Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Wed Dec 31st Todays News

In defence of the faithful for the new year.
Not just one religion, the faithful come from Western religions and Eastern philosophy. But as Herodotus observed in his inquiry into the world of the fifth century BC, The Histories, faithful people tend to be good people everywhere. He distanced his comment from zealots. He travelled the world and wrote about what he saw. We know he lied about things too. But his simple observation regarding the faithful has as much truth today as it did then.  The faithful would offer Herodotus food, drink and advice. He sought local knowledge, and when he came to a new town or village, it was the faithful he could rely on. Those who cared little for faith also cared little for strangers who were poor. 

 The same might be said today, but for the confusion of the description 'faithful' being applied to zealots and jihadists who, rather than following a God, seem to make up self serving rules. Some will be quick to denounce all Islam as jihadist, but they aren't. And not all so called Christians know Christ. Some Christian parents are enduring the pain of their child suiciding over the issue of gender conformity. The press are quick to blame the parents. Maybe the parents are responsible for the dysfunction, but the extreme response of suicide suggests more is at play. Possibly the child had unrealistic expectations of what gender reassignment would mean. No one gets all they want all the time in life. But, while it is the case that aid organisations have a secular outreach, they are often funded by the faithful.  

The New Year is a change of number, but also a time for reflection and evaluation. You aren't a greater person for having faith, or a lesser person for being Atheist. But you are responsible for your choices and behaviour. And you have been too. The Indian Philosopher Deepak Chopra said regardless of where you are, you are there because of choices you made. Happy New Year. 
2013
I was about 15 years old when my father said I could achieve a more balanced political view if I were to watch what the politicians and parties said, and looked to see if they kept their promises. I had said to him that I thought Greiner was a 'Wide Mouthed Frog' which he had been labelled by papers in '83. I was a lefty as my mother wanted me to be. about 31 years later .. here is what I have seen.

On budgets, ALP have never balanced a budget. They had a surplus a few times, long ago, but they have spent big on things that are useless, and have promised to spend bigger when they were desperate. Unsworth promised a birthday cake for Darlinghurst if he were elected over Greiner.

On corruption, ALP have had all the running. There were a few Liberal ministers who shipped on military vessels some colour tv sets for themselves and lost their positions under Fraser, but compare that with involvement in drug trade, pedophilia, theft, extortion, murder, organised crime and a press that won't investigate when the ALP are involved, and the ALP win the category.

On increased wages for fair work, ALP have cut pay on average, while the Libs have increased pay on average, about 2% each way, so that voting conservative has meant a 4% wage boost each year.

On work conditions, ALP tend to kill workers, soldiers, casual employees, railway fatalities. Natural disasters tend to be badly managed under ALP, or inflamed. cf floods, fires, cyclones.

On police, ALP promise more police on the streets, but they blow their budgets and so there are fewer where they are needed. The producers have worked hard to obscure it, but note the lack of will in police when the ALP are in government as seen in Underbelly productions, or the will that police have to support individuals under conservatives.
Teachers and schools are promised much by the ALP, but it is always resulting in them being taken for granted. Large classrooms are not the problem, but dysfunctional schools are. ALP spend big on education, but rarely is it well directed. Meanwhile conservatives have worked to keep the systems from falling apart. Australian schools aren't bad, when the office ladies aren't too busy making gender neutral pupil records. Blowing billions on bad computers or school halls that are overpriced is not a kept promise to anyone.
Health is a boom industry with an ageing population and improved but expensive care, and medicare would not work had Howard not made important decisions in everyone's interest, or had Greiner not saved the state from falling into the black holes ALP led the others to in the late 80's.

Roads, railways infrastructure, NBN, the promises the ALP make are broad, but fail. NBN is not as effective as wireless. It is very expensive. Roads under ALP are poor .. compare the sound of travelling NSW roads and their bumps with Victorian ones .. the big difference is NSW usually has an ALP government while Victoria is usually Liberal. The last time NSW and Australian governments were Liberal the Opera House and Snowy Mountain scheme were completed. Last time NSW and Australian governments were both ALP and both disavowed responsibility for education, hospitals etc etc.

Environment and dams are built by conservative governments and Australia is a wet continent in the north, and dry in the south. With a significant body of fresh water in central Australia summer heat waves emanating from a heated central Australia would not happen. The population could increase safely. ALP build desalination plants.
Migration under conservatives is high, as it should be, and far safer

Welfare is better directed under Liberals to poor people. ALP point to what they call middle class welfare but the figures show the ALP spend more .. on more people. Aboriginal welfare under Howard was effective with the intervention. But the white activists benefit under ALP.

Happy New Year, folks. And Australians should be pleased with their shiny new federal government
Historical perspectives on this day
In 406, Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul. 535, Byzantine general Belisarius completed the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Gothic garrison of Palermo (Panormos), and ending his consulship for the year. 1225, the Lý dynasty of Vietnam ended after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Trần Thái Tông, husband of the last Lý monarch, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, starting the Trần dynasty. 1229, James I of Aragon the Conqueror entered Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca. 1501, the First Battle of Cannanore commenced. 1600, the British East India Company was chartered. 1660, James II of England was named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France. 1687, the first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope. 1695, a window tax was imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax. 1757, Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issued her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia. 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness. 1775, American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulsed an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery. 1790 Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today, was published for the first time. 1796, the incorporation of Baltimore as a city.

 In 1831, Gramercy Park was deeded to New York City. 1853, a dinner party was held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owenin south London, England. 1857, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.1862, American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signed an act that admitted West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two. Also 1862, American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River began near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 1878, Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879. 1879, Thomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey. 1906, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signed the Persian Constitution of 1906. 1907, the first New Year's Eve celebration was held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York. 1909, Manhattan Bridge opened. 1923, the chimes of Big Ben were broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC. 1944, World War II: Hungary declared war on Nazi Germany. Also 1944, World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front began. 1946, president Harry S. Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

 In 1951, the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe. 1955, General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. 1960, the farthing coin ceased to be legal tender in the United Kingdom. 1961, RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launched its first national television service. 1963, The Central African Federation officially collapsed, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. 1965, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers began a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko. 1967, the Youth International Party, popularly known as the "Yippies", was founded. 1981, a coup d'état in Ghana removed President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaced it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. 1983, the AT&T Bell System was broken up by the United States Government. Also 1983, in Nigeria a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ended the Second Nigerian Republic. 1986, a fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140. 1988, Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux became the only National Hockey League player to score goals in five different ways: even strength, shorthanded, power play, penalty shot, and empty net, during an 8–6 win over the New Jersey Devils. 1988, first Winter Ascent of Lhotse (8,516m) by Krzysztof Wielicki (solo).

 In 1991, all official Soviet Union institutions had ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. 1992, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved in what was dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 1994, this date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands changed time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively. Also 1994, the First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storming of Grozny. 1998, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism froze the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and established the value of the euro currency. 1999, first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigned from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. Also 1999, the United States Government handed control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties. Also 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ended after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan. 2004, the official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft). 2009, both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occurred. 2010, Tornadoes touch down in midwestern and southern United States, including Washington County, Arkansas; Greater St. Louis, Sunset Hills, Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma, with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages. 2011, NASA succeeded in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.
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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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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406
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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 Sher Maine Leong, Rick Mills and Daravone. Ee Born on the same day, across the years .. the anniversary of Christ circumcised. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
Taipei 101, 2008 New Year firework
We repulsed them. We are logged in. It is time. They were disgruntled. Stand tall. And party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2014
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SYMBOLIC SUPPORT

Tim Blair – Wednesday, December 31, 2014 (3:03pm)

The perfect leftist statement from Fairfax’s Clementine Ford: 
I’ll symbolically ride with anyone targeted by bigotry and oppression. 
Just don’t try to symbolically shake her hand during that ride. Readers are invited to make their own symbolic declarations in comments.
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TALES FROM THE DSP

Tim Blair – Wednesday, December 31, 2014 (3:46am)

Many more Australians receive the disability pension than are unemployed. Here are two of their stories: 
A disability pensioner of 15 years must repay $73,000 after it was found he owned many properties, raked in vast sums in rent, owned luxury cars including a Rolls-Royce, and had his own poultry farm business.
Peter Kooyoufas was on the DSP from March 1996 until April 2012, when it was found he’d bought a Cranbourne South farm for $530,000. 
And then there is this fellow: 
A Sydney man who convinced a doctor that he had limb injuries so severe that he couldn’t dress himself, caught a train and walked carrying a backpack to a hearing to appeal the government’s rejection of his Disability Support Pension claim.
Kamel El Cheikh, who emigrated from Lebanon in 2005, had obtained a doctor’s sign-off on the necessary points to apply for the DSP.
But the claim was rejected by two government agencies and again by the administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia before Christmas. 
The straw that broke Kamel’s back, you might say.
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ANOTHER TYPE OF FRIGHTBAT

Tim Blair – Wednesday, December 31, 2014 (2:37am)

During the 1980s, when West Indian fast bowlers dominated world cricket, some thought was given to lengthening cricket pitches. One extra yard, went the theory, would both protect batsmen and reintroduce spin bowlers to the game.
The emergence of spinners Abdul Qadir and  Shane Warne, the decline of the West Indian pace attack and the refinement of batting safety equipment meant such a drastic change was eventually deemed unnecessary.
Now, however, it is bowlers who are under threat.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'ANOTHER TYPE OF FRIGHTBAT'
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C. S. Lewis
"Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it." 
~Mere Christianity
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Post by Climate Change LIES.

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Post by Mike Olbinski.

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Post by Matt Granz.

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Post by Matt Granz.

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I'm relentless ..
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=== Posts from last year ===

The Lefts’ crystal balls-ups

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, December 31, 2013 (6:52pm)

NOW the Year of the Selfie is over, and a conservative government is in charge, we can look forward to the following dispatches from Gnashville over the next 12 months.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Lefts’ crystal balls-ups'
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WARMIES WORRIED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 31, 2013 (1:19pm)

The ABC’s Wendy Harmer chats with Antarctica’s frozen warmies: 
Told Prof Chris Turney on radio this a.m. his trapped ship being touted as evidence of no global warming. Oh how he laughed at the “loonies”! 
We’re not the ones becoming an international joke due to ice comedy. And not everybody on board shares Turney’s sunny outlook: 
Andrew Peacock, a photographer aboard the ship, said via email to National Geographic that “the mood is getting more frustrated by the day.”
He added, “There are so many variables—every briefing is different—and people are getting a little worried now while the weather stays poor. Lack of control and missing loved ones are starting to put some emotion into our conversations!” 
UPDATE. John Hayward: 
You’d need a heart of stone not to laugh at the spectacle of global warming fanatics trapped in the ice on their way to Antarctica, where they planned to make a big deal about the relative shortage of ice. It’s even funnier because the highly sympathetic mainstream media so clearly understands how utterly embarrassing this is. 
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A change in the climate

Andrew Bolt December 31 2013 (12:05pm)


Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman, now head of the Prime Minister’s business advisory council:
From the UN down, the climate change delusion is a gigantic money tree. It is a tyranny that, despite its pretensions, favours the rich and politically powerful at the expense of the poor and powerless. But the madness of the crowds is waning and, as Mackay writes of the perpetrators: “Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.” We can only hope it comes before most of us descend into serfdom.
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How many more failed court cases before we accept there were no “stolen generations”?

Andrew Bolt December 31 2013 (10:32am)

The "stolen generations"

When will politicians, journalists and academics have the courage - and honesty - to concedethere were no “stolen generations” as usually defined?
Tony Thomas on yet another claim that’s collapsed in court against the evidence:
Justice Janine Pritchard in the WA Supreme Court on December 20 rejected claims that from 1958-79 there was any official program in WA to implement the so-called Stolen Generation policy. Her judgment dismissed damages claims by the Aboriginal Don and Sylvia Collard and seven of their 14 children removed or made state wards.
She specifically dealt with a claim that the children were removed “pursuant to a policy of assimilation of aboriginal children.” She found the children were instead removed, mainly to Sister Kate’s in Perth, to safeguard their physical welfare.
This is the twentieth case in State, Federal and High Courts involving significant Stolen Generations claims, and the nineteenth to see the claims thrown out. Justice Pritchard found:
“The references to ‘assimilation’ in the evidence I have set out above are not sufficient to support a finding on the balance of probabilities that at the time of the wardships there was, within the Department of Native Welfare or the Child Welfare Department, the pursuit of a policy of assimilation of aboriginal people into white Australian society through the wardship of aboriginal children...”

The one successful claim in fact proves there was indeed no sanctioned policy (in South Australia, in this case) to remove Aboriginal children just for being Aboriginal:


In SA, the Trevorrow case involved an unlawful removal of Bruce Trevorrow as an ailing one-year-old from his parents in early 1958. The removal was done by a well-meaning but inexperienced Aboriginal welfare worker, contrary to official policy. Trevorrow was adopted by a caring white couple but his life became dysfunctional. He won $775,000 damages in 2007-08. This remains the only successful “Stolen Generation” case, although it in fact demonstrated that SA government policy was against any racial removals of half-castes, rogue welfare workers notwithstanding.
The “stolen generations” is a giant intellectual fraud with unforgivable consequences - Aboriginal children being left in dangers from which they would have been rescued had they been white. Some children have paid for this with their lives.
To this judgement in Western Australia add the following.
In Victoria: 
Victoria’s Aboriginal-led Stolen Generations Taskforce ... could find no Victorian Aboriginal who had been truly stolen, and concluded that in Victoria “there was no formal policy for removing children”. 
In the Northern Territory (the Federal Court’s finding in the Gunner and Cubillo case): 

I am limited to making findings on the evidence that was presented to this Court in these proceedings; that evidence does not support a finding that there was any policy of removal of part-Aboriginal children such as that alleged by the applicants...
In South Australia:

It was Christmas 50 years ago when Joe Trevorrow left his hut of scrap iron and sacks on the Coorong to ask his neighbours - relatives of his partner, Thora - to drive his sick baby to Adelaide’s children’s hospital… 
Who knows what Thora’s relatives told the doctors, but the hospital’s notes say the baby, Bruce Trevorrow, was a “neglected child - without parents”, suffering from “malnutrition” and “infective diarrhoea"‘.
The notes add: “The other two children are neglected. Mother has cleared out and father is boozing.”
This is the baby that just two weeks later was given to an Adelaide family.. Unforgiveably, Joe and Thora were never asked for permission to give away their baby. ..
As [Justice] Gray ruled: “Mrs Angas [the welfare worker who gave away the baby] may have been well-intentioned ... but was well aware, or ought to have been aware, that the removal of the plaintiff from his family, and his placement with the Davies family, was undertaken in circumstances that were understood to be without legal authority, beyond power and contrary to authoritative legal advice."…
The picture the judge paints over many pages is compelling: South Australia never had any laws—or policies - authorising anyone to steal Aboriginal children for racist reasons. Gray noted, for instance, that in 1923, as South Australia passed a law to help neglected Aboriginal children, the then treasurer assured Parliament: “The dictates of humanity forbid the state to deprive mothers of their infant children in cases where their mothers desire to keep them.”
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Media cover-up:  warmist scientists trapped by ice are just “tourists”

Andrew Bolt December 31 2013 (9:12am)

Global warming - dud predictions, Global warming - propaganda

The farce: warmist scientists and reporters sail to Antarctica to find signs of the global warming they claim has changed that continent since Douglas Mawson explored it a century ago. Instead, they find sea ice when Mawson didn’t and their ship is locked in.
Be clear about the joke here. This Australasian Antarctica Expedition was meant to scare us about global warming changing Antarctica, causing melting instead of all this damn ice. As the expedition leaders said on their website:
… there is an increasing body of evidence, including by the AAE members, that have identified parts of the East Antarctic which are highly susceptible to melting and collapse from ocean warming… We are going south to ...  determine the extent to which human activity and pollution has directly impacted on this remote region of Antarctica.
Now to the media cover-up.
Note the Sydney Morning Herald’s coverage this morning. It has a reporter on the third ice-breaker to go to the expedition’s help, only to be driven back by thick ice. There is no mention in her stories of global warming, the trapped mission’s quixotic quest or how stupid those warmists now look. There is no mention that sea ice around Antarctica has steadily increased over the past three decades, contrary to what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admits its climate models predicted.
Instead, the SMH republishes a tweet from the trapped expedition’s leader, Professor Chris Turney, still insisting he’s unnaturally warm despite being packed in by ice:

image
Turney is now the Black Knight of global warming:

In fact, it does indeed rain in Antarctica in summer, as the Mawson’s Huts Foundation demonstrates.
Then there’s this:

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Jo Nova is astonished by a media cover-up that has changed what was a ship of climate scientists into a ship of mere “tourists”: 
A month ago the mission of the $1.5m expedition was “to answer questions about climate change”. Now the ABC describes the Australasian expedition as “a Russian ship stuck in sea ice in Antarctica.” ... 
Let there be no doubt, the mission was to document and record scientific changes in Antarctica and to broadcast that to the world. Most scientific missions don’t have a dedicated media team, but this one named a staff of five journalists. There is a journalist and a documentary maker from the Guardian as well as a senior producer from the Science Unit at the BBC world service. (See the media list.) If they’d discovered less sea ice, fewer penguins, or big cracks, we know the images would be all over the mass media and it would be evidence for “climate change”.
But with the MV Akademik Shokalskiy trapped by thick sea ice, the mission apparently is to call it a tourist boat. The BBC now tell us the mission was “to follow the route explorer Douglas Mawson travelled a century ago”. Don’t mention the climate…
The spin is that team has “met heavy ice”. Not “been trapped by unprecedentedly thick sea ice, unlike anything Mawson ever saw, and in record levels”. If they had met thin sea ice, would it have been described as a dangerously thin layer, a risk for penguins, and a stark reminder of how much the climate is changing? Would it have been an undeniable factoid? It’s not what the ABC says, it’s what they don’t say (a.k.a. “lying by omission"). The headlines could read “Global warming scientists trapped in Antarctica by record sea ice they didn’t predict”. As if. That would be against the religion.
Instead, there are reports from the ABC like this, with no mention of climate change or what the “passengers” on the “cruise ship” were actually up to:
TONY EASTLEY: The Australian operation to rescue passengers from a Russian cruise ship stuck in thick Antarctic sea ice, is continuing this morning, but it’s slow going. 
The Aurora Australis ice-breaker is the third vessel to try to help the stricken expedition ship, which has been trapped since Christmas Eve.
Authorities say the scientists and tourist on board the Russian vessel are packed and ready to go. But deteriorating conditions mean any rescue is unlikely any time soon.
Another ABC report that fails to mention the scientists and journalists were actually trying to prove global warming was changing Antarctica: 

An Australian icebreaker has abandoned its attempt to rescue a Russian-flagged ship stuck in sea ice in Antarctica due to adverse weather conditions… 
The Akademik Shokalskiy had been retracing Sir Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic expedition and conducting scientific research when sea ice closed in about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart. The 74 people on board, including scientists, crew members and paying passengers, have been stranded since Christmas Eve.
More from Watts Up With That.
By the way, how much is the rescue of these warmists costing - in money and emissions?
UPDATE
Reader Katherine in the Bush:
Remember the sea captain who hated his first mate? Every few days he wrote in the log, “first mate was sober today.” This resulted in the first mate being dismissed for drunkenness when they returned to port. The whole truth was that the first mate had been sober every day. Journalists have taken a leaf out of the sea captain’s book to the detriment of our country. 
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Mines are too ugly for rich men buying their horses

Andrew Bolt December 31 2013 (8:45am)


The NSW Planning and Assessment Commission has just defined our times for us.
It has ruled that a coal mine is simply too ugly for rich people to have anywhere near where they shop for that most exclusive of toys - the thoroughbred horse - and thus must be banned.
Moreover, the mine it has rejected would have kept 500 Australian workers in their jobs. The two horse studs it wants protected are owned by Irish investors and a Middle Eastern Sheik.
The story: 
Anglo American owners of the Drayton open cut mine had proposed to continue their operations into the southern part of their existing mine lease once current production ceased in 2015. 
Their development known as the Drayton South project would have utilised existing Drayton infrastructure and equipment as well as their 500 employees and over the life of the mine deliver $950million in royalties to the state government.
Add to that company tax and the income tax of employees and contractors, plus spin offs for local business. 
But the expansion of the mine brought it close to two of the country’s biggest thoroughbred horse studs Coolmore and Darley (Woodlands) near Jerrys Plains… In the review the two studs are described as being the core operations that support the entire Upper Hunter Critical Industry Cluster – Equine (CIC) and therefore they need protection from the mine and this would require a buffer of at least several kilometres not the proposed 500metres…

The two studs produce almost half of the country’s stallion fees…
Anglo American’s Coal business, chief executive officer, Seamus French, said this decision was a severe blow to the 500 people who work at Drayton mine and the families they support.
“We have followed all the rules, consulted extensively and made $6 billion worth of compromises to reduce project impacts through revised mine designs,” Mr French said. “Significantly, we have forgone 53 million tonnes of coal, worth more than $5 billion, to move the mine behind the ridgeline to negate the visual impacts on our neighbours...”
Here, from the PAC report, is the critical issue, dressed up with fashionable buzz words such as “brandscape”. Note that security gates to lock out the hoi polloi are cited as a point in favor of the horse studs:

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The rich must have their horses. The poor won’t have the wages to even watch. 
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Labor heavy-weight implicated in community club conflict
www.abc.net.au
Joe Tripodi has been a power-broker in the troubled NSW Labor Party. Reporter Adam Harvey looks at his connections to the Eddie Obeid faction known as 'The Terrigals', and a small soccer club.
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'Shark' photobombs mother's pic of surfing kids at Manhattan Beach
www.news.com.au
A MOTHER looking through photographs she snapped of her son at the beach has made a startling discovery.
Photobombing, surfing, hunting .. what ever .. ed
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Ibragim Todashev's father writes open letter to President Obama
www.news.com.au
THE father of a man shot to death by authorities in Florida while being questioned during the Boston Marathon bombing investigation has written President Barack Obama asking for help finding out what happened.
A simple explanation. Had his son killed the agents, he could have claimed they weren't people he was expecting and they were armed and he was frightened. Instead, he resisted deadly force and failed. - ed
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Crowds go cold on climate cost
www.theaustralian.com.au
IN his marvellous chronicle of human gullibility, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay wrote: "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one."
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CHICK CHAT

A man is alone in an airport lounge.

Two beautiful women walk in and sit down at the table next to him.

He decides because they are wearing a uniform, they are probably off-duty flight attendants.

He decides to have a go at picking them up by identifying the airline they fly for.

He leans across and says the British Airways motto : ' To Fly. To Serve '?

The women look at him blankly.

He sits back and thinks again.

Leans forward and delivers the Air France motto ' Winning the hearts of the world '?

Again they just stare at him.

Undeterred, he tries again, this time saying the Malaysian Airlines motto ' Going beyond expectations '?

The women gives him a cutting look and say " What the fuck do you want ? "

" Aha! " he says, " QANTAS ! "
 
Wow, I now appreciate the pilot more .. ed
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Sarah Palin
Holy unbelievable. The hypocritical leftist lamestream media should be shamed by every caring, child-loving American. It has once again reached a new low. See the article linked below. One just can't win in their petty little games. Good thing most Americans don't play those little games! It's a beautiful thing the Romney family has done by embracing “the spirit of adoption.” What on earth is more beautiful? Shame on MSNBC for mocking this.

The LSM's pursuit of “shock ratings” is unreal. Governor Mitt Romney ran for higher office with what I believe is a servant's heart. He was saddled with some sup-par campaign tactics. That does not make him a bad person nor does it open his children or grandchildren to attacks over a year after the fact. This latest attack from the Left is despicable.

Leftist media hounds are not expressing an opinion with this attack; they are expressing a prejudice that would never be accepted if it came from anyone else but the lib media.

You really need a conscience, yellow journalists. May your 2014 New Year's Resolution be to find one.

Thank you, Romney family, for giving a child a family full of love.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/12/30/menbc-harri-sperry-panel-mocks-romneys-black-grandson
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Michelle Malkin
Racism is hilarious! MSNBC panel mocks, belittles Romneys’ adopted grandson == http://twitchy.com/2013/12/30/racism-is-hilarious-msnbc-panel-mocks-belittles-romneys-adopted-grandson/
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Melanie Phillips Electric Media
www.embooks.com
emBooks LLC is the ebooks division of Melanie Phillips Electric Media LLC. It publishes ebooks that can be enjoyed on fixed screens and mobile devices. All emBooks provide quality reading entertainment, lavishly illustrated and focused on the moral and political issues of today.
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<The Perkal Brothers were an institution and part of Sydney's establishment.

I saw Morris Perkal (left) only two weeks ago mourning his late brother Adam.

Artisans like these are a rarity.

They made shoes just recently for my sister, a client of their's for forty years.

Baruch Dayan Emet.>
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Child Who Survived Itamar Massacre: Why is Israel Releasing Murderers?
virtualjerusalem.com
11-year-old Roi Fogel, whose parents and three siblings were brutally murdered, and mutilated by Arab terrorists in the Shomron town of Itamar in 2011, wants to know why the Israeli government is releasing terrorist murderers.
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Israel Matzav: New report shows Israeli government conspiring to maintain Wakf control over...
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2013/12/new-report-shows-israeli-government.html
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-tw...
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Guide Dogs at the Western Wall: Supporting the Blind
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/guide-dogs-at-the-western-wall-supporting-the-blind/2013/12/30/0/
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz prohibited guide dogs from the lower plaza of the Western Wall.
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Wiesenthal Center’s Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs of 2013
www.jewishpress.com
Arabs, Jews, Muslims, Europeans and Americans are well-represented.
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London's St. James Church chooses Hitler as its savior, sparks outrage
communities.washingtontimes.com
Would Jesus approve?
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'….due to US pressure on Israel….due to US pressure on Israel….due to US pressure on Israel…..due to US pressure on Israel…..

….In 1992, the two men firebombed a civilian bus, murdering Rachel Weiss, who was nine months pregnant, and three of her pre-school aged children, as well as IDF soldier David Delarosa, who tried to save them.

They were released on Monday, due to US pressure on Israel and received back home to heroes’ welcomes. Their freedom empowers Palestinians who reject Israel’s right to exist and seek its destruction through acts of genocide against its Jewish citizens.

…..due to US pressure on Israel……" - Caroline Glick
Our World: Empowering Palestinians who reject Israel’s right to exist
www.jpost.com
"Today a core goal of US Middle East policy is to secure the release of Palestinian mass murderers from Israeli prisons."
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Muslim Missionaries Converting Jewish Women in Israel
www.israelnationalnews.com
Dar Al-Islam center in Arab Israeli village preys on unhappy Jewish women, ropes them into Islam.
I question the assertion that this is a trend. trendy lefty types do all sorts of things .. this isn't new. You don't want to lose quality people, and I doubt you are. They'll not enjoy their choices as they get older .. ed
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Dr. Denis MacEoin’s letter to St. James Church
blogs.timesofisrael.com
St. James’s Church in Piccadilly, London is hosting a Christmas festival with a giant replica of......
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The end of a Deep South way of life
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25430384
The cotton industry brought Jewish merchants to the Southern Delta in the 19th Century. But a century and a half later, their descendents are preparing for the end of some once-thriving communities.
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““I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”” John 16:33 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof."
Ecclesiastes 7:8
Look at David's Lord and Master; see his beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at his Father's right hand, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. "As he is, so are we also in this world." You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." See that creeping worm, how contemptible its appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped up in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is. Be content to be like him, a worm and no man, that like him you may be satisfied when you wake up in his likeness. That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all sides. It loses much--much that seemed costly to itself. The king is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch's head with trumpet's joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from that coronet, and it beams from that very diamond which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary. You may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God's people; and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you. "They shall be mine," saith the Lord, "in the day when I make up my jewels." "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof."

Evening

"Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?"
2 Samuel 2:26
If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a possessor of the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following lines are a true ketch of thine end.
You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go because others go, not because your heart is right with God. This is your beginning. I will suppose that for the next twenty or thirty years you will be spared to go on as you do now, professing religion by an outward attendance upon the means of grace, but having no heart in the matter. Tread softly, for I must show you the deathbed of such a one as yourself. Let us gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is on his brow, and he wakes up crying, "O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my minister?" "Yes, he is coming." The minister comes. "Sir, I fear that I am dying!" "Have you any hope?" "I cannot say that I have. I fear to stand before my God; oh! pray for me." The prayer is offered for him with sincere earnestness, and the way of salvation is for the ten-thousandth time put before him, but before he has grasped the rope, I see him sink. I may put my finger upon those cold eyelids, for they will never see anything here again. But where is the man, and where are the man's true eyes? It is written, "In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before? Because he was so accustomed to hear the gospel that his soul slept under it. Alas! if you should lift up your eyes there, how bitter will be your wailings. Let the Saviour's own words reveal the woe: "Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." There is a frightful meaning in those words. May you never have to spell it out by the red light of Jehovah's wrath!
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Today's reading: Zechariah 13-14, Revelation 21 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Zechariah 9-12

Cleansing From Sin
1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the LORD’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.
4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. 5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends....’

Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 20

A New Heaven and a New Earth
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true....”
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Simeon, Symeon [Sĭm'eon]—hearing, hears and obeys orhearing with acceptance.
1. The second son of Jacob by Leah(Gen. 29:33).

The Man Who Was Self-Willed

It is not easy to deal with Simeon alone, since he is always associated with his brother, Levi. “Simeon and Levi are brethren” (Gen. 49:5 ). Of Simeon’s personal history we know little. His name implies hearing with obedience, but Simeon was deaf in the day he should have heard, and disobedient and irresponsive when his lot hung in balance.
The first thing recorded about Simeon is that with Levi his brother, he drew the sword in treachery against the Shechemites and slew all the males. When rebuked by their father, they upheld indignantly their right to act as they did. Both acted “in their selfwill” (Gen. 49:6), which means they took malicious delight in their gross crime.
Simeon next appears in the story of Joseph, who felt it would be better to retain Simeon until Benjamin had been brought to the palace. Joseph felt with his father Jacob that Simeon and Levi would be best apart. In fact, Simeon had no blessing while joined with Levi and no prosperity while he was with Reuben. When separated, Simeon, at first, did not multiply (1 Chron. 4:24-27). During the forty years in the wilderness the decrease of Simeon was remarkable. Because of the idolatry of the tribe, thousands were slain.
In the land of Canaan, Simeon joined with Judah, and this association marked a turning point in the history of the tribe. Judah and Simeon went up together to Canaan (Judg. 1:1-3). Simeon means “obedient hearing,” and Judah, “praise.” The absorption of Simeon into the inheritance of Judah gave Simeon a place and work in Israel. In the final division of the land, foretold by Ezekiel, between Benjamin and Issachar, there is a portion for Simeon.
Over the gate to the Golden City, Simeon’s name is inscribed—“Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed 12,000”—a way for even Simeon to enter the city of God above. From the time the Simeonites became aware of what God had done for them there was no more curse and no more captivity for them. Hitherto instruments of cruelty, they became instruments of warfare against the enemies of the Lord, ultimately earning the right to be included among the number eternally sealed (Rev. 7:7).
Self-will fittingly describes Simeon’s career until he was separated from Levi. God hates self-will for He knows how it accounts for uncontrolled passions, and the failure to respond to higher appeals. Because of their self-will God, in His governmental dealings, scattered and impoverished the Simeonites. May we not come nigh their dwelling but ever seek to learn, prove and obey “that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
2. A just and devout man in Jerusalem who awaited the coming of Jesus, the Messiah (Luke 2:25-34).

The Man Who Died Satisfied

The adoration and prophecy of Simeon, who waited for the consolation of Israel and blessed the Consoler when He appeared, is rich in spiritual suggestion. This spectator of the most significant birth of all history, endued with a prophetic spirit, kept the lamp of prophecy burning when religion was at a low ebb in Israel. Simeon means “one who hears and obeys” and this saintly Simeon knew the voice speaking in the prophets of old, and obeyed the light he saw. Coming into the Temple, he took the Babe in his arms and blessed God. What a wonderful benediction his was!
At last faith had been justified and Simeon could die without fear. Have our eyes seen the salvation of the Lord? Can we die in peace? In his swan song, Simeon was not ashamed to declare that the One born in the city of David was the Saviour of the world. This was more than the letter-learned scribes of his times had discerned. These were the men who looked upon Christ as a sign to be spoken against and to whom He would become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
With godly Simeon it was different, for he was Spirit-taught and knew that Mary’s Child was the One through whom the world was to be blessed. As he eagerly anticipated Christ’s first advent, are we found patiently awaiting His second advent? When He does appear and we see Him as He is, ours will be the thrill Simeon experienced as He gazed upon the Lord’s Christ.
3. An ancestor of Jesus (Luke 3:30).
4. A disciple and prophet at Antioch, surnamed Niger (Acts 13:1 ).
5. The original name of a son of Jonas, or John, and brother of Andrew an apostle of Christ. See SIMON (Acts 15:14).
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