Monday, July 13, 2015

Mon Jul 13th Todays News

At last you can revel in the joys of smaller government on this site for the Bolt Report Supporter's Group on Facebook. If something is broke, you fix it. Or not. There won't be any purges or changes because I've not the time to do much. But if you do something outrageous which I must respond to I will.
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Declaring war on renewable energy, or responsible budgeting for meeting energy demands of the future? Wind costs more. Solar costs more. Left wing governments may well be willing to spend the money, but it is hardly responsible behaviour. Cheaper energy means stronger industry which is more agile come the time a way of addressing a pressing need comes about. Plant food is not the enemy of the people portrayed by hysterics. Even so, partisan media outlets are characterising the decision of responsible budgeting as a war on renewable energy. They may as well call the deprivation of capital to poor people free speech. 

 Greece's government decides 'no' means 'yes.' Eurozone leaders have voted to accept Greece's austerity budget that the Greek population voted against. Once again socialists have lied to their peoples for votes. 

 Bigot inspected British Police as a jihadist changed his name. He was given a Bobby's imprimatur so as to put forward a 'moderate' message that the West was bad and deserved terrorism. The idea hadn't worked out with a US psychologist who went berserk on campus a few years ago during what Obama describes as a workplace incident. 

 Why the Q and A boycott is good. It is not an audience awaiting political debate. It is a collection of extremist left wingers who want to be fed a diet of conservatives ambushed and attacked. Some conservatives resist, and some go native. It does not explore issues, but spread memes. It is not the same as Left wingers boycotting Andrew Bolt's show because they are empty of policy and have nothing to say. We know there is policy the conservative government is presenting in office. We also know that the ABC is incapable of taking a non partisan position. 

Bill Shorten undeserving of support given him by many. Shorten has trashed brand ALP through his union activities in times past when he behaved like a bastard boss, ripping union members of privileges and taking money directly from employers to do it. 

Sarah H-Y on holidays in the Mediterranean, fishing for Eritreans. Lovely weather for her. 

 No support for bludgers as Scott Morrison manages to save Australia over $600 million for people falsely claiming disability pension. Terrorists like Man Monis and many others who are fighting for ISIL have been supported by that pension. 

 In 1174, William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173–1174, was captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Henry II of England. 1249, Coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots. 1260, the Livonian Order suffered its greatest defeat in the 13th century in the Battle of Durbe against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1490, John of Kastav finished a cycle of frescoes in the Holy Trinity Church in Hrastovlje (now southwestern Slovenia). 

 In 1558, Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeated the French forces of Marshal Paul de Thermes at Gravelines. 1573,  Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Haarlem ended after seven months. 1643, English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down – In England, Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, commanding the Royalist forces, heavily defeated the Parliamentarian forces led by Sir William Waller. 1787, the Continental Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also established procedures for the admission of new states and limited the expansion of slavery. 1793, Journalist and French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a member of the opposing political faction. 1794, the Battle of the Vosges was fought between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria.

 In 1814, the Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, was established. 1830, the General Assembly's Institution, now the Scottish Church College, one of the pioneering institutions that ushered the Bengal Renaissance, was founded by Alexander Duff and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in Calcutta, India. 1854, in the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stopped the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon. 1863, New York City draft riots: In New York, New York, opponents of conscription began three days of rioting which would be later regarded as the worst in United States history. 1878, Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redrew the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania became completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.

 In 1905, the verdict in the six-month-long Smarthavicharam trial of Kuriyedath Thathri was pronounced, leading to the excommunication of 65 men of various castes. 1919, the British airship R34 landed in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight. 1923, the Hollywood Sign was officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It originally reads "Hollywoodland " but the four last letters were dropped after renovation in 1949. 1941, World War II: Montenegrins began a popular uprising against the Axis powers (Trinaestojulski ustanak). 1962, in an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet, marking the effective end of the National Liberals as a distinct force within British politics.

 In 1973, Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the "Nixon tapes" to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in. 1977, Somalia declared war on Ethiopia, starting the Ethiopian-Somali War. Also 1977, New York, New York, amidst a period of financial and social turmoil experienced an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that led to widespread fires and looting. 1985, the Live Aid benefit concert took place in London, England, United Kingdom and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as other venues such as Sydney, Australia and Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union. Also 1985, Vice President George Bush became the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon. 2003, French DGSE personnel aborted an operation to rescue Íngrid Betancourt from FARC rebels in Colombia, causing a political scandal when details were leaked to the press. 2008, Battle of Wanat began when Taliban & al-Qaeda guerrillas attacked US Army & Afghan National Army troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. deaths were, at that time, the most in a single battle since the beginning of operations in 2001. 2013, George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
2014
Ian Thorpe is possibly Australia's greatest Olympian. He decided to come out as gay. Some see it as significant. I see it as a personal decision he is entitled to make. I am not a fan of government approval of bedroom performance. There is a subtext regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in his career. Certainly they weren't used later in his career, when he performed as well as Brazil in Brazil in 2014. The question is asked "Why didn't he do it years ago?" But then, who really cares? The world cup ends tonight. My bet is that Argentina will win silver. 

Sometimes bad things happen to bad people for no good reason. Jean Paul Marat discovered that on this day in 1793. Marat was a journalist writing for Jacobin clubs in revolutionary France, the ultra left. The Jacobins had taken over from Girondist clubs who were soft left, having endorsed revolution but not the blood that followed. Jacobins murdered Girondists en masse with guillotine. Marat indirectly on the sidelines cheering them on. Marat took medicinal baths for a skin condition resembling herpes and had done so for three years prior. Charlotte Corday was a Girondist sympathiser who tricked her way into interviewing him at his bath tub. She gave him a list of Girondists he agreed to have killed and then plunged a kitchen knife into him, killing him quickly, but not before he could call out, "Aidez-moi, ma chère amie!" ("Help me, my dear friend!"). Charlotte was guillotined days later. The eulogy for Marat was given by the Marquis de Sade. Maybe it was felt there would never be a journalist like Marat again. And yet the Canberra Press Gallery exists today. 

In 1814, the Carabiniere were established in Italy. In 1863 and in 1977 riots rocked New York city. In 1863, the riots were because Democrats opposed the draft for the civil war ('What is he point? There would always be slavery'). In 1977 it was because the lights had gone out and there was no tv to watch. By way of contrast, when the lights had gone out following a blizzard in NYC in 1965, the crime rate had plummeted to the lowest since records were kept. It is a debunked myth that the blackout in '65 tripled the birth rate nine months later. In 1919, a British airship completed a journey across the Atlantic. In 2003, Ingrid Betancourt was not rescued after French specialists failed in a mission. She was freed in '08 after more than six years in captivity. Born on this day, Patrick Stewart (1940), Harrison Ford (1942) and Ernő Rubik (1944).
Historical perspectives on this day
In 1174, William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173–1174, was captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Henry II of England. 1249, Coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots. 1260, the Livonian Order suffered its greatest defeat in the 13th century in the Battle of Durbe against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1490, John of Kastav finished a cycle of frescoes in the Holy Trinity Church in Hrastovlje (now southwestern Slovenia). 

 In 1558, Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeated the French forces of Marshal Paul de Thermes at Gravelines. 1573,  Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Haarlem ended after seven months. 1643, English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down – In England, Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, commanding the Royalist forces, heavily defeated the Parliamentarian forces led by Sir William Waller. 1787, the Continental Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also established procedures for the admission of new states and limited the expansion of slavery. 1793, Journalist and French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a member of the opposing political faction. 1794, the Battle of the Vosges was fought between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria.

 In 1814, the Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, was established. 1830, the General Assembly's Institution, now the Scottish Church College, one of the pioneering institutions that ushered the Bengal Renaissance, was founded by Alexander Duff and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in Calcutta, India. 1854, in the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stopped the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon. 1863, New York City draft riots: In New York, New York, opponents of conscription began three days of rioting which would be later regarded as the worst in United States history. 1878, Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redrew the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania became completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.

 In 1905, the verdict in the six-month-long Smarthavicharam trial of Kuriyedath Thathri was pronounced, leading to the excommunication of 65 men of various castes. 1919, the British airship R34 landed in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight. 1923, the Hollywood Sign was officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It originally reads "Hollywoodland " but the four last letters were dropped after renovation in 1949. 1941, World War II: Montenegrins began a popular uprising against the Axis powers (Trinaestojulski ustanak). 1962, in an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet, marking the effective end of the National Liberals as a distinct force within British politics.

 In 1973, Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the "Nixon tapes" to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in. 1977, Somalia declared war on Ethiopia, starting the Ethiopian-Somali War. Also 1977, New York, New York, amidst a period of financial and social turmoil experienced an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that led to widespread fires and looting. 1985, the Live Aid benefit concert took place in London, England, United Kingdom and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as other venues such as Sydney, Australia and Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union. Also 1985, Vice President George Bush became the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon. 2003, French DGSE personnel aborted an operation to rescue Íngrid Betancourt from FARC rebels in Colombia, causing a political scandal when details were leaked to the press. 2008, Battle of Wanat began when Taliban & al-Qaeda guerrillas attacked US Army & Afghan National Army troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. deaths were, at that time, the most in a single battle since the beginning of operations in 2001. 2013, George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
=== Publishing News ===
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 Shane Songsataporn and Patrick Stewart (1940). Born on the same day, across the years. In 1793, Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat, a leader in both the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, in his bathtub. 1863, Three days of rioting began in New York City by opponents of new laws passed by the United States Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. 1962, In an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet. 1977, Ethiopia and Somalia went to war over the disputed Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia. 2003, French DGSE personnel aborted an operation to rescue Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, causing a political scandal when details were leaked to the press six days later. You seize your chances and will riot to do what is right. Maybe rioting doesn't work, or you'd keep you cabinet positions. You do the right thing at the right time. Make it so. Engage.
Deaths
Charlotte Corday at the death of Marat
Order is matched with KAOS. Corday did right. The Slavs could have done better. Fight for what is right. Try not to blow things up. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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THE MOST DANGEROUS JOB ON EARTH

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (4:02am)

Do you yearn for the simple life? Not up for any stress? Good news! Any number of easy jobs are available.
There’s wind chime tuning, for example, and  horoscope writing, and whoever’s task it is  at the ABC to vet Q & Aaudience questions in between drawing up that week’s yoga roster.
And then there are the more stressful but ultimately more rewarding jobs that typically attract hardier types.
A policewoman once told me of the time she was called to the docks where a Chinese labourer had been squashed. Standing next to a row of unloaded shipping containers, she asked the ship’s captain where the body was. “Under that one,” he said.
The container in question was perhaps one centimetre higher than all the others.
Near the end of her late-night shift, a doctor friend was suddenly swamped with dozens of young patients so drunk they could barely speak. In between stomach pump deployments, she tried to find out how much they’d consumed. One or two managed to reply: “Just ten bucks.”
On the way home hours later, she drove past one of those outer-suburban beer barns. This one featured a sign: “All You Can Drink! $10.”
Even some animals have challenging jobs. Search and rescue dogs at Ground Zero following the September 11 World Trade Center attacks became distressed because there were simply no bodies to be found – just parts of them. One of them located a spine.
But all of these people (and dogs) are just coasting when compared to society’s boldest individuals. I’m talking about those brave men and women who fearlessly analyse graphs, who without heed of any dangers study carbon dioxide concentrations and who risk their very lives attending international seminars and receiving research grants.
“Existential dread is fairly common among those who work on climate change on a daily basis,” US meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote last week. “Being a climate scientist is probably one of the most psychologically challenging jobs of the 21st century.”
(Continue reading The Most Dangerous Job. Under no circumstances attempt climate science at home.)
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MONTANA ’MATO MUTT MIRACLE

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (3:17am)

Whenever you read about someone allegedly attempting to kill a barman because he poured Clamato in his beer instead of tomato juice, you always think: “This story would be perfect if only the barman was saved by the intervention of a dog that recently had its toe amputated.”
People, I present exactly such a story. 
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SMOKELESS IN SYDNEY

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (2:29am)

Every Tuesday night for around a decade I have caught up with my mate James at the pub. Our venues over the years have changed, and not by choice.
At first we met at the back bar of a pub in Bondi Junction before a smoking ban forced us to the less pleasant front bar. Then the front bar also copped a ban, so we shuffled down the road to another pub.
In time, this joint too became smoke-free – and also infested with backgammon players – so we returned to the original pub which by this time had opened a small alley for cigarette enthusiasts. But it was cold and, being toilet adjacent, richly urine-scented.
We moved again, this time to a venue in Surry Hills that also served excellent food. Then the cook quit, the food turned to rubbish, and we lit out for yet another Tuesday night site.
Our most recent pub had it all, including a large balcony for the tobacco-enhanced. Last week, however, I arrived to find James inside and miserable. In line with the latest anti-smoking regulations, our balcony was now a no-go zone.
(Continue reading Smokeless. And if any readers know of a pub that may suit our requirements, please leave a note in comments or send an email to blairt@dailytelegraph.com.au. This is an urgent request. Unless we find a place by tomorrow night, James will have to spend time with his family.) 
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BILL’S BIG CHALLENGE

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (2:11am)

The Labor leader, bless him, wants a debate: 
Labor leader Bill Shorten has challenged Tony Abbott to take the fight against unions from the royal commission to parliament …
“If Mr Abbott has the courage of his convictions, he shouldn’t be hiding behind a royal commission to do his political dirty work,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
“Have a debate with me in parliament or in any town hall about workplace relations.” 
Abbott should accept Shorten’s dare, on the condition that Bill finds a private sector firm willing to pay the town hall hiring fee. After all, we know Shorten has the connections. Meanwhile, employment minister Eric Abetz has rejected accusations the royal commission was a waste of money: 
He said people have been forced to resign, unions have been forced into the Fair Work Commission to renegotiate – and Mr Shorten was required to declare the donation which inaccurately described a campaign manager as a research officer. 
Good points. In other Labor developments, here’s frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon’s measured analysis of the government’s push for the ABC to shift Q & A into its news and current affairs division: 
“This is the greatest attack on the independence of the public broadcaster in its history.” 
Sadly, Fitzgibbon is probably correct. 
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SKIPPER SARAH SCOURS THE SUNNY SEAS

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (1:50am)

Since the Abbott government stopped the boats, Sarah Hanson-Young has been denied her earlier supplies of local asylum seekers to cry about in parliament. Being a pro-active sort, however, the locally-paid, globally-active senator is now seeking asylum seekers adrift in the sunny Mediterranean.
“At this stage I may be at sea for a number of days, depending on the rescue operations and how many people we find,” Hanson-Young announced last Thursday before boarding the migrant offshore aid station vessel Phoenix.

image

By late yesterday there were no updates on the mission from Hanson-Young, so either she hasn’t found any Eritrean boaties or she’s operating on a catch-and-release basis. Or maybe the Somalians she’s hauled in are below legal size.
(Continue reading Skipper Sarah.)
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BABY STEPS

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (1:40am)

A perceived symbol of oppression and division is removed. Others remain.
(Via shaneeh)
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NO DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN NO

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (1:23am)

Greeks voted “no” but are getting royally “yessed” anyway: 
The euphoria felt by many Greeks at telling Europe their country was rejecting austerity for good lasted less than five days.
On Friday, the population woke up to discover Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had promised creditors a new bailout package with austerity measures almost identical to those a majority of Greeks had voted against in Sunday’s referendum. 
You know, when you’re that deep in the hole, a vote isn’t going to make much of a difference. It’s like someone falling past the 40th floor and voting for a soft landing.
UPDATE. Greece’s choice: 
Europe’s ultimatum to Greece, demanding full capitulation as the price of any new bailout, marks the failure of a rebellion by a small, debt-ridden country against its lenders’ austerity policies, after Germany flexed its muscles and offered Athens a choice between obeisance or destruction. 
They could always put it to a vote.
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Report: gunman takes 10 hostages in Paris shop

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (6:09pm)

Not again:
A gunman is holding 10 people hostage in a store in the French capital. According to the French authorities, the hostages are held in a store in Paris, a day before France celebrates Bastille Day.
It could be “just” a robbery gone wrong:
Up to three gunmen entered the Primark store in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, northwest of the French capital, at 6.30am local time, sources said.
“Around 6:30 am (0530 GMT), two or three armed criminals went into the Primark store for what we think was initially an attempt at armed robbery,” a police source said. 
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What Fairfax won’t tell you about their “Saudi Arabia of solar” fantasy

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (2:35pm)

Once again you are being deceived by Fairfax’s global warming ideologues:
Australia is perfectly placed to become the next global superpower of renewable energy, the “Saudi Arabia of solar” for the coming century.
While Saudi Arabia has barrels of oil, we have an abundance of sunlight to fuel solar power and wind to power turbines, plus enough geographical space, modern infrastructure and a stable political system to house such an industry on a massive scale.
Really? If it’s that easy and that obvious, then why don’t investors just produce all that fantastic solar and wind power? What’s stopping them?
Ah. The catch. That power actually costs much more than electricity from coal or gas. And that’s the little catch that’s not mentioned: that these investors actually want you force by government to use their product and pay more for it.
This kind of reporting by Fairfax is a disgrace. It is deceiving people for an allegedly higher purpose.
UPDATE
Even worse, The Age prints this alarmist tripe from Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School:
Towards the end of this century, if current trends are not reversed, large parts of Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt and Vietnam, among other countries, will be under water. Some small island nations, such as Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, will be close to disappearing entirely. Swaths of Africa from Sierra Leone to Ethiopia will be turning into desert. Glaciers in the Himalayas and the Andes, on which entire regions depend for drinking water, will be melting away. Many habitable parts of the world will no longer be able to support agriculture or produce clean water.
It is disgraceful - even disgusting - that The Age can publish this rubbish unchallenged.
In fact, the “current trends” actually show no real warming of the atmosphere for 18 years. These trends show a rising in sea levels over the past 25 years of just 3.3cm a decade that in no plausible scenario will put “large parts of Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt and Vietnam ... under water” within the life-time even of our grandchildren, even without taking into account any engineering over the next century to mitigate any risk. As for more deserts, the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted there was only “low confidence in a global-scale observed trend in drought or dryness (lack of rainfall) since the middle of the 20th century”.  The glaciers in the Himalayas have actually been stable, and are not shrinking, as claimed.
And this fantastical doomsaying, riddled with error, cherry-picking and exaggeration, is from an academic at Colombia Law School? Accepted for publication by The Age? Are facts and reason really so irrelevant now in public debate?

Seems so. On goes the rank scaremongering;
Our children and grandchildren could be confronting a humanitarian crisis unlike anything the world has ever faced… To make calculating easy, let’s assume 100 million people will need new homes outside their own countries by 2050. Under a formula based on historic greenhouse gas emissions, the United States would take in 27 million people; Europe, 25 million; and so on. Even as a rough estimate, this gives a sense of the magnitude of the problem.
Seriously? Global warming driving all those millions a year out of their countries over the next 35 years? After 18 years of no atmospheric warming? And Europe blithely accepting 25 million of them - nearly the population of The Netherlands and Belgium combined?
On goes the fear-mongering, ignoring recent science that contradicts the scare:
Just south-west of India is the low-lying island nation of Maldives. Before its president, Mohamed Nasheed, was deposed by a military coup in 2012, he rose to global prominence as a voice of endangered island nations by staging an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight his country’s likely fate. Last year, he told me about his message to developed nations. “You can drastically reduce your greenhouse gas emissions so that the seas do not rise so much,” he said. “Or, when we show up on your shores in our boats, you can let us in. Or, when we show up on your shores in our boats, you can shoot us. You pick.”
Scary. Pity the facts: that recent research highlighted in the New Scientist shows that 18 of 29 low-lying islands like the Maldives have actually grown in size, and many others have been stable.
The Age should be ashamed of itself. It’s allowed the green faith subvert any commitment to telling its readers the plain truth - and all of it. 
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Liberals should back Abbott’s Q&A boycott. They’re finally winning

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (9:57am)

SOME Liberal MPs are moaning about Tony Abbott’s boycott of the ABC’s Q&A program, showing how little they understand what’s at stake. 

Take the “bemused Coalition source” who complained to Fairfax journalists: “Why on earth are we prioritising this?”
Well, the Prime Minister isn’t “prioritising” this fight.
He’s just exploiting a massive overreach by the ABC to force it to at least pretend to obey the law that says the ABC must be impartial and not this soapbox of the Left.
The folly was Q&A’s smart-arse decision to ambush Liberal frontbencher Steven Ciobo with a question by Islamist extremist Zaky Mallah, who had been jailed for threatening to kill ASIO officers.
That folly was then compounded by the ABC board’s snow job — announcing an inquiry into Q&A’s bias by two of the usual suspects, former SBS head Shaun Brown and journalist Ray Martin, who immediately declared the Liberals were just playing politics and Q&A was just as hard on Labor.
The fix was in, and normally Liberals just take it like wimps.
(Read full column here.) 
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How Bill Shorten trashes all MPs who support him

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (9:49am)

image
IT’S the cover-up that kills you in politics, and defending Bill Shorten is killing Labor. 

Tragically, the Labor leader is trashing the reputation of the colleagues obliged to defend dodgy deals he made as head of the Australian Workers’ Union.
This became shockingly obvious to me when I saw even Gary Gray trying to defend a personal donation Shorten took from a boss whose workers his union was meant to be representing.
I know Gray, Labor’s former national secretary. We were mates and worked together in Darwin on Labor’s 1984 federal election campaign. He later gave me a job on Labor’s 1987 campaign, too.
Gosh, we loved fighting the Liberals, stopping at nothing to win every vote — that is, nothing short of breaking the law or shaming Labor or ourselves.
Because here’s the thing. Gray is as straight as a die. He is so decent and reasonable that, despite his talent, Shorten has given him no better job than shadow minister for Northern Australia.
Yet there was Gray on the ABC’s 7.30 trying to salvage Shorten’s reputation from the wreckage of his testimony to the royal commission into union corruption.
(Read full column here.)   
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Praise for the warmist Bureau

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (9:33am)

Thank you to Scott Williams of the warmist Bureau of Meteorology for this morning adding a note of balance on ABC Melbourne 774 in discussing this cold winter.  In noting previous winters of above-average warmth he notes they could have been evidence of global warming or, in fact, “the urban heat island effect” - all that concrete, asphalt and machinery.
Of course, he should have added those warmer winters could merely have been a regional change or natural fluctuation, but I’m still giving him an elephant stamp. 
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Green electricity is fueled by your taxes and extra charges

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (9:09am)

The ABC, Fairfax journalists and green carpetbaggers are today demanding even more taxpayer handouts for green power. They have already helped to force through a law obliging us to make 23 per of our electricity come from more expensive power sources such as wind and solar. Now they want cheap loans, too, supplied by taxpayers.
And all the time they claim that forcing us to us more expensive green power actually saves us money:
Australian Solar Council chief executive John Grimes accused Tony Abbott of playing “cynical politics” after the Prime Minister insisted on Sunday that his government “supports renewables” but wants to “reduce the upward pressure on power prices"… ”Tony Abbott is keeping people trapped paying higher electricity prices,” Mr Grimes told Fairfax Media.
You are being hoaxed. The more wind and solar power we use instead of cheap coal, the greater the overall cost to us.
As for this latest controversy, once again you are being misled:
Political storm? Adam Gartrell, Fairfax, yesterday: 
Tony Abbott has dramatically escalated his war on wind power, creating a new cabinet split and provoking a warning he is putting international investment at risk ... The government has ordered the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to make any new investments in wind power projects ... Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann have issued the so-called green bank with a directive to change its investment mandate, prohibiting new wind funding. It’s understood the directive was issued without the approval or knowledge of Environment Minister Greg Hunt, angering the minister.
Just wind. Greg Hunt, Twitter, yesterday:

The Fairfax story today is factually wrong and is a misleading beat up.
More Hunt:

Fairfax was told on Friday that the mandate reflected the agreement with crossbench senators — as detailed in a letter from myself to the senators that was tabled in the Senate and widely reported at the time.
And yet more from the Minister:

This agreement was extensively discussed between and jointly approved by Minister Cormann and myself.
Fairfax are blowhards. Hunt again:
I fully support the changes to the CEFC investment mandate and any suggestion to the contrary is categorically wrong. Claims that I have been “angered” are a complete, absolute and utter fabrication.
The Hunt Twitter tornado finally calms with these tweets:

I’ve been repeatedly critical of the CEFC investing taxpayer funds in projects such as existing wind farms, rather than focusing on solar and emerging technologies. Our policy is to abolish the CEFC but in the meantime it should focus on solar and emerging technologies as was originally intended.
UPDATE
To hear how the ABC pushes green claims almost without question - and certainly without questioning global warming or the difference green power would actually make - hear Fran Kelly’s interview with Environment Minister Greg Hunt this morning.
The ABC not biased? Shame on the ABC bosses who repeat that brazen lie.
UPDATE
Reader Mark M consults a dictionary:

Luddite - noun1.a member of any of various bands of workers in England (1811–16) organized to destroy manufacturing machinery, under the belief that its use diminished employment.
Reader Mark M cites an example on the ABC yesterday:

Mike Seccombe on Insiders at 7.25 mins - “It just goes to show that this government is pretty “luddite” when it comes to anything to do with renewable energy.” But anyone with a slightest grasp of knowledge of human history knows that coal power replaced windmills. It is luddites like Mike Seccombe who argue we return to them.
UPDATE
If only the Government really were at war with green power:
Forget the hysteria generated by the Fairfax media, the opposition and the Greens over the government’s so-called war on wind.
Wind-driven electricity generation in Australia could just about double in the next five years regardless of the government’s directive to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to steer clear of wind farms and solar rooftop panels in new investment. The growth will be driven by the Renewable Energy Target, which underpins the projects courtesy of a subsidy paid by electricity consumers and legislated targets, rather than concessional loans from the government.
The question at the heart of the government’s decision to change the CEFC’s investment mandate, revealed at the weekend, is whether wind turbines and solar rooftop panels on homes are still emerging technologies…
Far from being a surprise, the government’s desire for more start-up loans for solar rather than more funding for wind was flagged in a letter from Environment Minister Greg Hunt to the crossbenchers last month when an agreement on changes to the RET deal went through parliament.
As The Australian reported on June 28 last year:
THE Clean Energy Finance Corporation is likely to be directed away from lending to wind farms in favour of programs that ­support the Coalition’s “direct ­action” plan such as energy-­efficiency schemes and leasing for solar hot water systems.... Senior government sources have told The Weekend Australian the CEFC could be instructed to favour direct action-style programs such as providing leasing for households to install solar hot water systems and for energy-­efficiency programs instead of wind farms.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill, Baden and Jack.) 
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Hiring an extremist to advise British police

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (9:00am)

Western Governments have been far too gullible in accepting the claims of “moderate” Muslim preachers:
An Islamic preacher who ‘despised Britain’ led a double life working within police counter-terrorism…
Abdullah al-Andalusi… would preach at night, has an extensive profile online and even appeared on TV, and even claimed that the British Government wanted to destroy Islam, it’s been reported.
But by using a different name, Mouloud Farid, he was allowed to work in the heart of Britain’s policing, for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary which regulates all 44 forces in England.
The watchdog has admitted that it employed one of Britain’s most notorious extremists, and was only found out and sacked after appearing on television.
While working for the organisation, he was even promoted to a management rank, given him even higher access to sensitive information, including details on counter-terrorism units.
The inspectorate claimed he did not have access to classified material, but a source who worked with him told the Sunday Telegraph that this was not true…
In a blog post published on June 30 last year, while discussing the creation of Islamic State, al-Andalusi ... stated: ‘[ISIS] are no different to Western armies, Western covert-backed groups and even some of the ‘founding fathers’ of Western nations – therefore they certainly have no basis to judge...”
(Thanks to reader latsy.) 
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Either it has no support or its supporters are just bludgers

Andrew Bolt July 13 2015 (8:43am)

Just 340? At seven rallies? I think the cause isn’t one that’s captured public support - or else has the support of only layabouts:
HUNDREDS of people across Australia have rallied for fairness and equality in the federal government’s changes to the welfare system.
About 320 people attended the National Welfare March in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hervey Bay in Queensland, Launceston in Tasmania, Wodonga in Victoria, and Gosford in NSW over the weekend. Twenty people also attended a rally two weeks ago in Gympie, Queensland.
(Thanks to reader mem.) 
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Democrats win. It's not even close!Data source: BLS and The Wall Street JournalRead more here: http://on.wsj.com/1dSxxXIImage by Occupy Democrats, LIKE our page for more!
Posted by Occupy Democrats on Saturday, 11 July 2015

Public service jobs are not real work .. small business is the big employer and doesn't appear in the stats.Basically, Clinton and Obama cost the economy more
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Nancee and the Storm A quick pic of my chase companion this year Nancee Rostad as we assessed a storm in a nice pastoral location.
Posted by Matt Granz on Monday, 13 July 2015

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Apparently it's now OK to pee on the streets of New York City http://nyp.st/1M1FtVo
Posted by New York Post on Saturday, 11 July 2015

My bet is, after the police apprehend someone, they'll get into trouble if they need relief. Thank you progressives.
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Pat:  You know those popular toys where there's a fake weasel attached to a ball that kinda hops around?Well...
Posted by 92.9 The Bull on Friday, 19 June 2015

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Posted by KFM on Wednesday, 28 January 2015

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37 Millionen Chorsänger gibt's in Europa. Das hat die neue Studie des Forschungsprojekts "singing europe" ergeben. Die meisten Chorfans hat demnach Österreich. Deutschland ist auch ganz gut im Rennen. :-)
Posted by BR-KLASSIK on Friday, 10 July 2015

37 million choristers there's in Europe. This is the new study of the research project "singing Europe". Most of the choir fans has therefore Austria. Germany is also quite well in the race.
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With all the Budget talk here's something funny - Rach
Posted by 91 9 Sea FM on Tuesday, 13 May 2014

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Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott threatening to expel all "illegal migrants" got this response from a true Australian....
Posted by José Ramos-Horta on Wednesday, 7 January 2015

As misleading as communists can be. Jose styled himself as a moderate communist as he scared fascist Indonesia into invading with Whitlam's blessing in '75. This meme characterises Mr Abbott as being xenophobic which he isn't. People have died from the people smuggling trade. But Jose doesn't seem to worry about dying peoples.
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Marketing your book starts with an author website. Here's what you need to know: http://bit.ly/1Hbf40X
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Sunday, 12 July 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

Abbott must wait for PUP to chew itself to pieces

Piers Akerman – Sunday, July 13, 2014 (6:38am)

GIVEN the choice between watching a circus or grappling with substance, the public will opt for the clowns every time.
That was a bit of a plus for the publicity-seeking Clive Palmer and his PUPpies when they made their first appearance in the senate and it was a small bonus for Labor, though not necessarily the Greens.
In dealing with Palmer and the PUPs, the Abbott government faces the classic dilemma anyone who has ever dealt with an absolute lunatic must consider. Do you pretend that the idiot is sane and try to negotiate as if the fool was ­rational, or should you ­approach them as you would an unbalanced and irrational gibberer and attempt to show them why their confused ill-ogic cannot provide a solution?
Contrary to Palmer’s assertion, the Abbott government didn’t doublecross the PUP. The Abbott government accepted a PUP amendment on Wednesday night but the PUPs had changed it by Thursday morning and would change it again before attempting to put it before the senate.
It was the PUP, not the government who attempted to present an unconstitutional amendment, and it was the PUP, not the government, who made the unreasonable demand for total carbon tax ­compensation.
How, for example, can consumers be fully compensated for all carbon tax costs when it is patently clear to all but populist oafs that the cost of the carbon tax levied on such items as the refrigerants used in abattoirs and cool stores and in supermarkets cannot reasonably be calculated and ­returned to customers.
The PUP wasn’t doublecrossed, they doublecrossed themselves. Or, in language that Jacqui Lambie might understand, they piddled on their own swag time and again.
That was last week’s circus performance. This week’s is still being scripted and it is to be hoped that the PUPs are walked through the most basic steps of parliamentary process and given a course in kindergarten constitutional law ­before they return to Canberra.
The substance of the situation is that from July 1, the balance of power in the senate shifted from the ALP-Green centre-Left axis to the PUP and other crossbenchers, a centre-Right axis.
The Abbott government has shown it is prepared to ­attempt to negotiate with the PUP, and others, such as independent senator Nick Xenophon, when necessary.
It has not, as Labor and Greens insinuate, capitulated to the PUP. If anything, it is settling down to play a long game and give the PUP plenty of time to selfdestruct.
Palmer’s populist image has so far been built on advertising, and court papers indicate that his Chinese business colleagues may have unwittingly underwritten his campaign publicity costs. His attempts to portray himself as something of a homespun philosopher are rapidly foundering as he has been unable to present anything resembling consistency of policy.
Past performance in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania would indicate he hopes his blustering populist buffoonery would distract his followers from examining his lack of realistic policy goals and sufficiently confuse them into thinking he can ­deliver something meaningful despite a total lack of evidence.
If he hopes to force the government’s hand with his stunts and push it into calling a double dissolution, he may be whistling in the dark. It is ­apparent that the Abbott government is not going to rush to a double dissolution election and would probably only consider employing such a tactic towards the end of its term.
While Palmer has captivated the media, Labor has been let off the hook. Last year, Labor boasted that it had dumped the carbon tax. It had not, no more than it had ­returned the budget to surplus.
It went into the election with a firm promise to enact legislation repealing the carbon tax. It has not voted against doing so. As the government leader in the senate, Senator Abetz has pointed out, every senator, other than the 10 Greens, was elected on abolishing the carbon tax.
“So it is a bit frustrating when you look around the chamber at 76 senators and see only 10 senators that were committed to the carbon tax yet we can’t get the numbers together to repeal it,” he said.
The unfortunate Senator Lambie, still smarting from the fact that she did not receive a single vote when she sought preselection as Liberal Party candidate, has demanded Prime Minister Tony Abbott sack Senator Abetz “immediately” for what have, in fact, been the PUPpies’ blunders.
“If you want to come into the kennel with the PUPs, be prepared to be chewed up and spat back out. Stop these silly games,” she shrilled during an interview on Friday.
The senator needs reminding of the old adage that those who lie down with dogs do run the risk of picking up fleas.
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Leave champion for women alone

Miranda Devine – Sunday, July 13, 2014 (9:52am)

MARGARET Mary Cunneen, SC, has locked up Australia’s worst pedophiles and gang rapists. Her scalps are legion: Pedophiles Robert (Dolly) Dunn, Philip Bell, Michael Guider, Colin Fisk, three priests of the Order of Saint Gerard Majella, the Campsie serial rapist, and the Ashfield and Skaf gang rapists.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Leave champion for women alone'
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Wasn’t 1200 dead enough?

Miranda Devine – Friday, July 11, 2014 (1:38am)

NOW refugee advocates reportedly are “coaching” mothers to self-harm.
Someone in authority has to stop these so-called “well-meaning” advocates. They are hurting the very people they feign to protect.
As for the media that uncritically reported the story of ten women on Nauru supposedly attempting suicide ... You have to ask, what vested interests are so desperate for the Abbott government to fail on border protection?
A FORMER director of offshore processing in Australia’s immigration detention camps claims asylum-seekers are coached and encouraged to attempt self-harm by refugee advocates who then use the incidents as political capital.

Greg Lake made his strident ­attack on “certain refugee advocates” whose behaviour “is at odds with their mandate as advocates” as the Refugee Action Coalition backed down from claims in a press release on Monday that up to “10 mothers in the family camp have attempted suicide in the last two days on Christmas Island”.

Refugee coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told The Australian yesterday that women in the family camp wanted to get off Christmas Island for the mainland, though some said they would be happy to go to Nauru.
“I probably shouldn’t have said attempted suicide,” he said.
“People drinking concoctions of shampoo or detergent generally don’t die — was it a drastic cry for help? Yes, it was, and it remains that way.”
Extra guards continued to be stationed in the island’s family camp yesterday to keep watch on women who had either threatened, attempted or carried out self-harm during the past week.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has rubbished claims published in Fairfax Media that up to 12 mothers had attempted suicide so their orphaned babies would be raised in Australia.
The government has described the self-harm as minor. While ­asylum-seekers are flown to mainland hospitals in the event of medical emergency, the only person to leave the Australian territory this week for medical reasons was a Christmas Island resident.
The asylum-seeker women on watch at the camp this week include a young Iranian who does not have children; she spent time in the camp’s medical centre after leaping from what guards have ­described as the flat roof of one-­storey transportable accommo-dation on Sunday. She had recently returned from medical treatment on the mainland.
Mr Rintoul said he had communicated with the women before they harmed themselves but ­denied encouraging them to do so or having prior knowledge that they would.
“Of course not,” he said.
“There may have been some indication of people heading this way — they were extremely worried about the presence of the Serco guards and the police (over the weekend).
“It’s clear to me now that Serco was expecting a situation.”
The tense atmosphere continued in Christmas Island’s family camp as authorities prepared to send more asylum-seekers to Nauru. Tonight a group of detainees is scheduled to leave the island for Nauru, and more frequent flights are expected as more accommodation comes online.
Mr Lake said in his time at what is now called the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, he grew disgusted by the actions of some refugee advocates who were clearly urging asylum-seekers to self-harm as a form of protest so they could put out a press release about it.
He said the advocates communicated with the asylum-seekers by Facebook message, phone and email. While the department did not read asylum-seekers’ communications, he said what was going on was obvious and often emerged later in interviews with detainees who had hurt themselves on purpose.
He said he believed some advocates communicated with a ringleader, who then “stood over” other detainees to compel them to make a statement through self-harm.
“There are certain prominent advocates who will coach and encourage asylum-seekers to self-harm as a political protest and it makes me very upset and I believe it is at odds with their mandate as advocates,” Mr Lake said.
“The problem is, outside of the government or public service, people aren’t aware of their tactics.”
Mr Lake, who resigned as an immigration official in April last year, claimed that one of his last tasks on Nauru was to interview eight asylum-seekers who had joined a lip-sewing protest, but who had been bullied into it by a detainee who was in communication with a refugee advocate.
“These guys didn’t want anything to do with it,” he said.
“They only did it because they were pushed by the ringleader.”

The Australian has learned that refugee advocates and others working inside the Christmas Island compounds are linking this week’s self-harm incidents to a recent decision by Mr Morrison to allow three vulnerable ­Somali girls to leave the camp and live in Sydney’s west. 
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OVER TO YOU, MACQUARIE DICTIONARY

Tim Blair – Sunday, July 13, 2014 (6:07am)

Australia’s favourite metaphorical endocentric compound is mentioned once again in the Sydney Morning Herald: 
With The Fictional Woman, Moss has triumphantly made the leap from apocryphal dingbat to fully-fledged frightbat. Now when she walks into a room, she will not only turn heads, but change minds. 
The great thing about this latest mention is that it comes with no qualifiers or explanations. It’s simply assumed that readers will understand “frightbat”. My darling little word is now part of the language. 
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JUDGE FITZSIMONS

Tim Blair – Sunday, July 13, 2014 (5:46am)

Peter FitzSimons seems both amused and offended that Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe is gay: 
Ian Thorpe is gay, you say? He’s reportedly “Come out” in his interview with Sir Michael Parkinson on Channel Ten on Sunday night? Gay, you say?
Well, who would have thought it?
Apart from just about everyone that’s met and talked to our greatest Olympian, I mean. 
Whoa! Stereotype much, Peter? The Fairfax columnist then condemns Thorpe for dishonesty: 
Lie about it Thorpe has, for a long time, make no mistake.
“For the record,” he wrote in his autobiography two years ago, “I am not gay and all my sexual experiences have been straight.”
Porky pie? Much more than that. What you write about your life in your autobiography is a little like what you say when under oath. When you call that autobiography This is My Life it is a further affirmation that what I am telling you is the dinkum oil.
But it wasn’t.
“The thing that I find hurtful about “speculation that I’m gay,” Thorpe went on, with the ABC, “is that people are questioning my integrity and what I say. That’s the only part I find hurtful, that this is something I would be embarrassed about and that I would hide ... ”
More nonsense. 
Man, give the guy a break. Thorpe has just announced his sexual preference to the world – bravely, at potential risk to his commercial and media income – and in response he’s called a nonsensical liar. This seems needlessly and stupidly brutal. So Thorpe said he wasn’t gay, and now says he is. So what? Why be so morally outraged?
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF WRONG

Tim Blair – Sunday, July 13, 2014 (4:08am)

Recent online predictions from Bob Ellis, longtime Labor speechwriter and 72-year-old Labor groupie:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF WRONG'
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BEAUTIFUL ONE DAY, GORED THE NEXT

Tim Blair – Sunday, July 13, 2014 (4:02am)

Al Gore recently shared a Canberra press conference with a prominent Queenslander. The Gore Effect instantly struck out nation’s capital, and it has now spread to Queensland: 
Brisbane has hit its coldest temperatures in 103 years.
Not since July 28 1911 has Brisbane felt this cold, getting down to a brisk 2.6C at 6.41am. 
Other Queensland locations have also felt the force of Gore Effect by proxy.
(Via reader Dave)
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The Bolt Report today, July 13

Andrew Bolt July 13 2014 (6:00am)

On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm… Should Tony Abbott call a double dissolution election before Clive Palmer destroys his government? And why these untruths and exaggerations about boat people?
My guest:  Labor’s Anthony Albanese.
The panel:  IPA boss John Roskam and former NSW Labor treasurer Michael Costa
NewsWatch:  The Australian’s media editor Sharri Markson.  Plus spin of the week.
Warning: not safe for climate alarmists, refugee activists and anyone else for whom the truth doesn’t matter if the cause is just.
The videos of the shows appear here.
13 JULY 2014
INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY ALBANESE
ANDREW BOLT, PRESENTER: On Thursday the Prime Minister thought, finally, the new Senate would give his Government its biggest win. 
TONY ABBOTT, PRIME MINISTER: Today should be the day when the carbon tax is finally scrapped.
ANDREW BOLT: But Clive Palmer had just thought of yet another thing he wanted in the bill to scrap the tax, even heavier penalties for companies not passing on the savings.
CLIVE PALMER, PALMER UNITED PARTY LEADER: In the old amendment which was drafted by the government, right, it had a lot of ‘mays’, right? We’ve changed those ‘mays’ to ‘musts’. We’ve stiffened it up.
ANDREW BOLT: But the Senate clerks said Palmer’s last-minute changes weren’t constitutional, he arced up and so, whoops, Palmer’s four senators voted to save the tax they’d promised to axe, for another week, at least. Palmer just loved being at the centre of attention again, but what a shambles he’d created, leaving the government scrambling to save face after losing the vote. 
STEPHEN PARRY, SENATE PRESIDENT: Order, the result of the division is 37 ayes and 35 no’s, which means the report of the committee has been adopted, and the bills have been negatived.
ERIC ABETZ, SENATE LEADER: I believe that, next week, we can resolve the issues that were of a technical nature.
ANDREW BOLT: Joining me is Labor transport spokesman Anthony Albanese, who was the Gillard Government’s chief negotiator with the independents, and Greens MP, who then held the balance in the lower house. Thanks for joining me.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good to be with you, Andrew.
ANDREW BOLT: look, dealing with people like Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor must’ve been a doddle compared to dealing with Clive Palmer. How much damage could this man do to Parliament?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, it’s a chaotic government, Andrew, and what we’re seeing, writ large, is that Tony Abbott had a plan to get into government, but he doesn’t have a plan to govern. The sort of skills that made him a very effective opposition leader, being able to stick to a script, have those three-word slogans, he’s finding, don’t equip him very well to be an effective Prime Minister. And that’s why we see the government’s struggling to find a narrative, struggling to get its agenda through of its budget of broken promises, and we’re finding out pretty quickly that Australians are now all seeing that Government
isn’t perhaps as easy as Tony Abbott and the Coalition thought it was.
ANDREW BOLT: OK. Well, that was your free kick, but the question was about Clive Palmer. What do you think this bloke’s agenda is? Is it to destroy the Government?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, Clive Palmer certainly likes being at the centre of attention, but Clive Palmer, of course, is a creation of the Coalition. He’s a life member of the LNP, and I note that he still appears in the Queensland branch’s latest booklet for their conference as a life member. Tony Abbott was so negative and created, I think, a feeling of distrust of the major parties and so people voted for minor parties, be it Clive Palmer or some of the other
fringe parties that are now represented in the Senate, Tony Abbott has to deal with this. This is a reality. This is the parliament that the Australian people gave him.
ANDREW BOLT: I know that, I know he has to deal with it, but I want - yeah, but I want to go back to Clive Palmer. We’ve got it, OK? You think Tony Abbott’s all stuffed it up, but I want to talk about Clive Palmer because the future of the Parliament depends on what his real game is. Do you think it is to just, you know, help the Government run things better, or is it to destroy the Government? 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today, July 13'
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Palmer could push other Senators into stopping carbon tax repeal

Andrew Bolt July 13 2014 (5:46am)

Clive Palmer’s demands are so extreme or wildly expressed that other crossbench senators are nervous:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott faces a fresh threat to the abolition of the carbon tax, with two key crossbenchers warning that if the government continues to pander to Clive Palmer it risks losing their support. 
NSW senator David Leyonhjelm and South Australia’s Bob Day issued the stern warning on Saturday, saying they were concerned that ‘’severe compliance’’ obligations placed on business by Palmer United Party amendments to the carbon tax repeal bills could be ‘’worse than the tax itself’’.
Senator Leyonhjelm told The Sunday Age: ‘’We are signalling to the government they don’t have a blank cheque with us. If you give too much ground to PUP you might lose us. We want to see the carbon tax removed, but not at the price of some big brother obligation that makes life difficult for industry.’’… Senator Day said under PUP’s ‘’confusing requirements’’ that appear to have been accepted by the government, energy suppliers could face fines of $85,000 for not submitting paperwork like a ‘’carbon tax removal substantiation notice’’ on time. “Power companies will simply pass these hefty fines for non-compliance onto consumers,” he said.
Can Abbott survive dealing with Palmer and his fellow extremists?
The crossbench of the senate, which now consists of 18 independents and minor party MPs (the 10 Greens), has asserted its new authority over the government in ways that Tony Abbott failed to anticipate and in a manner which has many in the Coalition horrified. 
Not only have Palmer and his minions refused to honour commitments to support the government’s repeal of the carbon tax, they have punched a further $10 billion hole in Joe Hockey’s Budget, turning a budget emergency into a $50 billion fiscal calamity…
Abbott hadn’t factored in the possibility that at least one of the new senators might be, in the words of one Coalition minister, “completely stark raving mad”. And they weren’t talking about Palmer.
Who could have guessed the petrol-loving Motoring Enthusiast Party senator Ricky Muir would become a supporter of taxpayer-funded renewable energy subsidies and would want to keep the sloth-driven bureaucracy that is the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
The price for Muir’s vote, which delayed the second attempt to repeal the tax, cost the government $1.5 billion…

Palmer’s tactics are obviously wrapped up in one of two possible but deliberate motives. Either he plans to scuttle Abbott’s plans to axe the tax and destroy the government or he wants to grandstand on the costly promises he has exacted to prove the point that he can exercise power over the Prime Minister no matter what cost to the Budget. 
Palmer could destroy this government if it doesn’t destroy him first.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Ricky Muir speaks and my wallet flinches

Andrew Bolt July 13 2014 (5:39am)

Ricky Muir - like Clive Palmer - talks green to charm the media. He’s also the first of Palmer’s four Senate votes to talk rebellion:
In his first interview since arriving in Canberra, Senator Muir, who expects to help kill the carbon tax this week, revealed an agenda far wider than simply pushing the interests of motorists.
The so-called ‘’rev-head senator’’ outlined personal passions that include organic food, which he grows and eats from his garden in rural Victoria, preventive healthcare, which he is interested in championing at a political level, and renewable energy, following his surprise intervention last week to protect the Australian Renewable Energy Agency from the government’s budget knife.
With questions over whether the PUP senators, Glenn Lazarus, Jacqui Lambie and Dio Wang would remain together on every vote, Senator Muir stressed his agreement with the bloc boiled down to being ‘’together but autonomous’’.
‘’The memorandum of understanding [signed with PUP] did say, and I stand by it, we will work together where practical. But we’re going to need to do our own research on every different topic and then work together where practical.’…
Senator Muir revealed a broad belief in the environment, renewable energy and organic food. ‘’...I don’t think many people would argue that renewable energy is the way of the future.’’… On the $7 Medicare co-payment and cuts to pensions he said: ‘’That’s one I haven’t looked into very much … Again, it’s hitting the lower to mid income earners where it hurts.’’
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The gang that couldn’t shoot straight

Andrew Bolt July 13 2014 (5:35am)

Hamas barely seems to care who it shoots, shelling even Palestinian towns such as Bethlehem and even Hebron, on the West Bank:
Code Red rocket sirens blared throughout Jerusalem, Ma’ale Adumim, Hebron and other surrounding areas on Saturday evening. 
Rockets landed in Hebron and Bethlehem, the IDF Spokeperson said.  Four rockets landed in total in the attack- three in Palestinian areas and one near a Jewish West Bank settlement.  
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If you can read this call to jihad, thank a teacher

Andrew Bolt July 13 2014 (5:29am)

An Islamic hate-preacher, now arrested in the Philippines, has paid tribute to Victoria’s education system:
Mr Cerantonio, who attended a small Catholic primary school in Footscray before enrolling in the former Footscray Technical College, described his high school as “a very liberal school”, influenced by the politics of socialism. 
“We didn’t have uniforms, we wouldn’t call our teachers by their [surnames] - they wanted to instil in us a sense of freedom, and [to follow] politics”. In what Mr Cerantonio described as a “socialist and atheist” atmosphere, the teenager soon began seeking solace in religion.
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Remember Brisbane the next time a warmist hypes some hot weather

Andrew Bolt July 13 2014 (5:21am)

Someone will soon blame global warming for this wild weather ...  or maybe not this time:

Brisbane has hit its coldest temperatures in 103 years.
It’s almost as if the world really has been cooling over the past decade:
Antarctica continues to defy the global warming script, with a report from Meteo France, that June this year was the coldest Antarctic June ever recorded, at the French Antarctic Dumont d’Urville Station. 
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Ian Thorpe says he’s gay. I think he’ll find there was nothing to fear

Andrew Bolt July 13 2014 (5:01am)

I don’t know why it was an issue, but expect and hope it no longer is for anyone. In fact, I hope Ian Thorpe finds he’s even more admired for trusting people with the truth:
The 31-year-old confirms his sexuality for the first time Sunday in an exclusive interview on Channel 10, telling all to veteran British interviewer Sir Michael Parkinson. 
It’s understood the interview ...  includes a full admission from Thorpe that he is gay despite having dated women in the past.
In the emotional sit-down shot last month, Thorpe also details the years of depression he has battled while denying his sexuality from the world. Part of that concealment included his own autobiography This Is Me, published in 2012, in which Thorpe wrote that he found questions about his sexuality hurtful… Friends close to Thorpe have noted that in the past months his family has played a much bigger part in his life, following several years of him living in the United Arab Emirates. Returning home to Sydney towards the end of last year, Thorpe has been increasingly supported by his parents Margaret and Ken, who have been active in their son’s recovery. 
Hiding must have been a nightmare:
In his 2012 autobiography, This is Me, Thorpe confronted the speculation head-on: ‘’For the record, I am not gay and all my sexual experiences have been straight. I’m attracted to women, I love children and aspire to have a family one day … I know what it’s like to grow up and be told what your sexuality is, then realising that it’s not the full reality. I was accused of being gay before I knew who I was.’’
Earlier this year, Thorpe was admitted to a rehabilitation facility to receive treatment for his ongoing battle with depression.
If you were wondering why Thorpe was reluctant to be honest until now…
BRIAN Taylor has apologised after calling Geelong premiership star Harry Taylor a “big poofter” on ­national television. 
There were calls for the Channel 7 commentator to be sacked after he made the gibe in the lead up to the game between Sydney and Carlton.
He made the remark after footage was shown of Harry Taylor giving a royal wave to the crowd as he was being chaired off the ground after his 150th game last week.

“I don’t know whether you guys down there can hear me or not. I am up here getting ready for the game and I’ve just seen that c--p from Harry — he’s a big poofter, I mean give them this one Harry,” Taylor (right) said as he made a rude gesture. “You can’t be doing the old royal wave. Next thing you’ll have your mum and dad out there,” Taylor said.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
Psalm 34:17-20
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
There are so many different "points" of our day/lives. High points, low points, sadness, pain, happiness, excitement and so on. But remember to keep yourself girded in prayer. God has a solution for every problem; a smile for every tear and a "lift up" for every fall. Through the good times and the bad he's still so worthy to be praise. And he truly sticks closer than a brother:)
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The account is ok, but it fails to raise the most salient issue .. why. I believe the reason for the destruction of the evidence is related to the politics of the day. Before the myth of the stolen generations, a big issue was Aboriginal deaths in custody. Steps had been taken to ensure Aboriginal people wouldn't suicide in custody. For an ALP government to have detained an Aboriginal girl who was subsequently pack raped would have looked very bad for the entire ALP brand ..
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Allyson Christy.
Kerry set to make sixth Mideast visit next week in attempt to restart peace talks - jpost
'The visit, if it indeed takes place, comes as some in the US are questioning whether this is the area where Kerry should be focusing his time and energy right now.

US sources said..... US President Barack Obama – who, beyond giving Kerry public backing, has kept a low profile during the secretary of state’s efforts to prod the sides back to the table – has given Kerry the green light to try to move the sides together, but does not want to get too personally involved to avoid a diplomatic failure.

The sources said the feeling in the White House was that in this way if Kerry succeeded, Obama would obviously enjoy much of the credit, but if he failed, then Obama could distance himself from the failure that would be dropped at Kerry’s doorstep." - Herb Kenon

And as, an Administration remains entrenched within scandals, weakened economic policies and failed foreign policy directives, a determined pursuit lies within the scope of creating a presidential legacy; and a sentiment to include....if only.

http://paper.li/allysonchristy/1338794440
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A dramatic reenactment from 'Nicky's Family' of a British mother choosing a rescued child for adoption. (photo credit: Courtesy of Menemsha Films)
Dave Lux remembers that he lived with his family in an isolated rural area in Slovakia near the Hungarian border, and that his father was a baker in a nearby village. He also recalls that his parents fled with him and his older brother the day after some soldiers came to their house in spring 1939.
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Pastor Rick Warren
At 3 months, an unborn baby girl in her mother's womb can swallow, squint, swim, grasp, suck her thumb, and feel pain.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
There is such a thing as good luck and bad luck .. but only a fool would follow it. - ed
I don't believe in bad and good luck, I believe in Lessons and Blessings.
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Modern Carabiniere officer
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“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” Matthew 4:4 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Sanctified by God the Father."
Jude 1
"Sanctified in Christ Jesus."
1 Corinthians 1:2
"Through sanctification of the Spirit."
1 Peter 1:2
Mark the union of the Three Divine Persons in all their gracious acts. How unwisely do those believers talk who make preferences in the Persons of the Trinity; who think of Jesus as if he were the embodiment of everything lovely and gracious, while the Father they regard as severely just, but destitute of kindness. Equally wrong are those who magnify the decree of the Father, and the atonement of the Son, so as to depreciate the work of the Spirit. In deeds of grace none of the Persons of the Trinity act apart from the rest. They are as united in their deeds as in their essence. In their love towards the chosen they are one, and in the actions which flow from that great central source they are still undivided. Specially notice this in the matter of sanctification. While we may without mistake speak of sanctification as the work of the Spirit, yet we must take heed that we do not view it as if the Father and the Son had no part therein. It is correct to speak of sanctification as the work of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit. Still doth Jehovah say, "Let us make man in our own image after our likeness," and thus we are "his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." See the value which God sets upon real holiness, since the Three Persons in the Trinity are represented as co-working to produce a Church without "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." And you, believer, as the follower of Christ, must also set a high value on holiness--upon purity of life and godliness of conversation. Value the blood of Christ as the foundation of your hope, but never speak disparagingly of the work of the Spirit which is your meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. This day let us so live as to manifest the work of the Triune God in us.

Evening

"His heavenly kingdom."
2 Timothy 4:18
Yonder city of the great King is a place of active service. Ransomed spirits serve him day and night in his temple. They never cease to fulfil the good pleasure of their King. They always "rest," so far as ease and freedom from care is concerned; and never "rest," in the sense of indolence or inactivity. Jerusalem the golden is the place of communion with all the people of God. We shall sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in eternal fellowship. We shall hold high converse with the noble host of the elect, all reigning with him who by his love and his potent arm has brought them safely home. We shall not sing solos, but in chorus shall we praise our King. Heaven is a place of victory realized. Whenever, Christian, thou hast achieved a victory over thy lusts--whenever after hard struggling, thou hast laid a temptation dead at thy feet--thou hast in that hour a foretaste of the joy that awaits thee when the Lord shall shortly tread Satan under thy feet, and thou shalt find thyself more than conqueror through him who hath loved thee. Paradise is a place of security. When you enjoy the full assurance of faith, you have the pledge of that glorious security which shall be yours when you are a perfect citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem. O my sweet home, Jerusalem, thou happy harbour of my soul! Thanks, even now, to him whose love hath taught me to long for thee; but louder thanks in eternity, when I shall possess thee.
"My soul has tasted of the grapes,
And now it longs to go
Where my dear Lord his vineyard keeps
And all the clusters grow.
"Upon the true and living vine,
My famish'd soul would feast,
And banquet on the fruit divine,
An everlasting guest."
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Zacchaeus

[Zăcchae'us] - pure or justified.

The Man Who Overcame Obstacles

Zacchaeus was the wealthy man of Jerusalem who gathered revenue for the Roman government, but who became a disciple of Christ (Luke 19:1-10). A "chief publican," Zacchaeus might have been of a higher grade than Matthew.
Although not one of Christ's expected converts, Zacchaeus had heard much about Christ and was determined to see Him for himself. When ultimately Christ came his way there were two obstacles in his way - the crowd, and his own short stature. But he quickly overcame both hindrances.
I. The crowd. It is strange that those who were enthusiastic about Christ were the very people blocking Zacchaeus'view. What a lesson for our hearts can be gleaned from this fact!
II. The short stature. The other difficulty was Zacchaeus himself. His native hindrance was his small stature, which he quickly overcame. Up the tree he climbed and had the best view of Jesus that day. If we would see Jesus we too must scramble higher than ourselves.
III. The call to discipleship. Our Lord called Zacchaeus down and invited Himself to his house. Zacchaeus was a sinner and Christ saved him. Quickly Zacchaeus revealed the depth of his surrender to his newly found Master. There came an immediate and generous restitution.
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Today's reading: Psalm 4-6, Acts 17:16-34 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 4-6

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David.
1 Answer me when I call to you,
my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
2 How long will you people turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
3 Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself;
the LORD hears when I call to him.
4 Tremble and do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
5 Offer the sacrifices of the righteous
and trust in the LORD....

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 17:16-34

In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean." 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
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