Friday, April 10, 2015

Fri Aug 10th 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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It is ok to die old and blessed, and Richie Benaud achieved it. But then he had often achieved much in the world of competitive, team sports. His father had once taken all ten wickets in a first grade match. Taken to the SCG to watch Don Bradman bat, Richie saw Clarrie Grimmet claim 7 wickets in an innings and became enamoured with spin bowling. Richie was often selected in his younger days as a specialist bat who could bowl, he finished as a world class leg spin bowler who could bat. But at the age of 34, in 1964, Benaud retired. He had a shoulder which had worn over the years and medicine wasn't up to keeping him playing. But the imaginative, aggressive captain turned to the BBC and journalism. Showing the dedication, flair and hard work which underpinned his playing career, Richie became the voice of cricket. Early in his test career, Richie hit the third fastest test century to the date (in terms of time, not balls faced). He captained Australia against Frank Worrell's West Indies in the first ever tied test. He finished his career with Australia's then record highest test tally of 248 wickets. He loved cricket.

 But from blessing to tragedy in Leeton, NSW, where a popular high school teacher who had left work for another teacher, relieving them of duty, as she prepared for her wedding, was instead murdered by what seems to be a school cleaner. The wedding was scheduled for tomorrow, but last Sunday she disappeared after 1pm at the school. The cleaner apparently has a photo on his phone of her dead body. Also it is said he had the keys issued to her to open the classroom at the school on a Sunday. The cleaner has been arrested. Nothing is known of his past history suggestive of this tragedy. Her car is missing. And if it is ok to die old and blessed, the enormity of tearing away life from a young person is a higher measure.

 A US cop is still being pursued mercilessly by a racist crowd convinced he should be convicted of murder. No evidence yet shows why. He shot a man 8 times as they were running from him. That isn't proper behaviour of a policeman. But we don't yet know why or what happened. There was nothing in his past suggesting he would. And so it could be in the line of duty. What is clear is that it is dangerous to resist arrest. If it is the case the deceased had resisted arrest and proven a threat, then the policeman needs to be exonerated. 
2014
It was a throw away line from me during class but it really offended a few students who insisted on getting their opinion out there. One trenchant Islamic apologist had made comments like "The US is collapsing like Rome did," "Australia is terrible with her treatment of refugees," and "America is chasing oil money engaging in war in Iraq." It was 2002, and President Bush had remarked how it was strange that when the world had clear examples of the triumph of Capitalism over Communism, yet still socialist advocates denied reality and embraced fascism. So I pointed to the example of Vietnam and said she was a great people with a despicable government and that the government would not last forever, but their people would prosper. Not a Mathematics related topic, but my kids did well enough in that, so that it would not be productive of me to push that harder, but hearing balanced debate on current issues wouldn't harm. One Chinese ethnic girl said "What about China? Those people are great too." I replied "Yes, but Chinese bureaucracy is a different thing altogether. A great people, but as Tiananmen Square has illustrated progress would be slower than Vietnam."

The US certainly resembles the last days of Rome under Obama, but that is temporary. Soon, he will be a lame duck President. Then there will be rebuilding. Australia was generous with refugees under Howard, and the Pacific Solution is clearly fairer than the ALP alternative. The US clearly did not pursue Iraq for oil, but those that hate America will continue to make the claim. They have claimed the US should not have toppled Hussein. When it comes to that debate I know the side of reason. But a tragedy happened on this day in 2010 which illustrates the greatness and resilience of a people long subjugated by communism. Margaret Thatcher died yesterday last year, but the tragedy of the death of Lech Aleksander Kaczyński and company will be long felt. He was President of Poland, and many serving people from the administration died alongside him in the crash at Smolensk in Russia. Kaczyński was a conservative and he had left a vision of a free and fair Poland that has not been forgotten. They have worked hard to address the endemic corruption which was part of the Soviet era. They make stupid mistakes at times, like the one where they opposed male circumcision, but it is a dumb mistake that is their own, not imposed by a foreign dictator bent on socialism. Conservatives don't agree on everything everywhere, that is something the left try to do. But Conservatives tend to those vital areas which foster freedom and bolster cultural assets. The king dies, but the kingdom goes on. And a great people will not be denied. It is my hope that the great people of Poland will not forget their Jewish peoples. They cannot raise the dead, but they must allow all their people to prosper, not merely a few. 
Historical perspectives on this day 
In 428, Nestorius became Patriarch of Constantinople. 837, Halley's Comet made its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles). 879, Louis III and Carloman II become joint Kings of the Western Franks. 1407, the lama Deshin Shekpa visited the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing. He was awarded the title "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma". 1500, Ludovico Sforza was captured by Swiss troops at Novara and was handed over to the French. 1606, the Virginia Company of London was established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. 1710, the Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, came into force in Great Britain. 1741, War of the Austrian Succession (10 April 1755 – 2 July 1843): defeat for Austria at Mollwitzon this date.

 In 1809, Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition began when forces of the Austrian Empire invaded Bavaria. 1815, the Mount Tambora volcano began a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately killed 71,000 people and affected Earth's climate for the next two years. 1816, the Federal government of the United States approved the creation of the Second Bank of the United States. 1821, Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople was hanged by the Ottoman government from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body was thrown into the Bosphorus. 1826, the 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town of Missolonghi began leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survived. 1856, the Theta Chi fraternity was founded at Norwich University in Vermont. 1858, after the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes (32,000 lb) bell for the Palace of Westminster had cracked during testing, it was recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry. 1864, Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg was proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico. 1865, American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addressed his troops for the last time. 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was founded in New York City by Henry Bergh. 1868, at Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeated an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians were killed and many more injured, only two British/Indian troops died. 1872, the first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska. 1887, on Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIII authorised the establishment of The Catholic University of America.

 In 1904, British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribed the third and final chapter of The Book of the Law. 1912, RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage. 1916, the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) was created in New York City. 1919, Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos. 1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons. 1941, World War II: The Axis powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustaše fascist insurgents in power. 1944, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escaped from the Birkenau death camp. 1953, Warner Bros. premiered the first 3-D film from a major American studio, entitled House of Wax. 1957, the Suez Canal was reopened for all shipping after being closed for three months. 1959, Akihito, future Emperor of Japan, married Michiko. 1963, one hundred twenty-nine American sailors die when the submarine USS Thresher sank at sea. 1968, New Zealand inter-island ferry TEV Wahine foundered and sank at the mouth of Wellington Harbour.

 In 1970, Paul McCartney announced that he was leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons. 1971, Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People's Republic of China hosted the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit. 1972, twenty days after he was kidnapped in Buenos Aires, Oberdan Sallustro was murdered by communist guerrillas. Also 1972, Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, were accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong. Also 1972, Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly began bombing North Vietnam. Also 1972, seventy-four nations signed the Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of biological weapons. 1973, a British Vickers Vanguard turboprop aircraft crashed in a snowstorm at Basel, Switzerland killing 104 people. 1979, Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado landed in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.

 In 1988, the Ojhri Camp disaster: Killing more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad as a result of rockets and other munitions expelled by the blast. 1991, Italian ferry MS Moby Prince collided with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy killing 140. Also 1991, A rare tropical storm developed in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites. 1998, Northern Ireland peace deal reached (Good Friday Agreement). 2009, President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced he would suspend the constitution and assume all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis. 2010, Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashed near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński and dozens of other senior officials 2014, Kathleen Sebelius resigned as Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in light of fallout from the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov.
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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 Sean K Fitzgerald,Jimmy Le and Defqon Tran. Born on the same day across the years. The same day as when in 1815 a volcano (Mt Tambora) erupted and drove the temperature down an estimated two degrees centigrade for two years .. just like global warming has done for ten years.
Deaths
April 10: Good Friday (Eastern Christianity, 2015)
Michiko Shoda, future Empress of Japan
It's getting hot in here. Big Ben shrank? We have a puppet head. She can marry into my family. Laisenia is a better leader. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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Labor is sadly lacking the JFK factor

Piers Akerman – Friday, April 10, 2015 (12:41am)

INFANTILE Labor Senator Sam Dastyari and his whingeing Green colleague Senator Christine Milne are wasting tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ dollars with their ill-considered investigation into corporate tax avoidance.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Labor is sadly lacking the JFK factor'
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RICHIE BENAUD

Tim Blair – Friday, April 10, 2015 (2:39pm)

Richie Benaud, one of Australia’s finest cricketers and arguably our best cricket broadcaster, has died at 84.

image

Penrith-born Benaud was deeply involved in two great Australian cricket revivals. The first occurred under his captaincy, when Benaud adopted an attacking approach missing from Australian Test cricket since the retirement in 1948 of Sir Donald Bradman. Benaud’s leadership in the 1960/61 series against the West Indies, which included the first ever tied Test, remains his magnificent legacy. The second revival occurred in the 1970s, when Benaud played a crucial role in the administration and presentation of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket revolution. 
An extroverted player, Benaud’s commentary style was spare and understated, and all the more powerful for it. He will be deeply missed.
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THEY ALL LOOK JUST THE SAME

Tim Blair – Friday, April 10, 2015 (2:45am)

Old leftists sneered at uniformity.
Modern leftists demand uniformity.
Weirdly, despite the 180-degree difference of position, the preachiness and sanctimony are identical. 
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FRIGHTBAT ROCK

Tim Blair – Friday, April 10, 2015 (2:41am)

Wednesday’s 2SER show is now available as a podcast. Please click for quality tunes and the usual low-quality Blair commentary. Much thanks to my friend, 2SER producer and Daily Telegraph colleague Sophie Ly, for organising a fun radio half hour.
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Death of one of Labor’s finest

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (4:33pm)

Peter Walsh - a brilliant Labor finance minister, rationalist, pragmatist and climate sceptic - has died:
Former Hawke government minister Peter Walsh has died at the age of 80 after a short illness. 

Labor MP Gary Gray, Mr Walsh’s son-in-law, confirmed he passed away in Perth this morning surrounded by his family.
Mr Walsh was a West Australian senator for two decades and a finance minister and resources minister in the Hawke cabinet between 1984 and 1990.
He was considered by some as key force behind the Labor government’s tough fiscal approach during the 1980s.
Tony Abbott said today that Mr Walsh was “a substantive political figure in our national life” who would be remembered as one of the architects of Australia’s era of economic reform.
Bill Shorten said that, as a “leading economic minister in that great reforming era”, Mr Walsh was “rightly proud of the remarkable contribution he made to the opening-up of the Australian economy, laying the foundation for the decades of prosperity our nation has enjoyed”....
Mr Walsh was born in the Western Australian town of Kellerberrin and grew up in Doodlakine, 220km east of Perth, where he worked as a wheat and sheep farmer…
Federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Mr Walsh was “a real pillar of the reforming Hawke Labor government”....
“When Australia in 1986 was confronted with a significant fall in our terms of trade, he led the charge in finding about $6 billion in savings in just one budget – a massive and very challenging undertaking at that time.” ...
Mr Walsh is survived by his wife Rosalie, daughters Karen, Shelley, Anne, Deborah and eleven grandchildren.
Walsh represented the best of Labor, and despised much of what it let itself become:
[He] came to despise the hand-out, protectionist and regulatory populism of the then Country Party and the sway it held over the fate of the Australian economy in the post-war decades.
But Walsh was not selective in his hatred of rent-seekers and protectionists: He despised trade union leaders as much as he despised farm and business leaders for their special interest pleading. And he was just as withering in his critiques of the environmental movement’s anti-growth agenda.
His contempt for the Green movement remained with him after he left politics and motivated him to be a founding member of the climate change sceptic lobby. He was a founding member of the Lavoisier Group which disputes the scientific basis on which climate change forecasts are based.
Walsh described global warming as “highly speculative science” and argued that those most active in proposing legally binding greenhouse emissions limits as “self-serving propagandists and bureaucrats”.
He abhorred the rising influence of the environmental movement on the Labor Party and wrote that “since the 1980s Australian Labor Party policy has been incrementally hijacked by well-heeled, self-indulgent, morally vain and would-be authoritarian activists whom the media often describes as the intelligentsia”.
Walsh became increasingly disillusioned by what he saw as modern Labor’s infiltration by “the chattering classes”.
I was proud to know him, and prouder still of his encouragement. 
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Richard Benaud dies

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (10:55am)

A great man gone:
Tony Abbott has offered Richie Benaud’s family a state funeral, saying his death is the “greatest loss for cricket” since Don Bradman died in 2001…
The beloved former Australian Test cricket captain, selector and commentator, has passed away at 84 after a battle with skin cancer…
In Benaud’s native Sydney, NSW Premier Mike Baird ordered flags be flown at half-mast today as a tribute…
Benaud was the first player to score 2000 Test runs and take 200 Test wickets.
Benaud’s career statistics: 
63 Tests between 1952-64.
2201 runs at 24.45.
Highest score of 122.
Three centuries; nine half-centuries.
248 wickets at 27.03.
Five wickets in an innings 16 times
. “Our country has lost a national treasure,” Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards said in a statement…
“Richie stood at the top of the game throughout his rich life, first as a record-breaking leg-spinner and captain, and then as cricket’s most famous broadcaster who became the iconic voice of our summer,” he said…
Benaud was the one calming, wry constant amid the cacophony of cricket commentary…

Revered and loved for his approach to the game on and off the field, Benaud had been suffering from skin cancer. The combined effects of a car accident before the 2013/14 Ashes and treatment for the disease had kept him from the commentary box for the past two seasons.
Benaud managed, however, to rise from his sickbed and voice a brief, touching tribute to Phillip Hughes which was played at the Adelaide Oval before the first Test and a couple of prerecorded segments for Channel 9…
When Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket challenged the status quo it did so with the former captain as its anchor. When the war ended Benaud had established himself as the pre-eminent television presence.
It was Benaud’s economy and dry humour amid the histrionics and excesses of his commentating partners that separated him from the pack. He had trained as a police roundsman on The Sun in Sydney where he learned from the old hands that it was “pointless writing more than you had been asked to write”. He was the same on television, arguing that there was no need to speak unless you could add to the picture. The Benaud pause, often followed by a slow motion “extraordinary” became an almost trademarked summation of some of cricket’s greater moments on the box.
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Grilling Bill Shorten

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (10:44am)

Labor leader Bill Shorten refuses to be interviewed on The Bolt Report.
I guess he’s too busy being interviewed by more serious journalists, such as you find on Sydney FM radio 2WSFM

JONESY: Good to have you here. Bill I noticed that you’re not wearing a red or a blue tie, you’re sans tie this morning.
SHORTEN: Yeah, well it’s radio.
AMANDA: So you’re going all casual.
JONESY: So you’re saying you didn’t make an effort for us Bill? Is that what you’re saying?
AMANDA: I bet you would for Karl and Lisa though, wouldn’t you Bill?
JONESY: Yeah.
SHORTEN: Oh well, it’s morning TV.
JONESY: Oh I see.
SHORTEN: The Godzilla of media in the morning.
AMANDA: You know, it must be hard, I was looking in the paper this morning, there’s a picture of Prime Minister – the British Prime Minister David Cameron, and he’s been making headlines for being on the campaign trail and he’s eating a hotdog with a knife and fork, and everyone’s going what kind of idiot does that? You must be so heavily scrutinised when you’re out and about, what’s – have you been caught doing embarrassing things like eating your own earwax?
SHORTEN: Well with everyone being a potential photographer with their mobile phones, it is a freak show some days, but because you’re always – oh and I’m sure, I’m sure that you’ll do something embarrassing, it’s just law of averages, we’re human beings and if someone’s permanently got a camera on you, it will be embarrassing at some point.
JONESY: Because what do you think is weirder, David Cameron eating a hotdog with a knife and fork or Tony Abbott just munching into a raw onion?
AMANDA: That was odd.
SHORTEN: That’s a competition which you’d have to call a dead heat.  The raw onion, that’s just weird, but a hotdog with a knife and fork.  I mean I suppose if it was a really sloppy hotdog with lots of – I don’t know, no you’d just get a napkin and wrap it up.
AMANDA: You’d have to, you just have to keep, you just have to hoe into it, you can’t use a knife and fork.
JONESY: There was nothing sloppy about that hotdog.
AMANDA: Not in the photo.
JONESY: That was an easy pick up.
SHORTEN: Yeah no, you just wouldn’t use a knife and fork for a hotdog full stop, and you don’t need a minder to tell you that. Now if I’m ever filmed eating a hotdog with a knife and fork –
AMANDA: Make sure you use a fish knife because it’s more posh. But you’ve got a twin brother Robert, are you identical twins?
SHORTEN: No, thankfully for him, he’s not identical…
AMANDA: It must be hard being in Opposition Bill, because by nature of the job it’s being negative. It’s like a tennis match you say the Government’s stuffing it up, they say well we’re just dealing with the stuff that your government stuffed up last time, and it just goes back and forth, back and forth and it feels like nothing gets done. Is it a frustrating role to be in?
SHORTEN: At one level it is – I mean you want to make a difference, you want to help people. When you’re the Opposition though, your job is to hold the Government to account. But at another level it’s not a frustrating job because you do have the chance to stand up for what you believe in.  It’s a good job but you’re right occasionally the only thing which you say which is going to get on the news is you saying no to Tony Abbott, and you’ve got your own propositions you want to advance and as we get closer to an election, I’ve got no doubt we’ll get the chance to get more coverage on our alternative view for Australia’s future.
JONESY: Maybe you should eat a hotdog filled with a raw onion.
AMANDA: A raw hotdog, raw sausage.
JONESY: That could be something.
SHORTEN: Yeah I don’t have relevance deprivation syndrome.
AMANDA: Oh what’s relevance deprivation syndrome, what’s that?
SHORTEN: I think it’s an attempt to get attention by doing something really odd.
AMANDA: Oh wow.
JONESY: Because the last time we had Tony on the show, he didn’t do anything odd at all.
Audio: ‘Tony Abbott’ singing
JONESY: We didn’t even ask him to do that.
AMANDA: We didn’t ask him to sing, he just did.
SHORTEN: Really?
JONESY: You want to sing Bill?
AMANDA: Any 80s songs or anything you’d like to share?
SHORTEN: To sing?
AMANDA: Sure.
SHORTEN: No.
AMANDA: Oh ok. You’ve learnt haven’t you? Stick to eating a hotdog with your hands.
SHORTEN: Yeah I can do happy birthday well but anyway…
JONESY: We’re hardly Alan Jones are we?
AMANDA: I know, you could say, ‘I’m going to just be a giant axe murderer’ and we’ll go oh that makes sense. That sounds nice.
JONESY: That sounds nice, he’s an axe murderer.
AMANDA: He’s a nice man isn’t he?
SHORTEN: I reckon you’d probably have a go if I said that, but anyway I don’t think it so it’s all good.
AMANDA: Oh good. Maybe the headline will be that you’ve come on to our program to deny the fact that you’re an axe murderer.
JONESY: Bill Shorten, and what we’ve learnt about Bill Shorten is you’re not an axe murderer and you don’t eat raw onions, you eat a hotdog with your hands, and you’re not going sing randomly.
AMANDA: Well they’re things we didn’t know about you before so we’re happy to know that.
(Via an astonished Christian Kerr.) 
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$9 billion for a green scheme than makes no difference

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (10:35am)

David Leyonhjelm on another green rip-off that does nothing to cut the temperature:
(T)he Renewable Energy Target ... is now a mess of rising energy costs and a distorted electricity market.
Renewable electricity generators have received $9 billion in industry subsidies over the 15-year life of the RET, in addition to the price they receive for the electricity they produce.  Without change, a further $22 billion will be paid by 2030. In the words of the Warburton Review, the RET is “a cross-subsidy that transfers wealth from electricity consumers and other participants in the electricity market to renewable energy companies"…
(I)n 15 years we have incorporated 16,000 GWh of new renewable energy into the RET, leaving just five years to generate another 25,000 GWh to meet the large-scale target of 41,000 GWh.  Nobody believes this is possible.
If retailers cannot purchase enough certificates, the legislation requires that a penalty charge of $65/MWh be imposed. With retail margins added, this will nearly triple the cost of the scheme to electricity retailers, who will pass it on to consumers. Electricity prices will skyrocket.
Everyone with knowledge of the electricity market knows this is a political time bomb about to go off, most likely within 18 months when interim targets are not met…
(L)ate last year I developed a detailed reform package for the RET. Since most opposition to reform is based on cuts to the 41,000 GWh large-scale target, my plan is to maintain this but to recognise established hydro-generation in the calculations – essentially Snowy Hydro and Hydro Tasmania – which together produce about 15,000 GWh.  There would also be no cap on small-scale solar generation, which is expected to grow to 13,000 GWh.
My proposal would ensure the renewable target is achieved, with no penalty charges kicking in....The only losers would be the major wind-energy generators, which are eagerly waiting to build dozens of new wind farms in an effort to meet the target and get on the subsidy gravy train.
How could the Greens be against a renewable energy source such as hydro? All those lovely dams which ...
Oh.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Shorten’s leadership vote challenged

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (10:29am)

How clear was the ballot that made Bill Shorten the Labor leader:
Two of NSW Labor’s most senior officials are pushing for an investigation of possible rorting of the 2013 national ballot that saw Bill Shorten elected party leader, after revelations the addresses for dozens of voting papers were altered.
NSW Labor assistant secretary John Graham and the state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Tim Ayres, who is also on the national executive, have written to general secretary Jamie Clements calling for the move.
Mr Graham also wants more details about the involvement of Labor Senator Sam Dastyari’s office in changing the mailing addresses of scores of leadership ballots, including to the addresses of an accused branchstacker…
In February Fairfax Media revealed that the ALP’s internal Review Tribunal found the mailing addresses for 50 ballot papers in the leadership ballot between Mr Shorten and Anthony Albanese were altered by NSW Labor head office.
The changes were made at the request of Michael Buckland, then a staff member of Labor Senator Dastyari, who is a senior member of the right faction that backed Mr Shorten in the ballot.
I would very much like to know more. So would Albanese.
But maaate, nothing worry about:
When asked about the issue and whether he had requested Buckland to change the address Senator Dastyari’s said on ABC radio, “not at all.”
“Frankly, it had nothing to do with me.
“I wasn’t aware of it,” he said adding that it was a storm in a teacup…
Clements said there was no need for an independent audit.
“I have provided Mr Ayres and Mr Graham documented proof to assure them that the irregularities identified by the Review Tribunal were isolated to the Auburn electorate alone,” he said.
UPDATE
All clear:
An independent review has upheld the election of Bill Shorten as federal Labor leader, despite concerns about flaws in the ballot process…
The NSW party’s review tribunal found 73 out of 124 changes to branch member postal addresses before ballot had occurred in the Auburn electorate.
However, tribunal chairman Greg James QC confirmed on Friday that nothing had emerged from the review to suggest the election of Mr Shorten as leader was flawed.
Mr James also found there was no prospect of a further inquiry producing any such suggestion.
NSW ALP secretary Jamie Clements said the party’s administrative committee had agreed with Mr James’ finding.
But the committee will introduce reforms to the way change of addresses are made in future ballots.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Greens-led committee attacks Greens-spread falsehoods

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (10:21am)

A Senate Committee on firearms ownership which is chaired by Greens Senator Penny Wright has criticised the false anti-guns claims of ... oops, Greens Senator Penny Wright:
Misinformation not helpful
1.157 Despite the acknowledged deficiencies in the data available, the Chair of the inquiry has unfortunately made comments in the media about the size of the illegal gun market and its impact on crime in the community. Many of the claims made were not substantiated by the evidence to the inquiry, particularly regarding the source of illegal guns and legal gun owners in Australia.
1.158 Claims made in the media by the Chair, which The majority of Senators attending the inquiry believe are not substantiated by the evidence, include: 
- most illegal guns are not trafficked into Australia, but stolen from registered owners;
- many illicit firearms are actually stolen from legitimate sources or taken from the grey market, including the gun used in the Sydney siege.
The hypothesis that illegal guns are mainly stolen from registered gun owners was not supported by the evidence presented to the Committee.
(Thanks to reader Andy von Billabong.) 
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Why not ask Muslim women to wear western clothes instead?

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (10:11am)

I don’t understand why Australians need to be asked to wear the clothing of another religion, and an emblem of the subjugation of women:
The City of Greater Dandenong wants women to wear the Islamic headdress for three hours today as part of a “social experiment” for National Youth Week. Girls from the local Islamic school, Minaret College, will staff an information table, and women taking part will relate experiences of posing as Muslims.
This gesture suggests the problem with Islam isn’t the frightening things done in its name but the fear non-believers have as a result. It is, in the nicest way, an attempt to blame the victim.
Would it not be more useful to have a day in which Muslim women in hijabs and niqabs are invited to walk around the streets in Western clothing instead, as a “social experiment”. Much more useful and to the point.
(Thanks to readers Notch, ABCCharter, dexxter and many others.) 
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The Bolt Report on Sunday, April 12

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (10:01am)

On the The Bolt Report on Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 3pm.
Editorial: How did the Abbott Government start a debate about paying more tax, not less?
Guest:  Immigration Minister Peter Dutton answers the question he’s never asked about sexual abuse of children in detention.
The panel: former diplomat and Victorian Liberal executive member Georgina Downer and former Labor campaign guru Bruce Hawker.
NewsWatch: Australian columnist and Menzies Research Centre head Nick Cater. On the word the ABC dare not utter, and more
On tax, smears, failed states. Barack Obama’s astonish global warming idiocy and more.
The videos of the shows appear here.
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The most important coroner’s finding you will read about our selfish age

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (7:39am)


South Australian Coroner Mark Johns has delivered a devastating, humane and critically important finding on the death of four-year-old Chloe Valentine. It is a finding that - thank God - challenges the dangerous modern belief that families much be kept together almost regardless of the fact that the mother is an utterly selfish monster. It is a finding that challenges other modern myths - on soft parenting, on challenging “authority”, on the rights agenda, on welfare dependency, on “harm minimisation”, on adoption as a last resort, on children as possessions. It lifts a rock to expose the farcically inadequate attempts by society to deal with the collapse of the family unit, with student social workers and others barely out of school trying to act as super parents.
The whole report deserves reading. I’ve tried to extract just the most relevant passages. Please read it:
INQUEST INTO THE DEATH OF CHLOE LEE VALENTINE

1.1. Chloe Lee Valentine died on 20 January 2012.  She was 4 years and 5 months old at the date of her death.  A post-mortem examination was conducted by forensic pathologist, Dr Karen Heath, who provided a report giving the cause of death as ‘closed head injury with possible contributing factor extensive subcutaneous and intramuscular haemorrhage’, and I so find.
1.2. Dr Heath said it was not possible to determine from the neuropathological findings whether the head injury observed was a result of one episode of trauma or the cumulative effect of several episodes of head injury.  She said that other findings at autopsy included extensive bruising of the scalp and face, back, chest, abdomen and upper and lower limbs… Dr Heath said she had never seen this degree of bruising in a child before in her experience as a forensic pathologist and had only ever seen it once in an adult .
2. The events of mid January 2012
2.1. In mid January 2012 Chloe was living in a house at Ingle Farm with her mother Ashlee Polkinghorne and Ashlee’s partner of the time, Benjamin McPartland.  Ashlee Polkinghorne and McPartland had purchased a 50cc dirt bike for Chloe.  The bike was far too big for her and she could barely touch the ground.  She weighed 17 kilograms at the time of her death but the bike weighed over 50 kilograms.  Nevertheless, McPartland repeatedly put Chloe on the bike despite her being unable to stop the bike without falling off it to the ground.  Ashlee Polkinghorne filmed these episodes using her mobile phone.  The footage shows McPartland putting her back on the bike and, to use the words of the sentencing judge, Justice Kelly, ‘virtually throwing Chloe back on the bike after she had fallen off’.  This pattern of conduct started on Tuesday, 17 January 2012.  It continued until Thursday, 19 January 2012 on and off.  On that day, certainly prior to 3:39pm, Chloe was rendered unconscious… Despite the fact that she was unconscious they waited another 8½ hours before making the ambulance call.  By their own admission, during that intervening period they occupied themselves by using Facebook, doing some internet banking, searching the internet as to what to do when a person was rendered unconscious, and smoked cannabis.
2.2. The sentencing judge found that the conduct of repeatedly placing Chloe on the motorbike and the failure to act by obtaining medical assistance for her once she was unconscious amounted to a very serious example of the crime of manslaughter by criminal neglect… McPartland was given a head sentence of 7 years with a non-parole period of 4 years and 2 months, and Ashlee Polkinghorne was sentenced to a head sentence of 8 years with a non-parole period of 4 years and 9 months…
Ashlee Polkinghorne could be heard in the video showing Chloe’s torment to be laughing at the child and her efforts to ride and maintain control of the motorbike. 
3.2. That complete failure to show the love and care that is to be expected of a mother towards a child did not come out of nowhere.  There had been many previous warning signs that Ashlee Polkinghorne was unfit to be Chloe’s mother and guardian.  The warning signs had been made known to the child protection authority in this State which is known as Families SA…

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The most important coroner’s finding you will read about our selfish age'
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The coroner sums up: our anti-adoption stand must change

Andrew Bolt April 10 2015 (6:36am)

South Australian Coroner Mark Johns has summed up well the Chloe Valentine scandal, and particularly our manic obsession with keeping dysfunctional families together.
That obsession is best captured by these statistics:

Dr Sammut points out that the number of children in residential care throughout Australia, and in this he is referring not to foster care but to the residential care model I have described above, has increased by 56% in the last 15 years.  By the time children find their way into residential care facilities all other options have well and truly been exhausted.  Dr Sammut described these facilities as ‘modern day asylums’ .
Dr Sammut gives the following statistics.  61 Australian children were adopted by non-relatives and 53 by foster carers in 2009-10 which was a total of 114 adoptions, compared to more than 8,500 adoptions in the early 1970s .  Dr Sammut compares Australia with England where 3,200 children were adopted from out of care in 2009-10. ...
Dr Sammut calculated that if Australian children in care were adopted at the same rate as in England, there would have been approximately 1,700 adoptions from care in Australia in 2009-10 rather than the quoted number of something less than 114. ..  If Australian children in care were adopted at the same rate as in the United States, there would have been approximately 4,800 adoptions from care in Australia in 2009-10. 
These statistics are cited in the following passage:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The coroner sums up: our anti-adoption stand must change'
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Posted by Matt Granz on Wednesday, 8 April 2015

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Posted by Caleb Whymark on Thursday, 9 April 2015

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A Melbourne council wants non-Muslim women to wear hijabs around local streets. Yes, you read that right http://trib.al/X6JKrRG
Posted by Herald Sun on Thursday, 9 April 2015

Some in the full gear are men. And they are armed. raising awareness of cross gender identity. Or fascism. Or something.
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Some say that three is a crowd but when it comes to diamonds Never! #engagementrings #diamondrings #love #engagement
Posted by Diamond Imports on Thursday, 9 April 2015

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Rochelle, IL
Posted by Stephanie Sego Curtis on Thursday, 9 April 2015

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Need to spark some fresh creativity? Here are 4 unique ways to revive your content → http://bit.ly/1Js0mVA
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Thursday, 9 April 2015

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Share This: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed today on ABC, CNN and NBC. "I think this deal is a dream deal for Iran, and its a nightmare deal for the world"Video: GPO
Posted by The Prime Minister of Israel on Sunday, 5 April 2015

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Prime Minister Tony Abbott has officially opened our headspace Brookvale centre this morning. The centre is one of over...
Posted by headspace on Monday, 6 April 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

Unemployment down

Andrew Bolt April 10 2014 (1:06pm)

I don’t trust the headline figure, but it’s better than not trusting a figure that seems too high:
The total number of jobs in Australia rose by 18,100 to a seasonally adjusted 11.553 million in the month,,,, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 per cent in the month, compared with 6 per cent in February.
But:
The participation rate edged down to 64.7 per cent in the month, compared with an upwardly revised figure of 64.9 per cent in February.
Unemployment is now well under what Labor last year predicted:
Mr Bowen’s economic statement cut growth forecasts from 2.75 per cent in the budget to 2.5 per cent and predicted unemployment would rise half a percentage point from 5.75 per cent predicted in the budget to 6.25 per cent - about 64,000 people.
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Another fine mess Rudd tried to get us into

Andrew Bolt April 10 2014 (9:34am)

And this man was once our prime minister, thanks to Labor:
Mr Carr also details a conversation where Julia Gillard tells him of Mr Rudd’s hitherto secret Israel-Palestine peace plan drafted in the wake of the Arab Spring uprising. 
“As foreign minister, Kevin had kept going to Israel, driving [Israel’s leader Benyamin] Netanyahu mad promoting a batty peace plan and promising to commit Australian troops to patrolling borders. “I quickly agree this was nuts.”
How on earth could Rudd have thought it in our interests to insert troops between Israel and its enemies for the sake of some “peace plan”? 
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Ageing us out of house and home

Andrew Bolt April 10 2014 (9:19am)

THE Abbott Government faces a Budget crisis: we’re running out of the money most Australians need for their retirement.
We’re talking big money — an average cash handout of at least $400,000 for each person on a full age pension. And that doesn’t even include their hospital and aged care, or the seniors health card that lets them buy cheap medicines and get discounts even for rail travel.

There is no way taxpaying workers can afford all that when by 2050 they’ll be responsible for nearly twice as many people over 65 than today.
(Read full article here.) 
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Blame Labor’s policies, stupid. Not the unions

Andrew Bolt April 10 2014 (9:16am)

Politics - federal

 LABOR’S leaders still can’t admit it’s their own stupidity — not their union mates — that’s killing them.
Instead, there they go again, pretending voters actually care who decides Labor policies, rather than how lunatic their policies actually are.
I can understand their scrabbling for a scapegoat, of course. Labor was buried in last year’s federal election after six years of disastrous government and now is travelling even worse under Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
It somehow went backwards in the by-election for former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s seat and was destroyed in Tasmania’s state election. It lost seats in South Australia’s election and last weekend was reduced to a humiliating 22 per cent of the vote in the rerun Senate election in Western Australia.

But hear Labor talk about everything but the Labor policies voters rejected. Shorten says Labor should just make the party more diverse by no longer demanding party members be union members.
On Wednesday, Labor president Jenny McAllister agreed union bosses should bow out and let “far more people to have a say in who represents Labor in the Senate”.
Are they serious? How many Australians turned off Labor because of its membership policies rather than because Labor let in 50,000 boat people, hit us with a carbon tax, preached hate politics, bungled a home insulation program with deadly results and left us with deficits of $123 billion?
It’s the policies, stupid.
Correction.
(Read full article here.) 
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Bob Carr’s voice coach

Andrew Bolt April 10 2014 (9:10am)

Bob Carr on his late friend Gore Vidal:
Gore Vidal’s significance is that he was a lonely voice...
Yet as a listener on our 2GB show last night pointed out, Vidal’s voice was not that lonely for long. How much of Carr’s oratorical style borrows from the theatrical Vidal?



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Don’t blame Bullock

Andrew Bolt April 10 2014 (8:58am)

I don’t think this is all Niki Savva means:
It is too easy to blame Labor’s senator-elect Joe Bullock, although he was a factor. And before the party falls into the trap of granting Louise Pratt heroine or martyr status, it should seriously consider how much she would have added to the Labor vote if she had been No 1 on the ticket and exposed to the same kind of scrutiny as Bullock. 
Pratt came off that other Labor-candidate assembly line, the one that keeps producing the same models for decades. Pratt was heavily involved in student politics, worked for politicians, ran for parliament when she was 24 and was elected to state parliament at 26 before she went federal. Labor looks like it treats parliament as either a retirement village for ageing unionists or as a political baby incubator.
Savva is right. Bullock is just a fall guy.  He actually represents a Labor party that many older Labor voters would remember with some affection. 
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Carr is a warning to Jews: the Left is the natural home of the bigot

Andrew Bolt April 10 2014 (8:08am)

Many of Australia’s most prominent Jews face a terrible reality that I’ve warned about for almost a decade: the natural home of the anti-Jewish bigot is now the Left. Too many prominent Jewish intellectuals here have pampered their enemy.
ABC chairman Jim Spigelman concedes the point:
Spigelman: My father was a bit of a lefty from his Polish days because Jews in Poland tended to be on the left ‘cause all the anti-Semites were then on the right. That’s exactly the reverse today. 
Throsby: Is it? 
And, right on time, former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr takes the stage.
Carr is not an anti-Semite, but his views on the Jewish lobby are absurd and dangerously close to an anti-Semitic trope:
BOB CARR: ... And what I’ve done is to spell out how the extremely conservative instincts of the pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne was exercised through the then-Prime Minister’s office.... I found it very frustrating that we couldn’t issue, for example, a routine expression of concern about the spread of Israeli settlements on the West Bank....
SARAH FERGUSON: You’re saying that the Melbourne Jewish lobby had a direct impact on foreign policy as it was operated from inside Julia Gillard’s cabinet?
BOB CARR: Yeah, I would call it the Israeli lobby - I think that’s important. But certainly they enjoyed extraordinary influence. I had to resist it and my book tells the story of that resistance coming to a climax when there was a dispute on the floor of caucus about my recommendation that we don’t block the Palestinian bid for increased non-state status at the United Nations.
SARAH FERGUSON: They’re still a very small group of people. How do you account for them wielding so much power? BOB CARR: I think party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel. But that’s not to condemn them. I mean, other interest groups do the same thing. But it needs to be highlighted because I think it reached a very unhealthy level. I think the great mistake of the pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne is to express an extreme right-wing Israeli view rather than a more tolerant liberal Israeli view, and in addition to that, to seek to win on everything, to block the Foreign Minister of Australia through their influence with the Prime Minister’s office, from even making the most routine criticism of Israeli settlement policy using the kind of language that a Conservative Foreign secretary from the UK would use in a comparable statement at the same time.
Carr is not wrong to say there is a Jewish lobby, or Israel lobby, just as there are other ethnic and religious lobby groups, including Aboriginal ones. The Jewish lobby is more organised that most, and on certain issues speaks with more unity than most, too.
This can come with a risk, as we now see in the debate over the Abbott Government’s plans to reform the Racial Discrimination Act to allow more free speech.  Jewish community leaders have been the strongest opponents of this change, and base much of their argument on an issue of particular concern to Jews: that such a change would permit Holocaust denial. I suspect most non-Jews also loathe Holocaust deniers but would not be so quick to say they should be gagged by law - and that the rest of us should be gagged from arguing other propositions as a consequence. The danger here is that Jewish leaders are seen to be arguing for an illiberal ban to the benefit of their own community, but at the cost of the wider one. Such tribalism comes at a risk in a multi-ethnic, multi-faith nation.
I think it is fair to make these points. But Bob Carr’s comments go further - dangerously further.
He is singling out the “Israel lobby” as having had a more “unhealthy” influence than other such groups in that it had “influence with the Prime Minister’s office” under Labor, seeking “to block the Foreign Minister of Australia” from aiding Palestinian interests. This influence, claims Carr, is exercised through “party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel”, trips which indeed both Gillard and I have received.
Here is where Carr oversteps.
Carr completely ignores the reality that many supporters of Israel in the case he raises have not been bought, bribed or otherwise influenced by “unhealthy” lobbying, but have reached their opinion by judging on the merits of the argument. They see a democracy threatened by terrorism, an open society challenged by a closed one, and they decide accordingly. Yet this difference of opinion is portrayed by Carr as just the evil product of “unhealthy” Jewish influence peddling.
It is a joke to believe Gillard as prime minister could be further influenced by the offer of trips from Melbourne Jews. Politicians and journalists are also offered trips to the Muslim Middle East, yet Carr does not declare those “unhealthy”.
And how much influence did those Melbourne Jews have really? Carr boasts that he actually defeated Gillard on the issue by leading a caucus revolt against Gillard’s position.
That raises Carr’s dangerous double standards - to decry a “unhealthy” a Jewish influence he defeated while saying nothing about the more troubling Muslim influence to which he surrendered - and Labor with him.
Labor politicians have done dangerous favors for Islamist extremists like Sheik Hilali, revoking moves to throw him out in exchange for votes, but Carr has not criticised that as “unhealthy”.  Labor made a politician of a Muslim ethnic boss and supporter of the Syrian dictator  in exchange for votes, but Carr did not say this was “unhealthy”.  Nor did Carr say it was “unhealthy” when even Liberal Prime Minister John Howard appointed a Muslim Community Reference Group to advise him - one third of whose members were supporters of the pro-terrorist Hezbollah.
Carr did not denounce this “unhealthy” influence, either:
Australia’s senior Islamic cleric threatened to withdraw community support for federal Labor in Western Sydney if union leader Paul Howes replaced Bob Carr in the Senate, a leaked email reveals. 
The email, written on behalf of the Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, by his chief political adviser, accused Mr Howes of a “blind bias for Israel” and said that if he was appointed to the Senate, community support for Labor that was mustered for the federal election would be withdrawn. The email was sent to MPs and ­officials on September 9… Mr Howes, the national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, withdrew from the contest ... 
Note that the Mufti has shown support for Hamas.
But let’s talk about the truly unhealthy influence in the very case Carr discusses - a bid by Palestinians for greater recognition.
Labor ditched Israel in that instance not so much out of principle but out of Labor self-interest. As former Labor speech-writer Troy Bramston wrote at the time after talking to the players, Labor feared the influence of the Muslim lobby and the votes it could muster in key Sydney marginal seats:
And, critically, there is the growing Muslim and Christian make-up of several key western Sydney Labor seats, which have exposed MPs to different points of view on the Middle East. 
Some sections of the party suggest Victorian Labor is too close to the Israel lobby and does not fully understand the underlying changes in Sydney’s outer suburbs. 
Did Carr denounce that “unhealthy” influence?  No. He in fact was among the first to give in to it:
BUT of all reasons given, the worst and most repeated was as the Daily Telegraph said: “NSW Right MPs ... were more concerned a no vote at the UN would offend Middle East and Muslim communities in their fragile southwest Sydney seats.” The Sydney Morning Herald heard the same: “Many MPs in western Sydney, who are already fearful of losing their seats, are coming under pressure from constituents with a Middle East background."… 
Carr reportedly stressed “the electoral problems in Sydney” to Gillard, and The Australian reported the “demographically challenged” Water Minister, Tony Burke, insisted on not rejecting the Palestinian resolution. Burke’s “demographic challenge” is that the proportion of Muslim voters in Watson, his Sydney seat, has rocketed to an astonishing 20 per cent… In fact, of the 20 seats with the most Muslim voters, Labor holds all but one.
That’s why Carr’s attack on the Jewish lobby is so sinister. He exaggerates its power, falsely assumes those who agree with the lobby have been bought, and meanwhile is silent on the rise of more troubling lobby that has influenced Labor - the Muslim lobby, which includes supporters of extremists.
Something sick is at work in the Left. It’s not just Jews who should be alarmed.
UPDATE
What a disgraceful breach of confidence and a shameless betrayal:
Bob Carr has published private text messages between himself and Julia Gillard to reveal the “extraordinary” level of influence the pro-Israel lobby had on the former prime minister’s office. 
In a remarkable disclosure of private conversations, Mr Carr said he chose to publish the text messages in his book – Diary of a Foreign Minister – without getting Ms Gillard’s permission, because to do so was in the national interest.
Carr wasn’t the foreign minister of Australia, seeking to advance the nation’s interests. It seems to me he was merely an embedded journalist, seeking material to advance his own.
The exchange:
Reproducing private text messages, Mr Carr suggests Ms Gillard’s support of Israel was so immovable that she would not even allow him to change Australia’s vote on what he considered to be a minor UN motion. 
“Julia – motion on Lebanon oil spill raises no Palestinian or Israel security issues. In that context I gave my commitment to Lebanon,” Mr Carr writes in a text message.
“No reason has been given to me to change,” Ms Gillard reportedly replies.
“Julia – not so simple,” Mr Carr responds. “I as Foreign Minister gave my word. I was entitled to because it had nothing to do with Palestinian status or security of Israel.” Ms Gillard shuts him down in a final terse message: “Bob… my jurisdiction on UN resolutions isn’t confined to ones on Palestine and Israel.”
UPDATE
Mark Liebler responds, during an aggressive interview with Tony Jones:
Just unpick for a moment what he’s saying. He’s talking about the Jewish lobby, he’s talking about a difference of opinion between him and the Prime Minister. Why can’t they have a difference of opinion on a matter related to Israeli policy? No, if there’s a difference of opinion, the Prime Minister has to be controlled or influenced by someone. So the Prime Minister has to be wrong ‘cause she’s controlled by the Jewish lobby. How does the Jewish lobby control the Prime Minister? Through donations to the ALP and sending people to Israel. I mean, give me a break. I mean, would anyone sort of seriously accept that? I mean, I’m very flattered. 
By the way, the Jewish lobby he’s referring to is the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. He’s referred to it in The Australian newspaper, so he’s referring to me directly. But, you know, as flattered as I am, this is really a figment of his imagination. I mean, Julia Gillard is an independent-thinking woman. She can come to her own conclusions without being influenced by the Jewish lobby and I suppose the Jewish lobby, according to Bob, ... has the current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, under its influence. After all, he’s adopted a very pro-Israel attitude.
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darleneboza: ojos. I C
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Apple is a leader
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General Emiliano Zapata
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“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” - Hebrews 1:3
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him."
Luke 23:27
Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to his doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations--fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing his cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief--cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried "Crucify him! crucify him!" and laid the cross upon his gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been his murderer, is more, infinitely more, grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.
Why those women loved and wept it were not hard to guess: but they could not have had greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has. Nain's widow saw her son restored--but I myself have been raised to newness of life. Peter's wife's mother was cured of the fever--but I of the greater plague of sin. Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast--but a whole legion out of me. Mary and Martha were favoured with visits--but he dwells with me. His mother bare his body--but he is formed in me the hope of glory. In nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be behind them in gratitude or sorrow.
"Love and grief my heart dividing,
With my tears his feet I'll lave--
Constant still in heart abiding,
Weep for him who died to save."

Evening

"thy gentleness hath made me great."
Psalm 18:35
The words are capable of being translated, "thy goodness hath made me great." David gratefully ascribed all his greatness not to his own goodness, but the goodness of God. "Thy providence," is another reading; and providence is nothing more than goodness in action. Goodness is the bud of which providence is the flower, or goodness is the seed of which providence is the harvest. Some render it, "thy help," which is but another word for providence; providence being the firm ally of the saints, aiding them in the service of their Lord. Or again, "thy humility hath made me great." "Thy condescension" may, perhaps, serve as a comprehensive reading, combining the ideas mentioned, including that of humility. It is God's making himself little which is the cause of our being made great. We are so little, that if God should manifest his greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under his feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies, and bow to see what angels do, turns his eye yet lower, and looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great. There are yet other readings, as for instance, the Septuagint, which reads, "thy discipline"--thy fatherly correction--"hath made me great;" while the Chaldee paraphrase reads, "thy word hath increased me." Still the idea is the same. David ascribes all his own greatness to the condescending goodness of his Father in heaven. May this sentiment be echoed in our hearts this evening while we cast our crowns at Jesus' feet, and cry, "thy gentleness hath made me great." How marvellous has been our experience of God's gentleness! How gentle have been his corrections! How gentle his forbearance! How gentle his teachings! How gentle his drawings! Meditate upon this theme, O believer. Let gratitude be awakened; let humility be deepened; let love be quickened ere thou fallest asleep tonight.
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Today's reading: 1 Samuel 13-14, Luke 10:1-24 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 1 Samuel 13-14

Samuel Rebukes Saul
1 Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years.
2 Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Mikmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes.
3 Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, "Let the Hebrews hear!" 4 So all Israel heard the news: "Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines." And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal....

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 10:1-24

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.2 He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
5 "When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' 6If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house....
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Knowing Him - An Easter Devotional

BETTER THAN SILVER OR GOLD

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.... Even angels long to look into these things. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:10-23)
Years after Jesus’ death and resurrection Peter wrote about the mystery of Christ, things that “angels long to look into.” These highest and best truths about God include the mighty act of redemption. Jesus had said he came to gave his life as a ransom (Mk. 10:45), and here Peter says that we were redeemed not by silver or gold (the richest of the world’s riches) but by “the precious blood of Christ” (the richest of God’s treasures, the life of the very Son of God).
Redemption or ransom is at the heart of the Old Testament pictures of salvation. It means to liberate someone by buying them back. God asked the Hebrews to make a sacrifice of every firstborn. For sheep, goats and the like this meant death, but God told the Hebrews to substitute a lamb for their firstborn children. This liberation was ransom. A lamb instead of a son. But in the case of Jesus it was the Son instead of us.
Remember three “s”s when you think of salvation through Jesus: sacrifice (his death), substitution (him instead of us), satisfaction (the fulfillment of the justice of God). A mystery to us? Yes! One that even angels would love to peer into, if they could.
Ponder This: What is something that you know about Christ today that angels would sing about?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Resources
About The Author - Mel Lawrenz serves as minister at large for Elmbrook Church and leads The Brook Network. Having been in pastoral ministry for thirty years, the last decade as senior pastor of Elmbrook, Mel seeks to help Christian leaders engage with each other. Mel is the author of eleven books, the most recent for church leaders, Whole Church: Leading from Fragmentation to Engagement.
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Today's Lent reading: Luke 23-24 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. 2And they began to accuse him, saying, "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king."
3 So Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
"You have said so," Jesus replied.
4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man."
5 But they insisted, "He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here."
6 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. 7When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time....

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