Friday, April 13, 2018

Fri Apr 13th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. Yassmin Abdel-Magied has been deported from the US. The activist who is a qualified mechanical engineer had wanted to work in the US while entering on a visitor's VISA. It was a dumb stunt and she is getting what she wanted, notoriety. She is complaining that her detention was harsh. When one considers US security has to deal with ISIS and AL Qaeda, whom Yassmin has given tacit support, the fact she did not pay the ultimate price should be a blessing to her. Hamas treat people who enter illegally much worse. There is a terrible disease suffered by left wingers related to entitlement. In a tragic case, an incest father daughter couple had a child and couple issues which ended with the father killing the daughter/wife, child/grandchild and daughter's step father and then himself. Had nobody ever told him 'no' before? 

 A police officer is floored for getting ID from a driver on a Learner's permit who was speeding and not accompanied as their license mandates. The 16 yo also did not have ID. So the diligent officer photographed three tattoos on the sixteen year old. Now the spoiled brat is claiming her privacy was invaded by the identification. But if she'd been raped and murdered then police would have been more intrusive. It sounds like the cop behaved professionally. 

 A rumour is doing the rounds that FB is going to be paid only. That is not true. Zuckerberg told Congress he would always maintain a free FB option, but that option was sustained by adverts. He intended a premium option to not include adverts. I fault Zuckerberg on many things, but not on that. BTW, where do I sign to allow FB to share my data with conservatives? 

I am a decent man and don't care for the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.

Here is a video I made Evolution by Langdon Smith

Evolution by Langdon Smith is a poem that intertwined the love the author had for his wife. Epic in scale. This is my Valentines Day offering, to anonymous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langdon_smith
Becwil is the talented muso who made this piece possible.
http://conservativeweasel.blogspot.com/2008/02/evolution-by-langdon-smith.html
=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. It is good to see the US getting along with China. It is good to see trade is valued. It is good to see a fake news site, the Daily Mail, sued for over 3 million dollars following their malicious attack on Melania Trump. What form of misogyny was needed to call a successful model a prostitute? What had Melania done to warrant the attack? It isn't true, but even had it been true, why raise it? In Australia, left wing politicians have been protected by the press from the public finding out they frequent gay nightclubs. When the discovery was made, papers have said there was no compelling reason to share the news. This is not one instance or one individual. So what articles did Daily Mail present to balance their misogyny? Or is it the case that the fake news site was in fact also unbalanced? Why should they be licensed to print or produce news? 
=== from 2016 ===
Miranda Devine claiming she is missing out on invites because she can't write a balanced report on Mr Abbott is sad. Devine is not a trash journalist like Nikki Savva. But Devine's judgment is seriously skew on this one issue. And Devine is not suffering for her myopia. There are many friends in this world for people who diss  conservative leaders in favor of left wing hacks. Malcolm Turnbull is not a conservative leader. For example, Turnbull did not endorse the call to repeal the road safety tribunal that threatened the livelihoods of independent truckers. The senate got it through after independents pushed it through with conservative support, and ALP opposition. Turnbull finds siding with ALP natural. Something Devine seems to like. And Miranda, you did not return my emails or calls as I lost my home, my livelihood, and my life savings, forcing me to move inter state to find work. Could your cry be any more self serving? 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility. 
=== from 2015 ===
HR Clinton has announced she will run for the Presidency of the US. She is the doormat who hoodwinked the US to accept her husband after Gary Hart foundered. Now she announces this prospect on the anniversary of Democrats slaughtering Black people at the 1873 Colfax Massacre, and on the anniversary of the massacre of the Hadassah Medical convoy in 1948. A great way of remembering how Democrats take their constituents for granted. The Doormat is inoculating hostility by producing a logo which is awful. But don't criticise the logo and ignore the Doormat. The Doormat was fundamental to the failed Obama policy which has resurrected Islamic terror worldwide. She had despised the young democracies, and now has hostile civil wars for US peoples to face. She was the experience to Obama's youthful hope and change. She offers to the US the same deal ALP offers in Australia to the federal government. No policy. No vision. Insider trading and deals at the expense of constituents. While Obama was dancing with Beyonce during Benghazi, the Doormat was blaming a Coptic Christian for a video. 

One reason why the world contains suffering is the repeated lie of the past. Democrat is the party that exploits black people and minorities. But the repeated lie is that Democrat party is the one of choice for progressives. Yet if someone were to vote for a party representing prosperity they would vote GOP. Another repeated lie was present in a tv program from BBC four, entitled "Jerusalem, making of a holy city" by Simon Sebag Montefiore. It purports to tell a balanced story by leaving out salient points, it is propaganda that endorses terrorism. It makes as equal the democratic, international society of Israel which accepts Islamic peoples, and the xenophobic fascist dictatorship which murders people without trial. But it is from the BBC. 
From 2014
A young woman, when I was a young man, asked if I would sing a bit of Handel's Messiah to her. She thought that she would recognise it. I had to explain I did not know all the various parts. However, on this day in Dublin in 1742, the piece debuted in all its' glory. Today is also the birthday of noted Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair. I don't think it means anything special about the day, but it is ironic. The day has a dark history. Democrats slaughtered blacks after they had surrendered to them in Louisiana in 1873. It was a GOP and Dem battle, and the Dem won and took for granted those they do today. It is telling that Bob Carr made a comment in his recent book which has been seized on by the KKK leadership. Sadly the connection is not tenuous between bigots or left wing parties. 

Also on this day, a discovery made in Poland caused a rift between the Polish government in exile and the USSR when mass graves of Polish POWs were found. The USSR was not an effectively run government or benevolent. It was a murderous dictatorship which, even so, was adored by starry eyed Hollywood types and impressionable fools. There is such thing as evil. The evil woman who was wife of Mao in 1975 commissioned the Chinese government to catalog all Christian activity in China. She confidently and proudly proclaimed that there was none, outside of graveyard or museums. No Christian was alive in China. Today, there are well over a hundred million with millions more every year. The Chinese government have nominated Christians as the only religion they will allow into their public service. And the only reference to Mrs Mao is at her grave, or in museums.
Historical perspective on this day
In 1111, Henry V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1204, Constantinople fell to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire. 1598, Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. 1612, Miyamoto Musashi defeated Sasaki Kojirō at Funajima island. 1613, Samuel Argallcaptured Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father. She was brought to Henricus as hostage. 1699, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the Tenth Sikh Guru, Created Khalsa on this day at Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.

In 1742, George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah made its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland. 1777, American Revolutionary War: American forces were ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey. 1796, the first elephant ever seen in the United States arrived from India. 1829, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholicsin the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament. 1849, Hungary became a republic. 1861, American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrendered to Confederate forces. 1868, the Abyssinian War ended as British and Indian troops captured Maqdala. 1870, the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded. 1873, the Colfax massacre, in which more than 60 African Americans were murdered, took place.

In 1902, James C. Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. 1909, the Turkishmilitary reversed the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. 1919, the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Also 1919, Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops gunned down at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India; at least 1200 were wounded. Also 1919, Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, for speaking out against the draft during World War I.

In 1941, a Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan was signed. 1943, World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre was announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denied responsibility. Also 1943, the Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth. 1944, Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union were established. 1945, World War II: German troops killed more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany. Also 1945, World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces captured Vienna, Austria. 1948, the Hadassah medical convoy massacre: In an ambush, 79 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital and a British soldier were massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarra near Jerusalem. 1953, CIA director Allen Dulleslaunched the mind-control program Project MKULTRA. 1958, Cold War: American Van Cliburn won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. 1960, the United States launched Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system. 1964, at the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier became the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.

In 1970, an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 exploded, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon. 1972, the Universal Postal Union decided to recognise the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan. Also 1972, Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc began. 1974, Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launched the United States' first commercial geosynchronouscommunications satellite, Westar 1. 1975, Bus massacre in Lebanon: An attack by the Phalangist resistance killed 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War. 1976, the United States Treasury Department reintroduced the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration. 1984, India moved into Siachen Glacier thus annexing more territory from the Line of Control. 1987, Portugal and the People's Republic of China signed an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999. 1992, the Great Chicago flood devastated much of central Chicago. 1997, Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. 2014, a bus traveling from Villahermosa to Mexico City crashed into a tractor-trailer and caught fire, killing at least 36 people.
=== 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.
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January. 

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

January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.

List of available items at Create Space
Happy birthday and many happy returns Madan Paudel, Vince Tang, Ratko Ray Stojicic and Andy Tran. Born on the same day across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
Deaths
April 13: Vaisakhi (Sikhism); Thingyan begins in Burma; Lao New Year in Laos; Thai New Year's Day
George Frideric Handel
Could you have chosen a humbler name? It is good to give everyone a vote. British Indian Army could have a better name. We have schnitzel. To the fire pole. Let's party. 
===
Tim Blair 2018

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YASSMIN HITS THE WALL

UPDATED Globetrotting no-talent Yassmin Abdel-Magied claims she’s been booted out of the US after arriving for a speaking visit.
===

Confessions of a Conservative Pariah

Miranda Devine – Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (1:12am)

I AM a conservative pariah. 
I have been dis-invited to dinners and given the cold shoulder at conservative functions. Twitter followers once my most ardent fans abuse me as a “leftie”. I am accused of being either paid by or in “love” with Malcolm Turnbull.
 Continue reading 'Confessions of a Conservative Pariah'
===

CLIMATE BOAT AN ALLEGED METH BARGE

Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (6:42pm)

Wealthy envirodupes recently paid more than $7500 each so they could float around on a boat this September while listening to Tim Flannery talk about climate change: 
“As part of this adventure, you will join renowned scientist and former Australian of the Year, Professor Tim Flannery – the Climate Council’s Chief Councillor – on the adventure of a lifetime,” the Council promises.
“Over eight days you’ll sail the breathtaking Kimberley coast in the award-winning charter vessel, Kimberley Quest, on an expedition of archaeological discovery. Best of all, by taking part in this expedition, you’ll be stepping up to help provide Australians with a vital source of correct and informed information on climate change.”

The Kimberley Quest II, to give the ship its full name, is “equipped with a helipad, spa, [and] large en-suited cabins” that “feature private ensuites, individual air-conditioning, viewing windows, mini-refrigerators and are serviced daily by your hostess.”
This sucker’s carbon footprint must be sensational. All of those airconditioners, spas and fridges don’t run on wind chimes, so the Kimberley Quest II is fitted with no fewer than four diesel-burning engines – two massive 450 horsepower Caterpillar 3406Es for propulsion and a couple of smaller Cat generators to keep the champagne chilled as you discuss the terrible threat of global warming. 
In addition to champagne, a few other substances were also allegedly available onboard the Kimberley Quest II, whose skipper and part owner has now been charged with intending to sell drugs that were found on the vessel: 
Police raided the Kimberley Quest II as it was docked in Wyndham on Monday, and allege they seized 23 grams of methylamphetamine and five smoking implements from the cabin.
Part-owner Jeff Ralston, 55, who also acts as skipper of the luxury cruiser, has been charged with intent to sell or supply a prohibited drug.
He is due to appear before Broome Magistrates Court next week. 
Perhaps the Climate Council’s travel clients will seek refunds.
(Via J.F. Beck.)
===

SIMON, ACTUALLY

Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (2:45pm)

Apologies for not posting this earlier. Observe as Mark Steyn turns New York-based posh British leftist Simon Schama – whose preceding argument actually achieves an astonishing rate of one “actually” every 15 seconds, actually – into finely-minced pie filling:

===

ANOTHER 1400 YEARS SHOULD DO IT

Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (3:21am)

Asad Dhunna, a gay British Muslim, responds to news that 52 per cent of his nation’s fellow Muslims want homosexuality outlawed: 
It took the rest of Britain a sexual revolution, a lot of activism, art and cinema along with some major reform to get to where we are now on gay rights. While all of that was happening, British Muslims were spending their time integrating and finding a way to mix two cultures that stem from very different roots, all the while revolutionising British cuisine.
I’m hardly surprised that 52 per cent don’t think homosexuality should be legal. They simply haven’t had the time and space to evolve their thinking. 
===

VEGANS GO NUCLEAR

Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (2:31am)

“Workshop delight” might be slightly overselling it: 
Play with your food and & Friends of The Earth’s ACE Collective are combining our vegan and anti-nuke powers to bring you a special Play With Your Food // Nuclear In/Justice workshop delight.
ACE presents a new experiential workshop exploring the nuclear industry in a fun and participative way. Nuclear In/Justice takes participants on an experiential learning journey into the belly of the beast, exploring the nuclear industry from the mine to the waste dump. Through theatre and movement exercises, we will confront issues of radioactive racism, environmental degradation and nuclear guardianship. 
Theatre and movement exercises are always helpful when dealing with radioactivity. That’s why the only survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a touring ballet company and some mimes. 
===

DELCONS “TINY BUT VICIOUS”

Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (1:56am)

Miranda Devine – still and hopefully always a friend, despite our Delcon differences – writes of Delcon difficulty: 
I am a conservative pariah. I have been dis-invited to dinners and given the cold shoulder at conservative functions. Twitter followers once my most ardent fans abuse me as a “leftie”. I am accused of being either paid by or in “love” with Malcolm Turnbull.
Elder statesmen of the Delusional Conservative (Delcon) movement send me more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger missives accusing me of gross naïveté.


All because I have resisted the delusion that Tony Abbott was a conservative warrior cut down in his prime by leftie treachery, and that he will return to reclaim his throne once Malcolm Turnbull fails.
The Delcon movement is tiny but viciously punitive to those it regards as heretics … 
Abbott was no conservative prime minister. I don’t know whether that was because he wasn’t a genuine conservative or because it was too hard to combat anti-conservative forces once he took office. Either way, appeasing the left cost him the support of the party room. No one is under any illusion about Turnbull’s ideological leanings, but so far he is not making the same mistake. 
Read on. For the record, I have not and would never dis-invite Miranda from anything, and even my tiniest and most punitive Delcon associates continue to hold her in very high regard.
It’s just that, on this issue, Miranda is wrong.
===

SHADE WARNING

Tim Blair – Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (1:06am)

Lack of sunlight is apparently just as bad as a tobacco hobby: 
Avoiding the sun “is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking”. 
And racism is even worse than a tobacco hobby: 
Controversial research funded by the Australian Human Rights Commission and VicHealth has made the extraordinary claim that racial discrimination drains $44.9 billion a year from the economy and is a bigger health cost than smoking. 
So if you’re a smoking sun-dodger who suffers racial discrimination, it’s game over for you. Then again, because most smokers are these days forced outside and into the path of life-giving solar rays, that’s at least one part of the problem solved.
===

The crime is the problem, not the jail

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (2:12pm)

Labor’s newest politician peddles some of the old dead-end furphies of the race industry:
Australia’s legal system has become a “feared and despised processing plant” for most Aboriginal people, propelling the most vulnerable and disadvantaged toward a “broken, bleak future”, according to Patrick Dodson… 
“Accepting the status quo permits the criminal justice system to continue to suck us up like a vacuum cleaner and deposit us like waste in custodial institutions,” Professor Dodson declared in a speech to mark the 25th anniversary of the report.
First, who is “us”?  His father was Irish-Australian, and Dodson was later captain of a largely white boys school. Why this insistence on a crude black-and-white divide?
More importantly, why attack the very high rate of imprisonment of Aborigines as evidence of a racist and heartless justice system? Isn’t the truth that the imprisonment rate is actually evidence of a very high rate of crime by Aborigines, with most of the victims actually other Aborigines? 
===

A Reserve Bank governor should not be found in such company

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (2:04pm)

It sure is alarming to find a former Reserve Bank boss in such ideological company. May help to explain how we got to this state:
Australia’s left-wing intellectual establishment has heaped pressure on politicians to collect “more tax, more equitably” to fund greater health, education and transport spending without cutting welfare entitlements. 
An open letter – co-signed by 50 progressive advocates, union leaders and academics – identifies capital gains and superannuation accounts as ripe targets for revenue-raising…
Signatories to the letter ...  included ACTU president Ged Kearney, feminist author Eva Cox, former federal Labor minister and premier Carmen Lawrence and Hawke-Keating-era central banker and former Climate Change Authority chief Bernie Fraser. Others signatories enjoyed a Greens political pedigree including Australia Institute executive director Ben Oquist, a former adviser to Bob Brown, and former Greens candidate and GetUp chief Simon Sheikh.

Public intellectuals to sign on included Nobel laureate immunologist Peter Doherty, La Trobe University political analyst Robert Manne, and Sydney University public health expert Simon Chapman.
===

Tribal Australia: China deploys Chinese Australians to influence our politics

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (9:54am)

Chinese Australians have played little active part in politics. But once they flex their muscle we may have yet more reason to worry about the tribalisation of Australia - how mass immigration and the multicultural project divided us into tribes pledging loyalty to their own “race”, faith or country of origin.
Today, an ominous warning:
As Malcolm Turnbull prepares to embark on his first official visit to China as prime minister, some 60 Chinese community leaders in Australia gathered in Sydney urging him to watch his words when discussing the South China Sea in Beijing. 
Unfurling a large red banner declaring the need to “Firmly Safeguard the Sovereign Rights of China in the South China Sea”, the forum was organised by the overseas Chinese patriotic association Australian Action Committee for Peace and Justice.

“Australia’s political elite should have a clear understanding,” the committee’s chair Lin Bin said at the Saturday meeting. “[They] ought to talk and act carefully on the sensitive issue on the South China Sea, and not make ‘irrational’ or incorrect signals to the international community.”

The rhetoric of freedom of navigation, freedom of overflight, international arbitration, changing the status quo and “militarisation” of the South China Sea, it said, were all mere buzzwords utilised by the United States as part of its strategic pivot back to the Asia-Pacific – “naked hegemonic behaviour” aimed at containing China’s rise. What were previously fringe nationalistic and patriotic Chinese associations in Australia are now emboldened in the search for greater domestic political influence with the implicit backing of a rising China and its increasingly assertive foreign policy. 
This is not quite the first sign of this new force. In 2008 the Chinese embassy bussed thousands of Chinese protesters to the Beijing Olympics torch relay here to confront anti-Chinese protesters. 
===

Good, but how was this allowed to get out of hand in the first place?

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (9:47am)

Excellent:
THE number of people on the taxpayer-funded disability support pension has dropped below 800,000 for the first time since 2010. 
The Daily Telegraph has figures that show DSP numbers have declined for a record seven consecutive quarters, potentially saving taxpayers up to $680 million a year.
There are now 797,212 on the $794.80-a-fortnight scheme, down from a peak of 832,533 in March 2014. DSP recipients now make up 4.9 per cent of the working population, down from 5.6 per cent.
More than 33,000 people have dropped off the DSP in the past 18 months in the wake of tough new laws implemented by the federal government. The new laws included a review of all DSP recipients aged under 35 and the introduction of Commonwealth doctors to approve applications; ending the process of “doctor shopping” for applicants who tried multiple doctors to sign off on paperwork.
===

Turnbulls puts truck into reverse

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (9:08am)

Malcolm Turnbull finds the reverse gear in his election truck - and good:
The Turnbull government will move to scrap the road safety tribunal next week, after initially pledging to abolish it after the federal election… 
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash will on Wednesday announce plans to introduce legislation to scrap the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal when parliament is recalled for a special session on Monday…
The move comes after independent senator Jacqui Lambie on Tuesday threw her support behind scrapping the tribunal… Another independent senator, Glenn Lazarus, pledged to introduce his own abolition legislation if the government didn’t act prior to the election. Fellow crossbenchers Bob Day, David Leyonhjelm and Nick Xenophon also want the tribunal gone.
Still one vote short - but at least Labor, the Greens and three cross-benchers will be forced to justify putting independent and non-unionised drivers out of business:
Dio Wang, Ricky Muir and John Madigan have not given support to the idea of abolishing the tribunal, instead favouring delay of its pay order.
Credit to Glenn Lazarus for shaming the Government into action now rather than after the election.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Journalists embarrass themselves by running to the boss about Blair

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (8:46am)

This is pathetic - journalists asking their boss to disown a colleague for his satire. We have a problem when free speech is not understood even by journalists:
Journalists at News Corp Australia have called on management to reject the views of Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Blair who mocked and downplayed the issue of domestic violence on his blog.
Blair did not actually downplay domestic violence. He mocked what he believes is an overreaction to it. But to continue:
“The national News Corp house committee was disappointed to read Daily Telegraph opinion writer Tim Blair’s piece on family violence, published in the early hours of Monday morning,” a letter to News Corp’s head of employee relations Andrew Bioccaa said. 
“Blair’s misguided attempt at humour undermined the great work News Corp has been doing to combat family violence through campaigning journalism across the group.
“We point out that family violence leave is part of News Corp staff’s log of claims in the most recent negotiating round, which was recently endorsed by members across the country.”
Endorsed by the national house committee for News Corp journalists who are members of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the letter calls on management to reject Blair’s comments and “recommit to campaigning against the scourge of family violence”.
A constant critic of the ABC, Blair ridiculed the ABC staff for asking for domestic violence leave… In a sarcastic piece on his blog Blair suggested ABC staff are working in a “bloodhouse” and employees beat each other up at night. 
From Blair’s post:
Evidently the ABC employs so many victims of domestic violence that they require their own special leave allowance category – which is interesting, given how many ABC employees are married to or shacked up with other ABC employees. What kind of carnage-strewn bloodhouse are they operating over there? Is that why ABC staff work so few hours – because they’re always recovering from the previous night’s beatings? Why are staffers not pressing charges instead of seeking leave? 
Interestingly points, wittily put.  But if you disagree with them then just argue back. Going sooking to the boss is almost as bad as calling in the speech police.
Thank heavens our bosses understand what unionised journalists do not:
News Corp has written to the house committee to say the company will not sanction its opinion writers. 
“News is as equally committed to the fundamental principle of freedom of speech as it is to campaigning against family violence; a topic on which our extensive coverage of, and campaigning journalism about, speaks for itself,” a spokesman told Guardian Australia.
I was shocked as a very junior reporter at The Age to see a petition pinned to the notice board above our duty roster by some of our then senior journalists, long since forgotten. It condemned the satirical piece filed by a reporter out at the ludicrous “womyn’s” protest at Pine Gap.
I realised then the power of that group think in newsrooms that stifles debate to this day, not just at The Age but the ABC. From that moment I made a conscious decision to defend where I could those with the guts to speak against the “wisdom” of the mob. Genius is more likely to be found in mavericks, after all. And cowardice in the collective.
Besides, isn’t baa baa boring? 
===

Who helped Palmer into Parliament?

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (8:11am)

 Why did so many journalists and presenters give this buffoon such help to get into Parliament?
Federal MP Clive Palmer faces the possibility of up to five years’ jail, bankruptcy and the unravelling of his fin­ancial empire after he was found to have siphoned more than $200 million from his cash-strapped Queensland Nickel to his other businesses before its collapse. 
A crushing administrators’ report recommends the refinery company be put into liqui­dation, finding it may have traded while insolvent and that Mr Palmer secretly acted as a “shadow director”, making him personally liable for the company’s collapse.
It also exposes the rest of his empire to possible legal plundering to repay $300m in debts owed to nearly 800 sacked workers and other creditors.
Administrators say Mr Palmer for years used QN as a “piggy bank” to prop up his other businesses, spending $21.5m on donations to his political party, nearly $6m on his ill-fated attempt to rebuild the Titanic, $5m on 60 vintage cars for his Sunshine Coast golf resort and $38m to him, his wife and his father-in-law on a single day in 2012.
Hedley Thomas describes the paranoia that seems to have driven Clive Palmer to squirrel away millions in one nervous day:
Clive Palmer started whisking huge sums of cash from the coffers of Queensland Nickel one day in late November, 2012. 
By the end of that day, Thursday, November 29, a total of $42,689,601 had been siphoned off…
A confidante recalled him being “absolutely paranoid — more so than usual” around this time because of something he believed he had discovered.
But what was it? Palmer believed that the Queensland government, led by then premier Campbell Newman, was secretly planning to imprison him and imminently confiscate his assets. 
But anyone with eyes should have seen years ago that Palmer was a blustering bully whose word could not be trusted. Yet three years ago I noted the easy ride the ABC had given to an alleged conservative who hated Tony Abbott and Campbell Newman:
I said from the start Clive Palmer was a political buffoon. The ABC would have howled him down as a clown trying to buy his way into Parliament if it wasn’t for his habit of attacking Tony Abbott and declaring ABC presenters the best in the land: 
TONY JONES: Clive Palmer, that’s all we have time for. We thank you very much for coming in with that news and hopefully we’ll find out more in the future.
CLIVE PALMER: Thanks a lot, Tony. You’re the best journalist in Australia. God bless you.
And: 
TONY JONES: Just one very quick question: if you did actually end up buying yourself a newspaper in Queensland, what would you call it? The Palmer Times? 
CLIVE PALMER: Well, I don’t know what I’d call it, but I know who I’d put there for as editor, if you’d take the job. TONY JONES: (Laughs). Alright, we’ll just leave that hanging in the air. Thank you very much, Clive Palmer.
And:
CLIVE PALMER: Well we don’t want to give you all the headlines in one night, Tony. We want to come back - even though you’re the best journalist in Australia, we want to ...
TONY JONES: Yes, yes, thankyou very much for that, but let’s actually ask a few questions....
CLIVE PALMER: ... there are five basic things that we differ from the Liberal Party. The first one is that we don’t believe our party officials should be lobbyists. Tony Abbott does. So if you want Tony Abbott’s policies and you want lobbyists, vote for Tony Abbott. But if you think that I do, we need to have better proprietary and not have lobbyist running the government, give us your vote… TONY JONES: Clive Palmer, a pleasure to talk to you. An interesting day for everybody.  You may have changed the nature of politics in Queensland for sure, perhaps around the country. Thank you very much.
UPDATE
Chris Kenny reminds us of more ABC duchessing of their once-favourite “conservative”:
Two years ago, ABC managing director Mark Scott and chairman Jim Spigelman hosted Palmer at parliament’s black tie midwinter ball…
It is troubling so many serious political journalists have been so malleable for Palmer. Since before his election, it was clear his politics were opportunistic, his business dealings were suspect and his motivation was revenge against the Liberal National Party. Having been a generous donor to the LNP, he expected a rails run from Campbell Newman’s state government on a lucrative coal transport project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. To its credit, the Newman government refused to bend but it bought itself a bitter, wily and well-resourced enemy. Ignoring this background, the anti-conservative bent of the public broadcaster and Canberra press gallery fell into line, providing uncritical platforms for Palmer’s attacks. Those journalists welcomed Palmer as a conservative troublemaker and potential Tony Abbott spoiler.
UPDATE
And remember this meeting two years ago - organised by Malcolm Turnbull without notifying Tony Abbott?
A senior Liberal source was baffled by Mr Turnbull’s decision to invite Mr Palmer by text message to dinner at Canberra restaurant Wild Duck on May 28. Mr Pyne was not notified about the dinner. 
There was further concern that Mr Turnbull had not then notified Treasurer Joe Hockey of the dinner date, to which Treasury secretary Dr Martin Parkinson was also invited after bumping into Mr Turnbull in the Parliament House carpark. Mr Hockey was left floundering for answers about the dinner when questioned the next morning on television.
“People are just wondering what Malcolm is up to,’’ one MP said. Mr Palmer, who controls four votes in the new Senate, is refusing to negotiate directly with Mr Abbott about the passage of the Budget until he receives additional staffing resources.
Parkinson, by the way, is now head of Turnbull’s department. Asked at the time about the dinner, Palmer called Turnbull an ”old friend”, praised Turnbull and savagely attacked Peta Credlin for being too close to her boss, Tony Abbott, even hinting the relationship was sexual. Turnbull meanwhile urged the Liberals to embrace Palmer.
But Turnbull sure didn’t like me pointing out this dinner proved he was working to replace Abbott, a truth he denied.
UPDATE
Yes, the ABC’s Four Corners attacked Clive Palmer on Monday. But many of the facts it claimed to “reveal” had been reported in The Australian as long ago as 2013.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Jayz.)  
===

Joke candidate

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (7:50am)

 Hillary Clinton tells a “joke” and runs smack into the professionally outraged movement she’s helped to encourage:
Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took part in a racist joke as part of a skit with Hamilton cast member Leslie Odom Jr. It went about as badly as everyone — except apparently Clinton and de Blasio — would expect. 
Here is the joke: 
Clinton: Thanks for the endorsement, Bill. It took you long enough. 
De Blasio: Sorry, Hillary, I was running on CP time. 
Odom: That’s not— I don’t like jokes like that, Bill. 
Clinton: Cautious politician time. I’ve been there.
The racist aspect of this joke is the reference to CP time, which is typically read as “colored people’s time” — the stereotype that people of color, particularly African Americans, are always running late.
No wonder there were no laughs.
Mind you, I did laugh at the punchline:
A joke like that would kill a conservative politician, of course. 
===

Devine wrong, but welcome

Andrew Bolt April 13 2016 (7:30am) 

The Delcons are apparently few yet powerful and vicious enough to rock the government of Malcolm Turnbull and devastate the social life of Miranda Devine:
I am a conservative pariah. I have been dis-invited to dinners and given the cold shoulder at conservative functions. Twitter followers once my most ardent fans abuse me as a “leftie”. I am accused of being either paid by or in “love” with Malcolm Turnbull. 
Elder statesmen of the Delusional Conservative (Delcon) movement send me more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger missives accusing me of gross naïveté.

All because I have resisted the delusion that Tony Abbott was a conservative warrior cut down in his prime by leftie treachery, and that he will return to reclaim his throne once Malcolm Turnbull fails.
The Delcon movement is tiny but viciously punitive to those it regards as heretics … Abbott was no conservative prime minister. I don’t know whether that was because he wasn’t a genuine conservative or because it was too hard to combat anti-conservative forces once he took office. Either way, appeasing the left cost him the support of the party room. No one is under any illusion about Turnbull’s ideological leanings, but so far he is not making the same mistake. 
Tim Blair, busy recruiting Delcons, denies disinviting the delightful Miranda to anything. So do I. I am just sorry that Miranda cannot recognise who the real delusional conservatives are.
And I’m confused: is it really wrong for conservatives to prefer a conservative who tried to a Leftist who won’t? 
===

CHILLARY

Tim Blair – Monday, April 13, 2015 (5:25pm)

Celebrate Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid with a set of not-tacky-at-all Hillary champagne glasses:


“When you clink them together,” emails PWAF, “the sound they make is tone deaf.” Speaking of which, take a look at this Hillary campaign poster, which provides a helpful reminder of one of her more recent lies:


Fans might also enjoy inspirational Hillary toilet paper. And the next time Bill is sent to the doghouse, he can wear one of these exclusive hounds for Hillary hoodies.
(Remarkably, six staffers from the Hillary support site that’s selling this junk are now employed by Clinton’s official campaign. She sure can pick ‘em.)
===

ABBOTT vs JESSE’S BOY

Tim Blair – Monday, April 13, 2015 (11:47am)

It is now 63 days since Liberal Party MPs voted on whether to hold a leadership spill. Although traumatic at the time, it now appears that this event may have been the best possible boost for the Abbott government.

 Continue reading 'ABBOTT vs JESSE’S BOY'
===

THEY NEED INSTRUCTIONS

Tim Blair – Monday, April 13, 2015 (11:01am)

A how to be funny guide for left-wing satirists.
===

HILLARY’S ASCENT

Tim Blair – Monday, April 13, 2015 (10:50am)

Back in 2009, then-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton was asked if she would ever again run for the White House.
“No,” Clinton told NBC’s Today show. 

 Continue reading 'HILLARY’S ASCENT'
===

Not too evil for hundreds of our own

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (9:41am)

Remember that hundreds of Australian Muslims have joined or tried to join the Islamic State:
A NINE-YEAR-OLD sex slave is pregnant after being gang-raped by 10 Islamic State militants in Iraq, an aid worker said. 
“The abuse she has suffered left her mentally and physically traumatised,” Canadian-based aid worker Yousif Daoud, who recently returned from the region, told The Toronto Star… The girl, a member of the persecuted Yazidi Christian minority, has been flown out of Iraq by a Kurdish aid agency and is receiving treatment in Germany.
===

Howard was right: Obama’s win sure pleased the terrorists

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (9:24am)

 John Howard was absolutely right and Kevin Rudd absolutely wrong.
Rowan Dean nails it:
“IF I was running al-Qa’ida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats.” 
These prophetic words were uttered by John Howard less than 24 hours after Barack Obama announced he was running for US president.
Mr Howard was always the master of the understatement…
Back in 2008, Iran was run by a group of mad mullahs who vowed to wipe Israel off the map in the most genocidal holocaust of all time… In order to prevent these lunatics from ever gaining nuclear weapons, the West put in place sanctions and vowed, if necessary, to bomb any nuclear weapons facilities.
Then along came Obama. Now, not only do the Iranians no longer have to worry about those pesky sanctions but, how good is this, they get to keep all their centrifuges to build a nuclear energy program that can churn out a vast nuclear arsenal at the flick of a switch.

...  al-Qa’ida, rather than having been defeated, has now spawned a grisly bunch of murderous offspring, from the schoolgirl kidnappers of Boko Harem to the beheading psychopaths of ISIS. Obama drew a “red line” that Syrian butcher Assad was not allowed to cross – using chemical weapons – or the US would take action. So Assad used chemical weapons and … Obama backed down…
Obama pulled our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, despite all the military advice it was too soon. That retreat opened the gates of hell and the evil of ISIS. Libya? Disaster. Yemen? Catastrophe. Somalia? Hellhole. The list goes on…
Finally, there is Israel. The only democracy and only true, loyal friend the West has in the cesspit of the Middle East. So what does Obama do? He turns his back on them and flirts with Palestinian terrorists instead. 
===

Why is the ABC pandering to China and paying what looks like bribes?

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (9:10am)

Why on earth is the ABC spending our money on entertaining an audience in China?
Why is the ABC paying bribes?
Why is the ABC agreeing to Chinese censorship, and offering China a hostage in any dispute over its reporting back here?
Why does Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull continue to let the ABC run amok?
Joe Aston:
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is fast learning how to do business in the Middle Kingdom. 
Not only has Aunty acceded to Communist Party censorship for its new Mandarin-language website inside the Great Fire Wall of China, it also knows how to pull a crowd of journalists to a product launch: cold hard cash.
Yes, the Australian taxpayer handed over at least a dozen red envelopes to local scribes at the launch of AustraliaPlus.cn on Thursday afternoon in Shanghai, attended by ABC chairman Jim Spigelman and managing director Mark Scott.
As all red envelopes in that part of the world are ... they were stuffed with local currency, known colloquially as “red backs”. And just how much did Scott stuff in their garters? The usual going rate is ¥200 ($41) – the cost of a “return cab fare” (that old chestnut) – but foreigners ordinarily pay more…
(T)he irony of the ABC – bastion of publicly funded autonomous journalism – giving cash payments to journalists from privately funded compliant media organisations…
Also in Aunty’s media goodie bag: a lavender bear from Tasmania… An ABC spokesman says the only gift “that the ABC is aware of” is the lavender bears, adding that the launch was managed by a locally-engaged PR company. We asked if Aunty had bothered asking its PR firm about cash gifts and we were told: “the comment is the comment”.
The bribes are bad enough. The rest is worse. So what will the Abbott Government do about it?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

How Australia helped to kill Chloe Valentine

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (9:05am)

CHLOE Valentine wasn’t killed by just two ferals. Also guilty is the feral culture that millions of us helped create.
So it’s not enough that we’ve jailed Chloe’s mother, Ashlee Polkinghorne, and her brutal partner, Benjamin McPartland.
Nor is it enough the we blame South Australia’s child protection service, Families SA, even though it was given 20 separate warnings that Chloe was in danger yet — shockingly — did not save her.
No, we must confront the values we’ve allowed to take root that helped make modern Australia so toxic for this four-year-old.
The bare facts are now well known.
In 2012, Chloe was living at Ingle Farm with Polkinghorne and McPartland, who thought it would be a great joke to force the four-year-old to ride a motorbike three times her weight.
They made her ride it repeatedly over three days, even though she couldn’t stop without falling off the bike, or under it. You can hear them laughing at her in a video.
Chloe fell unconscious, but as coroner Mark Johns noted in his report last week, Polkinghorne and McPartland waited more than eight hours to call an ambulance, and meanwhile “occupied themselves by using Facebook, doing some internet banking, searching the internet as to what to do when a person was rendered unconscious, and smoked cannabis”.
Chloe died. A forensic pathologist said she’d seen such terrible bruising only once before, in an adult.
Coroner Johns’ report is passionate and critically important.
Read it, because it challenges many lethal conceits of a society that increasingly values pleasure above duty, self above family, freedom above responsibility.
First of all, of course, it exposes our farcical faith that government officials can deal with the collapse of the family unit now that we’ve destroyed social taboos against divorce, drugs and casual sex.
(Read the full column here.)  
===

We’re getting poorer. Surely Labor must see this spending can’t go on

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (9:03am)

The country’s income has been slashed.  Surely the Liberals and Labor can agree that spending much be cut to match:
Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned the deficit could blow out again as he prepares to write-off up to $25 billion more in revenue over the next four years by factoring in an iron ore price as low as $35-a-tonne in the May 12 budget. 
The price, $25 lower than what was said to be a conservative forecast of $60 contained in December’s budget update, will mean there is about $6.25 billion less revenue a year than the government thought it had just five months ago…
While promising the budget would contain a “credible path back to surplus”, Mr Hockey again declined to nominate when a surplus could eventuate, and he could not guarantee that the deficit, forecast in December to be $40.4 billion this year and $31.2 billion next financial year, would not worsen again… Mr Hockey said the rapidly deteriorating budget bottom line meant the government had no choice but to remain committed to the unpopular structural savings in last year’s budget, such as cuts to welfare, health and the growth of the pension, which were still stuck in the Senate and worth $27 billion over four years. 
And when revenue is slashed, it is clearly stupid to think that extra taxes are the answer.

Yet Labor’s answer is indeed to launch a vicious and deceitful attack on bosses, claiming they are dodging their taxes. Amanda Vanstone:
[Labor] Senator Sam Dastyari wants companies named and shamed. Can you believe it? Who will decide which companies should be named and shamed? What redress will there be if a mistake is made? Will we name and shame them even if every move they have made has been lawful?… 
It is a crude appeal to our baser hunt and kill instincts and makes a mockery of the trust we are meant to have in the tax department keeping our information secure…
This isn’t a simple matter of taking a company’s gross sales and asserting that therefore enormous amounts of tax should have been paid. For starters the gross sales reduce down to gross profit after the deduction of cost of goods sold. Then there is a plethora of other tax rules which come into action before we can calculate the taxable income.... It also opens up a Pandora’s box of issues relating to competition between countries.
Most of us recognise that Australia is an expensive place to do business. Our unions want us to be paid more and more and then cry guiltless tears when companies that can’t make a profit shut up shop and get their goods made elsewhere. Salaries and conditions are a part of the profit equation and we have a tough time competing with developing countries.
Tax regimes are another part of the equation. If a country’s tax is much higher than that in a neighbouring country, a company may well shift to the neighbouring country to have more after-tax profit, either to expand the business or pay to shareholders. Labor’s sudden burst of interest in this area is simply designed to cover up its hopelessness in office. Unfortunately, they are advocating moving ahead of other countries which runs the risk of driving the capital, and thus the jobs, overseas.
UPDATE

Another massive bill that Labor left us - with security risks besides:
THE government has warned it will take at least another three years to process 24,600 remaining asylum seekers who arrived under former Labor governments with the rollout of tougher national security assessments since the Sydney siege.
The blowout in the time to resolve the refugee legacy caseload will also deliver a further hit to the May budget, it has been revealed.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed that more thorough ASIO assessments in the wake of the Sydney siege would contribute to pushing the expected processing of refugee claims of 24,600 asylum seekers to beyond 2018.
In particular, ASIO will undertake more detailed document checking to verify identification which in some cases can take months for just one person… Mr Dutton said future governments could still be dealing with the legacy of the former Labor government’s failed border protection policy — which had overseen the arrival of more than 50,000 people by boat during its six years in power — for up to a decade.
What a shocking indictment of Labor’s border policies. And the Greens thought those policies were even too harsh.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

Patrick Moore vs the acid oceans scare

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (8:52am)

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore calls out the latest warmist fear-mongering over the Great Barrier Reef:
When the slight global warming that occurred between 1970 and 2000 came to a virtual standstill, ... something dire was needed to prop up the climate disruption narrative. “Ocean acidification” was invented to provide yet another apocalyptic scenario, only this one required no warming or severe weather, just more CO2 in the atmosphere. 
The story goes that as CO2 increases in the atmosphere the oceans will absorb more of it and this will cause them to become acidic — well, not exactly, but at least to become less basic. This in turn is predicted to dissolve the coral reefs and kill the oysters, clams, mussels and algae that have calcareous shells. It was named “global warming’s evil twin"…
How do I know that increased CO2 will not kill the coral reefs and shellfish? Let me count the ways…
First, contrary to popular belief, at 400 parts per million (0.04 per cent), CO2 is lower now in the atmosphere than it has been during most of the 550 million years since modern life forms emerged during the Cambrian period. CO2 was about 10 times higher then than it is today.
Corals and shellfish evolved early and have obviously managed to survive through eras of much higher CO2 than present levels…
Second, due to its high concentration of basic elements such as calcium and magnesium, sea­water has a powerful buffering capacity to prevent large swings in pH due to the addition of CO2.
This self-correcting capacity of seawater will ensure the pH will remain well within levels conducive to calcification, the process whereby shells and coral structures are formed…
Third, and most interesting, there are freshwater species of clams and mussels that manage to produce calcareous shells at pH 4-5, well into the acidic range. They are able to do this because a mucous layer on their shell allows them to control the pH near the surface and to make calcification possible beneath the mucous layer…
Fourth, ocean acidification proponents invariably argue that increased CO2 will also cause the oceans to warm due to a warming climate. Yet they conveniently ignore the fact that when water warms the gases dissolved in it tend to “outgas”.
It’s the same phenomenon that happens in a glass of cold water taken from the fridge and placed on a counter at room temperature. The bubbles that form on the inside of the glass as it warms are the gases that were dissolved in the colder water. So in theory a warmer sea will have less CO2 dissolved in it than a cooler one.
===

Just what the country doesn’t need

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (7:55am)

Proportional representation in our upper houses has helped the strangest people become politicians in what’s really a lottery. Good and decisive government is becoming increasingly hard:
LEADER of the shambolic No Land Tax micro party Peter Jones — who has described himself as an “off-the-wall nutcase” — is on course to win an eight-year spell in NSW’s Parliament. 
The No Land Tax Party, which ran a topless model and salsa dancer among its state election candidates and still owes staff about $1 million for work on polling day, is ahead of the Liberal Party in the race for the final seat in the Legislative Council.
However, Mr Jones’ predicted ascension to the upper house is unlikely to prove a significant hurdle to Premier Mike Baird’s key election policy on the sale of the state’s poles and wires, given he yesterday indicated conditional support for the $20 billion sell-off funding NSW’s infrastructure plan....
His party, which secured the Group A spot on the Legislative Council ballot, has about 80,000 upper house votes with 70 per cent of the vote counted. That represents about 2 per cent of the overall vote. That would put No Land Tax on course to receive up to $240,000 in funding, assuming Mr Jones gets in. In recent comments to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Jones said: “I’m not just your run of the mill psycho, I’m a complete off-the-wall nutcase."… The party still owes money to a large number of the 3600 people to whom it offered $30 an hour to hand out how to vote cards on election day. The Fair Work Ombudsman is conducting inquiries.
===

Noel Pearson tries another way to divide us

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (7:30am)

Noel Pearson is right to say the constitution is not the document for sending feel-good messages:
Indigenous leader Noel Pearson will move today to reshape the national debate on how to recognise First Australians, rejecting “symbolic” changes to the Constitution and calling instead for a declaration of recognition with no legal rights. 
Arguing that the Constitution is not the right place for “poetry and symbolism”, the Cape York leader will break from the consensus on reform by urging that any wording on recognition be excluded from the country’s founding document.
The move is a dramatic departure from the recommen­dations of the expert panel advancing constitutional recognition — of which he was a member — and adds a powerful voice to a campaign by conservatives to limit symbolic language in the Constitution. Mr Pearson will use a major speech today to argue that a declaration of recognition would better express the importance of First Australians while maintaining the conservative support essential for any successful referendum.
So far so good. But wait. Didn’t Parliament pass exactly such a motion already?  From 2013:
Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is another step closer after the Bill for an Act of Recognition passed through the Senate unopposed this week. 
This followed unanimous passage through the house of Representatives on 13 February 2013.
The Bill demonstrates the Parliament’s commitment to acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique and special place in our nation’s history.
“Firstly, it acknowledges in law that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the first inhabitants of this nation,” Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in her address to Parliament in February.
“It acknowledges they occupied this land from time immemorial – they honoured and cared for it, and do so to this day. 
And Pearson is still preaching the politics of a racial divide - the real danger:
He will insist that his support for any declaration be conditional on it being accompanied by practical constitutional reforms to give indigenous Australians more say on how policies affect them. This could include new parliamentary rules and procedures to give indigenous Australians a “fair say in the parliamentary process” such as representation in the Senate. 
“If the Constitution is a rule book for government, then constitutional recognition should do something about the rules governing indigenous affairs in this country,” Mr Pearson says. 
No to racism. No to laws that divide us by race. 
===

But let’s worry instead about a few people just waving our flag

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (7:07am)

Yes, just a tiny, unrepresentative minority:
A group has claimed responsibility for hacking the Hobart International Airport website and posting a statement supporting the radical Islamist group ISIS, also known as Islamic State ... 
Tasmania Police say messages identical to the one that appeared on the site early Sunday morning have been posted on thousands of websites worldwide since late 2014…
“There were no threats made towards the Hobart Airport or flight operations to and from the airport,” the police statement said. 
But it is so much easier to denounce a few people peacefully waving Australian flags.
Gerard Henderson:
The easiest way for a green-left supporter to get a seat [in the audience of the ABC’s Q&A] is to claim to be a Coalition voter. They get to fill part of the pro-­Coalition quota, an easier task than competing for slots within the Labor and Green quotas.
So it came to pass on Easter Monday when the clear audience hero was Vanessa “Van” Badham — cultural critic for the leftist Guardian Australia…
Presenter Tony Jones led with his executive producer’s pick for the first question. It was from Lea Vesic, who expressed concern at the Reclaim Australia protests…
To the delight of the audience, Badham immediately weighed in ... [against] the supporters of “neo-Nazism and fascism”.
Badham added: “We have an extremist element on the very far Right. They are tiny but they are feeling quite emboldened by a lot of divisive language that’s been used against particularly the Muslim community and in the debate around asylum-seekers."…
But, as Badham acknowledged, the contemporary lunar Right is tiny. Even she conceded that in Melbourne the counter-protest movement outnumbered the Reclaim Australia demonstrators by 10 to one.
When most Australians viewed the Reclaim Australia demonstration they would­ have seen small groups of low-profile Australians complaining about the growing prevalence of halal food here and railing against the (remote) possibility that sharia law might be established in the Antipodes. That was about it.
However, to Badham, ...  “I was there to put my body in front of neo-Nazis and fascists…”
Contrary to Badham’s hyperbole, which enjoyed widespread acclaim from the Q&A audience and was not contested by the presenter, there is not — and never has been — a significant neo-Nazi or fascist movement in Australia....
What Badham, Jones and the Q&A audience failed to observe is that, while the intelligence security community monitors Left and Right alike, it is only Islamists who presently are in prison for conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism… But the leftist Badham won’t speak their name on Q&A.
(Thanks to readers WaG311 and brett t r.) 
===

Newspoll confirms: Abbott has recovered to 49 to 51. But IPSOS says he’s sunk, at 46 to 54

Andrew Bolt April 13 2015 (7:02am)

I thought the previous Newspoll exaggerated the Abbott Government’s recovery, yet today’s gives the same two-party preferred result:
Bill Shorten has posted his worst ratings as Labor leader, with more than half of voters dissatisfied with his performance as Tony Abbott continues to claw back ground. 
The latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian at the weekend, shows the Coalition has opened a five-point margin over Labor on primary vote to be ahead by 41 per cent to 36 per cent — its biggest lead in seven months.The Coalition’s primary vote was steady while Labor fell one point to a five-month low. The Greens were unchanged at 11 per cent with support for others, which includes independents and minor parties, up one point to 12 per cent.
With preferences from the Greens based on the last election, the ALP continues to hold a two-party lead of 51 per cent to 49 per cent.
UPDATE
But the Fairfax IPSOS poll violently disagrees, putting the gap at 46 to 54:
The question of the Liberal leadership could be revisited in months as support for Tony Abbott’s government drifts south again… Mr Abbott’s woes appear linked to the sinking popularity of his Treasurer Joe Hockey, who as architect of the first politically toxic blueprint, has suffered a massive 45 per cent reversal in his approval rating over the last 13 months from plus 20 per cent in March 2014 to minus 25 now… 
Bill Shorten’s Labor opposition has opened up an eight-point buffer on two-party-preferred voting intention of 54 per cent to the Coalition on 46 per cent - a three-point deterioration for the government since last month’s survey, which suggested Mr Abbott’s government was making a comeback and was almost level-pegging with Labor at 49-51. 
I can’t say I have much confidence in polls which yo-yo like that.
All I think we can sensibly conclude is that Abbott is still behind, and by a margin somewhere between the two polls. And the Budget is absolutely critical to his fortunes.
(Thanks to readers WaG311 and Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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This is a very impressive long-duration timelapse of the thunderstorm that brought severe weather east of Lubbock.  Some...
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Indian lifeguard in Australia...amazing
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Shlomo Cohen's Daily Cartoon
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Left learns from North Korean propaganda

Piers Akerman – Sunday, April 13, 2014 (3:56am)

DRIVEN by what she calls “capitalist despair” Sydney documentary maker Anna Broinowski took a taxpayer-funded trip to the North Korean workers’ paradise returning with a her new work Aim High in Creation!
“Every time I turned on the news I’d see oil tankers washing up on pristine reefs, or a McDonald’s being built in a hospital, the mining giants doing whatever they wanted, and a coal seam gas mine had just been approved 200m from my house. It felt like capitalism was on steroids,” she said in one of many publicity interviews for her film.
With that sort of attitude and a TV locked onto the ABC, it is little wonder that she was reading a book on film directing written by dictator Kim Jong-Il, the second supreme leader of risibly called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, when she felt the urge to explore the North Korean propaganda production. Nor is it surprising that the North Korean masters welcomed to their studios Broinowski and producer Lizzette Atkins.
Funded by the Australian Government, the NSW Government, Screen NSW, the Victorian Government, Film Victoria Australia, the South Australian Government, Screen Australia and Unicorn Films, Broinowski was able to create her own anti-coal seam gas propaganda in the style of her North Korean hosts.
Though she claims awareness of North Korea’s horrific history of human rights abuses, it did not disabuse her of her goal, nor did it seem to interfere with her artistic drive.
“If you remove the brutality of the regime, which I didn’t see, it was serene and beautiful to be in a country with no internet, no advertising,” she told one interviewer.
“I’m not an apologist by any means. I know it’s an evil, repressive place as well, where 200,000 people are political prisoners and it’s brutal.
“However, I don’t think we’re getting the real story about the rest of North Korea. There was a purer, more innocent approach to fun than what we are used to in the jaded West.” Even the capital, Pyongyang “wasn’t the evil, diabolical place I had been led to expect,” she said.
Serendipitously, while Broinowski was honing her propaganda as a favourite of North Korea’s totalitarian regime, another Australian, former High Court Justice Michael Kirby, was putting the finishing touches on a UN report into human rights abuses in DPRK which recommended that its leadership be charged and referred to the International Criminal Court.
His commission found “an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association”.
Justice Kirby, who chaired the UN commission, doesn’t share Broinwoski’s admiration for the propaganda machine.
His report finds it is an “all-encompassing indoctrination machine that takes root from childhood to propagate an official personality cult and to manufacture absolute obedience to the Supreme Leader (Suryong), effectively to the exclusion of any thought independent of official ideology and State propaganda.
Propaganda, the report notes, is further used by the North Koreans to incite nationalistic hatred towards official enemies of the State, including Japan, the United States of America and the Republic of Korea, and their nationals. “Virtually all social activities undertaken by citizens of all ages are controlled by the Workers’ Party of Korea,” it says.
Those workers certainly know how to party, or at least, those favoured by the regime whom Broinowski was fraternising with do. She reports she drank copious quantities of Soju, local vodka, as she bonded with the cinematic crew.
As a foreigner and a woman, she was fortunate that her powerful friends were able to shield her from the sexual and gender-based violence endemic in the xenophobic state, where victims are afforded no protection from the State, any support services or recourse to justice.
According to the report, violations of the rights to food and to freedom of movement have resulted in women and girls becoming vulnerable to trafficking and increased engagement in transactional sex and prostitution.
One wonders what sort of small talk Broinowski engaged in as she tossed back the vodkas with her hosts.
Though hamburgers may seem scary to some Australian inner-urban dwellers, they don’t really compare with forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide.
Perhaps there is a documentary to be made. If Broinowski is available, Justice Kirby has the script ready.
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Tragedy inside a batty scheme

Miranda Devine – Saturday, April 12, 2014 (11:12pm)

THE insulation royal commission under way in Brisbane encapsulates everything that went wrong in the six years of government that began and ended with Kevin Rudd.

 Continue reading 'Tragedy inside a batty scheme'
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We pay so the Left may pray together

Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:58am)

Gerard Henderson wonders why Leftists such as David Marr have such a distorted and hostile view of their fellow citizens. But then he picked up a program...
Last Saturday, The Sydney Morning Herald published the program for this year’s Sydney Writers Festival, which will begin on May 19… 
This year’s festival will host some important international writers, in addition to homegrown talent such as David Malouf and Thomas Keneally, along with New Zealand’s Eleanor Catton. However, when it comes to the Australian nonfiction area, this is yet another left-wing stack, with talent drawn from the ABC, Fairfax Media, Schwartz’s Black Inc and the like.
Participants include Robyn Archer, Monica Attard, Gregg Borschmann, Meredith Burgmann, Mike Carlton, Michael Cathcart, John Cleary, Robert Dessaix, Irina Dunn, Peter Fitz­Simons, Richard Flanagan, Malcolm Fraser, Clive Hamilton, Marieke Hardy, Dan Ilic, Benjamin Law, Michael Leunig, Antony Loewenstein, Marr, Julian Morrow, Linda Mottram, Henry Reynolds, Jeff Sparrow, Adam Spencer, Chris Taylor, Rodney Tiffen, Tom Tilley, Christos Tsiolkas and Andrew Upton. There is barely a conservative on the list.
It’s a case of Green Left Weekly meets The Monthly. Yet, as with other like functions, this year’s SWF will be heavily subsidised by taxpayers and ratepayers. This year, the NSW government has contributed $430,000, the City of Sydney $330,000 and the Australia Council $35,000… Conferences where almost everyone agrees with almost everyone else are invariably boring. They also have the effect of distorting reality as the inner-city Left dismiss as bigoted the “they” who happen to live in suburban and regional Australia.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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CLP wins

Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:55am)

The Northern Territory Government hangs on:
(T)he Country Liberal Party have won the Blain by-election in convincing style... 
The win means the CLP will continue to govern with a majority.
(Thanks to Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Speaking of broken promises, why is the ABC biased?

Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:33am)

Media

It would be, strictly speaking, a broken promise. The Government is banking on not enough people caring, other than those who’d never vote for it anyway - like ABC staff:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is poised to break a key election promise by cutting funding to the ABC… 
In a pledge his colleagues are now wishing he never made, Mr Abbott said on the night before the 2013 election: “No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS."…
Fairfax Media believes one of the options involves introducing an efficiency dividend to the ABC budget – an annual funding reduction used to achieve deep and continuous cuts to government agencies…
The ABC was allocated $1.03 billion in the 2013 federal budget. A 2.25 per cent efficiency dividend would see the broadcaster forced to strip around $22.5 million from its budget in the first year…
The ABC is one of only three government agencies, along with SBS and Safe Work Australia, currently exempt from the efficiency dividend…
It is believed the Abbott government does not consider an efficiency dividend on the ABC to be a broken promise, as nearly every other government department has one and savings need to be found across the board.
But speaking of broken promises, why has the ABC broken its promise under the ABC Act to be impartial? Why has it broken its promise under its Editorial Policy to be balanced? 
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Martin Parkinson shouldn’t be so quick to shout “global warming”

Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (5:05am)

Oh dear. Could Parkinson nominate the islands where this has occurred, and where the cause is man-made warming?
Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson has told an audience in Washington it appeared inevitable that Australia would have to resettle climate change refugees in the coming decades… 
‘’[It] doesn’t necessarily arise because you wake up one morning and find water around your ankles because the sea level has risen,’’ he said. ‘’We are seeing it already in some of the small island countries where you are seeing potable water degradation in fresh water wells. If climate change plays out the way scientists believe, then it will be inevitable that there will be climate change refugees in our region and it would naturally fall to Australia and New Zealand to welcome any of those because of our historic links with those countries.’’
True, this claim is made of Kiribati:
Rising sea levels that claim land on which houses are build and invade fresh water wells and plantations pose a threat to the very existence of many people living on low lying atolls in countries like Kiribati and Tuvalu.... 
Tiiroi, a mother of two is a new to the settlement… The biggest difference she finds from the time she grew up a little girl is Tarawa is the scarcity of water.
“There are wells in this settlement that only have salty water. Neighbours who live a little bit away from the sea allow us to get drinking water from their well,” the 27 year-old said… The President of Kiribati, Anote Tong is well aware of the challenges posed by beach erosion, sea level rise and contamination of fresh water sources to his country.
But wait. Rising sea levels at Kiribati? Really?
Strangely enough:
Islands in Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia are among those which have grown, largely due to coral debris, land reclamation and sediment. 
The findings, published in the magazine New Scientist, were gathered by comparing changes to 27 Pacific islands over the last 20 to 60 years using historical aerial photos and satellite images. 
Even the 2012 Republic of Kiribati Report Series notes:
However, there is evidence that at present, climate change is not the main cause of coastal erosion, water shortages or overcrowding. 
The problem with the wells? Blame overpopulation first:
Peter Sinclair, water resources adviser at the SPC, heads a team measuring the quality of underground drinking water… However, population pressure is an issue in this discussion too, Mr Sinclair explains. 
“As long as we get rainfall, the system will replenish, but the population pressure encroaches on the reserve and also affects the bacterial content in the water - we have contamination from housing, agriculture, from people holding pigs, the sanitation practices,” he says.
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The Bolt Report today

Andrew Bolt April 13 2014 (12:49am)

On the show today – Network 10 at 10am and 4pm....
How Bob Carr makes Tony Abbott look even better. And how journalists tried to save Julia Gillard.
Guests: Employment Minister Eric Abetz, Janet Albrechtsen, Cassandra Wilkinson and Gerard Henderson.
The videos of the shows appear here.
UPDATE
THE BOLT REPORT
13 APRIL 2014
INTERVIEW WITH ERIC ABETZ
ANDREW BOLT, PRESENTER: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says Labor should cut some of its pro-union membership rules. Why? It’s not because Labor’s union links cost Labor the last election. It’s because Shorten is trying to save Labor from its next disaster: the Royal Commission into union corruption, which started this week and will look particularly at union slush funds.
JEREMY STOLJAR, Trades Union Royal Commission: There have been well-publicised reports, allegations and claims to the effect that certain union officials have set up such funds, procured money to be paid into them, and used them to pay for electioneering or other purposes.
ANDREW BOLT: Joining me is Employment Minister Eric Abetz, who is also government leader in the Senate. Eric, good morning.
ERIC ABETZ, EMPLOYMENT MINISTER: Good morning, and good to be in the studio.
ANDREW BOLT: Same for – I’m glad you are. Eric, what does Labor have to fear from the Royal Commission?
ERIC ABETZ: The dark secrets of the slush funds of the trade union movement that have often gone to assist people in their pre-selections, internal Labor ballots. These things may well come to light in the Royal Commission and then those that have been dabbling in that dark art of Labor faction fundraising and bankrolling will undoubtedly be embarrassed if these matters come to light.
ANDREW BOLT: Do you think Bill Shorten has questions to answer about the AWU slush fund that was set up by Bruce Wilson in the 1990s, Wilson being then Julia Gillard’s boyfriend, with Julia Gillard’s help as a solicitor?
ERIC ABETZ: I would have thought that there are a lot of questions as to whether or not Mr Shorten should have done more when he took over the Australian Workers Union to find out where those hundreds of thousands of dollars allegedly disappeared to. So, they’re questions for Mr Shorten, but at the end of the day, the Royal Commission will determine what tracks to go down to ascertain which witnesses may be able to provide material evidence to assist the Royal Commission.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, there was no mention of Julia Gillard in the Royal Commission’s opening day, and I should say that she denies any wrongdoing. But do you have any reason to believe that she will be questioned by the Commission?
ERIC ABETZ: I’m not going to try to tell the Royal Commission how it ought to undertake its duty of fulfilling the terms of reference. But, clearly, Ms Gillard was there as a player, drawing up the power of attorney, having her fingers in the
conveyancing file, and setting up the rules for this Australian Workers Union slush fund. So I think she has something to say about these matters, but whether it’s going to be considered material, that’s going to be for the Royal Commission.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, Martin Ferguson, the former Gillard Government minister, said this week he’d spoken to a builder who’d done renovations for the AWU and on Gillard’s house and is prepared to give evidence to the Royal Commission. I must say Gillard says that she paid for her renovations herself. How important was that, Martin Ferguson coming forward?
 Continue reading 'The Bolt Report today'
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Engineering students watch female dancers for the first time!
Engineering students see hot girls dance for the first time!

Check out Engineer Memes for more stuff!

This happened in Korea, and the group dancing is a Korean girl group named Waveya

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‘Infant beheadings, severed baby feet,’ but media still ignoring Gosnell trial.

It’s gruesome. It’s dramatic. It’s arguably the abortion-related story of the decade.

It's the murder trial of "House of Horrors" abortionist Kermit Gosnell. And the mainstream media is almost completely ignoring it. 

Last night on "Special Report," Bret Baier of Fox News listed the number of times each of the five major networks covered the capital murder trial Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor accused of murdering seven born alive babies and a patient.

Here are the staggering results:

NBC: 0

MSNBC: 0

ABC: 0

CBS: 0

CNN: 1

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/infant-beheadings-severed-baby-feet-but-media-still-ignoring-gosnell-trial

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/04/12/Media-Coverage-of-Gosnell-Trial-Five-Networks-One-Mention?utm_source=BreitbartNews&utm_medium=facebook&fb_source=message
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April 13: Vaisakhi (Sikhism); Thingyan begins in Burma; Lao New Yearin Laos
Van Cliburn
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“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” - Luke 9:23-24
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."
Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, "Be not far from me," for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father's love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord's countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord's feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.

Evening

"The king's garden."
Nehemiah 3:15
Mention of the king's garden by Nehemiah brings to mind the paradise which the King of kings prepared for Adam. Sin has utterly ruined that fair abode of all delights, and driven forth the children of men to till the ground, which yields thorns and briers unto them. My soul, remember the fall, for it was thy fall. Weep much because the Lord of love was so shamefully ill-treated by the head of the human race, of which thou art a member, as undeserving as any. Behold how dragons and demons dwell on this fair earth, which once was a garden of delights.
See yonder another King's garden, which the King waters with his bloody sweat--Gethsemane, whose bitter herbs are sweeter far to renewed souls than even Eden's luscious fruits. There the mischief of the serpent in the first garden was undone: there the curse was lifted from earth, and borne by the woman's promised seed. My soul, bethink thee much of the agony and the passion; resort to the garden of the olive-press, and view thy great Redeemer rescuing thee from thy lost estate. This is the garden of gardens indeed, wherein the soul may see the guilt of sin and the power of love, two sights which surpass all others.
Is there no other King's garden? Yes, my heart, thou art, or shouldst be such. How do the flowers flourish? Do any choice fruits appear? Does the King walk within, and rest in the bowers of my spirit? Let me see that the plants are trimmed and watered, and the mischievous foxes hunted out. Come, Lord, and let the heavenly wind blow at thy coming, that the spices of thy garden may flow abroad. Nor must I forget the King's garden of the church. O Lord, send prosperity unto it. Rebuild her walls, nourish her plants, ripen her fruits, and from the huge wilderness, reclaim the barren waste, and make thereof "a King's garden."
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Abel 
[Ä€'bĕl] - meadow, vanity or vapor.
The second son of Adam and Eve slain by his brother Cain (Gen. 4:1-15; Matt. 23:35; Heb. 11:4; 12:24).
The Man Who Was First to Die
Abel's name, meaning breath or vapor, is associated with the shortness of his life. What was his life but a vapor? (Ps. 90:6; Jas. 4:14 ) Abel was a shepherd and a possessor of flocks and herds; Cain was a tiller of the ground. It was not occupation, however, that parted these first two brothers in the world, but their conception of what was pleasing and acceptable to God. Abel feared God and because he did, he offered to God the best of his flock. His was a sacrifice of blood and represented the surrender of a heart to God. Cain brought what he had gathered from the earth, an offering representing his own effort. Because God accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's, the angry brother slew Abel in the field. But Abel's blood cried from the ground for punishment. Abel's blood is placed alongside Christ's shed blood ( Heb. 12:24), which is better than Abel's in that his blood cried out for vengeance but the blood of Christ cries out for mercy. Abel's blood, although the blood of a righteous man (Matt. 23:35), cannot atone, but Christ's blood is ever efficacious (1 John 1:7). Abel is unique among Bible men in a fourfold direction:
He was the first one of the human race to die. He was the first person on the earth to be murdered. He was the first man to be associated with Christ. He was the first saint to present an offering acceptable to God.
Abel is also the name given to geographical locations (1 Sam. 6:18; 2 Sam. 20:14).
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Today's reading: 1 Samuel 19-21, Luke 11:29-54 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 1 Samuel 19-21

Saul Tries to Kill David
1 Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2 and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3 I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."
4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly.5 He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 11:29-54

The Sign of Jonah
29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. 30For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here....

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Today's Lent reading: John 3-4 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."
4 "How can someone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit...."



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