Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Tue Apr 21st 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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A storm has come to Sydney. Cool air. Good where I live on the top floor of a unit block, but terrible for many. Flooding. People have died. This is where infrastructure is important. Flood mitigating initiatives were not pursued for more than a decade when ALP were in office. Instead, money was diverted to a desalination plant in Sydney which has never been useful. Also, the outback needs to be developed so that such an excess of water goes to food production, and not waste. People die from ALP excess wether they know it or not. 

 Australia's foreign minister visited Charlie Hebdo in France, and thanked the magazine for their work. “If people don’t like it, don’t buy it. The utterly brutal and disproportionate response by the terrorists murdering people at this magazine, is to be condemned.”. An actual journalist working for @Spiegelonline, has found documents which show how ISIL came into being. It is, as Mr Abbott has said many times, a death cult. It has been built around East German Stasi lines as Saddam Hussein's intelligence network chiefs have devised it. It exploits Islam but has nothing to do with it. Which may startle some who weren't observant. Islam doesn't approve of homosexuality, yet jihadis have been given dispensation for sodomy on the front lines of this civil war (everywhere). Islam does not approve of cross dressing, but jihadis do it and act as if it is clever. Islam does not prove of women fighting men, but again the jihadis do that. Islam does not prove of suicide bombing. Islam does not like desecration of holy objects. Islam promotes justice, yet the jihadis version of Sharia Law does not provide it. Jihadis are killing other Muslims. Jihadis torture peaceful peoples who have done nothing to warrant it. Jihadis rape children and innocent women, and men. Were a jihadis to face an established sharia court anywhere in the world with evidence of these crimes they would be killed. 

 ISIL has been designed by one of Iraq's intelligence colonels who worked for Saddam and was trained by his regime. But the reason why it is so effective is because the inept former PM of Iraq who was in Iran's pocket, did not try to run a cohesive government. A young democratic state was brutally abused by him and Obama. His regime was easy to overthrow because he failed to use all the resources at hand, favouring Shiites over others. Yet those others also have nationalistic pride. And they want to live. What should be of international concern is Iran's development of nuclear weapons. It goes hand in hand with North Korea's development, and is a threat to world peace. 

 In 753 BC, Rome was founded by Romulus. In 43 BC, at the Battle of Mutina, Antony got a tactical victory over superior numbers of troops, preventing their encirclement of him. Among the republic's forces opposing him was Octavian. Octavian did not like fighting with the forces who killed his adoptive dad, but it gave him honour. In 900, the Laguna Copperplate inscription was made, the earliest record of writing in the Philippines. The writing system was from Java, but based on an earlier Phoenician script. In 1509, King Henry VIII came to the throne on the death of his dad. 1782, Bangkok was founded. In 1792, Brazilian revolutionary Tiradentes was hanged, drawn and quartered. It had not gone to plan. He had intended to lead a revolt during a tax take for Portugal three years earlier. But he was betrayed by a trusted friend who was given a promise of tax relief. In 1856, Labour movement involving stonemasons and building workers march from Melbourne University to parliament house over an eight hour work day. It was before television. Melbourne University was less than three years old. Gold had only been discovered five years earlier in Victoria. They were successful. In 1914, the US Navy operating near Veracruz intercepted a German arms shipment to Mexico. In 1918, Richthofen was shot down. In 1934, the Surgeon's Photograph, a known hoax, was supposed to have photographed the Loch Ness Monster. 
2014
Neville Wran is dead. Nearly 38 years of corruption has had an opening close. Only the baton of activity also long passed hands. They aren't stupid. They go into public life thinking they have something to offer. The party machine is evil. They are inducted into corruption. They can't leave it, but advance so they might put their personal stamp on things .. only their tools are corrupt. And those charged with keeping them honest aren't doing it. Some really disturbing things involved with Wran in his years in office .. the assassination of Donald McKay and the inability to prosecute those involved. The growth of Underbelly style organised crime. The smearing of the previous Askin Administration by inflating activity that was occurring under Wran. The disappearance of anti drug campaigners. The early release of criminals from prison to order. Corruption of the public service. The inability of NSW to develop infrastructure. Widespread public strikes. Only now is the second airport being built. A lucky break came with the election of Greiner. NSW sidestepped the late 80's crash thanks to prudent choices he made .. meanwhile ALP governments in Vic, SA and WA saw the collapse of credit unions and resultant issues that have still to be fully addressed today. But the media cheer team are pumping out revisionist history praising Wran. So I will add, Wran was very good. After he was caught being corrupt, he gave the tools to others. And shielded them. 

Nobody likes drought, famine or plague. It is understandable that people would do any responsible action to address it, but on this day in 1506 in Portugal, a crowd took steps that were harmful which did not address the problems. It was as if AGW believers had been transported into the past. Some claimed they had seen a miracle of Christ's face on the altar. A new Christian (converted Jew) made the reasonable claim that what was seen was the reflection of a candle. For the temerity of being right, the new Christian was kicked to death by the true believers. But the true believers were not finished. They wanted to end drought, famine and plague. So they found some 1900 new Christians and killed them too. History shows that the drought, famine and plague ended, but that wasn't because the crowd had murdered 1900 new Christians (Jews). It is and was an insult to Jews to call them Christians, or like Christians. They had been forced to convert by a political edict not dissimilar to AGW scientists today giving credentials to other AGW scientists. Today, AGW scientists are demanding we do nothing worthwhile, but spend a lot of money, addressing climate change. It is reasonable, then to charge such people with war crimes and crimes against humanity. 
Historical perspectives on this day 
In 753 BC, Romulus founded Rome (traditional date). 43 BC, Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony was again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who was killed. Antony failed to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus was murdered shortly after. 900, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardoned from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations. 1092, the Diocese of Pisa was elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II

 In 1506, the three-day Lisbon Massacre came to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics. 1509, Henry VIII ascended the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII. 1526, the last ruler of the Lodi Dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi was defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat. 1615, the Wignacourt Aqueduct was inaugurated in Malta. 1782, the city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, was founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke. 1792, Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil's independence, was hanged, drawn and quartered.

 In 1806, Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escaped British forces off the coast of South Africa. 1809, two Austrian army corps were driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon I of France as two French corps to the north held off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl. 1821, Benderli Ali Pasha arrived in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remained in power for only nine days before being sent into exile. 1836, Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeated troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. 1856, Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an Eight-hour day. 1863, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, declared his mission as "He whom God shall make manifest". 1894, Norway formally adopted the Krag-Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years. 1898, Spanish–American War: The United States Navy began a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.

 In 1914, Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico was intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz, Veracruz. 1918, World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", was shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France. 1925, the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals was published in Il Mondo, establishing the political and ideological foundations of Italian Fascism. 1934, the "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, was published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it was revealed to be a hoax). 1941, Emmanouil Tsouderos became the 132nd Prime Minister of Greece. 1945, World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attacked the German High Command headquarters. 1952, Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) was first celebrated.

 In 1960, Brasília, Brazil's capital, was officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic were simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro. 1962, the Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opened. It was the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II. 1963, the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith was elected for the first time. 1964, a Transit-5bn satellite failed to reach orbit after launch; as it re-entered the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source was widely dispersed. 1965, the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair opened for its second and final season. 1966, Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visited Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day. 1967, Greek military junta of 1967–74: A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos led a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasted for seven years. 1970, the Hutt River Province Principality seceded from Australia. 1975, Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu fled Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, fell.

 In 1982, Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers became the first pitcher to record 300 saves. 1987, the Tamil Tigers were blamed for a car bomb that detonated in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people. 1989, Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang. 1992, the first discoveries of extrasolar planets were announced by astronomers Alexander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12. 1993, the Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentenced former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution. 2004, five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160. 2010, the controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) was signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev; it would be unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014. 2012, two trains were involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, injuring 116 people.
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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 Little Zee, My Step mum, Helen Pymble, My Sang Le, Peter Debnam and Jackey Luu. Born on the same day as the Queen and my step mother, across the years. That is right, the Queen wasn't born on her birthday. And this year, you weren't born on your birthday either .. you were born years ago.
Deaths
Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron"
Writing lasts. Bangkok is established as an act. The Red Baron took his last dive. We have a capital. We have regime change. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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DIGNITY OF DEATH

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (2:05pm)

The Abbott government has stopped the people smuggling trade in Australian waters, saving many lives. But Greens leader Christine Milne prefers a different approach: 
The latest Mediterranean migrant boat disaster has cast a light on Australia’s cruel treatment of asylum seekers, Greens Leader Christine Milne says.
The United Nations refugee agency has confirmed 800 migrants died when their boat capsized off Libya on Sunday, as rescue crews continue to recover bodies.
The response by Sicilian authorities shows that Europeans respect the dignity of these boat people, Senator Milne said. 
As they haul their corpses from the sea. 
“The reporting talks about the tragedy as people drown ... they don’t talk about `illegals’ ... and they don’t talk about punishing refugees,” she told reporters in Hobart.
“They talk about offering help and assistance.” 
To the dead.
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ZERO OUT OF ONE HUNDRED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (1:56pm)

Leftist reader Jane W. disliked Monday’s column: 
This article must have been written when young uneducated Tim Blair was drunk! 
I completely reject the accusation I was young. 
I read this article twenty times ! It made zero sense, zero meaning, zero communication, and zero impact! It had zero intelligence, zero credibility, zero mentality, zero knowledge, zero communication skills, and zero reading skills. 
Yes, Jane, but apart from those minor points you’ve got to admit it was pretty good. 
Zero marks out of one hundred marks! Is Tim Blair the son of Adolf Hitler? 
This is now officially my favourite email of all time. 
A three thousand word essay not up to kindergarten standard at primary school (let alone HSC)! 
Actually, it was fewer than 1000 words. Although maybe the word count increases with multiple readings. 
Yet Daily Telegraph prints his blogs, adores his blogs, and pays for his blogs but not mine. 
I’ll talk to our online editors about correcting this terrible situation. As the son of Adolf, I do have some influence around here.
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SUPERVAN VI

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (1:47pm)

“Is the solar revolution finally here?” asked Forbes writer Christopher Helman last year: 
Not quite. Even after a decade of rampant growth solar energy still barely moves the needle in the U.S. energy mix. In fact, solar merely equals the amount of electricity that the nation generates by burning natural gas captured from landfills. And it’s only slightly more meaningful than the 7.3 million Mwh we get from burning human waste strained out of municipal sewer systems. 
Somewhere in Hollywood, their heir to Lamar Card’s creative genius just saw that last line and imagined a stunning Supervan sequel: Sewervan! Meanwhile, the original solar-power van of the people rolls on. In the latest episode, Supervan leads a bizarrely choreographed car chase with the assistance of fellow vanners whose CB radios for some reason change all their accents to southern:



Other highlights include the appearance of Supervan’s actual builder George Barris – soon to visit Australia, by the way – and a brutal hill-climb contest between Supervan and its conventionally-engined competitors, who may be at an advantage considering the overcast conditions. There is also some of the sweetest romantic dialogue ever recorded:
Karen: “I’ve never felt like I belonged any place before.”
Clint: “Good for you.”
Please click to enjoy all previous episodes.
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CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (11:54am)

The ABC’s Jonathan Green deplores the commercialisation of Anzac Day: 
Why would we be surprised when the Anzac centenary becomes little more than a carnival of jingoistic schmaltz and corporate opportunism?
We can only respond to these great and distant events in the terms of our time, and for modern Australians recalling the acts of daring, blood and sacrifice of another century, what could be more natural than making a commemorative purchase? What greater estimation of value is there than to pay for something? 
Such noble thoughts. Such respect. Such decency. But Green’s deeper beliefs emerge just a few paragraphs later: 
Gallipoli, then as now, was as much a place of deadly, noble sacrifice, as it was a crock of shit. 
In which case Green should not object to any commercialisation. If Gallipoli is no big deal, commemorative purchases are no big deal either.
(Via Andrew Bolt, who has further on the ABC’s conflicted Anzac Day views.)
UPDATE. Previously from Jonathan, who isn’t much chop at basic research: 
It would be good if Tim Blair and the like could point to one instance in which a shooter was brought down by an armed bystander. 
I provided a couple of examples at the time, and here’s yet another: 
Authorities say no charges will be filed against an Uber driver who shot and wounded a gunman who opened fire on a crowd of people in Logan Square over the weekend.
The driver had a concealed-carry permit and acted in the defense of himself and others, Assistant State’s Attorney Barry Quinn said in court Sunday. 
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Julie Bishop, ditching scarf, defends Western values

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (1:14pm)

image
Good:
A new cartoon sits on the crowded walls of Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris.... Canberra Times cartoonist David Pope’s stark, confronting “He drew first” pencil sketch, drawn while watching TV reports late at night after the shooting, ... was presented to the staff of Charlie on Monday by foreign minister Julie Bishop, as a gesture of Australia’s sympathy and support.
Ms Bishop said it was a “love your work” gesture… “Satire is controversial, it’s provocative, it offends all religions, all political parties, nothing and no-one is spared. (It) is a counter-balance against power."…
Twelve people died when gunmen attacked the Charlie Hebdo office in January, including leading cartoonists Jean “Cabu” Cabut and Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier. The attack was said to be retaliation for the magazine’s caricatures of Muhammad and other Muslim figures....
But Ms Bishop said she admired the people who worked at Charlie Hebdo… “If people don’t like it, don’t buy it. The utterly brutal and disproportionate response by the terrorists murdering people at this magazine, is to be condemned.”
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Flannery’s council warns sceptics it knows where we live

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (12:31pm)

Tim Flannery bizarrely imagined he’d been threatened by a penguin man and a crowed chanting death threats - chants not heard by any reporters at the scene. He even falsely claimed I had revealed private details about his home, and prompted a Fairfax paper to check if I’d identified the whereabouts of that home to my readers. I hadn’t, of course.
So it is astonishing that Flannery, so hyper-sensitive about his own security, should lead a Climate Council which now tweets this:
image
Which points to this:
image
Exactly what are Flannery’s goons suggesting be done?
(Thanks to reader Paul for the warning.) 
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We are one people. Do not divide us by “race”

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (10:27am)

Gary Johns, former Labor minister and now president of Recognise What?:

Noel Pearson has now abandoned formal constitutional recognition and instead wants a treaty. His support for the proposal for a declaration of indigenous recognition outside of the Constitution came with a catch: an “indigenous constitutional body”, which would, in effect, constitute a ­nation within the nation.
More than ever, the recognition debate has become a ­national embarrassment…
Pearson wants ... Aborigines alone to have a treaty clause written into the Constitution such that Aborigines would have to be consulted on any matters affecting them that the parliament or government of the day transacts.
It would be difficult to exclude any matter that affects the diverse interests of Aborigines, in effect, establishing a second (and racially constituted) parliament.
Constitutional recognition would create, in effect, a treaty between some Australian citizens and other Australian citizens on the basis of identity, whether race, culture, language, belief and so on…
The people who now constitute Australia have come from 180 or so countries. There is no ­"people" other than Australian citizens. 
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Deal or no deal?

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (9:08am)

Clever deal or dangerous concession to a fascist state that sponsors terrorism?
Pia Akerman:
Australian Jewish leaders have questioned the benefits of Julie Bishop’s visit to Iran…
Australia/Israel & Jewish ­Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said there was a clear risk Iran had received all the benefits of the changed relationship with no apparent change in its aggressive stance towards its neighbours…
Dr Rubenstein said Australia’s allies may also hold concerns about the new intelligence-sharing arrangement and that the issue of returning Iranian ­asylum-seekers — a primary goal of the trip — had seemingly been ­rebuffed.

Greg Sheridan:
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has brilliantly pursued a narrow, important, very specifically Australian agenda in Iran. It is all about returning failed asylum-seekers…
There are more than 9000 Iranians within the Australian asylum-seeking system. Of these, 7634 are living in the community in Australia on a bridging E Visa. These are people waiting for a determination of their immigration status.
There are a further 759 Iranians in onshore community detention and another 418 Iranians in onshore “held” detention. Beyond this, there are 310 Iranians on Manus Island and 202 Iranians on Nauru.
The Iranians are a special problem because if they are refused refugee status, the Iranian government will not accept them back unless they go willingly, even though Iran is obliged to accept its citizens under normal international practice.
That Bishop has thoroughly engaged the Iranians on this issue, and got them to agree to send officials to Australia to discuss it further, is the true achievement of her visit to Iran, not the informal agreement to share some information, although that could be modestly useful in time.
UPDATE
So we have an intelligence-sharing deal with a regime with military commanders this bat-crazy and hostile:
Iran on Friday accused the United States of creating the murderous Islamic State, Boko Haram and al-Nusrah terrorist groups.

The commander of Iran’s ground forces, Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, said the US had established these terror groups to harm Islam and bolster Israel’s security.
“The ISIL (another name for Islamic State), Boko Haram and al-Nusrah have been created in line with the US strategy of religion against religion, which seeks to impair the divine face of Islam,” Pourdastan said, according to the Iranian Fars news agency.
“The American and European people’s high tendency towards Islam and (the necessity for) protection of the Zionist regime’s security have caused the US to create the terrorist groups,"he added, in an address at Tehran University.
This is another variance of a strong theme in Muslim apologetics in the Middle East - to blame the West for Muslim dysfunction. And indulge in conspiracy theories.
More from our new allies:

Over the past two weeks, many Iranian websites have reproduced a long article accusing Jews of murdering gentile children in their synagogues, draining their blood and mixing it in their matzoh for Passover.
Perhaps the most prominent site was news site Alef, under the title “What group has been the biggest criminals in the history of mankind?"… It claims that the reason Jews were expelled from Spain was because of their habits of murdering Christian babies.
The article even reproduces a cover of Der Sturmer from 1939 showing the Nazi paper accusing Jews of ritual murder as evidence that it must be true!…
Beyond that, the article claims that rabbis mix human blood with wine and place it on the lips of the infant boy during circumcision…
Other news sites that reproduced the article, verbatim, include Mashregh News, Asredena,Harfeakhar, Khabarist, Khabarkhoon, Habbe, and Ghatreh. From there it has spread to blogs and other secondary sites…
Nothing gets published in Iranian websites without permission of the government, and this is a clear and conscious decision to promote Jew-hatred in Iran. Antisemitism is official Iranian policy.
Strange, you know. So many people of the Left of around my age and probably younger would have dreamed when young of fighting a fascist state that persecuted Jews and “deviants”, trampled on democracy and waged wars of expansion. They wouldn’t be as blind as those who failed to resist the Nazis!
Well, here’s their chance, and they are missing it.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Why won’t the Left condemn Saudi Arabia as it did Israel?

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (8:38am)

Saudi Arabia fights Islamist extremists in a neighbouring country and kills civilians. No international fuss at all, and the media Left barely notice:
At least 18 civilians have been killed in Saudi airstrikes on a missile depot in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a.
According to Yemeni medics on Monday, 300 have been wounded and scores of nearby houses and vehicles were destroyed in the attack hitting the Faj Attan district in the mountainous outskirts of the capital, where the missile depot is located…
According to reports, at least 2,680 people, including women and children, have so far lost their lives in the attacks.
Israel fights Islamist extremists in a neighbouring country and kills many fewer civilians. Massive international fuss, and the media Left savages Israel:
WHY is the ABC barracking for Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza and is firing rockets at Israel?...Then there’s the ABC’s claims that Israel is recklessly killing civilians in Gaza.
Here’s 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson interviewing an Israeli government spokesman: “You say you don’t target civilians ... Do you take enough care to avoid those casualties, because it appears the answer is no?”
In fact, Israel drops leaflets in targeted areas warning civilians to get out. At times it also gives a knock at the door — a rocket that just makes a loud noise as a warning before the real missiles come.
But Hamas hides its missiles among civilians it conscripts as a human shield — and as propaganda props if they die.
The media exaggerations of Israel’s alleged crimes were legion:
Report after report during the fighting in Gaza stressed how Israel was carelessly killing civilians - and so many of them… True, hundreds did, tragically, die, as Hamas fought from behind their human shields, but once again it seems the truth was spun:


Italian journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi, who works with the Corriere della serra newspaper, reported Thursday that Hamas had vastly overstated the number of civilian deaths in Gaza. While Hamas claims that 1,330 residents of Gaza were killed in the operation and approximately 5,000 wounded, the real number of casualties was far lower, Cremonesi says. Cremonesi’s report was based on his own findings after touring hospitals in Gaza and talking to families of those killed or wounded.... Cremonesi estimated that between 500 to 600 people were killed in the fighting. Most were young men between the ages of 17 and 23 who were members of Hamas, he said.
But for sheer hypocrisy, here is Saudi Arabia’s king in 2014:
Saudi King Abdullah said yesterday that world silence over Israeli “war crimes” in the Gaza Strip was inexcusable and would only breed more violence in the future.
“We see the blood of out brothers in Palestine being shed in collective massacres that have spared nobody, and in war crimes against humanity,” the king said…
King Abdullah’s statement was lauded by the UAE, which it said came “at a delicate juncture while we are witnesses [to] the continuous brutal Israeli aggression against the innocent civilians in Gaza” and “clearly reflects stances of the UAE and its people”.
Strange, how fighting back is only a sin if Israel does it.
(Thanks to reader Barney Rubble.) 
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The ABC does Anzac Day

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (8:10am)

How does the ABC mark Anzac Day?
The ABC’s Triple J:
5 things you didn’t know about the Anzacs
They rioted in Egypt, got STIs and Gallipoli wasn’t (entirely) England’s fault…
1. They started a riot in Egypt
On the way to Gallipoli the Australian troops spent a couple of months training in Egypt, while this readies them for battle it also exposes them to vices they previously haven’t seen. One of those vices was the local brothels....
2. STIs were a bit of a problem
Remember those brothels? Well, it’s because of them the Anzacs managed to find themselves with the sort of souvenirs you’d rather not end up with: STIs…
3. They got paid pretty well
They were taking home 6 shillings a day, about $150 in today’s dollars. It’s heaps compared to the British soldiers, who were only getting 1 shilling a day.
This is probably part of the reason they got up to so much mischief in Egypt.
ABC host Jonathan Green:
And why would we be surprised when the Anzac centenary becomes little more than a carnival of jingoistic schmaltz and corporate opportunism?…
It works for politics, too. What could be more obvious than turning a lavishly promoted sense of a militarised, masculine Australian ideal to the quiet service of a political class held in something close to open contempt by most modern-day ordinary Australians?…
Gallipoli, then as now, was as much a place of deadly, noble sacrifice, as it was a crock of shit.
Your taxes, their nihilism.
UPDATE
In contrast, the Prime Minister:
It’s no wonder that World War One cast a pall over Australia for a generation, because the scale of the sacrifice is almost unimaginable. We had a population of scarcely four million people, more than 400,000 volunteered to serve, 330,000 went overseas, 160,000 were wounded, 61,000 died and of course of those who came back many bore the scars, seen and unseen, for the rest of their days. And something like 50 per cent of men aged between 18 and 42 volunteered for service – an absolutely extraordinary sacrifice on a scale we can scarcely imagine today.
(Thanks to reader Patty.) 
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There should be no doubt why Numan Haider was shot

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (7:59am)

I think this appeal, though welcome, lacks something:
THE devastated parents of a knife-wielding teen shot dead by police have appealed for radicalised young Australians not to inflict terror in their son’s name.
Numan Haider’s parents called for “only peace’’… following reports that five teenagers arrested over allegations of an Anzac Day terrorist plot against police had planned it to avenge their son…
Asked if they had seen the teens at their son’s funeral at Doveton mosque last year, Haider’s father replied: “We have no idea. There were 800 people there.
“But our son was not a terrorist....”
Still wearing mourning black, his mother said through tears that she had been “shocked and upset” to read of the arrests of the teenagers.
“I just don’t understand it. I feel confused — we still don’t know why the police killed our son....”
Don’t think their son was a terrorist? Don’t know why he was shot?
This simply feeds the lethal victimology of some Muslims.
Here, for clarity, is why Numan Haider was shot:

When met by two counter-terrorism police officers outside the station Haider pulled a knife from his pocket, the court heard.
He stabbed the Victorian officer in the left arm and then the Australian Federal Police officer in the face, chest and shoulder.
When the federal police officer fell to the ground Haider climbed on top of him and continued to stab him.
The inquest heard the Victorian officer shouted at him to stop before shooting Haider once in the head.
I think that is so perfectly clear that anyone claiming to be mystified is not to be trusted.
UPDATE
This kind of hysterical language from Muslim academic, and published by the ABC, risks further inflaming an already dangerous sense of victimhood. The author is Shakira Hussein, who, far from being “vomited from the body politic” and “purged”, is embedded in it as the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne:
Yet the campaign against halal certification impacts on our lives, too. Its message is that, however discrete our presence, however well-integrated we may believe ourselves to be, we are not welcome here. The anti-Muslim racists behind the campaign want us to know that our absorption into Australian society makes them gag. We must be rejected, spat out, vomited from the body politic. In other words, purged.
(Thanks to reader Dean.) 
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Students demand ban on “controversial” ideas

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (7:37am)

Students against “controversial” thinking? Dear God, talk about the closing of the Western mind:

The University of Western Australia’s vice-chancellor has defended the establishment of a think tank linked to controversial environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg.
Dr Lomborg has attracted controversy in the past for suggesting that the dangers of climate change are overstated and that alleviating poverty is a greater priority.
The UWA Consensus Centre will use the methods of Doctor Lomborg’s Copenhagen Center.
The Federal Government’s decision to provide $4 million to fund the UWA centre has been attacked by environmentalists while its Student Guild has called for the concept to be dumped.
In a statement, its president Lizzy O’Shea said the guild had fielded many complaints.
“Dr Lomborg has been internationally criticised and [is] very controversial,” she said.
My tip to warmists who do not want to consider challenging facts. Just don’t enrol in Lomborg’s lectures. You can preserve your own ignorance without shutting down someone else’s course.
(Thanks to reader Geo.) 
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We’re “fatigued” only by Anzac Day make-believe

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (7:29am)

No, we are not fatigued by Gallipoli. We are merely defending its power. We want the sacred and the real, but not the entertainment and the make-believe:
As the centenary commemorations at Gallipoli draw closer, some of Australian television’s biggest names have been caught in the cross-fire at the 11th hour as network bosses begin to wonder if they misjudged the national appetite for what had previously been considered a broadcasting bonanza.
Following a series of Gallipoli-themed television programs failing to attract big audience numbers and increasing sensitivities about commercial interests appearing to exploit an event loaded with sacrosanct sensitivities, network bosses are now pulling back on their original plans…
Several media executives have now started to wonder if audiences have developed a case of Gallipoli fatigue, opting for fluffier shows like My Kitchen Rules instead of tuning into the grim reality of a war that shaped much of our national psyche. 
TV shows might have got poor numbers. My tip is that the services and parades most certainly won’t. And certainly not after the news of an alleged plot against police at Anzac Day. 
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Europe’s borders fall

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (6:43am)

We’ve seen just this scenario ourselves - deaths, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and our navy used as a taxi service:
On a day that 27 survivors of the weekend’s Mediterranean boat disaster were taken to Sicily and salvage crews scoured the waters off Libya for the bodies of up to 900 more victims, reports came in of many more desperate migrants heading for Europe in unseaworthy craft, oblivious to the overwhelming odds against them.
Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, said rescues were under way to help save migrants trapped on two vessels carrying about 450 people off the Libyan coast.
But the numbers flooding Europe are far greater, and threaten civil disorder in the long term:
Last year, a record 220,000 of the so-called Mediterranean boatpeople were rescued from rickety boats as they tried to make their way to Italy, Greece and Malta. It tested rescue and resettlement resources to the limit. Few thought it would be surpassed.
Yet already this year, as the northern hemisphere summer begins and the “boat season” arrives, the numbers look infinitely worse, more challenging, with Italian government projections that in 2015 more than 500,000 men, women and children will arrive in boats on European shores, expecting to be given the opportunity to start new lives.

But Europe’s political and media class refuse to learn the obvious lessons. Retired major-general Jim Molan was chief of operations of all allied forces in Iraq and helped to implement the Abbott Government’s successful border policies:
What should also be familiar to Australians is the incompetent policy reaction by European authorities to the situation…

Europe needs to make a very big decision and to make it soon. If it does not want to control its borders then it should establish a sea bridge across the Mediterranean, let everyone in who wants to come, and not let these people die. If it does want to control its borders, as the most recent voting patterns in almost every country of Europe indicates, European governments should realise that border control can be done and start showing a bit of leadership. It may involve some tough policy from European governments who appear weak on many issues, but borders can be controlled, they can be controlled to the benefit of all, and there is a moral obligation to control them…
And of course, people are flooding to Europe by other means, not only across the sea from Libya. It was put to me in Pakistan recently that 7000 Afghans or Pakistanis per month cross illegally from Turkey into Europe. And I understand that the third route is from north Africa into Spain. Europe is a big place and, like Australia, meets its refugee obligations, but the exploitation by criminals of an outdated convention is now rife…
Europe will need to decide what is the local version of boat turnbacks in the Mediterranean. The error committed by Europe and the US in not putting effective boots on the ground in Libya, and the ongoing failure of the UN to advocate peace-keeping forces in such places will always have consequences. When Europe and the US brought down Muammar Gaddafi, they did not commit ground forces because of the unpredictable consequences. Now they must manage the totally predictable consequences.
One of the most brilliant, important and prescient novels of the 20th century is Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints:
...Jean Raspail’s brilliant and brutally confronting 1971 satire (or indictment), Camp of the Saints, describing how Europe, frozen with self-loathing, greets an Armada of one million boat people sailing in to help itself to the riches of the West:...
Read an extract at the link.
Raspail, now 89, said two years ago that his warnings were ignored and now it’s too late:
What do you feel about the current situation?
You know, I’ve no wish to join the big group of intellectuals who spend their time debating immigration… I have the impression that these talks serve no purpose. The people already know it all, intuitively: that France, as our ancestors fashioned it centuries ago, is disappearing. And that we keep the gallery amused by talking ceaselessly of immigration without ever saying the final truth. A truth that is moreover unsayable…

Is the seriousness of the problem being kept from the French people?
Yes. Starting with the politicians in charge first of all! Publicly “everything’s going well, Madame Marquessa”. But behind closed doors, they acknowledge that “yes, you’re right: there is a real problem”. I have several edifying letters on this subject from prominent leftist politicians, from those on the right too, to whom I sent the Camp of the Saints. “But you understand: we can’t say it ...” ...

You don’t believe it’s possible to assimilate the foreigners welcomed into France?
No. The model of integration isn’t working. Even if a few more illegals are escorted to the border and we succeed in integrating foreigners a bit more than today, their numbers will not stop growing and that will change nothing in the fundamental problem: the progressive invasion of France and Europe by a numberless third-world. I’m not a prophet, but you see clearly the fragility of these countries, where an unbearable poverty is established and grows ceaselessly alongside indecent wealth. Those people don’t turn to their governments to protest. They expect nothing of them.
They turn to us and arrive in Europe in boats, ever more numerous, today in Lampedusa, tomorrow elsewhere. Nothing discourages them. And thanks to the demography game, by the 2050s, there will be as many young indigenous French as there are young foreigners in France.
Many will be naturalised.
Which doesn’t mean they’ll have become French. I don’t say these are bad people, but “naturalisations on paper” aren’t naturalisations of the heart. I cannot consider them my compatriots. We need to drastically toughen the law, as a matter of urgency.
How can Europe deal with these migrations?
There are only two solutions. Either we accommodate them and France - its culture, its civilisation — will be erased without even a funeral. In my view, that’s what’s going to happen. Or we don’t accommodate them at all - that means stop sacralising the Other and rediscover your neighbour, that means those next to you. Which means that we stop giving a damn sometime about these “Christian ideas gone mad”, as Chesterton said, or these depraved human rights, and that we take the indispensable measures to distance ourselves, without appeal, to avoid the dissolution of our country into a general métissage [literally race-mixing but used as a sort of equivalent of the English diversity]. I don’t see any other solution. I travelled a lot in my youth. All peoples are fascinating but when you mix them too much, it is much more animosity that develops than sympathy. Métissage is never peaceful. It is a dangerous utopia. Look at South Africa!
At the point where we are now, the measures we would have to take would necessarily be very coercive. I don’t believe it will happen and I don’t see anyone who has the courage to do it. They would need to put their soul in the balance, but who is ready for that? That said, I don’t believe for an instant that the supporters of immigration are more charitable than me: there probably isn’t a single one of them who intends to welcome one of these unfortunates into his home… all of that’s just an emotional pretence, an irresponsible maelstrom that will engulf us.
(Thanks to reader Nicholas.) 
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California goes mad, the Victorian Labor way

Andrew Bolt April 21 2015 (4:02am)

Green cranks in charge. A phobia of dams. A mad plan to empty those dams to please the fish. A hatred of development. And a drought.
Boy, didn’t we go through this in Victoria, and didn’t it end up a horror story for taxpayers?  California does a repeat:
But ultimately the responsibility for California’s future lies with our political leadership, who need to develop the kind of typically bold approaches past generations have embraced. One step would be building new storage capacity, which Governor Jerry Brown, after opposing it for years, has begun to admit is necessary. Desalinization, widely used in the even more arid Middle East, notably Israel, has been blocked by environmental interests but could tap a virtually unlimited supply of the wet stuff, and lies close to the state’s most densely populated areas. Essentially the state could build enough desalinization facilities, and the energy plants to run them, for less money than Brown wants to spend on his high-speed choo-choo to nowhere. This piece of infrastructure is so irrelevant to the state’s needs that even many progressives, such as Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum, consider it a “ridiculous” waste of money.
And there needs to be, at least for the short term, an end to dumping water into San Francisco Bay for the purpose of restoring a long-gone salmon run, or to the Delta, in order to save a bait-fish, the Delta smelt, which may already be close to extinct. This dumping of water has continued even as the state has faced a potentially crippling water shortage; nothing is too good for our fish, or to salve the hyper-heated consciousness of the environmental illuminati.
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=== Posts from last year ===

CHOOSE ONLY ONE

Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (4:42am)

A Sydney University campus newspaper survey asks:

image
And here are your options: 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'CHOOSE ONLY ONE'
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STRIKE WHILE THE EARTH IS HOT

Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (4:08am)

Bill McKibben has probably never cracked a decent joke in his entire life. That is as you’d expect. McKibben is an American academic who specialises in climate change, and such rigid types usually lack the fleetness of mind to knock out even a simple gag.
Key word: “usually”. A few weeks ago McKibben made up for decades of humour deficiency by devising a joke so brilliant that it verges on genius.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'STRIKE WHILE THE EARTH IS HOT'
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NON-REPORTER

Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (3:44am)

Former Sydney Morning Herald political writer Margo Kingston recently complained to the Press Council about this newspaper. Kingston believed that two stories and a photograph, on page 17, were insufficient to cover the Federal Court’s dismissal of a sexual harassment suit brought against former speaker Peter Slipper by James Ashby.
For what it’s worth, the Press Council agreed with her. Yet Kingston’s previous inclination, as a member of Canberra’s press gallery, was to outright suppress information.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'NON-REPORTER'
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ONE OPTION IS SLIGHTLY LESS LIKELY TO RESULT IN ARREST

Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (2:58am)

Celebrate Earth Day this week by murdering your girlfriend and turning her into compost. Or, alternatively, celebrate it by joining the 9th Annual Iowahawk Earth Week Cruise-In.
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THE CLOONEY EFFECT

Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (2:50am)

Australian environmentalist Jon Dee believes George Clooney is killing the world with coffee: 
‘’George Clooney has almost single-handedly launched an entire new waste stream globally as a result of fronting the Nespresso adverts,’’ Mr Dee said. ‘’It shows the Clooney effect has undoubtedly been enormous in this. But George Clooney – for a guy who is so switched on to civil rights and other issues – to lead the charge in causing such such environmental damage and waste and other issues is really disappointing.’’ 
Dee plans to drag Nescafe, maker of Clooney’s caffeinated deathpods, before the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. There is no pleasure tiny enough to escape the scolding gaze of modern environmentalism.
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HAPPY MONDAY

Tim Blair – Monday, April 21, 2014 (1:37am)

They really do want us to live in trees. Speaking of them, shyster zillionaire Al Gore thinks we’re immoral, unethical and despicable, which is just about the nicest start to the week you could possibly wish for. And here’s some Mark Steyn to make it perfect. 
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NEVILLE WRAN

Tim Blair – Sunday, April 20, 2014 (11:04pm)

Former NSW premier Neville Wran has died at 87. Malcolm Turnbull farewells his long-time friend and business partner.
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What’s our reconciliation movement doing about this?

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (8:01am)

One of our most pressing race problems isn’t honestly debated. Another example:
THE owner of a Queensland outback pub has told how she spent a terrifying hour fearing for her life after a drunken mob armed with rocks and iron bars allegedly started a riot early yesterday morning. 
Pam Forster, owner of the Dangi Pub in Urandangi – near the NT border – was serving Easter patrons when she was forced to turn away the group because they were drunk and trying to get cigarettes from patrons.
The accused group, who had crossed the border, then destroyed several cars and attempted to knock down the pub’s front doors…

“They were going to bash down the door and kill us,’’ [Forster] said. “It was frightening, they were carrying iron bars and throwing rocks....” The alleged riot has reignited debate about the accessibility of alcohol in Aboriginal communities. 
Two weeks ago in Perth: 
A mass brawl broke out when up to 50 youths gatecrashed a wedding reception in Perth’s southern suburbs. 
Bricks were hurled through the windows of Point Walter Cafe in Bicton as the youths tried to force their way into the venue on Saturday night…
The incident began when a number of youths were refused a cigarette by one of the guests attending the wedding reception…
Seven guests, including four men and three women, were injured in the violence and a number of them were treated at Fremantle Hospital. The offenders, who were described as mostly dark-skinned males aged about 16 to 22 years old, fled the scene before police arrived at 9:10pm. 
In Sydney last week:
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Big unions, big money, big questions

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:38am)

Australia is quickly learning we haven’t been the cleanskins we so long assumed: 
EMPLOYERS will urge the Heydon royal commission to ­investigate allegations that ­unions are receiving lucrative undisclosed commissions after coercing companies into signing up to costly but inferior income protection insurance schemes. 
The Australian Industry Group said yesterday unions were pressuring employers to sign up to insurance products that are more costly to com­panies and offer fewer benefits to employees, including union members.
In evidence to be given to the royal commission into union governance and corruption, the Ai Group accused unions of pushing the products in order to get big commissions from the companies. It estimated that up to 30 per cent of the insurance protection money paid by an employer was paid as a union commission. Due to the significant commission, unions often refused to accept an employer’s offer to provide equivalent or better benefits to employees through an ­alternative provider, the Ai Group said.
I’d love also an inquiry into the money trail that runs through the great global warming scare.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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How can bad students make good teachers?

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:12am)

Labor and the teacher unions convinced us more teachers (and thus smaller classes) were better. False: better teachers are better. But to lower class sizes meant hiring more teachers of lower quality.
Rita Panahi:
In South Korea teachers are recruited from the top 5 per cent of school leavers. 
Compare that with Australia, where standards have dropped so low that, in 2011, teaching accounted for the highest proportion of university offers for students with an Australian tertiary admission rank of less than 50. Those academic failures, who could not get into any other course but teaching, will be graduating soon and coming to a school near you.
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First they came for the Catholics and sceptics

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:03am)

Culture wars

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FIRST they came for the Catholics and climate sceptics. Beware: the true bigots will next reach for your throat, too.
Attorney-General George Brandis, raised a Catholic, was right last week: “The Left haas embraced a new authoritarianism.”
They have given us a “new and illiberal climate of anti-intellectualism” so that “rather than winning the argument (they) exclude their antagonists from the argument”.
Brandis said he first realised this when Senator Penny Wong, Labor’s former climate change minister, falsely claimed the debate on global was over because “the science is settled”.
She wasn’t alone.
(Read full article here.) 
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Still waiting for justice from ICAC

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (7:02am)

Henry Ergas says ICAC’s form of justice hurts the good more than the bad:
… its two greatest victims have been Nick Greiner and O’ Farrell, who both resigned when their honour and credibility were impugned, while crooks have been left burdened only by damaged reputations they care nothing about. 
For shysters such as Eddie Obeid, the opprobrium of public exposure matters little so long as ICAC allows them, as it too often has, to retain the spoils they have gained from plundering the public estate. Nor is the harm that causes limited to its obvious inequity. Should the scoundrels remain ­secure in their luxury villas, while ICAC’s processes most severely punish the mistakes of good people, it will have undermined the very goal it exists to pursue.
UPDATE
That said, former Labor minister Barry Cohen says even little gifts tend to corrupt, although big gift corrupt absolutely. 
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Marxist Brendan O’Neill on the new green naggers - and the Left’s betrayal of free speech

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:56am)

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Even a bad election promise on pensions is still a promise

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:46am)

The Liberals made some foolish pre-election promises - but promises are promises:

THE asset test that allows older Australians with million-dollar assets to collect a part-pension is likely to be spared the budget axe. 
Despite signals the government plans to increase the pension age to 70 as early as 2029, The Australian can reveal its ­expenditure review committee believes the assets test should not be altered in next month’s ­budget, with Tony Abbott strongly of the view that any changes would breach an election commitment… The Australian Council of Social Service believes tightening the asset test so that couples with more than $1m in assets apart from their home did not qualify for a pension would save the budget $1.3bn in 2014-15 and $1.4bn in 2015-16.
But the Government should at least now prepare a mandate for change to take to the next election.
My own view on promises - even, damn it, the one to the ABC:


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China’s Christian conversion

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:25am)

Perhaps the most reassuring news to come out of China in years:
The 5,000-capacity Liushi church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminster Abbey and a 206ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a “miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church”.
The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China’s breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth…

“By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon,” said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
“It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."…
In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline. By 2030, China’s total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.
Christianity is a bulwark against totalitarianism. Hence:
Christians are being urged by persecution watchdog group Open Doors to pray for the 33 people who are facing the death penalty in North Korea reportedly for their connection with a South Korean missionary…
In South Korea, however:
...until the 1990s, Buddhism was the leading religion in the country. However, now about 32% of the population identifies as a part of a Christian Church.
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Alarm, alarm

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (6:11am)

Tim Blair reports that 16 years of non-warming has alarmed alarmists even more alarmingly:
Lately they’ve become louder and crazier than ever, presumably out of panic as the whole global warming issue continues to cool. 
Alarming examples follow.
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Adam Bandt should be careful about the TV ban he wishes for

Andrew Bolt April 21 2014 (12:02am)

Global warming - dud predictions, Global warming - propaganda

WHOOPS. Acting Greens leader Adam Bandt really shouldn’t want the wrongheaded banned from television.
Bandt last week dismissed Attorney-General George Brandis’s plea for warming sceptics to be included in debates, sneering: If someone said “two plus two equals five”, would you insist on giving them as much airtime in the media as someone who said “two plus two equals four”?
But who actually argues “two plus two equals five”?
Here are some people who, under Bandt’s illiberal rule, should not be allowed on TV.
(Read full column here.) 
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Henderson: September 11 turned Carr against Israel

Andrew Bolt April 20 2014 (12:20pm)

Gerard Henderson offers a deeply disturbing insight into the anti-Israel leanings of former foreign minister Bob Carr:
The date was September 17, 2001. The occasion was the dinner to announce the winners in the 2001 NSW Premier’s History Awards. Carr was premier of NSW at the time and was ­delighted that the famous American documentary maker Ken Burns had accepted his invitation to present the prizes at the dinner in Sydney. 
It turned out that Burns was a last-minute scratching from the event. It was around a week since al-Qa’ida’s terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Air transport from the US had been disrupted…
At the start of the dinner Carr came over to talk to me… To my surprise, Carr seemed quite shaken by the 9/11 attack. He said to me that he had now come to the conclusion that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 had been a mistake.
Carr stated his belief that the Arab world would never accept the creation of a Jewish state and that Islamists would continue to target Western nations.
From around late 2001, I noticed a change in Carr’s attitude towards Israel.
There was also the political factor. There are numerous references in his diary to the importance of the Muslim Arab vote, especially in Sydney’s western suburbs. 
Which, if accurate, suggests that Carr is his own way is an enabler of terrorism. He shows terrorists that killing people is a very effective way of changing a politician’s mind - particularly on Israel.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Numbers don’t lie

Andrew Bolt April 20 2014 (12:18pm)

If far Left is one and hard Right is five (and far Right is off the chart), how biased is the ABC’s Insiders?
Oh.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Each morning, like clockwork, they board the subway, off to begin their daily routine amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.

But these aren't just any daily commuters. These are stray dogs who live in the outskirts of Moscow Russia and commute on the underground trains to and from the city centre in search of food scraps.

Then after a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.

Experts studying the dogs, who usually choose the quietest carriages at the front and back of the train, say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop – after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.

Scientists believe this phenomenon began after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, and Russia’s new capitalists moved industrial complexes from the city centre to the suburbs.

Dr Andrei Poiarkov, of the Moscow Ecology and Evolution Institute, said: “These complexes were used by homeless dogs as shelters, so the dogs had to move together with their houses. Because the best scavenging for food is in the city centre, the dogs had to learn how to travel on the subway – to get to the centre in the morning, then back home in the evening, just like people.”

Dr Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute. He said: “They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking their tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and get off at the wrong stop.”

The dogs have also amazingly learned to use traffic lights to cross the road safely, said Dr Poiarkov. And they use cunning tactics to obtain tasty morsels of shawarma, a kebab-like snack popular in Moscow.

With children the dogs “play cute” by putting their heads on youngsters’ knees and staring pleadingly into their eyes to win sympathy – and scraps.

Dr Poiarkov added: “Dogs are surprisingly good psychologists.”

SOURCE : http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2372125/Wild-dogs-that-commute-from-suburbs-to-scavenge-in-city.html
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New way to serve potatoes, love it!!

Just mash potatoes plain with butter or you can add yummy ingredients like cooked bacon, cheese, parsley, green onion, garlic, etc. Stuff in to a greased muffin tin, run a fork along the top and brush with melted butter or olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees or until tops are crispy and golden.

Yes we still need carbs in our diet even when we are trying to lose weight so this is a great way to stick with portion control!!!

Also remember there are varying sizes in muffin pans so you can choose the serving size!! Using mini muffin tins you can turn this into a healthy alternative to chips or wedges too. You still get the soft potato centre with the crunch on the outside without all the fat!!!!

PLEASE SHARE :) To SAVE this recipe, be sure to click SHARE so it will store on your personal page.

For more healthy recipes, tips, motivation and fun, join us here: Lifestyle Transformationhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/459145480814206/
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I feel the dichotomy drawn is bad. I feel that Islam is badly served by terrorists and leaders. It is sad that their leaders only rarely defend their religion and not those terrorists in the name of Islam. The Uncle of the Boston Bombers was right to do so, few Islamic leaders have done so. I don't blame Islam. I look forward to the day when Islamic leaders rise who are not spineless cowardly murderous thugs. One indicator will be a willingness to have peace and collaboration with Israel .. an apology for past transgressions would be good too. I'll understand if they wish to spit on the face of Jimmy Carter for endorsing a view of Islam for which believers must be ashamed. - ed
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Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
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““Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death."
Hebrews 2:14
O child of God, death hath lost its sting, because the devil's power over it is destroyed. Then cease to fear dying. Ask grace from God the Holy Ghost, that by an intimate knowledge and a firm belief of thy Redeemer's death, thou mayst be strengthened for that dread hour. Living near the cross of Calvary thou mayst think of death with pleasure, and welcome it when it comes with intense delight. It is sweet to die in the Lord: it is a covenant-blessing to sleep in Jesus. Death is no longer banishment, it is a return from exile, a going home to the many mansions where the loved ones already dwell. The distance between glorified spirits in heaven and militant saints on earth seems great; but it is not so. We are not far from home--a moment will bring us there. The sail is spread; the soul is launched upon the deep. How long will be its voyage? How many wearying winds must beat upon the sail ere it shall be reefed in the port of peace? How long shall that soul be tossed upon the waves before it comes to that sea which knows no storm? Listen to the answer, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." Yon ship has just departed, but it is already at its haven. It did but spread its sail and it was there. Like that ship of old, upon the Lake of Galilee, a storm had tossed it, but Jesus said, "Peace, be still," and immediately it came to land. Think not that a long period intervenes between the instant of death and the eternity of glory. When the eyes close on earth they open in heaven. The horses of fire are not an instant on the road. Then, O child of God, what is there for thee to fear in death, seeing that through the death of thy Lord its curse and sting are destroyed? and now it is but a Jacob's ladder whose foot is in the dark grave, but its top reaches to glory everlasting.

Evening

"Fight the Lord's battles."
1 Samuel 18:17
The sacramental host of God's elect is warring still on earth, Jesus Christ being the Captain of their salvation. He has said, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Hark to the shouts of war! Now let the people of God stand fast in their ranks, and let no man's heart fail him. It is true that just now in England the battle is turned against us, and unless the Lord Jesus shall lift his sword, we know not what may become of the church of God in this land; but let us be of good courage, and play the man. There never was a day when Protestantism seemed to tremble more in the scales than now that a fierce effort is making to restore the Romish antichrist to his ancient seat. We greatly want a bold voice and a strong hand to preach and publish the old gospel for which martyrs bled and confessors died. The Saviour is, by his Spirit, still on earth; let this cheer us. He is ever in the midst of the fight, and therefore the battle is not doubtful. And as the conflict rages, what a sweet satisfaction it is to know that the Lord Jesus, in his office as our great Intercessor, is prevalently pleading for his people! O anxious gazer, look not so much at the battle below, for there thou shalt be enshrouded in smoke, and amazed with garments rolled in blood; but lift thine eyes yonder where the Saviour lives and pleads, for while he intercedes, the cause of God is safe. Let us fight as if it all depended upon us, but let us look up and know that all depends upon him.
Now, by the lilies of Christian purity, and by the roses of the Saviour's atonement, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, we charge you who are lovers of Jesus, to do valiantly in the Holy War, for truth and righteousness, for the kingdom and crown jewels of your Master. Onward! "for the battle is not yours but God's."
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Nimrod 
[NÄ m'rŏd] - valiant, strong or he that rules.
A son of Cush, son of Ham. Nimrod was a mighty hunter and a potent monarch whose land bore his name (Gen. 10:8, 9; 1 Chron. 1:10;Micah 5:6).
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Today's reading: 2 Samuel 9-11, Luke 15:11-32 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 9-11

David and Mephibosheth
1 David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?"
2 Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?"
"At your service," he replied.
3 The king asked, "Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?"

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 15:11-32

The Parable of the Lost Son
11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.
13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything....
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Knowing Him - An Easter Devotional

ANOTHER COUNSELOR

If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.... All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ( John 14:14-17, 25-27)
There must have been sorrow, anxiety, and hope in the air as Jesus talked on and on with his disciples about his upcoming departure. This “upper room discourse” in the Gospel of John (chapters 13-17) was Jesus’ final word to his disciples on the night he was betrayed.
In it he spoke about “another counselor” who would come to them. This is a word that means advocate, comforter, one who comes alongside. Thinking of God the Holy Spirit as our advocate is indeed one of the most comforting thoughts a human being could have. Who else would you want with you when your go through life’s victories and life’s struggles? Who else could work in the innermost recesses of our thoughts and feelings, helping us to make good choices, have a proper disposition, giving us confidence when we need it.
When Jesus said “another Counselor”, he was also teaching his disciples that what he was doing among them and for them was to be that kind of advocate. He had filled them with truth and hope, with a vision of who God is and a humbling concept of who they were. Now he would leave them–a sorrowful prospect– but in all these ways God would still be with them.
None of us were in that upper room, yet if Jesus stood among us today, he would give the same assurance.
Ponder This: What kind of counsel or comfort or advocacy do you need from God at this time in your life?
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: John 17-18 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began....
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Lent=Devotions-Header
Today's Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9

4 The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears;
I have not been rebellious,
I have not turned away.
6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.
7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.
8 He who vindicates me is near.
Who then will bring charges against me?
Let us face each other!
Who is my accuser?
Let him confront me!
9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me.
Who will condemn me?
They will all wear out like a garment;
the moths will eat them up.

New Testament Reading: John 13:21-35
21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me."
22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"
26 Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, "What you are about to do, do quickly." 28But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."


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