Thursday, August 16, 2018

Thu Aug 16th Todays News

Don't give up on hope. Aretha Franklin has passed, too soon. But she leaves behind a rich legacy and an extraordinary story. Her father was a pastor of note, but also a philanderer and hair raising stories are told of his arrangements. Aretha became a mother at 12 years old, and again at 14. She married age 19 and divorced eight years later and remarried again, and divorced four years later. She chose not to remarry and called off an engagement with a long time partner in 2012. It is her lifestyle which fuelled her soul music. Respect. Natural Woman, Chain of fools, Think and, Spanish Harlem. She stopped touring this year. And, before pancreatic Cancer took her aged 76, she had achieved much.

I'm contributing to QUORA, a question and answer site that can be a bit addictive.

Which is more noble or virtuous: To confess to a lie in order live and fight another day even if only from imprisonment, or to maintain your innocence and resist the oppressor only to be executed today?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelago

US has a justice system that functions. But it has squeaky wheels and much criticism gets directed at her that is partisan and opportunistic. Generally, people don't face the choice given above, although there are innocent people who plead guilty because of the vagaries of the system.

In scripture, Christ, Confucius, Solomon and Buddha provide answers. There is also an answer from Islam. I won’t cover the religious answers.

Yet, in the face of severe injustice, Christian pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced that choice, and was executed. He knew we’d be discussing this and he answered it. "This is the end—for me the beginning of life." He was afraid of implicating his brother, who was also hanged anyway. He was executed a few days before his incarceration place was liberated. His last moments have been described as, “Eberhard Bethge, a student and friend of Bonhoeffer's, writes of a man who saw the execution: "I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."” However the description may have been fabricated as it is known others had been tortured to death and the doctor present may not have wished to have been implicated. Dietrich could have said he was wrong and accepted Nazism.

Thomas More, called a Man for all Seasons, was executed, and before his execution has been described as saying that faith was like water cupped in the hands of a thirsty man in the desert. In an unguarded moment, the hand opens and the drops are lost in dust, never to be recovered.

Otto Warmbier may never have committed the crime he was accused of. He confessed and lost everything anyway.

It is a transaction. Does one trust the return that is promised? As the song goes “Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”

A daily column on what the ALP have as a policy, supported by a local member, and how it has 'helped' the local community. I'll stop if I cannot identify a policy. Feel free to make suggestions. Contact me on FB, not twitter. I have twitter, but never look at it.

Gabrielle Williams was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Carers and Volunteers, working with the Minister for Housing, Disability and Ageing and the Minister for Families and Children. Williams was given those titles when elected in 2014. It is difficult to find what value she has been to Dandenong, but clearly the ALP see her as the future. On Aug 14th, Williams' News feed had an article on a $30 million government budget policy. The ALP want people to pick a project. The rules are simple. Find a project that Dan Andrews wants to promote himself. Vote for the one that means most to you. Dan will go with the flow, wether it is good for you or not. That is not democracy. That is a pork barrel.

As part of the November 24th Vic election campaign I have a petition I want to bring before the Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. I believe Matthew will be the next premier of Victoria and so I am petitioning him as I raise the issues of Employment, Crime and Education in Dandenong. I am also seeking money for my campaign. I don't have party resources, and so my campaign is on foot, and on the internet. Any money I receive that is not spent on the campaign will go to Grow 4 Life. I am asking questions like "What do you love about Dandenong?" and "If you could change something in Dandenong to make it better, what would it be?" I'm not limiting the questions to state issues. I'm happy to discuss anything, and get things done.


















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 Cant Help Falling in Love (With You)

"Can't Help Falling in Love", by George Weiss, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, is a pop song based on "Plaisir d'amour" by Jean Paul Egide Martini. It was adapted for inclusion in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii, starring Elvis Presley. During the following four decades, it went on to be covered by numerous artists, most notably by the British reggae group UB40, whose 1993 version topped the U.S. and UK Singles charts. To this day it remains the anthem of many football and Rugby League clubs, Including Hull City FC Sunderland A.F.C and Huddersfield Giants.


=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. Australia is over governed with three layers of government, federal state and local. Local councils can be very good, focused on core objectives like town planning, community hubs like libraries, pools and gymnasiums. Or, local council can be awful, reactive and intrusive and unhelpful. Greens and ALP dominated local councils tend to the latter. Sydney suffers under a Green type leadership which makes her awful. Melbourne prospers under a conservative, Robert Doyle. Recently, a Greens council attempted to ban a synagogue in a community with a large Jewish presence. Another council, Yarra, greens dominated, has floated fake polls regarding Australia Day so as to have Australia Day removed as a public Holiday and replace it with May 8th (which might be made to sound like 'mate' an Okker style greeting of a friend). If the council really needed to make a change, why lie about it? Couldn't they just stick to garbage collection and town planning? Why replace a summer holiday with a winter one? 

On this day in history, 1 BC Wang Mang consolidated his power by becoming Marshall of State. Eight years later he became emperor. He was a Confucian scholar who aimed for ideals, but resulted in chaos. He had inherited chaos too. Emperor Ai of Han had died the previous day in 1 BC and had badly run the court, placing his homosexual lover in charge of the army. Wang reversed that policy, and the army chief suicided the next day, giving Wang his position in the Military. In 1513, early in his years on the throne, Henry VIII defeated France at the Battle of Guinegate. In 1792, Robespierre presented a petition demanding the commune of Paris create a revolutionary tribunal. In 1812, General William Hull surrendered Fort Detroit without a battle. Obama did something similar with the city of Detroit. In 1819, the Peterloo massacre occurred when cavalry charged a crowd of protestors in Peter's Field, Manchester. Not the act of a democratic power, 17 died and six hundred were wounded. In 1841 after the President vetoed  bill for a second US Bank, Whigs (antecedent Democrats) rioted outside the White House in the most violent demonstration in White House history. In 1858, US President Buchanan sent a cable to Queen Victoria. It is not recorded if she was amused. In 1859, the Tuscan national assembly deposed the House of Habsburg Lorraine, the most royal family in European history. In 1869, a Paraguayan battalion made up of children, some wearing fake beards, numbering 6000, was crushed by the Brazilian Army, numbering 18000 Brazillians and 2000 Argentinians. In 1870 at the Battle of Mars-La-Tour Prussia defeated France in stunning fashion, with 30000 men facing 120000, Prussia should not have won, but did. In 1900, The Battle of Elands River during the 2nd Boer war had 500 British (297 Australians, 201 Rhodesians, 3 Canadians 3 Britons) at a supply dump faced off against 3000 Boer regulars. The Boers were not able to seize the dump before it was relieved over a week later. In 1913, fantasies of some were made real by women going to university in Japan's Tohoku University for the first time. In 1920, a player in Major League Baseball was killed by a fastball. In 1927, The Dole Air Race began from Oakland to Honolulu where six of the eight planes crashed or disappeared without trace. In 1929, Jordanians rioted killing jews in British mandate Palestine. In 1930, Fiddlesticks, the first colour and sound cartoon was made. In 1944 the German made jet bomber Junkers Ju 287 first flew. It was only a prototype. In 1945, Japan had surrendered but some still attempted to assassinate the PM, Suzuki, to prevent negotiations. On the same day, the last Chinese Emperor, Pu Yi was captured by Soviet Forces. In 1954, Sports Illustrated was first published. In 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped out of a balloon at 31 km. In 1966, the communist witch hunt extended to celebrities aiding North Vietnamese. Hanoi Jane says she was used by communists, and is also vindicated. 























=== from 2016 === 
The loss of AFL club Richmond to Geelong suggests a significant problem with salient lessons Australia wide. Richmond had defeated Collingwood the previous week, and has a reputation for playing better against better teams. Like any AFL team, Richmond has some great players that would grace any team of any era. By three quarter time against Geelong, Richmond were thirty five points up and seemed certain winners. But they lost, squandering their six goal lead. And it will be said that Geelong were hungrier for the win, and more desperate. But the fact is that Richmond had been trained by their coach to not care, as individuals. The top players can play badly because there will be no consequences if they can say they had played well earlier. But if a player is not desperate for a win all game, they need to be penalised for it by the coach or the coach needs to be answerable for not training his team to win. The same is true in politics, where appallingly bad decisions from the leadership needs to be penalised by members. Turnbull has been humiliated enough. He needs to go now. Shorten has failed enough, for the sake of the ALP, he needs to go. At the moment, the parliament is on a knife edge, and the ALP are not offering pairs for absent members from parliament. But the ALP last parliament deliberately got themselves ejected from parliament on a regular basis. Shorten was proud of that. They have been coached badly. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.  
=== from 2015 ===
Much that passes for policy in the ALP is mere hatred of conservatives and obsequious servitude to their union masters. But the unions don't exploit it responsibly. A senior journalist on channel 7 is caught out lying about Tony Abbott's trip to the front, claiming Mr Abbott dismissed the tragic death of an Australian soldier with "Shit happens." He got words on tape and publicly harangues Mr Abbott, but is seen on a wider edit to have inflated a poignant acknowledgement from Mr Abbott showing he was indeed aware of the enormity of the situation. The journalist is caught out, but is still in position slinging mud and lying about wider Canberra political events. Channel 9 have a senior political editor that has campaigned against the conservative parties for the ALP for some forty years. He has been caught out many times, but retains his position. So it is understandable when the Australian's associate editor John Lyons lies about SBS hiring a known bigot hostile to federal police, conservatives and decent people. We know Lyons is looking for job security. Lyons had also lied about Mr Abbott wanting to unilaterally invade Iraq. 

Who believes the lies told about the conservatives? We are told that same sex marriage is marriage equality and that Mr Abbott is wrong to abide party policy and ask for the people to vote on the issue. We are told people want his government to write laws reflecting nothing like what was campaigned at election. And if he doesn't then his government is 'no longer Liberal.' We are told that it is compassionate to drown people wanting to come to Australia because that is what the ALP does. We are told a highly respected judge who agreed to give a talk on law at a lecture in the name of a highly respected deceased lawyer is as biased as Gillian Triggs for the HRC who has lied about what she saw at detention centres and had held up an inquiry which might have reflected badly on the ALP so as to attack an incoming conservative government. Consider the polls at the moment. Clearly a substantial number of those being polled believe those lies. Which is another reason why the media spread them. 

ABC Insiders claimed the Abbott government has had a week from hell. They claim the highly respected judge leading an effective royal commission should step aside because he appears biased to them. They also claim that Australian people are demanding that churches are exposed to litigation for acting on conscience over same sex marriage. However, looked at in the cold light of reality, Mr Abbott has appropriately given a good judge effective powers to appropriately establish what is happening regarding union abuse of power in industry. And Mr Abbott has correctly prepared a way for Australians to register their values regarding same sex marriage. It is worth pointing out that same sex married peoples live in Australia at the moment and have full married rights. And civil unions are already available to any, excluding the very young or animals or polygamists. Polygamists still get welfare. 
From 2014
Will All Blacks defeat Wallabies tonight, or will Wallabies get lucky? New Zealand are aiming for an eighteenth win on the trot. Australia has not won the Bledisloe Cup since 2002, and hasn't deserved to, unless pity scores points. A brilliant match by Australia in wet conditions and it is drawn 12 all. A Gold Coast pervert loser body builder pleads not guilty to murder. No word yet if they plan to plead temporary insanity or if tossing a young woman off of a balcony was an accident. One has the right to remain silent, but not to thrill kill. Rules aren't meant to be fuzzy. A scrum is supposed to be a fair contest for the ball, but it slows the game down in ARL. So a new rule has meant a quick play the ball, but it seems to have created a misunderstanding and now Paramatta Eels, have lost a game they might have won .. if only the referee knew what the rules were. And people gamble on the results. Ukraine claims it has blown up a Russian military convoy. Russia claims it hasn't. Meanwhile Russia has sent two hundred white aid trucks to their separatist friends. If Ukraine has targeted humanitarian aid then they deserve to face the world court for crimes against humanity. But then no one has claimed that that was what they have done. Commonwealth bank has a large profit. There is nothing wrong with that. Under the ALP, the federal government had a substantial deficit. That is bad. Even so, major advisors to the previous government say that Commonwealth bank has too much profit. Turns out Australia's foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, had her phone hacked while she was overseas. No news yet if it was Snowden. 
Historical perspective on this day
1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs.
963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708.
1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat.

1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.
1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention.

1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalrycharges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.
1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.
1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
1859 – The Tuscan National Assembly formally deposes the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country.
1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed.
1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.

1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift.
1906 – An estimated 8.2 MW earthquake hits Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people.
1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students.
1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary.
1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States signed.
1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army.

1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastballthrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909.
1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution.
1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Armyis forced to turn away from Warsaw.
1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealandits administrator.
1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.
1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed.

1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.
1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon.
1942 – World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
1944 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 287.
1945 – An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantarō Suzuki.
1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương.
1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours.
1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad.

1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.
1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official.
1962 – Pete Best is discharged from the Beatles, to be replaced two days later by Ringo Starr.
1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.
1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.

1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.
1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255 a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashes after take off in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground.
1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.
2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level.
2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg.
2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing.
2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma.
=== 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
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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 Louise Tremblay and Blaine Transue. Born on the same day, across the years, as Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster (1355), T. E. Lawrence (1888), Menachem Begin (1913), Robert Culp (1930), Julie Newmar (1933), Tim Farriss (1957), Madonna (1958) and Steve Carell (1962). On your day, Children's Day in Paraguay
1819 – Fifteen people were killed and 400–700 others were injured when cavalry charged into a crowd of about 60–80,000 who were gathered at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.
1863 – After Spain had annexed the Dominican Republic, rebels raised the Dominican flag in Santiago de los Caballeros to begin the War of Restoration.
1929 – A long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into a week-long period of violent riots throughout Palestine.
1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m), setting records for high-altitude jump, free-fall height, and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft.
1977 – Elvis Presley, "The King of Rock and Roll", was officially pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, after he was found unresponsive on the floor of his Graceland bathroom. Gathering is best when committed for praise. Raise the flag. Try not to give too many names to Jordanians. Make the preparations and take the leap. The king is dead .. long live the king.
Deaths
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Tim Blair

===
Andrew Bolt

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SOMETHING ON HIS MIND

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 16, 2016 (7:07pm)

A certain former journalism professor obviously cannot read.
===

PUT IT IN NEUTRAL

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 16, 2016 (3:58pm)

As was once said of Bob Cunis, this is a case of “neither one thing nor the other”: 
A growing number of Aussie parents are choosing to break free of traditional gender stereotypes and instead adopting a “gender neutral” approach to raising their kids.
Sydney mum Thea Hughes is one such parent who encourages her kids to explore all the options available when it comes to toys, clothing and media, to ensure they don’t feel their choices are limited to the gender-specific options presented to them …
Thea uses male pronouns to describe her kids because, she says, her eldest son identifies himself as a ‘boy’. 
(Via Waxing Gibberish, who emails: “This doesn’t go far enough. I think children should be raised species neutral as well.")
===

DAILY CALAIS MELEE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 16, 2016 (2:39pm)

France’s previous generation of angry arrivals at least waited until the cars had no people in them: 
Migrants wielding bats and knives have been smashing up vehicles on roads near Calais as their owners sit in traffic, reportedly  “just for fun”. Local residents are warning others to avoid the area, saying that the migrants are not even checking to see whether children are in the vehicles before they set upon them.
One resident has posted pictures to Facebook of her brother-in-law’s car, which sustained more than €500 worth of damage when over a dozen migrants set about it with bats, completely smashing a side mirror and the rear window, and shattering the windscreen. 
Here’s a helpful device to deal with this sort of problem:

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NO RATIONAL REASONING

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 16, 2016 (1:46pm)

Cyclist Sue Abbott is fined $220 for riding without a helmet, despite her earth-saving excuse: 
She told [Magistrate Michael] Barko she could not wear a helmet but had to keep riding her bike to do her part to mitigate “catastrophic climate change”.
“My possible death or my catastrophic brain injury as well as the climate’s continued demise because we won’t face our responsibility towards climate change should far outweigh this infraction under NSW road rules,” she said.

Mr Barko dismissed Abbott’s linking of helmet laws to climate change as an argument with “no rational reasoning”.
“How is you riding a bike going to stop the glacier melting in the North Pole?” he asked. 
(Via Ronald.)
===

TRUTH ASSAILED BY TWITTER

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 16, 2016 (12:28pm)

Jennifer Oriel nails them to the wall: 
Despite being fattened on taxpayer funds and surrounded by fawning dullards, the PC censors proscribing our right to reason are demonstrably incapable of beating Leak or Bolt in a battle of wits. So they incite the mob to bully freethinkers out of public life. Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane has urged people to complain about Leak’s latest thought crime: a politically incorrect cartoon.
Aren’t jihadists waging war on the West? Wasn’t Leak forced to move house after Islamists threatened to kill him? Apparently, what concerned the Australian Human Rights Commission more was the unfolding drama of cartoon capers. After Leak’s cartoon was published, grown men got outraged. Caps lock felt the burn all over Twitter. Then the ABC reported on Twitter. Then Twitter reported on the ABC reporting on Twitter. Then right-on dudes tapped out super aggro letters about Leak’n’stuff to 4realz social justice warriors @postcode #2000. OMG. Trigger warning!
Meanwhile, children are being beaten, abused and neglected every day in Australia. And some of them are Aboriginal children neglected by drunken Aboriginal men – the subject of Leak’s cartoon. People who neglect and abuse children should be held up for public scrutiny whatever their skin colour, culture or sex. And artists who reveal that abuse should not be censored for offending those offended by truth. 
Quite so.
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TUESDAY NOTICEBOARD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, August 16, 2016 (2:10am)

Not one cent of US taxes are directed towards Olympic athletes. But look at how much Australia spends on swimming alone: 
Swimming Australia has received the most funding under the Australian Sports Commission’s Winning Edge program – $38 million for the Olympic high performance program over the last four years. There has also been $3 million for athlete support grants and $4 million that has been spent on performance enhancement teams.
[Swimming Australia president John] Bertrand ($500,000) and [chief executive Mark] Anderson’s ($400,000) wages are almost $1 million annually in total. 
This is ridiculous. Stop it. Stop all of it.
UPDATE. I demand increased funding for Ukrainian synchronised swimmers.
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AXE ATTACK

Tim Blair – Monday, August 15, 2016 (7:29pm)

Trouble again in Cologne, the site of mass molestation on New Year’s Eve: 
Two suspects are on the run after a knife and shooting attack in Cologne, local media has reported.
One person was injured in the attack near Rudolfplatz in the early hours of Monday morning …
Several people told police shortly before 4am local time three or four people seemed to be having problems with another man, with eyewitnesses reporting seeing men attacking each other with axes.
A man who sustained a stab wound tried to flee in his car but other men shot at him, though they only hit the car …
The motive for the attack is currently unknown. 
Four tourists were injured last month during an axe and knife attack in southern Germany. The attacker, a teenage Afghan refugee, was shot dead by police as he fled the scene.
UPDATE. Given the hour of the attack and its location, our Presbyterian friends might not be involved: 
The area is well-known for red light business, drug pushing and money laundering with the city also becoming a focus of anti-refugee sentiment after the mass sexual assault of hundreds of women by gangs of marauding immigrant men on New Year’s Eve last year.
Germany has been on high alert after a string of attacks in the summer, including when teenager Ali David Sonboly killed nine people in Munich on July 23. 
UPDATE II. The graphics department at India Today doesn’t hold back:
===

Tonight on The Bolt Report and radio - Andrew Denton, plus an embarrassing letter from the ABC

Andrew Bolt August 16 2016 (4:16pm)

On The Bolt Report on Sky News Live at 7pm tonight:
Andrew Denton is campaigning to legalise euthanasia. We will tonight discuss our differences.
Matt Cunningham has an extraordinary letter the ABC wrote that casts fresh doubt on its report into juvenile justice in the Northern Territory.
Podcasts of the show here. Facebook page here.

On 2GB, 3AW and 4BC with Steve Price from 8pm.
Listen live here. Talkback:  131 873.  Listen to all past shows  here.
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Define “critical”

Andrew Bolt August 16 2016 (10:21am)

Curious. Brian Toohey: 
Ausgrid, the state-owned NSW electricity distributor, has denied Treasurer Scott Morrison’s claim it provides “critical” communication services to business and government. Morrison said these alleged services raised one of the key national security issues involved in his ban on selling Ausgrid to Chinese and Hong Kong bidders. 
Ausgrid told The Australian Financial Review it doesn’t provide any communications services, critical or otherwise, to business and government or any other customer. A spokesperson said Ausgrid had no telco licence or telco customers and its internal communications capability was only used for such purposes as checking faults with its “poles and wires” that distribute power to electricity retailers in major areas of NSW. In announcing the ban last Thursday, Morrison said a review had identified the national security issues as Ausgrid’s “provision of critical power and communications services to business and government”. The ban applies to separate bids by the Chinese government-owned firm State Grid and the privately owned Hong Kong company Cheung Kong Infrastructure for a 99-year lease of 50.4 per cent Ausgrid.
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Green-up exposed

Andrew Bolt August 16 2016 (8:58am)

No surprise at the hypocrisy and the political leanings, and some satisfaction that I am still bothering them:
The chairwoman of activist group GetUp! campaigned for the Greens during the federal elect­ion, calling into question its claim to publicly support no political party, and provoking outcry from conservative politicians. 
GetUp!’s chairwoman Sarah Maddison, an academic and author, used social media service Twitter to urge support for the Greens with tweets such as "another excellent reason to vote #Greens 16, especially for @greensjason in Higgins”.
On its website, GetUp! states that its work “is driven by our values, not party politics”.
“GetUp! is, and always has been, an independent organisation,” it states. Yet another of Ms Maddison’s tweets read: “Attacking the Greens on the Bolt Report? - get in the bin @AustralianLabor.”
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Jew-hatred is for losers

Andrew Bolt August 16 2016 (8:46am)

Jew-hatred surfaces again at the Olympics:
Olympic officials say an Egyptian judo athlete has been reprimanded and sent home after refusing to shake his Israeli opponent’s hand. 
The International Olympic Committee says Islam El Shehaby received a “severe reprimand” for his behaviour following his first-round heavyweight bout loss to Or Sasson on Friday…

The IOC says the Egyptian Olympic Committee also “strongly condemned” El Shehaby’s actions “and has sent him home.”
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Reflections on the revolution in Australia. Be there

Andrew Bolt August 16 2016 (8:24am)

The Edmund Burke’s Club of Melbourne is holding its second annual conference on the political philosophy of Edmund Burke on Saturday, November 19.
Theme:  the state of conservatism in Australia, through Burkean eyes, grown mournful at the fall of Tony Abbott. It includes a dinner at the Savage Club.
Book here.
Speakers: Dr. Robert Andrews, Dr. Steve Chavura, Will Church and Gerard Wilson.  
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Book on the mend

Andrew Bolt August 15 2016 (9:52pm)

My book is on an odyssey, visiting the skulls of Montpellier, Shanghai,  Croatia,  Ho Chi Minh City, Santorini, London, Lake Como, Ithaca, Scotland, the Bay of Naples, Dubrovnik, Fiji, Aileron,  New Zealand,  Sri Lanka,  the Andes,  a christening in Newcastle, the Northern Territory,  the Whitsundays,  Kalgoorlieand Condabri, Queensland, before  invading Australia’s most Left-wing Parliament - an experience which convinced one reader at the Katharine River Mango Farm to try teaching even a donkey to understand what’s in it.
Now reader Peter is using the book to keep his mind off his hip replacement at the Nepean Private Hospital in Penrith::
To console the sickie in your life, order the book here.
BOLT BULLETIN
The fourth edition of the Bolt Bulletin, available to on-line buyers, is written and should be out today. It includes a prediction of a big culture war, the loudest lesson learned on my book tour and a must-visit recommendation for Australia’s least-known arts jewel. I also include a scathing column I somehow forgot to put in my book - one I was reminded of while reading a terrific memoir of a genius who rescued two of the greatest opera houses in the world before dying in 1940. 
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French-speaking, Raspail-loving handwriting sleuth wanted

Andrew Bolt August 15 2016 (9:49pm)

American journalist Sasha Polakow-Suransky very kindly got Jean Raspail, now aged 91, to autograph for me a copy of his prophetic and brave Camp of the Saints, which 43 years ago predicted the existential threat that mass immigration from the Third World would pose to Europe.
(I also recommend his equally penetrating Who Will Remember the People..., set in Patagonia but with hard lessons for us in Australia, too, faced with another culture inevitably dying from contact with the outside world.)
Anyway, there is a problem. I can’t speak French and can’t make out some of the writing, but am very eager to know what Raspail has written in my book. Can any readers help?
UPDATE
Thank you so much to all the very kind readers who have made good this shameful deficit in my education:
Dear Andrew, while hoping - without believing - that the book will remain fiction… Final part in 2045 - 2055. Good luck and friendship
Reader Marie and other native French speakers translate it more grimly:
For Andrew, Hoping - without believing it - that the book will remain fictional… Game over in 2045 - 2055. Good luck and with my friendly thoughts.
UPDATE
Final consensus, with particular input from Jean-Marc:
For Andrew, Hoping - without believing it - that the book will remain fictional… End game in 2045 - 2055. Good luck and in friendship. 
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Who will stand up for Dyson Heydon, a man of honour?

Piers Akerman – Saturday, August 15, 2015 (11:16pm)

THE outrageous and totally baseless attacks on the integrity of former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon can clearly serve only those who feel most threatened by his investigation into corrupt union practices.

 Continue reading 'Who will stand up for Dyson Heydon, a man of honour?'
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PM Tony Abbott right to rain on irate rainbow parade

Miranda Devine – Saturday, August 15, 2015 (11:18pm)

YOU can measure suburban grassroots support for Tony Abbott in inverse proportion to the vehemence of his opponents. And his opponents are feral at the moment on gay marriage.

 Continue reading 'PM Tony Abbott right to rain on irate rainbow parade'
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PODLESS

Tim Blair – Sunday, August 16, 2015 (1:17pm)

Readers may have noticed the absence this week of a podcast. This was due to podpal Joe Hildebrand being in Melbourne for televisual and family reasons. As well, podcasting will be in hiatus over coming weeks due to me being on leave (hello, Texas!) and also because lawyers have raised reasonable concerns over the “Timmy Time” name, which may infringe copyright.
As the search for a new name continues, please enjoy previously podded casts:
One.
Two.
Three.
Four. 
===

Why did the ABC rebroadcast what it was told was a false smear?

Andrew Bolt August 16 2015 (10:06am)

Rebecca Weisser corrects a unionist’s falsehood - a simple error of fact - that smears royal commissioner Dyson Heydon:
But forget the facts. The ABC news later repeats the smear, after editing out the correction:
:
The ABC should explain why it promotes a false smear above the facts.
Correction: the clip calls the falsehood a lie. I think that’s wrong. It is a falsehood and the unionist said it unintentionally. We all make slips of the tongue.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
===

On The Bolt Report today, August 16

Andrew Bolt August 16 2015 (6:20am)

On Channel 10 at 10am. NOTE: the 3pm repeat this week is on ONE everywhere except Perth, where it will screen after the netball.

My guests: Justice Minister Michael Keenan; Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger; Sean Kelly, former advisor to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd; and Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph columnist and 2GB host.
The real reason Labor is smearing royal commissioner Dyson Heydon. Did Tony Abbott really have the week from hell? The media push for same sex marriage- and not taking yes for an answer. Plus Shorten’s apartheid plan.
The videos of the shows appear here.
===

They talk of equal love but shower with hate

Andrew Bolt August 16 2015 (5:58am)

The abuse from same-sex marriage campaigners is astonishing.
Gerard Henderson:
On Wednesday, Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong referred to Tony Abbott as “stuck in the past” and “yesterday’s man”. About the same time, Bill Shorten described Eric Abetz, leader of the government in the Senate, as “a clown”. 
Yet the Prime Minister and Abetz are not the only senior politicians to hold the traditional view that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. This position happens to be shared by Stephen Conroy, Labor’s deputy leader in the Senate.
When the Marriage Amendment Bill 2012 was debated in the Senate in September 2012, Conroy voted with Abetz to preserve the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. When this legislation came before the House of Representatives, Abbott found that his opposition to same-sex marriage was shared by Labor ministers Chris Bowen, Tony Burke and Wayne Swan along with prime minister Julia Gillard and former prime minister Kevin Rudd…
Four years later, Bowen, Burke and Swan have changed their position… But Abbott, Abetz and Conroy have not junked their previous view, which suggests that if Abbott is “yesterday’s man” and Abetz “is a clown”, then the same terms of abuse should apply to Conroy.
Miranda Devine:
Virtually with one voice the media establishment and the political class have condemned the Prime Minister for his plan to allow the public to vote on [a] contentious social change. Even some of his more image-conscious cabinet colleagues confidently proclaim he is on the “wrong side of history”. 
When have we heard this said before about Abbott?
On the republic. On climate change. On both issues he stood firm, was denigrated for it and eventually was shown to have been on the right side of history…
If the advocates of gay marriage are as confident as they claim that close to three quarters of the public is with them, then why are they so upset about the decision of the Coalition party room to allow a public vote?
Either they have been lying about community sentiment or they have nothing to fear…
A democratic endorsement of gay marriage by a majority of Australians will put the matter to rest in a way a stitched-up deal by politicians with a variety of obscure motivations never will…
But the only way this debate gets off the table is if the gay marriage lobby wins… Claws are still sheathed but you know their tactics will get increasingly ugly, targeting individual MPs, and branding opponents bigots and homophobes.
If you want to know how low they will go, you need look no further than Peter van Onselen… declar[ing] that young homosexual Australians will “commit suicide between now and when the government finally gets its act together"… [The lobbyists] were cock-a-whoop when the nominally Catholic country of Ireland voted for gay marriage in a referendum, yet want to deny Australians the same opportunity.

It’s too expensive, they say. It’s unnecessary. It will cause suicides. Are they listening to themselves? The commentary is insane.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and John.) 
===

Gosh. You mean we import their culture, too?

Andrew Bolt August 16 2015 (5:53am)

The Times reports on the importation of ancient hatreds:
Religious sectarianism is on the rise in Britain’s Muslim community and threatens to spill over into violent crime and terrorism, leading clerics warned yesterday.
An investigation by The Times has found a sharp but largely hidden rise in sectarian tensions between the minority Shia community and the dominant Sunni groups, driven by the long, bitter war in Syria.
Ill-feeling is being stoked by vitriolic preachers on both sides of the divide — including some who lecture at British universities — and incidents such as assaults, attacks on buildings and intimidation online.
Douglas Murray says he’s stunned:
I must say that I am shocked – really shocked – by this.  Like everyone else, I had always assumed that if you allowed very large numbers of people with totally different beliefs into this country then in no time they would be down the local pub and fully integrated loyal members of the Women’s Institute and their local Anglican church.  It was totally unforeseeable, was it not, that any of them would bring their ancient animosities with them?  And as for the attacks on mosques outlined in the report – surely such actions could only ever be expected from native knuckle-dragging ‘Islamophobes’.  What are we to do now that Muslims in the UK are attacking mosques?  What names can we call them?  All this will require deep thought.  At least it is not too late in the day to start
(Thanks to reader Grendel.) 
===

Obama loses Iraq

Andrew Bolt August 16 2015 (5:42am)

The evidence from Lindsey Graham is compelling - Iraq wanted Barack Obama not to pull out all troops. And John Hinderaker rightly concludes:
At one point Barack Obama and Joe Biden basked in the success of the surge that was authorized by George W. Bush and carried out by Gen. David Petraeus. They proclaimed Iraq one of the Obama administration’s greatest accomplishments, taking credit for a military and diplomatic effort that had nothing to do with them. And then that ideologically-obsessed dummy, Barack Obama, threw it all away.
More:
[Former Obama Defense Secretary Leon Panetta] said the Obama White House did not press hard enough to reach a deal [with Iraq and leaving behind US troops]. Panetta wrote that the U.S. “had leverage” and could have “threatened to withdraw reconstruction aid” if Iraq didn’t agree to “some sort of continued U.S. military presence.” 
Panetta, Worthy Fights, 2014: To my frustration, the White House coordinated the negotiations but never really led them. Officials there seemed content to endorse an agreement if State and Defense could reach one, but without the President’s active advocacy, al-Maliki was allowed to slip away. The deal never materialized. To this day, I believe that a small U.S. troop presence in Iraq could have effectively advised the Iraqi military on how to deal with al-Qaeda’s resurgence and the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country.
Now:
A car bombing Saturday at a popular auto dealership in a Shi’ite-majority suburb of Baghdad killed 11 people and wounded at least 35, Iraqi officials said. 
The blast hit the Habibiya neighborhood of Sadr City, the same district where a massive truck bomb ripped through a wholesale vegetable market just two days before, killing 67 people — one of the worst attacks in Baghdad in a decade.
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Hair brained

Andrew Bolt August 16 2015 (5:32am)

Here’s one charity with disturbingly low standards:
Australia’s alopecia foundation says Christos Kyrgios’ ability to save lives as an ambassador for them far outweighs any possible negativity that could arise from his “slip of the tongue” on radio. 
Mr Kyrgios is the brother of Canberra tennis sensation Nick Kyrgios, who has been widely criticised for his offensive sledge of Stan Wawrinka, and has had alopecia since he was five.
His brother had told Mr Wawrinka: “[Thanasi] Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend” during their match at the Rogers Cup in Montreal and MMM called Mr Kyrgios to talk about the sledge - which was in reference to Donna Vekic, a female tennis player believed to be Mr Wawrinka’s girlfriend.
They ended the interview when Mr Kyrgios said: “She likes Kokk.”
But AAAF president Chel Campbell said there were no thoughts of the foundation ending their association with Mr Kygios. She said Mr Kyrgios had already saved “someone from killing themselves” in his short time working with them.

Ms Campbell said Australians were renowned for abbreviating people’s names and felt the media “beats up a lot of stories”.
Seriously? This is the media’s fault? And promoting a charity excuses you from sliming a young woman? 
===

Credlin is right and Guy was a wrecker

Andrew Bolt August 16 2015 (5:03am)

Let’s see what Michael Kroger says about this Samantha Maiden report on The Bolt Report today:
WHEN the Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff Peta Credlin texted Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger this week to gently ask why Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy had blasted the PM on gay marriage, she probably didn’t expect news of the exchange to spread far and wide. 
The conversation wasn’t terse. Credlin was simply asking why Guy had chosen to kick the issue into another day. Two-thirds of the party room had backed the PM’s decision not to offer a conscience vote. The debate was over — but Guy had accused the Abbott government of “poisoning the well of good will”.
It was the political equivalent of a hand grenade. Credlin texted Kroger to ask why. His response? Kroger told her that Guy believed in a conscience vote and that was that. He added for good measure that Victoria didn’t always have a big voice. “Get used to it, Peta,” was the spin others put on it later. This is unfair. But Kroger is accused of showing his Credlin texts to others, including attendees at a Liberal Hawthorn branch event.
My own take: Matthew Guy isn’t travelling so well himself (just 42 per cent to 58 in Newspoll) that he should be lecturing Tony Abbott.  Indeed, the biggest headlines Guy got all year was when he joined a media pack-attack on his own by repeating the lines of the Left. And it was grossly unfair to attack Abbott for doing no more than express the views of two thirds of the Coalition and a clear majority of Liberals, while still offering a plan to let the public decide.
So I thought Guy was self-indulgent and damaging to the wider Liberal cause. He hurt the federal Liberals while not helping the Victorian ones.  Credlin is right to be surprised, and would not be doing her job if she did not ask for some explanation.
UPDATE
The Age, which did so much to destroy the last state Liberal government, thanks Matthew Guy for helping it to slime this federal one:
===

REPEATED AND UNCONTROLLABLE FAILURES

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 16, 2014 (6:34pm)

The unbearable sadness of climate activism: 
Nicole Thornton remembers the exact moment her curious case of depression became too real to ignore. It was five years ago and the environmental scientist – a trained biologist and ecologist – was writing a rather dry PhD on responsible household water use. 
Fair enough. That would make anyone depressed. 
Thornton had always been easily upset by apathy towards, and denial of, environmental issues. But now she began to notice an oddly powerful personal reaction to “the small stuff” – like people littering, or neighbours chopping down an old tree. 
So she’s a bossy type who wants others to obey her. No wonder Nicole is attracted to environmentalism. 
She found herself suddenly and strongly enveloped by unfamiliar feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, anger and anxiety. 
The poor woman must be a Carlton supporter. 
“It’s strange. Sometimes you just don’t feel you’re making headway in the time you’ve got, before it’s too late for the planet,” Thornton says. “All these little things weigh you down, and then the big stuff breaks you.” 
Nicole needs professional help. Paging Dr Switzer:
The United Nations was about to hold its 2009 climate change conference in Copenhagen, and Thornton felt she had a personal investment in it. She, like many thousands of activists and scientists and green campaigners, had high hopes that a new and robust version of the Kyoto agreement would be created in Denmark.
“But the reality was a massive, epic failure of political will. It broke me,” she says. “The trigger point was actually watching grown men cry.” 
I don’t mean to diminish anyone’s pain or suffering, but it is impossible to read those two paragraphs without laughing. 
Thornton pauses, takes a breath. “It still gets me, five years later. That’s when I lost hope that we were able to save ourselves from self-destruction. That’s when I lost hope that we would survive as a species. It made me more susceptible to what I call ‘climate depression’.” 
But Thornton isn’t actually depressed about the climate. She’s depressed that people won’t be pushed around by oppressive new climate laws. 
Several experts suggest that the overall intersection of mental health and climate change is one we ignore at our peril. 
There’s a 100 per cent overlap for those particular Venn diagrams, that’s for damn sure. 
“Every time I talked about environmental issues, I would start crying, which I think is a really unusual response,” she says. 
Not really. I bet a lot of people start crying when she talks about environmental issues. 
Susie Burke, a senior psychologist with the Australian Psychological Society, has done extensive work on the mental impact of climate change. Burke understands Thornton’s confusion, but also points out that she is by no means alone. 
The challenge would be finding a climate activist who is sane. 
“We can be very sure that many people in the field of climate change are distressed – highly distressed – and it can have a significant psychosocial impact on their wellbeing,” Burke said. “If you’re feeling stress, anger, guilt, anxiousness or hopelessness, it has effects on your life. Depression becomes a real risk.” 
So take up a different hobby. You know, something that isn’t so stupid. Here’s a lady who collects bus tickets, for example. 
Burke points out that disengagement – “switching off from the cause and becoming passive” – is an additional and bona fide concern for leaders within the green community, such is the crippling power of the threat perceived by people like Thornton, and the slow rate of change they observe. 
“The crippling power of the threat perceived by people like Thornton.” Psychologist Burke just walked straight past her diagnosis. 
She and her colleague, Dr Grant Blashki of the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne, have even been called on by organisations that need help dealing with the overall melancholy affecting their troops.
Adam Majcher, of Australian Conservation Foundation, reached out to Burke and Blashki around the time of the failure in Copenhagen (which is acknowledged as an emotional nadir for green activists). 
Good. These doomer bastards have spent years trying to depress and frighten everyone else. They deserve their misery. 
“We were seeing signs of a particular burden on our advocates,” says Majcher. “There was a shift in the moods and attitudes, with people becoming quite despondent, less engaged. Many people usually talkative were going a little quiet.” 
Not seeing any downside here. 
“And there was definitely a significant decline in activity in the program, along with frustrations playing out in isolation, anger.” 
Are they self-harming yet? Because that would be awesome. 
[Professor Helen Berry, of the University of Canberra], mentions that research has also shown that certain types of people are drawn to political activism, including people with or prone to mental health problems … 
There’s a shock. 
The condition that Thornton faced is much closer to what the psychologist Martin Seligman described as “learned helplessness” – something that could emerge from the repeated and uncontrollable failures of campaigning for a cause. 
It’s also known as “being a leftist”. Happily, this can be cured without medication.
===

CORELESS KEVNI

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 16, 2014 (3:43pm)

Wayne Swan trashes Kevin Rudd one more time: 
Kevin Rudd was so poll driven as prime minister that he once asked Labor’s national office to conduct research on what his ‘’one core belief’’ should be, a new book by Wayne Swan reveals …

Mr Swan cites examples of what he calls Mr Rudd’s ‘’unstable personality’’, including the latter breaking a pen in a fit of anger in a hotel room, spraying ink everywhere and causing thousands of dollars of damage to the decor.
‘’Kevin’s treatment of people was extraordinarily vindictive and juvenile, and it was frequently on display,’’ Mr Swan writes. 
Yet Rudd was preferred as leader over Julia Gillard. I blame sexism. 
===

BIG AL vs BIG OIL

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 16, 2014 (3:28pm)

It’s impossible to pick a side: 
Current TV co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt have launched a fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuit claiming that Al Jazeera is withholding money from its $500 million purchase of the cable news network …
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is being represented by David Boies, the attorney who memorably represented him in the 2000 battle over a Florida election recount. 
Which Gore memorably lost.
(Via Larry T.)
===

HOW WILL THEY EVEN SURVIVE?

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 16, 2014 (4:53am)

ABC managing director Mark Scott worries about: 
… an era of scarce funding … 
The ABC is given more than $1 billion of your taxes every year. Scott himself receives around $700,000. All of it dreadfully scarce.
===

HIGH LIFE

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 16, 2014 (4:51am)

Recent lodgings:

The room featured an elaborate amenity:

Full story in Monday’s column. 
===

SMILES MAKE IT ALL WORTHWHILE

Tim Blair – Saturday, August 16, 2014 (4:42am)

The Daily Telegraph‘s Taylor Auerbach: 
Sydney is the Islamic capital of Australia. A total of 208,000 Sydneysiders identified as Muslim at the most recent census. Sydney’s population is 4.7 per cent Muslim – more than double the national average.
The number is getting bigger every day. These smiling faces will tell you the city is better for it. 
Really, kid? Would Sydney be even better if it was entirely Islamic?
===

The Bolt Report tomorrow, August 17

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (7:20pm)

Tomorrow on Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
Editorial:  No, not everyone was horrified at all by that picture, Mr Shorten. Let’s now be honest.
My guest:  Alex Douglas, who quit in protest as Queensland leader of the Palmer United Party. Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi on why Liberal members are unhappy with the government.
The panel:  IPA boss John Roskam and former Gillard Government minister Craig Emerson. Is Joe Hockey finished as Treasurer? Are Liberals finished with this Government?  And why is Qantas playing race politics?
NewsWatch:  Spectator editor Rowan Dean.  How the ABC started by criticising the Sydney Morning Herald for anti-Semitism but wound up attacking the Jewish lobby instead.
Plus bonus laughs at ABC presenter Jonathan Green.

The videos of the shows appear here.
===

No sale: free speech gagged, but where’s that Team Australia? UPDATE: Laundy’s sell-out

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (11:39am)

Free speech

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said free speech must be surrendered to build “Team Australia”:
We are also determined to engage in ever closer consultation with communities including the Australian Muslim community. 
When it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of ‘Team Australia’ and I have to say that the Government’s proposals to change 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act have become a complication in that respect.
Craig Laundy, whose seat has a Muslim vote of 10 per cent, discovers the loss of free speech (which he advocated) does not mean the gain of team players at a meeting of the Lebanese Muslim Association:
CRAIG LAUNDY: Prime Minister used a term and it is one that is unfortunately disappeared into the ether this week, but it is one that I believe with my heart and soul. It is Team Australia. 
There is no… and laugh all you like…
JASON OM (reporter): What did you think of the comments about Team Australia?
MUSLIM WOMAN: Oh, I thought, oh, err… I just thought that was a bit silly. I mean, let’s face it, it’s not easy to be a Muslim in Australia, so I don’t see the whole Team Australia thing happening.
UPDATE
It is reassuring there is a Muslim leader denouncing terrorism. It is not reassuring that he then becomes a target of Australian terrorists himself:
“SO they’re not going to kill us all?” 
Shaza Rifi’s question to her father Jamal, as he returns to the family dinner table where a day of fasting is being broken, sparks nervous laughter.
Tensions have been high all week, since the Lakemba doctor spoke out against western Sydney terrorists Mohamed Elomar and Khaled Sharrouf. Grotesque photographs of the latter’s young son holding a severed human head in Iraq attracted revulsion from across the world and denunciation from Dr Rifi.
The family has become the target of retaliatory threats from Elomar as a result. Now, after a day attending to patients, the meal has been interrupted by the arrival of an emissary and friend of Elomar, who says he’s in regular contact with the Australian terrorist.
After a half-hour meeting, the doctor reappears. “No, no one is getting killed,” Dr Rifi tells 23-year old Shaza, tearing off a piece of Lebanese bread. “I told him if he has a problem to talk to me directly about it and that this has nothing to do with my family."…
Staff at Punchbowl Boys High School, where [Rifi’s son] Jihad is a student, requested police officers stand guard at the gates as a precautionary measure. The 16-year-old returns home from school quiet and withdrawn....
“Mohamed Elomar is overseas but you don’t know who is here who has the same mindset,” says [son] Faisal, wiping his eyes.
“I don’t feel scared, but I worry about my father.” 
Note that this is a problem we have imported. But all credit to Dr Rifi.
UPDATE
Know how the country is being wagged by a few marginal seats with a big Muslim minority - and politicians too weak to put the national interest above their own. From  the Financial Review on August 5, the day the 18c changes were taken off table:
Liberal MPs in western Sydney fear a voter backlash prompted by the government’s reluctance to criticise Israel over some of its actions in Gaza. 
Craig Laundy, whose seat of Reid has an 18 per cent Muslim population, said he was being bombarded with negative feedback from community leaders and voters. “I’m absolutely getting it, make no bones about it… They want to know where we stand on what is unfolding in Gaza.”
The negative sentiment is compounding the damage to the government in Western Sydney by attempts by Attorney-General George Brandis to change the ... Racial Discrimination Act…
Another senior federal Liberal, who asked not to be identified, said the government needed to be seen as more neutral on the issue and was being outplayed by Labor which, in NSW especially, has a more pro-Palestinian stance.
The unnamed Liberal highlighted a function at Lakemba on Sunday to celebrate Eid, the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Labor MP Laurie Ferguson used the occasion to criticise Israel and take a shot at the government over changes to the Racial Discrimination Act. “It’s clear that the Labor Party are really using this effectively just like they are using 18c. It’s making some of our MPs in that area very nervous."…
Mr Laundy describes himself as “pro-Palestinian”. He said he was disappointed Mr Ferguson used Eid to deliver a political message but at the same time said the Liberal Party needs to alter its views…
Mr Laundy said after six years in government, Labor, under pressure from then foreign minister Bob Carr, had moved Australia’s vote in the United Nations away from always supporting the US and Israel to one of abstention. The Coalition had since reverted to a policy of voting with Israel on each occasion. Mr Laundy said both parties needed to commit Australia to join the vast majority of other nations and vote “yes” with Palestine in the UN General Assembly on such issues as statehood.
Despicable. And dangerous.
UPDATE
John Roskam, a guest on the Bolt Report tomorrow, on Abbott’s broken promise on free speech:
Deep shock is a better description of how many people felt. 
Three key conclusions can be drawn from what the Prime Minister said.
The first is that freedom of speech was something he was willing to sacrifice so ethnic community groups would support the government’s counter-terrorism laws. (Within hours this negotiating strategy was proved to be flawed as ethnic community leaders came out and rejected the government’s proposals.)
The second conclusion was that not only was the Prime Minister willing to negotiate on freedom of speech; he felt he had to seek the permission of ethnic community groups for his counter-terrorism legislation.
The third conclusion is perhaps the most significant. The Prime Minister said he believed repealing section 18C was a threat to “preserving national unity on the essentials”.
In essence, what he admitted was his belief that “national unity” in Australia in 2014 is no longer the product of common and shared values across the community – instead “national unity” can now only be enforced by the government and its laws.
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How dare Labor foist on us such a leader?

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (10:23am)

However disappointed you may be by the Abbott Government, be sobbingly grateful it is not a Labor one instead.
Former Treasurer Wayne Swan’s book shows the depths we’ve crawled from - and note which commentators thought we were actually in good hands:
It was Friday, May 14, 2010, three days after I had delivered the budget, and we were about to embark on the traditional budget roadshow. That morning in The Vestibule there was Kevin, me, my deputy chief of staff, Jim Chalmers, and two of Kevin’s most senior staff.
Kevin was jittery. Over the previous couple of weeks, media reports had suggested his leadership was beginning to wobble. Conversely, I had received some praise because, on the whole, the budget had been well received for the impressive fiscal consolidation it set out. That morning, journalist Laura Tingle wrote that I had “emerged as a reliable anchor” and “a power in [my] own right within the government”, and that there was “a lot of commentary” about my “growing confidence”. Similarly, Laurie Oakes had also reflected that if Kevin were to hit the fence as prime minister, I had emerged as a possible successor. These comments clearly hadn’t been missed by Kevin and his staff…
Then Kevin asked me the question: “Are you with me?” His direct manner was mildly surprising. I replied “I am” and let my answer hang in the air as I gave him a reassuring nod…
I wanted Kevin to be under no illusions that the ship of government was listing and needed to be righted…
Over the previous six months, both Julia and I had regularly raised our concerns directly with Kevin, and his senior staff, about the policy gridlock and his abrasive style… I could see Kevin was leading us into the wilderness, but I was torn between the dread of that and the undoubted ugliness that would accompany his ousting....
Above and beyond these problems, Kevin continued to treat people poorly… Kevin’s treatment of people was extraordinarily vindictive and juvenile, and it was frequently on display…

Kevin was prone to vengeful behaviour. Early in the life of the government, in late 2007 when we ministers were recruiting our personal staff, he sought to block us from recruiting anyone he believed had been instrumental in supporting Kim Beazley in the previous year’s leadership showdown…
There were also unreported incidents that can only be described as bizarre, the result of an unstable personality. At one point Kevin snapped a pen in a fit of anger in a regional hotel room and dark ink splattered all over the light-coloured décor. The damage bill was in the thousands and had to be settled privately…
Too often, Kevin would insist on making decisions himself, but then fail to do so. This was partly indecisiveness and partly simple overload. Whatever the cause, the result was decisions not being made, or being made by default…
Kevin was an extremely poor chair of cabinet meetings. They would drag on for hours… Staff and officials would dutifully prepare complex briefs, but they would go unread… Ministers, understandably, either left meetings before they concluded or did not attend at all… Kevin was very intolerant of debate or dispute, possibly because it undermined his sense of control of the minutiae…

And, when they looked into their hearts, many [colleagues] could not resolve the nagging question of his character. Was he really one of us? Did he believe in a greater sense of purpose?
(Thanks to reader Anthony.) 
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Covering up for jihadists

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (9:52am)

Gerard Henderson on the latest anti-Israel propaganda of Age cartoonist Michael Leunig:
This cartoon is clearly directed at Israel’s attacks on missiles and tunnels in Gaza. But Leunig has never drawn such an image with reference to Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel’s towns and cities. Nor has he ever quoted Martin Luther King’s attitude to terrorism with respect to attacks on Israel by Hamas or Hezbollah terrorists. To Leunig only Israel is a belligerent state.
But as Henderson points out, Scott Burchill’s ignorance is even more invincible:
(O)n ABC 1’s News Breakfast last Tuesday ... Deakin University senior lecturer ... Scott Burchill ... wasn’t having anything of the argument that national security legislation needs to be strengthened just because some scores of Islamists have headed off to Syria and Iraq and have become proficient in cutting the throats of their Muslim and Christian enemies… 
Yeah, look I’m a bit concerned about the use of this argument of an Australian Muslims going to fight in Syria, or in amongst with ISIL, as an excuse for increasing surveillance powers in Australia… But clearly the threat that these people pose is not so much to the peace and security of this particular country but the area that they’re going to. And I’m just wondering – I don’t think the government has clearly explained the connection between those going off to fight to create a caliphate in Iraq and Syria and what they would do coming back into Australia…. Creating a direct link between these people going to these countries to fight and coming back and somehow creating – what? Some insurgency here? Or targeting people here? It’s not clear. Or somehow they get brainwashed or indoctrinated there and turn up back in Sydney doing what? There’s – no one’s properly explained to me.
Dr Burchill seems unaware that Australian Islamists fought in Afghanistan and returned to Australia intent on terrorism. Yet he is a senior lecturer (no less) in International Relations at Deakin University.
Freaky. The Attorney-General has already drawn the obvious map that Burchill seems to refuse to read:
About 30 Australians went to fight in Afghanistan, of whom 19 were suspected of involvement in terrorism when they returned home and eight were convicted.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Tony Abbott: no surrender. Just lots more compromise

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (9:30am)

Tony Abbott lets Paul Kelly know he’s not for turning:
“I am very proud of the budget,” Abbott said yesterday. But the test is not Abbott’s pride. It is about political viability and that means his ability to listen and adapt. Abbott and Joe Hockey need a circuit-breaker and there is broad agreement about how it begins — radical surgery on Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme to prove the government has listened and acted. 
For Abbott, however, there is no U-turn. He will make concessions along the road, on PPL and on section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act. But Abbott’s strategy is to operate from strength as a budget restoration and national security guardian PM. These are his foundation stones in office. His intent is to stay the course with some pragmatic adaptations.
There will be no lurch into a mini-budget, no panic into changing his Treasurer, no hastening into a ministry reshuffle or abandoning his budget repair objectives…
Abbott understands that panic destroyed the former Labor government. The idea that Abbott might ditch Hockey is a fantasy: it would send the Liberal Party into a tailspin that would finish the government.
Abbott, Hockey and Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann, met 10 days ago to review the budget position. The message is negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. The problem is that some of the new crossbenchers are so raw they don’t know what they want…
While Abbott’s office runs too centralised an operation, Abbott’s instinct is to support his ministers and forgive mistakes. Contrary to reports, he has no intention of removing David Johnston as Defence Minister and, not surprisingly, believes Julie Bishop has been superb as Foreign Minister in the recent crisis. Abbott sees Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull as one of the government’s most effective ministers but is unmoved by the torrent of media criticism that Turnbull should have been involved in the cabinet National Security Committee decision on metadata. The laws being discussed were the responsibility of the Attorney-General, not the Communications Minister.
Big surprise, but Abbott’s strategy seems to involve doing more of the things a Labor government would do:
Ultimately, however, Abbott and Hockey must turn Senate rejection of many budget measures into a plus; at this point they need to initiate a new debate with fresh proposals, tough but fairer, as part of their budget restoration quest. That must involve revenue measures that hit the big end of town… That means putting negative gearing and superannuation tax breaks for high-income earners on the table.
UPDATE
A winter offensive to break through the eastern front:
Tony Abbott will redouble the government’s effort to win the economic debate in a political offensive across cities, including a cabinet meeting in Melbourne to assess the harm to the government’s economic message… Conceding mistakes in the budget sales job, ministers are seeking to reconnect with suburban Australia… 
Mr Hockey is arranging another round of meetings with crossbench senators and their advisers to urge them to back reforms including the $7 GP co-payment, the 1c increase in fuel excise and the mining tax repeal..< The Treasurer [has] adjusted his case for the fuel excise increase by abandoning his argument about its impact on wealthier households and reminding voters it would only add about 40c a week to average fuel bills.  
Frustration builds:
NATIONAL Commission of Audit chairman Tony Shepherd has urged the Coalition and crossbench senators to reach a compromise on the budget, warning uncertainty will drain business confidence and distract the government from other important reforms… 
“Special interest groups say not us but the naysayers are not offering realistic alternatives to reducing expenditure and returning the budget to a sustainable surplus,” he writes. 
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Sack the Press Council now

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (9:08am)

Irony is the most dangerous form of humor. Dangerous, because it works best in a hyper-civilised society where certain things are taken for granted - a mature perspective, a common cultural awareness, a sense of humor and a suspicion of black-letter literalism.
So when I was cross-examined in court about my own use of irony I knew I was in deep trouble. And we are in deeper trouble when the likes of Gillard Labor rule and the Press Council grows more shrill:
You don’t know how lucky you are, Wayne, back in the USSR. Swan takes on our 2012 budget coverage: 
MY staff drew attention to The Australian’s front page, which features a mock Soviet-realist cartoon of Julia and me carrying the hammer and sickle through the streets of Lenin­grad under the headline: “Smash the rich, save the base.” ... In riffing off the Russian Revolution, The Australian showed a complete lack of irony, because its headline was straight out of Pravda. Pure propaganda.
Quick, get me the irony police! An adjudication by the Australian Press Council on Bill Leak, May 28, 2013: 
THE complainant said the cartoon was misleading, unfair and offensive because, so far as he was aware, the Treasurer and the Prime Minister had not been associated with the Communist Party and had not advocated anything resembling the violent conduct implied by the cartoon. He said this effect was aggravated by the adjacent headline and was similar to depicting former prime minister Howard and treasurer Costello with a swastika.
What do you say, Professor Disney?: 
THE council recognises the cartoon may have caused deep offence amongst those people who would see an association of the Prime Minister and Treasurer with the excesses of the Stalinist era as grossly inaccurate and unfair ... The council does not look favourably on unjustified and offensive imputations of violence, even in the genre of hyperbolic cartoons about public figures. However, it also believes robust freedom of expression on political issues is of fundamental importance in the public interest.
But will hyper Leak be punished?: 
ON balance, the council has decided in this particular instance the material did not constitute a clear breach of its principles. Accordingly, the complaint is not upheld.
When words are treated as bullets and irony as a menace we know authoritarians are in charge - or our community is more culturally fractured than is safe. Or both.
UPDATE
Sack the Press Council now. Chris Merritt:
THE Australian has been asked to respond to a Press Council complaint lodged over the publication this week of a photograph of a seven-year-old boy, the son of Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, holding the severed head of an Iraqi. 
The Press Council suggested publication of the photograph might have been a breach of APC principles relating to “discretion and causing offence”.
The newspaper has been asked to consider whether the prominent treatment given to the photograph “could have reasonably been expected to cause offence and in doing so whether the publication sufficiently balanced the sensib­ilities of readers with the public interest”. The complaint was not made by the Sharrouf family but by a “third party” with no direct involvement…
The Press Council’s decision to open a complaint file about the photograph comes as the organisation makes its complaint process more widely available to third parties without any direct involvement… 
This is exactly how the Press Council has allowed itself - seemingly willingly - to become a weapon for Leftist activists.
(F)ormer chairman, Ken McKinnon, accepted that the organisation was involving itself in areas that would never have been acceptable during his tenure… He was also wary of allowing the Press Council’s complaint mechanism to be used by political and social activists to penalise newspapers over reports with which they disagreed.
Peter Fray:
In recent years [Australian Press Council chairman Julian Disney] has been filling the void left by the Finkelstein inquiry’s aborted attempt to impose a statutory media council on the press. That died on the previous Labor government’s cutting-room floor. From it has risen Disney’s beefed-up (with publishers’ money) APC. 
But there is a palpable sense he has gone too far…
(R)ecent adjudications have pushed this paper to editorialise against the council’s “mission creep”. These included a ruling against Fairfax’s The Sydney Morning Herald for allegedly taking insufficient steps to check whether it was welcome at a public funeral…
The fundamental disconnect here is that the council is supposed to be both a champion of press freedom and a media watchdog. Under its constitution, three of the council’s six goals relate to freedom of speech and the public right to know. But under Disney’s leadership since late 2009 it has been largely about two others: dealing with complaints about the press and imposing new standards on how it goes about its business…
Increasingly, the council has become a lightning rod for complaints from people or groups who are not directly named or quoted in published material but object to what is said or reported… Call me crazy, but I’d strongly argue most readers appreciate that’s how the media works. But Disney appears to think readers need to be hand held and protected from Big Media, the very media his council ought to be championing, according to it own charter.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Hamas admits: yes, journalists weren’t allowed to show how Hamas fought

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (8:25am)

Again I ask: should journalists embedded in Gaza, controlled by Hamas terrorists, declare they are not free to report how Hamas shoots rockets from homes and schools and the civilians they interview are not free to criticise their rulers, either?
I discussed this on the show last week:
Now confirmation from this Hamas spokeswoman:
 So when they were conducting interviewers or when they went on location to report, they would focus on filming the places from where missiles were launched. Thus, they were collaborating with the occupation. These journalists were deported from the Gaza Strip. 
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Ukraine claims Russian column entered country

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (8:03am)

This is becoming very, very dangerous:
Tensions flared in Ukraine yesterday as the government said its army destroyed part of a column of military vehicles that crossed the border from Russia, even as Vladimir Putin denies any military presence in the country. 
President Petro Poroshenko said Ukrainian forces destroyed part of a column that had arrived from Russia. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow rejected the statement and warned about a potential attack on another convoy that carries aid… The incident adds to the tension building over Russia’s plan to send about 275 trucks with what it says is humanitarian aid to rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine.
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More the merrier

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (7:59am)

The Daily Telegraph‘s Taylor Auerbach:
Sydney is the Islamic capital of Australia. A total of 208,000 Sydneysiders identified as Muslim at the most recent census. Sydney’s population is 4.7 per cent Muslim – more than double the national average. 
The number is getting bigger every day. These smiling faces will tell you the city is better for it. 
Tim Blair has a question.
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Some parts of the ABC still tell the story straight

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (12:50am)

 The ABC seems to have done honor to the Australians who fought in World War 1. Great.
Wonderful singing from Melbourne’s Marita Dyson, too. The title song is all her own work.
It starts next Tuesday. 
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Stories from the great honey pot

Andrew Bolt August 16 2014 (12:05am)

Another great reason to turn back the boats and direct some of the savings in legal costs to helping real refugees:
A six-year-old asylum seeker living on Christmas Island is ‘thin, sad and anxious’ with her parents seeking damages from the federal government. 
(Thanks to reader Old Fellah.) 
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Pastor Rick Warren
I want to sincerely thank you for following me. I pray you feel God's presence, enjoy his grace,and experience his peace today.
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Recently a United Nations entity, theCommittee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), awarded official UN accreditation to an NGO called thePerdana Global Peace Foundation. The NGO is led by its founder, Mahathir Mohamad, a former Malaysian prime-minister known for his overtly anti-Semitic views. CEIRPP Chairman Abdu Salam Diallo wished to “thank him and congratulate him for everything he has done in his political career and for the Palestinian people”.
In 2003 Mahathir Mohamad became rather infamous for his anti-Semitic views, after he attacked Israel and the Jewish People in an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) speech, which was criticised internationally. He stated:
…today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them… They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy, so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others.
His OIC speech is one of numerous examples through the years. At an al Quds pro-Palestinian rally in 2010 Mohamad effectively justified the Holocaust:
Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had been confined in ghettos and periodically massacred… Even after their massacre by the Nazis in Germany, they survived to be a source of even greater problems to the world.
Media slippage
Unfortunately the media rarely challenge the CEIRPP’s activities. Slanted coverage of theMohamad story by the Times of Israel gives credence to the CEIRPP’s claim that they seek a lasting two-state solution:
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, whose objective is “two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders,”…
The assertion is presented as fact, which is only countered by the quoted opinions of others, without the citation of opposing factual claims. However, it is quite evident that the CEIRPP seeks the nullification of Israel’s Jewish status by proposed demographic methods. To quote an annex of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 35/169:
69. The second phase deals with the return to their homes of the Palestinians displaced between 1948 and 1967. The Committee recommends that:
(a) While the first phase is being implemented, the United Nations in co-operation with the States directly involved, and the Palestine Liberation Organization as the interim representative of the Palestinian entity, should proceed to make the necessary arrangements to enable Palestinians displaced between 1948 and 1967 to exercise their right to return to their homes and property…
Thus, if there is any truth to the CEIRPP’s assertions, the only two-state solution they advocate would be two Palestine’s, where one is Israel in name only, its populace subsumed by Muslim-Arab migration. Such a stance has long been advocated by Arab-Palestinian leaders, and many groups hostile to Israel.
The CEIRPP has for many years organised conferences devoted to Israeli occupation “from 1948 onward” — 1948 being the very point of Israel’s creation. Clearly they do not recognise Israel’s right to exist in any meaningful sense.
An instrument of the UN’s belligerence against Israel
The United Nation’s decades-long animosity toward Israel has become the stuff of legend. Indeed,Kofi Annan admitted in 2006:
On one side, supporters of Israel feel that it is harshly judged by standards that are not applied to its enemies, and too often this is true, particularly in some UN bodies.
Unfortunately such admissions have done nothing to alter the UN’s prejudicial policy toward Israel, a cruel irony given the fact that the UN’s creation was given some impetus as a consequence of the Holocaust.
There are numerous examples of direct and indirect UN agency involvement in Israel’s demonisation, e.g. in 2012 Palestinian Media Watch discovered that a UN funded Arab-Palestinian community centre was putting on a puppet show in Jerusalem that suggested children shouldn’t smoke cigarettes. Instead they should clutch machine guns to kill Jews.
The UN’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) is a principle source of anti-Israel NGO funding, although for the most part the organisation has not issued details of its funding network publicly.
An ADL report in 2009 noted that substantial annual funds allocated to the CEIRPP by the UN have enabled it to become “a primary vehicle for Israeli demonization” and represents “the only committee in the UN devoted to a specific people.”
The CEIRPP is a central element of the UN’s policy toward Israel. Its unique status, dedicated to a specific people is redolent of the UNHRC’s permanent anti-Israel agenda at its meetings, treatment that is not afforded to other states. UNRWA is the only UN refugee agency dedicated to a specific people, the Palestinians. In contrast to UNHCR, the general UN refugee agency, UNRWA has been shown to systematically radicalise those in its care, perpetuating their refugee status instead of resolving it through integration and resettlement.
There are eleven primary committees that serve the United Nations General Assembly. The CEIRPP is one of these eleven, oddly placed among other committees performing very generalised roles within the UN or dealing with generalised subject areas, such as outer space and atomic energy. There is a separate category of seven explicitly specific “ad-hoc” committees, of which the UNRWA is one. Again it is the only entity of this group dedicated to a specific people. Finally there are four “special” and three “advisory” committees, where again only one is dedicated to a specific people, the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (SCIIHRP)!
Of the other working groups assisting the UN General Assembly, only one is specific to a distinct group of people, the Working Group on the Finance of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Another UN entity, the Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR), has a quasi-symbiotic role in assisting the CEIRPP with its many international conferences and reports. In 2005 Anne Patterson, Deputy US Representative to the UN, stated:
The U.S. seeks the abolition of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian and of the Division of Palestinian Rights because both are inimical to the aim of ensuring that UN monies are directed to our highest priorities and in achieving a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… The United States strongly opposes the use of scarce UN resources to support the biased and one-sided political activities carried out by the Committee.
Defamation under the dovish guise of peace
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has been a coreinternational component of Israel’s demonisation since 1975. Fittingly, it was created when the United Nations Arab and Islamic blocs managed passage of General Assembly Resolution 3379, an infamous text that declared Zionism to be “a form of racism and racial discrimination.”
UN Resolution 3379 was repealed in 1991 but the CEIRPP succeeded in reintroducing the same meme that self-determination of the Jewish People equals racism, at the equally infamous United Nations 2001 Durban “anti-racism” Conference. Durban I is seen by many as a crucial catalytic event that has greatly advanced Israel’s demonisation.
The CEIRPP would continue to spread this message with a succession of major conferences through the first decade of the New Millennium. One of their conferences in Paris became the international platform for launching the BDS Movement which aims to destroy Israel.
The CEIRPP’s concerns about racism can be viewed with genuine scepticism, not only because the organisation is a driving force at anti-Semitic events. Its commitment to prejudice against Arabs, of which the Palestinians are comprised, can also be questioned because Mahathir Mohamad’sstatements about Arab stupidity were of little concern to them.
The Committee’s successes are notable. In 2007, the CEIRPP hosted a conference at the European Parliament in Brussels. The event was called “International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace.” The title is yet another example of Orwellian propaganda since speakers uniformly demonised the Jewish State.
A number of European Parliamentary members aptly described the CEIRPP’s corrosive influence:
Despite the neutrally sounding title of its conference, CEIRPP has a proven record of anti-Israel bias, spreading propaganda that presents only the Palestinian narrative, including the delegitimization of Israel — a UN member state. The CEIRPP casts a shadow on the UN role in the Middle East conflict and is first and foremost harmful to the UN.
Similarly, in 2011 the CEIRPP was an important tool in galvanising support for a unilateral bid for Palestinian statehood at the UN, a move which went against the spirit of a negotiated peace as enshrined in the Oslo Accords.
In 2012 the Simon Wiesenthal Centre sought to bring the CEIRPP’s activities to the attention of Ban Ki-moon, the United Nation’s Secretary General, in the aftermath of a CEIRPP sponsored UNESCO meeting in Paris. The Centre requested an investigation into the Committee’s activities, deeming them to be in violation of the principles of the UN Charter, and a threat to world peace.
Rob Harris contributes articles to several websites on contentious political issues (not to be confused with the popular English novelist (1957-) of the same name). He blogs ateirael.blogspot.com. He lives in Ireland. For all the exclusive blog entries by Rob Harris,go here.
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A local resident in Bullitt County Kentucky found a test an 8th grader would have taken in 1912. David Strange, the executive director of the Bullitt County History Museum, will join us at 12:50 to talk about this fun discovery!
Do you think you're smarter than an 8th grader from over 100 years ago? Answer the questions below to find out! (No cheating! Remember: calculators, Google, and Wikipedia did not exist 100 years ago!)
Arithmetic
1. Write in words the following: .5764; .000003; .123416; 653.0965; 43.37
2. Solve: 35.7 plus 4, 5.8 plus 5.14 -59.112.
3. Find cost at 12 1/2 cents per sq. yd. of kalsomining the walls of a room 20 ft. long, 16 ft. wide and 9 ft. high deducting 1 door 8 ft. by 4 ft. 6 in. and 2 windows 5 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in. each.
4. A man bought a farm for $2400 and sold it for $2700. What percent did he gain?
5. A man sold a watch for $180 and lost 16 2/3%. What was the cost of the watch?
6. Find the amount of $5030 for 3 yrs., 3 mo., and 3 days, at 8 per cent.
7. A school enrolled 120 pupils and the number of boys was two thirds the number of girls. How many of each sex were enrolled?
8. How long a rope is required to reach from the top of a building 40 ft. high to the ground 30 ft. from the base of the building?
9. How many steps 2 ft. 4 in. each will a man take in walking 2 1/4 miles?
10. At $1.62 1/2 a cord, what will be the cost of a pile of wood 24. ft long, 4 ft. wide, and 6 ft. 3 in. high?
Grammar
1. How many parts of speech are there? Define each.
2. Define proper noun; common noun. Name the properties of a noun.
3. What is a Personal Pronoun? Decline I.
4. What properties have verbs?
5. "William struck James." Change the Voice of the verb.
6. Adjectives have how many Degrees of Comparison? Compare good; wise; beautiful.
7. Diagram: The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.
8. Parse all the words in the following sentences. John ran over the bridge. Helen's parents love her.
Geography
1. Define longitude and latitude.
2. Name and give boundaries of the five zones.
3. Tell what you know of the Gulf Stream.
4. Locate Erie Canal; what waters does it connect, and why is it important?
5. Locate the following countries which border each other: Turket, Greece. Servia, Montenegro, Roumania.
6. Name and give the capitals of States touching the Ohio River.
7. Locate these cities: Mobile, Quebec, Buenos Aires, Liverpool, Honolulu.
8. Name in the order of their size: the three largest states in the United States.
9. Locate the following mountains: Blue Ridge, Himilaya, Andes, Alps, Wasatch.
10. Through what waters would a vessel pass in going from England through the Suez Canal to Manila?
Physiology
1. How does the liver compare in size with other glands in the human body? Where is it located? What does it secrate.
2. Name the organs of circulation.
3. Describe the heart.
4. Compare arteries and veins as to function. Where is the blood carried to be purified?
5. Where is the chief nervous center of the body?
6. Define Cerebrum; Cerebellum.
7. What are the functions (or uses) of the spinal column?
8. Why should we study Physiology?
9. Give at least five rules to be observed in maintaining good health?
Civil Government
1. Define the following forms of government: Democracy, Limited Monarchy, Absolute Monarchy, Republic. Give examples of each.
2. To what four governments in school subjected?
3. Name five county officers, and the principal duties of each.
4. Name and define the three branches of the government of the United States.
5. Give three duties of the President. What is meant by veto power?
6. Name three rights given Congres by the Constitution and two rights denied Congress.
7. In the election of a president and vice-president, how many electoral votes in each State allowed?
8. Give the eligibility of president, vice-president, and Governor of Kentucky.
9. What is copyright? Patent right?
10. Describe the manner in which the president and vice president of the United States are elected.
History
1. Who first discovered the following places: Florida, Pacific Ocean, Mississippi River, St. Lawrence River?
2. Sketch briefly Sir Walter Rawleigh, Peter Stuyvesant.
3. By whom were the following settled. Ga, Md, Mass, R.I., Fla?
4. During what wars were the following battles fought: Brandywine, Great Meadows, Lundy's Lane, Antietam, Buena Vista.
5. Descrive the Battle of Quebec.
6. Give the cause of the war of 1812 and name an important battle fought during that war.
7. Name 2 presidents who have died in office, three who were assasinated.
8. Name the last battle of the Civil War; War of 1812; French and Indian War, and the commanders in each battle.
9. What president was impeached, and on what charge?
10. Who invented the following - Magnetic, Telegraph, Cotton Gin, Sewing Machine, Telephone, Phonograph?

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/happening-now/blog/2013/08/15/are-you-smarter-8th-grader-1912#ixzz2c8Flis4E

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Australian science returns to core purpose - ed

While sipping a frosty ale when the temperature is scorching is an Australian tradition, the practice is often counter-productive as the alcohol content increases dehydration.
The consumption of alcohol while dehydrated is also known to increase drunkenness, leading to the possibility of risky behaviour and, of course, the dreaded hangover.
But nutrition researchers at Griffith University's Health Institute believe they've found the way to enjoy a beer and keep your fluid levels in check.
The institute manipulated the electrolyte levels of two commercial beers, one regular strength and one light, before giving them to people who had just been undertaking rigorous exercise.
And while the researchers don't recommend drinking beer after exercise, the study showed the altered light beer was a third more effective at hydrating a person than normal beer.
"This is definitely not a good idea, but what we've found is that many people who sweat a lot, especially tradesmen, knock off work and have a beer," associate professor Ben Desbrow said.
"But alcohol in a dehydrated body can have all sorts of repercussions, including decreased awareness of risk.
"So, if you're going to live in the real world, you can either spend your time telling people what they shouldn't do, or you can work on ways of reducing the danger of some of these socialised activities."
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Philip Tran
I'm told a rubber guard is a jiujitsu term .. (tears of laughter streaming down face). I asked my wife what Jiujitsu is. She did did this graceful cat like move which tossed me to the other end of the hall .. I landed on my feet .. turned to her and said "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." And she laughed.  - ed
Loving my rubber guard!!! Wooo!
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UN chief: Settlements Endanger Prospect Of Two States ::Ban says he’s ‘deeply troubled’ by West Bank construction plans; Abbas: All key issues came up in Wednesday’s peace talks By ASHER ZEIGER and AP August 15, 2013 http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-chief-settlements-may-make-2-state-solution-impossible/
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There’s no class in high school on how to not be a shitty boyfriend or girlfriend. Sure, they teach us the biology of sex, the legality of marriage, and maybe read a few obscure love stories from the 19th century on how not to be.
But when it comes down to actually handling the nitty-gritty of relationships, we’re given no pointers… or worse, we’re given advice columns in women’s magazines.
Yes, it’s trial-and-error from the get-go. And if you’re like most people, it’s been mostly error.
But part of the problem is that many unhealthy relationship habits are baked into our culture. We worship romantic love — you know, that dizzying and irrational romantic love that somehow finds breaking china plates on the wall in a fit of tears somewhat endearing — and scoff at practicality or unconventional sexualities. Men and women are raised to objectify each other and to objectify the relationships they’re in. Thus our partners are often seen as assets rather than someone to share mutual emotional support.
A lot of the self help literature out there isn’t helpful either (no, men and women are not from different planets, you over-generalizing prick.) And for most of us, mom and dad surely weren’t the best examples either.
Fortunately, there’s been a lot of psychological research into healthy and happy relationships the past few decades and there are some general principles that keep popping up consistently that most people are unaware of or don’t follow. In fact, some of these principles actually go against what is traditionally considered “romantic” or normal in a relationship.
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Sarah Palin
Obama Broke Up With You. Really. Totally Unfriended You...
Bristol's spot on. Young Americans better get their heads out of the sand and realize what this president stands for. It's no longer a partisan problem. This comes down to either being pro-America or not. And if you can't take a stand for liberty, what DO you stand for? Obama supporters: keep it up and watch America go to hell in a hand basket while you try to sleep at night realizing our veterans fought in vain. Read her post below. And wake up. 
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bristolpalin/2013/08/enough-is-enough/
I saw a documentary about her last night. I was aware on forehand that she has some strange ideas (to say the least). But what scared me the most was her personality and the level in politics she already managed to achieve. I sincerely hope she gave up now. The way she treats people is coming close to being a sociopath... and I strikes me odd that she still has so many followers...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U_IrxZppVA
I've seen the commentators and heard those comments. I have heard her speak too, unscripted. I believe the vicious commentaries to be hyperbole. I think she is a loving person who brought a disabled child into the world when many would have killed it. Her governorship of Alaska was good for Alaska. I don't fear her. I would worry, were I living in the US about Obama policy on various issues, from health to defence, but it is ok to disagree. And you know I love you and cherish your friendship Iris, whatever happens. - ed
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Pastor Rick Warren
“Do not get tired of doing what's right for after a while you’ll reap a harvest IF you don't get discouraged and give up.” Gal. 6:9
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Craig Kelly

BEWARE OF LABOR LIES

Labor’s latest trick to mislead and deceive the Australia public is to put out advertising material claiming “Connection to the NBN is “free”.

The use of the word “free” creates the false impression that the NBN is free - you don't have to pay.

Wow, aren't Labor great with all this free stuff they dish out.

But nothing is for free – especially the NBN (given the cost blow-outs) which looks like costing north of $90 billion.

In fact, if and when (given how hopelessly behind schedule the NBN is) a person is eventually connected to the NBN, the cost of the highest speed of the NBN of 1000mb/s (which Labor keep promoting is why fibre to everyhome in the nation is needed) is likely to be $20,000 per month.

If a corporation advertised that “connection is FREE” without qualifying that statement, that you still need to pay to use the service – they would face prosecution by the ACCC for engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct - and face million dollar fines.

But as we know, that's how the Labor party attempts to maintain their power.
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
It looks negative, but it turns out to be the most important turning point. It looks positive, but then it doesn't turn out the way you wanted. Beginning to think... life just IS. And its best to avoid constantly trying to define it as good or bad.
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Pastor Rick Warren
Often, the last key on your ring unlocks the door. Do not give up! Gal. 6:9
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August 16: Krishna Janmashtami (Hinduism, 2014);Children's Day in Paraguay
Ringo Starr
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“If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”Romans 14:8 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide."
Genesis 24:63
Very admirable was his occupation. If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed. Isaac found Rebecca while engaged in private musings; many others have found their best beloved there.
Very admirable was the choice of place. In the field we have a study hung round with texts for thought. From the cedar to the hyssop, from the soaring eagle down to the chirping grasshopper, from the blue expanse of heaven to a drop of dew, all things are full of teaching, and when the eye is divinely opened, that teaching flashes upon the mind far more vividly than from written books. Our little rooms are neither so healthy, so suggestive, so agreeable, or so inspiring as the fields. Let us count nothing common or unclean, but feel that all created things point to their Maker, and the field will at once be hallowed.
Very admirable was the season. The season of sunset as it draws a veil over the day, befits that repose of the soul when earthborn cares yield to the joys of heavenly communion. The glory of the setting sun excites our wonder, and the solemnity of approaching night awakens our awe. If the business of this day will permit it, it will be well, dear reader, if you can spare an hour to walk in the field at eventide, but if not, the Lord is in the town too, and will meet with thee in thy chamber or in the crowded street. Let thy heart go forth to meet him.

Evening

"And I will give you an heart of flesh."
Ezekiel 36:26
A heart of flesh is known by its tenderness concerning sin. To have indulged a foul imagination, or to have allowed a wild desire to tarry even for a moment, is quite enough to make a heart of flesh grieve before the Lord. The heart of stone calls a great iniquity nothing, but not so the heart of flesh.

"If to the right or left I stray,
That moment, Lord, reprove;
And let me weep my life away,
For having grieved thy love"
The heart of flesh is tender of God's will. My Lord Will-be-will is a great blusterer, and it is hard to subject him to God's will; but when the heart of flesh is given, the will quivers like an aspen leaf in every breath of heaven, and bows like an osier in every breeze of God's Spirit. The natural will is cold, hard iron, which is not to be hammered into form, but the renewed will, like molten metal, is soon moulded by the hand of grace. In the fleshy heart there is a tenderness of the affections. The hard heart does not love the Redeemer, but the renewed heart burns with affection towards him. The hard heart is selfish and coldly demands, "Why should I weep for sin? Why should I love the Lord?" But the heart of flesh says; "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee; help me to love thee more!" Many are the privileges of this renewed heart; "'Tis here the Spirit dwells, 'tis here that Jesus rests." It is fitted to receive every spiritual blessing, and every blessing comes to it. It is prepared to yield every heavenly fruit to the honour and praise of God, and therefore the Lord delights in it. A tender heart is the best defence against sin, and the best preparation for heaven. A renewed heart stands on its watchtower looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Have you this heart of flesh?
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Today's reading: Psalm 91-93, Romans 15:1-13 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 91-93

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked....

Today's New Testament reading: Romans 15:1-13

1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." 4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ....

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Hannah

The Woman Who Personifies Ideal Motherhood
Scripture References - 1 Samuel 1; 2:1, 21
Name Meaning - The Hebrew setting of Hannah has the beautiful and attractive meaning of "gracious" or "graciousness" or "favor" and by a slight change becomes the smoother Ann, Anne, or Anna - the latter form touching the classic world with keen interest. Anna was the name given by Virgil to the twin-souled sister of the lovelorn Queen Dido.
And now Aurora from the heavens had rent the mist apart,
Sick-souled her sister (Anna) she bespeaks, the sharer of her heart.
Family Connections - Hannah was the favorite wife of Elkanah, a Levite of Ramathaim Zophim who belonged to one of the most honorable families of that priestly portion of Jacob's progeny - the Kohathites. Although a godly man he followed the common custom of polygamy in those days when "every man did that which was right in the sight of his own eyes." As it was the burning desire of every Hebrew parent to have a son, Hannah who was barren, may have urged her husband to take another wife, as Sarah arranged with Abraham to do, so that Elkanah's name might be perpetuated. The second wife was Peninnah, of whom we know nothing save that she bore Elkanah several children, and grieved Hannah with her cruel and scurrilous tongue. "The sacred writer does not keep us long in Peninnah's company," says Alexander Whyte, "he hastens past Peninnah to tell us about Hannah, that sorely-fretted and sequestered woman, who waters her couch with her tears." The curse accompanying polygamy shows up in Elkanah's home life. Hannah became the mother of the renowned Samuel, and also bore Elkanah three other sons and two daughters none of whom are mentioned by name (1 Samuel 2:21)
The Bible has been called "The World's Gallery of Lasting Fame," and in this gallery the portrait of Hannah occupies a conspicuous place. All that is recorded of this mother, who was one of the most noble Hebrews who ever lived, is an inspiration and a benediction. Whether she was as beautiful as Sarah we are not told, but because of her inner serenity she must have had "a very sensitive face, in which her moods were reflected like sunshine and shadow on a quiet lake." The story we have of her is "a harp-note of the immortal triumph of patience." Hannah is a beautiful example of how the most unpleasant and untoward circumstances can produce a character blessing the world. "The outline touches of her life," says John F. Jurst, "sombre and mournful at first, but radiant with faith and hope at last, form the fitting introduction to the narrative of the career of her great son Samuel in his combined character of Judge and Prophet of Israel." Perhaps we can best summarize Hannah's career in the following fivefold way -

Her Sanctity
From the record we have of Hannah she appears to have been a woman with an unblemished character. Piety reigned in her heart, and she maintained constant communion with the religious ordinances of her nation. Pious Hannah was separated unto the Lord, and amidst trying domestic relationships knew how to have recourse to Him for all necessary grace to bear her troubles. She cried day and night unto the Lord, and was heard in that she feared Him whom her soul loved. Because of her godliness, devotion, trust, patience and self-sacrifice, she came to be signally blessed of the Lord, and, in turn, communicated to her renowned son Samuel something of her saintliness of life and character. It was no easy task to live for years with a nasty woman like Peninnah, but Hannah retained her serenity of soul and was a veritable lily among thorns.
Her Sorrow
While Hannah had a house she did not have a home. The ideal of every Jewess was to be "head of the home," but she had no child, no family. True, she had a devout husband who loved her, and bestowed richer gifts upon her than he did upon his other wife, but she was childless. Comforting her yearning heart Elkanah said, "Am I not better to thee than ten sons?" Hannah, however, longed for a son out of her own womb to love and fondle. As the years went by her agony became more intense, and her barrenness was a greater burden because of the jealousy and heartlessness of her rival, Peninnah, who frequently tantalized Hannah for being childless. But true to her name, she manifested the grace of self-control amid the cruel chidings and reproaches of Peninnah, "her adversary who provoked her sore, and made her to fret." Can we wonder that Hannah referred to herself as, "a woman of a sorrowful spirit"? Jealousy, "the green-eyed monster that mocks the meat it feeds on," had taken possession of Peninnah, but not of Hannah. Although the Lord had "shut up her womb" her heart was still open toward Him. Made to sorrow by those nearest to her, Hannah was never guilty of any unwomanly, retaliatory conduct. Whenever her husband tried to comfort her stricken heart, her adversary was provoked to fresh insults and taunts. The fact that Elkanah loved Hannah and bestowed a double portion upon her only added more fuel to the fire of contempt in Peninnah's heart.
Her Supplication
Childless, Hannah was not prayerless. Barren, she still believed, and her pain found a refuge in prayer. In God's house, she besought the Creator "to raise her into the empire of motherhood," and to interfere with the law of nature on her behalf. How moving is the episode of Hannah pouring out her soul before God in His house and vowing that if He would give her a son, then she would give him back to God for His exclusive use! She bargained with God, and kept her bargain. She took her particular sorrow to God, and prayed, not that Peninnah's joy might be less, but that He would take away the cause of her own anguish. She gave herself to prayer, and in the presence of God her sorrow burst its bonds. Yet even in God's house at Shiloh she did not find at first the sympathy and understanding she sought. Think, for a moment, about some of the features of her heartfelt cry!
First of all, her prayer was of a peculiar kind. It was a supplication without external speech. Her lips moved but there was no sound. Her prayer was internal, and as she spoke thus to herself she created the impression that she was drunk with wine. She had learned that prayer is the Christian's native breath, "unuttered or expressed." While she never said a prayer, "she breathed a wish in her soul and sent it up unspoken right to the throne of God. It is a unique experience for the age of the Judges; the piety of Hannah is a ripe flower in an almost sterile field." The old priest Eli, not meaning to be unkind when he saw Hannah's lips moving and her whole being caught up in the fervency of her supplication and yet heard no words being expressed, somewhat felt that Hannah was drunk and upbraided her for coming into God's house in such a condition. How his hasty, ill-founded conclusions added gall to the sorrow of her heart.
Hannah protested her innocence and declared that she had never taken strong drink, and then poured out her soul to Eli who, discerning that her desire for a child was intense and her spirit, sacrificial, for she wanted nothing for herself alone, assured her that her inarticulate prayer had been heard. "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him." Down she went to her house content forshe believed. She was no longer forlorn, sorrowful, heart-hungry, but joyous and buoyant. God granted her wish, and the yearned-for child arrived and she called his name Samuel, which means, "asked of the Lord."
Her Song
Hannah's Psalm of Thanksgiving marks her out as a poetess and prophetess of no mean order. With her desire fulfilled she bursts into song and pours forth her gratitude to God for His goodness, and her Magnificat became the basis of the one the blessed Virgin Mary was to offer to the same covenant-keeping God. The reader will find a strong resemblance between Hannah's song and that of Mary's (Luke 1:46-55 ). The spiritual lyric of Hannah is equal to any of the Psalms and is eloquent with the divine attributes of power, holiness, knowledge, majesty and grace. Such an elevated poetic utterance elicited by God's answer to her prayer, has stirred the hearts of saints all down the centuries. The following parallel arrangement brings out the points of resemblance between Hannah's song and that of Mary's -
Mary's Song

My soul doth magnify the Lord
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
He hath shewed strength with his arm;
He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
And exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things;
And the rich he hath sent empty away.
Hannah's Song

My heart rejoiceth in the Lord,
Mine horn is exalted in the Lord;
The bows of the mighty men are broken
And they that stumbled are girded with strength.
The Lord killeth, and maketh alive:
He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up;
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread;
And they that were hungry ceased.
Her Sacrifice
Hannah prayed and promised, and when her prayer was answered she quietly redeemed her promise. More than anything in the world she wanted a son, and when God gave her one, she gave him back to the Lord. Although Samuel was not born to the priesthood, his mother had sacredly pledged him to the Lord; and that pledge must be kept no matter what it might cost her in loneliness. So when weaned, Samuel was taken to the house of the Lord, "there to abide forever." Once a year she visited him and what a human touch we have in that she made a little coat for him to wear. Her saintliness and sacrifice were rewarded for she bore Elkanah five more children. As for Samuel, he grew up to reflect his revered mother's godliness. True to the meaning of his own name, and in likeness to his mother's prevailing intercession, he became a man of prayer and intercession all his days - and beyond all men had power with, and from, God. How appropriate are the lines of Tennyson as we think of Samuel and his saintly mother, Hannah -
Happy he
With such a mother! Faith in womankind
Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high
Comes easy to him, and tho' he trip and fall
He shall not blind his soul with clay.
The lessons to be gathered from the fascinating story of Hannah are clearly evident. First of all, as we think of all Samuel became we realize how the excellencies of many men have usually been foreshadowed, if not exemplified, in the characters of their mothers. "The genius and intellectual sweep of Goethe were foretokened in the manysided brilliancy of Frau Rath." The mother of John Wesley was remarkable for her intelligence, godliness and executive ability earning her the title of "The Mother of Methodism." As no one in all the bleak world is more fitted to guide little feet God-ward, may heaven grant us more mothers like godly Hannah.
From Peninnah's harsh treatment of Hannah we discover how a thoughtless, unloving word of ours can give sorrow to others. How necessary it is to guard our tongues! (James 3:9, 10 ). From Hannah's conduct under much provocation we first of all learn that the heart of God is a comforting retreat for a sorrowful soul. Whatever our particular sorrow may be, the Man of Sorrows waits to undertake. Hannah carried her trial and yearning to God in prayer and she teaches us something about the necessity for form and the spirit of intercession. Compare her silent heart-prayer with Psalm 19:14 . From Eli who misjudged Hannah we learn not to be too hasty in our conclusions. Too often we wrong others by misinterpreting their motives. In Hannah's mild and dignified defense of her character we learn how to defend our rights in all humility (seeJohn 8:48, 49; Acts 26:24-26).
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Jozabad, Josabad
[Jŏz'abăd, Jŏs'a băd] - jehovah hath bestowed or endowed.
  1. A Gederathite of Judah who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chron. 12:4). Also called Josabad.
  2. A man of Manasseh who did the same (1 Chron. 12:20).
  3. Another Manassite who did the same (1 Chron. 12:20).
  4. A Levite , and one of the overseers of tithes in Hezekiah's reign (2 Chron. 31:13).
  5. A Levite chief in Josiah's reign (2 Chron. 35:9).
  6. A son of Jeshua, employed in weighing the sanctuary vessels brought from Babylon (Ezra 8:33).
  7. A priest who had married a foreign wife (Ezra 10:22).
  8. A Levite who had also married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:23 ).
  9. A Levite interpreter of the Law read by Ezra (Neh. 8:7).
  10. A chief Levite in Jerusalem after the exile (Neh. 11:16).
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