Monday, August 01, 2016

Mon Aug 1st Todays News

Keep in mind historical parallels. What has happened in the NT is terrible, but mainly the fault of ALP policy. Shortly after Rudd won government in '07, he hired lawyers to see if he could overthrow the intervention. He couldn't, but he did water it down. Not because it wasn't effective, but because it was a political look he needed to address, symbolically the conservatives had made the right call. The issue of child protection and detention predates Heiner. Anyway, long story short, the issue was not run now to expose the NT Country Liberals, but to immunise the ALP when they win the election next month. And Turnbull has fumbled badly and panicked. The parallel goes back to President Hoover and US blacks exploited by Democrats during the Louisiana hurricane that left many hungry in the 1920's. Before Hoover was President, he was a civil engineer contracted to feed everyone in Louisiana. But Democrats stole aid packages from black peoples at gun point. Hoover was appalled, but was convinced by local authorities to not blow up the issue. So when he was President, huckster FDR pinned Hoover with the blame and won the black lobbies and the Democrats hold them to this day. The ALP are responsible for the bad governance of prisons in NT, but they are going to blame the country Liberals with ABC bias helping. And the election pitch for the ALP "Vote for us, we take Aborigines for granted and hurt them."
 For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.  
=== from 2015 ===
On this day in 1991, US President George H. W. Bush delivered a speech in the parliament of the Ukrainian SSR in which he warned against Ukrainian independence. The elder President George Bush is not as respected as Reagan or his son. Republicans did not support him for a second term over a flake like Clinton. George Bush sr had attempted to more secularise his party and the religious right, who are not capable of making someone President, are capable of denying it to someone. Clinton benefited from the religious right, even as he despised it. But Reagan's success had done something dangerous and it needed to be corrected. The Democrat Party had lost the Presidency while it was their turn. The result was they became even worse, more corrupt, more inept. The US is often called a headless bird with two right wings. But the weakened Democrat policy only makes it one right wing. Democrats are still corrupt and inept, but they have a possibility of building which the GOP can't do for them. Ukraine is like the Dems. They are a post Soviet government and have to learn how to be responsible. But they aren't. Yet. 
From 2014
Mark Antony had won the naval battle off Alexandria in 30 BC, but he had lost the ability to flee the superior force of Octavian. Probably Octavian wanted Antony to surrender to him so he could unify Rome, but Antony took the other option and suicided so as to allow the survival of his men and family who would have been eliminated in the persecution which would have followed. Antony suicided on this day, and Octavian entered Alexandria, bringing it into the Roman Republic and ending the line of Pharaoh rule. But Antony was to get revenge on Rome for his death at fifty three years of age. His grandson was Nero. 

It was ninety nine years later that Antony had his revenge. Nero had suicided and a tribe of Gauls in Netherlands on Batavia had a leader who sided with Vespasian who had eventually succeeded Nero. Gaius Julius Civilis is a stranger to written history. We do not know of his birth or death, but clearly he was able to claim some Roman citizenry through his name. He led the Batavians in revolt and almost got France to declare itself an independent kingdom. But in betraying Vespasian and with divided followers, Civilis lost and sued for peace. Nothing is known of him after. But he probably changed the world. Vespasian tasked his son Titus to crush Jerusalem, which he did in 70 and Masada in 73. 

Today is Minden Day, the Battle being part of the series of fortuitous events of Annus Mirabllis of 1759. It happened in pre unification Germany and the belligerents were Great Britain with Hanover fighting France with Saxony. The miraculous win happened when there was a mistake in orders, leading to a single column of infantry taking on the triple line of cavalry .. and surviving to win. One British General Sackville had been in charge of British cavalry and begged to be court martial-ed over the allegation he had delayed their going to infantry support until it didn't matter. Sackville would later be a failure in the US Revolutionary war. The result of the battle was that France was unable to launch assaults for another year. 

Horatio Nelson was born in the Annus Mirabilis of 1759. On this evening in 1798, he had one of his three stunning successes, this one at Aboukir Bay against France in Egypt. France had thirteen ships of the line anchored and ready to broadside any who sailed on the seaward side. Nelson attacked at night from the undefended shore side. The results are telling. Of thirteen ships of the line for Britain, Nelson lost none but 218 killed and 677 wounded. The french lost two ships of the line destroyed, and nine captured, as well as 5000 casualties and 3900 captured. Napoleon was forced to flee Egypt on a small pinnace. Napoleon had intended to colonise Egypt. He decided to invade England. Seven years later Nelson would have his greatest victory over Napoleon at Trafalgar. But until then, Nelson would be given great gifts from the King of two Italies and meet Emma Hamilton and her husband. 

There is a difference between inventing and discovering. On this day in 1774, Joseph Priestly discovered Oxygen Gas. In 1800, Britain unified with Ireland. In 1834, Slavery was abolished in the British empire. In 1894 began the first Japanese vs Chinese wars. In 1914, Germany declared war on Russia and the Swiss Army mobilised. In 1927, the Nanchang uprising saw the communists square off against the nationalists, creating the communist Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). In 1946, Stalin had executed Soviet POW officers who had been co-opted to fight with Germans. In 1957 US and Canada form NORAD. In 1961 US forms DIA to coordinate military espionage. In 1966, Charles Whitman went on a shooting spree in the University of Texas. In 1991, US President George H. W. Bush delivered a speech in the parliament of the Ukrainian SSR in which he warned against Ukrainian independence.
Historical perspective on this day
Not done
=== 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.
===
Thanks to Warren for this advice on watching Bolt
Warren Catton Get this for your PC or MAC https://www.foxtel.com.au/foxtelplay/how-it-works/pc-mac.html Once you have installed it start it up and press Live TV you don't need a login to watch Sky News!
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January. 

Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?

January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, 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 a free kindle version.

List of available items at Create Space
Happy birthday and many happy returns Leila Khiev and PureMacquarie Liverpool. Born on the same day, across the years, along with Claudius (10BC), Francis Scott Key (1779), Herman Melville (1819), Yves Saint Laurent (1936) and Boz Burrell (1946). On your day Lughnasadh (Northern Hemisphere); Imbolc (Southern Hemisphere); Lammas in England and Scotland. 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Nile started between a British fleet commanded by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson and a French fleet under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
1842 – A parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, celebrating the end of slavery in the West Indies was attacked by a mob, leading to three days of riots.
1907 – Robert Baden-Powell held the first scout camp at Brownsea Island in Dorset, England, beginning the Scouting movement.
1944 – World War II: The Polish Home Army began the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw against the Nazi occupation of Poland, a rebellion that lasted 63 days until it was quelled by the Germans.
1991 – US President George H. W. Bush delivered a speech in the parliament of the Ukrainian SSR in which he warned against Ukrainian independence. You were warned about your independence. It is ok to rise against tyranny .. but be prepared!. Celebrate the end of slavery. And victory on the Nile.
Deaths
===

MYSTERY SYSTEM

Tim Blair – Monday, August 01, 2016 (2:48pm)

One of the more remarkable moments in SBS’s Pauline Hanson documentary occurs at the one hour mark, after archival footage shows Hanson predicting between 12 and 15 lower house victories for One Nation in the 1998 federal election.
This didn’t happen. Hanson explains why, with particular reference to her own electoral failure: 
I didn’t understand the preferences. 
By that time Hanson had been a member of parliament for two years and been eligible to vote in the previous 11 elections. How is it possible for someone to go through all of that and still not know how the preferential voting system works?
===

THE CONTENTS ARE KIND OF IMPLIED

Tim Blair – Monday, August 01, 2016 (2:39pm)

A consumer crisis in the UK: 
German discounter Lidl is removing its brand of fruit yoghurts and honey peanuts from the shelves because it fails to tell customers they might contain milk and peanuts. 
(Via Dr Greg.) 
===

IF ONLY HE’D BEEN MORE DIPLOMATIC

Tim Blair – Monday, August 01, 2016 (2:47am)

Back when Malcolm Turnbull was proving himself to be an incompetent opposition leader, then-prime minister Kevin Rudd used to bait him from across the dispatch box. “Just resign, Malcolm,” he’d hiss, eyes lowered, as he pretended to flick through some paperwork. “Just resign.”
Times change. Over recent months Rudd has desperately sought Turnbull’s approval as a candidate to lead the United Nations.
When it comes to government documentation that would endorse Rudd, the ex-PM’s request was slightly altered: “Just sign, Malcolm. Just sign.”
According to Rudd, who now appears to write letters for the sole purpose of leaking them, Turnbull gave every indication he supported Rudd’s UN bid.
“You had always said to me that the Australian government would be ‘mad’ not to support my candidature!” Rudd claimed in one of his letters to the Prime Minister. “You will recall saying the same in person to me when we met at my place in New York last year!”
Interestingly, Turnbull appears to have been more supportive of Rudd during that period than he was to former Coalition prime minister Tony Abbott – although, in the end, both Rudd and Abbott received the same dose of Turnbull loyalty.
Rudd’s last letter to Turnbull, sent on Friday, probably reached newsrooms before it reached the PM. “You will understand how shocked I was to receive your telephone call within the last couple of hours, just prior to your taking the matter to Cabinet in Canberra,” Rudd fumed.
“In your telephone call you said that neither you nor the Cabinet would be supporting my nomination. When I asked the reasons for this, you said that neither you nor the Cabinet has the view that ‘I had the qualifications for the position’.
“You will appreciate that you have never expressed that view to me in the multiple conversations we have had on this matter on the past.”
The vindictiveness displayed in releasing those letters – Rudd’s spokeswoman admitted Turnbull had “asked Mr Rudd to keep the confidentiality of their conversations on this matter” – reveals precisely why Rudd should never have been in consideration to run the UN, unless the aim was to run it into the ground.
As Liberal senator James McGrath put it last week, “I wouldn’t trust Kevin Rudd to operate a toaster.” A nice line, although a little insensitive, given the outcome of Rudd’s infamous insulation program. The man doesn’t need any toasters. He can simply turn suburban homes into them.
This debacle also exposes, yet again, Turnbull’s abysmally wayward political intuition. Rudd was a known factor throughout his run towards UN nomination. So why was Turnbull cosying up to him (assuming Rudd’s versions of those chats in New York and elsewhere are accurate)? Why did Turnbull allow a man who has already poisoned two governments – his own and Julia Gillard’s – a chance to poison yet another?
Turnbull was vague in his reasons for declining to support Rudd. “This is a judgment about Mr Rudd’s suitability for that particular role,” he said, without offering anything specific. Turnbull gave the impression, without saying as much, that he’d come around to former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally’s view of Rudd as “a psychopathic narcissist” less suited to a UN role than a person selected at random from the street or, indeed, Keneally’s pet labrador.
Those who believe Rudd’s domestic antics should not disqualify him from an international role should consider one telling encounter during Rudd’s prime ministership. It occurred when Rudd attended a G20 meeting in the US seven years ago.
===

MONDAY NOTICEBOARD

Tim Blair – Monday, August 01, 2016 (2:40am)

Society reviewed. Language warning:

===

NOTHING STRIKES AGAIN

Tim Blair – Monday, August 01, 2016 (2:35am)

Various French media outlets last week announced they will stop publishing the names and images of Islamic terrorists.
“The decisions come after the truck attack on a Nice fireworks display and the killing of a French priest in a church in Normandy, events in a spate of attacks France has seen since last year,” Associated Press reported.
“On Wednesday, leading newspaper Le Monde pledged to stop publishing photographs of attackers … BFM-TV said it will no longer broadcast images of attackers’ faces.”
The excuse for this is that they don’t want to turn terrorists into heroes. More likely, however, is that these outlets simply don’t want to face the reality of Islamic terror. Presumably this self-imposed censorship will only become worse. Let’s imagine a typical future report out of France:
PARIS, May 15, 2018 – Seven people were killed yesterday and dozens injured when nothing happened at Paris’s Gare du Nord railway station.
French officials said nobody detonated anything in particular near the station’s crowded entrance on the Rue de Dunkerque. Witnesses said loud cries of “Nothing! Nothing at all!” were heard seconds before the simultaneous non-occurrences.
It is the third time in as many weeks that nothing has happened in Paris, which is now under full military curfew as police struggle to contain the city’s insurgent unidentified community.
“The French people are united in their war against an unknowable and featureless void,” declared French President Francois Hollande, who vowed to “track down and bring to justice all of those who were not involved in anything.”
To indicate international solidarity with the besieged French capital, landmarks worldwide last night displayed brightly-lit blank white spaces. A passionate Twitter campaign, #itdidnthappen, was launched in the immediate wake of whatever took place.
“The world stands as one with [insert nation here],” Australian Prime Minister Julie Bishop said in her now-standard statement issued following all episodes of inactivity. “Australians send our deepest condolences to [insert foreign leader here] and his/her nation after this grievous act of [redacted].”
In a completely unrelated development, German chancellor Angela Merkel today sent a message of optimism and hope to Berlin’s three surviving families. “Food will arrive soon,” Merkel promised in a video authorised by her captors.
===

On The Bolt Report and radio tonight: Milo Yiannopoulos, plus Turnbull’s fresh disaster

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (1:46pm)

On The Bolt Report on Sky News Live at 7pm tonight:
Editorial - Turnbull stuffed up the Rudd bid. Now his royal commission is an even bigger disaster.
My guests:
Gay conservative icon Milo Yiannopoulos on being banned by Twitter. Is it biased?
Former Howard Government Minister Peter Reith on Our Nation: how much longer can the Liberals afford Turnbull’s kind of leadership?.
The panel: former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa. Turnbull’s royal commission vs the new racism. And Ewen Jones is kidding when he suggests the Liberals are in shape to call for a new election in the lost seat of Herbert.
Podcasts of the show here. Facebook page here. 
On 2GB, 3AW and 4BC with Steve Price from 8pm.
Turnbull goes from blunder to disaster.
Listen live here. Talkback:  131 873.  Listen to all past shows here.
===

Turnbull’s kneejerk royal commission in chaos: commissioner quits

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (1:05pm)

Malcolm Turnbull made a kneejerk decision to call a royal commission after the ABC screened a biased program falsely presenting the restraint of a boy in detention in the Northern Territory as torture.
What a disaster that is quickly turning out to be.
The latest:
THE judge named to lead the Royal Commission into youths in detention in the NT has resigned from his role, disappointing the Prime Minister.
Justice Brian Martin AO announced his resignation today, after a conflict of interest was raised.
Brian Martin’s daughter Joanna Martin worked for a previous NT Labor government’s Attorney General in 2010, during the period that the Royal Commission will examine.
Then there’s the race debate Turnbull prompted in the grievance industry and its Labor ally:
Special Minister of State Scott Ryan says the Coalition has ruled out appointing two Indigenous Australian co-commissioners to the royal commission into the Northern Territory’s juvenile justice system…
[Labor leader Bill] Shorten made his call for two Indigenous co-commissioners during a visit to Darwin yesterday....
“I believe it would be appropriate for the royal commission to have two co-commissioners who are Aboriginal Australians, strong people, men and women, who can make sure the voices and the experiences of Aboriginal Australians are given full justice in this royal commission…
“To have an inquiry into the treatment of Aboriginal children in the criminal, in the justice system in the Northern Territory and not have Aboriginal co-commissioners will be seen as a con job, seen as a political manipulation.”
Turnbull also helped to destroy the NT Country Liberal Party Government just weeks before an election:
Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles has welcomed the Royal Commission into the juvenile detention system and the child protection system in the state.... Facing calls to be removed from his position, Mr Giles is upholds that his government has provided and will continue to provide a range of improvements to the system, citing 16 recommendations that were successfully put in place at the former Don Dale centre.
Still to come, potential in-fighting if Giles loses and looks for another job:

Coalition MPs and Senators have privately speculated for some time that Mr Giles may replace Senator Scullion in the Senate after the NT election… Coalition MPs believe Mr Giles’s chances of replacing Senator Scullion have been weakened, with the NT Government expected to be defeated at next month’s election.
Turnbull has dealt with just two political issues of note in the month since the election. One was Kevin Rudd’s tilt for the United Nations’ top job and the other was this. Both essentially peripheral issues and both comprehensively bungled by Turnbull, who is bringing the house down. The Liberal house.
How much longer can Liberals possibly afford this kind of leadership? 
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Peris sets another bad example

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (11:03am)

Former Labor Senator Nova Peris should watch her language, especially in front of children. She seems to have a problem with manners as well with commitment and with history:
Peris grips the steering wheel of her four-wheel-drive as we barrel down the Arnhem Highway, heading south from Darwin for some final election campaigning in the sparsely populated environs of east Arnhem Land. Along for the journey are her 26-year-old daughter Jessica and five-year-old grandson Isaac, whose impish presence in the back seat does little to inhibit his grandmother’s robust language. “What the f..k is it with Andrew Bolt?” Peris exclaims at one point. “The way he used the word ‘walkabout’ - what the f..k did he mean by that? How dare he use that word in such a totally patronising manner! I left politics on my terms, for family reasons. He doesn’t know me; he doesn’t know what I contributed to the Labor Party. So why should I give a shit about what f..kin’ Andrew Bolt has to say?”
Grandmothers should set a better example. 
===

Next step: Australian apartheid

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (10:48am)

“Reconciliation” is a fraud. It is pushed by a race-based grievance industry whose interests and power depend on never being reconciled:
Bill Shorten has imperilled the ­indigenous referendum by breaking bipartisanship on the issue to support a radical form of reconciliation aimed at pushing a treaty-like process designed to ­resolve grievances dating back to European settlement.
The Opposition Leader yesterday backed plans unveiled by Cape York leader Noel Pearson at the weekend for constitutional ­reform to insert a “hook” into the nation’s birth certificate, off which could then be hung a settlement process likely to see individual First Nations bodies strike a network of deals covering large parts of the continent.
I’ll say it again: the planned referendum to recognise people with Aboriginal ancestors as the First Australians, with different rights, will not be the end. Logically, this apartheid will be followed with treaties and then with some form of self government or autonomy. And already you are hearing those very demands.  There is simply no compromise with this racism.
That is why these demands must also be called out and resisted, based as they are on the unstated assumption that Australia’s legal system does not and cannot represent all Australians regardless of race:
Aboriginal leaders, senior legal figures and welfare agencies have joined a call for two indigenous co-commissioners to be appointed alongside former Northern Territory chief justice Brian ­Martin on the royal commission into juvenile detention.
Speaking at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land, Bill Shorten said community leaders were unequivocal that the inquiry would not be taken ­seriously otherwise, ­although he cautioned against ­ignoring it altogether.
Say no to racism. No to the division of Australians by race. 
===

The ABC’s week of shame

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (10:19am)

Culture wars, Media, The politics of race, three

TWO explosive ABC reports last week proved this biased state broadcaster is now a public menace.
First, the ABC falsely presented the restraint by detention staff of a violent youth as the torture of a near-innocent boy.
Next, it presented Australia’s top Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, as a sexual predator of children, based on the highly unreliable memories of people recalling ambiguous events more than 30 years old.
The consequences have been devastating.
In a knee-jerk response to the first report, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a royal commission into the Northern Territory’s juvenile justice system.
Activists are already exploiting this to turn attention from the deadly dysfunction of Aboriginal society — the most urgent problem — to the inflammatory excuse of white cruelty to black children.
In response to the second report, Pell’s church is being vilified just as it prepares to speak against the planned vote on same-sex marriage — the ABC’s great crusade.
Let me go through both reports to show how the ABC abused its power.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Training baby jihadists

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (10:12am)

Palestinian children trained to hate and to die:
For nearly a decade, residents of the villages of Nilin and Bilin, located near the haredi town of Modiin Illit, have held fiery, often violent demonstrations against the construction of the security fence every Friday…
[T]his Friday, one Arab participant ... [is filmed] carrying his young son towards several Border Police officers, setting him down, and shoving him off in the officers’ direction while waving a PLO flag.
The man then seemingly yells at the soldiers to shoot his son, ... [and] seems to scream at him to attack the soldiers with stones.
The child eventually attempted to comply with his father’s demands, but posed little threat as the soldiers watched him harmlessly toss stones aimlessly.

UPDATE
Marvellous, how multiculturalism has enriched our dining experience:
DOZENS of terrified diners fled a mass brawl which broke out between two groups of men at a western Sydney restaurant at the weekend.
Liverpool’s D’roost Lebanese restaurant was fully booked on Saturday night when the savage fight broke out forcing horrified family diners to flee into the street.
(Via John Hinderaker.) 
===

The Turnbull-Rudd admiration society is over

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (10:05am)

Remember four years ago, when these two characters were once on a unity ticket - united in admiring each other and disparaging Tony Abbott?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: ... those people who say they’d rather I was the leader of my party or Kevin the leader of his and there are, apparently, a handful that do, those people know that if they vote Liberal and Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister, I will be part of his team, influential at the cabinet table, involved, part of that collective leadership. Regrettably, if they are Kevin fanciers and they nonetheless vote Labor and Julia Gillard becomes Prime Minister, Kevin, to the loss of his party and I think to the loss of the country, will remain not so enigmatically on the backbench…
KEVIN RUDD: How you get on with Tony is a separate question. I say that in all sincerity. These guys are chalk and cheese, they really are. I’ve known Tony longer than I’ve known this bloke. This bloke, you know, you’re more at home on our side of politics, mate…
MALCOLM TURNBULL:  Your mob poleaxed you because you stood up to the factions. That’s why they got rid of you. The faceless men couldn’t put up with you anymore and that was a it was a shocking betrayal. And that is - you know, now, look, you’ve set out some great visions and so forth… The issue is competent management and, with great respect, that hasn’t been a strong suite either for you or Julia but the fundamental thing is you were poleaxed because you tried to stand up to those guys and they showed you and the nation, to its horror, who was really running the Labor Party…
KEVIN RUDD:  Malcolm’s far too the left of me. I just couldn’t, you know… Malcolm has smart ideas for the country’s future. I’ve got a few as well…
MALCOLM TURNBULL: It remains a matter of complete bafflement to me why the Labor Party doesn’t put Kevin back…
KEVIN RUDD:  Our central asset is Tony Abbott.
UPDATE
But now the two plotters have fallen out:
Katharine Murphy & Helen Davidson:
Senior government players are contesting a claim that Malcolm Turnbull gave Kevin Rudd an explicit undertaking of support during a meeting in December 2015 to discuss Rudd’s now thwarted ambition to be nominated by the Australian government for secretary-general of the United Nations…
But Rudd is standing firm, reiterating his record of the meeting. He says on 23 December the prime minister stated his support for his candidature, told him the issue would go to cabinet, but reassured him the cabinet process would not change the outcome..
In the lead-up to the cabinet consideration, which was a process initiated by Turnbull, Bishop argued publicly that Rudd was qualified for the post, in coordination with her own department and the prime minister’s office, apparently believing she had the support of the prime minister to make that case.
Jennifer Hewett:
Kevin Rudd and Julie Bishop are right to feel aggrieved at being misled by the Prime Minister over a protracted period and then dropped from a great height in a humiliating and public way.
Phillip Hudson:
Turnbull’s decision to take [Rudd’s nomination] to cabinet, instead of sticking with Tony Abbott’s already announced rejection, required Julie Bishop to present a formal submission…

Bishop was collateral damage and ministers are mixed in their views about her role.... Others believe she was too close to Rudd and being rolled by the PM will bring her down a peg… [She] has learned, as Scott Morrison did earlier this year on his advocacy for the GST, not to get too ahead of Turnbull on a hot issue.
The leaked letters provide only Rudd’s version of events but raise questions for Turnbull about his three secret meetings with Rudd last year and endorsements, including the claim he sent at least one message to Rudd through the PM’s “preferred” encrypted Wickr system where he said he was “as one” with Bishop in supporting Rudd.
Turnbull has humiliated Rudd, who will repay.
Turnbull has humiliated Bishop, who may repay.
Turnbull has show inept leadership to his Ministers, who will recalculate.
Oh, and by the way: it is now a month since the election. Any sign at all of Turnbull getting to work on our most pressing problem: the growing debt at a time of slow growth?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Teach children about proof and justice instead

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (10:02am)

These parents should be embarrassed to be teaching their children to join a witch hunt:
Parents at a Catholic primary school in Mentone are agitating to have a portrait of Cardinal George Pell removed from their school hall after allegations of sexual abuse emerged against the priest recently.
[Claire Bilos] said the portrait sent a “wrong message” to children that Cardinal Pell was to be “revered” and was “above question”.
“My daughter in grade 6, clearly old enough, she watches the news, she knows what is going on,” Ms Bilos said.
Reader Philip Shehan puts it well:

Ms Bilos should be telling her kids that accusations can be made against anyone at anytime, including them, their siblings their mother or their father. She should teach them that should not join lynch mobs rushing to judgement, but await the outcome of investigations before approving of any action taken against anyone.
We have seen football clubs and codes criticised for not suspending players against whom allegations have been made before investigations and court cases have been finalised on the grounds of ‘sending a message.’ Again, it is the people who advocate such actions who re sending entirely the wrong message.
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Tim Flannery flops again

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (9:48am)

Global warming - dud predictions, three

Tim Flannery last year added to his astonishing record of dud predictions:
Professor Tim Flannery said there was no room for complacency in planning for our future food security.
“Large parts of Australia are currently in drought including a record 80 per cent of Queensland,” he said.
“We are watching the realities of a warming world unfold before our eyes and the impacts on everyday Australian households as food prices and food availability become more volatile… We must urgently transition to a new low carbon economy if we are to adequately safeguard our food supply.”
And remember his most spectacular prediction, from 2007:
So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems, and that’s a real worry for the people in the bush.
Here we go again.
The ABC’s Landline yesterday:
Presenter: 
It may sound like a broken record but the world is awash with wheat…
Nathan Cattle of Profarmer:

Pretty simply we’ve had pretty good conditions around the world… Production will outstrip consumption this year… We’ve had good conditions…
Dr Andrew Watkins, senior climatologist from Bureau of Meteorology:  
Since La Nino has ended we’ve seen significant rainfall across much of Australia… After a dry April, rainfall has been well above average over large parts of Australia… Lower layer soil moisture is now well above average across much of Australia… .  Stream flows are now average to above average in 81% of the streams we (BoM) monitor, boosting water storages… the risk of flooding as increased…
(Thanks to reader Silent Majority.) 
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Rio games: fire, explosion and theft

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (7:37am)

Not a reassuring lead-up:
Brazilian police discovered a suspicious toolbox sparking a controlled explosion inside a Rio stadium that is holding the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games.
Authorities sent in a robot to investigate the small toolbox that was discovered on Sunday at the Maracanã Stadium while rehearsals were being carried out
When the robot touched the toolbox, it exploded. It is believed no one was injured.
The Australian Olympic team became targets of thieves, official facilities have collapsed and Rio’s last minute nature is a concern and overall creating a dark cloud hanging over the city.
A fire ignited in the basement of the Australian athletes village on Friday and 100 Australian officials and athletes were evacuated from their highly-secure residence and stood outside for about 30 minutes.
Thieves then gained access during the evacuation and stole two laptops and team shirts from vacant rooms.
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Repent at leisure

Andrew Bolt August 01 2016 (6:01am)

Malcolm Turnbull’s kneejerk call for a royal commission is looking worse:
The former Northern Territory chief justice tasked with leading a royal commission into the Territory’s juvenile justice system has spent the past 24 hours seriously reconsidering taking up the position, according to Sky News.
Brian Ross Martin QC, who was appointed by Malcolm Turnbull last Thursday as the government’s pick to lead the inquiry, has reportedly been concerned about the intense scrutiny, particularly of his family, that will occur during the course of the six-month investigation.
Several conflicts of interest related to the chief justice have already been raised since his appointment last week. He was forced to issue a statement on Friday after it was revealed that his daughter, Joanna Martin, had been employed as a justice adviser to Territory Labor attorney-general Delia Lawrie from late 2009 to March 2011. Much of the footage shown in the ABC’s damning Four Corners program, which initiated the inquiry, was shot in 2010.
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The book does Dubrovnik

Andrew Bolt July 31 2016 (10:25pm)

My book has been having a blast, visiting London, Lake Como, Ithaca, Scotland, the Bay of Naples, Fiji, Aileron and the Andes. In between, it’s done some work in Kalgoorlie and the coal seam gas fields of Condabri, Queensland,
Now reader Marcus has taken it to Dubrovnic, in Croatia:
To buy a copy for the traveler in your life, go here. A second edition will be printed soon, so don’t wait if you want one of the remaining first editions.
The third edition of the Bolt Bulletin, available to on-line buyers, went out last week. The fourth will go out to on-line buyers some time in August. 
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WE ARE THE SANE

Tim Blair – Friday, August 01, 2014 (4:22pm)

Convicted terrorist, disability pensioner and bludjahideen warrior Khaled Sharrouf explains his cause: 
They fight us and harm us we will retaliate we will dedicate our lives to your unrest. We r not mad men or dysfunctional as they portray us to be. By Allah, we are the sane. Anyone who sees what is happening to the muslims around the world ... and sits back and does nothing, he is insane. 
What is happening to Muslims in Syria and Iraq is that Sharrouf and his mates are cutting their heads off. Nothing dysfunctional about that. As for his disability pension, which apparently followed depression and schizophrenia diagnoses, Sharrouf has this to say: 
Let them know that I played the government there like ignorant children i was never mentally ill not then nor now. I seen them following me and I was working for Allah right underneath there noses. 
And here comes the next generation.
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DEPARTMENT OF NOTHING

Tim Blair – Friday, August 01, 2014 (2:24pm)

No agency? No problem: 
A Labor-appointed bureaucrat is being paid $28,000 a month to head an agency that no longer exists.
In what may well be the world’s best job, Louise Sylvan is earning more than $300,000 a year to be CEO of the Australian National Preventative Health Agency, which was closed down in June. 
Sylvan was offered a $200,000 redundancy payout, but presumably checked her contract – which expires in September 2016 – and realised she’d pull down around $750,000 by remaining in her “job”. Even when the agency existed, it basically did nothing: 
It wasted $200,000 of taxpayer money on a cookbook which taught people how to cook spaghetti bolognese.
It also provided $130,000 in funding for the Summer Nationals street burnout competition in 2012 and 2013. 
Of course, Sylvan was a Nicola Roxon appointment.
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HAMTASTIC

Tim Blair – Friday, August 01, 2014 (2:16pm)

By God, this is beautiful.
(Via Instapundit) 
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THEY LOVE DEATH

Tim Blair – Friday, August 01, 2014 (2:40am)

Raised in Florida, 22-year-old Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha recently disassembled himself in a Syrian suicide bombing. Before strapping on his holy vestment of Mo-splosives, Moner recorded this threat to US President Barack Obama: 
We are coming for you, mark my words. You think you’ve won? You have never won. You will never defeat Islam.
You are nothing but a donkey. You’re just a pig.
Know that Islam is coming and will dominate over you. We will come with AKs. We will come with our bombs. We have small weapons, but we will take you down. We have hearts of lions. You are scared of death, while we love death. 
Their fondness for death is a frequent theme. It might not be a winning strategy.
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FEAR OF WARMIES

Tim Blair – Friday, August 01, 2014 (2:06am)

Mark Steyn names and shames the climate cowards, including timid Nate Silver.
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RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE

Tim Blair – Friday, August 01, 2014 (2:02am)

Bill Whittle discusses his struggle with mental illness:

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COWS ATTACK

Tim Blair – Friday, August 01, 2014 (1:57am)

I blame global warming: 
A 45-year-old German woman died when she was attacked by a herd of 20 cows and calves on Monday afternoon on an Alpine pasture in Tyrol’s Stubaital valley. 
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The Bolt Report on Sunday, August 3

Andrew Bolt August 01 2014 (5:04pm)

On Sunday on Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial: Gaza and the rise of the Jew haters
My guest:  Environment Minister Greg Hunt on defying the greens trying to stop the biggest coal mine in the country
The panel: Tim Wilson and Kimberly Kitching.
NewsWatch:  The Daily Telegraph’s Miranda Devine.  Taking on some ABC spin and a particularly nasty SMH cartoon.
Plus the genocide the media ignores. And Abbott reaches for a deal while Palmer’s team starts to fray.
The videos of the shows appear here.
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Ricky Muir sacks chief of staff

Andrew Bolt August 01 2014 (2:50pm)

I did wonder how long it would last before Ricky Muir got sick of seeming the puppet of his ambitious staffers:
SENATOR Ricky Muir has parted ways with his controversial chief of staff, the so-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery. 
Senator Muir’s senior adviser Keith Littler said ... “It is indeed the case,’’ Mr Littler, who founded the party, said.
“Ricky wanted his senior advisers to live in Melbourne and for family reasons Glenn prefers to live in Sydney, so that’s what’s happened...”
The decision to part ways with Mr Druery comes as the Victorian branch of Senator Muir’s party has been shut down, amid an ongoing dispute between its members.
I’m not sure I trust the word of the equally ambitious Mr Littler:
Fairfax Media understands that a personality clash had emerged between Mr Druery and Motoring Enthusiast party founder Keith Littler... 
In an email to Mr Druery on Thursday night, Senator Muir said: ‘’You don’t get along with the staff.’’
Another member of staff, Susan Bloodworth, who works in the Melbourne office, has quit in protest. Canberra-based policy adviser to Senator Muir, Peter Breen, declined to comment on Friday, but he is understood to be considering his options.
The nation’s future in their hands....
UPDATE
Druery tells Sky News that Littler is manouvering to take Muir’s seat, hoping Muir will be so embarrassed by his cluelessness that he’ll quit, leaving Littler as the registered boss of the party to nominate himself as the replacement.
Ho ho. 
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A sisterhood of hypocrites: point out Spicer’s savagery and get a Bath-ing

Andrew Bolt August 01 2014 (1:25pm)

Culture wars

Oh, please. Such precious petals. Such hypocrites, demanding an immunity from the criticism they themselves dish out, but with added savagery:
Commercial television is still plagued by a male-dominated culture and an obsession with the physical appearance of its female stars, says Seven network presenter Chris Bath. 
.... the head of news at the ABC, Kate Torney, said ... when she set up ABC’s Insiders 12 years ago she spent weeks trying to get female panelists… Bath said she understood why women were reluctant: ”If you are on Insiders or anything political you risk the chance of being Bolt-ed. I know Tracey [Spicer] has been Andrew Bolt-ed. If you’re a woman and on a program that requires you to have an opinion – unless you are Michelle Grattan – you get savaged.”
Now read what I criticised Spicer for - her wild abuse of Tony Abbott for winking at Jon Faine about a caller claiming she was a phone sex worker on a pension:
Fairfax columnist Tracey Spicer outdoes even Hanson-Young for extravagantly sanctimonious abuse, calling Abbott “creepy” and perhaps “misogynist” for “disparaging” the choice of work of a granny on a sex line. 
Memo to Spicer: the wink could well have been just what Abbott says, a “don’t worry” signal to Faine that he can handle this startling call. Or it was a signal that, wow, this was out of left field…
This kind of abuse is not just way over the top but more offensive by far that the wink. And it sure compromises Tracey Spicer as a Sky News anchor: 
Is Bath seriously suggesting my criticism was illegitimate? Worse than the criticism Spicer herself expressed?
And was I really out of line - just being sexist - by then pointing out Spicer was distributing an obviously photoshopped image to smear Abbott even further?
Is Jon Faine also a “total creep” and a “misogynist”, or will Sarah Hanson-Young and Tracey Spicer - among thousands of others - now apologise for their vicious over-reaction: 
Prime Minister Tony Abbott ... batted his left eye at 774 talkback host Jon Faine when caller Gloria, 67, said she had to work on a sex hotline to make ends meet.
“Look, I was looking at Jon Faine, he was smiling at me and I winked back at him,” Mr Abbott explained on the Today Show… Mr Faine admitted he raised his eyebrows...
How can Tracey Spicer be a Sky News anchor when she so savagely abuses the Prime Minister on such dodgy evidence - and then unapologetically peddles a photoshopped picture of Abbott allegedly leering at Fiona Scott? 
When alerted of the fakery, Spicer eventually deletes it from her account without an apology. In fact, she praises it as clever: 
What kind of morality does Spicer - and all the others who peddled this picture - represent?
Here, by the way, is the original picture: 
It strikes me that Bath represents the worst of the modern feminist movement - a pathetic sense of victimhood and a demand to be excused from the norms of debate.
Should I now warn that men might be driven from the public debate because I’ve been Bath-ed?
UPDATE
Work with Bath, and risk a Bath-ing:
I’ve been through 12 different news directors: some of them were fantastic, some of them were complete bloody psychopaths.
Why does Bath think that defamation of her male colleagues is acceptable, but my criticisms of Spicer not? 
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Forget consistency. Fix real problems, one at a time, starting with the worst

Andrew Bolt August 01 2014 (1:12pm)

Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest explains why all working-age people on welfare - and not just Aborigines in dysfunctional communities - should be banned from spending their welfare on anything but essentials:
I think we can’t have one policy for Indigenous Australians and another for non-Indigenous Australians.  
In his next breath:
NEW indigenous-run companies should be given tax-free status to create genuine jobs for Aboriginal Australians without subsidies, ­Andrew Forrest proposes in his ­report. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
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New parenthood: parents take only healthy surrogate baby

Andrew Bolt August 01 2014 (12:45pm)

Weaken the traditional family structure and you weaken the sense of obligation those traditions reinforce: 
Gammy, a six-month-old baby abandoned by his Australian parents, could die because his impoverished Thai surrogate mother cannot pay for medical treatment for his congenital heart condition.
The child will never know his twin sister, who was born healthy with him in a Bangkok hospital and has been taken away by their parents, who are living anonymously in Australia. [The twins’ surrogate mother] says when she looks at Gammy, who has Down syndrome, she feels sorry for him and guilty.
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How many Jews must die before Israel may defend itself?

Andrew Bolt August 01 2014 (7:36am)

Graham Richardson:
I don’t care what the rules of war might declare — proportionality does matter. With the Palestinian death toll at more than 1100 and the Israel losses at less than 50, even the hardest-line supporters of Israel begin to question.
The European Union:
Israel has the right to protect its population from this kind of attacks. In doing so, it must act proportionately...
Let’s get down to tin tacks. Exactly how many Jews do these people want to die for every 100 Palestinians? One for two, or an eye for an eye?
And how should Israel manage this, given its technological superiority - a vital edge granted to an open society? By handing over volunteers to Hamas for execution? By letting a few more Hamas rockets actually land in Tel Aviv?
Here’s another “disproportionate” response that don’t seem to have struck Israel’s critics as a crime:
Around 600,000 German civilians died during the allies’ wartime raids on Germany, including 76,000 German children… 
Against that toll of 600,000 Germans (or 430,000 according to other sources):
Number of American civilians who died in German bombings of the US: zero.
Number of British civilians who died in German bombings of Britain: 60,000.
Or how about this “disproportionate” response?
Number of American civilians killed in Japanese bombings of the US: fewer than 70
Number of Japanese civilians killed in American bombings of Japan: 337,000
So: how many Jews do Israel’s critics want to die before Israel is allowed to defend itself? A figure would be useful. Is 6 million about right? 
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There is no jail. Just a dysfunctional culture

Andrew Bolt August 01 2014 (7:26am)

This kind of language is poison:
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest ... told The Australian that indigenous people in remote communities were being “economically jailed” and suffering the “blight of disparity”.
If there is a jail there is a jailer. If there is suffering there is a victim.
We see this too often - that the blame for a general dysfunction in Aboriginal communities is put not on Aboriginal culture but non-Aborigines.
This is not merely false. It also encourages us to fix everything but the real problem.
The blunt truth is that the “stronger” the Aboriginal culture the poorer a community tends to be. 
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Has Phillip even read either Timothy? If both candidates are acceptable to be candidates, given that the decision will be made for secular reasons based on divine guidance, then Phillip would be better off giving a prayer of thanks and a reasoned opinion. This diatribe is painful and does nothing but show the author misses his own point. It is better to be an example, than to give them. - ed
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RUDD THE WRECKER – DESTROYS 20% OF LOCALLY MADE AUSTRALIAN CAR SALES

The Australia car industry has confirmed the significant damage of the Rudd Government’s recent changes to FBT arrangements, concluding that sales of locally manufactured cars will be slashed by close to 20 per cent.

Labor’s surprise spur of the moment decision – made without any consultation – to change the pre-existing FBT rules has caused devastation across the car industry since its announcement two weeks ago.

On the back of new analysis it has undertaken, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has today described Labor’s decision as “terrible news” for the industry and concluded it could have “a dire effect on Australian car production, including the manufacturing supply chain”.

The problem is, that Rudd has a complete inability to admit he makes any mistakes - therefore he will push ahead with this destructive policy regardless of the obvious damage he is doing.

If only Rudd the Wrecker was as effective in destroying the business model of the people smugglers, as he is with wrecking the business model of the Australian Car industry, we might be getting somewhere.

NB : If elected the Coalition the not proceed with this poorly thought through policy.

Further reading -

http://www.caradvice.com.au/243976/fringe-benefits-tax-changes-to-wipe-out-100000-new-car-sales-fcai/
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THIS DAY IN HOLOCAUST HISTORY, 1942: German industrialist Eduard Schulte, whose company has mines near Auschwitz, reveals to a Swiss colleague that Hitler and the German Reich have decided to round up the millions of Jews of Occupied Europe, concentrate them in the East, and murder them using prussic acid starting in the fall of 1942. The information is soon communicated to Swiss World Jewish Congress representative Gerhart Riegner.

This telegram from Gerhart Riegner, Secretary of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, was received by the Foreign Office in August 1940. The telegram was among the first pieces of unambiguous evidence received by the Allies that the Nazi Government planned a 'final solution' to the "Jewish question".

Some comments within the file show officials suggested the telegram be used to influence the Vatican to condemn German atrocities more strenuously. Another civil servant dismisses Riegner's report as a "rather wild story".

Samuel Sydney Silverman, the telegram's intended recipient, was the Labour MP for the Lancashire constituency of Nelson and Colne. Silverman was a campaigner for Jewish rights, amongst other causes including opposition to capital punishment.

Date: August 10th 1942
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"the person who despises theirself, still respects their own opinion" Nietzche
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top leaders have taken a disturbing turn to political correctness
. They have ignored conventional wisdom to “know your enemy” and, even more alarming, have taken actions within the government and military to crush efforts to do so. Never having fought a religious war, strategic leaders don’t understand an enemy whose church and state is immersed. This essay discusses warnings our top leaders ignored, the dangers of political correctness, thwarted opportunities to “know our enemy,” and ideas on changing this deadly path. Unless this strategic myopia is turned around, at worst our nation may fall prey to the “boiled frog” syndrome. At best, we will suffer from future attacks from radical Islamic forces.>
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Washington Post are trying to enter my list of known terrorists? - ed
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Where else in the Middle East could Arab school girls stand around so freely and safely?

Only in “Apartheid” Israel.

Travelling in Israel on a visit from the US, Audrey M was often shocked

seeing scenes that were so different than those she was familiar with in the media.

“Where are we now?” she kept asking herself.

We plan to share more of these photos,

real ones that you will not find on the evening news,

the ones that do not fit the “narrative.”
image group of Arab girls
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A few characters on the side of a 3,000-year-old earthenware jug dating back to the time of King David have stumped archaeologists until now -- and a fresh translation may have profound ramifications for our understanding of the Bible.
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Is there anything he has been honest about? - ed
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<I presume that talks would fail, and after this explanation of what Kerry is doing, I feel even more strongly that this will happen. That’s why the Israeli government has accepted this bad deal, believing, I think accurately, that the PA will make the talks fail. I understand why this option was taken — also, because there might be American or European threats and promises; nobody can be as bad as Obama in the future — but this tactic is getting tired. >
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debate has everything backwards 
over who benefits from the law. Poor blacks who live in high crime urban areas are not only the most likely victims of crime, they are also the ones who benefit the most from Stand Your Ground laws. It makes it easier for them to protect themselves when the police can't be there fast enough. Rules that make self-defense more difficult would impact blacks the most.>===

Imagine if any political leader would say: "No blacks will be allowed to live in my state". He would be denounced correctly, as a racist, a bigot.
That does not seem to include Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Arab leader of Ramallah, who on the verge of the new "peace talks" in Washington just declared: "In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli - civilian or soldier - on our lands".
This is not "peace", but pure Nazism, it is ethnic cleansing. And instead of the expression "final resolution", Abbas should have said what he really means,  "final solution".
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Confronting Israel's Precarious Future: An Interview With Dr. Martin Sherman: Part One - The Inquisitr 


Article 16 of the original version of the Palestinian National Covenant sets out the desire of the people of Palestine “who look forward to…restoring the legitimate situation to Palestine, establishing peace and security in its territory, and enabling its people to exercise national sovereignty..”

However, since the Covenant was adopted in 1964, well before Israel “occupied” a square inch of the “West Bank” or Gaza, the question is precisely what is meant by “its territory” in which the Palestinians were “looking forward… to exercise national sovereignty”.

Indeed in Article 24, they state specifically what this territory did not include, and where they were not seeking to exercise “national sovereignty”.

In it they explicitly proclaim that they do not desire to “exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, [or] on the Gaza Strip…” - Dr. Martin Sherman
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The Age journalists' sympathies lie.
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Don't let her killer escape justice- ed
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How would Bangladesh treat such behaviour? Is that why he is a refugee? - ed
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Nobody thinks that he said it would be a good idea to adopt Nazi policy .. but .. they scent blood from an idiot.- ed
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What lengths will Weiner go to?
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Cars on the I-35W Mississippi River bridge after its collapse
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“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"I in them."
John 17:23
If such be the union which subsists between our souls and the person of our Lord, how deep and broad is the channel of our communion! This is no narrow pipe through which a thread-like stream may wind its way, it is a channel of amazing depth and breadth, along whose glorious length a ponderous volume of living water may roll its floods. Behold he hath set before us an open door, let us not be slow to enter. This city of communion hath many pearly gates, every several gate is of one pearl, and each gate is thrown open to the uttermost that we may enter, assured of welcome. If there were but one small loophole through which to talk with Jesus, it would be a high privilege to thrust a word of fellowship through the narrow door; how much we are blessed in having so large an entrance! Had the Lord Jesus been far away from us, with many a stormy sea between, we should have longed to send a messenger to him to carry him our loves, and bring us tidings from his Father's house; but see his kindness, he has built his house next door to ours, nay, more, he takes lodging with us, and tabernacles in poor humble hearts, that so he may have perpetual intercourse with us. O how foolish must we be, if we do not live in habitual communion with him. When the road is long, and dangerous, and difficult, we need not wonder that friends seldom meet each other, but when they live together, shall Jonathan forget his David? A wife may when her husband is upon a journey, abide many days without holding converse with him, but she could never endure to be separated from him if she knew him to be in one of the chambers of her own house. Why, believer, dost not thou sit at his banquet of wine? Seek thy Lord, for he is near; embrace him, for he is thy Brother. Hold Him fast, for he is thine Husband; and press him to thine heart, for he is of thine own flesh.

Evening

"And these are the singers ... they were employed in that work day and night."
1 Chronicles 9:33
Well was it so ordered in the temple that the sacred chant never ceased: for evermore did the singers praise the Lord, whose mercy endureth forever. As mercy did not cease to rule either by day or by night, so neither did music hush its holy ministry. My heart, there is a lesson sweetly taught to thee in the ceaseless song of Zion's temple, thou too art a constant debtor, and see thou to it that thy gratitude, like charity, never faileth. God's praise is constant in heaven, which is to be thy final dwelling-place, learn thou to practise the eternal hallelujah. Around the earth as the sun scatters his light, his beams awaken grateful believers to tune their morning hymn, so that by the priesthood of the saints perpetual praise is kept up at all hours, they swathe our globe in a mantle of thanksgiving, and girdle it with a golden belt of song.
The Lord always deserves to be praised for what he is in himself, for his works of creation and providence, for his goodness towards his creatures, and especially for the transcendent act of redemption, and all the marvellous blessing flowing therefrom. It is always beneficial to praise the Lord; it cheers the day and brightens the night; it lightens toil and softens sorrow; and over earthly gladness it sheds a sanctifying radiance which makes it less liable to blind us with its glare. Have we not something to sing about at this moment? Can we not weave a song out of our present joys, or our past deliverances, or our future hopes? Earth yields her summer fruits: the hay is housed, the golden grain invites the sickle, and the sun tarrying long to shine upon a fruitful earth, shortens the interval of shade that we may lengthen the hours of devout worship. By the love of Jesus, let us be stirred up to close the day with a psalm of sanctified gladness.
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Today's reading: Psalm 54-56, Romans 3 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 54-56

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. Amaskil of David. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, "Is not David hiding among us?"
1 Save me, O God, by your name;
vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God;
listen to the words of my mouth.

3 Arrogant foes are attacking me;
ruthless people are trying to kill me--
people without regard for God.

4 Surely God is my help;
the Lord is the one who sustains me.

5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me;
in your faithfulness destroy them....

Today's New Testament reading: Romans 3

God's Faithfulness
1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:
"So that you may be proved right when you speak
and prevail when you judge."
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" 8 Why not say-as some slanderously claim that we say-"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is just!
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