Friday, July 12, 2013

Fri Jul 12th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Josiah Wedgwood (1730), George Eastman (1854), Buckminster Fuller & Oscar Hammerstein II (1895) and the leggy and uber talented baby kiwi of the day, Lyn Nguyen. Born on the same day, across the years. 1493, The Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the best-documented early printed books, was first published. 1543, King Henry VIII of England married Catherine Parr, his sixth and last wife, at Hampton Court Palace. 1943, World War II: German and Soviet forces engaged each other at the Battle of Prokhorovka, one of the largest tank battles in military history. What a day you give us, steeped in learning with ever lasting hope and a willingness to engage fiercely for what is right. Cheers.
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Chameleon Rudd cuts to the heart of populism

Piers Akerman – Thursday, July 11, 2013 (11:00pm)

SUPPORTERS of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have been ecstatic about the surge in his personal popularity in the polls taken since his political resurrection. They should be a little cautious. 

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WERRIBEE: A BLUFFER’S GUIDE

Tim Blair – Friday, July 12, 2013 (4:28am)

With no local background at all and less than a month of Labor membership, here’s an unlikely ALP candidate for Julia Gillard’s seat of Lalor: 
Lisa Clutterham grew up in Adelaide and has never lived or studied in Melbourne.
Her only link to the Victorian capital is she has visited on holidays and “my partner, Dominic Sharley, has family there and as a child he visited Werribee on many Christmas holidays”. 
Not a problem, Lisa. As a former long-term Werribee resident who remains closely in touch with the general Lalor area, please allow me to assist. Simply mention the following Werribee talking points in every speech and locals will soon be convinced you’ve lived there for decades: 
• The mist above Coventry Reserve didn’t evaporate as expected over summer and keeps absorbing more birds.
• Although put down last August by armed state government officials, a bid by Watton St traders to mint their own currency is still a popular topic at meetings of local secessionist groups.
• Despite several high-profile arrests, residents appear convinced they can legally stage pitbull fights by referring to the animals as “goldfish” or “ferns” in flyers and newspaper promotions.
• River access at the end of Pagnoccolo St remains barricaded by three men who won’t say who they are or what they’re doing.
• Debate continues over a carjacking operation’s childhood reading initiative sponsorship.
• The current most searched-for phrase at the Werribee Banner‘s website is “translucent sabre-fanged night beasts”.
• GPS systems are somehow providing accurate directions to unmapped locations at the shanty town outside of Wyndham Vale.
• Depending on who you listen to, a missing netball team is either “training interstate” or “active in the mountains north of Syria’s war-torn Idlib province”.
• That chewing sound people used to hear coming from the Synnot St storm drain has now shifted to a utility shed within the grounds of St Agatha’s Aged Care Hospice.
• According to council statistics, the number of kindergarten-age children with speech patterns suggesting they were raised by domestic pets has trebled since 1998.
• Visitor numbers at the Family Fun Walk pathway complex through Crippen Fields are up by 35 per cent. Survival numbers, however, remain worryingly low. 
Just stick to these key issues, Lisa, and the outcome is guaranteed. Trust me. Alternatively, you could always ask JohnMcTernan for some advice. You’ll get the same result, but I’m cheaper.

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AGAR THE WONDERFUL

Tim Blair – Friday, July 12, 2013 (2:57am)

Ashton Agar was still four months from being born when fellow Australian Test spinner Shane Warne delivered his fabled ball of the century in 1993. Overnight, teenager Agar achieved something just as remarkable. Possibly more so.
Batting at number 11 in the first innings of his very first Test – a match in which he wasn’t expected to play – Agar arrived at the crease with Australia doomed at 9/117, nearly 100 runs behind England. “We were out of the game,” said Fox Sport’s Allan Border. Greg Blewett agreed: “The Test match was over.”
Then Agar, a skinny, smiling Melbourne kid with just ten first-class matches to his name, launched one of the boldest counter-attacks in 136 years of Test cricket:



By the time the English ended Agar’s innings, after 98 brilliantly composed runs, Australia was 65 ahead and the record books were filled with shiny new numbers. Following that near-century, this email arrived from a female Agar fan: 
Agar has single-handedly renewed my love of cricket. 
She isn’t alone. This boy just lit up the Ashes.
UPDATE. Great family:


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Trolls?

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (3:50pm)

Am I wrong, or has there been a sudden increase in trolls in comments lately?
If so, is it spontaneous? 

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NBN boss quits

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (3:28pm)

The air leaks out of another Kevin Rudd balloon:
NBN Co chief executive officer Mike Quigley says he is retiring from corporate life after four years leading the rollout of the network…
But when asked by The World Today’s Peter Ryan about speculation he was being forced out, he did not give a direct answer… [Listen here]
Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has been highly critical of Mr Quigley’s performance, and believes he has been pushed.
“We know the [NBN Co] chairman Siobhan McKenna has been trying to sack him for some time, and he’s been protected by Stephen Conroy, she’s had headhunters out to find replacements, so finally he’s left,” Mr Turnbull said.

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The Bolt Report on Sunday

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (2:53pm)

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On The Bolt Report on Network 10 at 10 and 4pm.
Kevin Rudd’s shaving cut - and Labor’s new leadership cult.
The Liberals’ polling guru, Mark Textor, on why conservatives don’t need to worry about Kevin Rudd’s poll rise - and how the Liberals will start on Sunday to fight back.
Panellists Peter Reith and former Victorian Labor vice president Kimberley Kitching on the rise of the Rudd Party.
And defending Kevin Rudd from claims that he patronises some people.
The twitter feed.
The place the videos appear

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All talk

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (10:45am)

That’s the Liberals’ attack on Kevin Rudd.
Or as reader Rossco puts it:

Kevin Kardashian.

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Downer: Rudd sold our national interest to Indonesia. And the media clapped

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (9:24am)

Long-time Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is absolutely right:

In protecting our borders we treated our great neighbour with respect. We kept the Indonesians fully informed about our actions. We didn’t mislead or deceive them. But never, never, ever did we ask another country’s permission to protect our borders. No self-respecting government would do that. Ever…
If John Howard had rung me and asked if he should sign a joint communique with Indonesia saying we would never act unilaterally to protect our borders I would have told him it would be a sell-out of our national interest. It would be weak and fawning. You don’t win respect signing documents like that…
In one of his first acts after returning as prime minister, Rudd did just that. No one in Canberra said it but I would have: it was weak, cynical domestic politics. Rudd sold out our national interests and in doing so won applause from the press gallery but lost respect in Jakarta.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 

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Rudd’s first Budget promise: he’ll save as he’s never done before

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (8:29am)

Kevin Rudd finally makes a promise on the deficit:
KEVIN Rudd has pledged to bring the budget back to balance on schedule in 2015-16 but weak jobs growth and company profits mean Treasury’s pre-election budget update will show further deficits unless Labor acts with pre-emptive spending cuts…

Despite Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan’s failure to honour their promise to deliver a surplus this year, Mr Rudd (has) pledged to meet the May budget forecast of ending the budget deficits in three years. “We’re committed to returning the budget to balance in 2015-16,” he said.

However, the June labour force report, released yesterday, showing unemployment rising to a three-year high of 5.7 per cent and almost no growth in the hours being worked, reveals the daunting budget arithmetic.

The number of jobless rose by 75,000 to a 15-year high of 709,000 in the past financial year as the unemployment rate rose from 5.2 per cent. Some economists expect it to pass 6 per cent by the end of the year - a level not seen since 2003…

The government is counting on strong employment and wages growth to finance the return to surplus, with PAYG receipts in 2015-16 forecast to be $40 billion, or 27 per cent, higher than in 2012-13…

Stephen Anthony, principal of the consulting firm Macroeconomics...who formerly worked for the Department of Finance, estimates that government spending cuts in the region of $10bn-$15bn a year would be needed to be certain of a budget surplus in 2015-16.
Rudd the saver, not spender?

I find that very hard to believe.
UPDATE
This new prudent Rudd isn’t familiar to Judith Sloan:

THE main theme of the National Press Club speech yesterday by Kevin Rudd, PM Mark II, was along the lines: “… What’s a bit of debt and deficit - I saved the Australian economy from recession and prevented unemployment from rising...”
But does the evidence back up Rudd’s self-congratulations? What is there to show for a government debt that now exceeds 10 per cent of gross domestic product (up from minus 4 per cent when Labor came to office)?
Here are the facts:

- The spending spree that Rudd embarked on was Whitlamesque in scale.
- Government spending rose by 13 per cent in 2008-09 and by another 4 per cent in 2009-10.
- The budget deficit reached $54 billion in 2008-09 or 4.2 per cent of GDP.
- The budget has still not returned to surplus, after five years.
- The budget is not expected to return to surplus until 2015-16.
And what was the impact of Rudd’s spending-on-steroids?

- Two rounds of cash handouts that appear to have been largely saved.
- Wasteful spending on an ill-conceived roof insulation program that resulted in deaths.
- An extremely expensive school-hall building program that was in full swing well after the global financial crisis had faded.
UPDATE
We can trust their promises to be prudent or be guided by their record - but not both:
Treasurer Chris Bowen has said commodity price changes and the declining currency were both affecting government revenues and Labor would not rush back to surplus before the scheduled balance in 2015-16.
“To race to surplus would be a hammer blow to economic activity that wouldn’t be sensible,” Mr Bowen told ABC Radio on Friday, adding that achieving a balance in two years as “not without its challenges”.
Mr Bowen said changes in terms of trade were reducing revenue, while the falling dollar benefited government revenue.
“Terms of trade reductions are having an impact on our economy, on our government revenue – they’re down substantially,” Mr Bowen said…
“Against that you’ve had the Australian dollar fall, which is good for government revenue – all this will need to be calibrated as we go,” Mr Bowen said as he declared any budget changes would have to be offset.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 

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More than 100 boat people and $7 million every day

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (8:23am)

Boat people policy
Reader Gab:

So for eleven days in July, we’ve seen 15 illegal maritime arrivals transporting 1,379 illegal arrivals which costs taxpayers $96,530,000.When will Rudd do something to stop the boats like he promised?

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A scarce mention of Tony Abbott

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (8:09am)

Fairfax economics correspondent Peter Martin:

The line was unbroken in the press club speech because there was scarcely a mention of John Howard or Julia Gillard, or of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott except to observe that he had turned down Rudd’s invitation to appear with him and to link him to the “slash and burn” policies of Campbell Newman in Queensland and David Cameron in Britain.
This is Kevin Rudd “scarcely” mentioning Abbott in his press club speech:

Mr Abbott is a formidable politician. He is the most conservative politician to become leader of the Liberal Party in its history. He is particularly formidable in the art of negative politics…
Mr Abbott has so far publicly stated that he does not want to face the public scrutiny of an economic policy debate… You might well ask, at least in his absence, what Mr Abbott’s alternative economic diagnosis is… Mr Abbott, is a formidable politician – he is the nation’s most formidable exponent of negative politics… Mr Abbott refused to debate the economic facts here today… Despite Mr Abbott saying every day the economy is in crisis… Mr Abbott does not want to debate today… Mr Abbott’s negative message for the election campaign… Mr Abbott’s exaggerated claims on debt and deficit… Mr Abbott’s economic policy for the future is even worse.... Mr Abbott just doesn’t understand economics… Mr Abbott’s absence has made such a debate impossible… whenever you hear Mr Abbott, Mr Hockey, Mr Robb or anyone else try and run the lines on an Australian debt and deficit crisis, remember this was the day for Mr Abbott to defend his case… Mr Abbott decided to cut and run… In Mr Abbott’s absence...
UPDATE
Kevin Rudd’s speech in miniature:

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd had a light bulb moment on Thursday, declaring electricity prices to be “too high” ...  but [he] did not offer a clear path to a solution.
UPDATE
Or measure Rudd’s speech this way.  From 7.30:

KEVIN RUDD: Our most critical task remains lifting our national productivity growth rate on the back of a new national competitiveness agenda.
CHRIS UHLMANN: If that sounds familiar, it’s because you have heard it before.

KEVIN RUDD (Jan. 23, 2007): This whole proposal I put out there today is about how we deal with this gaping hole in Australia’s economic performance and it’s the decline in productivity growth. What I’m signalling today is that the productivity debate now should occupy the centre ground of the economic debate between ourselves and the Liberals in the lead-up to the election.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Four years on, 7.30 checked in with the then Treasurer to see how Labor’s productivity project was going.

Nothing’s changed.
WAYNE SWAN, THEN TREASURER (June 1, 2011): Well, I don’t accept that at all because you can’t measure productivity over a short period of time.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Four years isn’t enough?
WAYNE SWAN: No, it is certainly not enough when we are dealing with the long-term structural changes that need to be made to lift productivity.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Now six years on from Labor’s election, the Productivity Commission finds Australia’s outputs measured against inputs is poor and has not improved in a decade.
(Thanks to readers Fiona and Peter.) 

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Making Zimmerman white, and therefore a racist

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (8:02am)

Juan Williams on America’s racial divide - and a liberal media bent on making it even worse by framing George Zimmerman:

White Hispanics,” “Creepy-Ass Crackers,” “Teenage Mammies,” and “Suspicious A--holes who always get away”—that is the vernacular of the George Zimmerman trial.
George Zimmerman faces life in jail as a jury considers second-degree murder charges against him for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But thanks to the media he is already sentenced to life in the American public’s mind as a racist.
NBC edited a tape of Zimmerman’s call to police as he was following Martin to make him appear to be focused on Martin’s race.
The New York Times has referred to him in unique racial terms as a “white Hispanic.” The terminology was necessary to have the story fit into a well-worn news narrative throughout American history from the Scottsboro Boys to Emmett Till to Rodney King – the black victim of white racism. Hispanic people can be as racist as black or white people in a country with a deep history of racism. But, apparently for the Times, Zimmerman’s whiteness was important. It fit their good versus evil tale of a white racist killing an innocent black man.
The media is clearly guilty of playing on the most primitive racial divisions in our society to fuel racial animosity and boost ratings.
In June, before the trial started, a CNN poll asked Americans if they believed the murder charges against Zimmerman were true or false. Without any courtroom testimony or evidence, but based on the racially charged media coverage, 62 percent of Americans said the charges were “probably true” or “definitely true.”
My bet is that poll would have different results today. The trial has failed to prove Zimmerman acted with a “depraved mind” – as required for a second-degree murder conviction – or even with a racist mind. He certainly killed Martin. And the jury may decide he is guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter. But what we heard in the courtroom fits with an FBI report that found race was not a factor in Martin’s shooting death.
The strong public judgment of Zimmerman’s guilt in the poll reflected a racially weighted media telling of the story.

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Ashton Agar, Ashes hero

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (7:42am)

Last week, unknown. Today, Ashes hero.
Ashton Agar, just 19 and with only 10 first-class games to his name, yesterday smacked the most astonishing innings I’ve seen - something to beat even Botham at Headingly for sheer surprise.
When he walked in to bat, Australiia’s Ashes campaign was in tatters at a humiliating nine for 117, and 98 runs behind. When he was caught on 98 - a record for any number 11 batsman - Australia was on top at 280, 65 runs ahead.
Such amazing cool. Such talent and joy of life.
The records in his partnership with Phil Hughes:
Highest score in Tests by a number 11 batsman - previously Tino Best, 95.

Highest score in Tests by an Australian number 11 - previously Glenn McGrath, 61.

Highest score by a number 11 on Test debut - previously Warwick Armstrong, 45 not out.

Highest 10th-wicket partnership in Tests, 163 alongside Phil Hughes - previously Brian Hastings/Richard Collinge (New Zealand) and Azhar Mahmood/Mushtaq Ahmed (Pakistan), 151.

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Bow at the court of King Kevin

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (7:25am)

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How not to win friends for Australia. Kevin Rudd makes 100 ambassadors line up in front of the TV cameras to pay homage to him as he shows off:
Crunching forward one by one, the 100-plus ambassadors invited for the informal afternoon tea waited their turn for a moment in the sun with Kevin Rudd and wife Therese Rein. If they were bemused by the extraordinary and unprecedented spectacle, they were too polite to let on, smiles fixed on their faces…
From Chinese ambassador Chen Yuming to the departing Jeff Bleich, Washington’s man in Canberra, everyone was welcomed in from the cold of the driveway to the warmth of The Lodge as a long-lost friend.
“All the best to our friends in San Salvador,” Mr Rudd said. “I enjoyed my time there a couple of years ago.”
“How are our friends in Kiev?”
“Give our best to Hamid Karzai…
“My best to all our friends in Kampala” ...

“Give my regards to those in Tehran. It would be good to keep in contact given the challenges we face”....
To the representative from East Timor: “Say hi to Xanana and give Kirsty a big kiss from me.”
But this says it all:

Being told that the Cuban ambassador was out of town, the Prime Minister said to his deputy: “Tell him to bring me back some cigars.”
The Ego has landed. I cringed as I watched.
UPDATE
Priorities, priorities. Kevin Rudd at the National Press Club yesterday:

PAUL Osborne (AAP): I just have a double-barrelled question. The jobless rate obviously (is) up today to 5.7 per cent, in Tasmania it’s 8.9. Do you have any specific plans to address the very low level of unemployment assistance ... ? And secondly, we hear ... you’re going to PNG next week. What’s your agenda for that trip?
Kevin Rudd: ... I have been speaking to Prime Minister (Peter) O’Neill. It is important that I use this period to speak with our regional political leaders so I’ve met with the President of East Timor ... about a week or so ago I met with the President of Indonesia. ... there are three big questions on the agenda with PNG at a bilateral level. No 1 is the future of their massive new gas project ... No 2, the PM also raised with me on the telephone concerns that he has about (the) law and order challenge so I want to deal with that. The third thing he’s raised with me, by the way, is about the state of PNG’s hospitals ... I remember in my previous incarnation, working on a plan to get basic pharmaceuticals and medical supplies out to district health clinics right across remote PNG ... In the so-called referral hospitals within PNG, and there’s about six or seven of them, frankly we have a real problem. Moresby’s hospital is on the improve but when you look at other places like, I think, Lae-Madang there is a lot of work to be done. So what we are going to try and look at is how we ... work at hospital management teams, which can be drawn from Australian experience and expertise to harness the sort of nursing staff and the sort of medical staff and equipment into properly functioning major referral hospitals. And your earlier question I have now lost track of.
Osborne: The earlier question was about unemployment support.
Rudd: On unemployment, yes, I’m conscious of the fact that we have a very large level of unemployment in Tasmania and I look forward to spending some time with the Premier soon on what we can do further in that state. On the question of unemployment benefits ... I don’t want to make false promises but obviously we as a government are concerned.

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Richardson: changes are great for Rudd, bad for Labor

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (7:21am)

Graham Richardson on the Kevin Rudd’s proposed new Labor rules that would make him virtually unsackable as Prime Minister:

The idea that a spill could not occur unless 75 per cent of the caucus agreed effectively means that no leader could ever be defeated....
There are plenty of examples of why such a cumbersome mechanism makes no sense. HV Evatt was in the process of succumbing to the early stages of dementia. Mark Latham had an almighty meltdown, refused to take calls from anyone and disowned everything he previously stood for. What if these problems occurred during a three-year term of an elected prime minister? What if on top of the 70 per cent requirement there would still be a need for the entire party membership to vote in a leadership ballot? I can only guess on how long such a vote would take, but four to six weeks would be a reasonable guess. There is no doubt to how the voters would react to the nation being held hostage for the six weeks because of the Labor party’s rules.

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Mundine slams Rudd’s “political negative spin”

Andrew Bolt July 12 2013 (7:12am)

I don’t agree with the cause, but do agree that Kevin Rudd was playing a nasty game - or was perhaps just giving in to his great need to grab all the glory:
FORMER Labor Party president and indigenous leader Warren Mundine has accused Kevin Rudd of trying to destroy two years of work to create bipartisan support for an indigenous recognition referendum.
Mr Mundine warned the Prime Minister to butt out and leave Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin to build the cross-party support for the major change and determine the question to be put to voters, after Mr Rudd this week accused Tony Abbott of delaying the process.
“Rudd has threatened bipartisanship support on the referendum with his political negative spin,” Mr Mundine told The Australian yesterday.
“Macklin had been working hard with Tony Abbott and the opposition for the referendum to succeed. In one stupid brain-explosive sentence, Rudd has almost destroyed all that work.
“My message to Rudd is to shut up and get back on board and stop using indigenous people and the referendum as a political football. We’re sick of being used.”

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In 1950, Dr. Helen Dickens was the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons. The daughter of a former slave, she would sit at the front of the class in medical school so that she would not be bothered by the racist comments and gestures made by her classmates. By 1969 she was associate dean in the Office for Minority Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, and within five years had increased minority enrollment from three students to sixty-four.
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For community channel ... — at Costco.
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This guy reading the newspaper on the subway is Keanu Reeves. 

He is from a problematic family. His father was arrested when he was 12 for drug dealing and his mother was a stripper.

His family moved to Canada and there he had several step dads. He watched his girlfriend die. They were about to get married, and she died in a car accident. And also before that she had lost her baby.

Since then Keanu avoids serious relationships and having kids. He’s one of the only Hollywood stars without a Mansion. He said: “l live in a flat, I have everything that I need at anytime, why choose an empty house?” One of his best friends died by overdose, he was River Phoenix (Joaquin Phoenix’s brother). Almost in the same year Keanu’s father was arrested again. His younger sister had leukemia. Today she is cured, and he donated 10% of his gains from the movie Matrix to Hospitals that treat leukemia.

In one of his birthdays, he got to a little candy shop and bought him a cake, and started eating alone. If a fan walked by he would talk to them and offer some of the cake. He doesn’t have bodyguards, and he doesn’t wear fancy clothes. When they asked him about “Sad Keanu”, he replied: “You need to be happy to live, I don’t.

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As I write this article I am preparing to give what will most likely be my last Mid Year Conference Talk.  It is a sad moment for me.
This has been a week of retirements.  On Thursday my brother Peter officially retired as the Archbishop of Sydney.  With him the Chancellor of the Diocese Acting Judge Peter Johns has also retired.  There comes in life a time for the changing of the guard, of letting go of our responsibilities that others may take up their opportunities to serve, bringing fresh energy and fresh ideas to the tasks.
This is more than people retiring because they are getting too old to do the job.  This is the intentional outcome of the training up of the next generation to take over.  Christianity will be here till the Lord Jesus returns and so every generation must raise up the next generation to take responsibility and leadership.  The church without a youth group will have no family ministry in the next generation and no old people in the one after that.  It is critically important to always invest in the next generation (Psalm 78:5-7).
Mid Year Conference (MYC) has been such a large part of my life that it is a little hard to grasp that it has come to an end for me.  However, the purpose of student work is to prepare the next generation to take over and for their sake I must leave the crease gracefully.
MYC started in my second year as chaplain at UNSW in 1976.  Just over 20 students spent the week in the Speakers Lodge at Katoomba.  It was a great week of Bible study and prayer, which bore astonishing results not just in the ministry on the university campus that year but also in the lifetime of those who were present.  All but two have continued faithfully serving Christ in business. family and church.  Many entered full time ministry, some went onto the mission field in Africa and South America, others are in pastoral ministry around Sydney and student work in Australia, and one even became a bishop.
Following the success of that first year we continued to hold an annual Mid Year Conference.  The numbers steadily grew and other campuses started to follow the same model.  We moved from campsite to campsite till we came to the largest one available and then filled it to overflowing.  The logistics became ever more complicated, but the staff teams running them became ever more adroit at meeting the challenges.  The emphasis never varied – it has always been a serious time of being confronted with the claims of Christ in our lives by prayerfully studying the Bible.  Many have been converted at MYC and many more have come to understand and accept the claims of Christ’s Lordship over their lives.
The programme has remained remarkably stable over the years.  It involves taking a topic and spending the time studying the scriptures in small groups and seminar gatherings as well as private times of reflection.  The afternoon provided lots of time for sport and recreation as well as pondering what was discovered in the scriptures that morning.  Then in the evening I was given the privilege of speaking and answering questions for some hours.  The daytime study prepared people for the intensity of the evening sessions.  I have never seen a better platform from which to preach Christ.  An attentive inquiring audience keen to hear from God’s word, to engage with its message, and to change not only their thinking but their whole way of life.
Starting from that small first conference, thousands of students have now been to MYC. In 1993 some smaller campus groups around Sydney joined together to create a combined MYC for those campuses not large enough to hold their own.  This was held the week before UNSW MYC and I spoke at both of them – spending a fortnight at the campsite.  On leaving UNSW and becoming Dean, I retired from the UNSW MYC but continued speaking at the combined university MYC.  And it is from there that I am writing this article.
However, this is the last combined MYC.  Each of the ministries has grown enough to hold their own MYC.  It is a sad moment for me - and yet a great moment - for the children have grown into the adulthood that I always wanted.  They are taking responsibility to make their own conferences work.  I am thrilled that we have reached such a stage of development.
Still, I have spoken at over 50 MYC’s over the last 37 years, spending more than a year of my life eating conference food and sleeping fitfully on campsite beds.  I cannot calculate the hours of talks or questions and answers I have been privileged to be part of.  I am now meeting the children of those who used to come and can recall how I knew their parents before their parents knew each other.  Even more wonderful, sometimes I knew their parents before their parents knew the Lord.
I thank God for the great innings he has given me and the strength to enjoy it.  Yet it is important to know when to call it a day.  Not so much because I am getting too old, but because the next generation has arrived and need to take the responsibility to train up their next generation after them.
It happened at UNSW more than a decade ago.  Their MYC next week is larger than any one I ever spoke at.  They have great Bible teachers led by Carl Matthei, Paul Grimmond and Joshua Ng.  I understand that the Annual Conference of Sydney University is similarly attracting huge numbers and is ably taught by Rowan Kemp.  There are similar MYC’s run by other campus ministries around NSW and other states.  It is a great time to be a Christian university student.  Now even the smaller campus groups are ready to strike out on their own and I’m sure they will do brilliantly under the wonderful leadership of their staff workers.
As for me, I am a little sad but for the gospel of the Lord Jesus it's a great day.  For out of those attending will come a generation of Bible believers and Bible teachers who in turn will teach the generation after them.

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Again, Gaza farmers cooperate with Israel, while BDSers pretend otherwise

From COGAT:
Last Wednesday and Thursday two groups of Palestinian farmers (60 persons in total) had left the Gaza Strip in order to attend an agricultural seminar in northern Israel, designed to further facilitate the Gaza agricultural sector. Farmers, heads of agricultural associations and merchants had arrived at the conference sponsored by Origins Seeds Company, a company which exports cucurbitacae (pumpkins, squashes, etc.) and field cultivation seeds to 17 world countries, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Last years, the farmers had purchased seeds from the company and were pleased with their quality, and so it was important for them to attend the seminar and learn more about the product they're using. During the seminar, the farmers completed several workshops on cultivation methods, planting schedules, soil preparation, proper use of irrigation and fertilizer and disinfestations methods.

In addition, the farmers focused primarily on watermelons, and had stated that this year, owing to the training programs conducted frequently in Israel; growers had achieved unprecedented crop yields – 11 tons of produce for each decare of cultivated fields – A twofold increase compared with the preceding year.
Meanwhile, the BDS movement puts together lists of "agricultural organizations" that probably have no members as "proof" that Arab farmers in the territories want to shun any cooperation with Israel.

As I summed up earlier this year:

  • The BDSers want Palestinian Arab farmers to lose millions of dollars that they are making today by cooperating with Israeli exporters.
  • The BDSers want Palestinian Arabs to stop working for Israelis that pay them double the rates they would get from Arab employers.
  • The actual farmers in the territories are happy to work with Israel to make money.
  • The actual workers in the settlements are happy to get more money for their families by legally working for Israelis.

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Holly Sarah Nguyen
"Ok so they are cursing you, pointing the finger at you, spitting bad mouth at you, they are jealous of you, they are crucifying you!!!... Is it true what they say? If not let it not consume your righteous heart... You must continue to hold God's hand and He will guide your heart to inner peace and freedom you thought impossible!!! Walk forward...Through Him all things are possible!!

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RUDD’S EGO EMBARRASSES THE NATION
The spectacle of all the international ambassadors to Australia lined up like school boys to pay homage to Rudd is an international embarrassment which has turned Australian into a laughing stock.

And why did Rudd orchestrate this embarrassing spectacle ?

It wasn’t for any greater good, it wasn’t undertaken in the best interests of our nation - it was simply done for Rudd’s own personal and political agenda.

Yet again Rudd is putting his own personal interests ahead of those of Australia.

And this is just another example of why Labor’s member for Bendigo was right when he called Rudd 'a psychopath with a giant ego' - and why Rudd is unfit to lead Australia.

The nation can’t afford another 3 years of this farce.

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The Article is here: http://972mag.com/watch-idf-detains-5-year-old-in-hebron-blindfolds-and-handcuffs-father/75594/

The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dl6YGt7O9eM
A line in the article Furthermore, according to B’Tselem spokesperson Sarit Michaeli, the IDF’s unequal and discriminatory conduct towards settler children who throw stones and Palestinian children who throw stones is clear from such an incident:

“We 
have extensive documentation of lawbreaking by young Israeli children in Hebron. Settler children under the age of criminal responsibility have often thrown stones at Palestinians with impunity. We are certainly not advocating that Israeli minors under the age of criminal responsibility are arrested – quite the contrary – but the discriminatory treatment is glaring.” .. correct me if I'm wrong please but .. bullshit .. I'd be surprised if lone Israeli children could even survive, were their presence known among Palestinians in occupied areas .. - ed
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Dry Bones cartoon: Europe warns the Turkish army not to intefere with the establishment of an Islamic state.
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"While some might see the internal melt down in Arab society as a positive sign for Israel, significantly reducing the military threat from regional state actors, there are profoundly menacing aspects to the phenomenon that are likely to sharply increase the threat entailed in any future sovereign Palestinian entity.

For as the centralized control of states over their territory decreases, and radicalization of the political climate within their frontiers increases, both their ability and their resolve to rein in renegade extremists will wane.

If a Palestinian state is set up in any configuration remotely coinciding with the pre-1967 lines, it is likely to be almost seamlessly welded not only to the present relatively benign monarchy in Jordan, not only to any more radical successor, but to all that lies – largely borderless – beyond that.

The only physical obstacle today separating Israel’s heavily urbanized Coastal Plain from the realities of the Arab world, of which the Palestinians see themselves an integral part, is the limestone mountain range in Judea-Samaria, on which the Palestinian state is supposed to be constituted.

The establishment of such a state would adjoin almost immediately and directly link the eastern fringes of Tel Aviv with the greater Arab world, with all the attendant societal and security ramifications such a measure would entail." - Martin Sherman - (article excerpt)

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... " The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. " - Sir Winston Churchill
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1 SLEEPS & we will be racing!!!!!
Share Care Race Day - Saturday 13th July -Warwick Farm Racecourse! Tickets still available, so make sure you get yours fast..... 10 left and counting!!!
PH: 9607 4888
Email: admin@sharecare.org.au
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What a great and safe idea for the backyard .. a sunken trampoline! Absolutely love this and your kids will too.. http://bit.ly/10LJR2Q

Give a LIKE for our WHOot partner FOX Mowing & Gardening and let them take the hard work out of your garden maintenance!
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4 her
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them (Romans 8:28)
I believe the key word of this verse is “together.” In other words, you can’t just isolate one part of your life and say, “Well, this is not good.” “It’s not good that I got laid off.” “It’s not good that my relationship didn’t work out.” Yes, that’s true, but that’s just one part of your life. God can see the big picture. That disappointment is not the end. Remember that when one door closes, God has another door for you to walk through—a better door. Those difficulties and challenges are merely stepping stones toward your brighter future. Be encouraged today because God has a plan for you to rise higher. He has a plan for you to come out stronger. He has a plan to work all things together for your good so that you can move forward in the victory He has prepared for you.God bless you.

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Photo credit: John W. Pope Civitas Institute
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for July 11th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

McClatchy: Obama signed ‘if you see federal employees who look like they could leak something, say something’ executive order

You might have expected the “most transparent administration in history” to have less of an obsession with leakers instead of more when compared with previous administrations, but that’s far from the case...

Having solved all other problems, pair of Dems propose national park on the moon

Republicans might be more inclined to support this if the bill included sending Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to the Sea of Tranquility to serve as park rangers...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Featured Video

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Last night on "Hannity," Michelle explained why it's imperative that the GOP "hold the line and stiffen the spine" when it comes to border security.

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Bet he'd be a hoot to debate.

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An abandoned Soviet T-34 tank at Prokhorovka

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