Thursday, February 05, 2015

Thu Feb 5th Todays News

On Bolt Report an ongoing policy is that any Islam post can only be on the pinned leader. Normal rules apply in that if it is merely foul and abusive it will be deleted. Otherwise comments are welcome.  
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Peter Greste thanks his family but not the Australian Government who fought to free him from an Egyptian jail. Peter does not want to give up his job as a propagandist. 

 Shorten gloats over harming the Australian economy. 

 Eddie Obeid ordered to surrender his passport. 

 An earthquake in 62 AD near Pompey may have been the precursor to the Volcanic action 17 years later. In consulting with Dr Flannery we have discovered that it is possible that the the earthquake was man made, as a result of the carbon use of the day. Trees were cut down and thrown on fires so ordinary people could eat or bathe. People even draw with the stuff. Chimneys were full of carbon soot. And now, with more efficient technology, things are worse. Not even a dozen baked dinners for Al Gore erases the carbon footprint of one hour in his jet. The only way to safely denude a forest is to have a climate conference.

 In 1597, a group of early Christians were killed in Japan. But they persisted through the ages, and when Christians were welcomed back to Japan, it was found some of the original converts, and their families, had persisted. Actually, after hundreds of years .. it wasn't the original converts. In 1818, French born Bernadotte became King of Norway and Sweden. Bernadotte was a capable soldier and officer and had been kind to Swedish troops that has surrendered to him in battle, and so the Swedish nobility had elected him heir in 1810, and when the previous king died, this capable French soldier became king. In 1869, The "Welcome Stranger," was found in Victoria, the largest alluvial nugget ever, at 71 kg net weight gold. In 1909. Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced he had created a synthetic plastic he called Bakelite. 

On this day in 1917, The 64th Congress of the US overrode a veto by Woodrow Wilson to pass the Immigration act of 1917. The congress was made up of a majority of Democrat red necks who didn't want Asians from the South East of Asia to go to the US. They also excluded “homosexuals”, “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, "criminals", “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. Since then, they have allowed some of those people to be President from the Democrat Party. In 1937, frustrated with not getting his own way, FDR attempted to enlarge the US Supreme Court. He failed, but one judge changed allegiances, called the 'stitch in time who saved nine.'  

 Nobody likes bureaucracy, but peace is a great excuse. In a gesture of peace in 1985, the Mayor of Rome and the Mayor of Carthage met in Tunis to sign a peace agreement, ending the third Punic War begun 2131 years before. The last few thousand years had not been really serious. In fact, the peace treaty might be said to be rubbing salt in the wound. 
2014
It is telling what is not said, as well as what is said. In defending the ABC from claims of bias, apologists refer to the fact Australia needs the ABC. As if the ABC could not survive if it was competent as a public broadcaster. As if the effort for some journalist not expressing their strong opinion of dislike for a conservative would be too much. It is possible for the ABC to be a superb organisation which as cornerstone of Australian culture could fearlessly hold politicians to account for their compliance to their agenda. Or, the ABC could remain inept and incapable of spotting corruption, incapable of producing compelling Australian cultural items, incapable of holding itself to a standard. Imagine if the ALP had produced a competent leader because poor ones were curtailed by precise criticism from the national broadcaster. It is easy, if you try. 

It is telling what is not said in criticising Abbott to defend a multi million dollar claim for subsidy to a weak SPC Ardmona business. A profitable business is one that secures a future for its' workers. A subsidy won't do that. It is a responsible decision by Mr Abbott and necessary if Australia's budget is ever to be balanced. It is not a decision the ALP would have made. Neither is it a decision the ABC can applaud. Why does anyone care if the ABC applauds a decision? Naturally, unions are claiming that it is the end of industrial relations. Or the beginning. Or something. 

It is telling what is not said in criticising the Australian government's border protection policy. Fewer boat people means fewer people drowning and being exploited by pirates. Also, fewer boat people means more refugees from refugee camps being offered a new life they could never have dreamed of from whatever impoverished war torn nation they fled. It is like effective aid. It might be cold and heartless to so completely and ruthlessly expose how bad ALP government had been. Or, how murderous were the ALP policies labelled compassionate. Where are the outspoken church people who promoted the previous devastation? Malcolm Fraser doesn't like it when people aren't drowning or being exploited by pirates, he seems to be upset by refugees being offered a new home and life. 

It is telling and it is apparent, that if anyone told the ABC, they weren't listening. 
Historical perspectives on this day 
In 62, Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.756, An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declared himself emperor and established the state of Yan. 1576, Henry of Navarre abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion. 1597, a group of early Japanese Christians were killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society. 1631, Roger Williams emigrated to Boston.

In 1778, South Carolina became the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. 1782, Spanish defeated British forces and captured Minorca. 1783, in Calabria a sequence of strong earthquakes began. 1810, Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz began. 1818, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascended to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. 1849. University of Wisconsin-Madison's first class met at Madison Female Academy. 1852, the New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opened to the public. 1859, Wallachia and Moldavia were united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state. 1869, the largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", was found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia. 1885,  King Leopold II of Belgium established the Congo as a personal possession.

In 1900, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a treaty for the Panama Canal. 1909, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic. 1913,
1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane. 1917, the current constitution of Mexico was adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Also 1917, the Congress of the United States passed the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and southeast Asia. 1918, Stephen W. Thompson shot down a German airplane. It was the first aerial victory by the U.S. military. Also 1918, SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk. 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.

In 1924, the Royal Greenwich Observatory began broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips". 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States. 1939. Generalísimo Francisco Franco became the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain. 1941, World War II: Allied forces began the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea. 1945, World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returned to Manila. 1946, the Chondoist Chongu Party was founded in North Korea. 1958, Gamel Abdel Nasser was nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic. Also 1958, a hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle called for Algeria to be granted independence. 1963, the European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen established the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law. 1971, astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission. 1972, Bob Douglas became the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. 1975, riots broke in Lima, Peru after the police forces went on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) was bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship. 1976, the 1976 swine flu outbreak began at Fort Dix, NJ.

In 1985, Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage met in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years. 1988, Manuel Noriega was indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Also 1994, Markale massacres, more than 60 people were killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo. 1997, the so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announced the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families. 2000, Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya. 2004, Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion. 2008, a major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States killed 57.
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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, October https://www.createspace.com/5106951, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows the purchase of a kindle version for just $3.99 more. 
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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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February 5: Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan begins (2015); Kashmir Solidarity Day in Pakistan
The "Welcome Stranger" gold nugget
The earth moved. Welcome stranger. Bombed also means failure. Beware terrorists. Beware tornados. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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MUKRAKER

Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (2:19pm)

Reader Mike sends an email to “Ruperts Mukraker”, who I guess would be me:
Typical Tory attitude even a poor loser with an insight into a governments performance, before it’s even formed, still can’t congratulate the winner and condemn the school kid premier who lost the unloseable election. We trot out Kroger a dickhead whose been involved in more Tory electoral disasters than any man known.
We should just give this country up to the Tory’s for you to be satiated, lets not forget those Icons of leaders Fraser, McMahon, Gorton, Ofarrell Kennett and the laziest behind the wheel of all Menzies. Special mention to the greatest liar of all Howard. 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'MUKRAKER'
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YELLOW BELLY TO PINK SLUGS

Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (12:18pm)

Sydney’s rain-loaded summer is now approaching a dampness level previously only achieved in  Andrew Marlton’s underpants. Meanwhile, in frozen Boston global warming alarmist John Kerry was recently fined for failing to remove snow from outside his mansion: 
The city’s latest blizzard sidewalk scoflaw is none other than U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
Boston’s Citizen’s Connect website confirms Kerry’s Beacon Hill property did not have the sidewalk cleared and he was issued a ticket. The city said tonight he was hit with a $50 fine …
A State Department spokesperson said Kerry was “overseas” and not around to do the digging ... and apparently the help weren’t either. 
They were probably eaten by pink sea slugs, global warming’s latest deadly contribution to our planet’s misery.
(Via Roger B.)
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PUNCTUATE OR PERISH

Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (4:08am)

The Spectator‘s Ysenda Maxtone Graham joins my crusade against full-stop avoidance: 
The dot-dot-dot ending of paragraphs is another full-stop-avoiding technique: the fade-out rather than the sudden ending. ‘And Emily’s friends aren’t always reliable…!’ The dot-dot-dot implies, ‘There’s much more that could qualify what I’ve just said, so don’t challenge me on the absoluteness of the bare remark I’ve just made.’ Like the weak comma, the dot-dot-dot seems (to the unpunctuated) to be a softer and safer landing: a landing on cotton wool. It, too, drives me mad. 
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TOONS AT TEN PACES

Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (1:10am)

Iran is holding its second Holocaust-themed cartoon contest. (The first, which ran several years ago, featured a controversial Australian entry.)
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SHEEP HALALED

Tim Blair – Thursday, February 05, 2015 (12:31am)

Much of Australia’s beef export industry was shut down in 2011 following this ABC broadcast. Given that British halal slaughterhouses seem a little on the grisly side, perhaps the ABC might now investigate local halal practices.
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No, Abbott’s fault wasn’t that he listened to conservatives. It’s that he didn’t

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (6:13pm)

One of the great dangers - not least for the Liberals - is that Malcolm Turnbull’s increasingly possible win over Tony Abbott would be be hailed as proof that conservative politics is electoral poison. That the Liberals must move to the Left.
Part of that narrative - already being run - is to make Abbott seem like someone that conservative commentators cheered every step of the way, until the wicked Rupert Murdoch last week told them to attack.
Abbott’s fault is that he listened to conservative commentators, will be the argument. Silly Abbott. Silly commentators.
I’ve been told that Phillip Coorey and Eddie McGuire have already made such an argument about me, for instance, gloating that Abbott’s fall will prove me wrong.
Needless to say, this self-serving revisionism is pushing an untruth that could cripple the Liberals in the long term if it panics the party into forgetting its values.
The truth is that Abbott has found himself left without a loyal base of conservatives. He offended conservative MPs not just by his mistakes and the rudeness of his chief of staff, but by tacking too far to the Left. Few conservative MPs or even commentators feel obliged to defend him with any passion - or at all. That is hurting him badly in this showdown with Turnbull.
In my case, I now back Abbott largely because I am not sure at all that the alternatives are better.  I like Abbott enormously and admire his courage, sense of duty and honesty about the challenges we face, but I am frustrated by the mistakes he has made.
This is not a last-week epiphany, as critics suggest.
Here are just some of the criticisms I made of Abbott over the past year or so - all contrary to the impression now gleefully pushed by some commentators of the Left - which sum up many of Abbott’s worst mis-steps. Had he only listened:
November, 2014:
THE Abbott Government must change or die…
Icon Arrow Continue reading 'No, Abbott’s fault wasn’t that he listened to conservatives. It’s that he didn’t'
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Legal journal falls to the Left

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (2:43pm)

Reader Sam Ingui on the Left’s march through the institutions:
I am a lawyer – in my 30th year of practice. Each month I receive the NSW Law Society Journal as a privilege of membership. Over the years its gone from being a technical publication to one that is has morphed into a political mouthpiece for the left. It has the feel and style of a left-green/ABC/Fairfax rag.
I sat down to read this month’s edition at lunch time today.
I initially noticed a letter to the editor on page 9 that bemoans John Howard being on the November cover because he’s apparently a “conservative spear holder” (insultingly the letter writer calls him a “gargoyle").  Why was this published ?  It gives no legal insight – only the writers prejudice. John Howard was a practicing lawyer in NSW.  Why the insulting remarks?
Then feature articles follow from Justice Kirby (page 12), Tim Soutphommasane (Race Commissioner) on why section 18C should remain (page 20) and Julian Burnside QC on page 22 on refugee injustice.
As well there is a lengthy article written by 10 writers on laws that should be changed (laws including those apparently not favouring asylum seekers, victims’ rights, indigenous recognition - written by Larissa Behrendt - and one favouring marijuana legalisation). 
Nothing is presented ... as to whether say section 18C of the Race Discrimination Act should be turfed – given Tim Soutphommasane’s article on page 20 you only get one view.
In the rest it’s just lifestyle and reviews of areas with little relevance.
Lawyers are a conservative lot usually.  But this is now a political journal.  The technical and practice aspects have taken a secondary place.
It feels like you’re reading Fairfax or some ABC publication.
And, of course, the Left captured the ABC long ago. 
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Can Malcolm Turnbull really do better? Remember his record

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (11:46am)

Labor starts its attack on Malcolm Turnbull:
And what fun it will have with this Turnbull quote from 2009:
I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am.
Turnbull may well have changed his ways, of course. His backers say he’ll be more consultative and will temper his warmist opinions. He will “govern from the centre”.
But Turnbull cannot bring himself to even speak to several conservative commentators, me included. That doesn’t strike me as the actions of a man who will unite his party and “govern from the centre”.
If he does not have the support of the few conservatives in the media and is attacked by the Left, I fear the Liberals will see from Turnbull the poll results it got from him last time:
image
Reader Steve:
Turnbull never won a single Newspoll under his leadership (16 September 2008 – 1 December 2009) and the average over his term was a disastrous 44-56, 2 points worse than how the Coalition is currently polling. The polls only started to improve for the Coalition when they dumped Turnbull and the ETS.
If Turnbull wins, conservatives will be marginalised in public debate. Turnbull will define the extreme of civilised discourse as far as the ABC is concerned. It strikes me that for conservative politics to advance, it would be better to have Labor in power against a Liberal party that re-discovers its core convictions, rather than a contest between a Labor-lite Government and a Labor-heavy Opposition that’s almost bound to win the next election.
This will become more obvious should Turnbull lead the Liberals to its near-inevitable defeat. He is likely to leave the party in a shambles, having repudiated some values it should have upheld. This is the message from John Howard’s last desperate year in power, when he jumped on the global warming and “reconciliation” bandwagons in a last frantic bid for votes. That cost the party in Opposition.
That said, this explains one of Tony Abbott’s great miscalculations - to have himself turned his back on conservatives to court the Left. Abbott’s dropping of free speech reforms and workplace reform, along with his fierce advocacy of a constitutional change that will divide us by race, has alienated the constituency he needs to survive.

UPDATE
A demented leadership plot may make Malcolm Turnbull Prime Minister next week. From last year:
News Corp commentator Andrew Bolt’s leadership speculation “borders on the demented” and is ‘’quite unhinged”, says Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull....
“It borders on the demented to string together a dinner with Clive Palmer and my attending, as the Communications Minister, the launch by a cross-party group of friends of the ABC and say that that amounts to some kind of threat or challenge to the Prime Minister,” Mr Turnbull told reporters on Monday.
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Has Bishop been outmanoevered by Turnbull?

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (9:40am)

A question for Julie Bishop to consider after her reported (and denied) meeting with Malcolm Turnbull at his home this morning.
Will you really keep your job if Turnbull takes over?
This must be a worry for you, now that Turnbull indicates he won’t make room for you in any challenge.
If there is a ballot, can you really hope to stay on as deputy leader against a challenge from, say, Scott Morrison? Is it actually credible to be the loyal deputy to your third leader?
I suspect Bishop may be getting cold feet.
UPDATE
I may have spoken too crossly. Bishop may well get a guarantee from Turnbull in exchange for her votes. It depends on what Morrison wants from Turnbull. If he’s happy with Treasurer, that’s that and the showdown next week will be very difficult for Abbott to survive.  
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Abbott is gone … or maybe not. UPDATE: ABC pushes and pushes

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (9:14am)

Tony Abbott was loyal to Arthur Sinodinos to a fault, keeping him on as assistant treasurer for far longer than was wise as Sinodinos battled to clear his name at the Independant Commission Against Corruption. In return, this blow:

“I’ve always supported Tony Abbott,’’ Senator Sinodinos said.
“But that support, ongoing, is not unconditional,” he said.
“It’s based upon being able to grapple with the issues we face at the moment,’’ the senator said.
Asked on Sky News if Mr Abbott would still be in the top job next week, Senator Sinodinos replied: “Comrade, come and ask me next week.’’
Niki Savva says Abbott is gone - but maybe not now:
TONY Abbott’s rule is over… If it’s not formally killed off by backbenchers next week, or soon after, ... then the voters will do the job for them at the election.
No government today, given the fickleness and impatience of voters, can survive a civil war of the kind we have seen during the past few weeks unless it is brilliant and, despite a few notable exceptions, with some important achievements, the Abbott government falls well short of that.
Numbers are being counted. Malcolm Turnbull is said to be close. Supporters are refining their pitch, and to succeed Turnbull will have to make sure he lives up to it: there will be no emissions trading scheme unless the rest of the world moves; he will be more consultative; there will be no revenge ... and he will govern from the centre. The last is important because of the antipathy from the Nationals and the Right to Turnbull.
Julie Bishop is fighting to remain deputy — a sensible position on her part — and Scott Morrison will almost certainly become treasurer…
No serious leader publicly calls his MPs sexist because they dared criticise his chief of staff whom they reckoned was trying to bully, intimidate or ostracise them and their staff; no serious leader repeatedly ignores their existence while indulging in policy frolics that he then has to reverse; no serious leader humiliates them by awarding a knighthood to a prince; no serious leader out­sources his job or cedes his power to an unelected staff member, then spits in the eye of those who try to tell him it is wrong and will be his undoing; no serious leader would tolerate senior staff briefing against colleagues, as happened with Arthur Sinodinos and others.
Finally, no serious leader tells his MPs they have no right to remove him because that right belongs to the people...
Greg Sheridan is less sure:
IT is still close to an even-money bet Tony Abbott will be successfully challenged for the leadership of the Liberal Party, though the prospect is fading a little…
If we change prime ministers again now we will ... have had six prime ministers in eight years: Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd again, Abbott and Abbott’s successor.... This sounds like Italian politics in the decades after World War II....

Hard as recovery looks for the Liberal government under ­Abbott’s leadership, it will almost certainly be harder under a new and inexperienced team, presiding over a party torn to pieces by internal struggle.
Abbott needs renewed commitment from his colleagues, but he also needs to make a bigger statement of change on his own part. So many successful politicians have done this. Bill Clinton, recall, had an absolutely disastrous first two years in office… He changed his approach fundamentally, he told the American people he was changed, he lived up to his word… I think Abbott still needs to go further along the Clinton line of repentance and acceptance of ­responsibility for the mess his ­government has found itself in.
However, we must acknow­ledge and debate more broadly the elements of our system that now conspire profoundly against good government.
First is the rise of 24/7 social media… Our Senate system has become bizarre… The interaction of compulsory voting, exhaustive preferential voting and above-the-line voting means the Senate elections yield undemocratic results that favour splinter parties going for tiny ­protest votes… Conflictual modern politics rewards the “power of nope”. 
UPDATE
ABC spin on 7.30:
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: ... The ABC can identify 10 Liberal MPs who want a ballot on the leadership and another 18 who say they might support one…
SABRA LANE, REPORTER: ... (T)he Prime Minister is resisting a backbench revolt and the perception that he’s increasingly on his own.
Ten - at most 28 - of 102 Liberals MPs want a leadership spill against Abbott, yet the ABC says there’s a “perception that’s he’s increasingly on his own”? And runs carefully selected footage of Abbott sitting as if alone?
The ABC spin and glee throughout this challenge - the active pushing for the Liberals to be less conservative - is unmistakable and an abuse of the ABC’s huge power.
Reform of the ABC is not just critical to tame state power, protect media diversity and promote debate. For the Liberals it is also a fight for survival.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)   
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 Abbott’s critics cross the line with sabotage

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (8:37am)

image
THE MPs plotting against Tony Abbott have crossed a line. This is now sheer bastardry and many Liberal members won’t wear it.
The Prime Minister on Monday admitted to mistakes, junked dud policies, promised to consult more and gave a fighting speech pointing out his government’s many successes.
On Tuesday his Ministers worked the whole day thrashing out how the Government got into such strife and planning a new direction.

But it seems as if some Liberal MPs — many of them malcontents overlooked for promotion — simply didn’t want Abbott’s reset to work.
Dennis Jensen, Warren Entsch, Mal Brough, Ian Macdonald and Andrew Laming didn’t give Abbott even 24 hours to sell his reset, talking all over it and giving an Abbott-hating media even more sticks to belt the Prime Minister.
Jensen, furious at not being made Science Minister, called for a leadership spill. Brough, a former minister on the backbench, gave Abbott only “qualified” support and attacked his health policies.
Macdonald, dumped from the frontbench, gave Abbott only a few weeks to prove himself. Laming threatened a private member’s bill to scrap Abbott’s knighthoods and Entsch kept trash talking.
This is unforgivable.
It is reasonable for MPs to be privately critical of Abbott’s past performance. It is also understandable that many doubt Abbott can change his ways or turn around his terrible poll figures.
But what we’ve seen this week is something different. It’s a handful of MPs seeming to do their best to sabotage any comeback under Abbott.
They are actually like a platoon of Kevin Rudds, more committed to their own interests than to their party’s or the country’s.
With an election more than 18 months away, there was no reason these plotters couldn’t give Abbott a few weeks of peace to show he’s learned and will do better. But they didn’t give him even a day.

(Read full article here.)   
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A word from a man inside the ABC’s mad conspiracy theory

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (8:26am)

The giant ABC is pushing a crazy conspiracy theory to damage a smaller competitor.
Leftist ABC presenters such as Media Watch’s Paul Barry, Q&A’s Tony Jones and Melbourne 774’s Jon Faine are suggesting Rupert Murdoch has sooled his tame journalists onto Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Normally the ABC would love help in whacking Abbott.  But it’s spun this into a story of evil Murdoch columnists writing to order and abandoning the man they’d supported.
Their evidence? Last week Murdoch, whose News Corp owns this paper, tweeted that Abbott’s decision to make Prince Philip a knight was “a joke and embarrassment”.
He also said Abbott should sack chief of staff Peta Credlin, apparently for failing to save Abbott from himself.
But as it happened, Murdoch columnists Chris Kenny, Janet Albrechtsen and Greg Sheridan had already attacked Abbott’s decision before Murdoch’s tweet, and another, Miranda Devine, had demanded Credlin’s sacking.

Is that surprising? Does anyone seriously think these columnists would defend this knighthood?
So Murdoch followed, not led, his columnists.  Yet Media Watch reversed the order in claiming “Murdoch tweets and Australia repeats”, and host Barry wondered “whether this critical chorus was orchestrated by Murdoch”.
Tony Jones likewise suggested Murdoch’s tweets came before his columnists’ attacks: “The Murdoch idea gets parroted by News Limited journalists right across the country...”
But wait. There is one Murdoch columnist who didn’t attack Abbott until the day Murdoch tweeted.
(Read full article here - scroll down past the top story.)


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Economy slips again, as Labor profits from destroying the rescue

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (8:21am)

Whoever leads the Liberals, the grim challenge remains - and grows:
THE federal budget faces further massive writedowns, with some estimates suggesting that up to $40 billion will be added to the deficit over four years as commodity prices fall and the economy slows. The softening economy in the lead up to the May budget will add pressure on Joe Hockey to find new savings at a politically fraught time for the Abbott government.
The government is coming under increasing pressure to ditch the 1.5 per cent levy on big business intended to pay for the now-­abandoned paid parental leave scheme. The Treasurer revealed yesterday that Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens had flown to Canberra after Tuesday’s surprise rate cut to brief cabinet on the bank’s increasingly gloomy view about the economic outlook…
The RBA will tomorrow release new economic forecasts showing growth is unlikely to reach 3 per cent either this year or in 2015-16. Treasury’s pre-Christmas budget update assumed growth would reach 3 per cent in both years....
Stephen Anthony, a former Fin­ance Department official and principal of the consultancy Macro­economics, estimated that a half-percentage-point cut in growth would add $2.5bn this year and $4bn next year to the deficit…
Treasury included what were considered excessively conser­vative estimates for the iron ore price when it was preparing the budget update in December, tipping it would fall from $70 at that time to average $60 over the year ahead, but the spot price in China is down to $63...
A new Liberal leader will get no mercy from the Labor and the Greens, cock-a-hoop at toppling Abbott. I fear that the new leader will even feel pressure to back off on the challenge, for fear that what was done to Abbott will be done to them.
And so the rescue of Australia founders, to the cheers of Labor, the Greens, Palmer United, Jacqui Lambie, the unions and much of the media.
Remember this turning point…
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Press Council activists reach for a bigger muzzle

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (7:43am)

As I’ve often warned, the Australian Press Council has been captured by activists - and they are now keen to impose their own values and restrictions.
Here’s Press Council chairman Julian Disney at the National Press Club yesterday:
These problems partially explain why an eminent editor, David Bowman, reflected on the first ten years of the Council that its record shows 
“a good many peccadilloes [have] become the subject of public complaint against the press while nearly all the big crimes go unremarked. This confirms that the council may well try to make more use of its right to lay complaints itself. One would hope that a series of exemplary cases would result. ”
The Council decided a few years before I became Chair that it would investigate some possible breaches of its Standards even if it had not yet received a formal complaint. The Council now needs to implement that decision more effectiveIy. It should also be willing to consider matters where there has been no complaint…
(This post has been modified. The Australian item I pasted put Bowman’s words in Disney’s mouth. Apologies.) 
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Understood and forgiven

Andrew Bolt February 05 2015 (5:14am)

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Andrew Rule on the crazy green laws that force even a judge to be a lawbreaker:
DON’T try this at home. It’s against the law. We know this because a judge said so…
His Honour sneaks outside, possibly in monogrammed dressing gown over silk boxer shorts and a pair of soft-soled tennis shoes. He works his way around the garden in the dark to where his possum trap is.
If there’s a possum in it, the great man ... removes the condemned to the place of execution, from which no possum returns.
That would be in his garage, next to the BMW. It’s a wheelie bin, full of water…
This is the secret world of possum culling. No one admits it publicly but a lot of people do it, or talk about doing it… Call it a vigilante movement or call it vermin control, it will flourish underground until a politician realises there’s a landslide win in a policy platform of possum control…
t’s inevitable that suffering homeowners fight back against a system heavily slanted towards possum power… His Honour, an expert at adversarial argument, blames it on well-meaning people who pushed to ban removal of possums any further than a few metres from where they’re caught.
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Post by Matt Granz.

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Post by We the Individuals.

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Post by IBSI - Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel.

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Post by Matt Granz.

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Post by Matt Granz.

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Post by Amnesty International.

Amnesty should never have supported terrorists - ed
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=== Posts from last year ===

We can learn from a man who has class

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, February 04, 2014 (8:34pm)

THE vicious attacks on the expert chosen by Christopher Pyne to review the national education curriculum show just how much is at stake for the cultural revolutionaries dumbing down our schools.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'We can learn from a man who has class'
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ABC’S STRANGE WORLD OF PRIDE AND SHAME

Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 05, 2014 (4:14am)

February 3. ABC head of editorial policy Alan Sunderland defends the billion-dollar broadcaster’s navy torturer smears: 
If we relied only on information from official channels then little or nothing would have been reported and the Australian public would have been left in the dark about the dramatic events unfolding on the high seas.
From the moment the first claims emerged in this messy affair, it was clear there was a significant story. Thanks to the work of good journalists who did not stop chasing, the public now knows that.
When the ABC starts chasing uncomfortable stories, we expect criticism. But it is indeed a strange world when some of those who should be chasing the story seem to think the story is us. 
February 4. ABC bosses Mark Scott and Kate Torney regret the billion-dollar broadcaster’s navy torturer smears: 
Video obtained exclusively by the ABC, showing asylum seekers with burns, along with reports that Indonesian police were investigating the matter, raised further important questions …
The ABC’s initial reports on the video said that the vision appeared to support the asylum seekers’ claims. That’s because it was the first concrete evidence that the injuries had occurred. What the video did not do was establish how those injuries occurred.
The wording around the ABC’s initial reporting needed to be more precise on that point. We regret if our reporting led anyone to mistakenly assume that the ABC supported the asylum seekers’ claims. 
So it’s the audience’s fault. Further on the ABC’s half-arsed regret here.
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CLIMATE CHANGE KILLS A TREE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 05, 2014 (3:55am)

Take that, deniers! Here’s absolute proof of deadly climate change:

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FOURTH-HAND DESTROYS ALL WHO SEE IT

Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 05, 2014 (3:40am)

Second-hand smoke is such a yesterday issue. The cool new concern is third-hand smoke.
(Via must-read PWAF)
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Hey, Putin, where’s the roof? The floor? The lift?

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (3:21pm)

Athletes and reporters are checking into their Olympic Games accommodation at Sochi. Russia was never famous for its service culture or efficiency, and the tweets from its Games guests are not flattering:
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Sharman Stone should say sorry

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (1:42pm)

Judith Sloan on SPC Ardmona:
So who is telling lies?  Shadow Industry Minister, Kim Carr, and local Liberal MP Sharmon Stone are a tag-team when it comes to accusing the Prime Minister of uttering porkies about the excessive workers’ conditions and restrictive practices.  The trouble is that the evidence is there for everyone to read. 
The SPC Ardmona EBA does provide for wages which are 40 per cent above the award; does contain superannuation contributions of 11.5 per cent (above the norm of 9.25 per cent); does allow for some cashing out of sick leave; does provide excessive redundancy payouts for the majority of workers; does provide for a day of leave to attend the Food Preservers’ Picnic and numerous RDOs; and the list goes on.  And if the various allowances are so trivial, they should have been cashed out and eliminated years ago.
Why have the many reporters who simply repeated Stone’s claim of Abbott lying not checked for themselves who is actually telling the untruths? 
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The ABC’s priorities

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (1:25pm)

 The ABC, which refused to report Climategate or a police raid on Julia Gillard’s former law offices under a warrant naming her, finds a story far more suited to its taste. 
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Teaching children to worship at the shrine of race

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (12:50pm)

A Canberra reader found the Florey Primary School displaying this declaration, presenting it as the considered thoughts of its students rather than the grim instruction of their teachers:
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Why did the teachers put these words in the mouths of the children, rather than openly admit the sentiments were their own?
There were agreements - like that struck in what became Melbourne - between original owners and settlers to hand over some land. Why are they not mentioned?
Is this retreat into tribalism, with students of “many cultures” demanding “respect” for “Aboriginal peoples culture and customary law”, to be matched with laws defining us by our “race” and “ethnic origin”? Or is our better future to be found in treating each other as individuals, regardless of “race”, under a common citizenship?
Why is the missing apostrophe in “peoples culture”? Are spelling and grammar taught with the same care as this kind of racial politics? I ask, because apostrophes at this school go missing where you least expect them to:
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Given 30 per cent of the students speak English only as a second language, are they more or less likely to integrate into a country they are taught to regard as stolen land belonging to another “race”?
Are these students demanding “respect” for aspects of Aboriginal law such as polygamy, male dominance, bride-promising, collectivism and payback?
Why do the children use “spiritual totem poles”? If all cultures are to be recognised, why can’t these children swear by a crucifix? Are they appropriating Aboriginal spirituality, or merely being converted?
Could the school get back to teaching, rather than preaching?
UPDATE
Miranda Devine:
THE vicious attacks on the expert chosen by Christopher Pyne to review the national education curriculum show just how much is at stake for the cultural revolutionaries dumbing down our schools. 
Dr Kevin Donnelly ... has been falsely branded a paedophile, Islamophobe, homophobe, misogynist and Christian.
In the sewers of Twitter, people have wished him dead and asked him for his opinion on vibrators…
Among his and Queensland academic Ken Wiltshire’s tasks is to decide whether the three priorities of the new curriculum - sustainability, indigenous history and culture and Asian engagement - make any sense. Absurdly, even in maths the curriculum claims “sustainability provides rich, engaging and authentic contexts for developing students’ abilities in number and algebra”.
If the Left is truly interested in reconciliation, why not start with reconciling itself with conservatives? 
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Global warming gives us bigger waves. Or smaller

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (9:04am)

Global warming - dud predictions

In 2011 we were told global warming would give us smaller waves:
CSIRO research commissioned by the federal government ... predicted small but significant falls in likely wave heights as temperatures rose. 
Their June 2010 research said wave heights could fall by a “relatively robust” 5mm-10mm along the NSW coast by the end of the century. “Projected changes are larger and significant on the northern coast,” it said.
In 2014 we are told global warming is giving us bigger waves: 
Big waves are energetically costly for fish, and there are more big waves than ever… 
“There has been a lot of recent work in oceanography documenting the fact that waves are becoming more frequent and more intense due to climate change,” says Mr Dominique Roche, PhD candidate from the Research School of Biology.
Bigger, smaller, whatever. It’s global warming.
(Thanks to reader Steve.) 
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Labor suddenly has the sweats in Griffith

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (8:37am)

Labor should not have trouble retaining Kevin Rudd’s seat in the Griffith by-election this weekend:
If history is a guide, the Labor Party should retain Griffith. The only time a government has gained a seat from an opposition was at the 1920 Kalgoorlie by-election. 
But Labor suddenly seems strangely nervous:
Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten will make last-ditch appeals to the voters of Griffith on Thursday as Labor frets over new internal polling showing Liberal candidate Bill Glasson to be highly popular among locals.
Though history favours Labor’s Terri Butler to hold the Brisbane seat left vacant by the retirement of Kevin Rudd, ALP polling shows Mr Glasson to be far and above the most popular lead character in the battle… Dr Glasson – an opthalmologist who ran against Mr Rudd at the September 7, 2013 election – has a “net positive” of 35 per cent, according to the polling obtained by the Australian Financial Review. Ms Butler has a net positive of 18.
Excuses are prepared: 
LABOR is worried Griffith voters are suffering extreme electoral fatigue and may stay at home instead of voting in Saturday’s by-election to replace former prime minister Kevin Rudd… 
Eleven candidates are contesting the election and preferences will be extremely important, with neither of the major parties likely to win a majority in its own right .The Greens, the Secular Party and the Pirate Party are all preferencing the ALP, while Family First will be the only party directly giving its preferences to the LNP .Five parties—Katters Australian, Bullet Train for Australia, and Stable Population parties—as well as independents Travis Windsor and Karel Boele, will all have split tickets, meaning their preferences could go anywhere.
But with the Essential poll showing the Coalition 50-50 with Labor nationally, Griffith shouldnot defy history.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Academic: only conservatives would say ABC is biased

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (8:00am)

Media

A startling non sequitur from Age columnist Sally Young, a Melbourne University associate professor of political science:
The ABC and universities are two consistent targets for conservative criticism in Australia. But this is puzzling because conservatives are big users of both.
Young’s argument is that conservatives, by going to university and subjecting themselves to interviews on the ABC, must therefore be fine with the bias they say they detect. May I ask Young what the alternative is for conservatives? To deny themselves a tertiary education and boycott all interviews with the ABC?
Surely Young should conclude that if conservatives use universities and engage with the ABC, they probably know what they are talking about when they note the bias of both.
But what is even stranger about Young is that she actually uses in all seriousness a defence of the ABC which I’ve often suggested as a parody - that the ABC is not biased and only bloody conservatives would say so. I thought even an idiot would get the joke and realise such a defence would actually confirm the bias it denies.
But not Young:
Although numerous internal and external studies of ABC content have found there is no systematic bias, conservative critics won’t be convinced because they perceive bias in a more intangible way - as something that underlies the whole approach used at the ABC, rather than what is measurable (such as equal time or a right of reply)… How ironic though that conservatives are far more radical than ‘’the people’’ in their views towards the ABC and universities. 
Young wants conservatives critics of the biased ABC to be less “radical” and more in line with the polled opinion of “the people”. But last year she wanted “the people” and the biased media to be more in line with the Left:
Academic Sally Young is mystified why Australians do not connect with a Prime Minister who has cheated them, lied to them, patronised them, set them at each other’s throat, squandered billions of their taxes and now reaches for their super:
But how much of the Prime Minister’s much-maligned failure to ‘’connect’’ with the Australian public has to do with how she is represented in the media?… Those media play a powerful role in shaping opinions about her and in recent debates about misogyny in Australian politics, one question that has been raised is just how much the reporting of the Prime Minister and her government has to do with gender.
We all have our biases, but It’s remarkable how unwilling ABC hosts and their defenders are to admit their own, even to themselves.
UPDATE
Sinclair Davidson wonders why we have a state-funded ABC: 
...public broadcasters facilitate the diversion of public resources to political elites and narrow interest groups or distort and manipulate information to benefit and entrench those elites.
(Thanks to reader Peter.) 
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How about a sorry to our navy?

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (7:38am)

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has a point about the ABC’s non-apology to the navy:
The national broadcaster has come under fire over reporting asylum seeker claims they burnt their hands when forced by navy personnel to hold hot engine parts on an asylum seeker vessel.
“We regret if our reporting led anyone to mistakenly assume that the ABC supported the asylum seekers’ claims,” a joint statement by the news organisation’s managing director, Mark Scott, and director of news Kate Torney.
Ms Bishop said the statement didn’t go far enough. “...I thought the ABC would do the right thing and having acknowledged that their reporting was substandard at best that they would apologise,” she told ABC radio. 
Janet Albrechtsen:
FOLLOWING the 1996 election, Prime Minister John Howard said of the ABC: “I think one of the weaknesses of the ABC is that it doesn’t have a right-wing Phillip Adams.” It was a gentle yet serious reminder that our taxpayer-funded national broadcaster is charged with reflecting the diversity of the Australian community under section 6 of its Charter. 
Almost 18 years on, the ABC has grown in size but has still refused to address the lack of balance in its vast line-up of journalists - unless you count one hour per week of Counterpoint as balance. Instead, as Margaret Simons wrote in her 2005 essay, the then director of radio, Sue Howard, had a cartoon on her office wall. Featuring a cage, broken apart, with two people standing nearby, one says “Oh Lord. The Right-Wing Phillip Adams has escaped.” Presumably, in humorous ABC circles, a person with right-wing views must be locked up.
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Seinfeld: “ No interest in gender or race”

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (6:56am)

 Michael Idato in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is actually a brilliant show, and even though its guest list has thus far been noticeably male-heavy (Sarah Silverman was a welcome respite in the second season, as was Tina Fey in the third) it is still original and revealing.
 Jerry Seinfeld: 
I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that. But everyone else is kind of, with their little calculating – is this the exact right mix? To me it’s anti-comedy. It’s more about PC-nonsense than ‘are you making us laugh or not?’ 
Idato is right about the Costanza promo, though. Nothing like the show’s best. 
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Steyn appeal

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (6:46am)

What could be more fun than helping to defend a man who mocked a leading alarmist, and is now being sued for his presumption?
Mark Steyn writes:
Don’t forget, we’re moving into the discovery phase of fake Nobel Laureate Michael Mann’s defamation lawsuit against me for mocking his global warm-mongering “hockey stick”, so if you’ve any suggestions as to what we should be asking for - third tree-ring on the left, etc - do pass them along to me via email at steyn@marksteyn.com. 
I believe I’m also the first ne’er-do-well to attempt to fund his legal defense entirely by sales of his Christmas album. But, if there’s only so much “Marshmallow World” you can take, you can also support the cause via our SteynOnline gift certificates, starting at $25. It looks like the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st century (as The New York Times billed it) is going ahead, and I promise you full value for money.
Steyn says he stands by all he wrote about Mann’s “hockey stick”. 
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ABC gets advice from Murdoch man

Andrew Bolt February 05 2014 (6:34am)

Interesting appointment. It suggests to me the ABC is perhaps feeling the heat:
The ABC’s admission came as it was revealed the broadcaster had poached The Australian’s media editor Nick Leys to handle its media relations. 
The move shocked many observers given the hostile relationship over recent years between the ABC and The Australian, published by News Corp Australia.
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Paul Barry’s cunning cover

Andrew Bolt February 04 2014 (8:31pm)

Nifty bit of tactical voting by the host of the ABC’s Media Watch, under attack for his Leftist bias:
[Paul] Barry responded to a description of the ABC as a “Greens-Left activist complex”. 
“OK, it’s a fair cop. I admit the crime,” Barry said. ”I only voted Liberal at the last election as a cover.”
I’d believe him.
But then things become clear about Barry the closet conservative in an election at the end of the disastrous Rudd-Gillard reign:
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Better evidence of your non-Leftism needed, Paul. That fools no one. 
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An ABC apology as unbelievable as the “torture”

Andrew Bolt February 04 2014 (8:01pm)

Boat people policy, Media

It’s the kind of modern apology - the worthless kind - that is conditioned by the word “if”:
The [ABC’s] admission the ABC’s reporting should have been ‘‘more precise’’ comes five days after Prime Minister Tony Abbott leapt upon the ABC’s reports as evidence the public broadcaster “instinctively takes everyone’s side but Australia’s"… 
The ABC has been criticised for claiming in news reports aired on January 22 that new footage of asylum seekers’ burnt hands ‘‘appears to back up’’ the allegations of mistreatment…
In a statement posted online on Tuesday afternoon, ABC managing director Mark Scott and head of news Kate Torney said: ‘‘The ABC’s initial reports on the video said that the vision appeared to support the asylum seekers’ claims. That’s because it was the first concrete evidence that the injuries had occurred. What the video did not do was establish how those injuries occurred.
‘‘The wording around the ABC’s initial reporting needed to be more precise on that point. We regret if our reporting led anyone to mistakenly assume that the ABC supported the asylum seekers’ claims. The ABC has always presented the allegations as just that – claims worthy of further investigation.’’
Scott and Torney insisted that the ABC was right to broadcast the video and air the asylum seekers’ claims. ‘‘Claims of mistreatment by the Australian military are very serious and a responsible media, acting in the public interest, will need to seek an official response and pursue the truth of the claims,’’ they said in their statement.
Not good enough. The ABC gave highly improbable, hotly denied and very damaging allegations a prominence and a weight they did not deserve, and when contradictory information emerged it played it down and make another absurd allegation instead.
And what so many ABC apologists refuse to acknowledge is that such “mistakes” are more likely to be made by people with a predisposition to believe the worst of this government and its policies.  
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If Toyota workers won’t save themselves, why should taxpayers help?

Andrew Bolt February 04 2014 (7:52pm)

If workers won’t make the sacrifices to save their own jobs, why should other workers make the sacrifices to bail them out with subsidies?
TOYOTA workers have launched new legal action to safeguard themselves from any further attempts by the motor giant to remove some of their entitlements. 
Amid increased uncertainty about the carmaker’s future in Australia, the industrial dispute playing out in the Federal Court has taken another turn with shop stewards launching a cross appeal against the decision which last year blocked Toyota’s move to cut some of their enterprise agreement’s conditions.
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“For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” - Psalm 18:1-2
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Morning and evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 4: Morning
"The love of the Lord." - Hosea 3:1
Believer, look back through all thine experience, and think of the way whereby the Lord thy God has led thee in the wilderness, and how he hath fed and clothed thee every day--how he hath borne with thine ill manners--how he hath put up with all thy murmurings, and all thy longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt--how he has opened the rock to supply thee, and fed thee with manna that came down from heaven. Think of how his grace has been sufficient for thee in all thy troubles--how his blood has been a pardon to thee in all thy sins--how his rod and his staff have comforted thee. When thou hast thus looked back upon the love of the Lord, then let faith survey his love in the future, for remember that Christ's covenant and blood have something more in them than the past. He who has loved thee and pardoned thee, shall never cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and he shall be Omega also: he is first, and he shall be last. Therefore, bethink thee, when thou shalt pass through the valley of the shadow of death, thou needest fear no evil, for he is with thee. When thou shalt stand in the cold floods of Jordan, thou needest not fear, for death cannot separate thee from his love; and when thou shalt come into the mysteries of eternity thou needest not tremble, "For I am persuaded, that neither death; nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now, soul, is not thy love refreshed? Does not this make thee love Jesus? Doth not a flight through illimitable plains of the ether of love inflame thy heart and compel thee to delight thyself in the Lord thy God? Surely as we meditate on "the love of the Lord," our hearts burn within us, and we long to love him more.
Evening
"Your refuge from the avenger of blood." - Joshua 20:3
It is said that in the land of Canaan, cities of refuge were so arranged, that any man might reach one of them within half a day at the utmost. Even so the word of our salvation is near to us; Jesus is a present Saviour, and the way to him is short; it is but a simple renunciation of our own merit, and a laying hold of Jesus, to be our all in all. With regard to the roads to the city of refuge, we are told that they were strictly preserved, every river was bridged, and every obstruction removed, so that the man who fled might find an easy passage to the city. Once a year the elders went along the roads and saw to their order, so that nothing might impede the flight of any one, and cause him, through delay, to be overtaken and slain. How graciously do the promises of the gospel remove stumbling blocks from the way! Wherever there were by-roads and turnings, there were fixed up hand-posts, with the inscription upon them--"To the city of refuge!" This is a picture of the road to Christ Jesus. It is no roundabout road of the law; it is no obeying this, that, and the other; it is a straight road: "Believe, and live." It is a road so hard, that no self-righteous man can ever tread it, but so easy, that every sinner, who knows himself to be a sinner may by it find his way to heaven. No sooner did the man-slayer reach the outworks of the city than he was safe; it was not necessary for him to pass far within the walls, but the suburbs themselves were sufficient protection. Learn hence, that if you do but touch the hem of Christ's garment, you shall be made whole; if you do but lay hold upon him with "faith as a grain of mustard seed," you are safe.

"A little genuine grace ensures
The death of all our sins."

Only waste no time, loiter not by the way, for the avenger of blood is swift of foot; and it may be he is at your heels at this still hour of eventide.
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Nahum 
[Nā'hum] - compassionate, comforter or full of comfort.
1. The prophet who was born at Elkosh in Galilee, and who prophesied against Nineveh (Nah. 1:1).
The Man Who Preached Doom
Nothing is known of this Minor Prophet outside of what we find in the opening of his small yet strong book. He was born at Elkosh, a village of Palestine. But although Nahum is among the notable unknown of the Bible, he was a student of the history of his time and was raised up to comfort God's people. He prophesied against Nineveh about 150 years after Jonah's revival there. At that time the city was still at the height of its glory (Nah. 3:16-17 ). The empire was extremely cruel. The people gloated that "space failed for corpses of their enemies." They made "pyramids of human heads." Pillars were covered with the flayed skins of their rivals.
Nahum's mission was to declare the terrible doom of Nineveh and one hundred years later it fell. So great was the destruction of the city of the most ferocious, sensual, diabolically atrocious race of men that ever lived, that Alexander the Great marched by and did not know that a great city was under his feet. Lucian wrote, "Nineveh is perished and there is no trace left where once it was." Nahum, convinced that God was slow to anger but would yet take vengeance on His adversaries, "focusses the light of God's moral government upon wicked Nineveh and chants the death and dirge of the world's greatest oppressor."
The leading lessons to be gleaned from the Book of Nahum are encouraging to faith:
I. The goodness and unchangeableness of Jehovah.
II. The limits of divine forbearance.
III. Right prevails in the end.
IV. Darkness comes before the dawn.
V. The universality of God's government, its gracious purpose: its retributive character.
VI. Man's extremity is faith's hour and God's opportunity.
2. Another Nahum. In the A. V. Naum is mentioned as an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:25).
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Today's reading: Exodus 34-35, Matthew 22:23-46 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Exodus 34-35

The New Stone Tablets
1 The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain."
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands....

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 22:23-46

Marriage at the Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God...."

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