Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Tue Jul 21st Todays News

Facing evil is something the civilised world has to do. There is the issue of bigotry which is unacceptable, whether it comes from Christian groups wanting to catch fire, or neo Nazis, or jihadi supporters .. or the socialist left. However, the unremitting bloodthirsty jihadist is an evil that civilisation can never accept and must oppose firmly and resolutely. Against such a foe the police and the army must work together. Let them speak freely, so that we can know who they are. But don't promote them as having reason. Don't give them a narrative suggesting their cause has foundation. Speak reason, and let slip the dogs of war. 

 Doctors Without Borders perform the same dangerous political stunt, copying Sarah Hanson Young on her mediterranean holiday, where she encouraged economic migrants to risk their lives. Charity such as doctors without borders lose credibility from doing so. The Australian practice of turning back boats and off shore processing is much better at protecting from needless loss of life, but also prevents people from giving money to people smugglers. 

 Peter Costello, the last competent treasurer before Joe Hockey has called for leadership on tax issues. Costello argues that good policy will not be carried through parliament bilaterally. Central to that fact is that the ALP has not been responsible in recent years, being too close to trade unions who are in turn corrupt. The GST was never bilaterally supported. Australia does not need to raise taxes, but to cut expenses. But maybe the only way to cut taxes and expenses is to change the mix. Hockey has correctly flagged one problem with the GST is that it may not catch international business working through the internet. So that maybe a GST with cut income tax is not the future. But the immediate need for the government is to cut spending. To dump those public servants that do nothing beyond absorbing paycheques. ALP are confusing the debate by saying that poorer are worse off under any changed circumstance. The poor will be much worse off if we fail to cut spending and can no longer fund welfare. 

 Bronwyn Bishop has repaid flagged expenses that some had expressed concern about. Will opposition leader Shorten do as he demanded? Shorten refuses to answer the question. But the truth is politicians exist to do stunts to sell government and state. They need their expenses to do their jobs. The spending may appear bad, but it is not outrageous. One would let the ALP keep their expenses if they'd only pay back the $400 billion they've misplaced from government. 

 How many workers has Bill Shorten short changed? His time as leader of the AWU saw Bill Shorten be the bastard boss who charged workers to get cuts in conditions and pay. 

Media Watch misleads over many issues, including AGW belief. Their graphs are wrong. Their figures are wrong. They could pay their own salaries and it would not be worth broadcasting their lies. 

 Australian film funding model doesn't work in Australia or elsewhere. The industry is captured by the left wing of politics and cannot produce shows highlighting the modern world or Australia of the past. Only a rose coloured false reality. In Pennsylvania, one local government has given $500k to a movie guy for 3 DVD's. They must feel short changed. When they get their DVD's, that is. 

 Humorists call Australian surfer hitting shark away an act of domestic violence. Humorists are funny. 

In 356 BC, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was destroyed by arson. 230, Pope Pontian succeeded Urban I as the eighteenth pope. 285, Diocletian appointed Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler. 365, a tsunami devastated the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter scale. Five thousand people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city. 1242, Battle of Taillebourg : Louis IX of France put an end to the revolt of his vassals Henry III of England and Hugh X of Lusignan. 1403, Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeated rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.

In 1545, the first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight. 1568, Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeated Louis of Nassau. 1645, Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issued an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus. 1656, the Raid on Málaga took place during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1718, the Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice was signed. 1774, Russo-Turkish War (1768–74): Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ending the war.

In 1831, inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians. 1861, American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war began and ended in a victory for the Confederate army. 1865, in the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown. 1873, at Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West. 1877, after rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania staged a sympathy strike that was met with an assault by the state militia.

In 1904, Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, became the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium. 1907, the passenger steamer SS Columbia collided with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, causing the Columbia to sink killing 88 people. 1914, the Crown council of Romania decided for the country to remain neutral in World War I. 1918, U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts. 1919, the dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people. 1925, Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100. Also 1925, Sir Malcolm Campbell, father of Donald Campbell, became the first man to break the 150 mph (241 km/h) land barrier at Pendine Sands in Wales. He drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).

In 1944, World War II: Battle of Guam – American troops landed on Guam starting the battle. It would end on August 10. Also 1944, World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators were executed in Berlin, Germany, for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. 1949, the United States Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty. 1954, First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. 1959, NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, was launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative. Also 1959, Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green became the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2–1 loss to the Chicago White Sox. 1961, Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 became the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).

In 1970, after 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed. 1972, the Troubles: Bloody Friday – the Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing nine and injuring 130. 1973, in the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents killed a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. 1976, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, was assassinated by the Provisional IRA. 1977, the start of the four-day-long Libyan–Egyptian War. 1983, the world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). 1995, Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan. 2008, Ram Baran Yadav was declared the first president of Nepal. 2011, NASA's Space Shuttle program ended with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135. 2012, Erden Eruç completed the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.
2014
Community standards change over time. Some say they evolve. The television series Tudors had Henry VIII saying he wouldn't choose a female very young, he preferred them ripe. But then one of his wives was executed for being promiscuous when she was only nineteen years old. In the sequel to the Three Musketeers, Raoul has fallen in love with a six year old and, ten years later, when she won't commit to him, joins the foreign legion to die in battle. It is true Roman Polanski was not jailed for his rape of a child, but then that does not mean the community approves what he did. But a disturbing event which happened in Afghanistan highlights a glaring difference in cultural values between the Islamic world and the West. A Mullah has raped a 10 yo girl in a mosque. Her family openly considered killing her for honour. The Mullah has offered to marry her. The girl had been hiding in a shelter, and the police turned up to the shelter and have returned her to her family. Such is not an isolated incident in the Islamic world. But it overstates things to say Australia is not subject to ridiculous age inappropriate relationships. Kyle Sandilands seemed to think nothing of asking a young girl of her sexual experiences when she was tethered to a lie detector and her mother was present. Some years ago, a Queensland cop who had been successful was sacked after it came out he had had sex with an underage girl (a 13 yo) .. when he had been twelve years old. But special dispensation for age difference is a joke when it is remembered the leader of the 5t gang had been attending a high school as a fifteen year old when he was probably in his early twenties .. The issue is probably not Islam, but cultural differences. But that is a very fine point. 

If you prize Australia's cultural heritage you have to embrace the cultural heritage of Ancient Greece. According to poet Robert Graves, who survived WW1 and went on to write I Claudius and the Greek Myths and Legends, early Greece had queens who were the power base, centred around three goddesses. The first goddess was Hera, cow eyed and wife of Zeus, her eyes would follow him even were he to forget she was watching. Second goddess was the young, mature woman, Aphrodite. More than solely sexual, she was uber desirable and virtuously attainable resulting in fruit of passion, children. The third goddess was Athena, patron of wisdom. Athena is the girl child, prepubescent. She does not know mature love, but she knows everything else. Springing fully formed from Zeus' head, Athena is like well brought up girls, virtuous, opinionated and dictatorial. On a lesser tier is the twin sister of Apollo, Artemis, the Huntress. One of the seven wonders of the world, the temple of Artemis in Ephesus was finished in 550 BC. In 356 BC, an attack by Goths resulted in the destruction of the Temple on this day. Later, Ephesus would probably be the place where the disciple John would write Revelations. 

On this day in 365, a tsunami did in Alexandria. In 1403, King Henry IV tamed Shropshire at the Battle of Shrewsbury. In 1645, Chinese men faced bad hair days. In 1865, Wild Bill Hickock had the first western showdown, and won. In 1873, Jesse James and his gang pulled off the first train robbery. In 1902, the first air conditioner is made by Willis Carrier. In 1925, the Scopes trial finished with the teacher fined $100 for teaching evolution. In 1944, Claus Von Stauffenberg was executed for his failed assassination attempt on Hitler. In 1949, US ratified NATO. In 1959, Elijah Green became the first African American to play Major League Baseball for the Red Sox, the last team to integrate. In 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. In 1972 and 1976, IRA killed people for no reason. In 1973, Mossad made a mistake. It happens. In 1995, China narrowly avoided the censure Russia is experiencing now. In 2007, the last Harry Potter novel was published. Birthdays for Jean Picard (1620), Ernest Hemmingway (1899) and Cat Stevens (1948). We lost Robert Burns 1796) and Basil Rathbone (1967)
Historical perspectives on this day
In 356 BC, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was destroyed by arson. 230, Pope Pontian succeeded Urban I as the eighteenth pope. 285, Diocletian appointed Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler. 365, a tsunami devastated the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter scale. Five thousand people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city. 1242, Battle of Taillebourg : Louis IX of France put an end to the revolt of his vassals Henry III of England and Hugh X of Lusignan. 1403, Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeated rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.

 In 1545, the first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight. 1568, Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeated Louis of Nassau. 1645, Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issued an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus. 1656, the Raid on Málaga took place during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1718, the Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice was signed. 1774, Russo-Turkish War (1768–74): Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ending the war.

 In 1831, inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians. 1861, American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war began and ended in a victory for the Confederate army. 1865, in the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown. 1873, at Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West. 1877, after rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania staged a sympathy strike that was met with an assault by the state militia.

 In 1904, Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, became the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium. 1907, the passenger steamer SS Columbia collided with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, causing the Columbia to sink killing 88 people. 1914, the Crown council of Romania decided for the country to remain neutral in World War I. 1918, U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts. 1919, the dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people. 1925, Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100. Also 1925, Sir Malcolm Campbell, father of Donald Campbell, became the first man to break the 150 mph (241 km/h) land barrier at Pendine Sands in Wales. He drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).

 In 1944, World War II: Battle of Guam – American troops landed on Guam starting the battle. It would end on August 10. Also 1944, World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators were executed in Berlin, Germany, for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. 1949, the United States Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty. 1954, First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. 1959, NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, was launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative. Also 1959, Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green became the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2–1 loss to the Chicago White Sox. 1961, Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 became the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).

 In 1970, after 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed. 1972, the Troubles: Bloody Friday – the Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing nine and injuring 130. 1973, in the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents killed a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. 1976, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, was assassinated by the Provisional IRA. 1977, the start of the four-day-long Libyan–Egyptian War. 1983, the world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). 1995, Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan. 2008, Ram Baran Yadav was declared the first president of Nepal. 2011, NASA's Space Shuttle program ended with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135. 2012, Erden Eruç completed the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.
=== 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.
===
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. 
===
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.
===
Happy birthday and many happy returns Lyly Mach, Matt Bourke, Jakimoski Lupco Louie, Leena Brooks, Josh Minnis and Su Tao. Born on the same day, across the years along with Cat Stevens (1948), Robin Williams (1951) and Ernest Hemmingway (1899). 365 – A large earthquake that occurred near Crete and its subsequent tsunami caused widespread destruction throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.
1645 – Qing Dynasty regent Dorgon issued an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus.
1865 – In one of the few recorded instances of a "quick draw" gun duel in the American Old West, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt over a poker debt.
1973 – Mossad agents mistakenly assassinated a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, whom they believed had been involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
1977 – Libyan forces carried out a raid at Sallum, sparking a four-day war with Egypt.
What a statement for your day. The earth moves. You are leaders in fashion. If you make a mistake, you correct it. And finish it. Rock on.
Deaths
Leopold I of Belgium
That bonfire is a wonder of the world. He leaped with joy. He shot wild, but straight, too. Scopes not only was about evolution, it was about phrenology and eugenics too. The PLA shot wildly, and missed. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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BOSS BEWILDERED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 21, 2015 (6:42pm)

Besieged Gawker Media founder and CEO Nick Denton early on Monday: 
This is the company I built. 
Besieged Gawker Media founder and CEO Nick Denton later on Monday: 
This is not the company I built. 
Poor chap seems a little confused.
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INVESTMENT PAYS OFF

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 21, 2015 (2:34pm)

In Pennsylvania, a local government follows the Australian film funding model, with predictable results:
A decade ago, Lackawanna County’s governing commission invested $500,000 to help the actor Paul Sorvino produce and direct a movie called “The Trouble With Cali” in Scranton, the county seat. The idea was to promote the city of 75,000 as a lower-cost alternative to Los Angeles or other big cities for film production …
In return for its $500,000 investment, which covered a large share of the production costs, the county received three Blu-ray discs of the movie, which officials promise will be available soon at the Scranton library. 
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IT WASN’T TRYING TO SHAKE HANDS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 21, 2015 (12:54pm)

Clementine Ford considers surfer Mick Fanning’s survival of a shark attack and is reminded of domestic violence against women.
UPDATE. Twenty Stupid Feminist Questions For Men Answered, featuring Clementine, Jane Caro and various others. (Via Chris P.)
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PAY THE BILL

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 21, 2015 (3:57am)

Bronwyn Bishop has repaid her travel costs after attending a party fundraiser. Now it’s Bill Shorten’s turn.
UPDATE. Labor up, Bill down: 
Bill Shorten’s support has hit a record low 27 per cent as voters mark the Labor leader’s performance as worse than Tony Abbott’s, despite backing for the ALP rising to a four-month high.
The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, also shows Mr Abbott is back in front as preferred prime minister but support for the Coalition remained flat since its post-budget rise, as the opposition improved its lead in two-party terms by 53 per cent to 47 per cent. 
This presents something of a dilemma for Labor. It could be that the greatest barrier to a potential Labor victory at the next federal election is the current Labor leader. But a change of leader would revive the electorate’s memory of Labor’s Rudd-Gillard leadership wars.
UPDATE II. Tanya! 
Tanya Plibersek is strengthening her claims to the Labor leadership with the symbolic support of former deputy prime minister Wayne Swan in a cross-factional friendship that is raising eyebrows among federal MPs amid anxiety over Bill Shorten’s ability to win the next election. 
UPDATE III. Shorten ducks and weaves.
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The compassion of a union organiser and refugee spokesman

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (10:09pm)

Charming person we’ve given a new home to:
Aran Mylvaganam was born in Nagar kovil in Northern Sri Lanka. Between 1995 and 1997 he lived in a refugee camp in Udayarkaddu, before coming to Australia as a 13-year-old unaccompanied refugee in 1997. He was detained in Villawood detention centre for three months. In 2011 he founded the Tamil Refugee Council. Aran currently works as a union organiser with the Finance Sector Union and spokesperson for the Tamil Refugee Council.
He bids farewell to Don Randall, the respected Liberal MP who died suddenly today:
image
The Left is the natural home of the modern barbarian. The Tamil Refugee Council needs a new spokesman as of now. 
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Don Randall dies

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (7:07pm)

This will make a lot of MPs reconsider their lives and careers:

Western Australian Federal government MP Don Randall has died aged 62 after a suspected heart attack.
Mr Randall, the Liberal member for Canning, was found unresponsive in his car on Club Drive near Boddington Golf Course, 130km south of Perth, just before 3pm (AWST).
The death is not being treated as suspicious.
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Trump the draft dodger mocks record of war hero McCain

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (5:51pm)


  What a clown:
Donald Trump ... has lobbed his latest verbal grenade by dismissing the military record of senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war.
The flamboyant billionaire businessman, reality TV star and Republican presidential contender said Senator McCain — a decorated aviator who was tortured in a prison camp for five years — did not deserve hero status for his Vietnam War service.
“He’s not a war hero,” Mr Trump told a gathering of social conservative activists in the midwestern state of Iowa.
“He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?”
Mr Trump, 69, has never served in the military.
The Washington Post compares service records - and character:
What Donald Trump was up to while John McCain was a prisoner of war
Read it. Not flattering to one of the men. 
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Costello: summits don’t mean leadership

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (4:18pm)

Another tax summit? Former Treasurer Peter Costello said summits usually give us nothing. Only leadership works:

NEXT month we are going to have a summit of business groups, unions, welfare groups and others to work out where the country should be going…
But I do urge a little realism about the usefulness of such summits… Let me remind you of the 2020 summit held in 2008 at Parliament House, Canberra. Kevin Rudd summoned what he described as 1000 of Australia’s “best and brightest people … to help shape the nation’s future"…
The 2020 summit called for a root-and-branch review of the tax system. It was big on reviews. The review, authored by former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, duly arrived in 2009 and was duly ignored apart from one thing, a mining tax, which raised no money and has now been abolished…
And don’t forget the National Tax Forum of 2011. It was a two-day event opened by prime minister Julia Gillard in the Great Hall of Parliament ...  to map out the future of the tax system… It’s hard enough to remember the summit let alone anything that came out of it.
Then there was the Tax Summit of 1985. The really big idea at that summit was the so-called “Option C”, which was a 12.5 per cent consumption tax like the American retail tax. It was not nearly as comprehensive as a GST. But the summit killed it off…
There is a lot of wishful thinking around that if we could only get everyone to agree with each other, we could do great things. We might. But the ...  GST never had bipartisan support…
Whatever next month’s summit decides, let’s remember that in a parliamentary democracy, reform will still require political leadership endorsed by electoral success.  
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But what was in this deal for Bill?

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (9:31am)

How many workers did Bill Shorten sell out?:

A deal signed by Bill Shorten and an employer to supply labour to Cirque du Soleil’s national tour ­became the subject of an extraordinary legal challenge from a rival company alleging the deal left workers worse off while “the AWU does well”.
The bargain struck by Mr ­Shorten as head of the Australian Workers Union in 2001 gave rise to furious submissions in the ­former industrial relations commission between rival labour hire firms Adecco and Manpower.
In an echo of deals brokered by Mr Shorten, which were examined by the trade union royal commission last month, the 2001 enterprise bargaining agreement between the AWU and Adecco paid below-award rates, but guaranteed payroll deductions for union dues and further payments by the employer to the union.
The agreement, which dictated the wages for ushers, ticket-sellers and other staff outsourced by the Canadian acrobatic circus company, excluding cast and crew, provided for a stipend to be paid by Adecco to the AWU of $2 per ­employee, worth as much as $20,000 in additional revenue to the union, for “training”.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Media Watch misleads on warming: presenting old discredited predictions and not the cool reality

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (9:15am)

No, of course the ABC isn’t biased. It is just pure coincidence that its presenters uniformly spruik global warming alarmism and punished any dissenters.
For instance, the ABC’s Paul Barry on Media Watch last night attacked reports of warnings of a new “little ice age” by contrasting that predicted cooling effect with the much greater human-caused warming that warmists predict.
Here is the five-year-old graphic he presented as his proof:
image
Missing from his misleading argument? Any mention of the fact that this graphic showing massive predicted warming has for the past 18 years been completely contradicted by a lack of actual warming.  Here is the graphic presented by leading climate scientist John Christy to a US senate committee this year:
image
Why did Barry present warmist predictions, not the cool reality?
Reader Turtle of WA summarises:
Paul Barry attempted to weigh into the ‘New Ice Age’ debate tonight on Media Watch. Barry scoffed at the research, then ran a clip of Dr Karl scoffing at it. He then attempted some science. He laughed at the possibility of a 0.2 degree effect on the climate by 2030 - 15 years away. There has been no warming for more than 15 years - this was not mentioned. Nor that all of the dreadful warming that is supposed to have happened in the last 100 years is only 0.7 - 0.8 degrees. He didn’t look at the data, only the climate models. Barry was right to say the models show warming that outdoes the 0.2 of cooling. The only problem is that the satellite data has failed to show any warming this century, and doesn’t look like starting soon.
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I don’t think people really understand the evil we face

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (9:08am)

What we are facing::
The children each received a doll and a sword. Then they were lined up, more than 120 of them, and given their next lesson by their Islamic State group instructors: Behead the doll.”
A 14 year old who was among the line of abducted boys from Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority said at first he couldn’t cut it right — he chopped once, twice, three times.
“Then they taught me how to hold the sword, and they told me how to hit. They told me it was the head of the infidels,” the boy, renamed Yahya by his Islamic State captors, recalled in an interview last week with The Associated Press in northern Iraq, where he fled after escaping the IS training camp.
And the reach of the Islamic States extends now into Turkey:
A suspected female Islamic State suicide bomber has set off an explosion near a cultural centre hosting youth activists in a Turkish town near the border with Syria, leaving 31 dead and scores injured.
The blast ripped through the centre in Suruc, just a few miles from the Syrian flashpoint of Kobane - which was itself later hit in a co-ordinated suicide car bombing.
Most of the dead were university students with the Federation of Socialist Youths, who had been planning a mission to help rebuild Kobane, which was retaken by Kurds from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militants earlier this year.
If Isil’s role is confirmed, it would be one of the extremist group’s deadliest strike on Turkish soil to date.
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.)

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Another Leftist groups smuggles illegal immigrants into Europe

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (9:04am)

Last week it was Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on a ship of activists helping to ferry illegal immigrants into Europe.
This week:
Italian authorities turned away a boat with some 700 migrants aboard as there was no room left in immigration centres.
The boat, operated by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), was turned away from Sicily due to “lack of capacity in the Italian (migrant) reception system,” before heading for Reggio Calabria on the southern tip of the country on Saturday.
The Left really does want Europe drowned by mass immigration from the Third World. That’s some death wish.
(Thanks to reader Old Fellah.) 
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Damn hypocrites

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (8:54am)

Bill Shorten:
Journalist: Can you guarantee that no Labor MPs have used taxpayer funding to attend party events?
Shorten: I can guarantee that no one’s caught a helicopter between Melbourne and Geelong.
That wasn’t the question. 
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The Abbott Government has ended its own comeback

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (8:32am)

The Abbott Government’s comeback has completely stalled. The public simply cannot forgive it for the broken promises and spending cuts, however necessary, and the Government simply hasn’t presented a compelling case for voting for it:
The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, also shows Mr Abbott is back in front as preferred prime minister but support for the Coalition remained flat since its post-budget rise, as the opposition improved its lead in two-party terms by 53 per cent to 47 per cent.
The Coalition is pinning a lot of hope on this:
Amid intense scrutiny on the Labor leader in recent weeks following his recent appearance at the trade union royal commission, voter satisfaction with Mr Shorten dropped one point to a low of 27 per cent.
Just days before he attends his first ALP national conference as leader, Mr Shorten’s satisfaction rating is six points worse than Mr Abbott’s, which is unchanged at 33 per cent.
A reminder: Tony Abbott was never popular as an Opposition leader yet still won an election against an unpopular government.
And there’s this to worry about, too:
Tanya Plibersek is strengthening her claims to the Labor leadership with the symbolic support of former deputy prime minister Wayne Swan in a cross-factional friendship that is raising eyebrows among federal MPs amid anxiety over Bill Shorten’s ability to win the next election.’’
God, what a dangerous prospect for Australia. Say goodbye to any budget discipline. Say hello to mad Leftist policies.
The Government still could win once voters are forced to consider between the two sides in an election. Indeed, it should still win.
But the past week has shown again how easily the Government can be tripped up by its own hubris. Bronwyn Bishop’s travel claims whipped the spotlight off Bill Shorten just when he was at his weakest, and just before Labor’s national conference. Defending her just made the Government look even worse and more hypocritical, given its mantra about tightening our belts.
And now the Government is deep in a debate about raising the GST - a debate that is bound to end badly. Isn’t this the government that insisted we didn’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem? Didn’t this government promise lower taxes? And won’t the Senate reject a higher GST anyway? 
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Why are we talking about even bigger tax rises when we’re taxed too much already?

Andrew Bolt July 21 2015 (8:19am)

Joe Hockey said he aimed to offer tax cuts at the next election, but ever since the discussion has been about raising taxes instead - starting with raising the GST.
NSW Premier Mike Baird:
So, if you get to a position, rolling forward both budgets – Commonwealth and States – to 2030, when you get to that position on reasonably conservative assumptions you get to $45 billion worth of deficits. Of which $35 billion is health costs. So, the big challenge we face is how do we fund health costs because at the moment we haven’t got the capacity to do it.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill:
...there should be a discussion about new revenue measures.
ACT chief minister Andrew Barr:
Yes, we certainly do need as a country to raise more revenue in order to meet our growing health costs.
This is scary. We have company tax rates higher than our competitors. We have a top marginal tax rate of an astonishing 49 cents in the dollar, punishing hard work. Yet the answer is not to tax us less (and spend less) but to tax us even harder.
Terry McCrann says the result would be a GST hit that would last forever, but personal tax cuts that would vanish almost overnight:
... simply doing what Baird has suggested, lifting the GST from 10 to 15 per cent without broadening it, would cost Australians more than double what a new Labor carbon tax/ETS would (at least in its early years).
That increased GST would whack Australians an extra $30 billion or so every year. The new carbon tax might start as low as $10 billion a year, but it would grow every year after that.
Worse, much worse, just to be especially “helpful,” the accountants chose yesterday to unveil “their” 15 per cent GST which would more than double the entire cost of the existing GST!
The existing GST costs Australians around $60 billion a year. The accountants want to more than double that to around $130 billion a year…
Further, even if Abbott’s increased GST was supposed to be a trade-off for Hockey tax cuts (sic), it wouldn’t be. The GST — and any increase in it — are forever. But personal tax cuts get sucked back to Canberra courtesy of the inexorable working of bracket creep.
Indeed the tax cuts (sic) that Hockey is promising — correction, “aiming for” — are precisely to return (some of) the bracket creep increases that have been harvested since former treasurer Peter Costello’s last (real) tax cuts in 2007…
Absent the permanent indexation of the tax scales, which you will never see again after the failed experience with it briefly in the Fraser-Howard years of the late-1970s, any bracket creep-returning tax cuts operate for just one year. 
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The landmark Free Trade Agreement we have concluded with China, our biggest trading partner, will create thousands of...
Posted by Andrew Robb AO MP on Monday, 20 July 2015

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WHAT YOUR CAT IS THINKING:
Posted by Dave on Sunday, 19 July 2015

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#VotingMatter #KnowYourCandidate #EducateVoters #InformVoters #EmpowerVoters
Posted by Join the Coffee Party Movement on Thursday, 16 July 2015

Meh life goes on even if you don't live it. Thing about politics is even if you participate you may be powerless. The adage "Knowledge is power" is overstated. Some dolts get power. The trick is not to be master of others, but master of your own domain. And sometimes that means being assertive of what matters to you. And that is politics
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Posted by CISN Country 103.9 on Saturday, 18 July 2015


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Posted by Michael Berry on Sunday, 14 June 2015

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Posted by Codeblack Comedy on Tuesday, 14 July 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

WE ARE APPALLED

Tim Blair – Monday, July 21, 2014 (1:17pm)

A tax is removed and the Age is sad: 
We are appalled … that the Coalition has repealed the carbon tax, which was a transitional step towards an emissions trading scheme the like of which is working in Europe and elsewhere … 
“Working in Europe”? That’s a phrase you don’t hear much these days. Next, an old favourite: 
Australia, the nation with the highest level of emissions per capita … 
This is a stupid and dishonest way to measure Australia’s emissions. Also, it just isn’t true:

image

Our tax-loving Fairfax pals continue: 
The Age applauds Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s statement that he and the ALP continue to support an emissions trading scheme. 
So does Tony Abbott.
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SYDNEY COWGIRL

Tim Blair – Monday, July 21, 2014 (10:47am)

Armed with a country tune written when she was just 13, my Daily Telegraph friend Sarrah Le Marquand aims to outsell a creepy guy. Please listen and buy.
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FANS COVERED

Tim Blair – Monday, July 21, 2014 (10:44am)

2014. Official AFL hijabs:

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2024. Carlton fans in team colours present their membership passes. One is wearing the away strip:

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NO SPIN ZONE

Tim Blair – Monday, July 21, 2014 (10:27am)

A brave little wind turbine bites the dust in Germany: 
It stood still for years, and finally it was taken down in the summer of 2013. In the meantime the concrete pad has also been removed. After the liquidation is completed, the area where the turbine stood will be re-naturalized under the supervision of forest authorities … The wind turbine did not pay off. 
At least it wasn’t cremated.
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NOTHING BUT THE SWORD

Tim Blair – Monday, July 21, 2014 (10:21am)

Feel the diversity in northern Iraq: 
Christian families streamed out of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday after Islamist fighters said they would be killed if they did not pay a protection tax or convert to Islam …
The warning was read out in Mosul’s mosques on Friday afternoon, and broadcast throughout the city on loudspeakers.
“We offer [Christians] three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract - involving payment ... if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword,” the announcement read …
In recent days, Islamic State fighters had reportedly been tagging Mosul’s Christian houses with the letter N for “Nassarah”, the term by which the Koran refers to Christians. 
If the marking claim is accurate – there are photographs – this represents yet another historic alignment between extreme Islam and a certain previous movement.
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PALME D’CRAP

Tim Blair – Monday, July 21, 2014 (12:55am)

Mark Steyn reviews Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, ten years on. Like Mike, the film hasn’t aged well.
UPDATE: 
With his divorce trial looming, Michael Moore is battling his wife over the valuation of the couple’s assets, while branding her a spendthrift who “unilaterally wasted a large percentage of the marital funds” building a lakefront mansion that has prompted mocking news stories about the activist filmmaker’s wealth.
Moore and Kathleen Glynn are scheduled for trial next month …
Moore, 60, and Glynn, 56, were married nearly 23 years ago and have no children … The couple’s real estate holdings include a total of nine properties in Michigan and New York …
In a sworn affidavit, Moore reported that, in 2011, Glynn “discussed with me problems she was having with the money she was spending (which caused us some serious financial losses).” As a result of that conversation, Moore added, it was mutually decided that he would be “responsible for the signing of the checks.” 
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Ukraine attacks

Andrew Bolt July 21 2014 (7:58pm)

Ukraine moves against Donetsk, the key rebel-held city:
The Ukrainian military on Monday renewed its assault on this rebel-held city, even as international investigators in the region were trying to secure the remains of all 298 passengers and crew killed in the downing of a Malaysian Airlines jet. 
Explosions and artillery fire could be heard in central Donetsk from the direction of the city’s train station and airport, and a spokesman for the pro-Russian rebels also said there was fighting near the central market. Portions of the city 40 miles from the crash site were closed off. “This is a planned offensive,” said a Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladislav Seleznev. The military is trying to push rebels away from the airport, he said. “Aviation and artillery are not aiming at civilian residences,” he said. “Their only aim is to block the terrorists and fighters.”
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Where is the murder weapon? Russia conducting a cover-up before our eyes

Andrew Bolt July 21 2014 (5:43pm)

In a murder investigation the most critical piece of physical evidence - other than the body - is the murder weapon.
So where is the rocket launcher that brought down MH17?
The very fact that it has not been produced is proof of a cover-up.
If that launcher is Russia’s, as seems nearly certain, the cover-up is by Russia. The vanishing of the launcher is an admission of guilt.
US secretary of state John Kerry on the cover-up:
We know for certain that the separatists have a proficiency that they’ve gained by training from Russians as to how to use these sophisticated SA-11 systems. We know they have the system. We know that they had this system to a certainty on Monday the 14th beforehand, because the social media was reporting it and tracking it. And on Thursday of the event, we know that within hours of this event, this particular system passed through two towns right in the vicinity of the shoot-down. We know because we observed it by imagery that at the moment of the shoot-down, we detected a launch from that area and our trajectory shows that it went to the aircraft. 
We also know to a certainty that the social media immediately afterwards saw reports of separatists bragging about knocking down a plane, and then the so-called defense minister, self-appointed of the People’s Republic of Donetsk, Igor Strelkov, posted a social media report bragging about the shoot-down of a transport plane – at which point when it became clear it was civilian, they pulled down that particular report. We know from intercepts, voices which had been correlated to intercepts that we have that those are in fact the voices of separatists, talking about the shoot-down of the plane… And now we have a video showing the – a launcher moving back through a particular area there out into Russia with a missing – at least one missing missile on it.
The video Kerry referred to:
Inside Russia, near the Ukrainian border, a blogger follows a military transport carrying a shrouded object the size of the missile launcher, three days after the shooting down:
This video has not been confirmed as genuine.
Ukrainian intelligence has released two telephone intercepts - both as yet not confirmed as genuine by independent experts - which it claims confirm Russia has ordered Ukrainian separatists to hide evidence:
Here is what is actually happening. Russia is conducting massive cover-up before our very eyes. Putin is using the bodies as a hostage, muting criticism by nations desperate for the return of the dead. And he’s playing out this sick farce for as long as he needs to destroy the evidence. 
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Putin covers up his crime

Andrew Bolt July 21 2014 (7:34am)

 RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin has the blood of Australians on his hands, and is now hiding the evidence of his crimes.
But blame the West, too, for its fatal weakness.
In fact, the Abbott Government hopes to use the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines MH17 to persuade the West to muscle up at last to Russia.
It is Russia — under Putin’s policy of securing his borders — which helped pro-Russian militias seize parts of eastern Ukraine, making them near lawless.

It is Putin’s Russia which supplied those thugs with arms, almost certainly including the BUK SA-11 missile launcher suspected of shooting down MH17, cruising 10,000m overhead.
It is a Russian colonel in a Russian military headquarters who was taped, according to Ukrainian intercepts, receiving a call from a rebel commander telling him: “We have just shot down a plane.”
It may even be Russia, the Government suspects, which supplied the operators of the sophisticated SA-11.
(Read full article here.) 
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Immigrants turn Paris into another Muslim war zone

Andrew Bolt July 21 2014 (6:02am)

 Third-world immigration - and the far-Left - has made parts of France no long safe for Jews. And not just them:
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched in French cities on Saturday to condemn violence in Gaza, defying a ban imposed after demonstrators marched on two synagogues in Paris last weekend and clashed with riot police. 
A Reuters photographer said demonstrators in northern Paris launched projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing teargas canisters and stun grenades… At least one car was set on fire.
A police spokesman said that 38 demonstrators had been arrested by early evening and that the clashes were dying down… In the first three months of 2014 more Jews left France for Israel than at any other time since the Jewish state was created in 1948, with many citing rising anti-Semitism as a factor.
Import a people, import a culture - one that’s destroying Paris, too.  This is the brutal truth politicians do not dare discuss when designing immigration programs.
That “peace” protesters are violent is now taken for granted. Their real problem is clearly that the “wrong” side is winning:
UPDATE
And Australian Jews are seeing Third World mass immigration - and Labor - turn Australia into a more hostile place, too:
AS rocket fire ricochets across the Middle East and Israel invades Gaza to halt attacks from Hamas, former foreign minister Bob Carr is leading a push within Labor to formally adopt a more “pro-Palestinian” stance in the party’s policy platform. 
Mr Carr will move a motion from the floor of the NSW Labor conference next weekend seeking to shift the party’s Middle East policy to express more sympathy with Palestinians in response to what sections of the party argue is the increasingly bellicose stance of Israel.
The former NSW premier, who branded the Australian ­Israel lobby as “Likudniks” and accused them of hijacking foreign policy during Julia Gillard’s government, is leading an effort inside the party to recast Labor’s stance in response to a series of motions condemning Israel from local branches… A raft of motions sent to the conference from local branches and unions, obtained by The Australian, condemn the Israeli government, express strong support for the Palestinian people and urge the fast-tracking of a two-state solution…

The motions come from branches dominated by the Right and Left factions, signalling an underlying shift in the party on Middle East policy re­inforced by demographic change. 
From 2012, this explanation of what “demographic change” actually means - Labor policy abandoning principle and defence of Western culture in exchange for the votes of newer immigrants from the Muslim Third World:

In the face of Gillard’s initial demand for support [for Israel at the UN], cabinet ministers began to complain there was no real explanation for the position, arguing the US was not overly exercised, many Labor seats were affected by Middle Eastern populations, Christian and Muslim, and there was a policy argument for sending Israel a message “as a friend”. 
The word “Christian” seems to have been added only recently to the narrative, almost certainly for cover. I suspect the spin of Bob Carr… From the Financial Review today: 
Islamic voters are set to play a crucial role in a swag of key federal seats, with Muslims comprising more than 20 per cent of the total population in the western Sydney electorates of Blaxland and Watson. 
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2011 census showed that people who identified as Islamic constituted 23 per cent of voters in Blaxland and 20 per cent in Watson, seats held by Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare and Environment Minister Tony Burke respectively.
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On the worst of Afghan culture

Andrew Bolt July 21 2014 (6:01am)

One of our largest humanitarian intakes has been from Afghanistan. How compatible exactly is that culture?:
It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque [in Afghanistan] and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defense that it had been consensual sex. 
But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an honor killing in the case - against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead. This past week, the awful matter became even worse. On Tuesday, local policemen removed the girl from the shelter that had given her refuge and returned her to her family, despite complaints from women’s activists that she was likely to be killed.
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Nielsen poll: Labor still 54 to 46

Andrew Bolt July 21 2014 (5:30am)

I thought from the first - even before the budget - that breaking a promise would be a terrible blunder:
Mr Abbott’s trustworthiness rating now stands at a record low of 35 per cent after Joe Hockey’s first budget...
And:
The nationwide Fairfax-Nielsen survey of 1400 people was taken from Thursday, July 17, to Saturday, July 19, and shows Labor well ahead of the Coalition on two-party preferred terms at 54 per cent to 46 per cent, based on 2013 preference flows. That amounts to a swing to Labor of 7.5 per cent since September.
Yet Abbott is showing a steadiness and resolve, not just in this latest tragedy, that I think will help him greatly over the longer term. But changes will need to be made… 
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Christine Milne taxes the warming truth

Andrew Bolt July 21 2014 (5:18am)

Global warming - propaganda

Why trust a word Greens leader Christine Milne says about the climate when she herself shows she’s talking hot air?
South Korea and India won’t stand for it! Christine Milne, Senate Hansard, Wednesday: 
IF you think the rest of the world is going to put up with Australia behaving as a pariah, have another think. The Koreans will put a tax on coal imports. The Indians have already done it and that will be something that continues.
Is India really that committed to climate change action? Christine Milne, Sky’s Australian Agenda yesterday: 
PETER Van Onselen: What about Clive Palmer’s dormant ETS policy idea? ... 
Christine Milne: It is a mirage. The closer you get to it the further it moves away. When Clive came out this week and wanted India in it, like anyone who understands climate politics around the world knows, that means it is never going to happen.
Is S Korea really that committed to climate action? Michael Szabo and Meeyoung Cho, Reuters, July 18: 
SOUTH Korea’s finance minister has called its impending emissions trading market “flawed in many ways”, hinting that he would pressure other ministries to delay the planned 2015 launch, a local newspaper reported… Industry groups earlier this week warned that it could cost firms a total of 27.5 trillion to 29.6 trillion Korean won ($26.7-$28.9 billion) over the next three years…
Glencore hasn’t paid any tax for three years! Christine Milne, Sky’s Australian Agenda yesterday: 
JOE Hockey says he needs help from the Senate to raise revenue. Well, I’m here, Joe. I’m happy to work with you to fix the mining tax ... Why wouldn’t we say to Glencore, which has earned $15 billion in the last three years and hasn’t paid one cent in tax — how fair is that?
Glencore paid $8bn in taxes in the last seven years. Paul Malone, The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday:
AUSTRALIA’S largest coalminer, Glencore, ... said Glencore...had paid more than $8bn in royalties and taxes in this country during the past seven years… 
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
  • Lord, on this day let me remember all that I have is yours. It is a loan that I can not pay back. I can only thank you for the opportunity to use it.
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Pastor Rick Warren
You can't LEAD without the willingness to be different, to do what's difficult, and to be misunderstood. It's called courage.
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Craig Kelly.
DETROIT – WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BIG UNIONS & BIG GOVT TAKE CONTROL – A timely warning for those considering giving control to Rudd, Labor & the Unions for another 3 years.

Oped by Douglas A. McIntyre, from USA Today

If the residents of Detroit want to blame any person or organization, they only need to look as far as the unions that controlled labor there and the politicians who ran it the past four decades. …

Unions will have parts of pension obligations voided. City workers will lose their jobs. The two largest employers in Detroit are the school system and the city itself……..

Detroit is a city where the employee base is tilted away from private enterprise …….

The city's population did not start to fall sharply until after 1970. The 1973 oil crisis that rocketed gas prices up and the deep recession of the early 1970s dealt Detroit's car industry a blow that made the size of the city's government unsustainable….
Detroit's tax base began to tumble……But the city kept spending.

Unions wanted to keep their power as well as preserve jobs.

Politicians did not want to admit they were running a dying city, say as much to voters and begin a battle with unions to lower labor costs…….

Detroit's elected officials have lost all of their power.

All of them knew a long time ago that the city was beginning to founder and each party tried to hang on to as much money, and privilege, as possible.

Now, each gets to suffer the consequences.
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A good man .. a German, not a Nazi .. and a brilliant show of strength, compassion and honour.
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Roma Downey
"You have said, Lord: pardon and you will be pardoned; grant us the grace to forgive as you have forgiven us." -- Fr. Wilfred "Willie" Raymond

"...and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you." -- Ephesians 4:32 (KJ21) 21st Century King James Version

“Pardon, and you will be pardoned.” Luke 6:37b (NASB) New American Standard Bible 

"And when you stand and pray, forgive anything you may have against anyone, so that your Father in heaven will forgive the wrongs you have done.” - Mark 11:25 (GNT) Good News Translation

"For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins] leaving them, letting them go, and [giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you." - Matthew 6:14 (AMP) Amplified Bible

"It is in pardoning that we are pardoned." - Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
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You would think a highly respected journalist who covered many Presidents of the US would earn kudos and blessings for her life's works. But she was a hater and a bigot, as seen from this exchange rm, Thomas reacted to then-Press Secretary Ari Fleischer's statements about arms shipments to the terrorists by asking: "Where do the Israelis get their arms?" He responded "There's a difference Helen, and that is --". "What is the difference?", she asked. He responded: "The targeting of innocents through the use of terror, which is a common enemy for Yasir Arafat and for the people of Israel, as well as --". She interrupted him, saying: "Palestinian people are fighting for their land." He responded: "I think that the killing of innocents is a category entirely different. Justifying killing of innocents for land is an argument in support of terrorism.">
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Here's how a previous US President responded to an attack on our consulate in Libya. This from PBS before it joined the enemy. (thanks to Armaros)
This is an amazing news segment for the MacNeil Lehrer Report. Absolutely stunning, considering the harsh silence on this issue and the blacklisting of those of us who speak of it. Watch the whole thing.
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WHAT HAS RUDD BEEN UP TO? ...it’s not pretty, as a staffer explains:

As predicted here, the Opposition is now crab-walking away from “welcoming” PM Kevin Rudd’s PNG plan now the detail, or lack of it, is becoming apparent.

“This man’s naked opportunism and stupidity is breathtaking and I’m only here until the election is called and them I’m off”, said a member of the PM’s staff who was formerly with Julia Gillard.

It was exclusively reported here yesterday that PM, Kevin Rudd, had agreed with Indonesia that we accept a parcel of 7,000 refugees by August 31st in return for an increase of 25,000 head in live cattle exports.

It was reported that Rudd intends to house those 7,000 on PNG’s Manus Is. (An unrelated source says the number is 5,000.) Regardless, a ridiculous proposition. And Manus Is. has already been lambasted by the UN as wholly inadequate.

[It is more likely they will be flown here as genuine refugees avoiding the PNG connection. Rudd's edict only applies to boat people.]

Rudd intends to use this as yet unannounced increase in live cattle exports during his election campaign.

These 7,000 people are real refugees who have been in Indonesian camps for some time and cannot afford the smugglers’ boat trip to Australia. The Indonesians want to be rid of them. They have no value.

But there was no mention of Indonesia agreeing to stem the flow of boats. Why would they? The corrupt Government, military and police force profit from it.

“We have never been able to get any account of what, where and how Indonesia spends our aid. When we ask, we just get fobbed off and it’s been like that at least since Howard”, said Rudd’s staffer.

In fact our source, who was there in Jakarta at the same time as Rudd, has said that Rudd’s request that Indonesia open processing centres there was rejected out of hand.

It was only then that Rudd made his rushed trip to PNG with a bucket load of borrowed money sufficient enough to get O’Neill to sign up to a ridiculous two-page agreement. The Indonesians were shocked.

This crazy PNG agreement would never have had the confidence of either House of Parliament but Parliament is in recess and that’s exactly where Rudd wants it.

Our source was scathing of Rudd’s methods but he did say the PNG agreement, which was mostly verbal because O’Neill was not impressed with Rudd’s haste and was initially reticent to sign, amounted to $100 per head, per week.

“Rudd had kept putting more money on the table until O’Neill said okay.”

I asked him what this $100 a head business was. “Oh that was an afterthought of O’Neill’s. It was basically as Kevin was about to leave that Peter suggested it. Kevin agreed immediately. But it was on top of everything else including normal aid. O’Neill is on a huge win with this.”

The only cost to O’Neill is that his country will now be known as a worse hell-hole than the world’s worst hell holes.

The ABC and Fairfax have heralded Rudd’s PNG solution as a masterstroke. The truth is that it's a time bomb that will not explode until after the election, which again will be Abbott’s problem.

PNG is a nation of violent savages whose religion is black magic and voodoo with a sprinkling of bastardised Christianity.

It has a currency in pigs. Pigs are an indicator of wealth. As nearly all boat people are Muslim, settlement there is an inconceivable proposition.

PNG’s cities are known as the most dangerous in the world and anyone even considering building a mosque would find themselves on the menu at the next kukim long paia.

The short swim to the north of Australia (hundreds of Papua-New Guineans already make the swim) would become a torrent of Islamic refugees that PNG would not lift a finger to stop. Why would they? They will have already received their payola.

Then we have a worse problem because if the smugglers don’t already know this they soon will, the flood will escalate, and then we can’t fix it because now we have an invasion on two fronts and Kev has already spent all our money.

Kev’s kiddy-bandaid on this gangrenous wound is designed to last until we go to the polls. The solution lies in Indonesia and until we grow some balls and confront it, the trade will continue.

Uncle Kev started this mess and his ill-conceived solution to fix it will be a bigger mess... but that’s our Kev.

I never thought Gillard would start to look competent.
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Leo Major and Leo Minor
Leo Minor is a small and faint constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for "the smaller lion", in contrast to Leo, the larger lion (19th-century illustration of both pictured). It lies between the larger and more recognizable Ursa Major to the north and Leo to the south. Leo Minor was not regarded as a separate constellation by classical astronomers; it was designated byJohannes Hevelius in 1687. There are 37 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5 in the constellation; three are brighter than magnitude 4.5. 46 Leonis Minoris, an orange giant of magnitude 3.8, is located some 95 light-years from Earth. At magnitude 4.4, Beta Leonis Minoris is the second brightest star and the only one in the constellation with a Bayer designation. It is a binary star, the brighter component of which is an orange giant and the fainter a yellow-white main sequence star. The third brightest star is 21 Leonis Minoris, a rapidly rotating white main-sequence star of average magnitude 4.5. The constellation also includes two stars with planetary systems, two pairs of interacting galaxies, and the unique deep-sky object Hanny's Voorwerp. (Full article...)
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July 21: National Day in Belgium (1831); Marine Day in Japan (2014)
Soldier with a queue
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“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The earnest of our inheritance."
Ephesians 1:14
Oh! what enlightenment, what joys, what consolation, what delight of heart is experienced by that man who has learned to feed on Jesus, and on Jesus alone. Yet the realization which we have of Christ's preciousness is, in this life, imperfect at the best. As an old writer says, "'Tis but a taste!" We have tasted "that the Lord is gracious," but we do not yet know how good and gracious he is, although what we know of his sweetness makes us long for more. We have enjoyed the firstfruits of the Spirit, and they have set us hungering and thirsting for the fulness of the heavenly vintage. We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption. Here we are like Israel in the wilderness, who had but one cluster from Eshcol, there we shall be in the vineyard. Here we see the manna falling small, like coriander seed, but there shall we eat the bread of heaven and the old corn of the kingdom. We are but beginners now in spiritual education; for although we have learned the first letters of the alphabet, we cannot read words yet, much less can we put sentences together; but as one says, "He that has been in heaven but five minutes, knows more than the general assembly of divines on earth." We have many ungratified desires at present, but soon every wish shall be satisfied; and all our powers shall find the sweetest employment in that eternal world of joy. O Christian, antedate heaven for a few years. Within a very little time thou shalt be rid of all thy trials and thy troubles. Thine eyes now suffused with tears shall weep no longer. Thou shalt gaze in ineffable rapture upon the splendour of him who sits upon the throne. Nay, more, upon his throne shalt thou sit. The triumph of his glory shall be shared by thee; his crown, his joy, his paradise, these shall be thine, and thou shalt be co-heir with him who is the heir of all things.

Evening

"And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor?"
Jeremiah 2:18
By sundry miracles, by divers mercies, by strange deliverances Jehovah had proved himself to be worthy of Israel's trust. Yet they broke down the hedges with which God had enclosed them as a sacred garden; they forsook their own true and living God, and followed after false gods. Constantly did the Lord reprove them for this infatuation, and our text contains one instance of God's expostulating with them, "What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of the muddy river?"--for so it may be translated. "Why dost thou wander afar and leave thine own cool stream from Lebanon? Why dost thou forsake Jerusalem to turn aside to Noph and to Tahapanes? Why art thou so strangely set on mischief, that thou canst not be content with the good and healthful, but wouldst follow after that which is evil and deceitful?" Is there not here a word of expostulation and warning to the Christian? O true believer, called by grace and washed in the precious blood of Jesus, thou hast tasted of better drink than the muddy river of this world's pleasure can give thee; thou hast had fellowship with Christ; thou hast obtained the joy of seeing Jesus, and leaning thine head upon his bosom. Do the trifles, the songs, the honours, the merriment of this earth content thee after that? Hast thou eaten the bread of angels, and canst thou live on husks? Good Rutherford once said, "I have tasted of Christ's own manna, and it hath put my mouth out of taste for the brown bread of this world's joys." Methinks it should be so with thee. If thou art wandering after the waters of Egypt, O return quickly to the one living fountain: the waters of Sihor may be sweet to the Egyptians, but they will prove only bitterness to thee. What hast thou to do with them? Jesus asks thee this question this evening--what wilt thou answer him?
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Today's reading: Psalm 26-28, Acts 22 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 26-28

Of David.
1 Vindicate me, LORD,
for I have led a blameless life;
I have trusted in the LORD
and have not faltered.
2 Test me, LORD, and try me,
examine my heart and my mind;
3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love
and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.
4 I do not sit with the deceitful,
nor do I associate with hypocrites.
5 I abhor the assembly of evildoers
and refuse to sit with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands in innocence,
and go about your altar, LORD,
7 proclaiming aloud your praise
and telling of all your wonderful deeds....

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 22

1 "Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense."
2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: 3 "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?'
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