Monday, March 02, 2015

Mon Mar 2nd 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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Apple assaulted by 4 Corners who oppose it re iPhone 6. Factory conditions were checked in China. One worker died after four weeks of seventy hours. I average more and have done so without pay or holiday since 2007. Then they investigated tin sources in Indonesia and discovered third world conditions. A pathetic smear. The issues are real and need to be addressed, but smearing Apple does not address it. 

 Ukraine hit men kill Russian Ally? Many theories are floating as to why a Putin critic has been killed. The killing seems reminiscent of the sniping of Euromaidens in Ukraine last year. It looks like dirty tricks and could involve Washington. 

 Media repositioning on poll changes re Abbott. The federal government has worked hard and sold its message. The NSW conservative government looks like being returned. So the white ants who are leaking to the press have to work quickly or be frozen out of the future. But they lost already when they called for a spill without a leader alternative. 

 Journalists oppose Meta Data retention as it makes keeping sources very difficult. They support censorship as it makes it harder to criticise the ALP. The recent attacks on the PM show that journalist sources are often weak. Maybe their sources need to be more accountable? Or maybe the journalists are failing in their duty of care. Regardless, journalists are failing and need to lift their standards. Using meta data to track terrorists is preferable to allowing journalists to be corrupt. But removing 18c is an important step to embracing freedom. Meanwhile Media Watch advises terrorists, whom it calls whistleblowers, how to avoid detection by authorities with dead letter drops.
2014
A year ago the hate media were doing pretty much the same as now. Sarah Hanson Young lied to impugn radio host Ray Hadley. Her reason for doing so was reasonable to her. She doesn't like him. An Age writer thought it funny he publish that he wanted to blow torch Abbott's genitals. But we know he wasn't serious, as he would have needed to remove his tongue from Gillard. 

Today, the Bolt Report was back and an hour long. Abbott. Costello. Henderson .. lots of compelling watching. Important questions need to be answered, like who will replace Shorten? Will Conroy be disciplined by an ALP leader? How bad will be the Abbott Government's good decisions? How much will the ABC get away with? Interesting contrast with Insiders, which I saw had David Marr and so I didn't watch it. 

On this day in history, communication was revolutionised in 1791 with the invention of mechanical semaphore. Fourteen years on, it provided one of the greatest, most stirring speeches never spoken by Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar. Nelson had wanted to say he confided in his men that he knew they would try. But the semaphore software engineer pointed out that was hard, forcing him to spell out letters in words, but a few substitutions would make the same message. The reconstructed message met with Nelson's approval. "England expects every man will do their duty." England won. 

1797, England issued one pound and two pound notes. 1807, US Congress banned the importing of slaves, and so compassionately maintained steady work for domestic slaves. 1877, Rutherford Hayes won the presidency despite his opponent Democrat winning the popular vote. The resultant compromise meant that southern states embraced Democrats and have largely done so ever since. 1882, some idiot tried to kill Queen Victoria. 1955, the Cambodian king abdicated for his father. 1965, LBJ began carpet bombing North Vietnam. Press didn't work out that was wrong until Nixon was elected.
Historical perspectives on this day 
In 537, Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges began the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducted a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii were almost cut off. 986, Louis V became King of the Franks. 1121, Dirk VI became the Count of Holland. 1127, Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders. 1444, Skanderbeg organized a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhë. 1458, George of Poděbrady was chosen as the king of Bohemia. 1476, Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy handed Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel. 1484, the College of Arms was formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England. 1498, Vasco da Gama's fleet visited the Island of Mozambique.

 In 1561, Mendoza, Argentina was founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro del Castillo. 1657, Great Fire of Meireki: A fire in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, caused more than 100,000 deaths; it lasted three days 1717, The Loves of Mars and Venus was the first ballet performed in England. 1776, American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units arrested the Royal Governor of Georgia James Wright and attempted to prevent capture of supply ships in theBattle of the Rice Boats. 1791, long-distance communication sped up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris. 1797, the Bank of England issued the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes.

 In 1807, the U.S. Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country. 1808, the inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, was held in Edinburgh. 1811, Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeated a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate. 1815, Signing of the Kandyan Convention treaty by British invaders and the leaders of the Kingdom of Kandy. 1825, Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, was defeated in combat and captured by authorities. 1836, Texas Revolution: Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico. 1855, Alexander II became Tsar of Russia. 1865, East Cape War: The Völkner Incident in New Zealand. 1867, the U.S. Congress passed the first Reconstruction Act. 1877, U.S. presidential election, 1876: Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declared Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876. 1882, Queen Victoria narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor. 1885, Sino-French War: French victory in the Battle of Hòa Mộc near Tuyên Quang, northern Vietnam.

 In 1901, the U.S. Congress passed the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops. 1903, in New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opened, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women]. 1917, the enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act granted Puerto Ricans United States citizenship. 1919, the first Communist International met in Moscow. 1933, the film King Kong opened at New York's Radio City Music Hall. 1937, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee signed a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry. 1939, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII. 1941, World War II: First German military units entered Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact. 1943, World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea: United States and Australian forces sank Japanese convoy ships. 1946, Ho Chi Minh was elected the President of North Vietnam. 1949, Captain James Gallagher landed his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute. Also 1949, the first automatic street light was installed in New Milford, Connecticut. 1955, Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicated the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit. 1956, Morocco gained its independence from France.

 In 1962, in Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seized power in a coup d'état. Also 1962, Wilt Chamberlain set the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points. 1965, the US and South Vietnamese Air Force began Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam. 1969, in Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde was conducted. Also 1969, Soviet and Chinese forces clashed at a border outpost on the Ussuri River. 1970, Rhodesia declared itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown. 1972, the Pioneer 10 space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets. 1978, Czech Vladimír Remek became the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he was launched aboard Soyuz 28. 1983, Compact discs and players were released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan. 1989, twelve European Community nations agreed to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.

 In 1990, Nelson Mandela was elected deputy President of the African National Congress. 1991, battle at Rumaila oil field brought an end to the 1991 Gulf War. 1992, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan joined the United Nations. 1995, researchers at Fermilab announced the discovery of the top quark. 1998, Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicated that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice. 2002, U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda began, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities). 2004, War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carried out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500. 2012, a tornado outbreak occurred over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities.
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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 Christopher Weatherwax. Born the same day across the years
Replica of one Claude Chappe's semaphore towers
You finished college. Your signals are visual and clear. We found workers committing theft. Thunder rolls. The check went sky high. Let's party
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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If Palmer means what he says, that’s two fewer votes against Abbott in the Senate

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (1:23pm)

This could be more good news for the Abbott Government
The Palmer United Party’s two senators, Glenn Lazarus and Zhenya “Dio” Wang, will abstain from voting on government legislation indefinitely, according to party leader Clive Palmer…
“The policies are not consistent, party infighting and conflict is ongoing and as a result our party has decided as a bloc to abstain from voting on any legislation proposals.”..
If the abstention refers to PUP senators not attending any Senate votes - rather than voting down any government bills - then this would likely make it easier for the government to pass legislation.
Only days ago Mr Palmer vowed that his party would vote against any attempts to introduce a co-payment for Medicare services and he has said repeatedly that PUP would vote against the deregulation of university fees. 
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IPSOS poll - stunning Abbott recovery to just 49 to 51 against

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (10:13am)

Wow. Despite everything they’ve tried to throw at Abbott - false claims about “unilateral invasions”, heckling at media conferences, wall-to-wall ABC and Fairfax attacks, open campaigning for Malcolm Turnbull and constant peddling of false claims of an imminent challenge - the media have not destroyed Tony Abbott.
In fact, they have failed to stop an astonishing recovery, if the latest IPSOS poll can be believed. The Sydney Morning Herald grudgingly admits:
Australian voters have thrown Tony Abbott a lifeline just as his internal opponents were shaping to dump him, with a Fairfax-Ipsos poll confirming a pro-government shift is under way.
In a result set to strengthen the Prime Minister’s hand in the short term, the Abbott government has staged an unlikely recovery and, while still trailing, is now within striking distance of overhauling the ALP lead at 49-51.
Incredible. How far would the Liberals be ahead if Malcolm Turnbull were loyal?
The reporter here is Mark Kenny, the man so biased that on the weekend he claimed that one single anti-Abbott businessman represented the entire business sector of Australia.
So imagine how hard Kenny tried to find negatives in a poll that, on the face of it, is a stunning tribute to Tony Abbott’s resilience and an even more stunning rebuke to the media pack trying to destroy him:

Australian voters have thrown Tony Abbott a lifeline just as his internal opponents were shaping to dump him, with a Fairfax-Ipsos poll confirming a pro-government shift is under way.
However, it represents a 4.5 per cent anti-Coalition swing since the 2013 election… Also concerning for Mr Abbott and his supporters is the finding that more voters would still prefer to see former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull returned to the top… The Communications Minister enjoys a 20 percentage point lead over Mr Abbott ... In a telling result, just 21 per cent of voters believe Mr Abbott enjoys the confidence of his party ... Half of all voters (52 per cent) believe Mr Turnbull has the support of his colleagues… the ratings for Abbott remain poor ... “Voters appear to already be factoring in Abbott’s potential departure. They don’t like him, prefer Turnbull and assume Abbott is not long in his job."… Mr Abbott remains a deeply unpopular prime minister ... set a dubious record for being elected with a negative rating ... a series of damaging leaks against Mr Abbott, a number of ham-fisted political judgments… Mr Abbott could face another spill attempt at Tuesday’s scheduled party-room meeting...
The public could be onto the media jihad against Abbott and may now be siding against the media loud mouths and bullies, just as they did when the media tried to ram a republic down their throats.
Can you imagine how much in front Abbott would be had some of his MPs fought for him rather than against? Liberal supporters should let them know that they will remember who tried most to destroy Abbott, and who fought hardest for the Government.
I still think Abbott has a huge struggle against him. I suspect the poll exaggerates his undoubted recovery. But those conservatives who claim he cannot change should at least acknowledge that he has, and give him time to see if this recovery can be maintained.
And do not put up with the media witchhunt. Voters choose this country’s prime ministers, not journalists.

UPDATE
Here’s one lesson from the past week, again assuming this poll is accurate.
Tony Abbott fiercely attacked the clearly biased and partisan Gillian Triggs, president of the $25 million a year Human Rights Commission. Labor, the Greens and Malcolm Turnbull were outraged. Abbott was denounced on Twitter, on the ABC and in the Fairfax media for days.
I have long argued that you can often rely on your enemies to advertise your virtues more than you can rely on friends, and here is a classic case.
Abbott was right, and his criticisms were so merited that even a Peter Hartcher had to concede it. The more Abbott was denounced, the more the voters got to hear of something they’d actually approve of.
Abbott’s attack was especially important now for two reasons. First, the media campaign against him is so hysterical now that he’d be attacked for something anyway, so he was better off being attacked over something most voters would support. Second, the media is determined to drown every quiet and moderate thing he says in a cacophany of jeers, sneers and smears. Going theatrically aggressive and transgressive (for the ABC’s tastes) was his only way of getting himself heard through the media’s screams.
The exact same thing could be said of the barrage of attacks made on him for saying - perfectly correctly - that Muslim leaders here could speak out more about Muslim radicals, and speak more often as if they meant it. Perfectly true, and the kind of frank talk that the public is begging for.
Brilliant. And most of the media didn’t get that their frenzied criticisms were actually saving the very man they were determined to destroy.
Abbott’s recovery dates from the time he decided he had to stop trying so hard to appease the media Left and repair his relations with the conservative base.
At this rate Abbott might even be tempted to say something honest about the great global warming beat up. Given the right opening, of course.

UPDATE

ABC reporter Andrew Greene should pull his young head in before he gets a reputation for the most stupid hyperbole. The NZ Prime Minister is astonished by what the ABC is now capable of:
(Thanks to readers Andrew P., Peter of Bellevue Hill, John and Jim.) 
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How we laugh: media enemies insist they killed the reborn Abbott

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (10:13am)

How desperate are Fairfax and ABC reporters for Tony Abbott to fail?
First Newspoll last week showed Abbott more than halving Labor’s lead. Now IPSOS shows Abbott almost overtaking Labor.
Yet the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher insists Abbott’s stunning recovery proves he’s actually dead:

Tony Abbott’s supporters will claim today’s poll as proof that there is life in his prime ministership yet. Only a superficial reading can support this conclusion. In truth, it shows that it is already dead.
This is what passes for analysis in the Fairfax media today.  Not reporting but hoping.
UPDATE
The ABC’s Fran Kelly is no better. She simply refuses to believe Abbott is recovering despite all Turnbull’s efforts and the media’s jihad. She cannot stop agitating for Turnbull.
Here are her first four questions this morning to Finance Minister Mathias Cormann:
1. “How much more time does this give Tony Abbott?” - as if he’s still terminal.
2. “One interpretation of this poll is that voters actually returning to the government, supporting the government, because they’ve actually already made up their minds that Tony Abbott’s time is up and Malcolm Turnbull will soon be prime minister” - as if voters are complete idiots and Abbott really were as dead as the media Left insists.
3. Don’t the polls, showing Turnbull is preferred to Abbott, show “Liberal voters are coming around to Turnbull as leader?” - when in fact Liberal base is bombarding MPs with demands they stop this Labor-lite takeover of their party, and as if the Government’s recovery comes in part from Abbott doing what Turnbull wouldn’t - rightly criticising Muslim leaders, David Hicks and Gillian Triggs.
4. Wasn’t Abbott still dogged by such things as his “hostile attack” on Triggs, the biased Human Rights Commission president, which had upset “some in your party room” - as if this anonymous “some” - the ABC’s pet Turnbull malcontents - represents the party and as if Abbott’s attack on Triggs hadn’t actually been both correct and politically useful.
Kelly is entitled to her views, but she is not paid taxpayers’ money to barrack against Abbott to to deny the inconvenient truths. Abbott is recovering in part because he’s doing exactly what Turnbull and the ABC hate.
UPDATE
Fran Kelly is just repeating a meme that has gone around the media pack, with Leftists consoling each other that Abbott’s recovery just proves voters are rewarding the Liberals for choosing Turnbull, the media’s candidate.
The level of denial is astonishing, that so many political commentators could credit something so stupid.  The group think is also manifest.
Fran Kelly, ABC:
One interpretation of this poll is that voters actually returning to the government, supporting the government, because they’ve actually already made up their minds that Tony Abbott’s time is up and Malcolm Turnbull will soon be prime minister.
Michael Gordon, The Age:
Either voters want the leadership speculation to go away or they have already factored in a change to Malcolm Turnbull.
Jessica Elgood, Ipsos director:
Voters appear to already be factoring in Abbott’s potential departure; they don’t like him, prefer Turnbull and assume Abbott is not long in his job.
Laura Tingle, Financial Review - only too eager to repeat the nonsense fed her by a few fellow Abbott haters within the Coalition:
One view prevalent in Parliament House last week was that voters may have already been taking a leadership change into account – resulting in better party figures.
Don’t make yourselves ridiculous, colleagues.
At least Jon Faine avoids that trap, but also avoids giving any balance. After weeks of gloating daily over Tony Abbott’s troubles and apparently imminent demise, the ABC Melbourne host opens today show by declaring that he will today not repeat any more Canberra gossip, and drops politics from the menu. That means he does not have to talk about how this poll makes a mockery of weeks of his analysis.
UPDATE
The lead item of the ABC’s AM insists:
But his position is still perilous.
Liberals everywhere must take careful note of how Mark Scott’s ABC - the country’s biggest media outlet - led a putsch that nearly toppled an elected conservative leader.
UPDATE
Reader Noah gives thanks to Hartcher and his colleagues in the lynch mob:
Many thanks need to go out for this IPSOS Poll: 
- To the main stream media - whose frenzied attacks on Tony Abbott has woken Australians up to the real enemies of Australia.
- To the defenders of Triggs, especially on Twitter - this just highlighted Abbott’s strength - thank you.
- To the ABC - giving clean air to Christine Milne and Bill Shorten in their defence of David Hicks and their concern about Abbott’s tough stance on terrorism. They highlighted Abbott’s strengths perfectly.
- To Chris Uhlman and Mark Riley for their phony “Spill” exclusives. This continues to prove their lack of credibility and strengthens the populations’ resolve to stop listening to these people.
- To ABC and Fairfax for doing their best to attack and demean Tony Abbott as a person.  Australians always go for the underdog and you’ve made him one.
- To Malcolm Turnbull for siding with the parasites in the media - this solidifies the public’s view that the media is the enemy and heads them to the side of Tony Abbott.
Media Opinion “does not equal” Public Opinion - it is usually the exact opposite.
Another Abbott hater chokes on the news of Abbott’s revival.
Laura Tingle, ABC Insiders yesterday (watch at 54:40):
The Fairfax papers will be running a poll in tomorrow’s newspapers and given that some polls have shown a tightening, given the last week’s disasters, it will be interesting to see whether that actually confirms that or whether it turned out to be a bit of a once-off correction.
Laura Tingle, Financial Review today:

For people wishing that some greater power – God or perhaps an opinion poll – might send down a bolt of lightning that will illuminate a clear pathway through the Coalition leadership saga, the latest Fairfax/Ipsos poll is not it… The result will also be grabbed by Abbott supporters in the party room as a sign that everything will be okay, despite the fact that the government has bungled almost everything it has touched in the past couple of weeks… The question is: what is driving voters’ views of the leaders?
The real question for Tingle actually is this: could it be that what you have claimed were bungles - Abbott criticising Muslim leaders and Gillian Triggs, replacing his Chief Whip, giving up on charming the Left - have actually been successes?
(Thanks to readers John and Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Castration cult conquering Canberra

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (9:46am)

The great Rowan Dean:
The world was shocked last week to learn of a mysterious Indian sect whose followers were persuaded by their charismatic guru – the so-called “guru-in-bling” – that in order to find enlightenment, they must first of all castrate themselves. Apparently up to 400 devotees have self-castrated over the past few years.
But latest reports seeping out of Australia suggest the practice is far more widespread than authorities initially feared. Rumours are circulating of an obscure cult in Canberra who fervently believe that only through mass castration can they attain electoral nirvana.
“We were taken into a dark room two weeks ago, and had to decide in secret whether or not to castrate ourselves. 39 of us did exactly as we were asked and lopped off our balls, but the other 61 have refused – so far,” admitted one member of the sect, speaking in a high squeaky voice on strict condition of anonymity. Those familiar with the arcane practices of the sect believe that bitter jealousies and rivalries between several swamis within the cult will see an attempt made to repeat the mass castration, possibly as early as [tomorrow].
“We are making every effort to make the others see the light and hopefully, any day now, the rest will join us in ritual self-castration for all the world to see,” said one of the 39 disciples of one of the gurus, with tears streaming down his face.
“We were led to believe that only those who get castrated will be able to meet God at the ballot booth,” said another, squatting awkwardly on a fluffy pillow.
Read on.
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Islamic State murders another man for being gay

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (9:34am)

The Left has been too silent for too long about the threat and what inspires it. Now the Islamic State kills another man for being gay:

Following a trial in an Islamic State court, the man was taken to the roof of the building and thrown to his death in front a large crowd below.
The horrific act was carried out in Tel Abiad in the Islamic State capital of Raqqa in Syria.
The man is described as a ‘child of Lot’ and accused of committing acts of sodomy....
It is not the first occasion that Islamic State have published photos of such persecution. Another man accused of committing homosexual acts was thrown off the same building last month…
The final photo shows the crowd enthusiastically hurling large rocks at the dead man’s body.
This really is a war against evil.
(Thanks to reader Lachie.) 
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The rise of Scott Morrison means Turnbull is in trouble

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (8:18am)

Paul Sheehan on the rise and rise of Scott Morrison, who must know that performance - not treachery - is his route to the top job:
In an interview with Tony Abbott in 2010 about his shadow ministry, what struck me most was his singling out of one person above all, describing him as having prime ministerial potential. That person was Scott Morrison. I didn’t see it then. I see it now…
Morrison is rapidly evolving into the cleanest re-set, and biggest game-changer, the Liberals have. He stopped the boats. He largely emptied the detention centres. In one year he did what Labor could not do, at enormous cost, and instead made progressively worse.
Morrison has a gift for cut-through messaging. He is not a former leader whose leadership blew up. He does not have a carbon tax attached to his resume. He has not been preening on the ABC. He has not been making snide references to “captain’s picks”, reawakening character questions among his colleagues ...
Any war-gaming now must figure in Morrison as a serious factor… He is now established as the pre-eminent next-generation Liberal leader. Turnbull is 60, Bishop is 58, Abbott is 57. Morrison is only 46. Whatever happens, he should play a central role in the government’s survival strategy.
It made sense for him, speaking on radio 3AW last week, to dismiss the internal leadership agitation as “political bedwetting”. Time is on his side.
Right now it is not in Morrison’s interests to have Turnbull take over, and for four reasons. Why help Turnbull get the job that could be his own if Abbott does not recover?  Why risk getting the reputation for being a Shorten-style plotter rather than a doer? Why lose the guarded respect of conservatives by helping the Left tear down a conservative leader - and one now recovering? And why help Turnbull to ultimately destroy the party?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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How the media let Turnbull use them in his desperate last push

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (7:58am)

Malcolm Turnbull, Politics - federal

SNAKES in the Abbott Government last week sold journalists a story they were only too eager to hear.
Psst! Malcolm Turnbull now has the numbers to knock off Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
In fact, it could happen tomorrow!
So two extraordinary reports ran on TV last Thursday.
First, Channel 7’s Mark Riley, no friend of Abbott, claimed Turnbull had the backing of most Liberal MPs should he now challenge.

But Riley’s report had a suspicious flaw: it gave no names, no sources, no hard evidence. It was all rumours.
An hour later, Chris Uhlmann led the ABC TV news with a similar report, again not naming a single source to back his claim that Abbott could be sacked just three weeks after defeating a leadership spill, 61 to 39.
Reporters spent the next days talking up this alleged challenge and baiting Abbott at media conferences — all over claims by unnamed “sources”.
Wait. Two men behind last month’s leadership spill did speak on the record. But Luke Simpkins and Dennis Jensen, neither of them Turnbull fans, said they were this time against a spill.
So only one thing was clear: that journalists were letting Turnbull’s backers use them to destroy a Prime Minister too conservative for their own “progressive” tastes.
And something else is suspicious.
(Read full article here.) 
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The truth behind this mad media attack on Abbott

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (7:33am)

ABC boss Mark Scott is openly gloating at the near-fatal troubles of Tony Abbott.
Last week, he tweeted a joke about the latest leak designed to hurt the Prime Minister — one attacking Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin.
“Torrential rain in Canberra tonight,” sniggered Scott, linking to a weather forecast. “More leaks expected.”
Taxpayers give the ABC $1 billion a year. In exchange, it is meant, by law, to be balanced, but under Scott, it is campaigning against Abbott.

It’s not alone. The media pack attack has been astonishing, and truth barely seems to count. Check some recent anti-Abbott stories.
Claim: Fairfax newspapers said Abbott could have cost drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran their last chance of clemency by pointing out we had given Indonesia $1 billion in aid.
(Read full article here.) 
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Be careful not to present Gillian Triggs as the conscience of the nation

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (6:50am)

Being paid a big salary to lecture others about their alleged shortcomings is not proof of sainthood. Caroline Marcus says the disability community isn’t buying it from Triggs’ supporters.
(Thanks to readers C Drive and Gab.) 
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The reaction defines us

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (6:25am)

Some will judge Australia by the racist.
I prefer to judge Australia by the reaction of so many Australians to him:

CUSTOMERS at an Adelaide Hungry Jack’s store ... [confronted] a man who racially abused staff… A Gawler man, 19, has been charged with disorderly behaviour…
Footage of the incident shows the man wearing a black T-shirt and jeans standing at the counter having placed his order. He can be heard telling staff “I want it made by a white person” and then saying “I refuse it”....
A fellow customer who hears the altercation asks “What’s wrong with a Chinese guy making your burger?”, to which the man replies “Everything. You don’t belong here, do you?”.
A female staff member then asks the man to leave the store, resulting in a further racist outburst. “At least I’m born here c---. Where do you come from, f---ing Africa and Asia? Disgusting.”
The man continues to abuse workers until he is confronted by other customers telling him to leave. “F--- off, I’m Australian you c---,” he tells one customer, who responds by pushing him in the chest and saying “What’s that got to do with being Australian? We are all f---ing Australian.”
The man is then escorted out the door by the customer, who is seen hitting the man in the back of the head and pushing him out of the store.
“Wait until I come back with the Rebels (Motorcycle Club) you f---ing idiot,” the man shouts.
The customer mocks him by making the sound of a revving motorbike.
Brilliant. We are defined by the many, not the few.
(Thanks to reader potato.) 
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NSW Labor’s electricity bill: an extra charge to keep unions sweet

Andrew Bolt March 02 2015 (6:09am)

Henry Ergas on how NSW Labor wants the poor to pay more for electricity - just to look after Labor’s union mates:

BETWEEN 2008 and 2014, electricity transmission and distribution costs increased by some $400 per household in Queensland and New South Wales, where the poles and wires are government-owned, but by around $250 per household in the privatised systems of Victoria and South Australia.
The result, a study for Uniting Care recently found, is that even in rural Victoria, where lower population density causes higher costs, electricity prices are 30 per cent below those in Brisbane. The gap between Melbourne on the one hand and Brisbane and Sydney on the other is greater yet. And while prices are lower in the privately owned systems, network reliability is higher.
The causes of those differences are no mystery: the government-owned poles and wires companies are inefficient…
But don’t expect that to sway Labor from its anti-privatisation crusade, as it puts the interests of public sector unions above those of consumers.
Why the unions want the poles and wires businesses to remain government-owned is readily understood… Queensland and NSW families ... each pay for ... [union] featherbedding through a hidden tax of $70 to $120 a year, to which must be added the higher prices consumers bear every time they buy electricity-intensive goods and services…
Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has said that had the poles and wires “been owned by the private sector, we’d probably have lower electricity prices than we do now”.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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=== Posts from last year ===

The Bolt Report today

Andrew Bolt March 02 2014 (11:31am)

The Bolt Report returns today - longer and better.
Joining me - Prime Minister Tony Abbott, former Treasurer Peter Costello and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa.
And our new NewsWatch segment, this week with Gerard Henderson.
Repeated on Network 10 at 4pm.
UPDATE
The videos of today’s show are here.
UPDATE
The transcript of my interview with the Prime Minister:


Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today'
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My liking for Albanese is challenged

Andrew Bolt March 02 2014 (5:35am)

Judith Sloan does not share my liking of Anthony Albanese:
I have a few friends who actually rate Albo – at least, they rate Albo ahead of Shorten. 
This assessment seems to ignore the series of absolutely catastrophic government policies for which he had carriage while he was minister for transport and infrastructure, policies which were always very favourable to his union mates.  To name a few: 
The ‘reform’ of coastal shipping to effectively eliminate cabotage and impose other restrictions, in order to push up the obscene pay and conditions of MUA members – note this is a union shop, not a closed shop; 

The federal takeover of heavy truck regulation – an absolute disaster with the Heavy Vehicle National Law supposedly in place earlier this month; 
The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, which is just a union racket to ensure that mums and dads can’t undercut the featherbedded and OTT paid truck-drivers employed by the big companies, who all do deals with the TWU; 
A series of very strange infrastructure decisions, including giving the go-ahead to projects known to fail cost-benefit tests.  The Moorebank intermodal project, for example, should never have been given the nod as there was perfectly good private sector proposal in the offing which did not require taxpayer funds. 
All the while, Albo was appointing Labor mates to the governance arrangements – yes, stop that guffawing, everyone – of these projects. (Bruce Baird, chairman of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator Board????, Kerry Schott, Chair, Moorebank Intermodal).
And now we have Albo’s laughable and extraordinarily weak performance when it comes to Qantas.
No, Labor couldn’t possible support the scrapping of the Qantas Sale Act.  Does anyone want a Flying Panda or a Flying Camel?  Really, Albo, you can do better than this display of xenophobia.
You would have to amend the Air Navigation Act 1922, says Albo.  So what?  Just get on and do it… The real reason is that Albo is opposed the rescinding of the Qantas Sale Act is that he is doing the bidding of his union masters. 
Albo himself does not have union masters, but I get the point. 
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Why Bill needs Steve who needs Bill

Andrew Bolt March 02 2014 (5:24am)

Sam Maiden on Bill Shorten’s tangled ties with Stephen Conroy, the man he should probably sack:
Conroy’s outburst in Senate estimates was not out of character. The Victorian factional powerbroker has elevated attacks on witnesses at Senate estimates and public figures under parliamentary privilege as something of an art form… 
Conroy and Shorten have always had a complex relationship.Toxic disagreements between the two men as Conroy plotted and meddled in local preselections after Kevin Rudd was reinstalled as Prime Minister appear to happily coexist with Shorten popping him back in as deputy Senate leader and on the frontbench.
Why is it so? One factor is the terrible prospect that would loom if Shorten was to fall under a bus: Tanya Plibersek.More photogenic than Anthony Albanese and much loved by the ALP membership, Plibersek would present (a diabolical) threat to any future Right candidate for the leadership. This chilling prospect is enough to unite Labor’s Right faction around Shorten, regardless of the balkanised, dysfunction of the Victorian Labor Party which is regarded as infected with Labor’s NSW disease — minus the corruption.
(Thanks to reader Peter.) 
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Therese Rein wants more compassion for boat people now her husband isn’t in charge

Andrew Bolt March 02 2014 (5:16am)

Her husband reopened the detention centre at Nauru and said all boat people would be sent there. But Therese Rein waits until Tony Abbott implements the policy - and properly - before protesting:
Australia must find its compassion in dealing with refugees and increase the number of asylum seekers it accepts, Therese Rein says... 
‘’I know this has become a highly politicised, deeply divisive debate and I think it’s time that we looked to our humanity and compassion,’’ she said 
You’d never think her husband’s “compassionate” decision in 2008 to scrap the tough border laws of the Howard Government had lured more than 1100 people to their deaths.
Some people don’t learn much. 
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Palmer tries to con gullible voters

Andrew Bolt March 02 2014 (5:07am)

Clive Palmer is selling moonshine, treating voters like idiots: 

MAVERICK Queensland MP and businessman Clive Palmer believes Holden, Ford and Toyota should all build cars at the same location in South Australia to try and cut costs and make the industry more competitive.
Mr Palmer was in Adelaide on Saturday to launch the state election campaign for the Palmer United Party and said it was “a national disgrace’’ that the car industry was being allowed to die.
He advocated more government funding to try and save the industry.  “It might be bringing the three auto companies together and making South Australia the hub of vehicle production, not for 90,000 vehicles but for 222,000,’’ the member for the federal seat of Fairfax said.
A reality check from last year:
After Mitsubishi’s local assembly line closed in 2008, (Prime Minister) Rudd had former Victorian premier Steve Bracks review the industry. He found the minimum efficient scale of an assembly line was 300,000 to 400,000 vehicles, or more than three times the largest Australian plant… 
The latest global production figures show China makes 19 million vehicles a year. There are another 10 countries making more than two million, or 10 times Australia’s output. We rank 29th among carmakers, just ahead of Pakistan and Uzbekistan. At that end of the league table, production survives because of large state subsidies ... It’s time to move on.
(Thanks to reader Peter from Bellevue Hill.) 
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Russia threatens to invade Ukraine

Andrew Bolt March 02 2014 (4:57am)

This is getting very dangerous:
RUSSIA’S parliament has given President Vladimir Putin the go-ahead to send troops into Ukraine, despite a warning from Washington that such a deployment would results in “costs’’ for Moscow and alarm among Western nations including Australia, sparking a UN Security Council emergency meeting this morning. 
The stark escalation of the ex-Soviet country’s three-month-old political crisis came amid growing instability in Ukraine’s predominantly Russian peninsula of Crimea that has housed Kremlin navies for nearly 250 years.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said last night she was gravely worried about reports of a possible Russian military presence in Ukraine. Her comments came amid reports of masked troops in Crimea, including at its international airport, and after the Australian government increased its travel warning for the strife-torn nation, with tourists urged to exercise extreme caution.
Ukraine risks being divided into two. The big question is how many people will die in the dividing.
UPDATE
Obama’s statement is what you’d expect from an auditor, not an arbiter:
As reports are coming in that Russia has placed 2,000 troops in Crimea, within the borders of Ukraine, President Obama said that ”the United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.” 
Charles Krauthammer responded on Special Report tonight saying, “The Ukrainians, and I think everybody, is shocked by the weakness of Obama’s statement. I find it rather staggering.”
Krauthammer thinks Obama’s statement is about “three levels removed” from actual action. He explained: Obama said “we will stand with the international community — meaning we are going to negotiate with a dozen other countries who will water down the statement — in affirming that there will be costs — meaning in making a statement not even imposing a cost, but in making a statement about imposing a cost — for any military intervention.” “What he’s saying is we’re not really going to do anything and we’re telling the world,” Krauthammer said.
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Another fine mess Conroy dumped Shorten into

Andrew Bolt March 01 2014 (5:14pm)

The press conference afterwards was excruciating, with Shorten struggling to explain his about face without mentioning the words “bloody Steve Conroy”:
BILL Shorten has dashed to Darwin to join an official welcome home to the troops after accusations Labor was snubbing returned servicemen by failing to send a senior representative. 
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has flown to the Northern Territory for the event which will today honour more than 300 recently returned servicemen and women.
But after declining an invitation from the Chief of the Army David Morrison in January, Mr Shorten changed his mind last night after television reports of his no-show.
He caught the last flight to Darwin last night leaving Melbourne at 9pm.
Shortly after 6pm Mr Shorten’s office contacted the Northern Territory Government to inform them he would now travel to Darwin overnight and join the parade. The change of heart follows a week of controversy over the decision of Labor’s Defence spokesman Stephen Conroy to accuse the head of Operation Sovereign Borders of engaging in a political cover up over asylum seeker policy.
Sure, Shorten’s judgment has been bad and he looks a goose. But the man who dumped him in this is Stephen Conroy - by both being unpardonably rude to Lieutenant General Angus Campbell and then refusing to apologise. Why has he not been sacked? 
=== From last year ===
Lunch with the guy who is like her father figure. I tell him I'm thinking it is time I talked with her about how I felt. He can't speak for her. He is concerned for her welfare. He points out she has blocked me on FB, not spoken to me in years and has never shown the least affection. I'm still too old .. by the new social rule of acceptability of the female half the males' age, +7, I'd need to wait another twelve years. And there I have it. I don't need to face her. The kindest thing I can do is disappear. Sometimes, I'm a bit slow .. - ed
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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

- Dr. Seuss.
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CLARITY OF THOUGHT …… CONSISTENCY OF MESSAGE

Tim Flannery preaches that due to global warming; "even the rain that falls will not fill up the dams" – so Julia Gillard appoints him Climate Commissioner, on a salary of $180,000 (for a 3 day week)

Now Gillard is saying the Commonwealth should pay $50 million to raise the wall on Warragamba Dam by 23 meters (because when the rain falls the dam could overflow).

But it will cost $800 million to raise the dam wall by that height.

No wonder the Labor Government have been compared with the Benny Hill Show.

With such clarity of thought and consistency of message, is it any wonder that Labor are facing complete annihilation in Western Sydney ?
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James on working hard

Andrew BoltMARCH022013(5:14am)

Clive James is not dead yet, which is just as well for those of us who love Dante, too: 
Maybe so, but James has three books coming out this year: a translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a reissued essay collection and a new book of poems. “If I fell off the twig tomorrow,” he tells me, “it would still look as if I was very busy.”
James explains:
How did I get so much done? I wanted to. I learned to use my time well. In TV, when you’re out on location there’s a lot of waiting. I learned to use that time reading or writing. I can work on a piece of writing in the middle of chaos. I don’t have too many things in common with Dante, but he was famous for being able to go on composing his poem in the middle of a battlefield. I don’t need ideal conditions. My parents’ lives had been ruined by the war. My father never came back. I think I felt I owed it to them to get something done.
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Dawkins ducks

Andrew BoltMARCH022013(5:24am)

Professional athiest Richard Dawkins talking on European television, 2010:
I regard Islam as one of the great evils of the world… there’s a kind of closemindedness which is, I think, less present in the former Christendom, perhaps because we’ve had long - I don’t know quite why - but there’s more of a historical tradition of questioning.  There are people in the Islamic world who simply say, ‘Islam is right, and we are going to impose our will.’
Dawkins talking to a Muslim interviewer on Al Jazeera, 2012: 
In a recent Al-Jazeerah interview, Richard Dawkins was asked his views on God. He argued that the god of “the Old Testament” is “hideous” and “a monster”, and reiterated his claim from The God Delusion that the God of the Torah is the most unpleasant character “in fiction”. Asked if he thought the same of the God of the Koran, Dawkins ducked the question, saying: ”Well, um, the God of the Koran I don’t know so much about.”
Hmm. Dawkins does go on to link Islam to suicide bombings, but the evasion is there.
POSTSCRIPT
One other question. What is the difference between these two statements, and why does the Left demonise only one of the two men?
RENOWNED atheist Professor Richard Dawkins received a surprise standing ovation in the traditionally Christian community of Stornoway last night…
The 71-year-old described Islam as “one of the great evils of the world” in his lecture… Members of the audience cheered loudly as Prof Dawkins used the appearance to attack Islam, while stressing that the “vast majority of Muslims” were not evil, only their religion was…
“It is a disgrace a religion prescribes death for leaving it.”
Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam is a totalitarian ideology. The best example is that if any person, any Muslim wants to leave Islam, then the penalty is death… However, there are moderate and non-moderate Muslims, I acknowledge that. As a matter of fact the majority of the Muslims living in our society are moderate people. But don’t make the mistake that even though there are moderate and radical Muslims that there is a moderate or a radical Islam. There is only one Islam, and that is a totalitarian ideology that has no room for anything but Islam.
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McTernan once wanted credit. Now he wants no blame

Andrew BoltMARCH022013(6:14am)

The plan was that if Julia Gillard miraculously won the next election, John McTernan would take lots of the credit.
But right now it seems he wants no credit at all for Gillard’s latest strategy, which says plenty about how badly she’s going.
THE time has come to defend John McTernan.
McTernan is beginning to assume the role of a scapegoat, an excuse for the Gillard government’s failings and a convenient whipping boy whose influence and responsibility is exaggerated…

Political operatives and media advisers can only be as good as their bosses…

The bottom line is that many of the fundamentally damaging decisions Labor made ... came into being long before McTernan got his 457 visa and moved into the Prime Minister’s media office in Parliament House at the end of 2011.

Those decisions were made by his boss and Wayne Swan, and their colleagues. The decision to do a deal with the three big miners to create a new, flawed minerals resource rent tax was Gillard’s first great negotiating success in 2010; the Greens’ alliance was another Gillard strategy; the Greens-friendly carbon tax was announced by Gillard in February 2011; the promise to deliver a budget surplus was set in cement by the time McTernan arrived.
Well, fair enough. But what about the latest bungles?
Labor MPs, especially those critical of Gillard, are suggesting McTernan “be sent back” as a climate of blame grows, and even those supporting the PM begin to accept that he is responsible for the two most recent errors of judgment: calling the election early and going to western Sydney for a week of “listening"…
As one senior Labor MP tells Inquirer: “This western Sydney stunt has finished her out there; she is now the subject of ridicule.”
More excuses, and telling:
Although Gillard says the idea for nominating the election date of September 14 is hers and that the western Sydney trip has been planned for a while, McTernan is being blamed for both. Gillard is said to have decided to announce the election early while on family holidays in Adelaide over Christmas. McTernan was back in Britain visiting his family at the time.
Wasn’t there, guv’nor.
Maybe so, maybe no. Maybe phone cords don’t reach to Britain any more.
But there is one miscalculation McTernan cannot escape blame for: unleashing a vindictive, shrill “real Julia”, who most notoriously accused Tony Abbott of hating women. McTernan sold that last lie as a brilliant success, but long-term it has worked out as I predicted at the time - as a deeply polarising gamble that offended many men and left Gillard looking divisive, shifty and nasty. I warned McTernan several times he needed to project a woman of warmth, doing constructive things. He was misreading Australia.
In the end, though, Gillard had the choice of which advice to take. She is responsible for those choices.
And her deepest failures are entirely her own. They were made most manifest by her needless decision to break her promise not to give us a carbon tax. After that there was no saving her.  McTernan is just an excuse.
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Age writer dreams of tasering Abbott’s genitals

Andrew BoltMARCH022013(6:56am)

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Author Anson Cameron tells Age readers there will be an upside to Tony Abbott’s win. Rage will finally force him to write stuff a lot better than what he serves up today.
Age readers and editors had better hope so: 
BY CHRISTMAS, Rupert will have smiled proudly and murmured: ‘’That’ll do, prigs. That’ll do.’’ And Andrew Bolt, Janet Albrechtsen, Greg Sheridan, Piers Akerman and the other shepherds of the right will breathe out, their work done, the flock guided through the booths. Labor seen off ...
It will start as a relaxing Christmas for the conservative voices. I imagine Alan Jones lounging poolside being handfed cress sandwiches by a valet carrying a urinal puck in each pocket for ambience. I imagine Bolt in Stubbies and thongs, fussily running a pair of secateurs over his private privet, turning it into a life-size topiary Ayn Rand, calling to the kiddies: ‘’Come see, come see, young things, daddy’s made a herbaceous saint.’’ I imagine Albrechtsen with her battery-powered Howard … No! Stop! Suffice to say they will be feeling good.
Pardon? This childish stuff - complete with the misogynistic sexual humiliation of Albrechtsen - is served up today in The Age as socio-political analysis? A symbolic rape of a conservative columnist now passes for intellectual debate?
But, as I said, Cameron’s consolation is that Abbott’s victory will magically transfer my creativity to him through the soles of his feet, much as Labor’s win magically transferred my taxes into grants for Cameron to visit France:
For the conservative commentators won’t know yet that their zeal is leaching from them over the festive season and flowing across town and up through the soles of the spruikers of the left. They haven’t realised that by early 2014, the progressive commentators will be taking energy from an infuriating status quo the conservatives had hitherto got fat on…
Every writer feels a gratifying eloquence when impassioned...The conservative columnists have had disappointment and frustration to feed off since 2007… For belief is never so powerful as when it is disempowered. That hated woman has drawn from them the best they will ever give.
But by Christmas, she and hers will be gone. And there will stand Tony Abbott… Imagine the vitality David Marr, Robert Manne, John Birmingham, Mungo MacCallum, Guy Rundle, et al will take from his ascension. In honest moments they’d admit to being excited by Labor’s fall … I’ll have a prick against which to kick at last. It’s finally my turn to point the Taser at Tony’s Y-fronts and pull the trigger.
We can only hope Abbott’s win does indeed improve the writing of Cameron and the soggy five he names. It astonishes me that standards on the Left have fallen so low that The Agecan print articles fantasising over conservative women masturbating and conservative men having their genitals tasered.
What the hell are the paper’s editors thinking? Consider: if I was so low as to write sado-masochistic fantasies about the genitals of Labor leaders and their media supporters, what condemnation would The Age rightly - and gleefully - hurl at me?
Here’s more proof that Labor’s fall marks not just a failure of Gillard. It marks the intellectual decline of the Left.
UPDATE
But Anne Summers simply cannot see what happens in the very Fairfax news empire she writes for. Again today, it’s only Gillard who is the victim, thanks to wicked conservatives:
So [journalists] feel free to mock [Prime Minister Julia Gillard] in ways that would have been inconceivable with other leaders and, as recently as a year ago, even with her.
Gillard has always had to put up with intense, often unfair and sometimes cruel commentary about her clothes, her voice, even her body shape. As I have documented, since she became Prime Minister Gillard has been subjected to vile sexual and at times pornographic vilification of a kind that is new to our political vocabulary (and which still continues).
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Hanson-Young refuses to apologise for false smear

Andrew BoltMARCH022013(7:37am)

I’ve listened to Ray Hadley’s show to find the “racism” that Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says needs to be punished by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
As I said last night: it just isn’t there. She’s just made it up.
But will she apologise - either for her foul smear or for calling in the thought police? Hell, no:
GREENS Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has refused to apologise for an attack against broadcaster Ray Hadley on the ABC’s Lateline program - despite the show’s presenter Tony Jones defending Hadley yesterday.
Ms Hanson-Young accused Hadley of a “horrid” display of “irresponsibility” in his commentary on asylum seekers during her appearance on Lateline on Thursday night.

“Hadley ... went on air saying these people are doing these bad things,” Ms Hanson-Young said.

“These people obviously referring to the entire community of asylum seekers on bridging visas rather than understanding that this was one particular incident.”

The “incident” she referred to was the sexual assault of a Macquarie University student, allegedly by a Sri Lankan refugee.

Hadley angrily refuted Ms Hanson-Young’s claims on his program yesterday.

“Never, in any stage, did I say these people are doing these bad things,” he said. “(Ms Hanson-Young) you lied to Tony Jones last night… “…

Yesterday, Jones told The Daily Telegraph he had reviewed the material and found “no evidence of (Hadley) making racist remarks” during an on-air interview with opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison…

Hadley yesterday demanded an apology from Ms Hanson-Young, who refused to provide it.

“The person who needs to apologise is Ray Hadley,” she said. “People are responding to his comments on radio even just this morning, saying that the only good refugee is a dead one.”

A spokesperson for Ms Hanson-Young later said the comment about dead refugees was not said on air, but was emailed to the senator’s office. He was not able to provide detail on how Ms Hanson-Young had linked the email to Hadley’s show.
Being Green means never having to say sorry, and especially not for falsely claiming others are racist. Take also Hanson-Young’s vilification of Morrison: 
TONY JONES: Alright. Let’s go very precisely then to the case of the - Scott Morrison interview with Ray Hadley on 2GB. What was said by either party that in your view falls into the category of vilification or whipping up fear and hatred?
SARAH HANSON-YOUNG: It was about the fact that it was linked directly to this one incident of alleged sexual assault, and both parties, both Ray Hadley and Scott Morrison, believed that this then meant that an entire community of refugees and asylum seekers on bridging visas therefore had to be considered criminals, that they had to be under this police watch, that people had to know if these - “these people”, that was the constant terminology - whether “these people” were living next door to you. That is the type of fear and hatred…
I’m simply saying that ACMA has a code of conduct they are meant to uphold and it goes to not inciting hatred ... That’s what this is. It is racism at play.
In fact, Morrison didn’t actually discuss on Hadley’s show any plan to tell residents “whether ‘these people’ were living next door”.
He did that on Sky News, and what he said was much more limited that what Hanson-Young suggests: 
MORRISON
Well I think especially say in the case of what we saw with Macquarie University that certainly the residents of that same facility should be aware of something of that nature happening in the place where they live.
SPEERS:
Where someone’s charged with an offence?
MORRISON:
No, no what I’m talking about is if that facility is taking on asylum seekers on bridging visas into that residential complex then I think there’s a simple courtesy that needs to be provided to other people, that they simply know that that’s taking place.
Hanson-Young is a sanctimonious witch-hunter prone to vilifying others on the basis of crooked or non-existent evidence. She is an enemy of free speech and a proponent of lethally dangerous border policies. The sooner the child senator leaves politics, the healthier for public debate. With luck, that day will come at the next election.
(Thanks to readers Peter and CA.) 
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TILTED TRIPLETS

Tim Blair – Saturday, March 02, 2013 (3:50pm)

If these three tilted any further, they’d fall off the cover:

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The tilt sisters come off as more than a little smug in the Monthly‘s shot, don’t they? Meanwhile, the magazine’s feud with rival niche publication Good Weekend continues: 
Journalist Paul Barry, who has written regularly for Good Weekend, disputes van Tiggelen’s argument that Naparstek is a “f--king dalek” who does not have his own ideas.
Barry says Naparstek suggested detailed profiles of Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest well ahead of the rest of the media pack. 
Really? Here’s a Forrest profile from 2008, when Naparstek was still one year away from being named the Monthly‘s editor. And this profile of Rinehart first aired in 1997, when Naperstek was just 11 years old. 
“He has had ideas that I thought were good at the time then three months later I’ve realised they were fantastic ideas and regretted I didn’t do them.” 
Well played, Paul! Your supply of dalek dollars is safe.
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Unions blow dog whistle and ALP jumps to respond

Piers Akerman – Saturday, March 02, 2013 (7:25pm)

THE Julia Gillard-led Labor Party has embraced the worst of the trade union movement in its vain attempt to win back its dwindling core of rusted-on voters. 
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Hoax? - ed
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Brilliant .. it features the finale to Les Miserables .. We can run anywhere. I choose to walk. - ed
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“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” - Psalm 73:25-26
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

March 1: Morning

"Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." - Song of Solomon 4:16

Anything is better than the dead calm of indifference. Our souls may wisely desire the north wind of trouble if that alone can be sanctified to the drawing forth of the perfume of our graces. So long as it cannot be said, "The Lord was not in the wind," we will not shrink from the most wintry blast that ever blew upon plants of grace. Did not the spouse in this verse humbly submit herself to the reproofs of her Beloved; only entreating him to send forth his grace in some form, and making no stipulation as to the peculiar manner in which it should come? Did she not, like ourselves, become so utterly weary of deadness and unholy calm that she sighed for any visitation which would brace her to action? Yet she desires the warm south wind of comfort, too, the smiles of divine love, the joy of the Redeemer's presence; these are often mightily effectual to arouse our sluggish life. She desires either one or the other, or both; so that she may but be able to delight her Beloved with the spices of her garden. She cannot endure to be unprofitable, nor can we. How cheering a thought that Jesus can find comfort in our poor feeble graces. Can it be? It seems far too good to be true. Well may we court trial or even death itself if we shall thereby be aided to make glad Immanuel's heart. O that our heart were crushed to atoms if only by such bruising our sweet Lord Jesus could be glorified. Graces unexercised are as sweet perfumes slumbering in the cups of the flowers: the wisdom of the great Husbandman overrules diverse and opposite causes to produce the one desired result, and makes both affliction and consolation draw forth the grateful odours of faith, love, patience, hope, resignation, joy, and the other fair flowers of the garden. May we know by sweet experience, what this means.

Evening

"He is precious." - 1 Peter 2:7

As all the rivers run into the sea, so all delights centre in our Beloved. The glances of his eyes outshine the sun: the beauties of his face are fairer than the choicest flowers: no fragrance is like the breath of his mouth. Gems of the mine, and pearls from the sea, are worthless things when measured by his preciousness. Peter tells us that Jesus is precious, but he did not and could not tell us how precious, nor could any of us compute the value of God's unspeakable gift. Words cannot set forth the preciousness of the Lord Jesus to his people, nor fully tell how essential he is to their satisfaction and happiness. Believer, have you not found in the midst of plenty a sore famine if your Lord has been absent? The sun was shining, but Christ had hidden himself, and all the world was black to you; or it was night, and since the bright and morning star was gone, no other star could yield you so much as a ray of light. What a howling wilderness is this world without our Lord! If once he hideth himself from us, withered are the flowers of our garden; our pleasant fruits decay; the birds suspend their songs, and a tempest overturns our hopes. All earth's candles cannot make daylight if the Sun of Righteousness be eclipsed. He is the soul of our soul, the light of our light, the life of our life. Dear reader, what wouldst thou do in the world without him, when thou wakest up and lookest forward to the day's battle? What wouldst thou do at night, when thou comest home jaded and weary, if there were no door of fellowship between thee and Christ? Blessed be his name, he will not suffer us to try our lot without him, for Jesus never forsakes his own. Yet, let the thought of what life would be without him enhance his preciousness.

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Ahasuerus 

[Ăhăsū ē'rŭs] - king or mighty man.
1. A Persian monarch, to whom accusations against the Jews were brought, bore this name (Ezra 4:6).

 2. It was also the name of a Median king, father of Darius (Dan. 9:1).

 3. A Persian king who became the husband of Esther (Esther 1:2-19).
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Today's reading: Numbers 20-22, Mark 7:1-13 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Numbers 20-22

Water From the Rock
1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD's community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"

Today's New Testament reading: Mark 7:1-13

That Which Defiles
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

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