Saturday, November 29, 2014

Sat Nov 29th Todays News

The white racism meme which inspires riots in the US and is claiming lives is related to the ridiculous outrages which power jihadism. No truth behind the rhetoric, but endless urban myths. Boko Haram is jihadist and they have just claimed credit for killing 120 in blowing up a mosque in Nigeria. The target seems to have been Nigeria's most senior Muslim cleric, and it yet again illustrates the greatest threat to any Muslim is a jihadist. But Jihadists threaten others too. Sirhan Sirhan was a PLO terrorist who killed Bobby Kennedy for Kennedy's alleged support of Israel. Interestingly, Democrats demonstrably don't support Israel now but do support the PLO. The BDS movement support jihadism too, and Facebook accept their terrorist memes, one particular one being a picture of holocaust survivors being photoshopped to portray them as Palestinians. In Australia the white racism meme is expressed under the myth of the stolen generation. There have been tragic consequences with that, too. 


A corrupt, unreformed ALP have won the Victorian election. There is now an opportunity for the Victorian Liberals to find real leadership with vision. All things being fair a competent Liberal government will always lose to a corrupt ALP, because of the partisan press. So the Libs have to be better than competent. They need a leader who has a conservative vision. Not someone who falls for populism, as with AGW hysteria, or the white racism meme, or with suppression of free speech, but one who is compassionate, fair and a believer in the benefits of small government and prosperity. Napthine only had a year, but he seems too old and too compromised, having failed to challenge the corrupt institutions which support ALP power. 

 Liberal party infighting alleged the eve of Victoria's election over the issue of medicare co payments. It isn't the Liberals or Nationals at fault on the issue. The chief problem is Palmer secured a blocking vote and has opposed good legislation for his own reasons. So that most of the independents have almost the same voting record as the ALP. Advice is given to Libs to threaten the public with ALP government by an early election they could lose like Victoria. The threat is appealing for those outside government keen to see action. But Palmer and PUP are imploding and there is promise for the future by sticking to their guns. If an early election is not called, then the ALP are frozen from power, and reliant on Greens and independents to support them, which they won't, always. 

 Boat turned back from Sri Lanka, but one of 37 goes to Nauru. Sarah Hanson-Young claims 36 were arrested back in Sri Lanka. In her fantasy world, they were better off compassionately drowned. 

 Poet Ben Pobjie attack the government from the ABC after failing to justify his offensive tweet on Phil Hughes. Martin Flanagan defends the ABC from the AGE, claiming that the ABC is not partisan, like he is. Two more quit Clive Palmer's PUP, these two from Northern Territory.

 Phil Hughes is compared to Victor Trumper, the best Austraian batsman before Bradman. It would be a formidable team which had openers of Trumper and Hughes, followed by Archie Jackson at first drop. Clarke's tears for Hughes. Very different than Kim Hughes resignation. Clarke is a man of substance, an aggressive, capable batsman and leader, and a great leader. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 561, King Chlothar I died at Compiègne. The Merovingian dynasty was continued by his four sons — Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I — who divided the Frankish Kingdom. In 800, Charlemagne arrived at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III. In 1394, the Korean king Yi Seong-gye, founder of the Joseon dynasty, moved the capital from Kaesŏng to Hanyang, today known as Seoul. In 1549, the papal conclave of 1549–50 begins. In 1612, the Battle of Swally took place, which loosened the Portuguese Empire's hold on India. In 1729, Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi. In 1776, American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, came to an end with the arrival of British reinforcements. In 1777, San Jose, California, was founded as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California. In 1781, the crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance. In 1783, a 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck New Jersey. 

In 1830, November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia's rule in Poland began. In 1847, the Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour. Also, Whitman massacre: Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others were killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, causing the Cayuse War. In 1850, the treaty, Punctation of Olmütz, is signed in Olomouc. Prussia capitulates to Austria, which will take over the leadership of the German Confederation. In 1864, American Indian Wars: Sand Creek massacre – Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants inside Colorado Territory. Also, American Civil War: Battle of Spring Hill – A Confederate advance into Tennessee missed an opportunity to crush the Union Army. General John Bell Hood was angered, which led to the Battle of Franklin. In 1872, American Indian Wars: The Modoc War began with the Battle of Lost River. In 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph for the first time. In 1885, end of Third Anglo-Burmese War, and end of Burmese monarchy In 1890, the Meiji Constitution went into effect in Japan, and the first Diet convened. In 1893, the Ziqiang Institute, today known as Wuhan University, was founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in late Qing dynasty China, after his memorial to the throne was approved by the Qing Government. In 1899, FC Barcelona Association football club was founded.

In 1902, the Pittsburgh Stars defeated the Philadelphia Athletics, 11–0, at the Pittsburgh Coliseum, to win the first championship associated with an American national professional football league. In 1929, U.S. Admiral Richard E. Byrd led the first expedition to fly over the South Pole. In 1943, World War II: The second session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), held to determine the post-war ordering of the country, concluded in Jajce in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1944, the first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome was performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas. Also, World War II: Albania was liberated by partisan forces. In 1945, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was declared. In 1946, the All Indonesia Centre of Labour Organizations (SOBSI) was founded in Jakarta. In 1947, Partition Plan: The United Nations General Assembly approved a plan for the partition of Palestine. Also, First Indochina War: French forces carry out a massacre at Mỹ Trạch, Vietnam.

In 1950, Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea. In 1952, Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfilled a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what could be done to end the conflict. In 1961, Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, was launched into space. The spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed down off the coast of Puerto Rico. In 1963, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Also, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831 crashed shortly after takeoff from Montreal-Dorval International Airport, killing all 118 people on board. In 1965, the Canadian Space Agency launched the satellite Alouette 2. In 1967, Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced his resignation.

 In 1972, Atari announced the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game. In 1975, Graham Hill and Tony Brise, along with three other members of the Embassy Hill F1 team, were killed when their plane crashed at Arkley golf course, England, in thick fog. In 1987, Korean Air Flight 858 exploded over the Thai–Burmese border, killing 115. In 1990, Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passed two resolutions to restore international peace and security if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991. In 2007, the Armed Forces of the Philippines laid siege to the Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes staged a mutiny. Also, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurred off the northern coast of Martinique. This affected the Eastern Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico and as far south as Trinidad. In 2009, Maurice Clemmons shot and killed four police officers inside a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington. In 2013, LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 crashed in Namibia, killing 33 people.
2013
Were Abbott to decide to not implement Gonski or spend the money, no school would be worse off. No program that has to run would be chopped. The only difference would be some teachers would have to do what they are already paid to do. It is telling that many unionists fear the resulting fall in standards.

Foreign investment is good. There may be exceptions where something is not in the national interest. Hockey correctly found one. Ten years of turkeys calling out rude names to President Bush, but they forgive Obama. Is it wrong to ask the gay community to denounce the bigots exploiting their issues? Even Gareth Evans recognises what the ALP are doing across issues is wrong. 

Australian business has improved investment by 3.6% in the September quarter .. thank you Mr Abbott. 
It is time to release Jonathon Pollard. Release him now, and begin working on a substantial package of compensation. 

Below, there is an evil meme comparing the holocaust with atrocities against Native Americans. In Australia, a myth of a stolen generation has resulted in harm against indigenous peoples. Failure to recognise the holocaust is another monstrous wrong. What is it that activists are demanding? Strehlow's accounts of Journey to Horseshoe Bend is not an account that legitimates continued abuse of Aboriginal peoples. Are activists demanding more government intervention in native American peoples?
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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 Jason Queue. Born on the same day, across the years, as
Joint session of the Diet of Japan
Never forgive Zong. Try not to go total. Eat Japanese. Time to divide Palestine into one Jewish state. Live like Pong. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2014
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FROM TRUMPER TO HUGHES

Tim Blair – Saturday, November 29, 2014 (1:56pm)

The nation’s grief over the death of young batsman Phil Hughes recalls a previous cricket tragedy. Ninety-nine years ago, another thrilling Australian batsman – possibly the most thrilling of them all – also died at Sydney’s St Vincent’s hospital at a dreadfully young age.

image

Victor Trumper was just 37 when he succumbed to kidney disease. Just as Hughes’s loss is felt nationwide, Trumper’s untimely death provoked extraordinary mourning. His funeral procession saw teeming crowds blocking Sydney’s streets. It must still be one of the largest funerals in our nation’s history.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'FROM TRUMPER TO HUGHES'
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Liberals throw away Victoria

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (8:48pm)

The Liberals have succeeded in losing Victoria after just one term in office.
Labor could win by a couple of seats or at worst - and the very worst for the state - win with the support of the Greens, who could take two seats in the lower house.
The upper house results are impossible to tell. If the Greens hold the balance of power, pray for Victoria.
Labor frontbencher Martin Pakula and several Labor backbenchers says it wasn’t Abbott that lost it but the Liberals’ policies on education, transport and health (not least the ambo pay dispute).
But there are lessons for the Abbott Government. Stand for something. Do something. Don’t let Labor off the hook. Go local. Don’t do as the Victorian Liberals did for the first two years under Ted Baillieu - do nothing and say less.
The danger? Abbott’s enemies in the federal party will claim instead that this shows the Abbott Government is too radical.
Was the Napthine Government too radical or too bland?  Was Denis Napthine too aggressive or too gentle? Now look.
Has Campbell Newman’s Queensland Government been radical or bland in tackling debt? Now look: cruising to victory.
That’s not to say Abbott was popular and his policies played zero part in this result. It isn’t to say - heavens, no - that Abbott must change his style and his policies.
But 10 to one, most Liberal MPs in Canberra will learn exactly the wrong lessons. More on this on The Bolt Report tomorrow and in my column on Monday. 
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Protesting the apartheid way

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (11:26am)

I’ve warned many times that the anti-racism movement is becoming as racist as what it claims to oppose:
A set of rules for white people at a vigil for Michael Brown in Canada has sparked controversy ... as the Facebook event created by Black Lives Matter: Toronto was flooded with accusations of racism.
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On The Bolt Report tomorrow, November 30

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (11:20am)

On The Bolt Report on Channel 10 tomorrow at 10am and 4pm.
Editorial: Why do we pay the $27 million Human Rights Commission after its incredible bias?
My guest:  Immigration Minister Scott Morrison
The panel: former Labor advisor Cassandra Wilkinson and IPA boss John Roskam
NewsWatch:  Rowan Dean, Australian Spectator editor, Financial Review columnist and Sky News commentator. Dissecting the ABC’s anti-Murdoch conspiracy theory - and checking just which media organisation is balanced.
Plus the Victorian election roundup and a debate: does the Abbott Government need a reshuffle?
The videos of the shows appear here.
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A great captain pays tribute to Phillip Hughes

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (11:01am)

How I want the captain of our Test team to be. Fiercely competitive, tough - yet loving and giving.
Michael Clarke’s leadership these last few days has been inspirational. 
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One boat person makes it, one boat turned back

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (10:56am)

Another boat turned back, although one passenger gets to go to Manus Island or Nauru:
ANOTHER asylum seeker boat has been intercepted on the high seas and returned to Sri Lanka…

[Immigration Minister Scott] Morrison confirmed 37 asylum seekers were returned to Sri Lanka yesterday morning after being assessed by immigration­ officials at sea, under a legal arrangement with Sri Lanka that allows Australian authorities to board Sri Lankan-flagged boats at sea.  One person is believed to have been taken into the care of authorities and will be transferred to either Manus Island or Nauru and their refugee claim assessed.
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Abbott’s office betrays Joe Hockey. Time it was reorganised

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (10:44am)

This kind of confusion is unacceptable, and the responsibility for this entirely self-inflicted disaster lies within the Prime Minister’s office:
ANGRY cabinet ministers are split on how to redraft the controversial $7 GP co-payment amid rising frustration with Tony ­Abbott’s office over days of confusion about one of the government’s biggest budget reforms.
Ministers are demanding there be no change to the policy without a full cabinet debate after being ­incensed by briefings from the Prime Minister’s office that the idea would be shelved.
A defiant Joe Hockey is suggesting taking the proposal to parliament, even at the risk of it being rejected, while others have raised the idea of using regulations ­instead. The divisions are turning into a test of the centralisation of power in Mr Abbott’s inner sanctum as ministers express their frustration at the way his staff managed the issue.
Tony Abbott will struggle to survive if he does not move over Christmas to signal to his colleagues and the voters that he has heard their criticisms and is changing. One sign of that change must start with the reorganisation of his office and the ceding of more responsibility to ministers.
It is disrespectful and disloyal to Joe Hockey to have the Prime Minister’s office briefing journalists about dumping an important policy that Hockey is at the very same time trying to sell. It also suggests what should not be, or should certainly not be perceived: that some briefer in the PM’s office is more powerful or more informed than the nation’s Treasurer.
In this instance, Hockey is right on the policy, right on the tactics and very right to feel betrayed.
UPDATE
No media office should be even able to make such a mistake - if a mistake it was. A briefing like this should be the work of someone so close to the PM, so integral to the Government’s strategising, that they speak as if with his voice - and after taking all steps to safeguard his best interests:
Multiple media organisations had been told the GP co-payment was to be abandoned as it was the “barnacle” to which the Prime Minister had been referring when he promised colleagues he would clear “one or two” of the government’s worst political problems before Christmas.
Media outlets duly reported the decision – communicated on a background basis on Wednesday evening – but the revelation appeared to catch other ministers unawares.
Fairfax Media understands the future of the GP policy had actually been discussed at the government’s razor-gang Expenditure Review Committee meeting on Tuesday but no decision was taken to scotch it.
The government was in damage control mode on Friday with insiders blaming the media staff in the Prime Minister’s office for “going beyond their pay grade"…
Another said it was purely a result of Mr Abbott’s staff getting the story wrong claiming Mr Abbott had no knowledge or involvement and claiming that he had sent Mr Hockey and the other ministers out on Thursday morning to “clean up the mess”.
However Mr Hockey was not contacted by the Prime Minister or his office on Thursday.
UPDATE
Paul Kelly makes clear this government has to get its political messaging right because the future of this country depends on facing up to some facts:
THIS week the accumulating defects of the Abbott government were on graphic display — excessive centralisation around the Prime Minister’s office, lack of proper consultation, flawed judgments and uncertainty about how to address its tactical dilemmas…

Australia is heading into dangerous waters. It has a government whose budget strategy has faltered and a Labor opposition in complete denial of the structural changes needed to achieve long-run economic success…

If price signals are not built into Medicare then the ultimate result will be higher taxes or a higher levy to sustain it. If the eminently defensible university reform compromise is not passed the result, as Universities Australia says, is that higher education will face an “inevitable decline in quality, performance, competitiveness and reputation"…
Hockey will soon release the mid-year review of the budget. The picture is known: sub-trend growth, weak wages growth, steeper than expected iron ore price falls making the deficit worse than predicted. This is accentuated by having more than $25 billion in savings blocked in the Senate…

In his swan song as Treasury boss Parkinson ... warned ...  Australians have a choice — they can accept fiscal constraint far tighter than anything in recent years or they can accept higher taxes… The real position of the Senate majority, by logic, is higher taxes for the public.
Jennifer Hewett interviews Martin Parkinson
Yet most of the Australian population are not only totally unpersuaded of the need for change – they are aggressively resistant.
Parkinson ascribes this to “the absence of a burning platform”.
“To mix metaphors ... we’ve probably got a canary in the coalmine and the public don’t seem to understand that the canary is beginning to get a bit wobbly on its perch. When they do understand it, it will be when the platform is on fire.”
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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And damn the torpedoes

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (10:41am)

Adam Creighton suggests desperate measures to a government 10 points behind in the latest Newspoll:
THE government must end its pointless pussy-footing with the Senate and announce it plans to ask the Governor-General for a double dissolution in the New Year. For its own sake and Australia’s, the Coalition should next week present the Senate with bills to reform Medicare, welfare and universities, and dare the red chamber to begin arming the government with the constitutional triggers it needs to prematurely end the terms of a throng of new senators…
Suggestions the government should, out of political expediency, drop its proposals for a $7 co-payment for GP visits, less generous family handouts and pensions, and higher university fees would be economically and politically disastrous. It would condemn Australian workers to crushing, relentless increases in income tax…
A double-dissolution election would at least earn the government the public’s respect and give voters, which tuned out of politics more than a year ago, a chance to focus on why change is necessary…
The view that the Coalition’s and Tony Abbott’s entrenched unpopularity would conspire to ensure the government’s defeat in a snap election is naive ... (B)y opposing all the Coalition’s main budget savings and most of its own left over from Kevin Rudd, Labor would suddenly be in an invidious position. Having promised to reinstate everything from ABC funding cuts to the despicable school kids bonus, its alternative would necessarily entail a massive increase in explicit taxation…
(T)hreatening a double dissolution might be enough to prevent one. Faced with the likely prospect of losing their six-year, $1.5 million sinecures thanks to the Senate’s byzantine electoral system Dio Wang, Glen Lazarus and Ricky Muir among others might not be so intransigent..
An early election would offer voters a choice between fantasy and reality, between a flawed government determined to make necessary decisions and a carping, puerile opposition, a shadow of its former incarnations seemingly hell bent on engineering ever higher income tax on the people it is meant to support.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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What is the ABC’s higher purpose? What is its justification for taking our taxes?

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (9:58am)

Can anyone explain why - at a time of record deficits and budget cuts - the ABC uses scarce taxpayers’ money to publish drivel like this?
(Thanks to reader George.) 
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Two more MPs quit Clive Palmer

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (9:37am)

Clive Palmer’s party is disintegrating. First his two Queensland state MPs quit. Then Senator Jacqui Lambie quit.
Now his last two Northern Territory MPs are quitting, too, knowing Palmer has become an embarrassment:

THE Palmer United Party has become a “national disgrace”, ­according to its Northern Territory leader Alison Anderson, who along with parliamentary colleague Larisa Lee plans to ­resign and become independent…

“It has been a total embarrassment, I guess, that we joined with the PUP to see this absolute chaos that’s happening,” Ms ­Anderson said....
She singled out Senator Lambie’s strident attacks on other ­nationalities and Mr Palmer’s stoush with Chinese firm Citic for criticism, but said the PUP had also failed to connect with its NT members or use its balance-of-power advantage effectively.
Mind you, Anderson has an impressive record of walking out of political parties. She’s already quit Labor and the Country Liberal Party.
UPDATE

Palmer’s end draws rapidly nearer:
CLIVE Palmer’s flagship private company will be stripped of its ­environmental approvals for the $10 billion Sino Iron project in the Pilbara after suffering a resounding defeat in the West Australian Supreme Court.
In the latest blow to the federal MP in his multi-pronged legal war against estranged business partner Citic Pacific, judge James Edelman ruled Mineralogy had breached its obligations by refusing to transfer the approvals to the Chinese company. The ruling tightens China’s grip on Sino Iron, which began producing iron ore last year, but is the focus of a legal battle between Citic and Mr Palmer, on whose tenements the project was built…
Mr Palmer also failed in Queensland to win a permanent stay of a dispute in which Citic ­alleges Mineralogy wrongfully ­siphoned more than $12 million of Citic’s cash…
In August, he was hit with a legal bill of more than $1 million after Justice Edelman described Mineralogy’s courtroom tactics in a dispute with Citic over royalties as “absurd” and “unreasonable”.
Mr Palmer is fighting Citic for royalties he says are worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Such earnings would be critical for the Queensland businessman, as several of his other assets are struggling.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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How could the Victorian Liberals have let it come to this?

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (9:07am)

It is scandalous that the Victorian Liberals could so casually have thrown away government after just one term, particularly when it’s great failing was to be inactive and inarticulate, as well as smugly hostile to the ideology that gives a sense of purpose to government:
A Newspoll election-eve ­survey has recorded Labor holding a 52 per cent to 48 per cent lead on a two-party-preferred basis, a result that would deliver Daniel Andrews’s opposition at least six extra seats.
The Coalition’s only hope of salvaging victory was a late ­increase in support for the government detected by Newspoll and a strong showing in seven key marginals.
If the survey, taken exclusively for The Weekend Australian, is replicated today, Labor would win at least 46 seats in the 88-seat lower house, sending shockwaves through Coalition ranks nationally and rendering the Napthine government the first one-term administration in Victoria in nearly 60 years.
The Liberals should win today, but almost certainly will not. It could mount a cerebral case for re-election, as evidenced by the fact that even the Leftist Age newspaper yesterday recommended a vote for the Napthine Government. Yet the Liberals have failed to excite even their own supporters, and will lose in large part through an indifference to their fate.
One illustration of that lack of engagement? Former Premier Jeff Kennett giving the Coalition a mark of just 8 out of 25 (Labor 5):
I wanted both parties to indicate where their policies would take the state by 2035 or 2050. Neither party has given me any sense of this.
The Coalition is fighting the election on the phrase Building a Better Victoria. But that is a slogan, not a vision.

Or think of the few other conservative commentators in Victoria - me, Terry McCrann and (kind of) Tom Elliott.  The passion we could muster in a public defence of this government could hardly warm a hamster. For me, the one galvanising issue was that Labor would almost certainly be far worse - too beholden to unions, too free with our money and too set against a critical new road to stop the city choking on its future traffic.
And can I see the seeds of renewal in this Liberal party? The people brimming with ideas and purpose?
Do I see the same trimmers and tremblers in Canberra, murmuring that even this Abbott Government is too radical, that Scott Morrison too ambitious and that a pleasant man with fewer edges than Tony Abbott might be best? Hmm, say Peter Dutton?
The Liberals will lose more often than they win for as long as they let the bar be set by the Left, taking their cues from The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC. They will lose while they lack the passion to define the terms of debate and the wit to win it.
Fight. 
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Flanagan on the ABC: only nasty Right-wingers think it’s biased

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (8:01am)

Age writer Martin Flanagan uses the most common and comically self defeating argument of ABC defenders - that the ABC is not biased and only nasty Right-wingers would say so:
.... the rhetoric about the ABC being an enclave for Greens and the hard left is simply not true.... Anyone who tries to raise a defence of the ABC on the grounds of quality gets shouted down as a mouthpiece of the Greens and the left, the idea being that you support the ABC only because the ABC supports your politics… The government-funded ABC, by its very existence, offends Murdoch’s free market beliefs, a position shared by other right-wing ideologues. 
Er, that line would sound more convincing if it didn’t come from a writer who publicly worships Greens politicians and shills for Labor.
It would sound even better if Flanagan could interrupt his own pious generalities and address some awkward facts, like the ABC’s refusal to hire a single conservative to front its main current affairs shows. Like the ABC picking only Leftists to host Media Watch in the show’s 25 years.  Like the poll suggesting some 40 per cent of ABC staff vote Greens and around 30 per cent Labor.  Like the ABC’s vehement support for global warming alarmism and other pieties of the Left.
But what are facts to Flanagan when there’s a rollicking story to spin?

Rupert is one of those left-wing radicals who morphs into a right-wing radical and embraces conservative Catholicism for spiritual ballast.
Flanagan, now apparently on first-name terms with Murdoch, makes such a progression seem unusually common. Can he name more Australian left-wing radicals who morph into prominent right-wing radicals and then embrace conservative Catholicism? I can think of only one, and even then he was not “right wing” but conservative.
And can Flanagan explain why he considers Murdoch “right wing” rather than a libertarian or liberal? I refer Flanagan to Murdoch’s opposition to big government and his support for big immigration and republicanism.
Is this rant of Flanagan’s really what passes for profound in The Age today? These bumper-sticker simplifications, Manichean polarities, self-righteous certainties and heady inventions?
Flanagan is himself a caricature of the Left, seemingly so convinced of his goodness that he’s absolved from justifying his most passionate positions with evidence. He feels, thus need not think.

UPDATE
Another ludicrous example of the argument that only ABC is balanced and only the wicked Right would say it’s not. This time this self-evidently self-defeating claim is made by the Leftist editor of the even more Leftist Monthly:
A belief that the ABC is biased toward the “left” is an article of faith among the right… . Bias is now assumed by a small army of media commentators, including Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine, Janet Albrechtsen, Peter Reith, Gerard Henderson, Alan Jones, Piers Akerman, Greg Sheridan, Sharri Markson, Judith Sloan, Tom Switzer, Paul Kelly, Niki Savva, Nick Cater, etc, etc.
The main problem with the theory that the ABC has a left-wing bias is that it’s not true… And yet, the Right continues to allege bias...
It gets crazier:
Andrew Bolt, for instance, also finds left-wing bias in the Fairfax press, ... not to mention the Labor Party and the Greens.
The Greens are of the Left? Wow. How crazy am I?  
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Another Boko Haram massacre

Andrew Bolt November 29 2014 (5:46am)

Islam means peace
At least 120 people have been killed and 270 others wounded in a bomb and gun attack at the mosque of one of Nigeria’s top Islamic leaders…
The mosque is attached to the palace of the Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II, Nigeria’s second most senior Muslim cleric, who last week urged civilians to take up arms against Boko Haram…
The blasts came after a bomb attack was foiled against a mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri earlier on Friday, five days after two female suicide bombers killed over 45 people in the city.
National police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said the bombers blew themselves up in quick succession then “gunmen opened fire on those who were trying to escape”....
Boko Haram have a record of attacking prominent clerics. In July 2012 a suicide bomber killed five people leaving Friday prayers at the home of the Shehu of Borno in Maiduguri.
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Post by Tony Abbott.

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Post by Stylish Eve.

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Post by Matt Granz.

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Post by StandWithUs.

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Post by Dean Hamstead.

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Post by Nickolas Varvaris, Federal Member for Barton.

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Post by Timothy Snow.

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=== Posts from last year ===
"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
- Marcel Proust
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Maggot found in sushi at Highpoint
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/maggot-found-in-sushi-at-highpoint-20131128-2ydwd.html
Three bites into a sushi roll she had just bought and her stomach lurched to her throat.
.. that fresh .. ed
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Abbott-haters try too hard and look like calling wolf
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/abbott-haters-try-too-hard-and-look-like-calling-wolf/story-e6frg71x-1226770829998
WHEN news broke last week about Australia's spying activities in Indonesia, The Sydney Morning Herald columnist Richard Ackland took to Twitter to broadcast his response.
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The Incredible 1.6 kilometre-long floating city with its own airport!
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/the-incredible-16-kilometrelong-floating-city-with-its-own-airport/story-e6frfqf9-1226771036424
FLOATING around the globe, drifting from country to country, never staying in one place long enough to get bored …
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CNN cuts ‘most crucial points’ from interview with Russia's UN envoy on Syria
http://rt.com/news/churkin-interview-cnn-amanpour-446/
CNN has made significant cuts to its interview with the Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, most notably his comments on the number of people that actually support Syrian President Bashar Assad.
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Man sells testicle so he can buy a Nissan 370Z
http://www.news.com.au/technology/design/man-sells-testicle-so-he-can-buy-a-nissan-370z/story-fnjwucvh-1226768439386
SOME men, when they see a Ferrari or Lambo fly past it leaves them with a yearning so strong they jokingly declare they'd lose a portion of their genitalia to own one. One man is literally going to such lengths by selling one of his testicles so he can buy his dream car. A Nissan?
Sports cars aren't big enough for me. I used to feel I couldn't like anything too small to fit in. Then I met my wife .. ed
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Asset Group Solutions
To be an extension of our client’s business through integrity, experience and professionalism. Our growth is maintained through our dedicated staff, providing them with challenges, career opportunities and life balance.
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Ultimate Weird Japanese Commercials Compilation
http://vitaminl.tv/video/1053
Click to watch the video and write a comment
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"I could retire and be the curator of this place," says the Eleventh Doctor before an all-too-familiar, booming voice responds… 

Watch the very special cameo appearance of Fourth Doctor Tom Baker (again!) in 'The Day of the Doctor' on doctorwho.tv: http://bbc.in/TDOTDTomBaker
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PA Caught Digging at Ancient Hasmonean Fortress
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174530
The fortress, an important site in the Maccabee revolts which Hanukkah commemorates, is located in 'Area A' not under Israeli control.
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“Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done.” 1 Chronicles 16:8 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth."
3 John 3
The truth was in Gaius, and Gaius walked in the truth. If the first had not been the case, the second could never have occurred; and if the second could not be said of him the first would have been a mere pretence. Truth must enter into the soul, penetrate and saturate it, or else it is of no value. Doctrines held as a matter of creed are like bread in the hand, which ministers no nourishment to the frame; but doctrine accepted by the heart, is as food digested, which, by assimilation, sustains and builds up the body. In us truth must be a living force, an active energy, an indwelling reality, a part of the woof and warp of our being. If it be in us, we cannot henceforth part with it. A man may lose his garments or his limbs, but his inward parts are vital, and cannot be torn away without absolute loss of life. A Christian can die, but he cannot deny the truth. Now it is a rule of nature that the inward affects the outward, as light shines from the centre of the lantern through the glass: when, therefore, the truth is kindled within, its brightness soon beams forth in the outward life and conversation. It is said that the food of certain worms colours the cocoons of silk which they spin: and just so the nutriment upon which a man's inward nature lives gives a tinge to every word and deed proceeding from him. To walk in the truth, imports a life of integrity, holiness, faithfulness, and simplicity--the natural product of those principles of truth which the gospel teaches, and which the Spirit of God enables us to receive. We may judge of the secrets of the soul by their manifestation in the man's conversation. Be it ours today, O gracious Spirit, to be ruled and governed by thy divine authority, so that nothing false or sinful may reign in our hearts, lest it extend its malignant influence to our daily walk among men.

Evening

"Seeking the wealth of his people."
Esther 10:3
Mordecai was a true patriot, and therefore, being exalted to the highest position under Ahasuerus, he used his eminence to promote the prosperity of Israel. In this he was a type of Jesus, who, upon his throne of glory, seeks not his own, but spends his power for his people. It were well if every Christian would be a Mordecai to the church, striving according to his ability for its prosperity. Some are placed in stations of affluence and influence, let them honour their Lord in the high places of the earth, and testify for Jesus before great men. Others have what is far better, namely, close fellowship with the King of kings, let them be sure to plead daily for the weak of the Lord's people, the doubting, the tempted, and the comfortless. It will redound to their honour if they make much intercession for those who are in darkness and dare not draw nigh unto the mercy seat. Instructed believers may serve their Master greatly if they lay out their talents for the general good, and impart their wealth of heavenly learning to others, by teaching them the things of God. The very least in our Israel may at least seek the welfare of his people; and his desire, if he can give no more, shall be acceptable. It is at once the most Christlike and the most happy course for a believer to cease from living to himself. He who blesses others cannot fail to be blessed himself. On the other hand, to seek our own personal greatness is a wicked and unhappy plan of life, its way will be grievous and its end will be fatal.
Here is the place to ask thee, my friend, whether thou art to the best of thy power seeking the wealth of the church in thy neighbourhood? I trust thou art not doing it mischief by bitterness and scandal, nor weakening it by thy neglect. Friend, unite with the Lord's poor, bear their cross, do them all the good thou canst, and thou shalt not miss thy reward.
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Today's reading: Ezekiel 33-34, 1 Peter 5 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Ezekiel 33-34

Renewal of Ezekiel’s Call as Watchman
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. 5 Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood....’

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Peter 5

To the Elders and the Flock
1 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble....”
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Michal

The Woman Who Tricked Her Father
Scripture References - 1 Samuel 14:49; 18:20-28; 19:11-17; 25:44; 2Samuel 3:13, 14; 6:16-23; 21:8; 1 Chronicles 15:29
Name Meaning - This name is allied to the previous name, Michaiah, and also to Michael, and mean the same - "Who is like Jehovah?" Michal, along with its cognates, illustrates the comparatively small class of proper names composed of more than two words. It is a name describing an admiring acknowledgment of the transcendant unapproachable majesty of the divine nature.
Family Connections - Michal was the younger daughter of Saul, Israel's first king. Her mother was Ahinoam. She became David's first wife, was given to Phalti the son of Laish, of Gallim for a-while, but was recovered by David. As the aunt of her sister Merab's five sons, Michal cared for them after the somewhat premature death of her sister.
Michal, although a princess, does not appear to have had a very commendable character. Desire for prestige, fervor of infatuation, indifference to holiness, and idolatry mark out this Jewess who knew the covenant God yet persevered in idolatrous practices. Closely associated with David, her career can be broken up thus -
She Loved David
What young woman would not be attracted by such a strong, athletic young man, who was "ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to"? Further, David was the young shepherd who defied and killed the giant Goliath who had terrified Michal's father and his people. Thus Michal grew passionately fond of David, and made no effort to conceal her love for this much-lauded champion of Israel. While there may not be very much to admire in Michal, we cannot but express sympathy for her experiences in an age when women were treated as chattels, being thrown from one husband to another. But while "Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David," she did not love the Lord as David did. What a different story might have been written of her if she had been a woman after God's own heart!
She Married David
Saul had vowed that the man who killed Goliath would become his son-in-law, and Merab, Saul's first daughter should have been given to David, but Saul, regretting his promise, gave her to another man. David was now a veritable hero among the people, and Saul's jealousy prompted him to devise means whereby David would be slain by the Philistines. Learning of Michal's love for David, Saul asked as a dowry, usually paid to a father according to Eastern custom, the foreskins of 100 Philistines. David slew 200 Philistines, and Saul was forced to give his daughter to wife to the man whose death he had planned. As David had been victorious, Saul dared not go back upon his word. How Saul illustrates the adage that "Jealousy is as cruel as the grave"!
She Delivered David
Still bent on destroying David, Saul had David's house surrounded. In a frenzy of envy Saul had messengers "watch David to slay him in the morning." But Michal's love smelled danger and, discovering her father's intention, "let David down through a window; and he fled and escaped." Then, as a truehearted wife she tricked her father and his emissaries. With her husband safely out of the way, Michal put a hair-covered image in David's bed, and when the men burst into the supposedly sickroom, they found that they had been cleverly tricked. When Saul heard he had been outwitted, he accused his daughter of disloyalty to her father, and was most bitter in his reproach. Michal, however, pretended that David had threatened to kill her if she did not help him to escape.
She Forsook David
After this incident, Michal's love for David waned. Where was the pleasure in being the wife of a man forced to spend his days a fugitive, hunted like a wild animal in the wilderness? Phalti of Gallem was a better catch, she thought, seeing he was on his way to royalty which she was eager to secure and hold. So Michal became the wife of Phalti. This was an illegitimate union seeing David was alive and was in no way lawfully separated from Michal as her husband. That Phalti cared for Michal is proven by the way he followed her, weeping, when she decided to leave him for her former husband.
She Was Restored to David
With Saul's death, circumstances changed for David whom God had already chosen to be king over His people. Michal and her husband Phalti were living to the east of Jordan during the short rule of Ishbosheth. Abner made an arrangement to assist David to take over the kingship of the nation, and David made the restoration of Michal the one condition of the league. So despite Phalti's sorrowful protest, Michal was forcibly restored to David as he returned from his wanderings as king. Evidently his ardor for Michal was the same as at the first, and his desire to claim her proves how he wanted her as queen in Hebron.
How pathetic it is to read of Phalti with whom Michal had lived for some considerable time. We see his sorrow as he went with her in tears, only to be rudely sent back by Abner! We do not read of Michal weeping as she left the man who had showered so much affection upon her. It did not require much force to make her leave Phalti. Her pride and love for prestige left little room for weeping and although she knew she could never become David's ideal love, seeing she had been the possession of another man, yet as his first wife Michal thought of the position that would be hers at court.
She Despised David
The closing scene between Michal and David is most moving, for what love Michal might have had for David turned to scorn and disdain. After making Jerusalem his capital, David brought the sacred Ark of the covenant, the ancient symbol of Jehovah's presence, to Moriah. On the day of the Ark's return David was so joyful that, stripping himself of his royal robes, he "danced before the Lord with all his might." Michal watched from a window and seeing David - the king - leaping and dancing before the Lord, she "despised him in her heart." Although she had loved him, risked her life for his safety, she now abhors him for his loss of royal dignity. Her haughtiness was shocked by David's participation in such an excitable demonstration.
Nursing her contempt Michal waited until David returned to his household. When they met, she with a biting sarcasm, revealing "her self-pride, and lack of sensitiveness to her husband's magnificent simplicity," sneeringly said, "How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!" For her there were no pious and affectionate feelings at the return of the Ark to Zion. Like her father, Saul, she had no regard for the Ark of God ( 1 Chronicles 13:3 ). But David, mortified by Michal's pride as a king's daughter, was curt in his reply. Resenting her reproach, he made it clear in no uncertain terms that he was not ashamed of what he had done "before the Lord" who had chosen him rather than any of Saul's family to reign as king. Michal had missed the essential significance of David's career, that in spite of his failures he was a man after God's own heart. As Alexander Whyte put it, "What was David's meat was Michal's poison. What was sweeter than honey to David was gall and wormwood to Michal.... At the despicable sight [of David dancing] she spat at him, and sank back in her seat with all hell in her heart.... Michal is a divine looking-glass for all angry and outspoken wives."
She Lost David
After such an outburst of reproach we read that "Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death," and such a final flat statement practically means that she lived apart from David, more or less divorced (2 Samuel 6:16 ). The estrangement between them likely became more acute because of the other wives now sharing David's prosperity. Childless till her death was a punishment appropriate to her transgression. David was given many sons and daughters, and her sister Merab bore five sons, but Michal never achieved the great attainment of being a mother. She ended her days without the love and companionship of a husband, caring for her dead sister's five children, all of whom were ultimately beheaded.
What can we learn from this story of Michal and David? Misunderstanding arose in their relationship because of a clash of temperament, outlook and purpose. Had Michal shared David's faith in God how different life would have been for both of them. But Michal made no effort to understand her husband's Godward desires and so passed a wrong judgment upon him. How certain we should be of a person's motive for his acts or attitudes before we condemn him. Further, had Michal loved David enough, she should have sought his forgiveness after he had explained his demeanor before the Lord. "She worshipped him when he was poor and unknown and now that he is King 'she despised him in her heart' ... David realized they could never love the same God. Therefore he cut her from his heart." But being eaten up with pride there was no tolerance in her heart and so harmony was impossible. Love brings harmony and understanding into every human relationship. A fellow-minister confided in Alexander Whyte that he preached and prayed best when his wife stayed at home. This was something of the gulf between David and Michal. How different it is when husbands truly love their wives and wives sincerely reverence their husbands!
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Jonah, Jona, Jonas [Jō'nah,Jō'nă, Jō'nas]—a dove. The son of Amittai, and the first Hebrew prophet, or missionary, sent to a heathen nation (2 Kings 14:25; Jonah 1:1).

The Man Who Ran Away

The meaning of the prophet’s name is suggestive. When first chosen, it doubtless meant to Jonah’s mother gentleness and love. This son of Amittai was a citizen of Gath-hepher in Zebulun of Galilee and a subject of the Northern Kingdom. He is thus a proof of the false statement of the Pharisees about no prophet coming out of Galilee (John 7:52).
Jonah lived in the early part of the reign of Jeroboam II, and in a period when the kingdom was in a divided and abject condition. He is without doubt one of the earliest, if not the first, of the prophets whose writings are preserved to us. He is the first of a new order of prophets, appearing that he might declare God’s love claims the whole world. By friend and foe Jonah has been ridiculed and tortured and treated as a myth or parable. Our Lord, however, believed him to be a historic person; so do we! For proof in this direction compare Jonah 1:7 with Matthew 12:39, 40 and Luke 11:29, 30; Jonah 3:5with Matthew 12:41.
Jonah’s mission was to Nineveh and therefore beyond the bounds of Israel, which is in perfect harmony; for whenever God brought His people into any relation with other peoples, He made Himself known to them as was the case in Egypt through Joseph and Moses; to the Philistines through the capture of the Ark; to the Assyrians by Elisha; to Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzer by Daniel.
Within the Book of Jonah we have the most beautiful story ever told in so small a compass. In 1,328 words we are given a wealth of incident and all the dialogue needed to carry on the grand and varied action. Jonah was an isolationist, believing that salvation was for the Jews, and the Jews only. Through affliction he came to know of God’s embracing love (John 3:16). Dealing with Jonah as a servant, Dr. C. I. Scofield gives us these helpful points: disobedient (Jonah 1:1-11 ); afflicted (Jonah 1:12-17); praying (Jonah 2:1-9); delivered (Jonah 2:10); recommissioned (Jonah 3:1-3); powerful ( Jonah 3:4-10 ); perplexed, fainting but not forsaken (Jonah 4:1-11).
Another serviceable outline for the worker can be developed around these thoughts:
Chapter one: A disobedient prophet running from God and punished.
Chapter two: A praying prophet running back to God and delivered.
Chapter three: A faithful prophet running with God and rewarded.
Chapter four: An angry prophet running ahead of God and rebuked.
Here are other aspects to deal with: Jonah was sent to a foreign field ( Jonah 1:2); sought to flee from his unwelcome task (Jonah 1:3); was overtaken in his flight (Jonah 1:4-17); found God in the depth of the sea ( Ps. 139:10; Jonah 2); became a revivalist (Jonah 3); was disappointed with his own work ( Jonah 3:5-10; 4:1); reveals bigotry (Jonah 4:1-3); was taught the breadth of divine mercy (Jonah 4:4-11). See belowJONAS, JONA.
Jona is given as the name of the father of Peter (Matt. 16:17;John 1:42; 21:15).
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