Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Tue Jul 14th Bastille Day

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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Pope Francis has been a great pope, with high energy and a strong agenda. However, he has enemies that will try to twist what he says if they can. And, not all of his choices are wise. Going to so called Palestine and failing to say that Israel belongs to Israel was a mistake. The view that poor people fleeced by their leaders should have their murderous rage indulged is wrong. To oppose terror, one needs to promote civilisation. Similarly the embrace of AGW hysteria is not reasonable or responsible. Fossil fuels are cheap and efficient and an essential part of wealth creation. By attacking fossil fuels, the environmental movement is showing it is not interested in the environment or the future, but in a political statement. The Pope's posture on AGW is similar as the hysterics who claim the world is ending as they damage industry. It won't secure the Falklands for Argentina. 

Greece has future thanks to Merkel. Hours of negotiation have resulted in Greece having a path which will one day lead to prosperity. But they can step off the path and exit Europe. Greece has to work hard to stay fiscally responsible. And it has been German leadership which has seen Greece keep this path despite Greece's hissy fits. 

 Sarah Hanson-Young is an Australian Senator. She has duties that go beyond her personal whims. It is ok she chooses to holiday in the Mediterranean. But it is wrong that she helps illegal migrants into Europe. She has recently taken photographs of people on a boat that was not leaking being taken aboard her vessel. They are economic migrants from very far away, like Pakistan and Bangladesh.

 The Institute of Public Affairs has research showing that Industrial Relations reform is held up by union domination of the ALP. As if to prove their point, Bill Shorten attacked Work Choices which has not been government policy since 2009. One can understand why Shorten would seek to tap that old trough. Unions spent very big on a scare campaign against effective IR policy. Part of the campaign illustrated a bastard boss using Work Choices to harm employees. Interestingly enough, Shorten seems to have exploited those policies as union leader. But by employing union resources to apparently embezzle money at the expense of employees and to the disadvantage of union members it shows that Work Choices was effective and only compromised by illegal activity. 

 ABC exploits children. Parents put up Q and A criticism made by ten year old boy. The idea was to criticise Mr Abbott for banning government members from appearing on the program, which tends to ambush them. ABC also stacks audiences better than an ALP secretary stacks members. And the stacking results in apologists for terrorism. It is important that terrorist apologists don't get their message spread by responsible people. We know the ABC has not got responsible people. But Government Ministers should be. And should not be compromised. Mean while one terror apologist on Q and A claimed that we need to have ideas to combat terror. We do. We call it civilisation. 

 Impotent Islamic leaders fail to support BBQ set by police for the end of Ramadan. Police are keen to show solidarity, but the impotent Islamic leaders made outrageous claims. One claim was that an Islamic boy who tried to kill police had not been shot dead in self defence. The BBQ became a security scare because of the impotent leaders of Islam. 

 ALP fail to apologise to Indonesia over butchering live cattle exports, spying on Indonesian leaders and causing a domestic crisis with bad border policy. Shorten expressed the hope Indonesia wasn't responding badly to Australia. All Shorten need do is apologise. 

 In 756, An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong fled the capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advanced toward the city. 1223, Louis VIII became King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II of France. 1420, Battle of Vitkov Hill, decisive victory of Chech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor

 In 1769, an expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà established a base in California and set out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California). 1771, Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friarJunípero Serra. 1789, French Revolution: Citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille. Also 1789, Alexander Mackenzie finally completed his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turned out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America. 1790, French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrated the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération. 1791, the Priestley Riots drove Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England. 1798, the Sedition Act became law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.

 In 1853, opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. 1865, First ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom died on the descent. 1874, the Chicago Fire of 1874 burned down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago's city council. 1877, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in Martinsburg, West Virginia, US, when Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers had their wages cut for the second time in a year. 1881, Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.

 In 1900, armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. 1902, the Campanile in St. Mark's Square, Venice collapsed, also demolishing the loggetta. 1911, Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright Brothers landed his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House. He was later awarded a Gold medal from U.S. President William Howard Taft for this feat. 1916, start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916.

 In 1928, New Vietnam Revolutionary Party was founded in Huế amid providing some of the communist party's most important leaders in its early years. 1933, Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties were outlawed except the Nazi Party. Also 1933, the Nazi eugenics began with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilisation of any citizen who suffered from alleged genetic disorders. 1943, in Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument became the first United States National Monument in honour of an African American. 1948, Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, was shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament.

 In 1950, Korean War: North Korean troops initiated the Battle of Taejon. 1957, Rawya Ateya took her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world. 1958, Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy was overthrown by popular forces led by Abdul Karim Kassem, who became the nation's new leader. 1960, Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild. 1965, the Mariner 4 flyby of Mars took the first close-up photos of another planet. 1969, Football War: After Honduras lost a soccer match against El Salvador, riots broke out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Also 1969, The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills were officially withdrawn from circulation.

 In 1976, Capital punishment was abolished in Canada. 1987, Montreal, Canada, was hit by a series of thunderstorms causing the Montreal Flood of 1987. 1992, 386BSD was released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source Operating System Revolution. Linus Torvalds released his Linux soon afterwards. 2000, a powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, caused a geomagnetic storm on Earth. 2002, French President Jacques Chirac escaped an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations. 2003, in an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA "operative".
2014
Sydney was a very young colony when a young Canadian set out from Lake Athabasca (in Canada) to find a route to the pacific ocean. He was twenty four years old, working as a furrier for the Northwest Company and he had decided to follow a river, now called the Mackenzie River after Alexander. On this day he reached her mouth in 1789, but not the Pacific Ocean .. he had found the Arctic Ocean instead. He persevered, however, and reached the Pacific in 1793. Then he went to Scotland and married a 14 year old heiress and cousin. His 1789 achievement happened on the same day Parisian citizens stormed the Bastille. And so one foot stepped to liberty, another to freedom, and another to madness. 

On this day in 1791, Joseph Priestly who felt the French Revolution was a good idea was run out of Birmingham. In 1798, the Sedition act was passed in the US, making it illegal to write, publish or speak malicious statements about the US. Yet another reason Obama has not released his identity proofs. In 1865, Europeans finally climbed the Matterhorn. In 1881, Billy the Kid was finally killed. In 1933, Nazis outlawed all other political parties in Germany. On the same day Nazis passed a law for forced sterilisation of people deemed genetically inferior. Around the world, many prominent businessmen admired Adolph Hitler for such action for years after. In 1965, Mariner 4 flew past Mars, taking pictures. 1969, Nixon stopped big denomination US currency. 1976, Canada celebrated Bastille day by ending capital punishment. In 2003, Washington Post journalist Novak outed a CIA ground operative after publishing articles critical of the invasion of Iraq. 
Specimen of US $5k note
Historical perspectives on this day
In 756, An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong fled the capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advanced toward the city. 1223, Louis VIII became King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II of France. 1420, Battle of Vitkov Hill, decisive victory of Chech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor

 In 1769, an expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà established a base in California and set out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California). 1771, Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friarJunípero Serra. 1789, French Revolution: Citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille. Also 1789, Alexander Mackenzie finally completed his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turned out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America. 1790, French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrated the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération. 1791, the Priestley Riots drove Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England. 1798, the Sedition Act became law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.

 In 1853, opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. 1865, First ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom died on the descent. 1874, the Chicago Fire of 1874 burned down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago's city council. 1877, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in Martinsburg, West Virginia, US, when Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers had their wages cut for the second time in a year. 1881, Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.

 In 1900, armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. 1902, the Campanile in St. Mark's Square, Venice collapsed, also demolishing the loggetta. 1911, Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright Brothers landed his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House. He was later awarded a Gold medal from U.S. President William Howard Taft for this feat. 1916, start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916.

 In 1928, New Vietnam Revolutionary Party was founded in Huế amid providing some of the communist party's most important leaders in its early years. 1933, Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties were outlawed except the Nazi Party. Also 1933, the Nazi eugenics began with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilisation of any citizen who suffered from alleged genetic disorders. 1943, in Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument became the first United States National Monument in honour of an African American. 1948, Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, was shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament.

 In 1950, Korean War: North Korean troops initiated the Battle of Taejon. 1957, Rawya Ateya took her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world. 1958, Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy was overthrown by popular forces led by Abdul Karim Kassem, who became the nation's new leader. 1960, Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild. 1965, the Mariner 4 flyby of Mars took the first close-up photos of another planet. 1969, Football War: After Honduras lost a soccer match against El Salvador, riots broke out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Also 1969, The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills were officially withdrawn from circulation.

 In 1976, Capital punishment was abolished in Canada. 1987, Montreal, Canada, was hit by a series of thunderstorms causing the Montreal Flood of 1987. 1992, 386BSD was released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source Operating System Revolution. Linus Torvalds released his Linux soon afterwards. 2000, a powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, caused a geomagnetic storm on Earth. 2002, French President Jacques Chirac escaped an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations. 2003, in an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA "operative".
=== 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 John Morris, Pallavi Thapa, Vytautas Juodis, Rima Dablan and Damian Clarke. Born on the same day, across the years. On your day in 756, Emperor Xuanzong fled the Tang capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advance toward the city during the An Lushan Rebellion. 1769, Spanish soldier Gaspar de Portolá led the first European land expedition to present-day California. 1933, With the enactment of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, the Nazi Party began its eugenics program. 1965, The NASA spacecraft Mariner 4 flew past Mars, collecting the first close-up pictures of another planet. 2003, In an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA "operative". Your remarkable day says much, as your dreams are realised with long journeys. Probably best to keep the secret agent business secret. You are flexible, and will leave that capital when you must, those long term projects you have great follow through with .. don't forget to read the instructions first, or you might have to correct mistakes ;)
And a special welcome to Teresa Limbu who came to Australia on this day .. and on her journey acquired a good man and a lovely child ..
Deaths
July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789); National Day of Commemoration in Ireland (2015)
Gaspar de Portolà
We have a king. We have a city of angels. We climbed high. They attacked. It rained. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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A FRIGHTBAT’S FATE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 14, 2015 (6:54pm)

An Australian woman is fined $3600 and faces deportation following an internet incident in Abu Dhabi: 
In February, Jodi Magi, 39, took a photo of a car in her Abu Dhabi apartment block that was parked across two disabled parking spaces, without any disability stickers.
She blacked out the number plate and put the photo on Facebook, drawing attention to the seemingly selfish act, but not providing any identifying details or names.
However, someone in the apartment block complained to police and the case went to an Abu Dhabi court in June.
Ms Magi, who has lived in Abu Dhabi since 2012, said she was forced to sign multiple documents in Arabic without any translation.
Two weeks ago she was found guilty of “writing bad words on social media about a person” and told she would be deported. 
Magi has previously displayed bad words on social media about a person. Here she is in her F*** Tony Abbott t-shirt:

image

Perhaps now she’ll appreciate a culture that does not imprison you for political expression, however infantile it may be.
(Via Pastor Sauceplease)
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WARING THIN

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 14, 2015 (3:33am)

Michael Ware – a friend – was massively wide of the mark on last night’s Q & A: 
“My question is if we don’t have people like Zaky Mallah on a show like this ... then when are we going to hear their voices?” 
Well, besides the ABC, there’s YouTube. And Twitter. And the Guardian. And any other media outlets that have aired the stupid kid’s opinions. Mallah isn’t exactly lacking for expressive opportunity. Michael continued: 
“The real battlefield, where the war with the Islamic State will be won or lost, will be the battlefield of ideas. We need to come up with a better alternative.” 
A better alternative than slaughtering people who deviate even slightly from Islamic State’s brutal directives? A better alternative than enslaving and raping women and girls? A better alternative than throwing gay men to their deaths from tall buildings? A better alternative than beheading journalists? A better alternative than destroying antiquities?
We already have a better alternative, Michael. It’s called civilisation. Islamic State and its followers reject it.
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WILLIAM’S WAR ON WORKCHOICES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 14, 2015 (3:19am)

Labor leader Bill Shorten takes aim at legislation repealed in 2009: 
I’ve spent my whole adult life standing up for the pay and conditions of working Australians – and I’m not about to stop now.
No matter what Tony Abbott and the Liberals throw at us, Labor’s record stands proud against WorkChoices. 
WorkChoices was taken down six years and three Prime Ministers ago. Still, I’d back zombie WorkChoices to defeat Shorten in a straight fight today given the Labor leader’s current form. Bill’s next opponent: the imperial measurement system.
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PM LOSES VITAL UNDESCENDED-TESTICLES DEMOGRAPHIC

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 14, 2015 (1:16am)

It was news when a seven-year-old advised the Australian Prime Minister to “stop being selfish”: 
“If you stop being selfish and thinking of yourself, then you might survive as well and people might stop telling you to leave Earth.”
That’s the message to Tony Abbott from a precocious seven-year-old, who has identified himself as “Zen” …
Thinking ahead, the clever seven-year-old urged the Prime Minister to “stop chopping down trees” in order for “everyone to survive” in the next thousand years. 
And it’s news again when a 10-year-old tells the Prime Minister he’s scared of “attacks on the ABC”: 
A public backhand was served to the Prime Minister on Q&A when panellists were asked by a 10-year-old boy about Tony Abbott’s recent “attacks” and attempts to “control” the ABC and Q&A.
“I know I’m only 10, but Tony Abbott scares me when he attacks the ABC and tries to control what we see on it. Should we all be afraid of his attacks on Q&A and ABC, both things I love?” 10-year-old Ashton Platt, from Highbury in South Australia, asked the panel through a prerecorded video. 
A 10-year-old who “loves” Q & A? Over to you, Hank.
UPDATE. Big surprise: 
The father of the 10-year-old boy who appeared on ABC’s Q&A program last night has admitted that he and his wife helped to write their son’s question taking Tony Abbott to task over his “attacks” and attempts to “control” the ABC. 
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SARAH SCORES

Tim Blair – Monday, July 13, 2015 (10:42pm)

After several days on sea patrol, Sarah Hanson-Young finally locates some boaties:

image

“Amazing to experience the rescue of 414 men, women & children out here at sea,” reports the Greens senator, who seems to regard the whole voyage as some kind of maritime personal growth exercise.
UPDATE. “The empty boat looks quite eerie out there on open ocean,” Sarah tweets. It also doesn’t look as though it’s sinking.
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This is Bob Katter, MP

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (9:31pm)

Bob Katter is a member of the Australian Parliament. He also is an embarrassment to it.
Here he is tonight attacking the Government for allegedly antagonising Indonesia by asking for mercy for two Australian drug traffickers:

...it’s again and again and again they seem to be wanting to pick a fight and have an antagonism with Indonesia.
Well, maybe, maybe they would have a different viewpoint if, when they were 18, handed a rifle and had to give two telephone numbers because we were at war with Indonesia - and that was my situation - maybe they’d have a different attitude if they came from north Queensland where, in the last war, we were handed over to the Japanese under the Brisbane line. Maybe they’d have a different attitude. 
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Unions take over Labor

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (11:57am)

No wonder Labor won’t support reforms or unions or better policing of union thuggery:
Penetration of the federal Labor Party by trade unions is holding back industrial relations reform, ... according to research by Patrick Hannaford and James Paterson of the Institute of Public Affairs…
Overall, 23 of 55 Labor MPs in the lower house and 17 of 25, or 68 per cent, ALP senators have a background as trade union officials, the research paper reports.
Of Labor’s caucus members, 13 are backed by the left-wing Australian Manufacturing Workers Union while the conservative Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association supports 12 caucus members and right-wing Australian Workers Union backs nine members…
Yet union membership has fallen from 41 per cent of the workforce in 1990 to 17 per cent in 2013.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Chris Curtis.) 
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This kind of Muslim leadership could destroy us

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (11:20am)

You might get the impression that many Muslim leaders are treating our police as the real enemy in this battle against Islamist terrorism.
Whatever the truth of their motivation, such leadership is grotesquely irresponsible and another disturbing sign that Islam may be incompatible with a pluralist and secular country such as ours:
The Australian Federal Police has cancelled an annual Ramadan dinner after Muslim community leaders vowed to boycott the event.
In a sign of deepening fractures between the Muslim community and Australian authorities, a petition was circulated on July 2, urging imams and other representatives to boycott dinners in Sydney and Melbourne because they were a tokenistic attempt “to create a false image of co-operation, harmony and trust which could not be further from the truth”.
“I can’t break fast with those who authorise flash bombs to be used against families,” said Australian Muslim Women’s Association spokeswoman Silma Ihram, who was one of 840 people to sign the petition.
The authors of the petition, a group called Concerned Muslims Australia, said police have targeted Muslims in “phoney raids” and the government has introduced legislation to “demonise, marginalise and victimise the Muslim community"…
Among the leaders who supported the boycott were author and social justice campaigner Randa Abdel-Fattah and Sydney lawyers Mariam Veiszadeh and Lydia Shelly.
One community leader told Fairfax Media that so-called moderate voices were increasingly joining the calls to turn on the AFP and other government agencies.
Last year, the Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed?, boycotted the AFP’s Eid dinner due to proposed anti-terrorism laws.
Is is despicable for people like Ihram to sign a statement that includes this inflammatory conspiracy theory, turning a terrorist into a victim:
Federal and State Government bodies such as their police forces (including the Australian Federal Police) and intelligence agencies (such as ASIO) have been a key strategic component in the Australian Government’s deliberate targeting of the Muslim community,… Investigations into key incidents remain unresolved with answers around police action missing in this regard. This is exemplified by the case of 18-year-old Numan Haider, whose shooting by Victorian police, and months of harassment by intelligence agencies prior, still remain shrouded in curious mystery…
The AFP is bending over backwards to draw a distinction between moderate Muslims and the extremists it believes threaten us. The “moderates” are smudging that distinction.
(Thanks to reader WaG311.) 
===

A sorry from Labor to Indonesia might suit it better

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (11:08am)

Labor under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard enraged Indonesia by:
- banning overnight live cattle exports to feed Indonesians.
- putting “sugar on the table” that encouraged tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to go to Indonesia to catch boats.
- spying on the Indonesian President and his wife.
Yet Labor under Bill Shorten is shameless:

Australia’s live export industry is in shock after Indonesia has drastically reduced the number of import permits for cattle for the current quarter, with Labor leader Bill Shorten describing it as a “grave concern” that he hopes is not due to tensions in the bilateral relationship.
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Shorten won’t say boo to the CFMEU

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (10:57am)

The CFMEU has been a no-show so far at the latest hearings of the royal commission into union corruption:

Allegations of corrupt payments, intimidation and cartel behaviour have been heard on the first day of hearings in Canberra for the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.
The commission heard from three witnesses who alleged they felt pressured to pay money to the ACT branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in order to get access to the Canberra construction market....
The CFMEU today said that it would not attend the commission until at least Thursday… In a letter sent to the commission, the CFMEU said its legal representatives would not be attending the hearings until later this week because of what it called an “unreasonable timetable”.
This prompts a change of tune from the Opposition Leader.
Bill Shorten on July 13:
JOURNALIST: Do you [inaudible] on the CFMEU’s boycott of the Royal Commission?
SHORTEN: That’s up for the CFMEU and the royal commission to sort out.
Bill Shorten on May 22:
QUESTION: On the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, do you think that George Pell should be compelled to give evidence?
BILL SHORTEN: I do believe that George Pell should cooperate and help the royal commission deal with these problems which have been going on for far too long. If that means that he should come home to Australia to help the royal commission, Cardinal Pell should do that … I do believe that George Pell should help the royal commission and if that means coming back to Australia to cooperate with the royal commission he should.  
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Less truth in this global warming sermon than in the virgin birth

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (10:27am)

Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier preaches the alternative faith of global warming:
Both Australia and South Africa are already experiencing the negative impacts of rising global temperatures.
“Rising global temperatures”? Not for some 18 years:
image
Never mind these cool facts. Freier adds:

Monday’s motions of the Church of England – together with Pope Francis’ ecology encyclical and many other faith voices – serve as a reminder that we have a moral responsibility to act on climate change.
Don’t we have a primary responsibility to the truth? But to fix the problem he’s exaggerated Frieir endorses a (non) solution that’s far more dangerous and drastic:
God bestowed on us the gift of life, but with that comes the obligation to be protectors of our earth, our environment, and our fellow man… This December, world political leaders will gather in Paris to sign a universal agreement aimed at limiting global temperature rises well below two degrees Celcius. As we look toward this historic summit, we need our leaders to demonstrate their commitment to achieving a unified and ambitious agreement that phases out fossil fuels...
But how does phasing out fossil fuels, in the absence of cheap alternative sources of electricity, help “our fellow man”? Doesn’t it condemn the poor to poverty? And what measurable good would such a phase-out achieve? Data please.
But Freier continues:

All too often, the effects of these changes are most acutely felt by vulnerable populations, who have done the least to contribute to climate change. Australia’s Pacific neighbours are already badly affected, with Kiribati recently asking that its people be moved to Fiji to escape rising sea levels.

Again, simply fact-free fear-mongering.
The truth is that most low-lying islands like Kiribati have been growing in size or stayed stable, and are not drowning:

New Zealand coastal geomorphologist Paul Kench, of the University of Auckland’s School of Environment, and colleagues in Australia and Fiji, who have been studying how reef islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans respond to rising sea levels. They found that reef islands change shape and move around in response to shifting sediments, and that many of them are growing in size, not shrinking, as sea level inches upward. The implication is that many islands—especially less developed ones with few permanent structures—may cope with rising seas well into the next century…
Their analysis, which now extends to more than 600 coral reef islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, indicates that about 80 percent of the islands have remained stable or increased in size (roughly 40 percent in each category). Only 20 percent have shown the net reduction that’s widely assumed to be a typical island’s fate when sea level rises.
Some islands grew by as much as 14 acres (5.6 hectares) in a single decade, and Tuvalu’s main atoll, Funafuti—33 islands distributed around the rim of a large lagoon—has gained 75 acres (32 hectares) of land during the past 115 years.
As for Kiribati, the big problem is not global warming but over-crowding and thoughtless development on another island that’s actually growing in size:

But 2,000 miles to the west in South Tarawa, Kiribati’s narrow, six-square-mile capital island crowded with 50,000 people, the picture is much darker. Over the past half-century, residents of the 15 other Gilbert Islands have flocked there in search of jobs and better schools for their children… To minimize flooding, they built poorly designed seawalls that regularly collapse. Meanwhile, the government increased South Tarawa’s area by 19 percent over 30 years by building causeways between islets and creating new land over the reef with lagoon sand poured behind seawalls. The widespread erosion and flooding that resulted “is primarily due to [local] human activities,” which unless stopped will “increase erosion and susceptibility of the reef islands to anticipated sea-level rise,” one study concluded.

Though the study’s lead author is Naomi Biribo, a senior civil servant in Tarawa, [President Anote] Tong has ignored it and become a minor international celebrity by blaming the island’s coastal problems uniformly on climate change....
Scientists like Kench say that the people of Tarawa will face the same choices as other coastal denizens when the sea rises further. Either they allow the beach to move forward and they retreat inland to higher ground, or they build concrete seawalls and the beach is washed away… Or they can move back to their home islands. Aranuka, for example, has seen its population drop to 800 as many moved to Tarawa. It has the same land area as Tarawa, but instead of being long and thin, part of it is three miles by five on the lee side of the island—"Good protection against the waves,” said Kench. “I’d say it has a good chance of surviving climate change.”
Meaning well does not excuse making false claims and telling half-truths to promote a scare and a solution that would actually do far more harm than good. 
===

Memo to Ware and Q&A: our civilisation is actually worth defending

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (10:16am)

I’ve worried about Michael Ware before. In 2006, for instance:
Time today [employs] as its Baghdad correspondent the Australian Michael Ware, who ... maintains close connections to terrorists in Iraq who let him live only because (he concedes) he is more useful to them alive than dead.
Says Ware: 
I’ve seen into their eyes. I find them terrifying. I mean, these are very committed men. And at any moment they could turn on me. I could suddenly be decided he’s more valuable to us on a video being terrorised than he is, you know, discussing our movement and what we’re showing him.
Here is Michael Ware last night on Q&A, already criticised for giving a leg-up to Islamist extremism:
The real battlefield, where the war with the Islamic State will be won or lost, will be the battlefield of ideas. We need to come up with a better alternative.
Tim Blair responds:
A better alternative than slaughtering people who deviate even slightly from Islamic State’s brutal directives? A better alternative than enslaving and raping women and girls? A better alternative than throwing gay men to their deaths from tall buildings? A better alternative than beheading journalists? A better alternative than destroying antiquities?
We already have a better alternative, Michael. It’s called civilisation.
UPDATE
Why does Q&A take seriously an attack on Tony Abbott by a carefully coached 10-year-old?
UPDATE

And, of course, it turns out Q&A did indeed fall only too eagerly for an anti-Abbott stunt:
The father of the 10-year-old boy who appeared on ABC’s Q&A program last night has admitted that he and his wife helped to write their son’s question taking Tony Abbott to task over his “attacks” and attempts to “control” the ABC.
Ashton Platt, a bespectacled youngster from Highbury, South Australia, asked whether he should be “afraid” of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s condemnation of the ABC following the controversial June 22 episode featuring Zaky Mallah.
Ashton explained that he had spent the school holidays watching World War II films such as The Book Thief and Woman In Gold which prompted him to think about freedom of speech and the furore surrounding the ABC and Q&A following Mallah’s appearance.
“I know I’m only 10, but Tony Abbott scares me when he attacks the ABC and tries to control what we see on it. Should we all be afraid of his attacks on Q&A and ABC, both things I love?” Ashton asked the panel through a prerecorded video. 
===

So not just politicians, then

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (10:11am)

Speaking of hyperbole:
LEIGH SALES: I could pick you up on that by talking about the vocabulary of hyperbole that politicians use, but the producers will kill me if I keep going.
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No-but-yes. Greece accepts what it rejected

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (6:29am)

Greece’s General Custer agrees to austerity measures he persuaded Greeks to vote against not two weeks ago - and even then he’ll be lucky if European parliaments support the package he’s now desperate to get:

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has capitulated to extraordinary, fierce demands from Europe for the sale of €50 billion ($75bn) of assets including the Greek banks, stricter austerity measures and far-reaching reforms to save the nation’s bankrupt economy from collapse.
After 17 hours of fraught talks, including four separate huddles with Greece’s ally French President Francois Hollande and hawkish German Chancellor ­Angela Merkel, Mr Tsipras now has to convince his parliament to pass previously unthinkable measures into law by tomorrow to avoid an immediate exit from the eurozone and to open negotiations for a third bailout of €84bn.
The German Bundestag also will have to approve the plan and there is ­expected to be fierce ­resistance from the Dutch parliament too.
Greece has sold its sovereignty for more handouts, although some reforms it’s agreed to are ones it should have made itself years ago, including more cuts to its corrupted public servants and the kind of asset sales Australian governments have already conducted:

Mr Tsipras ... succumbed to the German-led proposal that Greece put up €50bn of assets into a fund, €37.5bn of which would be privatised or sold down to provide for debt payback and €12.5bn put towards growth initiatives…

Questions already have been raised as to what Greece owns that is worth that much, and there is a possibility several of its most ­lucrative islands bringing in tourism revenue would have to be sold or taken under control by the European lenders. The deal also factors in the sale and privatisation of Greek banks…
Mrs Merkel said the deal involved ... radical changes to the Greek public service, to make it less political and to “strengthen the Greek parliament’’.
Sceptical European creditors have insisted on brutal measures to be comfortable to provide a third bailout that equates to about €8000 for every Greek person.
And there must be pension cuts. After all, what is the point of lending Greece money that just goes to finance handouts? It would never be repaid, much like the rest of Greece’s debt. 
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Sarah Hanson-Young helps ferry illegal immigrants to Europe

Andrew Bolt July 14 2015 (6:10am)

Another reason not to believe a single word Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says about boat people:
image
The boat is sinking?
Hanson-Young, on board the “rescue” vessel, also imagines she is saving “refugees” from war:
image
But, wait. Who exactly was on this boat?
image
From Bangladesh? Cameroon? Pakistan? And 14 other countries?
So let’s describe more accurately what Hanson-Young is actually doing out there. No, she has not just not participated in the “rescue” of “refugees” from a “sinking” boat. She has instead participated in the transportation of illegal immigrants to Italy, encouraging a mass movement that is putting lives at risk and importing danger to Europe.
(Via Tim Blair.)    
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Posted by The Master Shift on Monday, 13 July 2015

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Bwah ha ha ha ....right?   Michelle
Posted by 98.1 CHFI on Friday, 5 September 2014

Lol, it is ok. Stand up for what you believe in. I'm 48 and single ..
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It's not how many times you fall. It's how many times you get back up!
Posted by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on Monday, 13 July 2015

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Nightfall in NebraskaYou never see clouds like these in N. California... never... heavy sigh...
Posted by Matt Granz on Monday, 13 July 2015

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Someone sent this to me ..had to post it. ^NVC
Posted by 107.3 THE EAGLE on Wednesday, 17 June 2015

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ACSYA
To consolidate their unlawful political and military presence in the Nineveh Plains territory. Iraq's regional authorities have carried out arbitrary arrests/ detention, intimidation, bribery and violence targeting indigenous peoples who challenge the authorities' illegitimate claims over their ancestral territory. Regional authorities carrying out unlawful arbitrary arrest, detention and deliberate displacement of Iraq's indigenous peoples must be brought to justice. These account to crimes against humanity and breach the very charter of the United Nations and every international human rights legislation.
From rampant violence, human rights violations to sexual abuse against indigenous Assyrian (inc. Chaldean, Syriac) and Yezidi women throughout the Nineveh Plains by regional authorities- Iraq's central government remains unresponsive, moreover marked by lack of transparency and accountability, blatant malevolence and disregard for international law.
Below is a shocking list of the human rights violations being carried out in Iraq targeting indigenous communities by regional authorities;
1) Unlawful arbitary arrest/ detention
2) Intimidation
3) Violence
4) Threats
5) Kidnappings
6) Deliberate displacement of mass indigenous communities by regional authorities
7) Racism
8) Ethnic discrimination
9) Religious discrimination
10) Abuse
11) Cultural appropriation
12) Appropriation of ancient archaeological and historical sites
13) Identity theft
14) Illegal land expropriation
15) Unlawful military action
16) Negligence
17) Rape
18) Government censorship
19) Voting corruption
20) limited access to public services
Stop the human rights violations and disregard for international law by supporting the Nineveh Plains safe haven. Take action now. Do not turn a blind eye.
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How to make your girlfriend shut up during an argument
Posted by Adrian Van Oyen on Sunday, 12 July 2015

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Matt Granz
Profundity from Gary Randall... Do you agree? I do!  smile emoticon
"Some people just aren't used to seeing a photo other than from a point and shoot camera. I find it odd that although the point and shoot photos look nothing like the scene, ie: dark shadows and blown out skies for instance, they don't question it. But if you process a photo to look more like reality they don't trust it."
I had to share. 
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Posted by Interesting Engineering on Tuesday, 7 July 2015

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No more choking on tiny watermelon bones...
Posted by Todd Wilbur on Sunday, 12 July 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

DEFINITIONS MISSED

Tim Blair – Monday, July 14, 2014 (6:09am)

From the Herald Sun‘s review of yesterday’s Collingwood-Essendon AFL atrocity: 
Collingwood looked disinterested … 
This is incorrect. In fact, Collingwood looked uninterested. And also like outpatients from a chronic immobility clinic. In other language news, young American socialists don’t know what “socialism” means: 
Forty-two percent say they prefer socialism as a means of organizing society but only 16% can define the term properly as government ownership of the means of production. In fact, when asked whether they want an economy managed by the free market or by the government, 64% want the former and just 32% want the latter. Scratch a Millennial “socialist” and you are likely to find a budding entrepreneur (55% saying they want to start their own business someday). 
They’re obviously using underwear millionaire Elle MacPherson’s definition.
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WUSA MUSA

Tim Blair – Monday, July 14, 2014 (5:28am)

Australia’s ridiculous jihadi element continue to entertain.
One of them, disability pensioner and now suspected war criminal Khaled Sharrouf, is alleged to have collected pension payments even after leaving Australia for the killing fields of Syria and Iraq. The only surprise here is that the payments were eventually stopped, presumably after a sharp-eyed bureaucrat discovered that Sharrouf had found gainful employment shooting his fellow Muslims.
Still, at least Sharrouf made it to Syria, which is more than Musa Cerantonio can say. Except that the self-styled sheik actually did say he’d made it to the Middle East, posting this note on Twitter: “I have arrived in the land of Khilafah in Ash-Sham! May Allah honour all Muslims during this blessed time in His Obedience.”

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'WUSA MUSA'

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WORD USED

Tim Blair – Monday, July 14, 2014 (5:21am)

Mike Carlton, 2014: 
The trouble is: we live in a society where some f--kwit of an AFL commentator can still use the word “poofter.” 
Mike Carlton, 2006: 
With all his faults, the rambunctious in-yer-face attitude, the oh-so-public flying of the lavender flag, John Marsden – self-styled old poof – was much loved …
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HEZBURGER FURY

Tim Blair – Monday, July 14, 2014 (5:12am)

A factional Palestinian feud in Sydney: 
A tiny yellow flag took Sydney’s pro-Palestinian protest to the brink of a street brawl yesterday.
Just as the protest organisers urged the city’s Palestinian community to unite against injustice,someone waved a Hezbollah flag …

image
NO FRIES WITH THAT!

A melee ensued, with protesters indignant that a flag celebrating the banned terrorist group would cause disharmony. Police rushed the stage to break up the scuffle as organisers urged for calm.
“How dare they show that fascist flag. We should only have Palestinian flags waving,” one protester declared. 
There was also hamburger trouble: 
As well as taking aim at foes Israel and the US, the protesters were urged to boycott McDonald’s for its supposed links to funding Israel — anti-Semitic and anti-sundae. 
At least they’ve moved on from Max Brenner stores. Which, incidentally, are fantastic.
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BIG ZERO

Tim Blair – Monday, July 14, 2014 (4:50am)

Fascinating poll results in the US: 
A reputable poll shows that the public believes Barack Obama is the worst president since World War II. Worse than Richard M. Nixon, driven from the presidency by Watergate? Much. Worse than Jimmy Carter, for decades the very symbol of the feckless chief executive? Loads. Worse than George W. Bush, still a lightning rod on the left and a symbol of disappointment on the right? Definitely …
By a fairly substantial margin (45 percent to 38 percent), the public believes the nation would be better off had former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts been elected two years ago rather than Obama. 
Read on. Time redeemed Truman; it could eventually do the same for Obama. Then again, he clearly is the worst President since World War II.
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If Leyonhjelm is a true libertarian, why not allow polygamy, too?

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (4:59pm)

The new morality

Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm wants same-sex marriage legalised, arguing marriage is a private matter:
Another important lesson, this time from Roman law, is that marriage is a private matter (it’s part of private law, not public law, in civilian countries). The state simply provides a legal framework, particularly in the event of divorce or intestacy. It is difficult to resist the argument that defining the gender of people getting married is intrusive as well as silly and petty.
If marriage is a private matter then why ask the state or church to bless it? Just choose your partner and, if you must, draw up a legal document to formalise it. Indeed, gays can already register relationships. But why then demand the rest of us acknowledge your partnership as a marriage?
Truth is that marriage - the institution, tradition and ceremony - are indeed all public matters. Marriage is a social, not private, construct to bind men to women for the sake of their children, so that the next generations are properly socialised to the benefit of all.
Then there is this problem with Leyonhjelm’s argument: if your choice of partner is entirely a private matter, and state intrusion on that choice silly and petty, then why have any state definition of marriage at all?
Why not allow polygamy and incestuous marriage as well? Isn’t that the true libertarian position? 
===

How safe now are the Jews of France?

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (1:42pm)

 Jews are running out of places to be safe, thanks to mass migration from the Third World:
Pro-Palestinian protesters tried to force their way into a Paris synagogue Sunday with bats and chairs, then fought with security officers who blocked their way, according to police and a witness. 
Recent violence in Gaza has raised emotions in France, home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim population and largest Jewish community. Sunday’s unrest by a few dozen troublemakers came at the end of sizable protest in the French capital demanding an end to Israeli strikes on Gaza and accusing Western leaders of not doing enough to stop them.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said two Paris synagogues had been targeted by unspecified violence that he called “inadmissible.” ... A police spokeswoman said the Don Isaac Abravanel synagogue in eastern Paris was targeted during a service, and worshippers were blocked inside while police pushed protesters back… Sunday’s protest, involving about 10,000 people, had been largely peaceful.
And:

 
A firebomb was hurled at a synagogue near Paris, part of a string of anti-Semitic incidents in Western Europe coinciding with Israel’s assault on Hamas in Gaza.
The firebomb went off Friday night at the entrance to the synagogue of Aulnay-sous-Bois, a northeastern suburb of the French capital…
On July 8, the day that Israel launched Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza, a man described as having a Middle Eastern appearance assaulted a Jewish 17-year-old girl on a Paris street near the Gare du Nord train station by spraying pepper-spray on her face, BNVCA also reported.
The girl, identified by her initials, J.L., wrote in her complaint to police that the man, who was in his 20s, shouted: “Dirty Jewess, inshallah you will die."… In Belleville, an eastern suburb of Paris, a demonstration Saturday by a few dozen people against Israel’s attack on Hamas featured calls to “slaughter the Jews,” according to Alain Azria, a French Jewish photojournalist who covered the event. The crowd also chanted “death to the Jews,” he said. 
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Newspoll - Labor 54 to 46 ahead

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (8:51am)

Way behind and little sign of a strategy to fix it:
The latest Newspoll ... shows that despite a one-percentage-point gain for the Coalition in the past fortnight, the government’s support remains near the lowest levels since Tony Abbott became Liberal leader in 2009. 
In two-party terms, the ALP holds a massive 54 per cent to 46 per cent lead… The Palmer United Party is polling at about 3.5 per cent.
UPDATE
But Clive Palmer could rescue the LNP in next year’s Queensland election:

The Galaxy poll taken late last week of more than 2000 voters in four key electorates — Gaven, Hervey Bay, Maroochydore and Pumicestone — has ­revealed massive swings against the Newman Government of more than 18 per cent.
However, the presence of the PUP as a third choice is splitting the “anti-Newman” sentiment coursing through Queensland electorates and ­allowing the LNP to sustain a lead in primary support that would see them retain these seats.
A preference deal between PUP and Labor may not prevent this as most of Mr Palmer’s voters opted for the LNP as a second preference at the federal election.
And not one candidate who lead on primary votes lost at the last state election under Queensland’s optional preferential system because of the growing trend towards “just vote 1”. Labor would likely still win the most marginal LNP seats ... In each of the four seats polled, the PUP primary vote was a healthy double-digit ­figure while the Katter’s Australian Party’s support, which was as high as 12.2 per cent at the last state election, has evaporated.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Palmer accused of yelling at Senate staff. And more on that missing $12m

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (8:46am)

Why does this not surprise me in the slightest?

CLIVE Palmer has been referred to the president of the senate for allegedly shouting at female staff trying to help ­­re-draft his flawed carbon tax repeal amendments. 
The clash occurred last Thursday morning before the rogue MP pulled the pin on support for the government’s repeal bill. Sources claim Mr Palmer shouted at the senate assistant clerk and questioned the impartiality of the office — which assists in drafting bills for all senators regardless of party.
“He was literally yelling at them,” one source who had been told of the incident said. “He basically accused them of doing the government’s bidding."…
Mr Palmer, a member­ of the lower house, was believed to be incensed when the clerk’s office was asked to redraft his amendments to the repeal bill to include consumer protections after it was discovered it was unconstitutional and could not be introduced into the senate. It was also believed to be riddled with spelling mistakes. It is believed Mr Palmer took issue with the clerk’s office rewriting the bill to make it valid and began shouting at the staff. 
Is this how a political leader should think and behave? Did Palmer even want the bill to get through?
UPDATE
Clive Palmer and his Senator Dio Wang couldn’t agree on what their final amendment meant - whether it really did lead to incredible intervention to ensure every company (including Palmer’s?) passed on the savings from scrapping the tax.
The sloppy drafting is now fixed, says the Environment Minister:

GREG HUNT: We’ve worked constructively over the weekend with the Palmer United Party, and obviously directly with Mr Palmer himself. We are confident there is a very solid basis for moving forward. 
LOUISE YAXLEY: But two other crucial senators, Family First’s Bob Day and the Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm, warned on Saturday they might walk away. Senator Day says they were worried about the compliance burden.
BOB DAY: The extraordinary onerous compliance requirements that went across the board in potentially bogging down small and medium size business in red tape and compliance and heavy penalties. LOUISE YAXLEY: He says those concerns have been lifted.
BOB DAY: The offending parts have been taken out.
UPDATE
The public wants this ended:

A Newspoll conducted exclusively for The Australian after last Thursday’s chaos in the Senate saw the repeal bills rejected, reveals 53 per cent want the controversial tax to be abolished. 
Only 35 per cent want the Palmer United Party to continue to block the removal of the tax, while 12 per cent are uncommitted.
Meanwhile, more revelations about the $12 million Palmer’s Chinese partners accuse him of wrongly taking:
CLIVE Palmer’s top manager overseeing a port did not know that $12.167 million in Chinese cash was being siphoned from a bank account set up to fund only legitimate costs of operating the port. 
Paul Robinson, employed by Mr Palmer in Western Australia as “chief executive of Cape Preston port operations’’, was ... “very surprised and uncertain about what had been going on” when he discovered that two withdrawals — of $10m and a further $2.167m — had occurred last August and September.
Mr Robinson was “at a loss to understand” how the huge sums could have been spent so quickly on “port management services” at the port when it was not being run by Mr Palmer’s companies, sources close to the politician’s flagship, Mineralogy Pty Ltd, told The Australian.
The withdrawals in two cheques, numbered 2046 and 2073, were made from a National Australia Bank cheque account, called Port Palmer Operations, of which Mr Palmer was sole signatory.
The Chinese government suspects China’s cash was wrongfully siphoned to bankroll the Palmer United Party’s federal election campaign last year, resulting in it achieving the balance of power in the Senate.
Documents show that the first withdrawal, of $10m in early August, was funnelled to a $1 company, Cosmo Developments, which was controlled at that time by Mr Palmer; while the second withdrawal, of $2.167m, went directly to a Brisbane agency which placed PUP’s election advertising, Media Circus Network Pty Ltd…
In a letter from Mr Robinson to the [Department of Transport] on April 14 this year, he confirmed that ... “Mineralogy cannot get occupation of the port to fulfil its functions” and that the company “does not have occupation of the port"…
[Palmer] has insisted there had been no wrongdoing and the issue was all an “invention’’ of The Australian, and the Chinese government-owned Citic Pacific, which has taken legal action against him and his companies over the $12m.
UPDATE
How can the Abbott Government trust Palmer an inch?  Insiders interviews Opposition Leader Bill Shorten:
FRAN KELLY: So talk about who’s playing with who ... we’ve seen on some news bulletins a text that Clive Palmer sent you on Thursday morning as events unfolded which said: “Tell Penny Wong, we are going to vote against repeal of carbon tax, Clive”. So he told you before he told Tony Abbott and the Government, who he was still negotiating with at this point. How close are you with Clive Palmer? 
BILL SHORTEN: We talk ... In terms of myself and Clive Palmer, we meet, we talk about issues, but I do that on the basis the Senate of Australia is a house of review… FRAN KELLY: You’ve got to have a basis of trust for that, don’t you? I mean if Clive Palmer was negotiating in bad faith with the Government, in the sense that they thought, I mean it was allied that he’d told you that they were going to vote against the bill, I mean you can’t run a Parliament like that, can you, without any trust?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Taking the fight to Australia

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (8:23am)

Clever us, importing Middle Eastern hatreds:
Zachary Gomo was set upon in Parnell St, Elsternwick, by two young men who he said shouted “Jewish dog” in Arabic as they started punching him. 
The 28-year-old Caulfied North man was wearing his old IDF t-shirt when the attack happened at about 10pm last Thursday night…
Mr Gomo was left with cuts and bruises and a slashed t-shirt following the assault. “I think they just saw me with a T-shirt with Hebrew writing on it and attacked me,” Mr Gomo said.... “They yelled ‘Jewish dog’, ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greatest) and said something about Gaza.” 
Yes, this really has improved the country:
A TINY yellow flag took Sydney­’s­ pro-Palestinian protest to the brink of a street brawl yesterday. 
Just as the protest organisers urged the city’s Palestinian community to unite against injustice, someone waved a Hezbollah flag.
Ill-timed and — judging by the fierce reaction from protesters who stormed the makeshift stage on the side steps of Town Hall — ill-advised.
A melee ensued, with protesters indignant that a flag celebrating the banned terrorist group would cause disharmony. Police rushed the stage to break up the scuffle as organisers urged for calm… Protesters’ chants included “Israel, USA, how many kids did you kill today?’’, shocking shoppers and tourists. 
(Thanks to reader David.) 
===

Abbott must destroy Palmer before he’s destroyed instead

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (8:17am)

 Tony Abbott’s government risks being destroyed the same way Julia Gillard’s was – but with added humiliation. And only an early election may save him.
Like Gillard, Abbott broke election promises and voters now rate him untrustworthy.
Worse, like Gillard, Abbott is now at the mercy of a mad fringe group that’s making him look impotent.
Gillard seemed the puppet of the Greens, with whom she signed a kind of marriage contract to become Prime Minister.
Abbott hasn’t made that mistake with Clive Palmer, who controls four Senators able to block every bill in the Senate if they side with the Greens and Labor.
Yet Palmer is still killing him.  Palmer is far more untrustworthy and unpredictable than the Greens, ordering his Senators on a whim on Thursday to save the carbon tax he’d promised to scrap – and leaving Abbott looking the jilted bride at the altar.
To me it appeared the reason Palmer did this was megalomania – or a vindictive determination to humiliate Abbott. 
If that’s his game, it’s fatal for Abbott. A prime minister can survive unpopularity, but he cannot survive looking weak.
Forget Palmer’s claim that the Liberals tried to “double cross” him last week.
In fact, Palmer revealed how irrational he can be, unfit to have such power over us.
(Read full column here.) 
===

No sorry from Fairfax for boat people propaganda porn

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (5:59am)

The Fairfax story was inherently implausible and utterly false:
A wave of attempted suicides has swept Christmas Island as 12 mothers tried to kill themselves in the belief their then-orphaned children would have to be settled in Australia.
But there was no sorry and no explanation for this propaganda porn: 
IT’S a case of editors too timid to be accountable for the stories their papers publish. Both The Age’s Andrew Holden and The Sydney Morning Herald’s Darren Goodsir couldn’t bring themselves to defend the publication of an inaccurate story about 12 women attempting suicide on Christmas Island so that their orphaned ­babies could live in Australia. The stories had front page prominence in both papers. Yet, the reports were disastrously inaccurate. But neither stood up to defend their story yesterday. Copying Clive Palmer’s technique of attacking The Australian to deflect from tough questions, Holden said: “The Australian has run many stories on The Age and Fairfax without seeking our view beforehand. My belief is The Australian doesn’t have the prerogative to pick and choose when it seeks our opinion.”
===

Tell me again I should echo Rupert Murdoch

Andrew Bolt July 14 2014 (4:58am)

Warmists used to demand I write to my boss’s script:
In 2006 the Sydney Morning Herald gleefully announced a convert to its cause: 
Rupert Murdoch, powerfully converted to the climate change cause, says that business and government need to confront it … Even though he was still not entirely certain about it, “the planet deserves the benefit of the doubt”, he said.
The Left ever since have demanded Murdoch journalists and other sceptics fall into line with the warmists’ new hero: 
Entrepreneur Dick Smith, at the launch of his book on population policy, declared this week that Murdoch’s Australian newspapers were defying their boss’s global warming stand ("give the planet the benefit of the doubt") and needed bringing to heel. Murdoch, in short, had to tell us what to write. 
“Rupert, I ask you to come back to Australia,” Smith cried. 
“Come back and take the reins, your editors are losing the plot and need to be reminded that you accept we must transform the way we use energy and that we need to act now.” 
ABC hosts cited Murdoch as their new authority to cow even politicians into silence: 
The ABC’s Jon Faine this morning ...  demanded to know why Fielding did not agree with Rupert Murdoch and give the planet “the benefit of the doubt”. (Mudoch, incidentally, is the one authority Faine cited.) 
Even professional alarmist Tim Flannery cited Murdoch as his muse: 
To quote Rupert Murdoch, ‘You’ve got to give the planet the benefit of the doubt’…
In 2009 then Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull quoted him, too, to demand his party back Labor’s emissions trading scheme: 
If we were to, if this legislation is knocked back Kevin Rudd will have no choice but to go to a double dissolution election… The party would be, look we would be wiped out.... 
You know, as Rupert Murdoch famously said, and Rupert Murdoch is a hard-headed, naturally sceptical person I think as we all know, he said you’ve got to give the planet the benefit of the doubt, and that is the only responsible course of action.
Senator Nick Xenophon was still quoting Murdoch as recently as last week:
My view is this: I do believe that climate change is real and that we need to – as Rupert Murdoch once famously said – give the planet the benefit of the doubt.
And ABC and Fairfax journalists looked forward to me dropping my own scepticsm and mockery of Earth Hour in deference to my boss:
Last November, while in Japan, [Murdoch] announced his change of heart [on global warming]. “… I believe it is now our responsibility to take the lead on this issue,” he said then…
So News Corp cutting back to zero emissions would be the equivalent, Murdoch said, of turning off London for five days. It was an interesting analogy, given some of his columnists in Australia had criticised Earth Hour ... The Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt, a climate change sceptic, seemed exasperated that anyone would think the announcement would change his mind.
I suspect warmists won’t be demanding any longer that I listen more to Murdoch:
[Murdoch] said climate change should be treated with ‘’much scepticism’’. 
If the temperature rises 3C in 100 years, ‘’at the very most one of those [degrees] would be man-made,’’ he said. ‘’If the sea level rises six inches, that’s a big deal in the world, the Maldives might disappear or something, but OK, we can’t mitigate that, we can’t stop it, we have to stop building vast houses on seashores. ‘’We can be the low-cost energy country in the world. We shouldn’t be building windmills and all that rubbish,’’ he said.
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Moshe Schwartz
Hate is a crime that is punishable once it is matched with behaviour that is criminal. Until then, it isn't a crime. I hate everybody, but I don't have the energy to do anything about it. Sometimes, I wish those I hate would just hand over the cash, gold and trinkets. But we are locked in this eternal battle where I have to work for a living. I accept status quo. What worries me is when hate mixed with action isn't criminalised. As when the UN lets people bomb others and throw rocks .. ed
Should "hate" be a crime that is punishable? If so under what specific circumstances. Also if it is punishable then what thought should be legislated to replace it?
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IPCC vice chairman exposes his bias:

Google held a fundraiser for a skeptic senator (Jim Inhofe), which caused an uproar on the blogsphere. Now the IPCC vice chair tweets:

"Funding lunch for climate ‪#‎skeptic‬ should be unthinkable for @Google. Read http://www.sfchronicle.com/technology/dotcommentary/article/Lunch-for-Inhofe-should-be-unthinkable-for-Google-4656029.php?t=2975fe2f6947b02379 … cc @jtemple @MichaelEMann via @RichardTol"

".@EricSchmidt Are you OK with @Google, your company, funding climate ‪#‎skeptics‬?http://thinkprogress.org/?p=2257691@climatecentral Andrew Revkin"

"I just told @Google not to support ‪#‎climate‬skeptics like @JimInhofe! ‪#‎dontfundevil‬ See petition: http://act.forecastthefacts.org/sign/google_stop_funding_inhofe?referring_akid=.101506.8KRPzK&source=twitter… via Forecast the Facts"

This conclusively destroys the idea that the IPCC is a body that tries to make an unbiased assessment, of the global warming question.

Twitter feed here:
https://twitter.com/JPvanYpersele

Update:
Shub Niggurath responds:

"@JPvanYpersele Funding IPCC should be unthinkable for govts. Be forwarding msgs to mine @plazaeme @google @jtemple @MichaelEMann @RichardTol"

https://twitter.com/shubclimate/status/356175176485965825

- Gold Shub, and here at CCL, we wholeheartedly agree.
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"More than ever the establishment a Palestinian state in any format vaguely approaching the pre-1967 lines is likely to place hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians in mortal danger.

In light of past precedents, present circumstances and the high probability of a disastrous future outcome, pressure on the government to adhere to a policy that will imperil so many of its citizens should be considered tantamount to enemy action." - Martin Sherman, "Into the Fray: Incompetent, impotent, irrelevant" - JPost
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Roma Downey
"You can tell children how to act, but they will live what they see. Be an example of faith and love." -- Victoria Osteen
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Pastor Rick Warren
The real treasure in life isn't things but relationships. Sadly, most people don't figure this out until retirement.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
When I'm tempted to walk with my head down I remember ~ Psalms 3:3 ~ O Lord you are always here, a shield and lifter of my head
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How can anyone trust an Iranian regime's ex IRGC/ Qods forces interrogator who had forced political Prisoners playing a role in his films in the 80s?
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REAL unemployment is double the official figure - with 13 per cent of Australia's workforce wanting a job or longer hours.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released a new analysis that combines the official unemployment rate with "discouraged" jobseekers, the "underemployed'' and those who want to start work within a month, but cannot begin immediately.
The 13.1 per cent rate of "extended labour force under-utilisation'' in August 2012 was more than double the official unemployment rate at the time of 5 per cent.
The ABS counts people as employed even if they only work an hour a week.
But the new measure also counts underemployment - workers in part-time or casual positions who want a permanent job or longer hours.
And it includes those "discouraged'' jobseekers who want to work but have given up looking because employers consider them to be too old or too young, if they are ill or disabled, lack the necessary training or experience, cannot find a job locally or in their line of work, or cannot speak English well.
The ABS report shows the labour under-utilisation rate fell steadily between 2001 and 2008 but "increased sharply'' when the global financial crisis hit in 2009, from 10.6 per cent to 14.3 per cent.
Mission Australia chief executive Toby Hall yesterday called for a change to how the federal government calculates unemployment.
He said the current 5.6 per cent unemployment rate did not reflect the number of Australians on disability pensions, or who have given up looking for work.
"There are very few long-term jobs for people who are unemployed or work-challenged,'' he said.
"People are just giving up looking because there are no jobs to go to.''
Mr Hall said casual jobs that provide work for 10 hours one week and 20 the next "make life difficult to manage''.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said bosses wanted to hire extra staff and give existing workers more hours - but could not afford to.
"Many staff working part-time or casual hours want more work to supplement their income but the patchiness of the Australian economy is making that a very difficult ask,'' he said yesterday.
"Industry has sought to keep as many people in work as possible by adjusting their hours rather than retrenching them.''
The ABS report shows the "labour under-utilisation rate'' was much higher for women - at 14.2 per cent - than men, at 11.3 per cent.
And young Australians were find it toughest to crack the job market, with a third of 15 to 19-year-olds and nearly one in five 20 to 24-year-olds "under-utilised''.
Tasmania suffered the nation's highest rate of labour under-utilisation - with 18 per cent of the workforce wanting a job or more hours of work.
In South Australia, 14.6 per cent of the workforce was "under-utilised''.
In Victoria, 14.2 per cent of the workforce was "under-utilised".
In Queensland, 13.8 per cent of the workforce was "under-utilised".
In NSW, 12.3 per cent of the workforce was "under-utilised''.
In the Northern Territory, 7.5 per cent of the workforce was "under-utilised''.
The ABS report said the under-utilisation rate gave a "more comprehensive picture'' of the state of Australia's workforce than the pure jobless rate.
"While the unemployment rate is the most commonly used measure of available labour supply, it is by no means a comprehensive measure,'' it said.
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July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789)
The attack on Joseph Priestley's home, Fairhill
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“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry?"
Jonah 4:9
Anger is not always or necessarily sinful, but it has such a tendency to run wild that whenever it displays itself, we should be quick to question its character, with this enquiry, "Doest thou well to be angry?" It may be that we can answer, "YES." Very frequently anger is the madman's firebrand, but sometimes it is Elijah's fire from heaven. We do well when we are angry with sin, because of the wrong which it commits against our good and gracious God; or with ourselves because we remain so foolish after so much divine instruction; or with others when the sole cause of anger is the evil which they do. He who is not angry at transgression becomes a partaker in it. Sin is a loathsome and hateful thing, and no renewed heart can patiently endure it. God himself is angry with the wicked every day, and it is written in His Word, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." Far more frequently it is to be feared that our anger is not commendable or even justifiable, and then we must answer, "NO." Why should we be fretful with children, passionate with servants, and wrathful with companions? Is such anger honourable to our Christian profession, or glorifying to God? Is it not the old evil heart seeking to gain dominion, and should we not resist it with all the might of our newborn nature? Many professors give way to temper as though it were useless to attempt resistance; but let the believer remember that he must be a conqueror in every point, or else he cannot be crowned. If we cannot control our tempers, what has grace done for us? Some one told Mr. Jay that grace was often grafted on a crab-stump. "Yes," said he, "but the fruit will not be crabs." We must not make natural infirmity an excuse for sin, but we must fly to the cross and pray the Lord to crucify our tempers, and renew us in gentleness and meekness after His own image.

Evening

"When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me."
Psalm 56:9
It is impossible for any human speech to express the full meaning of this delightful phrase, "God is for me." He was "for us" before the worlds were made; he was "for us," or he would not have given his well-beloved son; he was "for us" when he smote the Only-begotten, and laid the full weight of his wrath upon him--he was "for us," though he was against him; he was "for us," when we were ruined in the fall--he loved us notwithstanding all; he was "for us," when we were rebels against him, and with a high hand were bidding him defiance; he was "for us," or he would not have brought us humbly to seek his face. He has been "for us" in many struggles; we have been summoned to encounter hosts of dangers; we have been assailed by temptations from without and within--how could we have remained unharmed to this hour if he had not been "for us"? He is "for us," with all the infinity of his being; with all the omnipotence of his love; with all the infallibility of his wisdom; arrayed in all his divine attributes, he is "for us,"--eternally and immutably "for us"; "for us" when yon blue skies shall be rolled up like a worn out vesture; "for us" throughout eternity. And because he is "for us," the voice of prayer will always ensure his help. "When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies be turned back." This is no uncertain hope, but a well grounded assurance--"this I know." I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up for the answer, assured that it will come, and that mine enemies shall be defeated, "for God is for me." O believer, how happy art thou with the King of kings on thy side! How safe with such a Protector! How sure thy cause pleaded by such an Advocate! If God be for thee, who can be against thee?
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Belshazzar

[Bĕlshăz'zar] - bel protect the king orthe lord's leader. The son of Nebuchadnezzar and last of the kings of Babylon (Dan. 5; 7:1; 8:1).

The Man Whose Sacrilege Brought Judgment

The story of King Belshazzar is a short one. He bursts upon the stage, then disappears. All we know about him is told in one brief chapter. What we do know about Belshazzar is that he made a great feast to which a thousand of his lords were invited and that they drank out of the vessels of gold and silver taken from the house of God as they toasted their heathen gods. Drunkenness was a prevailing vice in all ranks of the Babylonians. Belshazzar, who feared neither God nor man, manifested his vanity, profaneness and pride in the sacrilegious use of the holy vessels, and in the midst of the drunken orgy, a hidden hand writing out mysterious words interrupted their godless mirth.
Although he could not decipher the writing on the wall, Belshazzar's conscience somehow interpreted the words over against the candlestick. Terror gripped him because he felt the message spelled his doom. His own wise men failed to read the writing, so Daniel was brought in and informed the king of its significance, and that night Belshazzar, king of Babylon, was slain. The army of Darius ransacked the palace and quickly mingled the king's blood with the wine in the banqueting hall.
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Today's reading: Psalm 7-9, Acts 18 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 7-9

A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite.
1 LORD my God, I take refuge in you;
save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
2 or they will tear me apart like a lion
and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
3 LORD my God, if I have done this
and there is guilt on my hands-
4 if I have repaid my ally with evil
or without cause have robbed my foe-
5 then let my enemy pursue and overtake me;
let him trample my life to the ground
and make me sleep in the dust....

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 18

In Corinth
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
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