Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Wed Sep 7th Todays News

Comparing right wingers with terrorists is lazy. The rhetoric of people like Wilders and Farage is in opposition to rape, murder and torture. what examples are there of Wilders followers murdering cartoonists, or Farage's followers killing gays. Maybe it is better to question the left's embrace of murderous compassion for migrants from weak borders which promote piracy. The UN has an appalling history of supporting terrorism and even preventing peaceful settlement. The UN only went into Cambodia after Vietnam ended the killing fields. When Libya bombed a passenger jet over Lockerbie they worked very hard to make sure that the killers never went to trial. The UN often fails in her evil plans. Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein is a Jordanian Prince so his views may be jaundiced for cultural reasons, but that is unprofessional from the head of the UNHCR. His wealth does not legitimise his countryfolk for killing Jews under the false name of Palestine. 

From AlJazeera 
The UN human rights chief has accused US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders, among others, of spreading "humiliating racial and religious prejudice".
Zeid Raad al-Hussein said on Monday that "populist, demagogues and political fantasists" like Wilders and Trump, as well as Nigel Farage in Britain and Marine Le Pen in France, were using "fear" tactics similar to those of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS and Daesh).
"Make no mistake, I certainly do not equate the actions of nationalist demagogues with those of Daesh," the UN high commissioner for human rights, said at a gala dinner organised by the Hague-based Peace, Justice and Security Foundation.

"But in its mode of communication, its use of half-truths and oversimplification, the propaganda of Daesh uses tactics similar to those of the populists."
"And both sides of this equation benefit from each other - indeed would not expand in influence without each others' actions," he added, calling for global action to lessen the influence of populist politics that could turn violent.
Except Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein is guilty of the gross simplification of issues which influence others to turn violent. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.  
=== from 2015 ===
Fairfax propagandists call themselves a news service. 

To avoid tragedy, refugees must come from refugee camps. 

ALP and Greens try to corrupt Senate to corrupt the Governor General. They want to get the Governor General to dismiss the competent sitting judge of #TURC. If it goes as they intend, they will soon ask the Queen like they did in 1975. 

Leaked cabinet discussions herald back to the pre shuffle comments regarding government performance when Turnbull was agitating for change. Government has changed, becoming more clearly responsive since, who still retaining competent governance. But the partisan media has not changed. 
From 2014
A loved one dies and amid all the other feelings of loss the survivors lose the voice of the loved one. A funeral is an opportunity to grieve and remember, but the designated time is not enough. Pity the parents of Warriena Wright who have to endure her voice being sullied by an alleged killer. The alleged killer is pleading innocent, but has a recording of Warriena's final hours after she hooked up with the alleged killer for kinky sex. In the recording he is heard denying her her clothes and goods as she begs to just leave, and also says he has a recording of her. She was drunk, humiliated and finally she hears a threat that the alleged might not have understood the import of. He is not a good person, he lives his life hedonistically. But she had another life that was separate from the hook up she had walked into. And because she was drunk, because she was shamed, because she was fighting and compromised and tired .. we don't know what happened to her to fall from that balcony. Apparently the alleged hasn't killed others before. No one who signs up for a wild night expects to be humiliated for the rest of their days. Her voice is gone, and all that remains is the self serving, arrogant, sneering presence of the alleged, claiming he isn't guilty. Meanwhile, an explosion in upmarket university area Rozelle and the husband of the dead mother, father of the dead baby, grieves. Their voices are gone too. There is no reason yet for the explosion, but the shop owner is no longer a suspect to the police. Any explanation will be a tragedy, but the community would like to know it wasn't a random occurrence. At least they don't have to endure the knowledge of a survivor who caused it but won't talk. 

A year on with a new federal government, and a hostile media which has wrongly cast the LNP leadership is persisting despite all evidence. Channel 10 news this evening, in counterpoint to the Bolt Report, marked the year as mixed for the government. And yet that would not have been the case if the ALP had better leadership, or if the new senators were aligned with those who voted for them. On the major issues of ending the people smuggling business, ending the tax on plant food and ending the mining tax the federal government have performed as promised. Further, they have a plan dealing with the debt crisis that has no alternative but much opposition. On the other hand there is stonewalling by a senate that is self serving. A desperate Palmer is looking for cash. A desperate Shorten is looking for the next election in the hopes he isn't noticed as being incompetent. Shorten has no policy he can point to and is dangerously close to eliminating any policy on anything that is consistent with a vision which he will need to project, were he to win an election. It is known what Abbott stands for. It is not known what Shorten stands for, other than denial. Sixty Minutes is running a program accusing the government of doing its' job regarding Ashby and Slipper. A sixty minutes journalist, talking to Ashby, observes his assertions are explosive. In fact they aren't. Apparently Mal Brough referred Ashby to a QC. He should have done that. Ashby coded Brough with a female name in testimony. Brough would not have known that. We know of the last year, what about the next two in lead up to an election? Will Palmer be behind bars? Will Shorten? Will ALP find a policy? Will the media begin reporting objectively? Some say that the federal government system is broke. It isn't broken, but it relies on competent people on both sides, and an impartial, strong, press. 

Children respond well to direction. They like to excel, and it is disappointing, enervating and heartbreaking when they are denied that, and are told there is no such thing as success but only individuality. A telling observation regarding media savvy terrorist leaders is the substantial numbers who come from affluent societies that have given much to them. Some are on invalid pensions, job search allowances, have university education and substantial links to bike gangs and organised crime. By way of contrast soldiers are not like that in western nations. Many are duty bound and have strong work ethics. Contrary to terrorist assertions employing moral relativism, soldiers don't kill indiscriminately. Accidents happen, but a soldier would get into trouble were they to behave as terrorists do. With terrorists coming from the same society as soldiers who oppose them, it is salient to ask why, and, apparently, it is to do with upbringing. Without a good family showing right from wrong, things are left to schools. Only schools aren't doing their duty, but making it hard for students to see the way up. A bit like modern news media. Enter Secretary of State John Kerry, calling out in appeal to Muslims, claiming a common enemy is Global Warming. Many Muslim peoples around the world are victim to terrorists calling themselves Muslim. Global Warming might not look like that much of an enemy to them. A joke site has claimed children's cartoon Peppa Pig is offensive to Muslims and some of the anti semitic audience have bought it. 

But what of Global Warming? It is becoming apparent that meteorological groups entrusted with data have misrepresented that data. The world has failed to warm for nineteen years despite vast increases in plant food. It is time for Australia to drop their renewable energy target, which costs billions of dollars and does nothing for world temperature, but makes power more expensive. But the world has other smaller issues which are more important. Will Scotland break away from the United Kingdom? There would be no advantages for doing so, unless they were to join with Ireland and Europe in a common market excluding England (but not Wales). Celebrities have had nude selfies hacked, and some portray the issue as if they are victims of the IS. Ebola crisis continues with Sierra Leone considering curfew and lock down to isolate the infections. It is unknown how Greens in Australia will view this solution. On the one hand victims die, making the world more population steady. On the other hand children are locked in detention. A pop star has died, aged 25, possibly by her own hand. A big prawn has been found and photographed, before being released, possibly to hunt unwary swimmers. WA Barrister has found he can be found innocent by a court into the murder of his wife, just as Shorten has been found innocent of a rape allegation, but nobody wants to shake his hand. Even so, when arrested, it is wise not to resist, as a knife wielder found when being arrested in Canada. 
From 2013
Today is the birthday of Australia's greatest love poet, CJ Dennis. Tony Abbott will soon be PM. Rudd won't be. My heart is full. I have people I must thank who give much of their time for helping me with my duties re Bolt Report Supporter's Group and related groups (Conservative Voice, Smithfield/Fairfield/Cabramatta digital cultural museum and Justice for Hamidur Rahman). Stephanie, Mandy and John, I love you all. And thank you. Bolt report would look filthy if you didn't regularly tend to it, but, thanks to your devotion, contributors are able to express themselves with their voice. We don't bludgeon people to agree with us. And I certainly could not author anything put forward by the Katz, Paddles (no longer here but .. bizarrely ..), JFo, ZEG, and so many .. I value your thoughts, and thank you for your contribution. Today is a watershed. 

Tomorrow is business as normal. I started two events between Bolt and Voice in order to allow the community to bond on a common cause. That was a minor success. In the future, I hope to do more, and hope to build on what we have. I hope to hold the Abbott government to its promises, although I largely expect them to honour them. I have my own agenda and I will begin prosecuting it more. I resigned as a teacher to speak out over the issue of a bungled pedophile investigation and the death of school child Hamidur Rahman in 2007. My issue has been covered up to date by senior ALP identities, all of which have moved on. Those responsible for the death of the child still work and the case has not been examined by police, although it well may be too late .. regardless, the child will still be dead. Some who have covered up the issue for the ALP by failing to help me when I asked for it, are still in parliament .. Jason Clare and Chris Hayes, I'm going to make your time in office uncomfortable until you do your sworn duty. 

In Moscow, the G20 is over. No action has been decided regarding Syria. Obama is dithering, but looking dangerous too. 
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 Sanh Ly, Thavee Rose Ftk and Thao Le. Born on the same day, across the years, as Louis II, Landgrave of Lower Hesse (1438), Elizabeth I of England (1533), J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867), C. J. Dennis (1876), Vic Richardson, (1894), John Paul Getty, Jr. (1932), Buddy Holly (1936) and Michelle Creber (1997). On your day, Independence Day in Brazil (1822)
1191 – Third Crusade: Forces under Richard I of England defeated Ayyubid troops under Saladin in Arsuf, present-day Israel.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: France invaded the island of Dominica and captured the British fort there before the latter even knew that France had entered the war as an ally of the United States.
1901 – With Peking occupied by foreign troops from the Eight-Nation Alliance, Qing China was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol, an unequal treaty ending the Boxer Rebellion.
1999 – Three weeks after an earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, a major earthquake struck Athens, causing Greece and Turkey to initiate "earthquake diplomacy".
2011 – Yak-Service Flight 9633, carrying the players and coaching staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team, crashed near the Russian city of Yaroslavl, killing all aboard but one. Another crusade (to party!). France has joined the party unannounced. There is a Boxer Protocol. The earth shakes in anticipation. Avoid bad flights .. Your day is shared with one of the greatest Australian Love Poets (CJ Dennis). You have been blessed, enjoy the gift of life.
Deaths
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Tim Blair


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Andrew Bolt


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Not a newspaper but a propaganda sheet

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (7:50pm)

The insane Fairfax jihad against Tony Abbott continues:
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(Only) Christian refugees welcome

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (3:37pm)

Paul Sheehan says if we must bring in more refugees from Syria, bring in the Christians:

There is no chance the electorate wants to import the Sunni-Shia schism into Australia via a large influx of Muslims dislocated by this conflict. That is a political reality. There have already been too many incidents of Sunni-Shia conflict in Australia, and far too many incidents of anti-Western Muslim militancy, or worse… 
But that does not mean Australians would not be willing to support a significantly larger humanitarian intake from the region.
For the past 20 years Christians have been ethnically cleansed across much of the Middle East as part of the rise of Muslim militancy.
In Syria, before the civil war, more than 1 million Syrian Christians lived in security and were better educated than the general population. That number has been decimated.
In Iraq, the number of Christians has plunged from 1.4 million to about 250,000 over the past 40 years, displaced by waves of civil war, invasion and ethnic cleansing… Would it be in breach of our discrimination laws to prioritise Christians as refugees? No. I’ve checked.
UPDATE
Peter Hitchens warns Britain:

We won’t save refugees by destroying our own country. Can we stop this transformation of all we have and are? I doubt it. To do so would involve the grim-faced determination of Australia, making it plain in every way that our doors are open only to limited numbers of people, chosen by us, enduring the righteous scorn of the supposedly enlightened. 
As we lack the survival instinct and the determination necessary, and as so many of our most influential people are set on committing a sentimental national suicide, I suspect we won’t.
To those who condemn reasonable calls for national self-defence as bigotry, hatred and intolerance (which they are not), I make only this request: just don’t pretend you’re doing a good and generous thing, when you’re really cowardly and weak.
UPDATE
Help more, get more. Dominic Lawson:

The European Commission has drawn up its own quota system, dividing up the recent influx of 160,000 [illegal immigrants] into the EU. So, for example, it insists that Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria take almost 9% of that number between them. But the migrants don’t want to settle there — and if they are given EU passports, there’s no way they can be made to stay in those countries rather than move on to western Europe. 
And what happens to the quota system after all those people have been “allocated”? How does the EU deal with the next wave? It will assuredly be a much bigger one. For as Cameron tried vainly to point out, before being damned as “uncaring”, if we take in many thousands of those who have risked their lives to get to the shores of the EU, it would be the biggest possible incentive for others to pay the people-smugglers for the sort of lethal dinghy rides that saw the end of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi…
As Justine Greening, the international development secretary, explained to the BBC on Friday, we need to understand the scale of all this: she pointed out that more than 10m people have been displaced by the Syrian civil war....
Sir Paul Collier, the author of Exodus: Immigration and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century ...  wrote: “Europe . . . [should be] fostering a Syria-in-exile economy located in Jordan and other neighbouring countries . . . Providing a skilled minority of Syrians with dream lives in Europe is not the answer . . . It would gut Syria of the very people it would most need. It is an intellectually lazy feel-good policy for the bien-pensant.” Collier went on to point out that the approach pioneered by the Germans “is not just foolish, it is deeply immoral. Europe has a duty to fish refugees out of the sea because it is morally responsible for tempting them into the sea. So whatever else Europe does, it must stop this policy of temptation. Paying a crook thousands of dollars for a place on a boat should not entitle a Syrian refugee to a more privileged entry to Europe. It is profoundly unfair to the other suffering refugees.” 
UPDATE
What is not given to these “refugees” will be demanded. Scenes from a riot by illegal immigrants on the Greek island of Lesbos - and, note, many are in fact Afghans:
 
Greece’s migration minister Ioannis Mouzalas has rushed to Lesvos after a second day of street fighting on the Aegean isle. Scenes of stone-pelting refugees engaged in hand-to-hand battle with local police has prompted the government to step up security with two extra units of riot police being dispatched to the island earlier today. Amid renewed violence local officials processing newcomers this morning locked themselves in a container as refugees, once again, vented their anger over delays in registration. On Saturday police resorted to using tear gas and stun grenades as around 500 Afghans attempted to seize and board a ferry heading to Athens. At least four were injured, one seriously. 
With an estimated 13,000 migrants and refugees on the island – and hundreds arriving every day – the local mayor, Spyros Galanos, described the situation as being “out of control.”

Three weeks ago:

 Seventeen people were injured in a riot at a refugee shelter in central Germany over a torn Koran, police said Thursday, in fresh tensions as the country braces to host 800,000 asylum seekers this year.

The Afghan man was eventually saved by the shelter’s guards as well as police, prompting the mob—according to local media mainly Syrian men—to turn their anger on the security forces.
About 50 people armed with steel rods began throwing stones at the officers, leaving at least 17 people injured. Windows were smashed, furniture flung out of windows and even dividing walls in the shelter hacked down in the rampage that lasted several hours in the town of Suhl in Thuringia.
How many of these does Labor want?
There is a madness in the air.
(Thanks to readers StraightShooter, Andrew R.  and Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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The Pope blesses the dying of Christian Europe

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (1:42pm)


The Pope urges Christian Europe to make room for Muslims from the Middle East:
The Vatican’s two parishes would take in two refugee families ”in the coming days”, he said, setting an example for more than 50,000 other parishes across the continent. 
So that’s perhaps 500,000 “refugees” - predominantly Muslims - to be taken in by Christian parishes, if all follow the example of their rich headquarters.
But what of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, expected to follow? What does the Pope say of them?
Must they also be taken in? Or is there some limit where even the Pope one day cries “too many!”
Here is just one of the UNHCR camps, housing just some of the 4 million Syrian refugees - and around the world are another 11 million refugees:
How many does the Pope want?
And what of the oppression of Europe’s Christians that is bound to now increase? Remember why so many Christians have already fled the very region from which these new immigrants come:

Christians face religious persecution in more countries than any other religious group, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center. 
Persecution has resulted in a sharp decline of the Christian population in the Middle East, according to the New York Times. In Iraq, less than half a million Christians are left since many have already left after being targeted by extremists for more than a decade, a Times report said…
In Syria, President Bashar Assad has allowed Christians to leave the country since the civil war broke out in 2011. Nearly a third of Syria’s estimated 600,000 Christians have fled, having been driven out by terrorist groups like the Nusra Front and now ISIS, the Times said.
So does the Pope say Europe should welcome only the Christian Syrians? No.
Will his plan further dilute Christianity in Europe and place Christians and Jews in more danger? Yes.
Indeed, some Christians report persecution from Muslims even in refugee camps in Europe. This same fear means Christian refugees tend to avoid UNHCR refugee camps in the Middle East, which in turn means they are therefore less likely to be registered as refugees for resettlement in Europe, as Australia has found.
This Pope, encouraging the dissolution of Christian Europe, was the man predicted in Jean Raspail’s brilliant and brutally confronting 1971 satire (or indictment), Camp of the Saints, describing how Europe, frozen with self-loathing, greets an Armada of one million boat people sailing in to help itself to the riches of the West:

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Pope blesses the dying of Christian Europe'
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Aylan Kurdi’s tragic death is not what politicians claim

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (8:47am)


THREE-year-old Aylan Kurdi lies face down on the beach, lapped by the sea that drowned him. His chubby hands are curled as if in sleep.
No wonder the world has recoiled, aghast. This speaks straight to our conscience.
Suppress your doubts. This tiny body — the littlest asylum seeker — on a Turkish beach should finally open our hearts. Even our borders.
“When I saw that photo, I felt sick,” declared Labor leader Bill Shorten, himself a father.
“That’s why Labor also believes that over time, we should take more refugees.”
Another 13,000 a year, actually — a doubling of what we already struggle to assimilate.
Liberals say much the same after seeing the body of this Syrian boy, drowned with his mother and brother as they tried to sail to Greece, from where vast columns of illegal immigrants now trek north to Germany.
MP Craig Laundy said his daughter showed him Aylan on her phone: “We all broke down and cried as a family.”
He rang Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and begged: “Please do more. Put yourself in the position of those people and tell me you wouldn’t do the same, you wouldn’t try and get your family out of harm’s way.”
Bishop says taking in more Syrian refugees is indeed “under consideration”, without saying how many of those four million she has in mind.
The Government has already agreed to take 4400 Syrians and Iraqis fleeing Islamic State.
And around the world, politicians and journalists have imposed on Aylan’s body this agenda — and a story that actually does not fit the facts.
You see, Aylan was not in “harm’s way”. He was not a refugee. His family was not fleeing danger.
Indeed, what his father particularly sought in Europe was a good dentist.
(Read full column here.)  
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Beware the talk of us not doing our “share”

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (7:41am)

A dangerous game is being played with our future, as politicians and journalists berate the hated Tony Abbott for his alleged hard-heartedness and dare each other to be even more “compassionate” to Syrian refugees.

Refugee groups and the Greens demanded the government ­urgently resettle at least 20,000 Syrians, with Liberal MPs and premiers including Mike Baird from NSW also urging more be done to assist those fleeing persecution. 
Mr Abbott said any increase in refugees from the Middle East would come under existing quotas that are fixed at 13,750 this year and next year, before increasing to 18,770 by 2019…
The government accepted 4400 Syrians and Iraqis in the 2014-15 financial year, and has so far pledged to accept 4500 Syrians over the next three years…
Bill Shorten welcomed Mr ­Abbott’s “belated recognition” that the country had a role to play in the unfolding crisis, but said the government should do more.
“Labor’s policy is to increase Australia’s refugee intake to 27,000 — I want to ensure this includes more refugees from Syria,” the Opposition Leader said… Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the rest of the world had been “urgently acting” to help refugees in need while Mr Abbott had made Australia “an international pariah” in its approach to asylum-seeker policy. 
An “international pariah”? But a comparison shows a very different reality - that Australia is taking in more than many other countries think wise.
New Zealand, with a fifth of our population:
New Zealand will take in hundreds of Syrian refugees in response to the growing refugee crisis in Europe, the Prime Minister has confirmed today. John Key said the number of refugees would be in the hundreds and they would arrive in the country in three intakes over a two to three year period. 
“It’s in the hundreds not the thousands. We are taking over and above the 750 refugees we take annually,” he told TVNZ’s Breakfast.
Just 750 refugees a year? Compared to our own 13,750? Compared with Labor’s promised 27,000?
Britain, with three times our population:
David Cameron today promised to welcome ‘thousands’ of Syrians living in UN refugee camps… 
The United Nations suggested the UK will take 4,000 more refugees from Syria, but Downing Street insisted no decision on numbers had been made…
Since early 2011 the UK has granted asylum to almost 5,000 Syrians who have managed to reach Britain themselves…
Under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme, refugees can apply to be resettled in the UK by being transferred from Syria.  A total of 216 people have been resettled under scheme so far… 
Just 216?
The Gulf states - some rich, all Muslim and all close to Syria:
As Amnesty International recently pointed out, the “six Gulf countries—Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain—have offeredzero resettlement places to Syrian refugees.” 
France, with three times our population:
France, which has agreed to take 26,000 [Syrians]…
Russia and Japan:
Other high income countries including Russia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea have also offered zero resettlement places.
Germany, with more than three times Australia’s population, and tens of thousands of Syrians already crossing its borders as a fait accompli:
Germany has pledged 35,000 places for Syrian refugees through its humanitarian admission programme and individual sponsorship; about 75 % of the EU total.
UPDATE
Beware also the lies. No, Aylan Kurdi, the three year old who tragically drowned, was not fleeing danger. And, no, many of those people you see marching through Europe are not Syrians fleeing war, either:

A Pakistani identity card in the bushes, a Bangladeshi one in a cornfield. A torn Iraqi driver’s license bearing the photo of a man with a Saddam-style mustache, another one with a scarfed woman displaying a shy smile. 
Documents scattered only meters from Serbia’s border with Hungary provide evidence that many of the migrants flooding Europe to escape war or poverty are scrapping their true nationalities and likely assuming new ones, just as they enter the European Union. Many of those travelers believe that using a fake document — or having none at all — gives them a better of chance of receiving asylum in Germany and other western European states. That’s because the surest route to asylum is to be a refugee from war and not an economic migrant fleeing poverty. That fact has led to a huge influx of people claiming to be Syrian.
UPDATE
Not a solution. I can’t see future governments forcibly removing Syrians from our suburbs and loading them onto planes back home:
Australia could temporarily house thousands of Syrians fleeing the civil war like it did for the Kosovars in 1999 but the refugees would not be allowed to apply for permanent asylum, an influential minister has suggested. 
Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg raised the idea on Monday… In 1999, 4000 Kosovars were airlifted to Australia and housed in disused military barracks. Some 3500 returned home but 500 wanted to stay, triggering years of legal battles between asylum seekers and the federal government.
That legal action cost plenty. And there was more reason to return to Kosovo than there would be to Syria.

UPDATE
A question to Frydenberg and Labor’s Michael Danby and Mark Dreyfus. Should Israel, with one third of our population, also accept a proportional number of Syrian refugees? If no, given its understandable security concerns, please explain why you make a different calculation for Australia.
(Thanks to reader realist.) 
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This is the big issue that can help define and save the Abbott Government

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (7:33am)

The Abbott Government has to make this a fight to the death - the issue that defines the contest:
More Australians back the China trade deal than oppose it, with ­Coalition voters strongly in favour and Labor voters split on the issue. A Newspoll, taken at the weekend exclusively for The Australian, reveals 43 per cent of voters are in favour of the China free-trade deal while 35 per cent oppose it… 
[T]he poll of 1655 people found that among Labor voters, 42 per cent opposed the deal and 35 per cent were in favour. 
Troy Bramston:
Labor’s ... economic credibility is at stake. It is giving voice to economic nationalism. It is seen to be supporting the retrograde union campaign against ChAFTA. And the party is at risk of trashing its legacy on free trade and forging the modern Australia-China ­relationship. 
When I sat down with Bob Hawke a fortnight ago, he didn’t hesitate to give me his view on ChAFTA. “I am all in favour of it,” he said. “The party must not go backwards on this issue — the party and the trade union movement. Talk of opposing it is just ­absolutely against Australia’s best interests.”
These concerns have been ­echoed to varying degrees by Labor premiers Daniel Andrews, Jay Weatherill, Annastacia Palaszczuk and ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Tasmanian Labor leader Bryan Green supports ChAFTA. So do Labor elders Bob Carr, John Brumby, Simon Crean and Martin Ferguson… But the problem for Labor is the ferocious anti-ChAFTA campaign being run by the unions, particularly the CFMEU, who strongly back Shorten’s leadership. The ACTU is telling MPs to kill ChAFTA.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Not drowning. Not battered by more cyclones. Not our fault

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (6:45am)

Global warming activists in Oxfam and Fairfax newspapers re completely impervious to scientific evidence.
Take this report by Michael Gordon in The Age:

Tony Abbott faces a cool reception when he flies to Port Moresby this week from Pacific Island leaders who say global inaction on climate change threatens their existence. 
The Prime Minister stands accused of largely ignoring the calls for more ambitious emissions reduction targets and stronger support for islands facing extreme weather events and rising sea levels…
The case for stronger action by Australia and New Zealand is pressed in report called A Question of Survival prepared for the meeting of Pacific Island Forum Leaders by Oxfam Australia… The report accuses the two governments of failing to respond to the “wake-up call” of Cyclone Pam’s devastation of Vanuatu six months ago and catastrophic flooding in Kiribati and Tuvalu earlier this year.
First: whatever Australia does to its emissions will actually make no practical difference to global warming.
Second: satellite data shows the atmospheric temperature has in fact not risen by any significant amount for 18 years now.
Third: Even the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change accepts there have actually been fewer cyclones and not stronger ones over the past century, which suggests Cyclone Pam is unrelated at all to global warming.
Fourth: 80 per cent of coral reef islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans have grown in size or stayed stable. Tuvalu’s main atoll has gained 32 hectares in the past 115 years. Parts of Kiribati have also grown, and it’s flooding had more to do with inappropriate development and Cyclone Pam, not global warming.
In short, this story’s claims about rising seas and worse cyclones devastating Pacific islands which Australia could save from runaway global warming are false in every respect.
But journalists can write this stuff with a clear conscience because the worst they can be accused of is an excess of virtue. 
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Who makes armed guards necessary here?

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (6:20am)

What role has our immigration intake played in this decision?:
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.
Some newspapers now have armed guards, too. We have made ourselves less safe. 
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Poll: Trump leads Clinton

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (6:03am)

This now becomes serious:
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump leads Democrat Hillary Clinton head-to-head, according to a new poll released Friday.

The poll by SurveyUSA finds that matched up directly, Trump garners 45 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent.
In other head-to-head matchups, Trump beats out Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) by 44 percent to 40 percent; Vice President Joe Biden by 44 percent to 42 percent; and former Vice President Al Gore by 44 percent to 41 percent. 
UPDATE
Another poll spells huge trouble for Clinton. John Hinderaker:
In the latest NBC/Marist poll, Bernie Sanders has jumped out to a nine-point lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, 41-32. Sanders’ rise reflects Hillary’s email server troubles, to be sure, but more fundamentally–I am repeating myself here–the fact that she is an awful candidate. 
Slow Joe Biden, who is not in the race, is third at 16%. The other relatively mainstream candidates, Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb, can’t get above 1%. So the Democrats are in deep trouble. Maybe they are determined to find out how many socialist voters there are in the U.S. My prediction: not enough.
Paul Mirengoff:
Hillary Clinton’s statement to Andrea Mitchell that she’s “sorry that [the issue of her private email system] has been confusing to people” ... belongs ...  in the non-apology apology Hall of Fame. It also belongs, I think, in the Halls of Fame for hypocrisy and wishful thinking. 
The problem for Hillary is that the email scandal is simple, not confusing. It’s easy for people to understand that folks don’t set up a private email server, in contradiction, of company policy, unless (1) they want to hide stuff and (2) they see themselves as above the rules ordinary folk must follow.
It’s easy for people to understand that folks don’t wipe a server clean (a concept that only Hillary and her team seems unable to comprehend), unless they are trying very hard to hide stuff.
It’s easy to see that if you say you didn’t send or receive classified information but it turns out that you did, you have been dishonest. It’s easy to see that if information on your private, home brew, unsecured server turns out to be “top secret,” you may well have jeopardized the national security.
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“Old story”. But is it false? And who leaked?

Andrew Bolt September 07 2015 (5:27am)

No, says Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
News Corp Sundays, yesterday: 

Tony Abbott’s claim that “not a single person” had ever raised with him the idea of removing Joe Hockey as Treasurer has been torpedoed. It has been confirmed that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop discussed the option with him before Christmas.
Emphatically denied. Julie Bishop, Sunrise, Channel 7, also yesterday:
I think this was an old story that was put out some time ago so it’s just rehashing an old story.
Well, it’s actually just a kind-of no. 
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Well done, Tony, but what about the next two years?

Piers Akerman – Sunday, September 07, 2014 (6:44am)

HAPPY anniversary, Prime Minister Abbott, now what about the future?
Over the past week commentators, me included, have looked at the performance of the Abbott government over the last twelve months.
None of the regular contributors to the ABC and Fairfax media admitted they could not have been further off the money if they tried, and believe me, they were trying.
They were trying, in their forecasts of the Abbott government’s performance, to be as negative as they could be and they were uniformly wrong.
On stopping the boats, ending the carbon tax, ending the mining tax, cutting red tape, eliminating useless Labor legislation – they were so far off the mark they might well as been on another planet.
It’s been a year of dogged persistence for the government, traits that have long been evident in Tony Abbott.
But the future, importantly, the remaining two years of the government’s term, are absolutely critical.
In headline terms, Scott Morrison’s work in stopping the boats was the stand-out achievement and it was one policy which the Left, from the Greens to the Labor Party, to their media cheer squad, simply said was unattainable.
There are not enough eggs in the nation to coat the faces of those who prosecuted that view.
Not only were the boats stopped but the billions being spent to cater for those who rushed to benefit from Labor’s open border policy were dramatically cut.
Billions have been saved, as well as untold numbers of lives.
Voters are still to see count the dividends from ending the carbon tax, but they will.
The end of the mining tax is more problematical on several fronts and the government’s handling of this issue and its deal with the erratic Palmer United Party in the senate to get the tax repealed should set alarm bells ringing.
Since 2007, this column regularly noted the failure of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government and then the pathetic weaknesses of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s minority Labor-Green-Independent regime.
The claims that Rudd was some sort of enlightened genius made by the usual suspects were totally false.
He was – as cadres of his former colleagues have rushed to concede – an obsessive with no talent for policy or administration.
He became prime minister, as Paul Kelly stressed in his excellent book, Triumph and Demise, because of Julia Gillard’s factional support. Together they were able to do what neither could have done without the other – win government.
Without Gillard, Rudd was exposed, without Rudd, Gillard hard to rely on the Greens and Independents to govern.
The challenge for Abbott now is to govern without becoming as reliant on the unreliable Clive Palmer and his bizarre coterie of senators as Gillard became on the Greens, and Independents Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie.
Populist Palmer is putting one over on his supporters with his more-Aussie-than-Vegemite patter.
His folksy humbug should have warning signs all over it. His call for support for failing businesses (whose would they be?) is sheer protectionism.
The economy needs growth and the nation needs to lift its productivity but bailing out second-rate managements with taxpayers money is just not on.
Palmer has also led the hue and cry – and been given a megaphone by the ABC - over the nominal $7 co-payment charge for visits to GPs.
These are stunts. The same sort of stunts beloved of the Greens and Oakeshott, Windsor and Wilkie. The sort of stunts Gillard signed up to.
The Abbott government must weigh up the value of any trade-off with Palmer, the evidence of his erraticism and lack of policy foresight is overwhelming.
It must also weigh up the value of symbolic gestures such as the mooted acknowledgment of Aboriginals in some statement either included or attached to the Constitution.
What is the upside and what is the downside of this stunt and who will it genuinely benefit, if anyone?
Finally, Opposition leader Bill Shorten should use the current break to assess his political strategy. His noisy antagonism to all of the government’s domestic policy is not a vote winner.
Mandatory superannuation, introduced by Labor, will not prevent 80 per cent of retirees from receiving full or part age pensions by 2050.
The super benefits Shorten claims workers will be losing will be going straight into workers’ pockets, and they will be able decide whether they wish to contribute to their super fund or pay off their mortgages more rapidly, or save for something they need now.
Labor doesn’t like the idea of less money flowing into super because super funds have given too many union bosses comfortable, profitable and powerful board positions.
The errors of the Labor years have been well explored -Abbott must not go where Rudd and Gillard went. 
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Why the Libs are Ruddy marvellous

Miranda Devine – Sunday, September 07, 2014 (1:34pm)

ONE year ago yesterday, Kevin Rudd was prime minister, talking insanely to a stuffed toy in his last video message. 

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Why the Libs are Ruddy marvellous'
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POLISHED PORT

Tim Blair – Sunday, September 07, 2014 (4:35pm)

Does anyone know the biggest losing margin in an AFL final? Asking for a friend.
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PEPPA SPRAYED

Tim Blair – Sunday, September 07, 2014 (4:33pm)

The Daily Mirror reports: 
A British Muslim has launched a campaign to ban Peppa Pig after claiming the cartoon inspired his young son to want to be a pig rather than a doctor.
But Zayn Sheikh has come in for criticism after announcing that he wants the much-loved animal character to be completely axed from television …
“I think that we need to change this so I’m going to set up a Facebook group, Muslims against Peppa Pig and instead, because children still need cartoons to develop their minds, I propose we introduce Abdullah the cat.” 
All is not as it seems. The anti-Peppa campaign is a prank.
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BITING WASN’T A GREAT IDEA

Tim Blair – Sunday, September 07, 2014 (1:28pm)

An allegedly armed shoplifter resists arrest in Canada (language warning):

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It will “rock the Abbott Government”. This stuff?

Andrew Bolt September 07 2014 (5:56am)

Is this really the best 60 Minutes has got?:
QUEENSLAND Liberal MP Mal Brough was the mysterious “Jackie’’ who organised a lawyer for former Speaker Peter Slipper’s staffer weeks before he lodged the sexual harassment case that threatened to bring down the Gillard government. 
James Ashby makes the allegations in a tell-all interview tonight on 60 Minutes which is billed as containing allegations of a “secret plot that will rock the Abbott Government”....
Mr Ashby confirms that Mr Brough is the mystery female called Jackie he referred to in text messages with another staffer, Karen Doane.
In the text messages, Mr Ashby says that “Jackie’’ was an influential figure who helped organise a lawyer for him and could help the pair get new jobs…
Mr Brough has previously admitted bringing LNP supporter David Russell QC, to a meeting with Mr Ashby, who advised him he “might have a case for sexual harassment’’ against Mr Slipper.
Mr Brough, who was interviewed for the program, said he had no idea he was “Jackie’’ in the text messages… “The only lawyer I organised was David (Russell QC) who met him once,’’ Mr Brough said. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Do Liberals really not have the heart to confront green carpetbaggers?

Andrew Bolt September 07 2014 (5:28am)

Too many federal Liberals may have the disease that’s killing the Victorian ones - an absence of conviction.
The facts are these: the renewable energy target makes no difference to global warming and just hikes up power prices, hurting the poor and costing jobs. Yet:
Confidence is growing that a workable deal could be salvaged on Australia’s renewable energy target with suggestions the Abbott government will give ground amid a backlash from industry and backbench MPs. 
After intense lobbying in Canberra last week members of the renewable energy industry left the nation’s capital buoyed that the government’s attack on clean energy appeared to be in retreat.
They found a Coalition backbench increasingly agitated about the fallout of ending support for renewables and fears too harsh a stance could create another unnecessary distraction like the now-abandoned reforms to section 18C of the racial discrimination act.
The negative response to the Warburton review of the target, released last month, was also viewed as having hurt the cause of those looking to axe the scheme.

That review – headed by businessman and climate change sceptic Dick Warburton – recommended Australia’s target to have at least 20 per cent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2020 be either closed to new projects or scaled back dramatically on the basis of yearly reviews. But those options have been largely dismissed as unattractive, even within government.
I understood why the Government dropped 18c. I knew it was doomed. But I could not possibly understand why a case so simple as this could not be made and won.
Provided, of course, the MPs making it were rational.
Even Palmer United Senator Jacqui Lambie in her maiden speech made a powerful case against the renewable energy target, whether she realised it or not:
The Greens, most Labor members and even some Liberals have tried to convince Australians that they can stop world climate change by paying more for their clean electricity and power. This lie has caused massive damage to our economy, businesses, manufacturing and primary industries. Right now our electricity and energy costs are some of the most expensive in the Western world. Australian businesses pay up to three times more for their electricity and power than their competitors in America, Canada, the UK and Europe. Is it any wonder that tens of thousands of Tasmanian and Australian workers have lost their jobs, while manufacturing businesses close down and our workers’ jobs are exported overseas?… 
In a deregulated world and free-trade economic environment, if we are to create national wealth, generate more high-tech jobs and protect Australian workers’ wages then the only solution is for our governments to deliver the cheapest electricity and power in the world to our pensioners, families, industry and entrepreneurs. We must do this.
Lambie is absolutely right. 
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The Bolt Report today, September 7

Andrew Bolt September 07 2014 (5:25am)

On Channel 10 on Sunday at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial:  Abbott’s first year.
My guest:  Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.
The panel:  Michael Kroger and Bruce Hawker.
NewsWatch:  The Spectator Australia editor, Rowan Dean.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
THE BOLT REPORT
07 SEPTEMBER 2014
INTERVIEW WITH MATHIAS CORMANN
ANDREW BOLT, PRESENTER: The Abbott Government had a huge win in
the Senate this week, when Clive Palmer agreed to back the scrapping of the
mining tax, and cut spending by $10 billion. The Government did have to
compromise, it had to give up $6 billion of other cuts, and it delayed planned
increases to the compulsory superannuation levy by six years. Labor attacked:
BILL SHORTEN, OPPOSITION LEADER: Raiding the hard-earned retirement
incomes of working Australians, to pay for his broken promises.
ANDREW BOLT: Joining me is Finance Minister Mathias Cormann. Thanks
for your time.
MATHIAS CORMANN, FINANCE MINISTER: Good to be here.
ANDREW BOLT: One year ago today, your party won government. You said
we had a debt crisis, rising to $668 billion a decade from now. How much lower
will that debt be, now, after this week’s deal with Clive Palmer? Are we still in a
crisis?
MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, we did inherit a debt and deficit disaster from
the Labor Party, and we were on an unsustainable spending growth trajectory
which was taking us to $667 billion of government debt within a decade, and
growing beyond that. Consistent with the projections in our budget, we are
working to reduce that to $389 billion of debt within the decade, and falling. So,
obviously, we are very much working to repair the budget mess that we have
inherited from the Labor Party.
ANDREW BOLT: But is the crisis over now, with the cuts you got through? Is
that it?
MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, we inherited a budget emergency from our
predecessors, and we’re working in an orderly, methodical fashion to fix it.
Now -
ANDREW BOLT: You didn’t say the word, ‘crisis’, though.
MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, you can call it whatever you want. We inherited
a debt and deficit disaster from the Labor Party, we inherited a budget crisis
from the Labor Party, we inherited a budget emergency from the Labor Party.
The point is, that we’re dealing with it, we are responding to it in an orderly
and methodical fashion, not in the chaotic and dysfunctional way that the Labor
Party, in government, would have dealt with it. And that is, this is obviously a
work in progress. If you are asking me, is the job done? No, the job is not done.
We’re still working to implement the measures that we delivered in our budget,
in a sequential and prioritised way, taking them one by one through the Senate.
ANDREW BOLT: The national accounts, this week, show the average income
per Australian has fallen over the past year. How much longer will we keep
getting poorer? Will we start getting richer before the election, or not?
MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, we are working to build a stronger, more
prosperous economy, so that everyone can get ahead. But you’ve got to
remember, in September last year, we inherited an economy growing below
trend, rising unemployment, low consumer confidence, business investment,
which had plateaued, and, of course, a budget in very bad shape. Now, over the
last 12 months, we’ve worked very hard to turn that around, being fought by the
Labor Party and the Greens every step of the way, by the way. And of course,
until 30 June, Labor and the Greens had control of the Senate. Now, I mean, if
you look at what we have been able to achieve over the last 12 months, we said
we would scrap the carbon tax, the carbon tax is gone. We said we’d scrap the
mining tax, the mining tax gone. We are working to repair the budget, we have
stopped the boats, and we are, of course, rolling out of $50 billion infrastructure
package, all part of our plan to build a stronger, more prosperous economy.
ANDREW BOLT: Clive Palmer, this week, agreed to scrap the mining tax, if
you set up a committee to investigate creating a government fund to bail out
businesses in strife. Businesses, perhaps, like his own. How could you possibly
agree to this slush puppy fund?
Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today, September 7'
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Abbott - and a failure to warm - incites scepticism in the US

Andrew Bolt September 07 2014 (5:15am)

Tony Abbott is giving climate sceptics around the world the courage to point out the emperor has no clothes.
From the Pittsburgh Tribune’s editorial:
The world’s loudest climate-clucking Chicken Littles foresee grain harvests diminishing, Greenland’s ice sheet melting, sea levels rising and extreme weather increasing. And there’s less time than ever to head off disaster by submitting to IPCC orthodoxy. 
But even the loudest clucking can’t drown out contrary facts. U.S. temperatures haven’t risen in a decade. Global temperatures have been flat for 17 years. Prior warming was within natural variability. The IPCC’s main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, isn’t a pollutant. And humanity’s climate impact is negligible, so top-down “solutions” are pointless and economically harmful, as shown by Australia repealing its carbon tax in favor of voluntary clean-energy incentives.
Meanwhile, British science author and politician Matt Ridley on the curious failure of the world to warm:
Last September, between the second and final draft of its fifth assessment report, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change quietly downgraded the warming it expected in the 30 years following 1995, to about 0.5 degrees Celsius from 0.7 (or, in Fahrenheit, to about 0.9 degrees, from 1.3). 
Even that is likely to be too high. The climate-research establishment has finally admitted openly what skeptic scientists have been saying for nearly a decade: Global warming has stopped since shortly before this century began…
When the climate scientist and geologist Bob Carter of James Cook University in Australia wrote an article in 2006 saying that there had been no global warming since 1998 according to the most widely used measure of average global air temperatures, there was an outcry. A year later, when David Whitehouse of the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London made the same point, the environmentalist and journalist Mark Lynas said in the New Statesman that Mr. Whitehouse was “wrong, completely wrong,” and was “deliberately, or otherwise, misleading the public.”
We know now that it was Mr. Lynas who was wrong. Two years before Mr. Whitehouse’s article, climate scientists were already admitting in emails among themselves that there had been no warming since the late 1990s. “The scientific community would come down on me in no uncertain terms if I said the world had cooled from 1998,” wrote Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia in Britain in 2005. He went on: “Okay it has but it is only seven years of data and it isn’t statistically significant.”
If the pause lasted 15 years, they conceded, then it would be so significant that it would invalidate the climate-change models upon which policy was being built. A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) written in 2008 made this clear: “The simulations rule out (at the 95% level) zero trends for intervals of 15 yr or more.”
Well, the pause has now lasted for 16, 19 or 26 years—depending on whether you choose the surface temperature record or one of two satellite records of the lower atmosphere… It has been roughly two decades since there was a trend in temperature significantly different from zero…
This has taken me by surprise. I was among those who thought the pause was a blip. As a “lukewarmer,” I’ve long thought that man-made carbon-dioxide emissions will raise global temperatures, but that this effect will not be amplified much by feedbacks from extra water vapor and clouds, so the world will probably be only a bit more than one degree Celsius warmer in 2100 than today. By contrast, the assumption built into the average climate model is that water-vapor feedback will treble the effect of carbon dioxide. But now I worry that I am exaggerating, rather than underplaying, the likely warming.
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John Kerry appeals to Muslims: the common enemy is global warming

Andrew Bolt September 07 2014 (5:02am)

 Should the Islamic State be slaughtering climate sceptics instead? US Secretary of State John Kerry warns they share a common enemy:
Our faiths are inextricably linked on any number of things that we must confront and deal with in policy concepts today. Our faiths are inextricably linked on the environment. For many of us, respect for God’s creation also translates into a duty to protect and sustain his first creation, Earth, the planet… 
Confronting climate change is, in the long run, one of the greatest challenges that we face, and you can see this duty or responsibility laid out in Scriptures clearly, beginning in Genesis. And Muslim-majority countries are among the most vulnerable. Our response to this challenge ought to be rooted in a sense of stewardship of Earth, and for me and for many of us here today, that responsibility comes from God.
(Via Watts Up with That.) 
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Quick question: How come Obama and his crew have so much intelligence as to know for certain what happened in Syria but they still have no clue what happened in Benghazi?
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A Swedish reporter asked Obama what it's like to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner that's trying to attack Syria.

See how he responded at the link below...

It’s not been an easy in Stockholm for Obama. First, he denied that he had drawn a red line on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, insisting it was “the world” and “Congress” who had drawn the red line.
So, when a Swedish reporter asked our president how he could reconcile being a Nobel Peace Prize winner with a guy who was doing his best to order a cruise missile strike on Syria, a weary-looking Obama mostly mailed in his response – beginning by stating the obvious:
“I think I started the speech by saying that compared to previous recipients I was certainly unworthy.”
[Most of the world seen feverishly nodding in approval.]
Obama went on to give a predictable answer; peaceful people living in a dangerous world, how he ended the war in Iraq and is winding down the war in Afghanistan, the need to promote diplomacy to solve the world’s problems, yada yada.
The thing most striking about his response, was that Obama looks like a guy who is clearly out of gas. A guy who would rather be anywhere in the world than standing at that podium answering that question.
A guy who frankly, is looking more and more like he’d rather spend the rest of his days on the golf course and leave this all behind.
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Covering an area as large as London and considered one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's most brutal prison camps, a site designated as Camp No 22 saw a drastic reduction in its population prior to its closing last year - investigators fear as many as 22,000 inmates may have been left to die from disease and/or starvation.

The details are contained in a new report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK). The group is now demanding a deeper inquiry.
At Camp No. 22, in North Hamyong Province, in the far north-east of the country, the prison population shrank dramatically in the months before its closure, probably in December 2012. Reports suggest that a severe food shortage meant that little was passed on to inmates and that numbers dwindled rapidly from 30,000 to 3,000.
Investigators believe it's possible that up to 8,000 prisoners were transferred to other camps; however, there's no evidence suggesting that any of the inmates were released. Numbers gleaned from multiple methods and sources leave approximately 22,000 individuals un-accounted for and feared dead from what's considered to be one of the world's harshest prison regimes.

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Zaya Toma

After three years of hand-to-hand election campaigning combat, the effort of Liberals everywhere comes down to the election tomorrow. I wish our local candidates Andrew Nguyen, Liberal for Fowler and Ray King - Liberal for McMahon the very best of luck.
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WARNING: This is an absolutely sickening video no child should see. We share it because it is important. THIS is what is happening in Syria! If you think congress should HAVE to watch this before they get us involved in Syria, please click LIKE and SHARE. Facebook will show it to more people if you click LIKE and SHARE. Call congress in the morning: 202-224-3121 ... we have no business in Syria and no business helping evil like this! 

http://bit.ly/17cwsCq
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A number of Sen. John McCain’s constituents are not happy with the Arizona Republican’s support of President Barack Obama’s plan to take military action against Syria. Voters made that much perfectly clear when they confronted him at a town hall in Phoenix on Thursday.
“We didn’t send you to make war for us. We sent you to stop the war,” one man said to applause,CNN reports.
Another man told McCain Congress is ignoring its duty to represent voters.
“This is what I think of Congress,” he said, holding a bag of marshmallows in his hand. “They are a bunch of marshmallows. That’s what they are. That’s what they’ve become. Why are you not listening to the people and staying out of Syria? It’s not our fight.”
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IT'S the age old question: when you're standing at a pedestrian crossing, fitfully smashing the button with your palm, does it actually make a difference?
Don't feel ashamed for feeling paranoid. There are plenty of "placebo buttons" scattered all around New York City.
And the UK's pedestrian crossing buttons work in some places but not in others.
But what about us?
Fear not Australia, news.com.au has the answer.
According to almost all various roads and transportation authorities of all seven states, pressing the pedestrian crossing button actually does make a difference.
Brendan Joyce, senior project manager for traffic in the department of Infrastructure in the Northern Territory, told news.com.au that when a person pushes a pedestrian call button, a demand gets logged in the traffic signal controller.
"This demand calls for a vehicle or pedestrian movement (called a phase) where the demanded pedestrian can go," he said.
"The traffic signal controller is programmed to turn any vehicle movements to red that oppose the pedestrian movement (fully protected pedestrian movement) or if the vehicle signal groups runs in parallel to the pedestrian movement, it may be left in green."
And no, there are no placebo buttons in Australia. So stop being paranoid.
Also pushing the button more than once will make absolutely no difference, so stop doing it.
In Perth the buttons are automatically "pre-pressed" during peak hours in order to register for pedestrian need during high traffic times.
"However, the buttons will return to normal operations outside of the peak periods," said public affairs co-ordinator, Stephanie Dahl.
News.com.au was reassured by roads and transport authorities in NSW, The Northern Territory, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland that the pedestrian button is very much a real, working thing that affects the flow of traffic and pedestrians across busy streets.
The only state authorities that did not reply to our queries was South Australia and Tasmanians so apologies for inadvertent paranoia we may have caused to the good people of South Australia and our brothers and sisters across the ditch.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/does-pushing-the-crossing-button-do-anything/story-fn5fsgyc-1226713968493#ixzz2eCTLT1rn
How about constituents approaching an ALP member or help? Placebo button? - ed
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AUSTRALIA has shown its irrelevance on world affairs with Foreign Minister Bob Carr failing to hold a closing press conference on the outcomes of the G20 leaders forum.
In a stunning decision, Senator Carr snubbed usual protocols of wrapping up the summit with a press conference discussing decisions made or not made at the annual forum this year on such critical questions as Syria.
This is despite the fact Australia currently has the presidential chair of the UN Security Council and is next year to be the host leader of the G20 summit, a position that would normally prompt a baton-passing statement.
French, Russian and American media were left surprised when most other leaders held a press conference except Australia whose showing at the forum has been marginal, despite it holding key positions on the world stage.
Even Australian diplomatic officials were left red-faced when foreign media turned up for a planned press conference and Senator Carr never showed up for.
Australia’s official delegation offices – tucked between the offices of African minnows Ethiopia and Senegal as well as Turkey, Brunei and the delegates toilet block – were closed up and lights off even before the conference closed for the night.
"And apparently Australia is supposed to be hosting next year’s summit of the world’s leading economies?" one American journalist quipped in between attending other leader’s public appearances. He said he just hoped delegates’ gift bags were good enough to encourage them to travel Down Under to Brisbane next year.
The latest snub comes after World Vision Australia boss Tim Costello who was attending the summit said foreign delegates had been left disappointed by the fact Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had failed to attend the forum, leaving Australia one of only two nations not to send a leader to Russia for critical talks on conflict in the Middle East, the other being Saudi Arabia whose ailing king was unfit for travel.
The fact Senator Carr was unlikely to be about after this weekend’s federal election was not lost on many who had attended the G20.
Whatever policy initiative he wanted to launch or position taken on vexed issues such as Syria were potentially to be irrelevant come next week.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/bob-carr-snubs-stunned-g20-media-pack/story-fndir2ev-1226713884340#ixzz2eCU7PWqY
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This is why aliens don't visit us. ROTFL - ed
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After two decades of life in Germany, an American Jew reflects on the Berlin Jewish Museum's controversial "Jew in the Box" exhibition and her experiences in a country that still has a dearth of Jews, even decades after the war.
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Labor's campaign was marred by an embarrassing bungle over Coalition costings and won't be remembered well, former prime minister Bob Hawke has said.
Speaking on Sky News on the eve of the election, Mr Hawke said objective observers would agree Labor is poised to lose the election, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd "might have had a different story" if he'd better planned his campaign.
"I don't think it'll go down as a great campaign," Mr Hawke – who led Australia from 1983-1991 – said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/bob-hawke-regrets-labor-didnt-go-to-polls-sooner-20130906-2tacm.html#ixzz2eCQtybCy
.. I begged them to go .. they didn't listen to me, either ed
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12,000 Christians slaughtered by Muslims in Nigeria. But would Obama intervene and stop aiding and abetting the jihadists? Not when it's Christians. He won't even designate the genocidal Boko Haram a terrorist group.
Armed Muslims in Nigeria Kill Christians in their Homes Morning Star News, September 6, 2013
ADU, Nigeria, September 6, 2013 – Gabriel Anthony, 25, was steeped in quiet, prayerful devotion at 5 a.m. on Sunday (Sept. 1) in this northern Nigerian village when he heard gunshots.

“Within minutes, bullets were piercing into our rooms,” Anthony told Morning Star News. “I escaped from my room by jumping through the window.”

A half hour later, seven of his relatives in Adu village, Kaduna state, were dead, including his father, 60-year-old Anthony Nkom; his mother, 45-year-old Asabe Anthony; his brother, 35-year-old James Anthony; and another brother, 37-year-old Andrew Anthony. Also killed were three of his nephews – 5-year-old Meshack Aaron, 12-year-old Bulus James Anthony, and 15-year-old Happiness Anthony.

The bodies of Happiness and Meshack were buried in one grave, and those of the other five in another.

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Allen West

Just watched President Obama's press conference, post G-20 summit, and am even more concerned. When you study history and understand the series of uncontrollable events that began WW I, we find ourselves not too far from that position now. It's not just about taking military action against Assad (which in the press conference Obama seemed reticent about), it is about the unintended consequences. President Putin has vowed to continue arms shipments and support, and Iran is issuing orders to its Islamic terrorist dogs for release. The window of opportunity for a quick' decisive response against Assad has closed. We cannot afford to destabilize another Middle Eastern country in favor of Islamists and establish terrorist sanctuaries. My recommendation? Instead of President Obama delivering a weak' politically-scripted speech on Tuesday, read "The Guns of August" and learn something about leadership and strategic policymaking.
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ST. PETERSBURG (The Borowitz Report)—Hopes for a positive G20 summit crumbled today as President Obama blurted to Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a joint press appearance, “Everyone here thinks you’re a jackass.”
The press corps appeared stunned by the uncharacteristic outburst from Mr. Obama, who then unleashed a ten-minute tirade at the stone-faced Russian President.
“Look, I’m not just talking about Snowden and Syria,” Mr. Obama said. “What about Pussy Riot? What about your anti-gay laws? Total jackass moves, my friend.”
As Mr. Putin narrowed his eyes in frosty silence, Mr. Obama seemed to warm to his topic.
“If you think I’m the only one who feels this way, you’re kidding yourself,” Mr. Obama said, jabbing his finger in the direction of the Russian President’s face. “Ask Angela Merkel. Ask David Cameron. Ask the Turkish guy. Every last one of them thinks you’re a dick.”
Shortly after Mr. Obama’s volcanic performance, Mr. Putin released a terse official statement, reading, “I should be afraid of this skinny man? I wrestle bears.”
After one day of meetings, the G20 nations voted unanimously on a resolution that said maybe everyone should just go home.
That just shows how arrogant and unsuitable Obama is to be President ed
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1. It's Rupert Murdoch's fault
2. It's Rupert Murdoch's fault
3. It's Rupert Murdoch's fault
4. All of the above.>
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MILEY Cyrus, this one is on you.
A young woman has injured herself, catching on fire, in an awkward and embarrassing imitation of Miley's favourite dance move twerking.
Cyrus's infamous performance at the MTV Awards (the VMAs) is behind the proliferation of "twerking" in popular culture.
And loungerooms, apparently.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/when-twerking-goes-really-really-really-wrong-woman-catches-on-fire-making-video/story-e6frfmqi-1226714096356#ixzz2eCNgWlro
<Stupid dance done by stupid ppl. Reminds me of when baboons present themselves for mating.>
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu
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“Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."
Philippians 2:15

We use lights to make manifest. A Christian man should so shine in his life, that a person could not live with him a week without knowing the gospel. His conversation should be such that all who are about him should clearly perceive whose he is, and whom he serves; and should see the image of Jesus reflected in his daily actions. Lights are intended for guidance. We are to help those around us who are in the dark. We are to hold forth to them the Word of life. We are to point sinners to the Saviour, and the weary to a divine resting-place. Men sometimes read their Bibles, and fail to understand them; we should be ready, like Philip, to instruct the inquirer in the meaning of God's Word, the way of salvation, and the life of godliness. Lights are also used for warning. On our rocks and shoals a light-house is sure to be erected. Christian men should know that there are many false lights shown everywhere in the world, and therefore the right light is needed. The wreckers of Satan are always abroad, tempting the ungodly to sin under the name of pleasure; they hoist the wrong light, be it ours to put up the true light upon every dangerous rock, to point out every sin, and tell what it leads to, that so we may be clear of the blood of all men, shining as lights in the world. Lights also have a very cheering influence, and so have Christians. A Christian ought to be a comforter, with kind words on his lips, and sympathy in his heart; he should carry sunshine wherever he goes, and diffuse happiness around him.

Gracious Spirit dwell with me;

I myself would gracious be,
And with words that help and heal
Would thy life in mine reveal,
And with actions bold and meek
Would for Christ my Saviour speak.

Evening

"If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law."
Galatians 5:18
He who looks at his own character and position from a legal point of view, will not only despair when he comes to the end of his reckoning, but if he be a wise man he will despair at the beginning; for if we are to be judged on the footing of the law, there shall no flesh living be justified. How blessed to know that we dwell in the domains of grace and not of law! When thinking of my state before God the question is not, "Am I perfect in myself before the law?" but, "Am I perfect in Christ Jesus?" That is a very different matter. We need not enquire, "Am I without sin naturally?" but, "Have I been washed in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness?" It is not "Am I in myself well pleasing to God?" but it is "Am I accepted in the Beloved?" The Christian views his evidences from the top of Sinai, and grows alarmed concerning his salvation; it were better far if he read his title by the light of Calvary. "Why," saith he, "my faith has unbelief in it, it is not able to save me." Suppose he had considered the object of his faith instead of his faith, then he would have said, "There is no failure in him, and therefore I am safe." He sighs over his hope: "Ah! my hope is marred and dimmed by an anxious carefulness about present things; how can I be accepted?" Had he regarded the ground of his hope, he would have seen that the promise of God standeth sure, and that whatever our doubts may be, the oath and promise never fail. Ah! believer, it is safer always for you to be led of the Spirit into gospel liberty than to wear legal fetters. Judge yourself at what Christ is rather than at what you are. Satan will try to mar your peace by reminding you of your sinfulness and imperfections: you can only meet his accusations by faithfully adhering to the gospel and refusing to wear the yoke of bondage.
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Today's reading: Psalm 148-150, 1 Corinthians 15:29-58 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 148-150


1 Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.

5 Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever-
he issued a decree that will never pass away....

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 15:29-58

29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day-yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
"Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die."
33 Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God-I say this to your shame....
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Zacharias

[Zăcha rīas] - jehovah is renowned.
  1. The son of Barachias, or Jehoiada (2 Chron. 24:20-22). This Zacharias is the martyr mentioned by Christ (Matt. 23:35; Luke 11:51) who was the righteous man murdered by the Jews in the court of the Temple, between the sanctuary and the house.
  2. The father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-67; 3:2).

The Man Who Was Stricken Dumb


The priest of the eighth course of Abia was visited by the angel Gabriel as he was ministering in his turn in the Temple. The revelation came to him about the birth of a son in his old age, and of his name and mission. His disbelief of the divine message was punished by dumbness, an affliction which vanished when John was circumcised and named.

In obedience to Gabriel's command, the babe was named John, and upon his presentation to God, Zacharias, by the Spirit, composed his magnificent Benediction. After this he vanishes from Holy Writ.
3. The name suggested for John the Baptist by his friends (Luke 1:59).
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