Friday, March 06, 2015

Fri Mar 6th 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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Victim exonerated for killing abuser. Jessica Silva was handed a two year suspended sentence for manslaughter of her ex, James Polkinghorne. James was high on ice at the time. The abuser had a telephoned her to say he was coming to kill her. She pled not guilty due to self defence, but was found guilty. The sentencing judge considered the circumstances and found she had not intended to kill, but protect herself and her family. Which sounds a lot like self defence. 

 Ricky Muir forgiven by press. He had been smeared when the Press feared he would vote with conservatives. But his parliamentary record is almost perfect as ALP member, so press now laud him. He is a nice person, with slightly left wing views, and little thought of substance on the issues of the day.

 ICAC, pursuing Justice Cuneen is so bad as to be corrupt. 

 Egypt closes 27000 Mosques to fight terrorism. But no real mosque will be touched. By real, one understands the Mosque to practice the religion of peace. In Australia a 27 yo 'man' has been sentenced 10 years for sexual abuse of a 12 year old he married. He had been told by at least two Imams that it was illegal in Australia. He had started by sending many texts to the girl, which she ignored. But he pressed on until she agreed. The crime was discovered when the girl, aged fourteen, had an ectopic pregnancy and miscarried. 

 Indonesia executed a man whom records showed died in 2013. Apparently the dead man's passport had been stolen and it is suggested African drug lords gave the passport to a courier. There is no doubt that the man executed was executed for the crime they committed. But the press are keen to suggest that the system is flawed. 

 Harrison Ford survives plane crash. A WW2 two seater fixed wing crashed into a golf corse. Ford is in serious but improving condition, the only one hurt. Golf course will have improved membership.
2014
On this day in 2008, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed eight students and critically injured eleven in the library of the Mercaz HaRav Kook yeshiva in Jerusalem. A friend of mine remarked they did not know much about the issues, but assumed there was wrong on both sides. So I made a video covering the issues. I hoped to expand on it, as it would be easy to do, but I've not yet found the time to concentrate on the worthy venture. 
It is wrong to say all Jordanian/Palestinian peoples are terrorists. But their leadership has been and they have been endorsed by the UN, accepting terrorism among its' constituent members. Terrorism is not proportionate or balanced. A terrorist group is seeking international approval to ethnically cleanse a region of the Middle East.
Historical perspectives on this day 
Technical issues prevent todays listing
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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, September https://www.createspace.com/5106914, 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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Happy birthday and many happy returns Naomi Romm, Hoang Kim and Siev Gour. Your birthday, the same day Chavez passed, brings Venezuela hope.
March 6: Independence Day in Ghana (1957); World Book Day in Ireland and the United Kingdom (2014)
Petru Groza
Our empire rules. Our journal continues. The performance was sublime. We dominate. We settled the border dispute. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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From Generation Y to Generation what the !?!?

Piers Akerman – Friday, March 06, 2015 (1:00am)

EVERY Australian should despair at the Labor Party’s fatal inability to think about the future. With the release of the fourth of Treasury’s intergenerational reports yesterday, Labor was left grasping at straws. Beyond the usual vituperative comments delivered to the ever-ready open microphones of the ABC and Fairfax media, Labor could offer nothing of substance in comments on a document which should be the focus of discussion in every home this weekend.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'From Generation Y to Generation what the !?!?'
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GREEN CRIME

Tim Blair – Friday, March 06, 2015 (3:36pm)

Yet another alleged enviroscam: 
California-based 350Green LLC was supposed to build an extensive network of car charging stations around Chicago and other cities, putting them ahead of the electric vehicle curve.
Instead, federal investigators now say, the company’s CEO and president defrauded Chicago and other governments out of nearly $3 million in grants for work that was never done. 
At least nobody was killed. Other enviroscams include Spain’s diesel-powered solar fraud and the massive EU carbon hack.
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THE PURPOSE WAS TO KILL

Tim Blair – Friday, March 06, 2015 (4:35am)

Attorney William Weinreb describes the fatal injuries suffered by eight-year-old Martin Richard, a victim of Islamic terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s 2013 Boston bombing: 
Martin was so small that the bomb damaged his entire body, exposing his ribs and organs, eviscerating his bowels and burning his skin. He lost so much blood that he had practically none left, the prosecutor said.
“The purpose of this bomb was to shred flesh, shatter bones, set people on fire,” Weinreb told the court.
“The purpose was to kill and maim as many people as possible.” 
Both of the boy’s arms were blown off. Martin’s mother could not see her son following the blast as she was blinded in one eye by bomb fragments. Martin’s seven-year-old sister was also deliberately targeted by Tsarnaev. Her leg was severed.
But all of this is OK, because terrorism is just an irritant that can be cured with cultured reason. Besides, Tsarnaev’s victims were probably killed by the Tea Party. Isn’t that right, Fairfax?
UPDATE. Listen here starting at 2:02. It’s difficult.
UPDATE II. Remarkable courtroom coverage from the Boston Herald‘s Laurel Sweet.
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CLIMATE CHANGE INTIMACY

Tim Blair – Friday, March 06, 2015 (4:09am)

At the University of South Australia, British sociologist Lynn Jamieson will next week present a lecture on Practices of Intimacy, Futures, Social Change and Climate Change: 
In this lecture, Professor Jamieson will refer to evidence about the future of intimacy in projected practices of intimacy in couple relationships, parent-child relationship, kinship, friendship and sexual relationships.
She looks for evidence of possibilities of environmentally-positive future directions for social change in discussions that largely focus more directly on issues of gender equality and balances of power in intergenerational relationships. 
Er, OK. But does climate intimacy happen before or after climate grieving? Also, what the hell does any of that mean?
(Via the IPA) 
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HALP US

Tim Blair – Friday, March 06, 2015 (4:01am)

Old climate theme: poley bears on vanishing ice.
New climate theme: pet dogs on increasing ice. 
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NERAKA UDARA

Tim Blair – Friday, March 06, 2015 (3:47am)

A reminder from Mike Carlton: he still knows how to speak Indonesian.
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WRIGHT WRONG

Tim Blair – Friday, March 06, 2015 (3:29am)

Greens senator Penny Wright celebrates student stupidity:

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Another major problem facing Australia today: students – possibly university students, judging by that handwriting – don’t know how to spell the Prime Minister’s name.
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WEREBLAIR

Tim Blair – Friday, March 06, 2015 (1:59am)

A frightening case of holiday hair:

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Things are even worse at the back of my head. 
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Say no to racism. No to racial division in our constitution

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (6:56pm)


Senator David Leyonhjelm of the Liberal Democratic Party opposes plans to divide us by race by recognising Aborigines in the constitution:

I rise to oppose the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition (Sunset Extension) Bill 2015.
This Bill seeks to re-affirm three statements in legislation.  I oppose the Bill because I believe that these three statements should not be in legislation.
The first statement is as follows:



The Parliament, on behalf of the people of Australia, recognises that the continent and the islands now known as Australia were first occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
This is conjecture.  Archaeologists make extraordinary discoveries all the time, and one of those discoveries could be that someone made it to Australia before the Aborigines.  Statements like this belong in scholarly research, not legislation… You can’t legislate a fact.
The second statement is as follows:

The Parliament, on behalf of the people of Australia, acknowledges the continuing relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with their traditional lands and waters.
This is stereotyping.  It is likely that some Aboriginal people do not have a relationship with traditional lands and waters.  What is the Parliament doing to these people when it asserts that Aboriginal peoples have such a relationship?  It is denying their Aboriginality.
The third statement is as follows:

The Parliament, on behalf of the people of Australia, acknowledges and respects the continuing cultures, languages and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
This is divisive.  It is likely that some Australians do not respect the cultures, languages or heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  What is the Parliament doing to these people when it asserts that the people of Australia respect Aboriginal cultures?  It is casting them as ‘un-Australian’.
This Bill also seeks to reaffirm a commitment to a referendum on constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  Amongst other reasons, I oppose the Bill because I oppose such a referendum and I oppose such constitutional recognition.
Each of us can feel that our ancestry is important, and each of us can celebrate this ancestry in our own way.  Some celebrate ancestors who were here millennia ago, some celebrate ancestors who were on the First Fleet, and some celebrate ancestors who came on a more recent leaky boat.  But no one person’s ancestry is more important than another person’s…
Every human being in Australia is a person, equal before the law. Giving legal recognition to characteristics held by certain persons – particularly when those characteristics are inherent, like ancestry – represents a perverse sort of racism.
Although it appears positive, it still singles some people out on the basis of race.
Leyonhjelm’s speech in full:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Say no to racism. No to racial division in our constitution'
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When will Mark Riley say sorry for his Abbott coverage?

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (5:06pm)


Reader A wonders when Chanel Seven political editor Mark Riley will apologise to viewers for misleading them in his campaign to depose Prime Minister Tony Abbott:



Thursday 26/2/15

CLAIM: Mark Riley breathlessly reports that a majority of MP’s support a leadership spill: “Seven News can reveal there are new moves to make [Tony Abbott’s] prime ministership a museum piece.”


Friday 27/2/15
CLAIM: Seven claims that “Tony Abbott’s leadership crisis is expected to come to a head next week” with Riley alleging “at least 10… Ministers have now turned against Tony Abbott, putting the Party Room numbers heavily in favour of a leadership spill.”

CLAIM: According to Riley, the leadership issue will come to a head in Monday’s Cabinet meeting: “I’m told that when Cabinet meets here in Canberra at 5:00pm on Monday, Ministers will demand that the room be cleared of all advisers and note takers so they and only they can eyeball the Prime Minister and thrash out the leadership issue once and for all.”

Monday 2/3/15

CLAIM: With Tony Abbott still Prime Minister, Riley is forced to retreat from his claims of an imminent spill: “…backbenchers and ministers have [now] agreed on a new deadline. Either he turns things around by June or he’s gone.” Riley claims Tony Abbott gave Julie Bishop “a dressing down” in Cabinet because a TV camera showed the PM glancing at the Foreign Minister during a statement.
Facts: Malcolm Turnbull does not have the numbers. The leadership issue did not “come to a head”. Tony Abbott was not deposed. There is no agreed deadline. All Cabinet meetings start with a political discussion, with advisors and noter-takers out of the room. Abbott did not dress down Bishop in any way, with even the ABC concluding, after viewing the same footage, that “the pictures show a united Cabinet”.
Why trust a word Riley says about Abbott? 
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Waleed Aly ignores the “Islamic” in Islamic State

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (4:47pm)


Waleed Aly is our most prominent and – in my opinion – insidious apologist for radical Islam.
He is a columnist for The Age, host of The Project and, of all things, a lecturer in a terrorism unit at Monash University.
He seems astonishingly unable or unwilling to acknowledge the obvious – that Islamist terrorist groups are driven in large part by Islam itself.
Here is today’s effort, warning against fighting the Islamic State and mocking Tony Abbott’s description of it as a “death cult” – itself a phrase, ironically, designed to deny the group’s Islamic roots:
Outraged by IS, we’ll send soldiers. Concerned they aren’t retreating in the way we’d like, we’ll send more. That, it seems, is the strategy. But we’ve been failing at this strategy for nearly a dozen years.
Let me demonstrate Aly’s technique of evasion, using this example. Here are phrases taken from this Aly article in which he attempts to explain what drives this hideous terrorist army:
… It’s an expanding group forged in XXX
Its existence is not harebrained. It is deeply XXX
… those who support, or even merely tolerate it, have XXX reasons for their decisions.
It is rather a story of XXX
And it is a story of XXX
At each XXX Aly could have used the word “Islam” or “Islamic” to identify a key driver of the Islamic State, as the movement itself insists. Ignore its Koranic foundation and you will not understand its choice of enemies - including Christians, Yazidis, Copts and Jews - or its choice of punishments, such as beheadings.
Instead, Aly substitutes a range of other phrases, all designed to make the Islamic State seem just a political movement, or even the predictable reaction to Western adventurism:
… the collapsing politics of the Middle East.
… political
… political,
...monstrous Sunni resentment at the pro-Shiite excesses of the Iraqi state.
… just how rent Iraq truly is; just how colossal a failure its reconstruction after we invaded it has been.
Why don’t more journalists call out Aly on these dangerous evasions? 
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Lee Rhiannon and the Greens’ politics of smear

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (4:01pm)


How low can the Greens go in using Parliament to smear a public servant?
Paul Sheehan on the truly grotesque behaviour of Senator Lee Rhiannon, using guilt by the most far-fetched association to portray a crime fighter as just a dangerous thug:
Senator Lee Rhiannon, Greens NSW, delivered a speech on Tuesday night that was smearing at its most abject.
Under the privilege of Parliament on Tuesday night, Sr Rhiannon began a speech with these words: “Nigel Hadgkiss, director of the Fair Work Building and Construction inspectorate, has framed his career and, indeed, his life, as a crime fighter, exposing corruption, drug runners and criminals.”
“[But his career] is about reducing the pay workers take home at the end of the week and reducing the rights of workers to ensure they have a safe workplace …
“It is only legitimate that Australians know who he is ... In 1989, as a Winston Churchill Fellow, the Hadgkiss CV tells us he studied methods for combatting organised crime in Northern Ireland …
“The Royal Ulster Constabulary - known as the RUC - was the local police force in Northern Ireland until 2001… In 1989, the RUC… was involved with paramilitaries in carrying out brutal crimes, including murder… There is no suggestion that Hadgkiss was involved in crimes committed by the RUC. However, why does he promote this visit as a study trip to examine methods of fighting organised crime?… We do know that Hadgkiss’ career has been under a cloud at least since the 1990s …”
Here is Sr Rhiannon’s logic: Nigel Hadgkiss studied in Ulster in 1989. Paramilitants committed murders in Ulster in 1989. Paramilitants were linked with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Therefore Mr Hadgkiss needs to explain what black arts he was studying in Northern Ireland.
Worse, the smear was delivered in support of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, which for decades has been riddled with systemic corruption, intimidation and violence. This is the union that has sub-contracted bikie gangs as enforcers…
A similarly methodical attempt at character assassination of Hadgkiss had been made last Thursday by Labor’s designated parliamentary apologist, rationaliser and attack dog for the CFMEU, Senator Doug Cameron.
The senator engaged in yet another tortuous inquisition of Mr Hadgkiss, asking 128 questions, all suggestive that he has colluded with construction companies. Labor’s tactics are a clear message of intimidation to senior public servants whose jobs involve investigating union corruption and intimidation…
After about an hour of this, Sr Cameron suddenly fell silent when the subject turned to the intimidation of Mr Hadgkiss’ staff, especially his female staff.
Mr Hadgkiss: “We have 25 documented cases of serious security matters involving my staff in recent years. Invariably these involve ‘scab sheets’ where the identity of investigators is put up - their personal details, their home and their telephone numbers - particularly female staff members are rung at home at night and abused.”
Sr Cameron remained silent.
Shame on Rhiannon. Shame on Cameron.
UPDATE
Bravo Senator Barry O’Sullivan for taking on Lee Rhiannon for her disgusting smears and demanding that if anyone should come clean on past associations it is Rhiannon herself, graduate of a Soviet Union college for foreign sympathisers.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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On the Bolt Report on Sunday, March 8

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (10:23am)


On the The Bolt Report on Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 3pm.
Editorial: on the execution of two Australians.
Guest: Polling guru Mark Textor on the stunning recovery of Tony Abbott.
The panel: Judith Sloan and former Labor minister Gary Johns.
Newswatch: Piers Akerman, laughing at the press corps.
On the Greens, Labor denialism and much more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
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Gary John’s latest book. The blurb:


Too many charities in Australia do little or no charity work, too many receive most of their income from government, and too many lobby government for more. Gary Johns analyses the charity sector and concludes that a better informed donor is essential to drive better charity.
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Treasury reborn: no, more spending won’t save us

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (8:25am)


John Roskam sees hope in the new head of the Commonwealth Treasury, John Fraser:

[Fraser] declared to the Senate Economics legislation committee: “I do not resile from the point that I do not think spending our way out of lower economic activity is the way to go.”
Once, such a view was uncontroversial. Today, practically every international economics organisation preaches the opposite. And when Fraser said Ronald Reagan’s personal and company tax cuts had “helped to reinforce the entrepreneurial spirit which is alive amongst the smaller and medium-sized businesses in the US”, there were almost audible gasps from the Labor senators…
One of Fraser’s key tasks will be to restore Treasury’s position as the pre-eminent source of honest and rigorous advice to government…
The nadir for Treasury’s reputation came in 2010, when Sinclair Davidson discovered the department had cherry-picked data in an attempt to prove that countries with large stimulus packages (such as Treasury recommended for Australia) performed better during the global financial crisis than countries with smaller packages. In fact, there was no statistically significant difference. The previous year, then prime minister Kevin Rudd claimed Treasury modelling proved a carbon emissions trading scheme would not reduce employment in Australia. Alex Robson later revealed the basis for Treasury’s claim rested on the patently absurd assumption that an emissions trading scheme would “apply globally”.
There are many reasons why the Abbott government has struggled to communicate the scale of the economic challenges facing Australia. One is that Treasury has failed to explain the consequences to politicians and the public if the country’s fiscal trajectory does not change.
The overwhelming sentiment among modern-day Treasury economists is that Australia is not Greece and never will be, so there isn’t too much to worry about. The 2015 intergenerational report released on Thursday does explain the consequences. The report identifies that under what it calls the “previous policy” scenario (ie the previous Labor government’s policies), government debt would within 40 years be more than 120 per cent of gross domestic product. Currently it’s 15 per cent of GDP.
(Thank to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Queensland Labor decides some state assets can be sold, after all

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (7:32am)


Queensland Labor could not have been clearer - no sale of state assets:
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To repeat. Here is Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk the day before the election:

Queenslanders do not want their assets sold… We will keep those assets in public hands.
The trouble is that this idiocy left Labor with no money. So It now turns out there are non-core promises - and non-core assets:


DEPUTY Premier, Infrastructure and Planning Minister Jackie Trad has defended her leader’s decision to leave the door open to selling off some state-owned assets like parcels of land saying such sales were beneficial to the economy…
“What we said was that we would not sell the assets that deliver the dividends to the Queensland State Budget.
“There won’t be asset sales in Queensland under the Palaszczuk Labor Government but when line agencies sell things like public housing stock to buy new public housing stock they will be permitted to do it...”
(Thanks to readers John and JT.) 
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Profits of doom

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (7:20am)


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Foul:
INDONESIAN guards are taking happy snaps of the Australian pair on death row and selling them for up to $600 each.
Tasteless photographs have emerged of Senior Commissioner Djoko Hari Utomo posing with condemned prisoners Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran on their last flight before execution....
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has ordered an official complaint to be lodged with the Indonesian government over the photo and the pair not being treated with respect during the transfer to the Nusakambangan prison island.
Mind you, who bought these pictures? 
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Global babbling

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (7:02am)


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Global warming causes the complete disintegration of English prose. The latest tragic victim - British sociologist Lynn Jamieson, showing her scars to the University of South Australia:


In this lecture, Professor Jamieson ...  looks for evidence of possibilities of environmentally-positive future directions for social change in discussions that largely focus more directly on issues of gender equality and balances of power in intergenerational relationships.
The poor woman. Shattered friends recall those blessed days when the breeze was cool and Jamieson made sense.   
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What else won’t authorities notice for fear of seeming racist?

Andrew Bolt March 06 2015 (6:13am)


James Delingpole:

I’ve been reading the official report into the latest Muslim rape gang atrocity – in Oxford, this time…
Here, in bullet point form, are some excerpts from the testimony of the estimated 370 victims – all of them white girls, mostly from broken or abusive homes or in “care”, generally aged between about 12 and 15. The abusers were much older men from mainly Kashmiri-Pakistani backgrounds (though one of the convicted men was from Saudi Arabia, another from North Africa), who groomed the girls beforehand…
Oh, and the details below – according to the report – are the expurgated version. Apparently there’s other stuff so horrible the report wouldn’t print it.


They threatened to blow up my house with my Mum in it
I was expected to do things – if I didn’t they said they would come to my house and burn me alive. I had a baby brother
They took us to a field where there were other men who had come to have sex with us. I tried not to do it. There were five of them…
The fear is still very real for me – though they are in jail I still check the cars
This was going on for 15 years, remember… But the really damning thing for me is the report’s revelations that actually some police officers DID try to speak out, desperately and repeatedly, only to have their concerns squashed or ignored…

Just look at the last par of that excerpt from the report, quoted above. A senior person on the council, Andy Couldrick, who was responsible for Children’s Services, is revealed to have prevented any action being taken to deal with the problem through a mixture of inertia and political correctness.
See how, when an ex-detective whistleblower on the council tried alerting him to the problem, Couldrick’s main concern was not that under-aged girls were being sexually abused but that the whistleblower had brought up the awkward issue of the perpetrators being “black” and “Asian” – something which he found to be “presumptive and unsavoury”.


(Thanks to reader fulchrum.) 
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=== Posts from last year ===

Gender shouldn’t define a career

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, March 04, 2014 (10:14pm)

THE hypocrisy of Labor dispatching its Emily’s List sweethearts Penny Wong and Catherine King to tear down one of the few women in the Abbott ministry made last week’s Senate Estimates hearings compulsory viewing.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Gender shouldn’t define a career'
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IN THE ZONA

Tim Blair – Wednesday, March 05, 2014 (8:55pm)

The plan was to arrive in Austin, Texas, last weekend. But evil bitch goddess Gaia had other ideas, throwing down massive amounts of climate change to block my path.
All credit to Gaia. She’s one determined sacred environmental entity. Here’s how the primordial Greek deity dealt with her puny human plaything:
• First she anticipated my arrival in Denver, Colorado.
• Then she sent wave after wave of rain and snow towards Texas, causing an extraordinary number of flight cancellations. Including several of mine, across two days.
• Look at what she does to journalists.
I know a warning when I see one, so I fled to the desert, which was relatively easy since various flight redirections had stranded me in Arizona. Then I lit out for Vegas, figuring it might be the one place in the US immune to Gaia’s power. But along the way I discovered Wikieup, which sounds like the worst possible combination of activist groups, except that it’s terrific. Check out my room at the Wikieup Trading Post Motel:

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Booking in involved one of the best motel exchanges I’ve ever had:
Tim: “Do you have internet?”
Lovely woman behind the restaurant counter: “I don’t know.”
Turns out there wasn’t, but the room (clean, neat, quiet) really sparkled at night. Naturally, there was a helicopterparked outside the next morning.
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Not one of the top 10 Oppositions in the world

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (9:11am)

Labor is embarrassing itself by trying to find reasons to justify its defence of the union grip on Qantas and its refusal to free the airline from government restrictions and the carbon tax:
ABC Fact Check: 

Mr Albanese is wrong when he says that eight out of 10 of the world’s top 10 airlines are majority government owned.
Lateline: 
ANTHONY ALBANESE (Labor transport spokesman): If you look at Garuda - if you look at Garuda, for example, it’s 69 per cent government-owned. 
TONY JONES: But they’re not one of the top 10 airlines.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Yes, they are - yes, they are, Tony…
TONY JONES: Based on which category?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Yes, they are. You Google “top 10 airlines in the world” and Garuda’ll pop up. TONY JONES: Oh, so Google is where you get your information from? 
UPDATE
Mark Kenny suggests Shorten’s populism may be built on a false assumption that the public is stupid: 

Bill Shorten has remarked privately that his task would be more difficult were he facing a pragmatic government… He believes the Flying Kangaroo is so ingrained in Australian identity that voters will punish any government either sitting on its hands while its viability comes into question or presiding over its dismantling as an Australian company through foreign takeover…
Liberals across the board now caution against an assumption that the ideology of small government and zero-corporate welfare is inherently odious and therefore at odds with voter sentiment…
Informing this view is the surprising equanimity with which voters absorbed the Holden withdrawal in particular - perhaps the only badge to rival Qantas as the quintessential Aussie brand. Liberals braced for a backlash. What they got instead was a level of sophistication from voters who understood the arguments about the unsustainability of an automotive sector with its hand permanently extended. And this in turn has emboldened a new attitude in the Abbott cabinet on Qantas.
Sometime good policy speaks for itself.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Essential poll: Coalition leads

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (9:05am)


Essential Media poll: Coalition 51, Labor 49
(Thanks to reader Martyh.) 
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Jonathan Green says he doesn’t exist

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (8:26am)

Culture wars

The astonishingly prolix ABC presenter Jonathan Green is going to exhaust the world’s known reserves of syllables as he tries to convince readers that:
A: he’s extremely learned
B: the Left isn’t Left at all but the centre, and only wicked conservatives disagree about anything.
He writes:

For the left of recent decades this drift to the centre has both a sense of historical inevitability, but also of opportunity. It was the partial consequence of the ideological hollowing of political practice, the removal of anything so awkward as a desire to use politics as an agent for radical change. For Labor, it represented a chance to claw to the centre and broaden its appeal among the voting heartland of the undecided middle ground, shedding ideology as it went. 
The pure politics of our moment accepts the fundamentals of our economy and social structure, then stages pitched and fundamentally meaningless battles around the fringes ... battles that carry passing political consequence but only marginal real world implications, certainly no implications that might rattle the essential order of things. 
Missing from this self-serving analysis, which has Green essentially arguing that he’s normal and conservatives not, is a list of the arguments we’re actually having - the ones Green claims are just “on the fringes” and with “only marginal real world implications”.
- restrictions on free speech
- the retribalising of our nation
- changing the constitution to effectively divide us by race
- our high levels of immigration 
- massive overspending on entitlements and welfare schemes
- workplace restriction which employers say cost jobs and investment
- government handouts to prop up companies from Qantas to car-makers, involving billions of dollars and thousands of jobs 
- preventing illegal immigration, which under Labor was reaching levels approaching 40,000 people a year
- the global warming faith and its carbon tax, responsible in part for the loss of thousands of Australian jobs
- the Renewable Energy Target, who helps make electricity a luxury for the poor without doing anything for the environment
- the green bans on nuclear power and on dams to water our growing cities.

- appeasing or defying rising Third World or developing powers such as China
- surrendering elements of our self-government to multinational fora such as the United Nations
- limiting the reach and bias of our massive state media
- green restrictions on the use of our natural resources, costing possibly tens of thousands of jobs
- how to fight Islamist extremism, already responsible for the loss of hundreds of Australian lives
I’d guess that Green and I would be on opposite sides on each of those arguments. I am certain that these arguments involve profound principles and serious consequences.
It is astonishing the Green believes they do not. And it’s comical that this cookie-cutter Leftist thinks he doesn’t actually exist:
..."leftists" of the old, sclerotic imagination, no longer exist.
===

Column - Blasphemy! Abbott can see the wood for the table

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (7:27am)

The green movement, The new morality

TONY Abbott on Tuesday said something shocking — that a great thing about trees was that you can make stuff from them.
You know, like “a workbench for the new family home” or the “timber canoe, which I paddled around the Lane Cove River National Park in year eight”.
Bits of a Tasmanian forest could even make a “magnificent example of an Australian-made chair” — like the one the Prime Minister told a forestry industry dinner he was going to stick in his office.

In fact, Abbott said: “The forest wasn’t just a place of beauty, but it was a source of resources.”
So what, you might ask. What’s the big deal about seeing a tree and dreaming of furniture?
Well, it’s a blasphemy against the green religion that has Greens leader Christine Milne smelling sulphur.
(Read full article here.  Thanks to readers Joel, Gab, Gandalf, sharperinoz, Steve5, Jim and many others for tips on the videos.)
UPDATE
The green faith that Abbott is challenging - the prayers, weeping, hymns, chanting and sermonising:
 
 
 
 
===

No, Adam, we are not so different. Or so guilty

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (7:15am)

The politics of race

image
FOOTBALLER Adam Goodes has let us down as Australian of the Year, using his soapbox to vilify our past and preach division. 

The Swans captain this week denounced “our very dark past, a brutal history of dispossession, theft and slaughter”.
“Europeans, and the governments that have run our country, have raped, killed and stolen,” he wrote in Fairfax newspapers.

Goodes attacked Australians who resisted this lurid characterisation of our past: “The people who benefited most from those rapes, those killings and that theft ... turn away in disgust when someone seeks to expose it.”
A word to Goodes, who identifies as a “proud Adnyamathanha man” — an Aboriginal from a Flinders Ranges tribe:
Adam, my grandparents committed no thefts, rapes or murders.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Could be worse

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (7:00am)


 There is some good news to dig out in the latest story about Labor frontbencher Warren Snowdon:

He did not eat it.
===

It is humiliating to have to defend free speech in Australia

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (6:58am)

Free speech

A very bruising attempt to get another article published means I will not comment directly on this very unfortunate development and risk inflicting yet more legal expenses on my long-suffering employer:

WARREN Mundine, the head of Tony Abbott’s indigenous council, has directly advised the Prime Minister to reverse his government’s plans to repeal a key section of the Racial Discrimination Act, saying he has the backing of the council.
But it is a good day to read this, from The Australian:
A FREE and robust exchange of ideas is essential to democracy, especially in academe where open-minded inquiry is paramount. There is no doubt, as visiting Hebrew University political scientist Dan Avnon said on Tuesday, that Sydney University academic Jake Lynch deserves a “red card” for refusing to sponsor him out of support for the nefarious Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. 

Professor Lynch’s stance has eroded the credibility of Sydney University’s so-called Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies… 
A vital principle - upholding the free exchange of views - lies at the heart of the row over Professor Lynch’s objectionable behaviour. The same principle should also apply in the community, which is why supporters of the restrictive Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, including the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, would be wise to think again…

Such legislative and judicial overkill, as Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson argues, has shut down public debate for no better reason than “someone’s tone could be deemed inappropriate”. It is understandable that community leaders support laws they believe protect their communities. The safety, opportunities and reputations of all Australians, however, are well protected by criminal, defamation and discrimination laws.
The concept of free speech has been grounded in Enlightenment principles for more than 300 years. It covers not only those with whom we agree, but those with whom we disagree, often vehemently… Free speech serves the interests of all, especially those at risk of racism. As champions of democracy, Jewish leaders who stood up for Professor Avnon’s rights would take a valuable lead if they broadened their defence of free speech.
It is astonishing - and profoundly depressing - that this argument needs to be made today.  And in Australia, of all places.
I cannot believe Australia is the vicious country described by our Race Discrimination Commissioner, a former Labor staffer:
Soutphommasane warned in a speech this week that repealing Section 18C might “unleash a darker, even violent, side of our humanity”.
Actually, the “darker ... side of our humanity” is the urge to control the thoughts and speech of others.
What is really being protected by these laws against free speech is not people but an ideology. 
===

Our politicians must one day oppose warmists more openly than this

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (6:26am)

Global warming - general

image
Good, but at some stage, though, the political push-back against warming alarmism needs to be backed by an open argument on the state of the science:
Victoria’s environment commissioner has quit and hit out at the Napthine government’s attitude on climate change, saying bureaucrats told her they were directed to refrain from even using the term. 
Professor Kate Auty, the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability since 2008, said the government’s lack of leadership on the issue was illustrated by the phrase ‘’climate variability’’ often being used when climate change was meant. Climate change refers to warming of the planet by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. ‘’Climate variability’’ commonly describes natural fluctuations.
For now, there is little courage either at state or federal levels to openly challenge the catastrophism:
In response, a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Ryan Smith ...  said it was ‘’misleading’’ to suggest Mr Smith has instructed alternative terms to climate change be used. She referred to two policy documents - a response to a review of state climate laws and an adaptation plan - which included the term repeatedly. 
But separate questions to Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh - who also has oversight of the Department of Environment and Primary Industries - about any language instructions he had made were redirected to Mr Smith’s office. 
The argument would go like this:
The world warmed overall last century, with much of that warming occurring in the first half, before the period in which the human influence is said by the IPCC to be discernible. Some warming iat least is plainly natural.
For the past 16 years, the atmosphere has failed to warm, contrary to predictions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The threat seems to have been exaggerated, and warming may not be the problem we were told.
The warming rate over the past 35 years is lower than predicted by 95 per cent of models used by climate scientists. The climate models seem to have exaggerated human influence, and human emissions may not be the problem we were told.
Predictions of more cyclones, stronger cyclones, failing crops, more droughts and vanishing islands have so far proved false. The dangerous consequences of more warming seem to have been exaggerated. The benefits of higher temperatures - particularly record crops - has been played down.
Policies to cut Australia’s emissions are expensive, cost jobs and make no practical difference to temperatures. (The highest estimate of the effect of Labor’s carbon tax on temperatures, produced by an IPCC scientist, is 0.0038 degrees by 2100, Other estimates are much less.)
If warming is less than predicted, and the dangers less severe, the gain from trying to cut emissions is even less likely to be worth the pain.
I don’t know that governments can dodge making this simple argument for much longer if they are serious about stopping the terrible damage caused by global warming policies such as the carbon tax and clean energy target.
Meanwhile, the hiatus in warming - now admitted by even our most fervent warmists - continues:
image
===

A long shot

Andrew Bolt March 06 2014 (12:01am)

Just wondering… Does anyone know of good video of the green pantheism at work? Some illustration of the religious fervour that had the Greens locking up forests because humans were too sinful?
Long shot, I know. 
===

Labor insider exposes Labor’s Qantas folly

Andrew Bolt March 05 2014 (4:20pm)

It is bizarre to hear the Left - Labor and the Greens - demand taxpayers bail out big business. I thought only crony capitalists went in for that kind of stuff.
Luckily some old Leftists haven’t lost their senses:

PETER LLOYD:  A former senior Labor staffer who worked as a senior executive at Qantas also has publicly sided with the Government for its refusal to give the airline a debt guarantee. 
David Epstein also strongly criticised Labor for backing the idea in an intervention that’s put all sorts of pressure on the Opposition…

DAVID EPSTEIN: It’s not good for Qantas commercially, it’s not good economic policy and exposes the taxpayer to a lot of fiscal risk. If it were true that Qantas depended on this sort of change, I don’t actually think it’s true, but some argue it does and those that argue it does say that Qantas is at risk of catastrophic commercial failure.
If that’s the case why would you put billions of dollars that could be sensibly spend on things like roads, schools and hospitals at risk for Qantas?
FRAN KELLY: So Labor’s got it wrong?
DAVID EPSTEIN: … The world is not going to stop if Qantas stops. It would be unfortunate but we have a market economy. We don’t want crony capitalism. 
So that’s one stupid Labor policy killing Qantas. Here is another:
QANTAS has urged parliament to support the Coalition’s efforts to support the national airline, revealing its carbon tax liability is on track to reach $118 million this year. 

In a statement issued this afternoon, the airline complained the carbon tax was “among the most significant challenges we face” and that was unable to pass the cost on to consumers because of the “intensely competitive market”.

How can Labor claim it’s standing for Australian jobs when it’s killing the employer?
Epstein says Labor figures privately admit their Qantas policy is dumb:
DAVID EPSTEIN: I’ve said that to a number of Labor people privately and also a number of people in the broader Labor movement. There is some sympathy for this, but there’s a lot of politics in this and I’ve got to say there’s also a lot of fear. A lot of people are afraid to come out and put their name to their views even though they don’t feel particularly comfortable about what’s occurring.
Exactly the same story with Labor’s stupid position on global warming and the carbon tax. 
=== From Last Year ===

Julia favours unions over the aged

Piers Akerman – Wednesday, March 06, 2013 (3:58am)

JULIA Gillard is using blatant stand-over tactics to ensure unions get their snouts deep into the aged-care industry.
Under a smelly deal she is trying to force on aged-care providers, she is demanding they agree to lock in union contracts to qualify for federal funding.
The move would enshrine union domination in the aged-care industry but would not guarantee any improvement in aged-care service.
Under the deal, private aged-care providers would have to agree to union deals in order to qualify for $1.2 billion Gillard is offering.
The money isn’t even new, it is coming from other aged-care programs.
The beneficiaries will be the rebadged Miscellaneous Workers Union now known as United Voice, the Australian Nurses Federation and the corruption-wracked Health Services Union.
The deal is part of Gillard’s strategy to win back support from blue-collar workers who have been scrambling to leave the union movement.
This is the most overt act of union feather-bedding the Gillard Labor minority government has engaged in.
Employers say it is designed to boost union membership and trigger wage claims without any substantial change in aged-care home operations.
Tying government funding to a sleazy union deal in such a serious area is possibly the most disgusting act the Gillard government has yet entertained – and that says a lot for the bullying, thuggish tactics this government has adopted.
Aged-care facilities are already stretched and under-resourced.
The Gillard government has shown no concern for the patients, only for those it hopes to lure back to the Labor fold.
There is no possible way such a deal would improve the lot of those in aged-care.
So much for Labor’s claimed compassion.
Another Gillard deal, another stinking mess.
As Coalition aged-care spokeswoman Concetta Fierravanti-Wells told The Australian: “This is a union-driven industrial process, dressed up as administrative change.”
“Many providers will be unable to pay the increase and meet the on costs. These cost pressures will further erode their viability.”
And the needy elderly will suffer even more.
Thanks Julia.
===

Conservative blogs rule

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(5:37pm)

Meanwhile, Michael Smith’s blog is posting incredible figures, and not surprisingly.
The Daily Kos refuses to accept the consensus: 13 out of 17 potential finalists of the Web Blog Award’s science category are run by warming sceptics. Shows the mainstream media has failed to provide an outlet for an important debate.
===

ABC: once “rather a lot” of “successful communist” countries

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(12:24pm)

How many exactly? Which?
MARK COLVIN [host of ABC’s PM]: Anybody who’s covered politics in a successful communist country, as there used to be rather a lot of them, would know that speeches can be quite long.
ABC host Jon Faine today announced “very sad news”: Hugo Chavez is dead.
UPDATE
Other ABC stars, such as Phillip Adams, will mourn for their ”inspiration”..
===

How dare these needed workers come here and pay their own way

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(11:54am)


UPDATE: A News Ltd cameraman managed to sneak a camera into Labor’s Caucus as it discussed Gillard’s new campaign against foreign workers.
(Thanks to reader James.)
I agree. It’s a bizarre priority if you want to demonise foreigners:

In the wake of the Prime Minister’s announcement of a crackdown on 457 temporary working visas, opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the move showed Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor didn’t understand the importance of skilled migration.
And where’s the evidence that the 457 program - administered by Labor itself for more than five years - isn’t working?
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott also called on the government to produce evidence the 457 regime was not working properly, warning against hitting employers with further red tape.

Ms Gillard said there was “community concern” about the level of 457 visas and [Immigration Minister Brendan] O’Connor said there was evidence of rorting but his department could not act on it.
Pathetic.
===

Kelly on when Labor leaders were great

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(7:12am)


Blessed by a cabinet of remarkable talent, [Bob] Hawke devised an effective governing strategy for Labor…

It is commonplace these days to say the main difference between the Hawke-Keating era and the Rudd-Gillard era lies in economic reform, with contemporary Labor having lost the pro-market reformism of Hawke and Keating. Yet this is not the main difference.
The real difference is more fundamental - it lies in governing strategy and core mission. Hawke knew that running his government properly was essential in order to run the country properly and both were inexorably linked.
He implemented an orthodox system of cabinet government and decision-making. As PM he set the direction and delegated to his ministers… They ran an accord with the trade unions based on trade-offs that assisted economic policy and made the unions an electoral plus rather than a negative for Labor.
All such conditions have been either non-existent or extremely rare in the Rudd-Gillard period.
The Hawke government was firmly pro-business and pro-finance to drive economic growth… He ... sought to bring the nation together and diminish union-business conflict, shunned old-fashioned class rhetoric, ditched the entire Labor toolbox of protection, regulation and government ownership, promoted share ownership…
Hawke and Keating won elections not because of populist gimmicks about putting foreign workers at the back of the queue but because they proved they were best able to manage the difficult economic challenges of the 1980s....
By contrast, the current Labor generation, both before and after its 2007 election victory, was intellectually and politically weak....

Like Hawke, it was focused on winning; unlike Hawke, it was inept at governing. Rudd-Gillard Labor was too complacent about its ability, too blind to its defects, too fixated on its alleged superiority at short-run, media-driven daily tactics while unable to decide its priorities or grasp what really mattered.
===

Money gone, and nothing to show for it

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(5:50am)

 Politics - federal
That the government should have run out of money even in a mining boom is a disgrace:

The Business Council of Australia wants the federal government, which has delivered $170 billion in budget deficits over the past four years, to generate surpluses of about 1 to 2 per cent of gross domestic product, or more than $30 billion a year…

Deloitte Access Economics research commissioned by the Business Council predicts that without cutting spending as the population ages, federal and state budget deficits will rise above 5 per cent of GDP by 2050, or $70 billion a year in today’s terms… The Deloitte Access research calculates the government has spending plans of about $49 billion over the four-year budget forecasts that aren’t covered by new revenue or savings.
UPDATE
image
Spending in the general government sector (across all levels of government) has been growing at an average of more than 4% per year (inflation adjusted) since 1972 and is now at nearly 35% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 
The problems - exacerbated by this recklessly spendthrift government:
First, ... Australia’s ageing population will result in slower rates of economic growth as the proportion of the overall population participating in the workforce falls.

Second, our expectations for government-provided goods and services are growing. Over the next 40 years, health and aged care costs are expected to grow faster than GDP… Compounding these pressures are community expectations that government will provide new services (National Broadband Network, National Disability Insurance Scheme, etc.) or substantially reform existing services with more spending (Gonski education reform).

Third… The boom in government revenue up to 2007–08 has not resumed following the abatement of the global financial crisis, with revenue growth averaging just 1% a year over the three years to 2010–11. Slow revenue growth is likely to continue for some years, particularly if the prices of Australia’s commodity exports fall.

The scale of the fix needed:
To reduce government expenditure to 30% of GDP, a reduction in government spending of about 4.5% of GDP would be needed (approximately $63 billion per year in savings based on 2011 data)

That’s almost two NBNs a year in savings needed. Think any party going into this election dare talk about a cure that painful?
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
===

The models are broken, by the standards warmists set

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(5:11am)

 Global warming - dud predictions
In 2008, Britian’s Met Office noted a 10-year pause, or sharp slowing, in the warming trend and asked this question in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’ annualState of the Climate:
No, it decided.  Global warming models wouldn’t be clearly wrong until the pause lasted 15 years: 
Observations indicate that global temperature rise has slowed in the last decade… The simulations rule out (at the 95% level) zero trends for intervals of 15 yr or more, suggesting that an observed absence of warming of this duration is needed to create a discrepancy with the expected present-day warming rate.

On all data sets below, the different times for a slope that is at least very slightly negative ranges from 4 years and 7 months to 16 years and 1 month.

1. For GISS, the slope is flat since May 2001 or 11 years, 9 months. (goes to January)
2. For Hadcrut3, the slope is flat since March 1997 or 15 years, 11 months. (goes to January)
3. For a combination of GISS, Hadcrut3, UAH and RSS, the slope is flat since December 2000 or an even 12 years. (goes to November)
4. For Hadcrut4, the slope is flat since November 2000 or 12 years, 3 months. (goes to January)
5. For Hadsst2, the slope is flat since March 1997 or 15 years, 11 months. (goes to January)
6. For UAH, the slope is flat since July 2008 or 4 years, 7 months. (goes to January)
7. For RSS, the slope is flat since January 1997 or 16 years and 1 month. (goes to January) RSS is 193/204 or 94.6% of the way to Ben Santer’s 17 years.
But when Brozek checks for statistically significant warming, the warming pause extends by every measure to more than 15 years:
For RSS the warming is not significant for over 23 years…

For UAH the warming is not significant for over 19 years…

For Hadcrut3 the warming is not significant for over 19 years…
For Hadcrut4 the warming is not significant for over 18 years…

For GISS the warming is not significant for over 17 years...
Once warmists said 15 years of no statistically significant warming invalidated their models. Draw your own conclusions.
UPDATE
When will the ABC demand its science presenter stop giving ABC listeners false information? Why is Dr Karl not punished for errors as Alan Jones was? 
===

Dishonest? Labor?

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(4:50am)

When even Ross Gittins says Labor is ”quite dishonest” you can be certain it is. His evidence: the scare-mongering over the cost of Tony Abbott’s policies. Just for instance:
The most glaring omission from Labor’s calculation of the hip-pocket effect of all this is its failure to acknowledge the saving households would make from the abolition of the carbon tax.

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“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” - Deuteronomy 6: 6-7
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

March 5: Morning
"Let us not sleep, as do others." - 1 Thessalonians 5:6
There are many ways of promoting Christian wakefulness. Among the rest, let me strongly advise Christians to converse together concerning the ways of the Lord. Christian and Hopeful, as they journeyed towards the Celestial City, said to themselves, "To prevent drowsiness in this place, let us fall into good discourse." Christian enquired, "Brother, where shall we begin?" And Hopeful answered, "Where God began with us." Then Christian sang this song--

"When saints do sleepy grow, let them come hither,
And hear how these two pilgrims talk together;
Yea, let them learn of them, in any wise,
Thus to keep open their drowsy slumb'ring eyes.
Saints' fellowship, if it be managed well,
Keeps them awake, and that in spite of hell."

Christians who isolate themselves and walk alone, are very liable to grow drowsy. Hold Christian company, and you will be kept wakeful by it, and refreshed and encouraged to make quicker progress in the road to heaven. But as you thus take "sweet counsel" with others in the ways of God, take care that the theme of your converse is the Lord Jesus. Let the eye of faith be constantly looking unto him; let your heart be full of him; let your lips speak of his worth. Friend, live near to the cross, and thou wilt not sleep. Labour to impress thyself with a deep sense of the value of the place to which thou art going. If thou rememberest that thou art going to heaven, thou wilt not sleep on the road. If thou thinkest that hell is behind thee, and the devil pursuing thee, thou wilt not loiter. Would the manslayer sleep with the avenger of blood behind him, and the city of refuge before him? Christian, wilt thou sleep whilst the pearly gates are open--the songs of angels waiting for thee to join them--a crown of gold ready for thy brow? Ah! no; in holy fellowship continue to watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.
Evening
"Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation." - Psalm 35:3
What does this sweet prayer teach me? It shall be my evening's petition; but first let it yield me an instructive meditation. The text informs me first of all that David had his doubts; for why should he pray, "Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation," if he were not sometimes exercised with doubts and fears? Let me, then, be of good cheer, for I am not the only saint who has to complain of weakness of faith. If David doubted, I need not conclude that I am no Christian because I have doubts. The text reminds me that David was not content while he had doubts and fears, but he repaired at once to the mercy-seat to pray for assurance; for he valued it as much fine gold. I too must labour after an abiding sense of my acceptance in the Beloved, and must have no joy when his love is not shed abroad in my soul. When my Bridegroom is gone from me, my soul must and will fast. I learn also that David knew where to obtain full assurance. He went to his God in prayer, crying, "Say unto my soul I am thy salvation." I must be much alone with God if I would have a clear sense of Jesus' love. Let my prayers cease, and my eye of faith will grow dim. Much in prayer, much in heaven; slow in prayer, slow in progress. I notice that David would not be satisfied unless his assurance had a divine source. "Say unto my soul." Lord, do thou say it! Nothing short of a divine testimony in the soul will ever content the true Christian. Moreover, David could not rest unless his assurance had a vivid personality about it. "Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation." Lord, if thou shouldst say this to all the saints, it were nothing, unless thou shouldst say it to me. Lord, I have sinned; I deserve not thy smile; I scarcely dare to ask it; but oh! say to my soul, even to my soul, "I am thy salvation." Let me have a present, personal, infallible, indisputable sense that I am thine, and that thou art mine.
===

Today's reading: Numbers 32-34, Mark 9:30-50 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Numbers 32-34

The Transjordan Tribes
1 The Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock. 2 So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community, and said, 3 "Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon-- 4the land the LORD subdued before the people of Israel--are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock. 5 If we have found favor in your eyes," they said, "let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan...."

Today's New Testament reading: Mark 9:30-50

Jesus Predicts His Death a Second Time
30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest....

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