climate change decades into the future with the certain harm to life from denial of access to cheap ­energy now. An ineffective campaign, which is more likely, would waste the opportunity to put funds to better use.
Former Treasurer Peter Costello:

The Uniting Church has already decided, at least in two states, to divest shares in all companies that produce fossil fuels. The Anglican Church is following on behind as activists in its forums seek a blanket ban on holding such investments. Why waste time going company by company when they are all equally culpable?
If Australia closes down coal mining or oil and gas production there will be a huge loss of national income. Families and businesses will be hit with rocketing energy costs. Miners will lose their jobs and towns will close. This would be a huge cost to the nation. That’s why the government has a legitimate interest in this issue. It would have to pick up the cost. Governments have to deal with consequences not just moral posturing.
UPDATE
Peter Reith:
The fossil fuel debate has long needed many more champions. Weak state governments, particularly in NSW and Victoria, are a good example of what happens when governments are frightened to govern…
In Victoria, bans on exploration for gas have been used with no good reason, at the expense of the revitalisation of eastern Victoria. In NSW, the failure to confront the greenies is on track to cost jobs and economic dislocation, especially in manufacturing…
It’s bizarre that greenies oppose using natural gas when natural gas reduces emissions by about half. It is also odd that the green movement oppose fracking for natural gas but support hot fracture rock geothermal technology, in other words: fracking!  
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Warmists should apologise to Bob Carter

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (6:26am)

Nick Cater notes that ABC warmists such as Dr Karl are getting snarky that the world’s atmosphere has not warmed these past 16 years.
A better response might be to apologise to the man who first warned years ago the climate wasn’t warming as the warmists predicted:
It was an Australian scientist, Bob Carter, who first drew attention to the flattening trend in an article in Britain’s The Telegraph in April 2006. Carter reviewed the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia for the years 1998 to 2005 and asked: “Does something not strike you as odd?”
Carter’s reward for identifying the lack of global warming was to have his professional reputation trashed. When Carter repeated his suggestion in the Australian press a year later, the CSIRO felt obliged to respond. Carter had presented “an unethical misrepresentation of the facts”, wrote Andrew Ash, acting director of the CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship. “All scientists welcome honest criticism since it helps to sharpen our analyses and improve our understanding, but scepticism based on half-truths and misrepresentation of facts is not helpful.”
ABC online’s The Drum refused to run his commentary. ABC Radio National’s science broadcaster Robyn Williams gave an open microphone to Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change communications director Bob Ward, who accused Carter of “desperately seeking bits of information to back up a ­theory”.
Political scientist Robert Manne said the likes of Carter, award-winning geologist Ian Plimer and former head of the National Climate Centre at the Bureau of Meteorology William Kininmonth “have to be resisted and indeed denounced” along with the “anti-political correctness and anti-collectivist ideologues, the right-wing media and the fossil fuel corporations”.
The vilifying of Bob Carter was simply unforgivable. Those who abused him demonstrated a fear of debate and of facts unbecoming to any discussion of science. That venom demonstrated the sad truth: global warming was instead a faith or ideology that could not be questioned. 
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Beecher is right. The ABC is crowding out other voices

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (6:13am)

Eric Beecher is absolutely right, even though his self-interest is obvious:
INDEPENDENT media proprietor Eric Beecher has questioned the reasons for the ABC’s existence and whether it should compete against commercial media in areas that are already well-served.
In provocative comments published by his company’s Crikey website and newsletter, Beecher ... argues the reasons for establishing the ABC “82 years ago are now redundant because the media and societal environment is so radically different"…

The critic of the ABC’s push into the digital space asks whether the ABC should “use its formidable public resources to disrupt or compete with opportunities available to commercial media” or compete for ratings against commercial rivals.
Beecher, a former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, also questioned whether the ABC should have “carte blanche to create whatever digital content it likes”, even when the same content is being produced by commercial operators.
I would add these criticisms of the ABC, now far and away the country’s biggest media organisation.
- Is it healthy for any media organisation to have such an overwhelming presence, in this case comprising four TV stations in each city plus five radio stations, an on-line newspaper, blogs, twitter feeds, bookshops and a book publishing arm?
- Is it healthy that such a massive media monolith is an arm of the state, funded by government if not directly controlled by it?
- Is it healthy that such a massive media monolith is effectively controlled by one side of the political and ideological divide, clearly advocating green and Leftist politics? 
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Labor increases lead to 53-47

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (5:40am)

The Abbott Government is struggling to find the switch to popular:
Today’s Newspoll shows support for the Coalition has dropped three points to 38 per cent, the lowest since July… Labor’s primary vote was unchanged at 34 per cent, virtually the same as its election result of 33.3 per cent.
The Coalition vote appeared to transfer to the Greens who received a rise of three points to 14 per cent, significantly higher than their 8.7 per cent result at the election. The strong support for the Greens has underpinned Labor’s two-party-preferred lead which has increased to a three-month high of 53-47 per cent, up from 51-49 per cent in the previous survey.
I do believe the Greens vote is artificially high, but also suspected the Coalition is growing too complacent about Labor/s persistent lead. It is also kidding itself if it thinks popular stands on foreign affairs - on Putin, the Ukraine, Iraq - will ever make up for votes lost on domestic issues.
Time soon for a reshuffle, with good communicators given more say in key domestic portfolios. It is ludicrous, for instance, to have Scott Morrison spinning his wheels after such success in stopping the boats. The selling of Budget-related issues has clearly gone wrong, Victoria needs more prominent Liberal voices and the tone of belligerent defensiveness of some ministers has to change. Genial authority is the key. With an emphasis on the genial. 
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$433,000 for each unemployed Aborigine placed in a job

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (5:35am)

The waste is astonishing, but the culture in many bush communities now does not produce enough young Aborigines prepared for work - or prepared to:
ONLY 277 indigenous jobseekers have found employment that ­lasted more than six months in ­remote regions in the past year, prompting the Abbott government to devise an overhaul of Labor’s remote jobs scheme.
The Coalition has concluded that the $1.5 billion nationwide scheme has been failing to engage Aborigines in work, with $120 million already spent equating to about $433,000 per successful job placement of six months or more.
Once again, here’s evidence that the problem isn’t a lack of money or goodwill. 
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Turkey lets Kurdish reinforcements into Kobane

Andrew Bolt October 21 2014 (5:22am)

It is critically important for propaganda purposes that the Islamic State be stopped from capturing Kobane. Turkey has now made an important decision under US pressure (or after some nice offers):
Turkey is to allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to cross the Syrian border to fight Islamic State (IS) militants in Kobane, in what is being seen as a policy reversal…

On Sunday, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took his traditional tough line on the Kurdish militia in Syria, calling them “terrorists” and saying that they must not be armed by Turkey or the US.
Then Washington went ahead and did just that, dropping weapons to Kurdish fighters around Kobane, quite possibly with tacit Turkish approval during a phone call that took place between the two presidents.
And a day later, Ankara admitted it was helping Peshmerga enter Syria. This is most likely realpolitik by the Turkish government, saying one thing for domestic consumption, to ward off criticism by Turks that it’s helping the Kurds, and another to the White House, agreeing to help Kurdish fighters in a way that is acceptable back home.
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Post by Being Latino.

Next stop, police
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Post by One Love Foundation.

"It is my business if someone is getting hurt and i can do something about it!!"
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Post by Mavi Kocaeli.

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Post by Liberal Victoria.

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Post by PHO SOUP.

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Post by HEAVYGRINDER.

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4 her, so she can see how I see her
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Post by Mathias Cormann.

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=== Posts from last year ===
Photo: And the search is on...! #WheresWally?
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<WARNING WARNING WARNING.

The Israelis use these genetically modified flying spiders to now spy on the Arabs Killing Arabs.

Despite over 100,000 Syrians being slaughtered in the current Syrian civil war and the Iranians enriching uranium for " peaceful purposes " the United Nations are in uproar.

Developed in Australia by the CSIRO, the Australian Greens are furious that nature is being interfered with in this deceptive manner and hope with enough bush fires these new flying spiders will fall prey to their indignant flames of wrath despite potential exports valued in the billions.

Anyone seeing these flying spiders please avoid. They are ten times more poisonous than funnel web spiders and can explode without warning upon human contact.

Last week " innocent " true believers in Lakemba were unaware they had been spied upon in this manner. The project has proved so successful that the CSIRO is now trying to develop the same with pigs.

Pigs might fly after all.>
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20 Oct 2013
Column One: Israel vs. Obama & EU 
“Tehran gives no indication that they will suspend all uranium enrichment and still the White House sees “level of seriousness and substance that we had not seen before.”
By CAROLINE B. GLICK
http://www.israelandstuff.com/column-one-israel-vs-obama-eu-appeasement-path

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Caroline Glick

The video below was produced by Stand With Us to help pro-Israel students get prepared for the BDS storm coming their way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SRm0WfjGW0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
BDS Cookbook
www.stopbds.com
It isn’t enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn’t enough to to believe in it, one must work for it.
http://www.stopbds.com/
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality…I wanted to quit my life.

I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

“God”, I asked,

“Can you give me one good reason not to quit?”.

His answer surprised me…

“Look around”, He said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”

“Yes”, I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.

I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth.

It's brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.

And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.

“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.

In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would not quit.” He said.

“Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant…But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.

It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.”

He asked me. “Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots”.

“I would not quit on the bamboo. And I will never quit on you.”

“Don’t compare yourself to others.” He said. ”The bamboo had a different Purpose than the fern.

Yet they both make the forest beautiful.” "Your time will come”, God said to me.

“You will rise high”.

“How high should I rise?” I asked.

“How high will the bamboo rise?” He asked in return.

“As high as it can?” I questioned. ”Yes!” He said, “Give Me glory by rising as high as you can.”

I left the forest and brought back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you. Never, never, never give up in life.

Don’t tell The LORD how big the problem is, tell the problem how Great The LORD is!

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Picture a Day: The Walls & Gates of Jerusalem, Jaffa Gate -- More Pictures from the Emory...
http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2013/10/the-walls-gates-of-jerusalem-jaffa-gate.html
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Joel Arthur Rosenthal - wild roses set with diamonds, yellow, pink and violet sapphires and yellow and pink tourmalines
Photo: © JAR, Paris
4 her
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Conzelman Road

Fog falls over the hills of the Marin Headlands as evening approaches during the final phase of twilight. A car wends its way down the snake like winding road in and out of the vapors of mists. — at Hawk Hill.
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“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Psalm 51:12 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Grow up into him in all things."
Ephesians 4:15
Many Christians remain stunted and dwarfed in spiritual things, so as to present the same appearance year after year. No up-springing of advanced and refined feeling is manifest in them. They exist but do not "grow up into him in all things." But should we rest content with being in the "green blade," when we might advance to "the ear," and eventually ripen into the "full corn in the ear?" Should we be satisfied to believe in Christ, and to say, "I am safe," without wishing to know in our own experience more of the fulness which is to be found in him. It should not be so; we should, as good traders in heaven's market, covet to be enriched in the knowledge of Jesus. It is all very well to keep other men's vineyards, but we must not neglect our own spiritual growth and ripening. Why should it always be winter time in our hearts? We must have our seed time, it is true, but O for a spring time--yea, a summer season, which shall give promise of an early harvest. If we would ripen in grace, we must live near to Jesus--in his presence--ripened by the sunshine of his smiles. We must hold sweet communion with him. We must leave the distant view of his face and come near, as John did, and pillow our head on his breast; then shall we find ourselves advancing in holiness, in love, in faith, in hope--yea, in every precious gift. As the sun rises first on mountain-tops and gilds them with his light, and presents one of the most charming sights to the eye of the traveller; so is it one of the most delightful contemplations in the world to mark the glow of the Spirit's light on the head of some saint, who has risen up in spiritual stature, like Saul, above his fellows, till, like a mighty Alp, snow-capped, he reflects first among the chosen, the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and bears the sheen of his effulgence high aloft for all to see, and seeing it, to glorify his Father which is in heaven.

Evening

"Keep not back."
Isaiah 43:6
Although this message was sent to the south, and referred to the seed of Israel, it may profitably be a summons to ourselves. Backward we are naturally to all good things, and it is a lesson of grace to learn to go forward in the ways of God. Reader, are you unconverted, but do you desire to trust in the Lord Jesus? Then keep not back. Love invites you, the promises secure you success, the precious blood prepares the way. Let not sins or fears hinder you, but come to Jesus just as you are. Do you long to pray? Would you pour out your heart before the Lord? Keep not back. The mercy-seat is prepared for such as need mercy; a sinner's cries will prevail with God. You are invited, nay, you are commanded to pray; come therefore with boldness to the throne of grace.
Dear friend, are you already saved? Then keep not back from union with the Lord's people. Neglect not the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. You may be of a timid disposition, but you must strive against it, lest it lead you into disobedience. There is a sweet promise made to those who confess Christ--by no means miss it, lest you come under the condemnation of those who deny him. If you have talents keep not back from using them. Hoard not your wealth, waste not your time; let not your abilities rust or your influence be unused. Jesus kept not back; imitate him by being foremost in self-denials and self-sacrifices. Keep not back from close communion with God, from boldly appropriating covenant blessings, from advancing in the divine life, from prying into the precious mysteries of the love of Christ. Neither, beloved friend, be guilty of keeping others back by your coldness, harshness, or suspicions. For Jesus' sake go forward yourself, and encourage others to do the like. Hell and the leaguered bands of superstition and infidelity are forward to the fight. O soldiers of the cross, keep not back.
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Today's reading: Isaiah 59-61, 2 Thessalonians 3 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 59-61

Sin, Confession and Redemption
1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are stained with blood,
your fingers with guilt.
Your lips have spoken falsely,
and your tongue mutters wicked things.
4 No one calls for justice;
no one pleads a case with integrity.
They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies;
they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
5 They hatch the eggs of vipers
and spin a spider’s web.
Whoever eats their eggs will die,
and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
6 Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds,
and acts of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet rush into sin;
they are swift to shed innocent blood.
They pursue evil schemes;
acts of violence mark their ways.
8 The way of peace they do not know;
there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
no one who walks along them will know peace....

Today's New Testament reading: 2 Thessalonians 3

Request for Prayer
1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. 3But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. 4 We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. 5May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.
Warning Against Idleness
6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat....”
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Samuel

[Săm'uel] - heard, asked of god, offering of god or appointed by god.

The Man Who Had God's Ear

Samuel was the earliest of the Hebrew prophets after Moses and the last of the Judges. He was the son of Elkanah of Ephraim (1 Sam. 1:1), and of Hannah, Elkanah's other wife. Samuel was her first-born and possibly saw the light of day at Ramah (1 Sam. 2:11; 7:17). Hannah bore Elkanah five other children ( 1 Sam. 2:21). There are many points of resemblance between Hannah and Mary, the mother of our Lord (1 Sam. 2:1-11 with Luke 1:46-56).
Samuel was a Nazarite (1 Sam. 1:11), the character of the vow being:
Abstinence from intoxicating drinks; self-denial and separation from sensual indulgence.
Free growth of hair, indicating the complete dedication of all the power of the head to God.
Avoidance of contact with a dead body as a token of absolute purity of life (Num. 6).
Samuel's call to service came when weaned and dedicated to God by his mother (1 Sam. 1:24-28; 3:1-18). When Samuel was around twelve years of age he received his first revelation of the Lord, which was a clear message of doom against Eli's guilty house (1 Sam. 3:11-14).
Samuel's ministry was of a fourfold nature. We see him:
I. As a prophet. As a prophet of the Lord ( 1 Sam. 2:27-35; 3:19-21; 8:22), his faithfulness was a rebuke to the unfaithfulness of Eli. To the end of his days Samuel exercised the office of prophet and his ministry was not in vain. Under the impact of his courageous pronouncements Israel renounced her idolatry and shook off the yoke of the Philistines.
II. As an intercessor. Samuel was born in answer to prayer and his name constantly reminded him of the power of prayer and of the necessity of maintaining holy intimacy with God. Samuel deemed it a sin not to pray for others ( 1 Sam. 7:5-8; 8:6; 12:17, 19, 23; 15:11).
III. As a priest. Although Samuel was only a Levite and not a priest by descent, the words, "I will raise up," imply an extraordinary office (1 Sam. 2:35; 7:9, 10; 13:8-10; Judg. 2:16). The exercises of priestly functions are proved by the following:
By intercession (1 Sam. 7:9).
By offering sacrifices (1 Sam. 7:9, 10).
By benediction ( 1 Sam. 10:17, 25).
By anointing kings (1 Sam. 10:1; 16:13).
IV. As a judge. Of Samuel it is said that he "judged Israel all the days of his life." Even after the government of Israel had changed from that of a theocracy to a monarchy, Samuel still acted as a circuit judge, going from place to place giving divine judgment upon moral and spiritual questions, and maintaining in the hearts and lives of the people the law and authority of Jehovah (1 Sam. 7:15-17 ). The appointment of his own sons as Judges to succeed him (1 Sam. 8:1) was a parental mistake, for their wickedness gave the people reason for demanding a king (1 Sam. 8:5).
The universal reverence and love the nation had for Samuel is proven by the grief manifested at his death. "All Israel lamented him" (1 Sam. 25:1; 28:3). His passing as one of the great heroes of Hebrew history makes impressive reading. Faith was the animating principle of his honored life and labors ( Heb. 11:32).
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