Thursday, September 08, 2016

Thu Sep 8th Todays News

Responses to some blogs
Years ago I stopped contributing to my local newspapers after both began publishing abusive letters in my name, but refused to publish my letters which weren't abusive, but which supported conservative values. I'm not a social conservative, I'm an economic one, believing in small government and limited spending. And when I spoke to the journalists they seethed with hatred for me. It looks like a part of the culture of the left. But I think it is smaller than that. The hypocrisy lies among the leadership of Journalists, in how they are inducted into service and trained. On their work pressures and pay masters.

The left have demonstrated time and again that lying about and lampooning an opponent is successful in limiting their success. Sarah Palin and Tony Abbott spring to mind. But Jeff Kennett, Campbell Newman and Barry O'Farrell also seem obvious candidates. They have also learned that one they support can be excused anything by diverted blame. So "Don't blame Islam for the actions of those radicals." The published letter was only a call for arms to those supporting jihadis, but to the left, it is an excuse note.

When Chinese cash rolled Howard in '07, China went too far. The ALP have long sought support from the communists. Connections were made by Whitlam. There is nothing new about Carr or Dastyari. Both bought and paid for. Allegedly, the Liberals also have similar. Probably among 55 bed wetters.

Fascinating that the Daily Mail extracted that headline from that conversation. It is too kind to call it a mistake. It is a misjudgement of Malcolm Farr proportions. Bolt was right to put the question and Coulter answered it well.

Turnbull's apparent indecisiveness must be personality driven. He keeps options open until well after the time they were viable. He does not temporise. He hesitates. He dithers. He fiddles. Apparently, Nikki likes that. She hates competent leadership. She hates compassion (Abbott and Aborigines). She hates strong women like Credln. If only Nikki had shared her decisiveness with Turnbull, and Turnbull had shared his hesitant direction with Nikki. In private.
 For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.  
=== from 2015 ===
Kathy Jackson has not been treated as a whistle blower by the trade union royal commission. She has apparently been loaded by trade union peoples who apparently covered up Thomson's offences. It will be good when #TURC is finished and corrupt trades union officials no longer steal from their unions. 

Coal has excellent properties that should be exploited. If anyone tells you different, they are probably paid by AGW hysterics to lie. 
From 2014
 Nothing need happen to criticise a conservative government. Ashby had approached LNP people over an alleged sexual abuse involving the former Speaker Slipper. Slipper had had an LNP seat before becoming speaker so as to help secure a corrupt ALP government. Slipper was an ordained Catholic Priest, Traditionalist Anglican Minister and married, having been given the Priest authority through a vatican negotiated deal as a married Traditionalist Anglican Minister, but he was not considered stable by his LNP colleagues who had to tolerate a talentless member rather than a more active, but obstructive one. The corrupt ALP government stonewalled on the allegations until after they had lost government. Slipper did a deal with Ashby privately on the sex abuse issue, but was found corrupt on the abuse of parliamentary privilege issue. Now Ashby is alleging that LNP did not help him in a matter that might have appeared to have been corrupt had they done so. He approached the youngest LNP member and got a referral to Pyne. He claims promises were made. They weren't stupid, but Channel nine sixty minutes is. Meanwhile, it is easy to criticise NSW Premier Baird over comments he would negotiate with Islamic leaders over the auction of an ISIS flag issue. That is exactly what Baird should do. He shouldn't limit basic freedoms so as to kowtow to terrorism. But the Islamic leaders have apparently identified with terrorism and are bringing Islam into disrepute because of it. Baird has to point out to them the direction that is upwards, which the Islamic community deserves.

ICAC are investigating Liberals in NSW but so far have only been able to smear them, not find corruption leading to a conviction. Obeid has apparently been given a free pass on a half billion dollar misappropriation, but the ICAC seem to feel they have something big against the PM's chief of staff involving emails. The emails were cleared of parliamentary privilege and show that the chief of staff of the PM has done nothing wrong. ICAC will continue probing. How the hell can someone steal half a billion dollars and not go to jail? What about those who gave the corrupt one keys to the bank? Is there no corrupt finding for them? What about paying it back? Meanwhile the ABC news at 7pm opens with the extraordinary and wrong claim that Mr Abbot's chief of staff has been caught out by email accepting banned donations. They assert it, they should prove it or apologise. Another extraordinary act of irony is the museum purchasing an 'asylum seeker' wreck for their museum. The bad, murderous ALP policy to be memorialised in culture, a museum director hopes for a hundred years time. But no analysis on a cultural level of the death and waste. Who is to be paid for the wreck? Hopefully not the people smugglers.

When it comes to international issues Obama is world class in being incompetent. But not because there aren't good people willing to advise him on issues. Obama's inability to see straight on Israel can only be because he wilfully fails. Looking at MH17, and again Obama has failed to observe the role of Ukraine in fighting, in the shooting down of the aircraft and the prevention of acquisition of bodies or evidence and breaking their own declared cease fire. Clearly Russia has to answer questions, but Ukraine has hard ones too, and Obama has failed to ask them. The injustice of the justice system is exposed with several cases. A verdict is expected soon regarding Oscar Pistorius. Anything less than a murder conviction would be very unfair. But the case so far has threatened that, with blame being placed on the investigating officer for mishandling evidence, but how much is required? We know who pulled the trigger. We know when. We know how. We have considerable insight as to why. We have seen Pistorius lie and obfuscate and be sick. A pathetic female using abuser in Tostee is claiming he is not guilty over the death of a young woman he had invited into his high rise apartment for sex. He seems to be claiming she jumped for no reason. He also seems to be claiming he is autistic. He is asking to be charged with a lesser charge of manslaughter. In fact, he is amoral. Sarah Monahan has survived pedophile abuse and is now campaigning to out other tv industry pedophiles. May she be successful. 

It is the New Harvest Moon, and Cabramatta was loudly, joyfully celebrating. Have some Moon Cake. DNA has determined an insane Polish suspect was Jack the Ripper. A compelling case was made by a writer for an artist a few years back, turns out that artist was merely creepy. Plastic surgery is a new tourist lure, with Australians finding it cheaper to fly overseas and have surgery than to have it locally.
From 2013
The difference between the new PM and the old PM by their own words
Abbott’s biographers will find that, despite his degrees in law and economics, his years at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, and his years in a seminary, he has never aspired to be anything other than decent.
When he made his maiden speech to Parliament on May 31, 1994, Abbott began: “On the corner of Castlereagh and Hunter streets in Sydney stands a monument to mark the site of the first Christian service in Australia. The preacher, the Reverend Richard Johnson, took as his text: ‘’What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?
“It is just a small stone obelisk hardly noticed by the thousands of passers-by and dwarfed by skyscrapers, yet its message of faith and hope is fundamental to our nation’s success and the key to Australia’s future.
“The congregation at that first service was poorer, sicker, and less trained than any conceivable group of modern Australians, yet there was nothing small about what they were to achieve. Our challenge, 200 years later, is to have hearts that are just as big. So at this opening of my time in parliament, I place on record my deep conviction that, nourished by the past and inspired by our great ideals, there is no limit to what Australia can achieve. Also, I want to record my deep conviction that our Australian story should fill our hearts with pride and our eyes with tears.
“It is a story of the dispossessed and the outcast, redeemed through the innate goodness of humanity - a society challenged by nature, tested by war, enlarged by other cultures and blessed by such peace, prosperity and tolerance that we are now the envy of the Earth.”
When Rudd made his maiden speech four years later, on November 11, 1998, he said bluntly: “Politics is about power.”
Abbott will have to negotiate a hostile small party senate. But he can do that. Abbott was gracious in his acceptance speech, and humble. Rudd was defiant and brittle. Rudd was apparently defending his reputation relative to Gillard. It is to be hoped both Rudd and Gillard serve jail time for their corruption.  It is disturbing that the ALP have retained many seats from senior, bad performers. People who lied about bad policy. Expect Jason Clare to become the next leader, or the next following. He isn't any good. But he is younger.
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.
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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!
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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
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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 TJ Din, Jenny Ku, Tram Nguyen and Julie Nguyen. Born on the same day, across the years, along with Ansgar (801), Richard I of England (1157), Marin Mersenne (1588), Siegfried Sassoon (1886), Robert Taft (1889), Harry Secombe (1921), Peter Sellers (1925), Patsy Cline (1932), James Packer (1967), Pink (1979) and Kimberlea Berg (1997). On your day, International Literacy Day; Fast of Gedalia (Judaism, 2013); Victory Day in Pakistan (1965)
617 – Li Yuan defeated a Sui Dynasty army in the Battle of Huoyi, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The French defeated Austrian forces in Bassano, Venetia, present-day Italy.
1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1935 – U.S. Senator Huey Long was fatally shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1978 – Iranian Revolution: After the government of the Shah of Iran declared martial law in response to protests, the Iranian Army shot and killed at least 88 demonstrators in Tehran on Black Friday. The Imperial capital is captured. Success in Italy. We have a King and Queen. Senators are cheap. Stay clear of Iran. And enjoy your day.
Deaths
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Tim Blair


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Andrew Bolt


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Shocking! Politician tells truth. Journalists horrifed

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (4:12pm)

Astonishingly, journalists say Cory Bernardi is allegedly an ”embarrassment” for actually telling the truth:
Here is what Bernardi said - Aylan Kurdi was not fleeing persecution when his family put him on a boat:
But Bernardi was right. Is there are reason almost no journalists and politicians will note even what Aylan Kurdi’s own aunt says about the tragedy?
Is there any reason Malcolm Farr could not have established for himself the truth of this matter before mocking Bernardi? 
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Jackson not given the Shorten treatment at the royal commission? Rubbish

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (12:19pm)

It seems Labor managed to place a story to discredit the royal commission into union corruption:
Lawyers working for the trade union royal commission personally gave union whistleblower-turned-fraudster Kathy Jackson detailed advance knowledge of the issues to be covered during her appearances at the inquiry, including tips on the topics to prepare and suggestions that she use her time on the stand to tackle media critics. 
Evidence of the friendly ­approach to Ms Jackson will doubtless be used by Labor to argue that the commission is ­institutionally biased given the less-accommodating treatment given to others, including Bill Shorten.
Hmm. How would the journalist know what Shorten had been told?:
The astonishing accommo­dation accorded to Ms Jackson by commission lawyers as they prepared to question her on matters that went to her alleged misappropriation of $250,000 of union member’s money stands in sharp contrast to others in the union movement, and in particular to a prominent target, the Opposition Leader. 
In Mr Shorten’s case, there was no personal guidance provided of any kind on how to handle his examination. Six days before the hearing, on Friday, July 3, the commission made available almost 2000 pages of documents to him. An avalanche of further documents was added on the following Monday, and more over the next two days. On Wednesday, July 8, Mr Shorten took the stand. No ­information had been provided by commission lawyers regarding any particular subject to focus on, or telephone guidance on useful evidence to prepare.
But wait a minute. What Jackson really given a friendly prep? She actually claimed she was ambushed:
Ms Jackson later furiously claimed that things had not gone according to her expectations and she had been ambushed on July 30, 2014, when questions rotated around the NHDA…. 
On the witness stand the next day — July 30, 2014 — Ms Jackson was enraged by what she saw as an unexpected attack by Mr Stoljar that ran against her expectations after conversations with commission staff. “I just want to say to the commissioner that I had no notice that I was going to be attacked today by senior counsel.”
What’s more, Stoljar, the Counsel Assisting, in 2014 actually urged that the book be thrown at Jackson, given allegations of ”breaches of union rules, arrangements designed to circumvent the law, and poor governance, including a lack of transparency” - issues which “raise serious governance issues at the Victoria No 3 Branch, during the period Ms Jackson was Secretary”.
He added: “It is difficult to imagine a more inappropriate series of arrangements … This is no model for a modern or effective union.”
The royal commission decided to wait for the decision of the Federal Court - which ordered her to repay $1.4 million to the union - before recommending any action, and is now considering recommending possible criminal charges.
No story. 
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In praise of coal

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (9:48am)

 The Minerals Council of Australia starts fighting for an industry which will be up against the wall should Labor and the Greens triumph in next year’s election. 
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Europe no longer thinks it’s worth saving

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (9:32am)

Europe for years did not intervene in Syria to stop the jihadist uprising now sending hundreds of thousands of Syrians to Europe.
Nor will it defend its borders against this army of immigrants, who have been joined by Afghans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Africans and Balkans picked up en route.
And here is the troubling truth: the West’s self-loathing means it will no longer defend what it no longer prizes, and welcomes those who will destroy what’s not destroyed already:

 The decision to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees will “change” Germany, Angela Merkel has said…
“What we are experiencing now is something that will occupy and change our country in coming years,” Mrs Merkel said on Monday.
“We want the change to be positive and we believe we can achieve that."…
The chancellor was speaking after 20,000 Syrian refugees arrived in a single weekend, and were greeted with applause and song by hundreds of ordinary Germans gathered at train stations.
“We have a weekend behind us that was moving, at times breathtaking,” Mrs Merkel said, adding that the scenes “painted a picture of Germany which can make us proud of our country"… “This is something very valuable, especially considering our history,” she said.
Yet even Merkel knows this insane optimism is built on sand:
But as her government released £4.4 billion in funds to help deal with the crisis, Mrs Merkel warned Germany could not go on shouldering the burden alone.  The decision to let in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who had been stranded in Hungary over the weekend was a one-off response to a humanitarian crisis, she said.
In America young students are being coached into self-loathing, too, which should ensure future generations will not see the West as worth saving:

NOT all Americans will be mourning 9/11 victims and their families on the 14th anniversary of the attacks. Hundreds of college kids across the country will instead be taught to sympathise with the terrorists… 
Case in point is a freshman-level English class taught at several major universities across the country called “The Literature of 9/11” — which focuses almost entirely on writings from the perspective of the Islamic terrorists, rather than the nearly 3,000 Americans who were slaughtered by them. The syllabus, which includes books like The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Poems from Guantanamo: Detainees Speak, portray terrorists as “freedom fighters” driven by oppressive US foreign policies.
UPDATE
Major General (ret.) Jim Molan, who also worked on Operation Sovereign Borders: 
If Europe decides on an open border policy, that is its business, but the 800,000 that some estimate Germany alone will take this year is likely to increase every year going into the future — 1.3 million next year? Why would it stop or even stay at present levels? 
Apart from the deaths at sea, there are cultural, security and funding implications the EU leadership should not ignore.
(Post bumped from earlier posts. Thanks to reader Leigh.) 
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Why is the calculation different for Australia?

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (9:05am)

Jewish politicians and activists should explain why Australia should do what Israel will not, for understandable security concerns:
Israel won’t accept refugees from Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday as the government began building a security fence along the Jordanian border. 
“Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of the refugees from Syria and Africa,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of his Sunday Cabinet meeting, the prime minister’s office said. But “Israel is a small country, a very small country, that lacks demographic and geographic depth,” he said. “Therefore, we must control our borders, against both illegal migrants and terrorism.”
Note: Israel has a third of the population of Australia.
UPDATE
Not unrelated:
Victoria’s largest Jewish school will become the first in the state to employ armed guards, in a significant boost to its security. From this week, guards with guns will be stationed at Mount Scopus Memorial College’s three Melbourne campuses… 
Armed guards have had a presence at Jewish schools and institutions in Sydney for more than 20 years.
UPDATE
The Times of Israel puts the matter in a nutshell:

We appear to be witnessing the umpteenth example of world leadership patently incapable of strategizing, and forced to formulate ad hoc policies at critical moments. What now, for instance, is Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe, to do in the face of what is certain to be the ongoing escalation of demands by the world’s oppressed to be allowed to join its citizenry? How can Germany, with its 20th century history, allow itself to close its gates to the needy and persecuted? 
But how, simultaneously, to avoid a stark growth in right-wing extremism in reaction to the influx? And how to ensure that those seeking refuge and new opportunity today truly wish to integrate, rather than to skew Europe’s open societies? How to prevent the evils of Islamic extremism entering along with its victims?
UPDATE
From the start I thought the Assad regime was not the worst of the Syrian evils. And Russian President Vladimir Putin, sinister and dangerous though he is, is right in some respects below:
Vladimir Putin: ... I believe this is an absolutely expected crisis. If you remember, or look it up in your archives, we in Russia, yours truly in particular, said a few years ago that we are in for large-scale problems if our so-called western partners continue with their misguided foreign policy, as I always referred to it, especially in Muslin regions, in the Middle East, North Africa – the policy they are actually still conducting. What is this policy? That of imposing their standards without taking into consideration the history, religion, culture or national characteristics of these regions....
I am surprised to see certain American media outlets criticising Europe for its excessively tough, as they say, attitude to migrants. However, the United States does not have to deal with such a flow of migrants, while Europe, after it blindly followed instructions from America is now bearing the brunt of the crisis....
The answer is very simple. First, together, and I would like to stress this word, together we need to combat terrorism and extremism of all sorts, primarily in the problem countries, to resolve this issue… How can we make any progress in regions controlled by the Islamic State? It is impossible, people are fleeing those regions, they kill hundreds of thousands, blow up cultural monuments, burn people alive or drown them, cut the heads off living people. How can one live there? Of course, people are fleeing… Second, we need to restore the economy of those countries and their social sphere. Only this way, by showing respect for the history, traditions and religion of these peoples and countries, we can restore their statehood and provide large-scale economic and political support… If we act separately and keep arguing among ourselves over some quasi-democratic principles and procedures on certain territories, this will get us into a greater deadlock… 
UPDATE
Violence from whom, Archbishop?
In a statement, Australia’s Anglican primate, Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier, warned that Australians could expect a heightened risk of violence on our soil if military action were extended into Syria. 
From the kind of people you actually want more of?
The Anglican Church has called on the Abbott government to allow an extra 10,000 refugees from Syria into Australia.
This is insane.
(Thanks to readers Gary and Grendel.) 
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Playing moral bingo

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (7:38am)

Just take your opponent’s number and add a few thousand. Bingo! You win!
Prime Minister Tony Abbott:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the Government will increase the intake of Syrian refugees, although it won’t increase the overall 13,750 humanitarian places for this year.
Labor leader Bill Shorten:

Bill Shorten called for a “one-off increase” of 10,000 Syrian refugees to be received by Australia on top of this year’s planned humanitarian intake.
The Greens:

Greens MP Adam Bandt said Australia should take 20,000 more Syrian refugees.  
Oxfam, World Vision and Save the Children:

THREE aid groups have called on the government to take in 30,000 Syrian refugees. 
Liberal MP Ewen Jones:
AUSTRALIA should accept up to 50,000 people fleeing war-torn Syria...
Step up, step up. Who is the most moral of all? Do I hear 100,000?
Who wants the prize for the most compassionate of all?
Who can resist the heartrending pleas of these desperate Syrians, who have fled terror and now wait on Lesbos for a new home in Europe or even Australia:
UPDATE
By the way, the cost to taxpayers of Labor’s promise to bring in 10,000 more Syrians? Around $1 billion, for settlement services, housing, English lessons, welfare, case workers and the rest.  That does not include the cost of any future security threat.
But don’t ask Labor about the cost:

[Immigration spokesman] Richard Marles: Our Prime Minister ought to be bringing people together now … so that we can … offer 10,000 places…
Journalist: Mr Marles, do you have a costing on this policy?
Marles: This is a real cost. And there is no getting around that issue …
Still trying. Some moments from Marles’s interview on Sky News: 
Journalist: Do you have a ballpark cost? 
Marles: It depends how you do it. 
Journalist: Are we talking millions, hundreds of millions? 
Marles: I’m not going to walk down that path.
UPDATE
Simon Benson says the hysteria is driven in part by raw politics by Labor hypocrites:

The Abbott government was among the first to act demonstrably to the Syrian crisis, from both a refugee response and a national ­security response… But yet again Labor seeks to engage a political wedge over a photograph which it clearly doesn’t understand and is in contradiction to its own actions, which history proves was one of deliberate ignorance. 
In 2012-13 — well after this crisis began to emerge — the Labor government took a grand total of 98 refugees from Syria, when ­already the number of displaced was estimated to be well over a million. This is only marginally better than the nine it took the year before.
Now in Opposition, it wants to take 10,000. Compounding the political cynicism from the opposition was this unfortunate error of fact. Shorten on Sunday repeatedly referred to the “little girl” who drowned. He was, in fact, a boy.
The politicking is vicious, and done by those sanctimoniously claiming to be more compassionate:
[Greens leader] Senator Di Natale ... labelled Prime Minister Tony Abbott a coward and said the government would rather drop bombs on Syrians than pay attention to the plight of people who needed humanitarian assistance. 
The Greens senator withdrew that comment after objection from Senator Bernardi… Senator Bernardi said Australia needed to maintain a measured humanitarian program, and already had the largest intake per capita in the world… The Prime Minister said Australia had already accepted 4500 refugees from Syria and Iraq – accounting for 30 per cent of the humanitarian intake – and last year donated $100 million in aid to the Middle East.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Aylan Kurdi and the death of truth

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (7:26am)

Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen on the photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian boy photographed lying dead on a beach in Turkey:
He said the image - “the most important photo that has been taken this decade, this century so far” ... Labor had suggested an immediate intake of 10,000 [Syrians], he said.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk:
Australia should have a wake-up call and look at how the rest of the world is treating these poor people who are actually fleeing wartime situations. 
Socialist writer Naomi Klein:
The photo was a “harrowing image of abandonment and neglect”, Klein said. 
In Melbourne:
Up to 10,000 people held a candlelight vigil in Treasury Gardens, and thousands more rallied across Australia, in response to pictures of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose death shocked the world into action after his body washed up on a beach in Turkey… 
Mohammad Ali Baqiri, a law student at Victoria University and an Afghan refugee, last night addressed the Light The Dark rally in Melbourne. “It’s because in life-and-death situations a parent will do anything they can to provide comfort and protection for their child,’’ Mr Baqiri said.
The truth:

Aylan was not in “harm’s way”. He was not a refugee. His family was not fleeing danger…

Aylan’s family, while originally from the Syrian border town of Kobani, recently besieged by IS, had actually been living in safety in Turkey for three years. 
Their Facebook page shows them in Istanbul, feeding pigeons by the great New Mosque. Aylan’s father, Abdullah, worked on construction sites.
No wonder, perhaps, that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would not recognise the family as refugees.
But Abdullah Kurdi had a sister in Canada, Tima Kurdi, who sent money to help pay the rent.
Tima Kurdi applied to Canadian immigration officials to bring in another brother as a refugee, and was asked to supply more information. She planned to later sponsor Abdullah Kurdi’s family, too.
So ... what exactly was he “fleeing” when he paid a people smuggler thousands of dollars to bring his family — without safety vests — to Greece, to join that irresistible army of illegal immigrants now smashing through Europe’s borders?
Tima Kurdi explained… “The situation is that Abdullah does not have any teeth…
“So I been trying to help him fix his teeth. But is gonna cost me 14,000 and up to do it …
“Actually my dad, he come up with the idea, he said to me, ‘I think if they go to Europe for his case and for our future, I think he should do that, and then we’ll see if he can fix his teeth’.
“And that’s what I did three weeks ago.” She sent her brother the money for people smugglers.
Now, it is terrible to have no teeth. Awful to be poor. A misery to have your children denied chances. But can the West really take in not just real refugees, but the Third World’s poor as well, including those in search of better dentistry?
The United States and Europe refused to intervene in Syria’s civil war for years, as the brutal Assad regime fought a growing uprising that was soon dominated by jihadists, and especially the Islamic State.
It is only in the past year that the US and a few European allies have mounted a low-intensity, no-risk war from the air against the Islamic State, with limited results. Now the Syrian capital itself is threatened:

Syrian rebel forces have come under attack from Islamic State (IS) on the southern outskirts of Damascus.
Should Damascus fall, and the rest of Syria with it, millions more Syrians will join the invasion of Europe, along with Afghans, Pakistanis, Iranians, Bangladeshis and North Africans. Europe’s borders, as we see already, are no longer defended. Southern European and Balkan nations are just bussing and training the illegal immigrants north to Germany, France and Scandinavia. Britain alone is safe, thanks to the English Channel.
Europe is now paying a terrible price for its weakness. Appeals to “compassion” are now no more than cries to accept its destruction with good grace.
UPDATE
Many of the people crashing into Germany are not fleeing war at all. It’s a free for all. From Der Spiegel two weeks ago:
More than a third of all asylum-seekers arriving in Germany come from Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. Young, poor and disillusioned with their home countries, they are searching for a better future. But almost none of them will be allowed to stay.
(Thanks to readers FreddyK and Leigh.) 
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Why is a religious tax on Australian food used to build an Indonesian mosque

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (7:16am)

Why can’t we have halal certification done by a government agency instead?
AUSTRALIAN food manufacturers are paying millions of dollars for halal certification — only to see some of the money sent overseas to help pay for a $5 million mosque development in Indonesia. 
The mosque is being built by the head of Indonesia’s halal certification authority, which controls access to the giant Indonesian market. The disclosures, made last night on ABC’s Four Corners program, follow an exclusive investigation by The Daily Telegraph that revealed Australian businesses were paying millions of dollars for halal ­certification to gain access to ­lucrative overseas markets.
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Who riots in a hospital?

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (6:34am)

Journalists and police repeatedly fail to report the cultural backgrounds which could help us to better understand such astonishing incidents, which seem to have a tribal dimension:
A nurse and security guards have been injured after a brawl broke out between about 20 family members visiting a relative in a Sydney hospital. 
Police had to be brought into the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on Sunday night to help quell the melee. Police say a fight broke out between two female relatives and the rest of the family group.
No clue in the SBS report, either:
HSU secretary Gerard Hayes said one security guard who tried to intervene was held down in a headlock and punched repeatedly by three men, while a nurse was dragged by her hair.
But why?
Labor health spokesman Walt Secord said the government had sought to keep the incident quiet.
Note: I make no assumptions about the people who rioted. I simply note the absence of explanation for the kind of riot which would have seemed unthinkable in this country a couple of decades ago. 
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Fairfax’s insane anti-Abbott jihad continues

Andrew Bolt September 08 2015 (5:21am)


UPDATE
The full version of the letter which former Treasury Secretary John Stone had published in The Australian today:

While not agreeing with every word of your generally thoughtful editorial ("For the sake of the nation,Abbott must turn it around”, 7/9), I wish strongly to support its conclusion: “It’s premature to write off the Prime Minister as ‘one trick Tony’ “. I do so for three reasons. 
First, because I regard Tony Abbott as one of the most decent, humane and community-minded people it has been my good fortune to get to know. Fortunate indeed is a country to have such a man as its Prime Minister.
Second, because there is today simply no credible alternative as leader of the Liberal Party (of which I am not a member). Scott Morrison seems to have leadership potential, and has so far done well, but he is far from sufficiently experienced to become Prime Minister. As for other sometimes canvassed contenders, while it would be invidious to comment personally, none of them begins to be up to the job.
And third because, notwithstanding Abbott’s mistakes over the past two years (and he has made plenty), he and his government stand head and shoulders over the alternative aspirants for office, led by a man wholly compromised by the background of trade union corruption that the current Royal Commission is steadily exposing. Whatever the polls may say currently, twelve months hence the essentially conservative Australian electorate can, I believe, be trusted to arrive at the only sensible conclusion.
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MUNGO UNCHECKED

Tim Blair – Monday, September 08, 2014 (4:01pm)

“Vale Mungo Macallum. Journalist and gentleman. His words and wit will outlive him.” – Feminist author Anne Summers farewells veteran political journalist Macallum on Twitter – without confirming that Macaullum is in fact dead. Twitter subsequently goes into meltdown.
“Sad to hear of the death of Mungo MacCallum, a giant of the days when the country was run from the non-members bar in Old Parliament House.” – Former Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton leads the tributes for his not-dead comrade. 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'MUNGO UNCHECKED'
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RISE OF THE JIHADI KITTIES

Tim Blair – Monday, September 08, 2014 (11:24am)

If political historian Paul Kelly ever publishes another revised edition of The End of Certainty, he’ll need to include a chapter on Hello Kitty. Plus a few others besides.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'RISE OF THE JIHADI KITTIES'
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SURVIVE SYDNEY’S SOAKING

Tim Blair – Monday, September 08, 2014 (10:54am)

Are you suffering from trench foot, face mildew or hair rot? Do you have recurring nightmares about drowning or being washed out to sea? Is your family eating goldfish flakes? Then you need these Top Ten Tips for surviving Sydney’s historic and unending wet spell.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'SURVIVE SYDNEY’S SOAKING'
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GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE …

Tim Blair – Monday, September 08, 2014 (10:44am)

Mainstream Muslim support for Islamic State: 
A flag used by Islamic State terrorists responsible for thousands of murders across Iraq and Syria, including the execution of two Western journalists, has been auctioned at a Sydney mosque packed with families and young children.
Disturbing footage of the sale is being shared among Australian teenagers, some of whom appear to have been radicalised by the extreme violence associated with the outlawed Islamic State, and its black and white flag featuring the Shahada. 
It fetched a handy price, too: nearly $3000.
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Does the media want a real scandal instead? Hello?

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (7:04pm)

Forget the ludicrous beat-ups about what Chris Pyne told James Ashby or what Brickworks told Peta Credlin (see item below).
If the media wants a true scandal or a true example of influence peddling it should switch its attention once again to Labor. Paul Sheehan:
History will record that the largest criminal organisation in Australia was protected by the first woman prime minister of Australia… 
Julia Gillard’s ... name will always be associated with the word “fraud”. Frauds committed not by her but by others she supported. There is also a direct correlation between Gillard’s actions as PM and the brazen contempt for law that has broken out across the construction industry, with national economic ramifications. Disruptions such as those on the Barangaroo building site in Sydney last week, which included a young woman being described by a CFMEU official, using a loud hailer, as “a f***ing slut* because, as a staff member of the Fair Work Building Commission, she had dared to come onto the building site. Or the “accidental” fire that shut down the Barangaroo site. Or the organised crime group that infiltrated the project.
The Gillard flow-on is evidenced by the 150 active investigations of fraud, intimidation and criminality currently under way, with the majority directed at the CFMEU.  It is evidenced by the use of “safety” by CFMEU official to go onto building sites to extract funds from workers… It is evidenced by the flying squads of CFMEU goons who go into cities, mock the police – who are deserving of mockery – and shut down dozens of building sites in a display of power. It is evidenced by the collusion of big companies with the CFMEU to pad the cost of major infrastructure and building projects…
All because Gillard, as prime minister, shut down the [Australian Building and Construction Commission] and the building code after furious lobbying by the CFMEU, which hated the police powers of the ABCC and the legal restraints imposed by the building code…
On Gillard’s watch, and as a direct result of some of her actions, the construction industry saw an outbreak of cost blow-outs and on-site intimidation that contributed to ending the mining boom and continues to inflate the cost of infrastructure, inhibit investment and destroy jobs.
None of this will even get a mention when Gillard is questioned at the Royal Commission this week. She has been called to give evidence about events which took place years ago… It will all revolve around whether she is found to have been a witting or unwitting participant in serious fraud because of her actions as a labour lawyer.
Whatever the outcome, Gillard has already been struck by fraud lightning far more than most politicians. The Labor figure on whose vote her government depended for survival, and whose reputation she defended, Craig Thomson, turned out to be a fraud and liar who misled the parliament on multiple occasions. The person she elevated to be speaker of the house, Peter Slipper, has since been convicted of fraud. Her former boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, is immersed in multiple serious fraud allegations. 
(Thanks to reader Andrew.) 
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A Liberal scandal? Only if you’re as thick as a Brickworks brick

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (6:02pm)

What a beat-up by Fairfax:
Previously suppressed emails before a corruption inquiry raise serious concerns about a major donor to the Liberal Party being rewarded with extraordinary access to senior party figures. 
The emails are from the former chief fund-raiser of the NSW Liberal Party Paul Nicolaou to Peta Credlin, one of the most powerful figures in the federal government…
One of the previously suppressed emails reveals that, on March 1, 2011 [when the Liberals were in Opposition], Mr Nicolaou sent Ms Credlin an email titled “Re Carbon Tax” advising that Brickworks was “a very good supporter of the Party.”
Mr Nicolaou attached an earlier message from the company’s managing director, Lindsay Partridge, which read: “Paul, Tell Tony to stick to his guns on no carbon tax.
I am running an internal fight with the BCA [Business Council of Australia] who seem to be driven by a few companies who will make bundles out of the tax.”
Ms Credlin replied enthusiastically to Mr Nicolaou’s request.
“Lindsay provided a great line for Question Time. Do you have a number that I might be able to contact him on and see if he was happy for us to use it … “ she said…
Two months later, on May 2, 2011, Mr Abbott, the then opposition leader, visited the Austral Bricks factory in Melbourne, which he proclaimed was “one of the most efficient plants in the world”.
He claimed a carbon tax would cause a 10 per cent rise in costs at Brickworks, which would be passed on to consumers… On September 14, Mr Abbott told federal parliament that the carbon tax would add $2 million a year to Austral Bricks’ costs… Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said: “We have claims that one of the Liberal Party biggest donors is virtually writing Tony Abbott’s question time strategy.This is cash for questions...”
Let’s go through this.
Is there any law prohibiting Brickworks from donating to the federal Liberal Party? No.
Did Brickworks in any way determine Liberal policy on the carbon tax? No.
Is it in any way surprising the Liberals looked for examples of companies hit hardest by the carbon tax? No,
Would Credlin have ignored the Brickworks example had it not been a donor? No.
Did the Liberals use only donors as examples of companies hurt by the carbon tax? No.
Is it surprising that Credlin asked for the company’s permission to use it as an example? No.
Is it surprising that a company hit to hard by Labor policies would donate to the Liberals instead? No.
Is there a scandal here? Don’t be so stupid. 
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Defence report: cool it on the bravery

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (5:28pm)


I can gloomily understand a diversity warrior being against the mythical “Anglo-Australian male soldier “ stereotype of the army, even though Anglo-Australian men have dominated the ranks of volunteers and done wonderful service. But exactly what is the beef with honouring “acts of courage in battle”?
From a report by Elizabeth A. Thomson, 2013 Secretary of Defence Fellow, and published by the Defence Department itself:
It is primarily the Anglo-Australian male soldier renowned for acts of courage in battle who is iconised as the ideal identity in the organisation. Yet other values are just as meaningful for the organisation. This normative language practice excludes other values and other people.
Is this suggesting that women or non-Anglos are not so capable of bravery in battle? Or that there’s nothing special about the soldier risking his life when compared to, say, one showing superior book-keeping skills or affirmative action awareness?
The report has another go:
The typical Defence hero is a hero in uniform from an Anglo-Australian background who performs acts of bravery in battle and models the values of courage and sacrifice… This type of hero is unnecessarily exclusive and works against the desire for Defence ‘to represent the community it serves’. Herein lies a site for language change. By aligning more of the desired values to a broader range of heroes, the language of leadership can begin to walk the talk of cultural change.
So the report actually wants a “broader range of heroes” - which could just mean courageous women and Muslim soldiers, too. Or it could mean a broader definition of “heroes”, which I suspect is the author’s real meaning.
And indeed:
It is typically a hero in uniform from a white Anglo-Australian background, who performs acts of bravery in battle and models the values of courage and sacrifice. If Defence wants to represent the community it serves, then Defence heroes need to resonate with the broader Australian community. The category of hero needs to broaden to include more of the community it serves. For example, there is a need for more women, more first Australians and newer Australians, and more military and civilian professionals who are working to support, as well as engage in combat. These may include people who follow various religions, who are of various sexual orientation, and who may live with various kinds of disability.
In fact, the author seemingly believes this whole idea of Anglos showing battlefield bravery has to be countered:
Leadership needs to endorse and promote a greater range of hero and heroines from diverse backgrounds, modelling more than the values of just courage via various modes such as Defence media stories, revised doctrine, revised training materials and Defence directives in order to counter the ideal identity of the Anglo-Australian male soldier renowned for acts of courage. This will support efforts to normalise diversity and difference.
It seems the army must be made so diverse that you’re almost as likely to find a coward in uniform as a battlefield hero.
The obvious conclusion from this report is that the army should scrap military honours, or award its highest decorations to even the tea-lady with a gammy leg.
This would suit the ideologues of identity politics, or course, and it would suit our enemies even better to face a force which no longer stresses bravery.
The country is mad, you know.
(Via Bernard Gaynor, who did three tours of duty in Afghanistan with the army and has a lot more to say.) 
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Tony Burke betrays not just Israel but Australia

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (8:32am)

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke trashes Israel:
TONY Burke has reignited the clash in Labor over the Middle East by saying Jewish settlements in the West Bank are a ploy to block a two-state solution, and are “trashing” the drinking water of Palestinians. 
So trenchant was Mr Burke in his criticism of Israel that he won the praise of Sydney academic Jake Lynch and the acknowledgment of Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, known for their vocal support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
In a blistering attack on Israel during a keynote address to a pro-Palestinian fundraiser, the senior Labor frontbencher said he, Senator Rhiannon, diplomats from Arab nations and others at the event were “here representing the view of the majority of the world”. Mr Burke said anyone who supported Israel’s bombing UN compounds in Gaza was “on the wrong side of that argument”.
An important detail missing from this report:
Labor frontbencher Tony Burke, for instance, represents the Sydney seat of Watson, which now has an astonishing 20 per cent of Muslim voters. 
Labor is pandering to a religious minority which is helping it to hold key marginal seats. In exchange it is betraying our principles and our allies, and feeding a dangerous sense of victimhood among jihad-sympathisers only too keen to believe that Jews and the West are the real terrorists.
Burke is not just deserting Israel to please his Muslim voters. He is deserting the West generally, including Australia. Consider the statement issued on the day the Islamic State released a video showing the decapitation of American journalist James Foley - a statement now signed by more than 80 Islamic leaders and groups in Australia.  Note that Australian support for Israel is wrapped up with other things deemed anti-Muslim by these “leaders” - like domestic anti-terrorism legislation and military action against terrorists and genocidal dictators in the Middle East:
The primary basis of [the Abbott Government’s planned anti-terrorist] laws is a trumped up ‘threat’ from ‘radicalised’ Muslims returning from Iraq or Syria. There is no solid evidence to substantiate this threat. Rather, racist caricatures of Muslims as backwards, prone to violence and inherently problematic are being exploited. It is instructive that similar issues about Australian troops travelling abroad to fight or Jews travelling to train or fight with the Israeli Defence Force are simply never raised… 
We are not fooled by those who speak against violence and terrorism but are its proponents at an institutional level through military and foreign policies. We are not fooled by those who speak of peace but maintain cordial ties with dictatorial regimes abroad and who support and justify the most heinous of violence inflicted on innocent people as seen recently in Gaza.
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Doubling our refugees means adding to our welfare bill

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (7:16am)

Liberal backbencher Wyatt Roy sounds very compassionate - but has he counted the cost of that compassion?

Roy already knows there is a great different between seeming good and achieving it:
Indeed, those on the Left who claim to represent a humanitarian viewpoint have overlooked, ignored or forgotten that under the policies of Labor and the Greens, more than 1100 people drowned while trying to reach Australia in leaky boats.
But has he considered that difference himself when he then goes on:
With the flow of illegal arrivals now effectively stymied, we must seriously consider raising our obligation to those seeking refuge from the world’s most desperate, dangerous and persecutory regimes… 
I’m advocating that the 13,750 places in Australia’s humanitarian program should be at least doubled once the backlog in processing centres — the legacy of Labor’s policy failures — is cleared…
Hundreds of thousands of Christians in North Africa and the Middle East are subjected to heinous violence and deprivation on the basis of their religion… We can offer these new Australians security, aspiration and a future. We can change lives. And so therefore we should.
Roy seems to imply that Christians from the Middle East would be easier to settle here than Muslims from the same area. The relative success - speaking generally - of Lebanese Christians here compared to Lebanese Muslims tends to confirm that point. More broadly, we should also note our Buddhist community, almost as numerous as our Muslim community, has been far less threatening to our national security.  (Roy does not dare make this argument explicitly. Honesty is dangerous in debates on our immigration intake.)
But what would doubling our refugee intake actually achieve, particularly when that intake comes from Third World countries?
Yes, we would be offering poor and endangered people not just sanctuary but welfare, wealth and freedom - the chance of a much better life. That is good.
But at what cost? And how many of those refugees would actually flourish here?
A 2011Immigration Department survey of people brought here under our humanitarian intake revealed some harsh truths.
The vast majority are on Centrelink benefits (the dole, Austudy, youth allowance, family benefits) even after five years:
This means refugees tend to cost Australian taxpayers plenty, and their children often grow up poor. In some communities this “marginalisation” - actually an inability for cultural reasons to seize our opportunities - has led to dangerous resentments. In other communities, however, the differences may well wash out with time.
The expense and welfare dependency of refugees is best measured by comparing them to people brought in under the family reunion and skilled migration categories:
But Roy is right to (seemingly) suggest that the cultural background of refugees is important. Those from predominantly Muslim countries have extraordinarily low levels of employment - just 9 per cent for Afghans and 11,8 per cent for Iraqis (and this was before boat people were banned from working):
When Roy says he wants 13,000 more refugees each year, know that he’s asking for thousands more people each year to be added to our dole queues and welfare lists. 
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Muslim leaders betray us again

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (6:54am)

AUSTRALIA’S top Muslim leaders have betrayed us again. Should we finally conclude the real problem is not their weakness but their faith?

Twice in three weeks, Islamist terrorists have beheaded American journalists as a warning to the West.
And both times, prominent Muslim leaders here have not defended us but attacked, like some tag team.

On August 20, we learned Islamic State killers had beheaded James Foley, with his killer warning the West not to attack Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
On that very same day, more than 60 of Australia’s Muslim leaders and groups issued a statement condemning ... Tony Abbott.
(Read full article here.) 
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Bill Shorten’s game is over

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (6:50am)

THE game has just changed for Bill Shorten. The Opposition Leader must now show what he really stands for.

Until now, Shorten has played a simple spoiler’s game and it’s worked. Check the polls: Labor has been ahead for months.
But there’s now two big problems: the election isn’t for another two years, and what’s worked so far won’t work so well any more.
(Read full article here.) 
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Whishing away the enemy

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (6:31am)

ABC Insiders’ Talking Pictures segment mocked Tony Abbott for “throwing arms into the area” of the Middle East, but criticised Bill Leak for using “shock” and attacking the Greens with this cartoon, saying we had to ”be careful we’re not just helping to stoke an aggressive cycle”:
Note that the heaviest criticism of Leak came from a cartoonist who could not bring himself to use the word “Islamic”.
Tim Blair:
Last week Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson presented his theory that Islamic State terrorists are not, in fact, terrorists. 
“I think we need to find better words than ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ because, to me, this implies a very one-sided view of the world,” Whish-Wilson told the senate. Well, yes. On one side you have people being beheaded. On the other you have people beheading them. Pick a side. Whishy continued: “We use that word because it is a very simple word to use and it demonises people.”
The poor guys. All they’re doing is murdering and raping and here we are demonising them for it. As for Whish-Wilson’s plea that we “find better words than terrorism and terrorism”, old newspaper folk used to have a rule: don’t criticise a proposed headline unless you can come up with an improvement. In his case, Whish-Wilson declined to do so, echoing the Greens’ energy policy: “Let’s replace coal with something that hasn’t been invented.” In the absence of any new Greens terror terms, a poll at my Daily Telegraph site approved several popular options. With 5500 votes counted, “future Q & A panellists” was the overall winner. “Sustainable population activists” and “traditional lifestyle practitioners” also received solid support. These are available for the Greens to use as they wish. Or Whish. 
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Abbott isn’t loved, but respect for his strength will do

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (6:25am)

Gerard Henderson is right:
WHAT Tony Abbott has going for him — he has it now and he had it ­before the election and he may still have it in two years’ time — is that he is seen to be strong and all Australian prime ministers who have done well, whether people liked them or not, have all seemed to be strong at the time.
UPDATE
In foreign affairs, at least, Tony Abbott’s record is stellar. But Greg Sheridan has a warning:
TONY Abbott could not be more different — in temperament, style and political philosophy — from Kevin Rudd. But there is one striking similarity, a tremendous drive for work, as the Prime Minister’s just concluded trip to India and Malaysia amply demonstrates. 
Abbott and his staff were away for four nights. One of them was spent in a hotel, three in the ageing, breakdown-prone VIP jet.
Abbott and his staff left Canberra last Wednesday night, flew all night and worked all day Thursday in Mumbai. One night’s luxury of a sleep in a hotel bed was followed by a day of work in Delhi. After dinner with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the PM’s party flew overnight to Malaysia.
There they worked all day Saturday in Kuala Lumpur and flew overnight back to a day of busy engagements in Sydney yesterday. It is a schedule that drives human work performance to the very edge of the reasonable.
Abbott, unlike Rudd, is supremely physically fit, but it’s too much, as was evident from his cold and in his froggy voice yesterday. An important difference with Rudd is that, when tired, he doesn’t get angry or abusive with his staff. But all human beings are much more likely to make a mistake when stretched too tight. A single mistake on a trip like this can turn ­triumph to disaster in the twinkling of an eye. There were no mistakes on this trip, which was extremely productive, and it capped off a prodigious year in Australian foreign policy.
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Kissinger: Obama must attack Islamic State. Stop being “bystanders”

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (6:16am)

Barack Obama has repeatedly given the impression that he lacks faith not only in America’s military leadership but its moral leadership:
HENRY Kissinger has urged US President Barack Obama to “launch an all-out attack” on the Islamic State terrorist group, warning that Americans have ­become “bystanders” in the Middle East.  

The former US secretary of state said airstrikes should be of “limited duration as a punitive measure” and “not make any distinction between Syria and Iraq”. “There can’t be any debate any more about fighting them,” he said. 
Dr Kissinger accused Mr Obama of failing to appreciate that other countries yearned for American guidance in the Middle East and other crisis areas. 
“We don’t have the power to impose our preference, but without us, and without some leadership from us, the new order cannot be created,” he said. “That I think has not (been) understood.” 
He said Mr Obama “has not understood all the currents that need to be dealt with” in the world.
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Muslim auction in Sydney: $2000 opening bid for a terrorist flag

Andrew Bolt September 08 2014 (5:59am)

We have a problem:
A FLAG used by Islamic State terrorists responsible for thousands of murders across Iraq and Syria, including the execution of two Western journalists, has been auctioned at a Sydney mosque packed with families and young children. 
Disturbing footage of the sale is being shared among Australian teenagers, some of whom appear to have been radicalised by the extreme violence associated with the outlawed Islamic State, and its black and white flag featuring the Shahada… While a Muslim community leader claimed the Shahada symbol had largely been hijacked by IS militants, political leaders slammed the flag auction at Liverpool’s Markaz Imam Ahmad mosque and youth centre, led by Sheikh Abu Adnan Mohamad. A painting depicting the flag was also sold.
The video of the auction here.
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I waited a few days for the excitement to die down before going to the new bridge... sure, I will not hit the top charts with this photo now, but I had the whole beach to myself. I really like the new span, and how elegant it appears. Later I traveled over it, and it's just superb....almost as beautiful as Yosemite... almost. — at San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
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""Our own demons are often to hardest to recognise."
- Monkey
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The Gray Lady shows little understanding of events in the Australian election, highlighting how badly mainstream press have diverted attention from serious issues. Bowen was successful in holding off Ray King in Western Sydney, but the smears employed to do so are appalling. Jason Clare was protected by a press running interference for him .. he made a challenge to Rudd on election night which sounds engineered. My bet is he will be the next leader, unopposed. It should worry responsible people that those following Fairfax and the ABC would not know of many serious issues. Why are Australians wanting a new government despite their economy which is superior to much of the developed world? Because the ALP were devaluing that economy at a substantial rate through a mixture of corruption and sleaze. The negative campaigning of the ALP through fear (Abbott, Abbott, Abbott, cuts cuts cuts) will not hold water in the aftermath, and my tip is that the electorate will reward Abbott in the future for his honesty and integrity despite ALP smears. Meanwhile, there are a number of corruption issues that are yet to play out. Heiner. AWU rorting. Aboriginal politics. Refugee drownings. National bankruptcy. Executive abuse. Workplace relations. How long before Murdoch acquires 70% media market share? ed
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If Obama Wants to Bomb Someone, How About the Syrian Terror Training Camps of the Benghazi Attackers? - FrontPage Mag
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One in five applicants for jobs at the Central Intelligence Agency have ties to Muslim terrorist organizations, according to the latest round of Snowden leaks. And Israel is a major target of American counterintelligence. Washington is insane.
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As Congress debates whether to authorize President Obama to engage in a punitive-deterrent military attack on Syria, the Assad regime is adopting what I have called the "dead baby" strategy, perfected by Hamas in its battles with Israel.  This approach is as simple as it is brutal:  Force the United States, as Hamas forced Israel, to kill as many civilians as possible by deliberately moving legitimate military targets into civilian areas, or by moving civilians into military areas.  Democracies, such as the United States and Israel, which care about avoiding civilian casualties, are then put to the tragic choice of either foregoing a legitimate attack against military targets, or by attacking them, being blamed for the civilian casualties, that were willfully caused by their enemies' illegal use of human shields.
This strategy can only work in an age of instant and pervasive television coverage of military actions.  Syria and Hamas know that every baby killed by a US or Israeli rocket will be paraded in front of television cameras being held by grieving mothers and fathers.  It is these vivid and horrifying pictures that are the goal of the dead baby strategy.  Syria and Hamas understand that these emotional pictures will mask the reality that these dead babies are not "collateral damage" caused by legitimate military actions, but rather deliberate targets selected by Syria and Hamas in a cynical attempt to shift blame from them onto the democracies that try their best to avoid civilian casualties, even in the face of deliberate efforts by Hamas and Syria to multiply them.
Lest there be any doubt about Syria's intentions.  Listen to retired American General David A. Deptula:
"The additional time gives Assad the potential advantage of complicating United States targeting by surreptitiously moving people or even chemical munitions into them, aiming to create casualties or chemical release as a direct result of US attacks."
United States General Martin E. Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that assessment when he said that American spy agencies are "keeping up with that movement", which includes prisoners who may be used as "human shields."
If there is any doubt that Hamas has used this despicable strategy, listen to Fathi Hammad, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
"For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land.  The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children.  This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine.  It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We desire death like you desire life.'"
When Hamas employed this dead baby strategy against Israel, it was a resounding success.  Despite the fact that Hamas deliberately fired rockets from schoolyards, hospitals and densely populated civilian areas, the international community blamed Israel for trying to prevent rockets from attacking its civilians by targeting the rockets and occasionally killing civilians.  It was Israel, rather than Hamas, that was accused of "war crimes," even though it is clearly a war crime to use civilians as human shields.  Israel had little choice but to protect its own citizens against rocket attacks, but the world focused not on the moral correctness of Israel's decisions, but rather on the gruesome pictures of dead Palestinians babies, even though some of them were actually caused by errant Palestinian rockets.
President Assad of Syria has apparently learned this lesson well and is now prepared to act on it.  This will once again put a democracy, this time the United States, to a difficult choice: forego legitimate military targets, thereby increasing the likelihood that Syria will continue to gas its own citizens; or attack these military targets, inevitably causing some civilian casualties and playing into the hands of Syria's dead baby strategy.
If the media and the international community continue to enable these tyrannical regimes by falling for this cynical dead baby strategy, it will continue and expand in scope.  It's a win-win strategy for tyrants who don't care about their own civilians, and a lose-lose strategy for democracies that do.
Another reason why this strategy succeeds is that the world seems to care far less about civilian deaths caused by Arab and Muslim nations against their own citizens than deaths caused by Western democracies.  If American bombs were to kill 100 Syrian civilians, there would be more outcry than when 100,000 Syrians, including tens of thousands of civilians, have been killed by Syrian forces on both sides of this civil war.  This is pure and simple racism, holding Western democracies to a higher standard than Muslim tyrannies and theocracies.  It's is an old story, but it will once again rear its bigoted head when and if American forces kill Syrian civilians who were deliberately placed in harm's way as human shields by the Syrian regime.
To stop this once and for all, the international community and the media must place the blame for these dead babies where it belongs:  on the shoulders of tyrants who deliberately use their own civilians as human shields.

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My fellow Muslims are allowing our faith to be hijacked from us -- into the hands of theocrats and thugs.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir [Party of Liberation] is a radical, international pan-Islamic political organization. It is commonly associated with the goal of all Muslim countries: unifying as an Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law, and with a head of state (caliph) elected by Muslims. Hizb-ut-Tahrir [HT], established in 1953 in East Jerusalem, has been banned in Russia, several Central Asian countries and many Middle Eastern Countries. It has also been banned in Germany on account of its desire to use force for political ends, as well as its anti-Semitism. It is even banned in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, already cauldrons of extremism.
Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy as being un-Islamic and a Western system. But it members seem to have no qualms about using Western freedoms to promote their expansionist agenda and aggressive goals. Article 56 of their draft constitution for the proposed state describes conscription as a compulsory individual duty, for all citizens: "Every male Muslim, fifteen years and over, is obliged to undergo military training in readiness for jihad."
As the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir America, Dr. Mohammed Malkawi, remarked at a conference in Jordon in June 2013: "Let Britain, America, and the entire West go to hell, because the Caliphate is coming, Allah willing."
It was incomprehensible that they were hosting a meeting in Canada. Media inquiries received wishy-washy answers, as in, "We can't really do anything unless there is proof of violence." Further, as the HT meeting was scheduled to take place on a weekend, it was apparently of no particular interest to the media.
Were they really planning to establish a Caliphate even in the West? As a woman alone would arouse suspicion, my husband accompanied me. I pulled out the burqa I had imported from Afghanistan earlier in the year for a play. It would perhaps be the first and last time I adjusted a burqa around my body and even part of my face, with just my eyes showing – and dark glasses, and my husband in traditional Pakistani garb.
The heavily guarded community center in which the meeting was held was gender-segregated -- men and women separate. Most of the attendees were young converts, who had brought their children. When my husband sat with crossed legs, he was told that is not the Islamic way, so he immediately uncrossed them, in order not to attract attention.
Organizations such as HT are careful how they operate; their speakers are known for saying one thing in English and another in their own language. That way they can instill hardcore ideas and an ideology without being accused of using hate speech. At this meeting the message was clear: It is incumbent on every Muslim living in a non-Muslim land to impose sharia law; to work towards an Islamic state, and to convert people as is their mandate. According to the HT website, "The meaning of Jihad being a duty of sufficiency is that we initiate the fighting of the enemy even if he did not attack us. If the Muslims failed to initiate the fighting at any given time, they would all be sinful."
This by the way is totally against the teaching of the Quran, which advises Muslims to follow the laws of the lands in which they live. One young man in the audience asked who the Caliph would be, and was told it would be from among them.
I left the meeting trembling, partly with anger and partly with fear: anger because I saw a straightforward attempt to hijack our freedoms and, by turning them against us, to impose sharia; fear because my fellow Muslims are allowing our faith be hijacked from us -- into the hands of theocrats and thugs.

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The face of Michelangelo's David
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Deaths[edit]

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“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.”Colossians 1:28 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay."
Mark 2:4

Faith is full of inventions. The house was full, a crowd blocked up the door, but faith found a way of getting at the Lord and placing the palsied man before him. If we cannot get sinners where Jesus is by ordinary methods we must use extraordinary ones. It seems, according to Luke 5:19, that a tiling had to be removed, which would make dust and cause a measure of danger to those below, but where the case is very urgent we must not mind running some risks and shocking some proprieties. Jesus was there to heal, and therefore fall what might, faith ventured all so that her poor paralysed charge might have his sins forgiven. O that we had more daring faith among us! Cannot we, dear reader, seek it this morning for ourselves and for our fellow-workers, and will we not try today to perform some gallant act for the love of souls and the glory of the Lord.

The world is constantly inventing; genius serves all the purposes of human desire: cannot faith invent too, and reach by some new means the outcasts who lie perishing around us? It was the presence of Jesus which excited victorious courage in the four bearers of the palsied man: is not the Lord among us now? Have we seen his face for ourselves this morning? Have we felt his healing power in our own souls? If so, then through door, through window, or through roof, let us, breaking through all impediments, labour to bring poor souls to Jesus. All means are good and decorous when faith and love are truly set on winning souls. If hunger for bread can break through stone walls, surely hunger for souls is not to be hindered in its efforts. O Lord, make us quick to suggest methods of reaching thy poor sin-sick ones, and bold to carry them out at all hazards.

Evening

"There is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet."
Jeremiah 49:23
Little know we what sorrow may be upon the sea at this moment. We are safe in our quiet chamber, but far away on the salt sea the hurricane may be cruelly seeking for the lives of men. Hear how the death fiends howl among the cordage; how every timber starts as the waves beat like battering rams upon the vessel! God help you, poor drenched and wearied ones! My prayer goes up to the great Lord of sea and land, that he will make the storm a calm, and bring you to your desired haven! Nor ought I to offer prayer alone, I should try to benefit those hardy men who risk their lives so constantly. Have I ever done anything for them? What can I do? How often does the boisterous sea swallow up the mariner! Thousands of corpses lie where pearls lie deep. There is death-sorrow on the sea, which is echoed in the long wail of widows and orphans. The salt of the sea is in many eyes of mothers and wives. Remorseless billows, ye have devoured the love of women, and the stay of households. What a resurrection shall there be from the caverns of the deep when the sea gives up her dead! Till then there will be sorrow on the sea. As if in sympathy with the woes of earth, the sea is forever fretting along a thousand shores, wailing with a sorrowful cry like her own birds, booming with a hollow crash of unrest, raving with uproarious discontent, chafing with hoarse wrath, or jangling with the voices of ten thousand murmuring pebbles. The roar of the sea may be joyous to a rejoicing spirit, but to the son of sorrow the wide, wide ocean is even more forlorn than the wide, wide world. This is not our rest, and the restless billows tell us so. There is a land where there is no more sea--our faces are steadfastly set towards it; we are going to the place of which the Lord hath spoken. Till then, we cast our sorrows on the Lord who trod the sea of old, and who maketh a way for his people through the depths thereof.
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Today's reading: Proverbs 1-2, 1 Corinthians 16 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Proverbs 1-2



Purpose and Theme

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young-
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance-
6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 16

The Collection for the Lord's People
1 Now about the collection for the Lord's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.
Personal Requests
5 After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you-for I will be going through Macedonia. 6 Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me....
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Phinehas

[Phĭn'ĕhăs] - face of trust or mouth of a serpent.
  1. A son of Eleazar, one of Aaron's sons, who slew Zimri and Cozbi. He manifested great zeal, was the third high priest of the Jews and discharged his office most faithfully for nineteen years (Exod. 6:25; Num. 25:14, 15).
  2. The younger son of Eli, the priest and judge of Israel. Phinehas, with his brother Hophni, disgraced the sacred office of priesthood and both were slain ( 1 Sam. 1:3; 2:34; 4:4-19; 14:3).
  3. The father of Eleazar, a priest who returned with Ezra (Ezra 8:33).
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