Thursday, November 14, 2013

Thu Nov 14th Todays News

The resignation of Kevin Rudd is not the end of the damage he has inflicted in office. It is a betrayal of trust those who voted for him, or the Greens, placed in him in early September. Famously, Rudd takes on the concerns of those that surround him, with no guarantee of follow through. Rudd claims he saved furniture. He leaves open wounds weeping and no end in sight. Will a gang raped girl ever receive justice after Rudd ordered the shredding of evidence of her case? Will Australia exceed the debt limit established by the ALP in government? In between, there is the betrayal of Aboriginal peoples diminished through divisive race debate when previously there had been bipartisan support. The death of soldiers used for political ends. The assassination and attempted abduction of Timorise leaders. I don't want Rudd's furniture. It is ill fitting, cheap and dangerous. 
Part of the furniture Rudd leaves behind is accused of rape. We don't know who, but assume it is male and Victorian. It is an accusation, not a conviction. It is an unknown ALP 'soldier.' It is one of them, done to all of us .. it seems Keating's words can be useful. But they don't really belong to Keating. 
As Rudd leaves, there are whispers of the worst storm of all time. No one knows where that storm is, but a tragically powerful storm took on the Philippines recently as powerful as any in the last few years, doing a lot of damage and killing many people. Please help support them. Give generously. 
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Jessie LamLeyna Ngo and Johnny ToBorn on the same day, across the years, along with
Matches
Despatches
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RUDDLETTE RISES

Tim Blair – Thursday, November 14, 2013 (2:25pm)

Jessica Rudd is reportedly set to become a Labor MP and run in the seat of Griffith in the wake of her father’s resignation. 
UPDATE. The fun continues
The installation of Ms Rudd is also seen as a fitting parting gesture to the Wayne Swan forces in the heavily divided Queensland branch of the ALP where the hatred between Mr Rudd and his former Treasurer has reached new depths ... 
Just as well popcorn isn’t poisonous.
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TYPHOON DOOMERS

Tim Blair – Thursday, November 14, 2013 (3:33am)

Death-feasting Greens love a disaster, as Andrew Bolt notes: 
Once again the Greens have shamelessly exploited a tragedy, this time Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
These enemies of reason claim this “record” typhoon is evidence of global warming and “Typhoon Tony” – the Prime Minister – will cause more. 
image 
But once again almost everything they say about this disaster is false or misleading.
Of course, that isn’t unusual for the Greens, a party that promises a new Dark Ages in which faith again trumps facts. 
These people thrive on decay. That’s probably why they hail every election defeat as a victory.
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KEVNI KWITS

Tim Blair – Thursday, November 14, 2013 (1:53am)

After vowing to remain as the member for Griffith, ex-PM Kevin Rudd abruptly resigns from parliament:



Rudd’s farewell speech was remarkably gracious to members of the new government. Speeches in response wereequally kind.
UPDATE. Fairfax’s Tony Wright
It was all about Kevin. Always.
And so, Kevin Rudd chose the dying hours of the first evening of the first full day of the new Parliament, his chance of redemption gone, to announce his resignation from Parliament …
Now Labor can put Kevin Rudd behind it and Rudd himself might get on with his life. But he leaves behind an astonishing trail of collateral damage: including former ministers Nicola Roxon, Simon Crean, Craig Emerson, Martin Ferguson, Greg Combet, Stephen Smith and Peter Garrett, and many staffers, bureaucrats and colleagues burnt out by Kevin Rudd’s ambition, which burnt beyond his own capacity to control it. 
Add Julia Gillard to that list. In just six years, Rudd took down more senior Labor figures than most conservative politicians are able to defeat in a lifetime.
UPDATE II. In other ex-Prime Ministerial developments, anyone want to buy a house?
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HELLO HENRY

Tim Blair – Wednesday, November 13, 2013 (6:49pm)

A rare public announcement from low-profile Daily Telegraph identity Joe Hildebrand: 
Henry John Brook Hildebrand is 3.5kg big, six hours old and has a 37cm cranial circumference. Despite this he appears unable to perform the most basic household tasks. Mother and baby are well. 
Congratulations to Tara and her Hildebrand clan.
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Lying about Haiyan

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (10:37am)


Physicist Lubos Motl on the lying over Typhoon Haiyan:

Today in the morning, I was stunned by the dishonesty of the professional climate alarmists again. Their moral defects are just shocking. It seems completely obvious to me that they must know that they are lying 24 hours a day.
This controversy is about the claim that the typhoon Haiyan was the strongest tropical cyclone that ever made a landfall, and so on. You can see this preposterous misinformation almost everywhere. For example, start with the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on Typhoon Haiyan....
All the mistakes are completely obvious and demonstrable, as I will argue below, but it is impossible to even fix basic errors on the Wikipedia page, or elsewhere. Such pages are being controlled by obsessed hardcore climate alarmist trolls and crackpots…
So let’s look at some real numbers and the origin of the flawed numbers…
So have a look at the list of the most intense tropical cyclones ever.
They are geographically divided to 8 regions ("basins"). Starting from the lowest pressure (strongest cyclones), they are (the minimum pressure of the strongest cyclone is added):

870 hPa: Western North Pacific Ocean (Tip 1979)

882 hPa: North Atlantic Ocean (Wilma 2005)
890 hPa: South Pacific Ocean (Zoe 2002-03)
895 hPa: South-West Indian Ocean (Gafilo 2003-04)
900 hPa: Australian region (Gwenda 1998-99)
902 hPa: Eastern Pacific Ocean (Linda 1997)
912 hPa: North Indian Ocean (BOB 07 1999)
972 hPa: South Atlantic Ocean (Catarina 2004)
Most of the basins are dominated by cyclones in recent decades because reliable and continuous measurements of the pressure only began recently…
I wrote the strongest basin in the bold face because that’s the region in which Haiyan belongs. If you focus on the table for that basin, you will see than Haiyan is between 21st and 35th strongest cyclone in that region since the 1950s or so. In 60 years or so, one gets 21-35 cyclones just in that region that are equally strong or stronger. In other words, every 2-3 years, one gets a cyclone of the equivalent or greater magnitude…
CNN wrote (via Pielke Jr) that the storm surge was 40-50 feet; the actual figure from the meteorologists was 13-18 feet. CNN probably had no sensible source for the huge (doubled or tripled) figure at all.
Read on. The wind speeds claimed were false, too. Death toll also.
(Thanks to reader fulchrum.) 
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Name no names. Make no judgment. Leave it to the police

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (10:01am)


This could be big:
A SENIOR Labor figure is under investigation by Victoria Police after it was alleged he raped a teenager at an event organised by the party’s youth wing in the 1980s.
The alleged victim, who cannot be named, claims the assault took place during an overnight camp organised by the “Vanguard” movement of the state’s Young Labor party and held in Portarlington, near Geelong.
The woman, a community nurse who now lives on the NSW central coast, last month made a formal complaint to Victoria Police. The complaint was assessed before the decision was made to launch an investigation.
But…
Allegations from so very long ago make me wonder why they were not made earlier. They are also much, much harder for an accused man to defend. In those circumstances, and given what I know of the character of the man involved, I would not credit these allegations for a second until police have properly investigated. Until then, I would not question the man involved, spread rumors about him or in any way hold these claims against him.
I do not mean to disparage the complainant in any way or liken her to the complainant of the case I’m now going to mention. But I’ve seen before the tremendous and irreparable injustice that can follow when journalists treat an allegation of rape against a politician as all but proved, and then name a man later found innocent. Absolutely and comprehensively innocent.
Beware the justice of the pointed finger.
(No comments.) 
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Abbott should not have attacked Howard to praise Rudd

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (8:21am)


Tony Abbott should not have thrown John Howard under the bus last night in paying a very lavish tribute to Kevin Rudd. He should especially not have done so when Howard was actually right to resist a purely symbolic apology for a crime no one can prove - for a myth that is killing Aboriginal children today:

Mr Abbott also paid tribute to Mr Rudd’s apology to Indigenous Australians, calling it “something to crown an amazing public life”.
“Much as I admire and appreciate and put on a huge pedestal his immediate predecessor (John Howard), in this respect at least, he had lacked the imagination to grasp that opportunity and the member for Griffith, Kevin, he had the decency to see that here was something that needed to be done,” he said.
But true enough: imagination is what’s needed to make such an apology.
Still, Paul Bongiorno and Fran Kelly were applauding on ABC Radio National this morning. If Liberals take their moral cues from that demographic, Abbott did well. 
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UN human rights now determined by tyrants

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (6:27am)


Consensus politics at the UN is no better than its consensus science:

China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Cuba, Vietnam and Algeria were among 14 countries elected onto the Human Rights Council on Tuesday. From January 1 next year 11 of the council’s 47 members will be countries designated “not free” by Freedom House.
(Thanks to reader watty.) 
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Rudd quits, starved of status

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (5:37am)


KEVIN Rudd is one of the most insecure people I’ve ever met, yet fought like someone who thought he could never be beaten.
This made him one of our strangest prime ministers - a man whose greatest weakness fed his greatest strength.
Rudd was eternally eager to assert his status, like a man who feared he was given less than he deserved.
As prime minister, he travelled with a bigger entourage than did John Howard.
He would put his boots on a desk or – in my case – on our office coffee table, showing the soles of his feet like a dog cocking a leg on a lamppost.
If he no longer needed you, he cut you.
If staff challenged him, they were frozen out.

In his first spin as prime minister he hired absurdly young staff - people he could better dominate, but also staff less cluey in the ways of power.
And when he was dragged down as leader by colleagues shocked at his rudeness and dysfunction, he was utterly determined to drag down in turn the woman who’d so humbled him and who he considered deeply unworthy of his job.
Character counts in politics, and Rudd’s character counted plenty.
He was so thrilled to be powerful, attracting the powerful, that he staged a farcical ideas summit of 1000 of our ‘’best and brightest’’, who produced almost zero practical ideas but served as marvellous celebrity props to Rudd’s ego.
He adored his frantic foreign travel, meeting world leaders in summits that delivered nothing for Australia anyone could recall.
In citing his achievements - again - in Parliament on Wednesday night, he singled out ones where he spent like the nation’s Santa Claus (the bloated stimulus package) or made great, symbolic gestures like the nation’s great conscience (the apology to the ‘’stolen generations’’ and signing the Kyoto protocol on global warming).

He took no pride in simply expanding the freedom of other Australians to make their own decisions on how to invest, work and play.
(Read full article here.
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 Greens feed on fears … and on Typhoon Haiyan’s dead

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (5:31am)

Global warming - propaganda

image
ONCE again the Greens have shamelessly exploited a tragedy, this time Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
These enemies of reason claim this “record” typhoon is evidence of global warming and “Typhoon Tony” - the Prime Minister - will cause more.
But once again almost everything they say about this disaster is false or misleading.

Of course, that isn’t unusual for the Greens, a party that promises a new Dark Ages in which faith again trumps facts.
(Read full article here.
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How Tony Abbott turned the tables on Leigh Sales

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (5:26am)

Media

I thought Tony Abbott last night gave his best interview yet on 7.30, the scene of some of his worst.
First, he explained better than has Immigration Minister Scott Morrison the difference between helping self-serving journalists file stories and actually working in the country’s best interests:

LEIGH SALES: The Indonesian rescue agency this afternoon said that Australian authorities either towed or escorted a boat back to Indonesia last week. Is that accurate?
TONY ABBOTT: Well again, I’m just not going to comment on operational matters. Scott Morrison and General Campbell will be available on Friday and they’ll deal with operational matters. Again, Leigh, ...
LEIGH SALES: Well if that - Prime Minister, if that’s your position then all the Australian public can do is trust the most up-to-date information which is what has come from official Indonesian channels.
TONY ABBOTT: Leigh, I’m interested in stopping the boats; I’m not interested in providing sport for journalists, I’m not interested in starting a fight or provoking an argument; I’m interested in stopping the boats. And why I’m interested in stopping the boats is because this is a humanitarian disaster as well as an affront to our Australian sovereignty. And I know that for political purposes and for entertainment purposes and for media purposes people would love every last tidbit of information, but honestly, I think the public expects us to solve the problem, not to engage in sport for commentators.
Second, he neatly called out the crude baiting that is now rampant in a largely Left and largely hostile media corps:

LEIGH SALES:  Prime Minister, if that’s your position then all the Australian public can do is trust the most up-to-date information which is what has come from official Indonesian channels.... Indonesia’s calling the shots on this, aren’t they?… And they’re calling the shots on this policy.... There was a lot of tough talk during the election campaign about turning boats around, but it now appears that when Indonesia stands firm and refuses to take people back, Australia buckles and brings the asylum seekers back here for processing.
TONY ABBOTT: Why are you using loaded language, Leigh? You’re using loaded language all the time.
LEIGH SALES: You don’t think “stop the boats” is loaded?
TONY ABBOTT: No, no, stopping the boats is something that surely you all - we all want to do. I mean, you’d like to stop these boats, Leigh, surely.
Finally, he confounded the media stereotype of Abbott the bruiser, breaking complicated things with his great paws - and in doing so made a journalist seem the one lacking nuance and perspective:

TONY ABBOTT: Well, I’m not going to use loaded language myself. I’m not going to run around beating my hairy chest and saying that I’ve outstared someone or that - and I’m not going to say that someone has outstared me either. This is not a question of two countries trying to prove who’s the toughest with each other. It’s a question of two good friends working together for an outcome which is clearly in the best interests of both of our countries.

UPDATE
Reader James of the Glen:

Regarding the Leigh Sales interview with PM Tony Abbott on the ABC 7:30 program last night: why was Mr Abbott expected to have a “Plan B” for dealing with the illegal immigrants, but Ms Sales had no Plan B when told her questions regarding operational details would not be discussed?  
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Job done

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (5:22am)


Goodbye from Julia Gillard’s former communications director:
image
(Thanks to reader Tabitha.) 
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Modern Labor: workers and other outsiders need not apply

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (5:00am)


Modern Labor - lawyers, union bosses, small gene pool, faction deals:

Labor’s right-wing faction is set to secure the plum new Victorian seat of Werribee with high-profile Left wing candidate Emma Walters likely to run in the upper house…
Ms Walters, a senior lawyer at Slater and Gordon and partner of CFMEU state secretary John Setka, is likely to run the upper house, the Left say.
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Joe Hockey stars in Question Time, as he damn well must

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (4:44am)


TREASURER Joe Hockey today announced himself as the star of Question Time under this new government. And that is critical.
Yes, Question Time is just theatre and the real story for the next three years will be the Abbott Government’s battle to stop us getting poorer.

Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council, put it best this week in a speech deploring Labor’s six years of waste and reckless debt.
(Read full article here.
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Such expensive power. And all for zero good

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (4:35am)


The costs of merely seeming to do something about the globe’s temperature is horrendous. Alan Moran is right - scrap the renewable energy target:
Labor’s budgetary expenditure on emission restraints was about $4bn a year. The Coalition’s average annual spending, including $800 million on direct action, looks to be below $2bn.
Renewable energy requirements for electricity supply have been around since 2001. Through the years the mandatory share has been expanded and is scheduled to ramp up to a notional 20 per cent of supply by 2020. Aside from about 15,000GWh of commercial hydro, the 2020 target is defined as 45,000GWh of subsidised electricity comprising 4000GWh for rooftop solar facilities and 41,000GWh for larger facilities, mainly wind farms.
Overall, renewable requirements add about 40 per cent to the wholesale electricity cost.
Wind generation costs are at least $100 a megawatt hour, compared with less than $40 a megawatt hour for coal, the predominant source of electricity. There are also higher network and back-up costs.
Rooftop solar facilities are cheaper and receive less favourable regulatory treatment. Nonetheless, their electricity-generating costs and grid connections, subsidised by commercial electricity generators, makes rooftop solar at least five times more expensive than coal.
Progression to the annual target of 45,000GWh would involve a consumer subsidy to renewables rising year by year to $5bn a year by 2020. By then the renewable program would have imposed a total cost of $23bn.
And, because the subsidy is for the 15-year life of each facility (solar rooftop installations receive this subsidy upfront), the annual cost will continue to increase after 2020 before gradually tapering.
Again, remember that these billions of dollars don’t actually cut the world’s temperature by anything measurable. So why this spending?
UPDATE
The Canadian Government applauds what Labor is trying to stop:

Canada applauds the decision by Prime Minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia’s carbon tax. The Australian Prime Minister’s decision will be noticed around the world and sends an important message.
“Our government knows that carbon taxes raise the price of everything, including gas, groceries, and electricity. 
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Labor being fitted up as Tea Party wreckers - and nailed as reckless spenders

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (4:30am)


Does Labor really want to spend the next month talking about debt and the vandals who racked it all up?

JOE Hockey has raised the prospect of a US-style government shutdown, warning that commonwealth services could start closing after December 12 if the Coalition’s legislation to raise the debt ceiling to $500 billion is blocked in the Senate by Labor and the Greens…
But opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen held firm, saying the $400bn limit was Labor’s position unless the government provided detailed reasons about why it needed the increase.
Then these deadly words:
Mr Bowen, who was backed by Greens leader Christine Milne, ...
The Greens as deficit hawks. Who would ever have guessed?
And now for shoehorning Labor into a role that the Leftist media deplored when practiced by the Tea Party:
Tony Abbott accused Labor of trying to bring on a US-style debt crisis, in which federal government functions shut down as Democrats and Republicans argued over the US debt ceiling.
“Labor has left us with a shocking legacy of debt,” he said. “Now it seems that Bill Shorten and his cohorts want to act like the Tea Party in Washington and bring on some kind of crisis for our country.”
True, Labor’s game is to make the Abbott Government seem as shambolic and chaotic as Labor was.  But I wonder if this is driven by a hard-headed strategy or sheer vengeance. I suspect Labor has made a mistake by skipping past that whole repentance thing many voters would expect after a big repudiation.
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan:
Once portrayed in Labor’s class-war rhetoric as a destructive splinter of the US Tea Party, Abbott and Hockey are now hitting the ALP as economic vandals both in government and opposition.
UPDATE
Terry McCrann on the blundering of Bill Shorten and his shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen:

“ELECTRICITY” Bill and “debt and deficits” Chris have both announced their utter political ineptitude by the positions they have taken on repealing the carbon tax and the increase in the government’s debt ceiling.
In each case, they should have let the disastrous policies and consequences of their predecessors, former prime minister Julia Gillard and former treasurer Wayne Swan, die and be quickly, if not entirely quietly, buried with the political careers, such as they were, of those predecessors…
Instead, each has opted to “own” their predecessor’s disaster…
Let it be absolutely crystal clear, there is one reason and one reason alone that the new government has to lift the debt ceiling. Because of the continuing budget deficits left by the previous government… Huge deficits are locked in for at least the next three years; in my judgment, considerably longer than that…
Lifting the debt ceiling from $300 billion to $400 billion simply won’t be enough to cover Labor’s deficits that are still to come; what were Swan’s deficits, but which are now also “debt and deficits” Chris’s…
“Electricity’’ Bill should have “left’’ Julia’s carbon tax with her. Instead, he’s announced “there will be a carbon tax under a government I lead.’’
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Indonesia claim: Australia tried to turn back boat

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (4:23am)

Boat people policy

Curious, and I suspect the Indonesians aren’t giving us the accurate account. But why?

INDONESIA’S search and rescue agency has claimed the Australian navy turned back an asylum-seeker boat 50km closer to the Java coast, a claim denied by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison…
Basarnas chief of search and rescue evaluation Yopi Hariyadi claimed the fishing boat at the centre of the controversy over returning asylum-seekers to Indonesia was intercepted 107 nautical miles south of West Java last Thursday morning after the Australian Maritime Safety Authority first notified Jakarta of a distress call.
The Australian request later in the morning to transfer those on board to Indonesian custody was made from a position 57 nautical miles south of the coast, according to Basarnas…
Mr Yopi said Indonesia believed the fishing boat in the meantime had been guided back towards Indonesia by the Australian navy vessel.
The Indonesian account would explain why Jakarta was adamant the following day it would not accept transfer of the 60 asylum seekers to Indonesian custody a decision Mr Morrison said lacked “rhyme or reason”.
The Indonesian account of the initial interception by HMAS Ballarat was flatly denied by Mr Morrison, who on Saturday ended the stand-off by directing that the 60 asylum-seekers and three crew be taken to Christmas Island.
Meanwhile, Indonesia tries to shrink its obligations:

Fairfax Media has been told that Indonesia is preparing to ask that its search and rescue area be reduced in size to limit its responsibility to undertake maritime operations in waters south of Java.
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The change suggests growing Indonesian unease at being forced to accept asylum seekers rescued at sea by Australian authorities, and returned to Indonesian ports.
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Labor’s audience isn’t its media groupies

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (4:22am)


Niki Savva has wise words for Labor after a Question Time dominated by the Government - and makes an observation that rings very true:

It is tactically dumb for the opposition to concentrate its attacks on its own areas of weakness: debt, carbon tax and boats. So is using media gripes to drive its agenda. On Saturday night the Ten Network, which runs a half-hour of Andrew Bolt a week and spends the remainder of its news/entertainment time trying to compensate for it, told viewers that the government’s asylum-seeker policy was in disarray. It reflected the tenor of much of the reporting.
The policy is not in disarray, much as some wish it were.
Savva will be on the Bolt Report again in a couple of weeks.
Oh, and some excellent advice, too, for a Government which must not risk confusing process for judgment:
What we can say definitively is that Abbott has abundant caution. The government uses the focus-group-driven term methodical to describe itself, boasting that the adults are back in charge while practising baby steps.
Taking time to decide is sensible. It helps if ultimately the right decisions are made. Take entitlements. The issue was allowed to bleed for weeks. Initially, Abbott publicly insisted there was nothing wrong, confided privately he wouldn’t be pushed into acting, subsequently declared no one had come up with a better way of fixing a problem that didn’t really exist, then finally, on Saturday morning in Melbourne, dispatched Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson to announce changes amounting to next to nothing. If this is what is meant by methodical, then please, shoot me now.
One can only hope that by the time the main test of this government’s mettle arrives, in the May budget, the defining adjectives will be skilful or fearless. 
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Howard on the great global warming scare

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (4:22am)


John Howard’s London lecture.
(Thanks to reader Allan.) 
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Nova Peris preaches eternal division

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (4:00am)


Nova Peris got her Senate position when Julia Gillard sacked Trish Crossin for not being Aboriginal. So I can understand why she might be a fan of “racial” division and the deadly politics of eternal victimhood:
Away from Parliament before her speech, she said Australia will be able to achieve better outcomes for Aboriginal people, but not equality.
“What I believe we can achieve is equity,” she said.
“Equality no, equity yes. What we can achieve is what is fair and just.
“You only have to look around the Northern Territory, and there is a lot of injustice at the moment, with the high imprisonment rates, our housing, our health.”
Aborigines are in jail because of injustice? Could Peris please explain that dangerous nonsense?
For a far wiser take on Aboriginal advancement and the politics of “race” from someone with Aboriginal ancestry, I’d turn instead to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory:

UPDATE
I reject Pearson’s call for constitutional recognition of one “race” - not least because it jars with so much else that he says that makes good sense:

CAPE York indigenous leader Noel Pearson has ... declared that a “person is not automatically disadvantaged just because he or she is indigenous”.
“A person should be rewarded on their merits, and assisted in their needs,” he said. ”Race, and indigeneity, should be irrelevant to matters of public welfare and government assistance...”
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In praise of pasta

Andrew Bolt November 14 2013 (12:09am)


Prick with a Fork has come back from Italy with pasta passion and a recipe.
One tip of my own: make your own pasta. It really rewards the effort. 
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Boat sinking

Andrew Bolt November 13 2013 (8:29pm)


A boat is sinking close to the Indonesian coast. Some 50 people are said to be on board. Indonesian ships, not Australian, are going to their rescue. 
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Rudd quits

Andrew Bolt November 13 2013 (8:17pm)


A crying Kevin Rudd resigns.
He wishes Tony Abbott well, and singles out Malcolm Turnbull.. Wishes Bill Shorten all the best. Warns him of “long dark nights of the soul”.
Says Albanese is the most formidable MP in Parliament, and “his loyalty is beyond reproach”.
The by-election for Rudd’s seat will be feared by both sides. Will it end Abbott’s honeymoon? Will the loss of Rudd’s personal vote cost Labor one more Queensland seat, and add to pressure over the carbon tax? I should imagine Labor will lose this.
Rudd once again goes through what he considers his successes - ratifying Kyoto, avoiding recession, the apology to the “stolen generations”, the parental leave scheme. (Note: big spending and symbolic gestures.) To the last list he gave (after being knifed) he adds saving the furniture.
Rudd says he’s leaving at the end of the week. 
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Abbott on 7.30

Andrew Bolt November 13 2013 (8:02pm)


I thought he did very well. Very assured, and called out Leigh Sales perfectly on her loaded language. Also explained - less antagonistically than has Immigration Minister Scott Morrison - that his reluctance to reveal some details on operations was because his duty was to stop the boats, not entertain the journalists.
Success has given Abbott assurance. 
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Aprille Love
Condolence mass and appeal to the community! — at Philippine Consulate Sydney
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Divorcing parents: don’t forget your children’s needs: http://bit.ly/ChildrenAndDivorce
#DrPhil
 
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Pastor Rick Warren
Holding on to an offense never hurts your offender. It just lets them keep hurting YOU. That's dumb.
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My mentor #BillyGraham taught me "COURAGE IS CONTAGIOUS!" Billy, Cliff, Leighton, and me at Billy's 95th Birthday, November 7, 2013.
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Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
Father in heaven,I thank You for another day to praise You. Thank You for all You have done in my life. Help me to see Your hand of blessing as I continually acknowledge and praise Your name in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.(1 Chronicles 16:34, AMP)

One thing I’ve noticed is that when you live with an attitude of constant gratitude, not only do you thank God for what He’s done in your life, you start thanking Him for what He will stll do in your life. You thank Him for opening doors for you in the future. You thank Him for increasing you. You thank Him for bringing the right people into your life. When we say “Thank You” to God for the things that are coming, it’s really a declaration of our faith in Him. It’s like saying in essence, “God, I’m so sure of Your goodness, I’m so sure that You’re working in my life and am thanking You right now for what You are going to do tomorrow!” Friends, that’s the kind of faith that pleases God. He wants us to trust in His goodness and believe that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.God bless you.
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PRAY ALONG.
Father,I thank You for being my Good Shepherd. Thank You for walking with me in the valley, in the tough places.By faith I see the dreams you’ve given me coming to pass, no matter what my circumstances are. I am full of Your power and I’m ready to become everything you created me to be. Thank You for restoring my soul and leading me to a place of victory and blessing in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.(Psalm 23:4,Niv)

You have to keep pressing forward even when it’s not easy. People may tell you, “You’re done. There’s nothing good in your future.” No, don’t believe those lies. God sees your effort. It’s one thing to do the right thing and make good decisions when everything is going your way. That’s great. God honors that. But when times are tough and nothing is going your way, when you’re hurting, when you should be on the sidelines nursing your wound but instead you’re still in the game; you’re still getting to work on time; you’re still expecting God to turn it around, that gets God’s attention in a new way.

I believe God has a greater reward for people who are faithful in the tough times. If that’s you today, know that God has His hand on you. He’s walking with you through the valley. He’s preparing streams in the dessert. He’s leading and guiding you in paths of righteousness for His name sake. Keep praising. Keep believing. Keep moving forward knowing that God is with you, and His comfort will guide you to the place of blessing.God bless you.
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Tony Abbott
His Bill, to lower your bill
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Andy Trieu
Thanks #saxonythebrand for the last minute suit. @saxonythebrand #suitandtie #asian #ninja#represent
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You have my orders, now do my bidding - ed
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G'day,

I tend to recall Kevin Rudd having a meeting in Hungary a few years ago. I am 99.9% convinced that Kevin has sown up a U.N style diplomat job for himself in Europe and that he knew this well before he was made leader of the ALP again and was just waiting for the election (that he also knew he would lose) to be over before his retirement announcement last night.

Cunningly and true to his nature, Rudd did hang on so that he could tick off "DESTROY JULIA" on his REVENGE BUCKET LIST & succeeded. I am also confident that in his mind there was no need for him to sit on the back bench whilst wasting precious years, better used as a UN player, which in my opinion has always been a marker on his MAIN goal, to be head the U.N.

Just as clever was the timing of the announcement, which gave those opposite no time to prepare a more considered eulogy for a former retiring PM still within the House.... and this resulted in the Liberal leaders having to speak from the heart (well aware that Hansard misses nothing) thus resulting in a more than generous bout of accolades that were far to gracious and hypocritical in their praise for a man who will be remembered as one of the 3 worst PM's this country has seen, more so than the black arm history brigade who will remember his meaningless "Sorry Stunt"...IMHO.

This by-election in Griffith (thanks for the cost of that Kevin) is a two edged sword for both the Govt. and Opposition. Either way, the result will not be a good look for the losing party, a matter that Kevin Rudd really couldn't care less about and is a win win for him as there is no love lost with Abbott or Shorten.

Did you know that there are now 7 living PM's drawing a huge weekly pension?

Good bye K Rudd, thanks for nothing and I will not be forgetting you in a hurry, in fact I still draw cartoons with Whitlam in them , so you can expect to pop up again in future scribblings.

Godspeed
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist/Caricaturist
0414293765
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Blog: http://zegsyd.blogspot.com.au/

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Time to remind Joe Hockey that we voted him in to cut - not to raise the debt ceiling http://www.joehockey.com/enquiries/
Lol, harsh but .. he is and will cut spending, but the starting point is very high .. in the short term, Debt will have to be raised to cover the flow through of ALP spending. They were that bad. - ed
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Holly Sarah Nguyen
Faith can move mountains, but don't be surprised if God hands you a shovel... If you do your best God will do the rest..
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http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6937594/the-eight-most-annoying-customers-at-your-retail-job
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http://au.news.yahoo.com/qld/a/19824398/rudd-was-a-bastard-latham/

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The Light... — at Panther Beach.
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http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/11/gregorian-delights
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Larry Pickering
WE WILL MISS YOU UNCLE KEV...

It’s difficult to find words that aptly describe your momentous contribution to Australia’s political scene. But I will try.

We will miss your quaint dysfunctional disasters, your megalomania, your narcissistic self absorption. 

We will miss your conceited arrogance and rudeness... your schizophrenic flakiness and psychotic boorishness.

No-one could hold a light to your abusive bluntness and impolite churlishness.

Your crass crudeness and ignorant ineptness was something to behold. No-one could equal your treacherous betrayals, dirty-dealing duplicity and perfidious grift.

None other could aspire to the dizzy heights of your pretentious vanity.

But no valediction is complete without the obligatory touching story:

I remember affectionately when you were in Beijing and you so impressively asked for a glass of water in your faultless Mandarin and the waitress brought you a bowl of steamed chicken feet.

Yes, Uncle Kev, at the going down of the sun, you will remember you.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/alp-figure-faces-80s-rape-claim/story-fn59niix-1226759377948
An image circulating at the moment .. I have no knowledge of the source or voracity of the smear - ed
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Tony Abbott
Mr Rudd was Prime Minister of our country, not once, but twice and I salute him on this night of his farewell to the parliament.

Whatever disagreements my colleagues and I have had with Mr Rudd, we will always honour what he achieved on the day of the National Apology.

Ancient wrongs were addressed that day.

It was a great moment in our country’s history and it happened because of him.

I am glad that Mr Rudd has said that he intends to continue this commitment to Indigenous Australians.

While Mr Rudd will no longer continue as a parliamentarian, I have every confidence that he will continue to serve our country and the values that he has always believed in.
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She served a life term .. did she reform? - ed
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http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/eating-chocolate-lowers-fat-says-study/story-fneuzkvr-1226759252500
I must take my medicine! - ed
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Aprille Love
Official signing of the Consulate General of the Philippines Condolence Book#philippineconsulategeneral #philippineembassy#condolence #typhoonhaiyan

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Build or the terrorists win - ed

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Why You Need to Get Real About Your Weaknesses
I believe that there are two great pillars of ministry. Paul’s confession and Peter’s confession. Peter’s confession was, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Obviously, ministry is built on that one, which is found in Mark chapter 8. But Acts 14:15 is just as important, which is Paul’s confession at Iconium where he says, “We are but men.”
I have met many pastors who are very interested in declaring their spirituality. But I haven’t met too many pastors in my life who are interested in declaring their humanity. But your humanity is actually one of your greatest strengths.
  
What If We Really Did Multiply?
By Larry Barker
What if every church had a vision to plant ten churches in ten years?  If two couples were to move to a city with the goal of reproducing themselves and multiplying every three years, it could happen.  Four couples could plant 32 churches in ten years.  As you study the multiplication of the early church you notice that when it was illegal church planting was exponential, when it became acceptable church multiplication slowed down, and when it became advantageous to be a Christian church multiplication came to a screeching halt.
  

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Every pastor chooses how he will lead a flock: As a risk taker, as a caretaker, or as an undertaker while it slowly dies.

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Bros and hos: Obamacare’s bread and circuses

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“For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” 1 Peter 2:15-16 NIV
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Morning

"The branch cannot bear fruit of itself."
John 15:4
How did you begin to bear fruit? It was when you came to Jesus and cast yourselves on his great atonement, and rested on his finished righteousness. Ah! what fruit you had then! Do you remember those early days? Then indeed the vine flourished, the tender grape appeared, the pomegranates budded forth, and the beds of spices gave forth their smell. Have you declined since then? If you have, we charge you to remember that time of love, and repent, and do thy first works. Be most in those engagements which you have experimentally proved to draw you nearest to Christ, because it is from him that all your fruits proceed. Any holy exercise which will bring you to him will help you to bear fruit. The sun is, no doubt, a great worker in fruit-creating among the trees of the orchard: and Jesus is still more so among the trees of his garden of grace. When have you been the most fruitless? Has not it been when you have lived farthest from the Lord Jesus Christ, when you have slackened in prayer, when you have departed from the simplicity of your faith, when your graces have engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have said, "My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved"; and have forgotten where your strength dwells--has not it been then that your fruit has ceased? Some of us have been taught that we have nothing out of Christ, by terrible abasements of heart before the Lord; and when we have seen the utter barrenness and death of all creature power, we have cried in anguish, "From him all my fruit must be found, for no fruit can ever come from me." We are taught, by past experience, that the more simply we depend upon the grace of God in Christ, and wait upon the Holy Spirit, the more we shall bring forth fruit unto God. Oh! to trust Jesus for fruit as well as for life.

Evening

"Men ought always to pray."
Luke 18:1
If men ought always to pray and not to faint, much more Christian men. Jesus has sent his church into the world on the same errand upon which he himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say that the church is the world's priest? Creation is dumb, but the church is to find a mouth for it. It is the church's high privilege to pray with acceptance. The door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return empty-handed. The veil was rent for her, the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her, God constantly invites her to ask what she wills. Will she refuse the privilege which angels might envy her? Is she not the bride of Christ? May she not go in unto her King at every hour? Shall she allow the precious privilege to be unused? The church always has need for prayer. There are always some in her midst who are declining, or falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for, that they may be carried in Christ's bosom? the strong, lest they grow presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up prayer-meetings four-and-twenty hours in the day, all the days in the year, we might never be without a special subject for supplication. Are we ever without the sick and the poor, the afflicted and the wavering? Are we ever without those who seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of back-sliders, or the salvation of the depraved? Nay, with congregations constantly gathering, with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in trespasses and sins; in a country over which the darkness of Romanism is certainly descending; in a world full of idols, cruelties, devilries, if the church doth not pray, how shall she excuse her base neglect of the commission of her loving Lord? Let the church be constant in supplication, let every private believer cast his mite of prayer into the treasury.
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Today's reading: Lamentations 1-2, Hebrews 10:1-18 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Lamentations 1-2

1 How deserted lies the city,
once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
has now become a slave.
2 Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3 After affliction and harsh labor,
Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she is in bitter anguish.
Her foes have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease.
The LORD has brought her grief
because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
captive before the foe.

Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 10:1-18

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all....
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