Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Tue Jul 7th Todays News

At last you can revel in the joys of smaller government on this site for the Bolt Report Supporter's Group on Facebook. If something is broke, you fix it. Or not. There won't be any purges or changes because I've not the time to do much. But if you do something outrageous which I must respond to I will.
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Greece is a warning to Australia of what will happen if cuts to spending are not made. The extremist left wing government of Greece has made many promises they cannot keep. The spending is so big, the debt is so substantial they cannot meet loan repayments even with international help. Expenses include welfare. Greeks have to work to make up for the things that their elders took without paying. There are two paths Greece can take. The left wing path which involves trashing everything Greece has and prospering through poverty and misery until the debt is forgotten. The conservative path is to take ownership of the debt and pay it off through prudent cuts and hard work. 

 Same Sex Marriage is shown to be a Trojan Horse by various groups keen to hurt Christian Churches, suing them to perform marriages they are unwilling through conscience to commit. Also, extremist advocates are pursuing marriage for very young. Or, marriage for very many. Already, Australia recognises polygamy through overseas jurisdictions, and some migrants or refugees who have obtained welfare have had such unions recognised in payments. However arrangements can be made where churches are not threatened and those avenues can be pursued. 

 Global warmists failed to predict cold weather. A thirty year record for cool weather has struck Sydney this winter. It continues unabated. 

 Australia does not need an apartheid constitution, but many are advocating it, including those who would be victim to it. Changing the constitution is not meaningless and recognising race is not benign by the state. The state is not an apologist of history, although it is a historical document. Australia is not owned by Aborigines, Irish or Greeks. Australia belongs to those not yet born, or vey young. We adults have her in trust for them. 

 Mr Shorten has to explain to the Royal Commission matters which have been obscured by missing material. Documents regarding the arrangements of payments for and by union members have been lost after a transfer to electronic systems. Shorten needs to explain why his union behaved as a bastard employer, cutting member benefits for apparently, corruptly obtained money. 

 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is out of control. She is not answerable to anyone for over a $billion each year. She has four tv channels and numerous radio and internet ports, making her the largest media body in Australia. Publicly paid for and with advantages smaller private media do not have. She is partisan. Her component journalists are overwhelmingly left wing, more than a third extremist Green. The only identifiable conservative was in fact Green. ABC has set up an audit following her hiring a jihadist to attack the government by ambush. Ray Martin has prejudiced the audit he was appointed to independently run, claiming his audit will be about proving balance. Proving balance is not the function of an audit. One example of a press double standard is reporting re Gillian Triggs. Triggs is head of the Human Rights Commission and is paid $400k a year. Of all the other HRC members, all are extreme left, except one recently appointed (not conservative) Libertarian, Wilson. Wilson's expenses were tabled recently. They are commensurate with Triggs, whose expenses had not been tabled by the media. 

In 1124, Tyre fell to the Crusaders. 1456, A retrial verdict acquitted Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death. 1520, Spanish conquistadores defeated a larger Aztec army at the Battle of Otumba. About 1000 faced as many as 40,000, conceding 73 deaths to as many as 20,000. 1534, European colonization of the Americas: First known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in New Brunswick. 1543, French troops invaded Luxembourg. 1575, Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland. It wasn't a raid. It wasn't fought in or over Redeswire, and it wasn't between England and Scotland but over a disagreement between an Englishman and a Scot, both of whom could afford armies. The Scot defeated a dishonourable man. 1585, the Treaty of Nemours abolished tolerance to Protestants in France. 1770, the Battle of Larga between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire took place. 1777, American Revolutionary War: American forces retreating from Fort Ticonderoga were defeated in the Battle of Hubbardton. 1798, as a result of the XYZ Affair, the U.S. Congress rescinded the Treaty of Alliance with France sparking the "Quasi-War". The US had been upset by the behaviour of revolutionary France. They sent a delegation go three, but French diplomats insisted on bribes. Two delegates returned to the US and the correspondence, including the bribe demands, were made public. Francophile Jefferson didn't see a problem. 

 In 1807, Napoleonic Wars: The Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia ended the War of the Fourth Coalition. 1834, in New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began. 1846, Mexican–American War: American troops occupied Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the U.S. acquisition of California. 1863, United States began its first military draft; exemptions cost $300. 1865, American Civil War: Four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were hanged. 1892, Katipunan: The Revolutionary Philippine Brotherhood was established, contributing to the fall of the Spanish Empire in Asia. 1898, U.S. President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.

 In 1907, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City. 1911, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 banning open-water seal hunting, the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues. 1915, World War I: End of First Battle of the Isonzo. Also 1915, an International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashed near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15. Also 1915, Militia officer Henry Pedris was executed by firing squad at Colombo, Ceylon - an act widely regarded as a miscarriage of justice by the British colonial authorities partly because it was. He was falsely accused and then executed before the injustice could be discovered by those who would intervene. He faced the firing squad without a mask. His body was buried in an unmarked grave against his family's wishes. 1928, Sliced bread was sold for the first time (on the inventor's 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.

 In 1930, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser began construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam). 1937, Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge: Japanese forces invaded Beijing, China. 1941, World War II: U.S. forces landed in Iceland, taking over from an earlier British occupation. 1941, World War II: Beirut was occupied by Free France and British troops. 1944, World War II: Largest Banzai charge of the Pacific War at the Battle of Saipan. 1946, Mother Francesca S. Cabrini became the first American to be canonised. Also 1946, Howard Hughes nearly died when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashed in a Beverly Hills neighbourhood. 1947, the Roswell incident, the (supposed) crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell in New Mexico.

 In 1952, the ocean liner SS United States passed Bishop Rock on her maiden voyage, breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world. 1953, Ernesto "Che" Guevara set out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. 1954, Elvis Presley made his radio debut when WHBQ Memphis played his first recording for Sun Records, "That's All Right." 1956, Fritz Moravec and two other Austrian mountaineers made the first ascent of Gasherbrum II (8,035 m). 1958, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law. 1959, Venus occulted the star Regulus. This rare event was used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere. 1963, Buddhist crisis: The police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest. 1978, the Solomon Islands became independent from the United Kingdom

 In 1980, institution of sharia in Iran. Also 1980, during the Lebanese Civil War, 83 Tiger militants were killed during what would be known as the Safra massacre. 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. 1983, Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flew to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov. 1985, Boris Becker became the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17. 1991, Yugoslav Wars: The Brioni Agreement ended the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 1997, the Turkish Armed Forces withdrew from northern Iraq after assisting the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War. 2003, NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover–B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket. 2005, a series of four explosions occurred on London's transport system killing 56 people including four suicide bombers and injuring over 700 others.
2014
Former Australian PM Malcolm Fraser has invoked the name of Hitler in describing the new government's successful immigration program and border protection. New parliamentarian and former rich man Clive Palmer has called Queensland Premier Campbell Newman a Nazi. The denunciations are hyperbolic. It is a good thing that people are not drowning trying to start a new life in Australia. Australia is a good place for a new life, but one doesn't want to die coming here, or be exploited by pirates. Fraser had few problems drowning Vietnamese peoples or leaving Zimbabwe peoples at the mercy of a murderous dictator. Palmer is the former campaign manager of Joh Bjelke Peterson .. it is not the case he means what he says all the time, or any time. So what is behind their criticism? Those who are hard core ALP or Green supporters like the sound of the waffle. 

A lot of violence is related to bikies, drugs and organised crime. So it is sadly depressing when a casual murder takes place in a popular shopping mall during the school holidays and it has nothing to do with anything, but a likely dispute over a woman between rivals. Herodotus was dismissive of the Greeks sailing ten thousand ships to regain Helen of Troy. Instead of fighting their rivals, they should be trying to impress the girl. I doubt she is impressed at what happened, the two argued over a cosmetics counter and one stabbed the other multiple times in the chest, and left the knife in the chest of his dying rival, lit a cigarette and waited for police. A chilling and casual murder which can not be tolerated, but must accrue a life term in jail, there being no excuse or alternative. The imaginary Sherlock finding Moriarty excuse not meeting a modern legal standard. 

Issues of justice arise on this day. In 1456, Joan of Arc was acquitted of heresy twenty five years after she was murdered for it. In 1585, the treaty of Nemours meant a policy of tolerance ended. In 1798, US Congress voted to end peace with France. In 1834, four nights of rioting against abolitionists in NYC began on this day. In 1846, US troops began to acquire California from Mexico. The US attempted the draft in 1863, offering exemptions for $300. Two years later, four conspirators were hung for the killing of Lincoln. But today is not entirely without mercy or grace. In 1928, sliced bread was sold for the first time, on the inventor's 48th birthday. In 1954, Elvis made his radio debut. In 1983, a thirteen year old girl became an ambassador for the US in the Soviet Union. It is the birthday of Mahler (1860), Heinlein (1907), Eddings (1931), Ringo Starr (1940) and Bill Oddie (1941)
Historical perspectives on this day
In 1124, Tyre fell to the Crusaders. 1456, A retrial verdict acquitted Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death. 1520, Spanish conquistadores defeated a larger Aztec army at the Battle of Otumba. 1534, European colonization of the Americas: First known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in New Brunswick. 1543, French troops invaded Luxembourg. 1575, Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland. 1585, the Treaty of Nemours abolished tolerance to Protestants in France. 1770, the Battle of Larga between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire took place. 1777, American Revolutionary War: American forces retreating from Fort Ticonderoga were defeated in the Battle of Hubbardton. 1798, as a result of the XYZ Affair, the U.S. Congress rescinded the Treaty of Alliance with France sparking the "Quasi-War".

 In 1807, Napoleonic Wars: The Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia ended the War of the Fourth Coalition. 1834, in New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began. 1846, Mexican–American War: American troops occupied Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the U.S. acquisition of California. 1863, United States began its first military draft; exemptions cost $300. 1865, American Civil War: Four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were hanged. 1892, Katipunan: The Revolutionary Philippine Brotherhood was established, contributing to the fall of the Spanish Empire in Asia. 1898, U.S. President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.

 In 1907, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City. 1911, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 banning open-water seal hunting, the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues. 1915, World War I: End of First Battle of the Isonzo. Also 1915, an International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashed near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15. Also 1915, Militia officer Henry Pedris was executed by firing squad at Colombo, Ceylon - an act widely regarded as a miscarriage of justice by the British colonial authorities. 1928, Sliced bread was sold for the first time (on the inventor's 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.

 In 1930, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser began construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam). 1937, Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge: Japanese forces invaded Beijing, China. 1941, World War II: U.S. forces landed in Iceland, taking over from an earlier British occupation. 1941, World War II: Beirut was occupied by Free France and British troops. 1944, World War II: Largest Banzai charge of the Pacific War at the Battle of Saipan. 1946, Mother Francesca S. Cabrini became the first American to be canonised. Also 1946, Howard Hughes nearly died when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashed in a Beverly Hills neighbourhood. 1947, the Roswell incident, the (supposed) crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell in New Mexico.

 In 1952, the ocean liner SS United States passed Bishop Rock on her maiden voyage, breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world. 1953, Ernesto "Che" Guevara set out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. 1954, Elvis Presley made his radio debut when WHBQ Memphis played his first recording for Sun Records, "That's All Right." 1956, Fritz Moravec and two other Austrian mountaineers made the first ascent of Gasherbrum II (8,035 m). 1958, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law. 1959, Venus occulted the star Regulus. This rare event was used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere. 1963, Buddhist crisis: The police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of President Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest. 1978, the Solomon Islands became independent from the United Kingdom

 In 1980, institution of sharia in Iran. Also 1980, during the Lebanese Civil War, 83 Tiger militants were killed during what would be known as the Safra massacre. 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. 1983, Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flew to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov. 1985, Boris Becker became the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17. 1991, Yugoslav Wars: The Brioni Agreement ended the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 1997, the Turkish Armed Forces withdrew from northern Iraq after assisting the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War. 2003, NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover–B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket. 2005, a series of four explosions occurred on London's transport system killing 56 people including four suicide bombers and injuring over 700 others.
=== 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.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Stephen Ball, Zommari Leroux, Nga Banking and Tce Foureleven. Born on the same day, across the years. You share your day with Robert Heinlein, David Eddings, Jon Pertwee and Ringo Starr. In 1456, Twenty-five years after her death, Joan of Arc was declared innocent of heresy in a posthumous retrial. In 1798, The Quasi-War, an undeclared war fought entirely at sea, began after the United States rescinded their treaties with France. In 1963, The police of Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of President of South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest during the Buddhist crisis. In 1983, After writing a letter to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov, American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visited the Soviet Union as Andropov's personal guest, becoming known as "America's Youngest Ambassador". In 2005, Suicide bombers killed 52 people in a series of four explosions on London's public transport system. You are time lords, writing history at will. You right wrongs, eventually. Remember, don't mess with the French on land and beware terrorists on landmark days.
Deaths
Ambulances at Russell Square, London, after the 7 July 2005 bombings
It is good to be innocent, but bad to be executed if you are innocent. Don't riot against abolitionists, but argue with them, and prove, through logic, you are the master race. Now Henry, we've covered this and you should accept it. It is good the civil war is over. London deserved better, but she endures. Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
===
2015
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TAKE THE SHORTEN LOVE TEST

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 07, 2015 (7:40pm)

Do you have what it takes to become a news.com.au reporter or editor? To find out, simply replace the first blank in the following sentence with an absurdly overblown description of Bill Shorten’s gigantic popularity and charisma. Then fill in the second blank with an event of punishing Shorten-quality dullness: 
Bill Shorten has been ________________ during ________________. 
Let the first line in this report be your guide.
===

MAN READS LIST, ENTERTAINS DRUNKS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 07, 2015 (3:17pm)

Bill Shorten turns up the volume during a bar visit in Tanya Plibersek’s inner-city electorate: 
A day before his highly anticipated appearance before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, video has emerged of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten passionately outlining his vision for Australia inside a Sydney pub. 
In the video obtained by the ABC, rowdy Labor supporters cheer as an emotional Mr Shorten tells the crowd he dreams of an Australia where same-sex marriage is legalised, Indigenous people are recognised in the constitution, and where “people can organise to have a strong minimum wage and they will not be subject to a royal commission”. 
Shorten seemed particularly invested in that final point.
UPDATE. News.com.au’s considered opinion: 
Bill Shorten has been elevated to superstar status during a speech in a Sydney pub. 
Really?
===

DECISION FIRST, AUDIT SECOND

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 07, 2015 (11:23am)

ABC-appointed Q & A auditor Ray Martin’s completely unbiased and independent view: 
The man chosen to conduct an independent audit of Q&A, television veteran Ray Martin, says he cannot believe Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ordered his frontbenchers not to appear on the ABC program until his inquiry is complete.
As well as decrying the government’s Q&A boycott as “silly”, Martin said he believes Q&A host Tony Jones was as tough on the previous Labor government as the Coalition.
Mr Martin said some of the “rants and raves” about the program had been “crazy” and that he hoped his audit would bring some balance to the debate …
The program has up to one million viewers a week and provides a good forum for politicians to sell their message, Martin said.
“I can’t imagine Australia without the ABC so I’ve got a lot of time [for it] but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be better,” he said …
Following Mr Martin’s comments, an ABC spokesman said he was chosen to conduct the audit because “he is independent and the public perceive him to be”. 
The second part of that final comment is much more important than the first. As for Martin’s line about “bringing some balance to the debate”, how can that possibly be the role of an audit? 
===

HUMAN FLIGHTS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, July 07, 2015 (2:26am)

Fairfax recently covered Tim Wilson’s expenses as Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner:

image

Fair enough. Wilson is on the public payroll and his expenses should be examined. But Fairfax didn’t make much noise about international travel expenses apparently racked up by Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs:

image

Why, it’s almost as though there’s some kind of double standard. 
===

Turnbull cool on the Abbott war talk

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (7:57pm)

Politically not a useful contribution, but Malcolm Turnbull is telling the truth:
The threat posed by the Islamic State terror group should not be overstated, and critics of new national security measures should not be denounced, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.
In a speech that strikes a jarringly different tone from recent remarks by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Mr Turnbull said on Tuesday evening that making “tough” national security polices might be popular but “can still be a mistake”.
He used a Sydney Institute address to call for respectful, open debate on national security in which new measures could be questioned without inviting opprobrium.
“Just as it is important not to underestimate, or be complacent about, the national security threat from Daesh, it is equally important not to overestimate that threat,” he said, using an alternative name for Islamic State.
He said Islamic State was “not Hitler’s Germany, Tojo’s Japan or Stalin’s Russia” and despite the terror group’s own aspirations to world domination, “we should be careful not to say or do things which can be seen to add credibility to those delusions”.
I fear the Abbott Government is getting diminishing returns from its anti-terrorism agenda, which in time might be seen to be cover for a lack of other policies.
But here I think Turnbull is too dismissive:
“I suppose there is nothing tougher than invading a country, overthrowing its government and occupying its territory. But with the benefit of hindsight, few today contend that the 2003 invasion of Iraq, popular with the US public and the Congress at the time, was not a tragic error.”
There is no doubt from the weapons inspectors reports that Saddam was ready to resume his programs for weapons of mass destruction once the pressure went off. Imagine the Middle East with those now in terrorist hands. Imagine also the Middle East with Saddam or his mad sons left unchecked. Imagine Libya with the nuclear weapons program that Gaddafi in fear surrendered after the Iraq war.
In all this we are speculating on hypotheticals, of course. But it is as well to be modest in predicting the costs of inaction.
UPDATE
Turnbull may still be feeling his oats. The Government is still behind in the polls, and Australia’s biggest media organisation is looking for a hero to save them from that wicked Abbott:
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out appearing on the next edition of the ABC’s controversial Q&A program.
Despite a ban on coalition MPs from appearing on the show, the minister says it will depend on the circumstances.
“Time will tell - stay tuned,” he told reporters in Sydney tonight.

===

Union official charged

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (4:48pm)

Brennan must be considered innocent until and unless proved guilty:
Prosecutors expect to lay 10 more charges against a former South Australian and Tasmanian union official who is accused of dishonesty, a court has been told.
Stephen Brennan, 49, is facing 22 charges of falsifying accounts and 28 of dishonestly dealing with documents.
It is alleged Brennan committed the offences while he was secretary of the South Australian and Tasmanian branch of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union…
Brennan had moved to the job of employee ombudsman in SA when the union-related allegations arose. He took leave from that job in 2013, on full pay of about $143,000 annually, until the office was abolished this year. A government official said Brennan was no longer on the public payroll.
I repeat, these are just allegations and Brennan must be presumed innocent. But the line about just a few rotten apples in the union movement is starting to wear extremely thin after all allegations about the AWU, CFMEU, Health Services Union and more. 
===

Cheers, Bill

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (3:31pm)

There is one thing about Bill Shorten’s shouting performance in the pub that the ABC reporter seems too polite to mention:
A day before his highly anticipated appearance before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, video has emerged of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten passionately outlining his vision for Australia inside a Sydney pub.
In the video obtained by the ABC, rowdy Labor supporters cheer as an emotional Mr Shorten tells the crowd he dreams of an Australia where same-sex marriage is legalised, Indigenous people are recognised in the constitution, and where “people can organise to have a strong minimum wage and they will not be subject to a royal commission”.
The video was filmed in Sydney’s Covent Garden pub on Sunday night.
The yelling about the royal commission seems particularly heartfelt.
UPDATE
If Abbott shouted in public in that kind of emotional state, would the ABC have covered it with this nonchalance?
(Thanks to reader Duncan.) 
===

Costello: Greece is a warning

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (11:09am)

Greece, in a bizarre display of Leftist machismo, is demanding Europe give it even more money it will never repay - and without asking the Greeks to at least make some reforms to its handout economy.
Former Treasurer Peter Costello:

Greece has run out of money. The Government can’t pay back its debt — it can’t make the full interest payments on its debt. The banks can’t pay their depositors. That’s why they are closed except to allow depositors to withdraw 60 euros a day.
No one wants to lend more money to the Greek Government and the Greek banks. For the sake of preventing fallout from the Greek crisis spreading through Europe, the Europeans and the IMF came up with a new lending proposal on June 25. It included some pretty strict terms. Greece has just rejected them.
If Greece were in control of its destiny, the Government would now get on with its own policy ideas. It would fund them by borrowing and issuing Greek bonds to investors. But no one will buy them.
So Tsipras will get off to Brussels at the first available opportunity to seek new terms on a proposed loan package. Greek destiny will be decided in Brussels…
If the Greeks were really concerned about their sovereignty and destiny, the time to have shown it was long before now.
All through the 1990s and 2000s Greece was paying people pensions that it couldn’t afford. It awarded itself pay rises that couldn’t be justified. Tax rates were well below the level that was required to pay for all that spending. And that’s if they were actually being paid as opposed to routinely avoided.
The whole country was living high on the hog and doing it by borrowing (and spending) other people’s money. That works quite well right up until the point that other people don’t want to lend you any more. That’s when you have lost control of your destiny.

There is a lesson here for other countries. The time to worry about debt is before it gets out of control. The Australian Government is still borrowing $100 million a day.
Which makes the idiocy of Greens Senator Larissa Waters even more risible - despite the fact it was applauded by last night’s Q&A audience: “You can’t cut your way to prosperity.”
Actually, you can’t overspend your way to prosperity, which is exactly what Greece has tried and what the Greens would try, too, if we were mad enough to vote them in.  
===

Ray Martin proves the ABC is trying to con us

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (10:59am)

I warned on The Bolt Report that the ABC inquiry into Q&A was a typical ABC stitch-up. I mean, appointing Ray Martin to check the ABC for Left-wing bias? Seriously?
And just days later the farce is exposed:

Television journalist Ray Martin has appeared to prejudge the inquiry he is yet to conduct into Q&A by saying he thinks the “rants and raves” about the program have been “a little crazy.”

On Channel Seven this morning, Martin defended both the ABC and Q&A host Tony Jones when Sunrise host Samantha Armytage asked him about the upcoming review.
He said everyone needs a “Bex and a good lie down” and described Tony Abbott’s boycott of the program as “silly”.
“I thought it was about time for a little balance. I thought the rants and raves were a little crazy about that thing so it was time to at least have a look at what it was about,” Martin said.
“I can’t imagine Australia without the ABC so I’ve got a lot of time but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be better. But I tended to think ... I can’t believe, it’s clearly a political issue at the moment in terms of terror. I think we’ve already started looking towards the next election.”
The ABC has tried to snow us again in the typical ABC way, in which everyone agrees with each other that conservatives are wrong.
Abbott’s boycott suddenly looks more justifiable.
UPDATE
Malcolm Turnbull’s statement welcoming the ABC’s selection of Martin was far too generous and far too naïve:
I welcome their associated decision to initiate an independent review of Q&A to be undertaken by the former Managing Director of SBS, Mr Shaun Brown and the distinguished television journalist, Mr Ray Martin.
Martin now declares his findings before he’s held his inquiry:

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE: ... you are currently conducting an audit of the ABC’s Q&A programme.
RAY MARTIN: I am, with a former boss of SBS. I thought it was about time for a little balance. The rants and raves were a bit crazy about thing so it was at least time to have a look at what it was about. I have a lot of time, but I can’t imagine Australia without the ABC, so I’ve got a lot of time. That doesn’t mean they can’t be better but I tended to think it was – I can’t believe – it’s clearly a political issue at the moment in terms of terror. I think we’ve already started looking towards the next election.
SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE: Are you allowed to say where you sit exactly on – what’s his name, Zaky Mallah, appearing on the show that Monday night?
RAY MARTIN: I think everyone agrees it was a mistake to have him live – no question about that. They had Hicks on pre-recorded. It was a mistake to have him there. But the rest, I’m sort of going to wait and see. We’re looking back at the last 22 programmes. I would like to see what happened last year, as well – the year before, rather, when there was a Labor Government. I suspect Tony Jones was just as tough on the Labor Government as he has been on the Coalition right now. But I think, you know, a Bex and a good lie down might help at the moment.
SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE: What do you make of Abbott banning his frontbenchers from appearing?
RAY MARTIN: I can’t believe it. I just think it is so silly to do it. I would have thought that Barnaby Joyce, who wasn’t on last night, should have said, ‘Look, I’m not a member of the Liberal Party, I’m a member of the National Party, and I can do what I like,’ and go and do it. And what Malcolm Turnbull does next week, he is booked for next week – I suspect that he would still like the top job and I suspect he won’t come but I think it’s silly…
SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE: Do you think this is just a thing where the Liberal Government will ban it for a while and then it will sort of move on – everyone will forget.
RAY MARTIN: You would think they would have to. It is, as someone said last night, close to a million people watch that programme on a Monday night and a politician giving up access to that. When you think of Malcolm Turnbull and Christopher Pyne, they seem to be there every second week, so it’s a great forum for people to talk and I would have thought the questions there – and I notice the ABC is now running a promo that says something like “where your questions count” or something like that.
What’s the point of the review if Martin has made up his mind already? Or is this exactly why the ABC chose him?
What a farce. 
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Churches beware: the same-sex marriage push is a Trojan Horse

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (10:18am)

Some in the same-sex marriage push are not into tolerance at all, and churches have every right to worry about this new war on their faith:
Tasmanian gay rights activist Martine Delaney — who yesterday confirmed she would run as a Greens candidate for the federal seat of Franklin — pursues a legal claim against the Catholic Church over a pastoral letter ­explaining its opposition to the redefinition of marriage… Ms Delaney told WIN News at the weekend she was taking her complaint about the Catholic pamphlet, titled Don’t Mess with Marriage, to the state’s anti-­discrimination commissioner.
So this work is urgent and important:
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm ... slammed Labor’s marriage equality bill for falling short on the protection of religious freedoms.
Following a key meeting last week, the NSW Presbyterian ­Assembly proposed its ministers be prohibited from conducting legal marriages if the law was changed. “The assembly considered what the church should do if marriage is redefined in Australia. It decided to ask the General ­Assembly of Australia to withdraw the whole church from the Marriage Act, so that our ministers could no longer solemnise marriages under the Marriage Act,” said a July 3 pastoral letter.
NSW [Presbyterian ­Assembly] moderator Kevin Murray told The Australian the church was concerned about exposure to possible discrimination action…
[Freedom commissioner Tim] Wilson has proposed civil and religious traditions of marriage be separated yet treated equally at law, while wedding service providers could also choose to restrict their business to traditional weddings.
The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, welcomed Mr Wilson’s contribution for addressing the effect of gay marriage on religious freedom.
Senator Leyonhjelm’s 2014 “freedom to marry” bill seeks to mollify conservatives by allowing civil celebrants to refuse to marry homosexual couples on conscience grounds, a point he says Labor and the Greens overlook.
No, the Left does not “overlook” this at all. Too many of their members are just intellectual thugs, seeking to impose their views by force.
(Thanks to reader WaG311.) 
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The ABC is out of control

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (9:58am)

Nick Cater says the ABC has become an autonomous soviet beyond the power of any government to make accountable and fair:
The government’s prerogative to overrule the ABC’s editorial decisions was removed from legislation in 1983. Since then, the ABC effectively has become a foreign country, outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Australia, save for the approval of its sizeable stipend. It enjoys power without responsibility which, as British Conservative politician Stanley Baldwin once remarked, was “the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages”.
So what, if anything, can a level-headed government do to ensure its annual billion-dollar investment is well spent? Should it try to wrest control of the state-owned station from the barmy bohemians who occupy it? Or should it just boycott their shows?
Would the appointment of a managing director with spine prevent, for example, the bussing of terrorist sympathisers from Parramatta to broadcast live to the nation? Not a hope if history is any guide. Malcolm Fraser went to war with the ABC in his first year of government but had run up the white flag by Christmas.
Bob Hawke settled for an uneasy truce. John Howard stacked the board with decent chaps who found themselves powerless to ­influence the corporation in any significant way whatsoever.
The iron law of culturally autonomous government-funded bodies is that they are far easier to set up than to close down.
Sinclair Davidson:
The ABC suffers from a profound governance problem – the controlling shareholder (i.e. federal government) exercises no oversight into the ABCs activities. The ABC has the trappings of control – a board that seems to exercise zero control over the organisation. The controlling shareholder is so disengaged that it no longer appoints people to the board, rather it appoints the people who appoint the people. Really? That is how the government thinks over $1 billion of taxpayer funds should be administered?
Then there is the issue of the ABC charter embedded in the ABC Act. It is widely accepted that the ABC does not comply with the charter. Why should it? The charter is not self-enforcing. The ABC Act contains no mechanism to monitor compliance with the charter and to punish deviation from the charter. The Board is powerless to do so and the government unwilling to do so. It is not simply a case of when the cats away the mice will play – there are no cats. The ABC is not out of control, the ABC has no control.
So for Abbott and his front bench to boycott the ABC is very lazy policy and simply of continuance of the hands off policy that has allowed the ABC to degenerate to its current form. A far more sensible policy would be exert control over the organisation and insert enforcement mechanism into the charter.
Of course, the counter-argument is that government shouldn’t control the media. I agree – but then the government shouldn’t own the media either.
Patrick Hannaford:
Abbott’s decision has provoked outrage from political opponents. Some even suggested that it’s an attack on freedom of speech.
But no one would suggest Abbott was attacking freedom of speech by declining an interview with Green-Left Weekly. The political bias of the publication is clear for all to see…
Unfortunately, this is an accurate comparison. Despite its attempts at objectivity, the institutional make-up of the ABC is clear.
In a 2013 survey of Australian journalists, 41 per cent of ABC staff declared the Greens most closely reflected their political attitudes ... A further 32 per cent of ABC journalists surveyed declared they would give their first preference to the ALP.
With these demographics, it is remarkable the ABC’s current affairs team has remained as objective as it has. Unfortunately Q&A;has not met this same standard…
Q&A is a show that favours demagoguery and gotcha journalism. A hostile environment for any government interested in serious policy discussion. And Tony Abbott is right to declare a boycott.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Pearson contradicts Pearson: no, treating Aborigines as a separate race is “illegitimate”

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (9:28am)

Culture wars, The politics of race

Is Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson hopelessly confused about the society he wants to build with his plan for an Aborigines-only Parliament or advisory body in the Constitution?
Pearson on Lateline last night contradicted himself last night in a very significant way.
First Pearson said yes to “race"-based politics - to people being represented not as citizens but members of a “race”:
NOEL PEARSON: The question should be about including Indigenous people in the democratic process of this country, to include them as participants in our robust democratic debate and policy development and law development.
EMMA ALBERICI: Aren’t they already there, and pardon my naivety, we have Ken Wyatt, we have Nova Peris.
NOEL PEARSON: ... But at the end of the day, if I ever had chosen a political path, you’d represent your seat. That’s your duty as an Australian politician. Ken has the people of Hasluck as his first concern and Nova has the people of the Northern Territory, black and white, as her constituents. And any Indigenous person or Greek or Italian person in Parliament they - of course they bring their own ethnic priorities to the table, but at the starting point, they are representatives of a seat. The question we’re concerned about is this whole thing of Indigenous people’s representation on Indigenous issues and that’s why I’ve been pushing the idea of a constitutional body that would enable us as Indigenous people to talk about our heritage, our communities, our native title and our languages and culture in a way that Parliament can hear us. So, I continue to make that argument that recognition must involve that.
But then Pearson said no to “race"-based politics - to treating each other as members of a “race”:
NOEL PEARSON: Um, yeah - well at the moment, for example, we’re characterised as a race. That’s what the Constitution characterises us, and it infects our whole psychology, not just the black fellas, the white fellas too, ‘cause the white fellas think we’re a separate race and treat us as a race, an illegitimate idea, and we ourselves have internalised that.
This occurred in the same interview. Pearson, I believe, in his heart now knows that all he’s been agitating for is actually a sin against our common humanity. A sin again the teachings of Christ, part of his Lutheran upbringing, and against the preaching of Martin Luther King, one of his heroes.
Let’s just agree that dividing people by “race” is vile, and end this whole push now, before even more damage is done.
UPDATE
Anthony Dillon:
At least two Aboriginal leaders have suggested the need for treaties between Australia and Aboriginal nations…
What exactly can a treaty achieve for Aboriginal people today that cannot already be achieved without it? How does a treaty relate to constitutional recognition? ...
Despite calls for a treaty, many Aborigines, several thousand in fact, are doing exceedingly well without one....
But if a treaty is to be pursued, it cannot be discussed without discussing the elephant in the room — who is an Aborigine?
What happens in the case of someone like myself — a part-Aboriginal Australian who has both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ancestry? Will a treaty highlight differences between those Australians with Aboriginal ancestry and those with no Aboriginal ancestry and potentially polarise the two groups?
I fear that chasing a treaty will remove the unity from community, when we should be thinking of all Australians as belonging to one community. Experience has shown that once indigenous identity is open for discussion, claims of offence are sure to follow.
Finally, my concern is that chasing a treaty will be another great distraction from addressing the problems we know need to be addressed, but that few wish to acknowledge, such as violence, child abuse, and drug and alcohol abuse, all of which are killing Aborigines; yet many are happy to sit by and chase the next fad.
Of course, some of the critical issues raised by Dillon are now too legally dangerous to frankly discuss, and this push will, if successful, make even more important topics legally off-limits.
(Thanks to reader WaG311.) 
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Abbott weakens Q&A. ABC abuses its power by hitting back

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (8:34am)

Q&A was quite boring last night without a Coalition MP on - a bit like the Christian not turning up to the colosseum to meet the lions - and the ABC should be alarmed.
In fact, the various arm of this massive state-funded soap box of the Left have been thrown into attacking the Government, in yet another demonstration of the ABC’s reflexively Leftist groupthink. Here’s Leigh Sales badgering a Liberal frontbencher on 7.30, for instance:
I’m talking about the Coalition vacating a platform that allows you to speak to 900,000 voters every week. You want to give that up?
Ask the Christian if he’d really give up a platform that allows him to scream his last to 90,000 hooting spectators. Does he really want to give that up?
More criticism of the Government on Q&A last night:

Tony Abbott has been roundly criticised by the panellists on Q&A for prohibiting government MPs from appearing on the show.
Gosh, people on Q&A criticising those who won’t go on? What a surprise.
The Q&A program is under internal review after convicted criminal and known extremist Zaky Mallah last month used the platform to claim government initiatives were encouraging Muslims to join Islamic State.
The review, by Ray Martin and a former SBS chief, Shaun Brown, seems another ABC stitch-up. No wonder Abbott wants to send a signal.
I loved this hypocrisy:

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles used the program to say Mr Abbott’s boycott was an attempt to avoid scrutiny in a “challenging room"…
“It’s a mistake on the part of the government and ultimately it’s weak,” Mr Marles said…
Greens Senator Larissa Waters also said ... “It’s been a huge overreaction..."… “I think the Abbott government is attacking the ABC, because it doesn’t like the ABC.”
Labor leaders Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard, and Greens leaders Bob Brown and Christine Milne, turned down every request for years to come on The Bolt Report for the very reasons given by Marles and Waters. Could Marles and Waters please comment? Could the ABC please huff and puff?
UPDATE
The other issue raised here is the dangerous size of the ABC.
The ABC has had the same choking effect in Australia that is described below, helping to kill publications such as Hoopla and Politifact, and robbing paying audiences from sites such as Fairfax and the Guardian, with very similar readerships:

Nearly 200 local newspapers have closed across Britain in the last decade – causing incalculable damage to local democracy…
Several factors have contributed to this sad decline – the migration of advertising to the internet, ever-rising costs of newsprint and distribution, and failure of some papers to adapt to the digital age.
But there’s no doubt many were tipped over the edge by the relentless expansion of the BBC website. With its vast resources this behemoth is simply steamrollering papers out of business…
Why on earth should the taxpayer have to fund this naked empire-building?… With four TV channels, a sprawling radio network and international business arm, the BBC is simply too bloated.
The ABC also has four TV channels, five radio stations (not including its on-line ones), an Internet newspaper, Twitter accounts, book shops and a publishing arm. All paid for by taxpayers. And virtually all run, by the way, in direct breach of the ABC’s legal duty to be impartial and balanced.

(Thanks to reader Graham.) 
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So far that predicted heat sure isn’t here

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (8:23am)

Once again we must ask: are the Bureau of Meteorology’s climate models tuned to run too hot? Too alarmist?
Sydney Morning Herald paid alarmist Peter Hannam on 12 May:
A “substantial” El Nino event has begun, raising the likelihood of worsening drought over inland Australia and higher daytime temperatures, the Bureau of Meteorology said…
“Relatively clear skies mean daytime temperatures across much of the country tend to be above average… Australia’s temperatures are about one degree above average in the second half of the calendar year during El Nino events, adding to the background warming signal from climate change, Dr Jones said.”
Peter Hannam today:

Sydney’s run of exceptionally chilly mornings could become the city’s coldest spell in more than three decades – and a return to milder conditions may be weeks away....
“The city’s below-average temperatures, in other words, may be more likely during the day than at night. It will start to affect day-time temperatures more than night-time temperatures because [next week’s front] looks like it’s probably got a lot of cloud and moisture attached to it,” Mr Dutschke said.”
True, we’ve still got that second half of the year to go, but so far so cold.
(Thanks to reader Dazza.) 
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Why are Aboriginal leaders debating words and not murders?

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (8:01am)

How he “reconciliation” movement is in fact doing the very opposite - driving Australians into opposing “racial” camps:
Cape York leader Noel Pearson has called for an Aboriginal pleb­iscite on constitutional recognition to be held ahead of a referendum, in a bid to secure an overwhelming display of indigenous unity on the issue. 
Who gets to vote in this plebiscite? Will one Aboriginal great-great-grandparent in your ancestry qualify you as an Aborigine, with different rights? Why such absurd “one drop” rules? What madness is this? And what a criminal distraction from the real and grave problems on the ground, like this - which none of the 40 Aboriginal “leaders” who met yesterday with the Prime Minister are today discussing:
... the Northern Territory [is] ... the homicide capital of Australia. Statistics from the Australian Institute of Criminology show… the homicide rate for the NT was 5.5 per 100,000 people. This is five times the national rate and almost four times the second highest state, Western Australia, which had a homicide rate of 1.4 per 100,000…
In 2001-02, the NT’s rate was almost six times higher than the national average, 11.5 compared to 1.9. By 2011-12 it had improved significantly to 5.5, but was still higher than the rest of the country…
So why does the Top End have a higher rate?
“It’s a combination of factors,” [Matthew Willis, research officer from the AIC] said… “But there are also higher levels of violence and, in particular, the higher rate of alcohol-related violence particularly in indigenous communities in the NT.
“… And the rates of family violence among indigenous people is much higher than non-indigenous...”
Mr Willis said in recent years there appeared to be higher concentration of homicides in the Alice Springs area. He attributed this to the region being a central point for outer-lying communities.
“When you end up with people from different communities coming together … you get those sort of tensions and issues that come with people being crowded together, especially when they are in situations where they are drinking,” he added.
Frightening levels of murder, domestic violence and drinking in Aboriginal communities, and our top Aboriginal leaders are spending their time talking instead about changing words in the constitution? Seriously?
UPDATE
The fact is that the leaders of the “reconciliation” movement are unappeasable. Should they ever admit we are indeed reconciled they will lose their self-righteous anger, their power and their funding - their whole shtick. And so even now, the day after the top 40 Aboriginal leaders get a big meeting with the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, both saying they are committed to delivering what the “reconcilers” want, we get this:
Noel Pearson has blasted the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader after a summit on Indigenous recognition in Sydney, saying while the event was “a good start”, it was “stage-managed” and left a “bitter taste” in his mouth…
As the founder of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership and a prominent Indigenous leader, Mr Pearson ... [said] he would have “preferred to stay in Cape York ... and sent a cardboard cut-out” to the meeting instead.
“I had a grin across my face for most of the morning but ... having been manoeuvred through the morning towards a pre-determined outcome started to taste a bit bitter in my mouth.”
Does this sound like reconciliation to you? 
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Matters for Shorten to explain

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (12:43am)

How unfortunate:
Union records detailing payments by employers to the Australian Workers’ Union’s Victorian branch for four years under the leadership of Bill Shorten have been lost…
The Australian Financial Review [has] been told that the union had not kept records of invoices sent to employers before 2003.
A number of employers allegedly paid the union dues of employees to the AWU under Mr Shorten, who was Victorian secretary from 1998 to 2006 and national secretary from 2001 to 2007. 
Evidence before the commission shows the AWU’s Victorian branch in 2005 received $38,228 from builder Winslow Constructors to pay the union dues of 105 members. Documents seen by the Financial Review also show the Victorian branch invoiced Winslow in March 2004 for $30,515 to pay the union dues of an unspecified number of workers.
But Winslow has told the commission the practice started in the 1990s before Shorten’s time. However, sources said no invoices are held by the union that cover the period from 1998 to 2002 when Mr Shorten was state secretary.
It is understood the union transferred invoices to a new computer system in about 2003 and did not shift the old financial statements…
Questioned about the Winslow payments, Mr Shorten admitted on the ABC’s Insiders program in June that it was “entirely possible” that employers paid the union dues of members during his time at the AWU.
Mr Shorten is also expected to be questioned on Wednesday about $300,000 in payments by Thiess John Holland, the joint-venture builder of Melbourne’s EastLink project, to the union from 2005.
Shorten will have an interesting day tomorrow at the royal commission.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Why should traitors be citizens? What’s the counter argument?

Andrew Bolt July 07 2015 (12:12am)

It seems the Prime Minister reads the public mood better than do many in the media and even some in his own Cabinet:
Fairfax-Ipsos poll found 75 per cent of people would support removing citizenship from citizens involved in terrorism provided that person is eligible to become a citizen of another country. Only 21 per cent of people were opposed

(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Low Profile.) 
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June 4th, 2015 near Selden, Kansas. I could probably post a lightning shot a week for a year from this single storm!LOL  What a show we had!
Posted by Shane Kirk on Monday, 6 July 2015

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Gorgeous words. Have a great day, everyone.
Posted by Babyology on Monday, 18 May 2015

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Socialism is running out of other people's money
Posted by Grant Goldman on Monday, 6 July 2015

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Twilight MammatusI was chasing an MCS with Mike Olbinski and was passing up all sort of possible photo possibilities,...
Posted by Matt Granz on Monday, 6 July 2015

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Is this you going to work on a Monday?
Posted by New Idea Magazine on Sunday, 5 July 2015

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=== Posts from last year ===

CARBON CHURCH

Tim Blair – Monday, July 07, 2014 (5:50pm)

It isn’t often that a Fairfax environment writer comes up with the funniest line of the week. Congratulations are due to Tom Arup for composing this gem: 
The Anglican Church has told the Abbott government to change its approach to climate change, urging it to respect and base its policy on scientific evidence. 
The comic power in that paragraph is equal to several kilotons of the finest plutonium. Here we have an organisation founded on belief and faith now demanding that selected scientific opinions inform government policy. These same people think they can talk to the planet’s inventor just by putting their hands together.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'CARBON CHURCH'
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THIS IS NOT A JOKE

Tim Blair – Monday, July 07, 2014 (5:47pm)

Humourless feminist Clementine Ford quotes humourless feminist Laura Bates in support of humourless feminists: 
The idea of the humourless feminist is an incredibly potent and effective silencer. It is used to isolate and alienate young girls; to ridicule and dismiss older women, to force women in the workplace to ‘join in the joke’ and, in the media, to castigate protest to the point of obliteration. 
Seems a little, er, humourless. By the way:
Q: How many frightbats does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: THAT’S NOT FUNNY!
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BRAKES: A SENATORIAL DEBATE

Tim Blair – Monday, July 07, 2014 (4:05pm)

The federal senate functions as a house of review, standing above the short-term interests of the lowly house of representatives. That is why senators serve longer terms than their lower house colleagues – it removes them from the day-to-day political ruck and allows them to properly consider grave policy issues.
It’s such a great system that it really should apply in all other areas of Australian life. For example, imagine how helpful the new senate might be in offering a thoughtful second opinion on car repair …

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'BRAKES: A SENATORIAL DEBATE'

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ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCED

Tim Blair – Monday, July 07, 2014 (3:38pm)

Australian feminists support an American sexist. Returning the favour, an American environmentalist supports Australian coal mining, much to the anguish of the New York Times: 
To environmentalists across Australia, it is a baffling anachronism in an era of climate change: the construction of a 4,000-acre mine in New South Wales that will churn out carbon-laden coal for the next 30 years.
The mine’s groundbreaking, in a state forest this year, inspired a veteran to stand in front of a bulldozer and a music teacher to chain himself to a piece of excavation equipment.
But the project had an unlikely financial backer in the United States, whose infusion of cash helped set it in motion: Tom Steyer, the most influential environmentalist in American politics … 
Billionaire Steyer is currently running an anti-carbon campaign in the US, provoking Australian bewilderment: 
“It’s gobsmacking,” Philip Spark, president of the Northern Inland Council for the Environment, a nonprofit trying to stop construction of the mine, said in a telephone interview. “It’s amazing that such a person could have been involved in this project.” 
Not really. Consider the case of a certain Al Gore.
UPDATE. Power Line were alert to “Democratic money man and environmental poseur” Steyer’s hilarious hypocrisymonths ago.
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Spend, spend, spend Senate

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (4:22pm)

Forget financial reform with this Senate, where the Greens, Labor and Clive Palmer rule:
Clive Palmer has dealt a major blow to the Abbott government’s deficit repair job by announcing his party will oppose more than $9 billion worth of savings measures linked to the repeal of the mining tax. 
The Palmer United Party leader told the National Press Club on Monday he supported the removal of the mining tax but would not vote for many of the associated savings measures. These include scrapping the Schoolkids Bonus and superannuation rebates for low-income earners.
Scrapping the Schoolkids bonus – which delivers payments of $820 per high school child and $410 per primary school student to families on Family Tax Benefit A - would save the budget an estimated $5.2 billion over four years based on figures from the Parliamentary Library…
Scrapping the [Superannuation Contribution Scheme ] would save an estimated $3.8 billion over four years.
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Clive Palmer deserves more scrutiny than this

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (11:16am)

The major parties don’t dare attack Clive Palmer, needing his votes. So more passive parts of the media don’t put him under scrutiny either.
Sharri Markson:

THE ABC and Fairfax have refused to answer questions over their failure to prominently cover court proceedings involving Clive Palmer’s alleged use of siphoned Chinese cash in his election campaign
Documents filed in the Queensland Sup­reme Court in Brisbane on Monday show that $10 million went from the bank account into a Clive Palmer-­controlled company, Cosmo Developments Pty Ltd, in August last year, but it has not yet been established where the money went next… Mr Palmer has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
It’s a story that both The Australian newspaper and Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail published on the front page on Tuesday, and Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph ran prominently the same day.
Yet the ABC and Fairfax Media have not assigned journalists to investigate the issue, nor have they covered with any prominence the court proceedings brought against the resources tycoon by Citic Pacific. The Guardian has also failed to investigate the issue independently, while the commercial networks have only touched on it lightly… The Nine Network’s news and current affairs director Darren Wick said there was no deliberate strategy not to cover the story and when Mr Palmer appeared in court, “we’ll be across it"… Ten’s news director, John Choueifate, rejected suggestions that the media had rolled out the red carpet for Palmer and said his network covered the story last week as part of a package from Canberra… Seven’s news director, Rob Raschke, said his state bureaus had been “covering the story as part of the daily political cycle over the past week’’.
Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill adds:
To be fair, the Fin Review ran Mark Ludlow’s story on 1 July and also featured Angus Griggs’ extensive piece in the weekend edition. Jessica van Vonderen’s story ran on Lateline on 1 July.
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Waking up to the danger of Philip Nitschke

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (9:05am)

The new morality

 EUTHANASIA guru Dr Philip Nitschke is furious the ABC has finally pinged him for actually helping the healthy to kill themselves. 

“Attacked by rabid Christians & journalist jackals!” he tweeted last week.
But you don’t need to be rabid or even Christian to consider Nitschke dangerous.
For 20 years Nitschke, founder of Exit International, has had largely positive coverage from a media which too often assumed he’s just helping the dying and the suffering.
Only now does he seem in trouble, with the Black Dog Institute, the Australian Medical Association and beyondblue publicly denouncing him.
This follows the ABC’s revelations last week about Nitschke’s dealings with Nigel Brayley, a healthy 45-year-old Perth man who’d told the doctor he did not have “a terminal medical illness”, yet wanted to commit suicide.
(Read full article here.) 
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An image we couldn’t show you

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (9:02am)

image
Several aspects of this case suggest more concern with the rights of the child rapist than that of the community:
VICTORIANS have been put on high alert after a child rapist was able to walk out of the “Village of the Damned” — the Ararat home to some of our worst sex ­offenders. 

Andrew Darling, who raped a 13-year-old girl, ...  triggered an alarm after cutting off his electronic tracking bracelet shortly after 2.30am yesterday… 
It is the second time in five years he has been hunted by police, after previously breaking his parole just a day after being ­released from jail.
Police issued an image of Darling at 10am, warning he was a danger to the public, but told media that publishing those details could breach suppression ­orders ­intended to protect his rights. It was only three hours later the force released a statement confirming media could pass the warning on to Victorians...
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Not Tamils, and not disappeared - as the ABC claimed

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (8:52am)

Eric Abetz calls out the ABC’s Fran Kelly for a vile analogy:
Greens leader Christine Milne on the return of asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka, Friday: 

PEOPLE are disappeared in white vans. Anyone who stands up against the regime could find a white van outside their home, they’re dragged into it, they are either tortured and dumped or not found again.
Eric Abetz attempts to regain some sense of proportion with Fran Kelly on Insiders yesterday: 
KELLY: Since when does our government disappear people? 
Abetz: Look, we don’t disappear people, and with respect, that sort of description does you no credit.
ABC boss Mark Scott keeps insisting that it doesn’t matter if all the hosts of his main current affairs shows are of the Left because that bias doesn’t show.
UPDATE
They appear!:
Not just returned, but not even from the Tamil minority the Greens insist is persecuted:
The Abbott government has confirmed that 41 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who attempted to reach Australia by boat have been handed over to Sri Lankan authorities… 
According to Mr Morrison, 37 of the returned asylum seekers were from the Sinhalese majority and four were Tamil Sri Lankan nationals. Only one of the asylum seekers, who was Sinhalese, passed screening to seek asylum but chose to return to Sri Lanka with the other asylum seekers… Mr Morrison has not commented on the status of another boat of asylum seekers, said to carrying about 150 asylum seekers, which was reportedly intercepted by Australian authorities around a week ago.
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So why did Christine Milne holiday on an island that Malcolm Fraser likens to Nazi Germany?

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (8:49am)

WHY have the Greens — and leftists such as former prime minister Malcolm Fraser — made Sri Lanka their favourite villain? 

Is it to better pretend that boat people from its Tamil minority are genuine refugees?
Is it so they can now attack Prime Minister Tony Abbott as a criminal for sending back two boats with 200 [alleged] Tamils intercepted a week ago?
I suspect so, because the Left’s self-pleasuring rage is almost pornographic, with Fraser even tweeting the return is “redolent off (sic) handing Jews to Nazis in 1930s”.
(Read full article here.) 
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Another busy weekend in the world of Islam

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (8:18am)

Kenya:
Gunmen fired indiscriminately at homes, burned down a church and raided a police station in two attacks on Kenyan coastal towns overnight, killing at least 29 people… 
The Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabab, which last September attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Yemen:
Clashes between Shiite rebels and tribesmen allied with the government have killed at least 35 people and wounded 40 others in some of the fiercest fighting to hit the country in months, a Yemeni security official said Sunday. 
The rebels, from the Houthi tribe, have been battling tribesmen from Yemen’s largest tribal confederation, the Hashid, which is backed by an army unit and allied with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islah party. The Houthi are backed by smaller tribes.
Nigeria:
Boko Haram insurgents have attacked Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State, killing many people. 
Damboa is about 87 kilometres from Maiduguri and about 40 kilometres to Chibok where over 200 female students were abducted by the insurgents nearly three months ago.
The latest attack, according locals in Damboa, left at least 12 soldiers, 4 policemen and 4 members of the civilian JTF dead.

Syria: 
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al Qaida-splinter group, has rousted as many as 30,000 people from an eastern Syrian town after recently capturing it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday. 
The people were forced out of their homes over the weekend… Shahel, a town in eastern countryside of Syria’s oil-rich Deir al-Zour province, was a stronghold of the al Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which has been deadlocked in battles against the ISIL… The ISIL has recently proclaimed the establishment of an “ Islamic Caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq, and changed its name into the “Islamic State.”
Iraq:
image 
Islamic militant sect, ISIS, which has been rampaging across the north and west of Iraq since last month, has been demolishing sacred sites such as shrines and mosques around the historic northern city of Mosul in Nineveh province. Photographs from the area posted online under the banner “Demolishing shrines and idols in the state of Nineveh” depicted mosques being turned into piles of rubble – explosives deployed against Shiite buildings - and bulldozers flattening the shrines. 
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Israel’s shame

Andrew Bolt July 07 2014 (8:15am)

The only difference here - albeit a big one - is that at least Israel does feel shame, and has arrested the suspected killers:
The Israeli police have arrested a group of Israeli suspects in connection with the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian youth from East Jerusalem who was found beaten and burned in a Jerusalem forest last week, a spokesman for the Israeli police said Sunday… 
The police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said there was a “strong possibility” that the motive for the killing was “nationalistic,” indicating that it was a revenge attack by right-wing Jewish extremists for the recent kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.
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"Secretary of State John Kerry was the personification of the incredible shrinkage of America this week as he maintained his obsessive focus on getting Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. 

In a Middle East engulfed by civil war, revolution and chronic instability, Israel is the only country at peace.

The image of Kerry extolling his success in "narrowing the gaps" between Israel and the Palestinians before he boarded his airplane at Ben Gurion Airport as millions assembled to bring down the government of Egypt is the image of a small, irrelevant America.

And as the anti-American posters in Tahrir Square this week showed, America's self-induced smallness is a tragedy that will harm the region and endanger the US." - Caroline Glick
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Egyptian turmoil strikes a blow to Gaza’s Hamas rulers - The Times of Israel
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A focused pursuit of legacy creation on the heels of a failed Administration's foreign policy directives, amid domestic and international scandals; and meanwhile, Israel's back is again to the corner with the all-too-familiar loaded and pointed revolver, whilst regional fires continue to rage, spreading unrest, destruction, human suffering and dangerous chaos.

Who dares to step forward, undaunted by self-serving agendas from all-around and expose underlying political shams?
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Pastor Rick Warren
If you want to be a bridge to Jesus you must be willing to be walked on.
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first rate kid .. how has he survived this long? - ed
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Joseph Campbell
“Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength is there. Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.

"Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.”

From "A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living"
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The Lord will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land...You will be like a well-watered garden. Isaiah 58:11
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Pastor Rick Warren
Radical faith in God and radical love for people are behind Saddleback's 30 yrs of non-stop growth.Both require risk-taking.
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John D. Sloat
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“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Matthew 24:35NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil."
Proverbs 1:33
Divine love is rendered conspicuous when it shines in the midst of judgments. Fair is that lone star which smiles through the rifts of the thunder clouds; bright is the oasis which blooms in the wilderness of sand; so fair and so bright is love in the midst of wrath. When the Israelites provoked the Most High by their continued idolatry, he punished them by withholding both dew and rain, so that their land was visited by a sore famine; but while he did this, he took care that his own chosen ones should be secure. If all other brooks are dry, yet shall there be one reserved for Elijah; and when that fails, God shall still preserve for him a place of sustenance; nay, not only so, the Lord had not simply one "Elijah," but he had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave, and though the whole land was subject to famine, yet these fifties in the cave were fed, and fed from Ahab's table too by His faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah. Let us from this draw the inference, that come what may, God's people are safe. Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies themselves be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as in the calmest hour of rest. If God cannot save his people under heaven, he will save them in heaven. If the world becomes too hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety. Be ye then confident, when ye hear of wars, and rumours of wars. Let no agitation distress you, but be quiet from fear of evil. Whatsoever cometh upon the earth, you, beneath the broad wings of Jehovah, shall be secure. Stay yourself upon his promise; rest in his faithfulness, and bid defiance to the blackest future, for there is nothing in it direful for you. Your sole concern should be to show forth to the world the blessedness of hearkening to the voice of wisdom.

Evening

"How many are mine iniquities and sins?"
Job 13:23
Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God's people is? Think how heinous is your own transgression, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like an alp, but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelion upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain. What an aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of God's children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the multitude of the redeemed, "a number which no man can number," and you will have some conception of the great mass of the guilt of the people for whom Jesus shed his blood. But we arrive at a more adequate idea of the magnitude of sin by the greatness of the remedy provided. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's only and well-beloved Son. God's Son! Angels cast their crowns before him! All the choral symphonies of heaven surround his glorious throne. "God over all, blessed forever. Amen." And yet he takes upon himself the form of a servant, and is scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain; since nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement for our offences. No human mind can adequately estimate the infinite value of the divine sacrifice, for great as is the sin of God's people, the atonement which takes it away is immeasurably greater. Therefore, the believer, even when sin rolls like a black flood, and the remembrance of the past is bitter, can yet stand before the blazing throne of the great and holy God, and cry, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea rather, that hath risen again." While the recollection of his sin fills him with shame and sorrow, he at the same time makes it a foil to show the brightness of mercy--guilt is the dark night in which the fair star of divine love shines with serene splendour.
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Achish

[Ā'chish] - serpent charmer.
  1. Son of Maoch and the king of Gath to whom David fled (1 Sam. 21:10-14; 27:2-12).
  2. A king of Gath, who reigned about forty years later than No. 1, in Solomon's time (1 Kings 2:39, 40).
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Today's reading: Job 32-33, Acts 14 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Job 32-33

Elihu
1 So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God. 3 He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him. 4 Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than he. 5 But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused....

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 14

In Iconium
1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. 4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the gospel....
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