Saturday, March 29, 2014

Sat Mar 29th Todays News

On this day in 1974, a group of Chinese farmers came across what would be found to be a rich archaeological dig, terracotta warriors guarding the tomb of the first Chinese emperor. They had been placed around 210 BC. In an early illustration of pessimism, work had begun on the necropolis when the emperor was 13 years old. The necropolis would become a microcosm of the palace, with stables, rooms, flowing rivers of mercury, the location site being close to a rich gold vein and jade. Incredible riches buried for two thousand years. The emperor had searched for an elyxer of immortality. Probably because life is sweet. Over the years, the life and works of the emperor became legend. 

 Australia has not been operating as a nation for two thousand years, or even two hundred years. But in 114 years since federation, the history of union corruption is legendary. The unearthing of the AWU scandal, HSU scandal or any of many others illustrates that the known corruption of union activity in WW2 or thirties has never been addressed. The terracotta army had been buried over time. But the Union corruption has been buried by words from the ABC and ALP love media. It is understandable that a union devotee would cover their ears rather than acknowledge the problem, it is not acceptable that a journalist does the same, regardless of loyalty. 

 For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/nsw-premier-barry-o-farrell-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball?
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Canh Minh Vo, Jimmy Kien and John Ibrahim. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live. I am sure that isn't a perceptual illusion.
Matches
Despatches
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NO HOUR, NO POWER

Tim Blair – Saturday, March 29, 2014 (12:11am)

Like a crippled boy with asthma, tonight’s Earth Hour crept up on us slowly. Fairfax has barely bothered to promote its annual darkness festival, and the usual Earth Hour boosterism from the ABC and others is utterly absent. It’s almost as though people aren’t excited any more about turning their lights off for 60 minutes.
We usually celebrate an Hour of Power to counter this pathetic caper, but at this point, with Earth Hour shunned even by its friends, such a celebration seems almost cruel. Earth Hour is now the Johnny No Mates of global climate activism, and we should pity it.
Therefore this site will not hold an Hour of Power. Besides, during the time in question, I’ll be at the football. Under lights.
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GREENS EATEN

Tim Blair – Friday, March 28, 2014 (4:29pm)

Tasmania leads the way: 
The Greens have only themselves to blame for any loss of resources and speaking time in Parliament, Premier-elect Will Hodgman has said.
The former minority government partners no longer qualify for party status in the Tasmanian Parliament after an 8 per cent swing against them cost them two seats at the election. 
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If they want laws against abuse, could they at least stop this vilification?

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (11:24am)

This really is becoming obscene. 
First, Ron Merkel QC, acting for fair-skinned Aborigines who successfully had two of my articles banned, told the Jewish judge my thinking was of the kind that the Nazis had in drawing up the Nuremberg race laws - a truly disgusting and false smear which Jewish leaders have, belatedly, condemned. My articles were in fact a protest against racism and its new forms.
Next, The Age published a prominent article by academic Marica Langton accusing me of believing in the “master race” and “racial hygiene”, concepts promoted by the Nazis and used to justify the Holocaust. Langton has, after more than two years, finally apologised for that outrageous lie, but The Age has not.
This month the ABC falsely smeared me as a racist and broadcast utterly false claims that I’d subjected an academic to “foul abuse ... racist abuse”, accused her of not really being Aboriginal and driven her from “public life”. Every single claim was untrue, and the ABC grudgingly apologised.
Yesterday another disgusting character assassination, this time from SBS, which broadcast yet more distressing falsehoods to paint me as exactly the opposite of what I am.
I’ve mentioned this in a post below, but I am alarmed by the damage this campaign of vilification could do and want to highlight the falseness of this latest smear, which even The Australian republished this morning:
Professor of Law at Melbourne University, Mark McMillan is one of the nine Aboriginal people who sued columnist Andrew Bolt in 2009…
”I was accused of being a paedophile, and these were not just responses of Andrew Bolt,” Mr McMillan said.
I have never made, hinted at or in any way condoned any such despicable accusation, or made any suggestion which would possibly lead any sane person to make it themselves. I’d condemn such stuff, just as I’ve condemned those of the Left and the Right who’ve encouraged (accidentally or probably not) exactly this kind of vile abuse of others, which I have often said I find utterly repellent. McMillan is wrong, very wrong, to imply I’d made this claim or in any way encouraged others to do so. As a professor of law, he should be more much careful about defaming people like this.
I have asked SBS to retract the claim, made during an interview with McMillan which you can watch here.

These people want laws to stop the giving of offence? And then they do this? 
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Didn’t Labor promise no one would lose their job because of the carbon tax?

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (8:16am)

Reader Ken:
Now that the SA and Tasmanian elections are over, there are now 138 less Labor members of Federal, State and Territory parliaments than in 2010.
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Sheehan tells the ABC just how big the AWU scandal is. You know, the one it wouldn’t report

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (7:59am)

The AWU scandal

Paul Sheehan makes a prediction on the ABC about Julia Gillard, referring to the AWU scandal - a scandal the ABC for years tried to dismiss or ignore:

(Note: Julia Gillard denies any wrongdoing and says she did not know how her then boyfriend, AWU official Bruce Wilson, used the slush fund she helped to set up through giving legal advice.)
The video is Michael Smith, who is all over this scandal and lost his job at Fairfax radio for trying to report it.
But remember how the ABC’s Media Watch in 2011 sunk the boot into Smith for daring to raise matters which Media Watch dismissed as just old news - matters which have since become the subject of an intensive police investigation and will be probed by a royal commission?:
Michael Smith is the afternoon host of Sydney radio station 2UE, owned by Fairfax Media. And the Friday before last, he launched into readings from Bob Kernohan’s year-old stat dec ... Smith either didn’t know, or didn’t care, that every allegation in it has been aired, and dealt with publicly by Julia Gillard, multiple times ... Gillard has already explained herself in Glenn Milne’s 2007 article. She’s denied any wrongdoing many times, going back to when the allegations were first raised in the Victorian Parliament in 1995 ... Michael Smith didn’t accept the earlier denials. On the contrary, for hour after hour, day after day, Smith demanded that the Prime Minister come on his program and submit to a public interrogation ... 

Andrew Bolt will be deeply disappointed with this program. He wrote to us that ... 
“Lately, the issue has become the Prime Minister’s attempt to close down some reporting. It is the responsibility of every journalist involved in political commentary to note this. — Andrew Bolt, 3rd September, 2011”
But Nine News’s Laurie Oakes, who knows a thing or two about political commentary, disagrees:

“Laurie Oakes: The question is why it’s been dredged up again and the answer to that, I think, is people just are trying to, people who don’t like Julia Gillard and want to bring her down are beating it up.
— 3AW, Mornings with Neil Mitchell, 31st August, 2011”
...What happened sixteen years ago has indeed become peripheral.

And remember this?
Jon Faine, of 774 ABC Melbourne, said: “The conspiracy theorists are having a ball, the blogosphere’s running amok, it’s all completely out of control ... why is it on the front page of the paper?”
And this?:

In January [last year], Thomas reported that Victoria police had travelled to Queensland and taken a lengthy statement from a former para-legal executive at Slater & Gordon, Olivia Palmer (nee Brosnahan). That interview marked a turning point in the police investigation, with a significant increase in the number of detectives assigned to the matter as a result of her evidence.
The ABC reported nothing.
And this?:

Despite extensive coverage on commercial radio and television, and after several days of coverage across the News Limited and Fairfax press, the ABC chose to ignore yesterday’s fresh allegations reported by The Australian concerning Julia Gillard and claims she received $5000 cash from then boyfriend and union official Bruce Wilson.
With the exception of one question from Radio National Breakfast host Fran Kelly to The Age’s political editor Michelle Grattan about whether the revelations were “a problem” for Ms Gillard, the story was one the ABC did not think its listeners were entitled to hear until late in the day when the Prime Minister, who denies wrongdoing, dismissed it as “a smear”....
And this ABC letter to a viewer, explaining its refusal to report that Gillard was a subject of a police investigation?:
Reporting that the prime minister of the nation is under police investigation is an enormously significant call to make. It cannot be made on supposition, on rumour, or on hearsay…
According to The Australian they’ve been collecting files but you would expect any police investigation to gather up this sort of primary documentation. That does not mean Ms Gillard is under investigation. For all we know, the investigation could be into Ralph Blewitt, or Bruce Wilson or Slater & Gordon or any number of other individuals and entities.
And this letter?

The ABC is aware of these statements but we do not at this stage believe it warrants the attention of our news coverage.
To the extent that it may touch tangentially on a former role of the Prime Minister, we know The Australian newspaper maintains an abiding interest in events 17 years ago at the law firm Slater & Gordon, but the ABC is unaware of any allegation in the public domain which goes to the Prime Minister’s integrity.
And this, referring to a column in 2007 by Glenn Milne, also dumped for later raising the issue again?:
Gillard later told biographer Jacqueline Kent: “Over the next two or three days I received phone calls from many of the biggest names in the Canberra press gallery expressing absolute disbelief that such things were said (by Milne).
“Nobody followed up the story. It just died.”
(Again, Gillard insists she did not wrong and did not know how her then boyfriend was using the slush fund she helped him to create with her legal advice as his solicitor.)
One day the media’s shameful role in helping Gillard to bury this scandal will be fully exposed. I suspect a book may be coming… 
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Don’t agree? Then why not simply argue back?

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (7:47am)

Free speech

I should note that the judge ruled I’d made an error of fact to suggest certain people had a choice to identify with one, all or none of the “racial” identities of their various ancestors, and he banned two of my columns.
Chris Kenny:
As it happens, Bolt’s columns were appeals against race-based preferment and the temptation to parade one aspect of our ethnic make-up over any other.
The columns highlighted an extremely significant issue about whether grants and positions for indigenous Australians are going to those suffering discrimination or disadvantage or whether, at least sometimes, they go to those simply able to demonstrate a connec­tion.
Kerryn Pholi, who worked in but then rejected positions reserved for Aborigines, has written at length on this from a personal perspective in Quadrant.
“I felt hurt (by the Bolt columns) because the truth hurts,” she says, “and my comforting ration­alisations about myself and my place in the world were already painfully dissolving.”
Bolt stridently questioned the legitimacy of urbanised, mixed-race people identifying as predominantly Aboriginal and claiming awards and grants allocated for indigenous people.
“The resulting court case and decision seemed to rest on how the injured parties felt,” observes Pholi, “whether they felt themselves to be Aboriginal and had always felt that way, and whether they felt upset and offended by Bolt’s writing, and whether other fair-skinned Aboriginal people and other such ‘vulnerable’ Aboriginal people would be likely to feel the same way.”
This gets to the nub of the issue and the rationale behind the government’s proposed changes.
Bromberg based his findings not only on what Bolt wrote but on what he didn’t write. He defended Bolt’s right to make his point but condemned the manner and tone in which he made it.
And he ruled on the likely extent of insult, offence and humiliation among a specific group of people.
This ill-defined and subjective power in the hands of the judi­ciary is far too broad and can only have a chilling effect on free speech.
UPDATE
This is a disgraceful smear:
Professor of Law at Melbourne University, Mark McMillan is one of the nine Aboriginal people who sued columnist Andrew Bolt in 2009…
”I was accused of being a paedophile, and these were not just responses of Andrew Bolt,” Mr McMillan said.
I have never said, hinted at or in any way condoned any such despicable claim, or made any suggestion which would possibly lead any sane person to make it themselves. I’d condemn such stuff, just as I’ve condemned those of the Left and the Right who’ve encouraged (accidentally or probably not) exactly this kind of vile abuse of others, which I have often said I find utterly repellent. McMillan is wrong, very wrong, to imply I’d made this claim or in any way encouraged others to do so. As a professor of law, he should be more much careful about defaming people like this.
I have asked SBS to retract the claim, made during an interview with McMillan which you can watch here.
UPDATE
Reader Peter objects that I am too white, and should take steps not to be:
As always, Andrew, I’ll be prepared to take you seriously when you give up your white male privilege.
UPDATE
Not sure I’m helped by the Nazi analogy, but Brendan O’Neill (who doesn’t quite mean it that way) has a point:
We’re witnessing the victory of the Soviet view of speech as bad and censorship as good, with various members of the modern West’s chattering classes unwittingly aping yesteryear’s communist tyrants as they call for the banning of “advocacy of hatred”, and a corresponding demise of the older enlightened belief that ideas and words should never be curtailed....
But here’s the thing: history shows that, actually, hate speech laws don’t even help to combat hate.
The Weimar Republic of the 30s had laws against “insulting religious communities”. They were used to prosecute hundreds of Nazi agitators, including Joseph Goebbels. Did it stop them? No. It helped them.
The Nazis turned their prosecutions for hate speech to their advantage, presenting themselves as political victims and whipping up public support among aggrieved sections of German society, their future social base. Far from halting Nazism, hate speech legislation assisted it.
It is surely time every hate speech law was repealed. They are a menace to free thought and speech, and the worst tool imaginable for fighting real hatred.
O’Neill will be a guest on The Bolt Report in the near future. Details to follow. In the meantime, you can join Brendan at a public talk in Sydney next Thursday or in Brisbane the week after. Go here for details.
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Seriously: $22 billion a year for the NDIS? Plus blowouts?

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (7:27am)

Completely predictable, but Labor still insisted on seeming good by promising a welfare scheme that would actually cost many more billions than we could afford, and the Liberals did not dare to completely oppose it:
COSTS on the pilots for the new national disability care program blew out by as much as 30 per cent in the first six months, hitting $46,000 a person, punching a hole in the May budget and threatening billion-dollar hits in the years ahead.
The blowout in the national disability insurance scheme is part of the “shocking” turnaround from the surplus Labor predicted for 2017-18 to a $32 billion deficit that Joe Hockey revealed to state treasurers yesterday…
For the following three months, from October to December last year, the average cost per person in the pilot programs had dropped to $40,466 but was still 15 per cent above the average budgeted cost…
The NDIS is due to be fully operational in 2019-20 at a current estimated annual cost of $22bn, including state government contributions.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Don’t mention the war. I did once and the Guardian calls me “insensitive”

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (6:52am)

Truth hurts, and the Left are screaming at the success of the Abbott Government’s new boat people policies.
Consider: There have been no boat arrivals for 100 days today. Nor have there been any known drownings. In contrast, more than 1100 boat people were lured to their deaths after Labor softened our border laws to seem more “compassionate”.
Ergo: the Abbott Government has saved lives, which even the Australian Human Rights Commission president grudgingly admits:
Professor Triggs said she “sensed” the Australian public was “very happy with the stop-the-boats policies” and the fact fewer people were drowning at sea.
But the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland is shocked, truly shocked, to have such facts baldly stated:
Yet, in some quarters at least, the government’s argument is lapped up. Turning back boats saves lives. Closing borders results in more compassion. Deterrence is fairness.
“Tony Abbott and his policies on border protection have saved men, women and children from drowning an awful death at sea,” crooned former Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger on the Bolt Report earlier in the month. “You just imagine these parents and their kids in the sea, life draining from their bodies, watching their children and wives and husbands die in the sea. That is what happened to 1,200 people under the Rudd/Gillard policies”.
Bolt interjected: “And as they drowned they thought ‘at least the Greens policies are more compassionate’. Ridiculous.”
The insensitivity of the exchange was jaw-dropping – and striking in its naked partiality.
I confess. I am indeed partial - to saving lives. I am indeed insensitive - to the feelings of the Left’s open-borders brigade when I attack its lethally stupid posturing.
Sorry, Oliver.  Next time I’ll hide the Left’s corpses under my carpet. I won’t say a word about the drownings, just as you didn’t when there was still time to prevent hundreds more.
UPDATE
Another benefit of the new policy: fewer people in detention. Or is that too “insensitive” to mention, too?:
MORE than 600 asylum seekers have returned home voluntarily or through forced repatriation since the Coalition declared Australia’s borders closed...
The figures, that until now had been kept secret, confirm that for the first time since 2008 the tide of boat arrivals has begun to turn, and the number of people returning home is now exceeding arrival numbers.
....240 from mainland detention or community detention left voluntarily, having given up hope of being granted asylum, and 168 were flown home by the government. A total of 198 asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru had also asked authorities to be returned home after realising they would not be settled in Australia…
A survey of people being held in detention revealed most arrivals had sought to come to Australia because they believed the previous Labor government would let them stay.
(Thanks to readers Peter and Lin.) 
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Jailing Michael Williamson puts Labor’s former president behind bars

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (6:41am)

Michael Williamson, yesterday jailed for seven years for corruption, was not just the former boss of the Health Services Union.  What some reports fail to mention is that he was also national president of Labor. And that made him very influential, as Lateline acknowledged on the night of the 23 June 2010 coup:
PAUL HOWES: I spoke to Julia [Gillard] very briefly to tell her that the ... [AWU’s] position is that we’re supporting her leadership ... Which is not unlike the position of the Health Services Union. I’ve seen that Michael Williamson, who’s also the national president of the Party has also endorsed Julia Gillard’s leadership.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
UPDATE
I find it hard to believe no one in Labor or the union, other than a couple of brave whistleblowers, knew what was going on:
(W)hat Williamson has been jailed for was only the tip of the iceberg.... One time, Williamson claimed thieves had broken into the safe in his office and stolen thousands of dollars. At the same time someone using Williamson’s card accessed the building. He declined to report the matter to police.
He was reimbursed three times by the union after claiming he had been mugged at an ATM.
Among those at court was Paul Ford who, with Mark and Janice Hardacre and others, ran against Williamson for control of the union in 1999.
They discovered he had an HSU-issued American Express card that he used for Chanel perfume, jewellery, restaurant bills, a $1045 David Jones bill, Clinique skin care products worth $105, valet parking, a gas bill, and designer handbags. He responded by filing a $750,000 defamation suit against them.
Outside court Mr Ford said: ‘’Those who supported and enabled him should also be held accountable. We want our $25,000 returned, especially to the family of the late Bill O’Connor.’’
He said Mr O’Connor was a 76-year-old pensioner at the time he had to pay $25,000 for pointing out Mr Williamson was corrupt.
Mr Ford was also angry with the NSW Labor Party ‘’who knew about this but still promoted Williamson’’.
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On The Bolt Report tomorrow

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (6:37am)

On the show on Sunday: Who are these people telling you what you can’t say and can’t hear?
Guests Anthony Dillon, who identifies as “part Aboriginal”, Judith Sloan and former NSW Treasurer Michael Costa.
In NewsWatch, the great Gerard Henderson on how newspapers are refusing to help police catch certain suspects. And a problem with Noah.
Plus Your Say, and a tale of two party-parties.
On Network 10 at 10am and 4pm.

The videos of the shows appear here.
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Benson: unions keep Labor radicals tamed

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (6:29am)

Simon Benson warns Labor that demanding loosening union control of the party could have it turn Left:
Those who demand an instant end to the union gerrymander of the ALP don’t know what they wish for.
The union movement, particularly conservative forces in the SDA and AWU, is the only thing keeping Labor from lurching to the left.
It is an irony peculiar to the ALP that the unions remain the greatest right-wing force in a party whose rank and file membership is dominated by the left. It’s little wonder many union leaders are backing a break with the ALP — to protect their own credibility.
And, indeed: the ballot for Labor leader had 60 of the members voting for the Left’s Anthony Albanese and just over 60 per cent of Labor MPs, more dependent on union influence, voting for the Right’s Bill Shorten.
That said, by the end of that campaign it was hard to tell who was in fact the man of the Left. And in the Rudd-Gillard battle, the union machine tended to side with the Left’s Gillard, suggesting the union influence is used more to advance what suits unions rather than to resist the Left.  
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It’s wrong, and never mind why

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (5:13am)

They know blasphemy when they hear it, and the details aren’t important:
ABC1’s Lateline, Thursday: 
TONY Jones: Tony Abbott, is reversing ... the carbon tax. … do you regard it as a retrograde step, possibly even a damaging one ...?
Lord Nicholas Stern: I think it’s damaging for the world and I think over the medium term it’s damaging for Australia …
Jones: Can direct action policies be used … over the long-term to make big emissions reductions?
Stern: I don’t know the details of Australia’s alternatives in that way …
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Earth Hour, when a billion people prove something pointless

Andrew Bolt March 29 2014 (4:59am)

A billion people, it’s claimed, will take part in Earth Hour tonight.
Bjorn Lomborg laughs:
Earth Hour is about switching off the lights, not your computer, your internet, your heater or cooler or dishwasher or anything else that would be inconvenient… It would likely be the equivalent of China halting its CO2 emissions for less than four minutes.
But even this is unrealistic because in the real world power plants keep running to accommodate usage from all other uses and the potential surge after the hour ends. The power sector thinks the net reduction is close to zero.
And even this forgets that almost all participants light candles instead. But candles are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights. Light one candle and it will emit as much CO2 as you were saving. Light a bunch of candles and you’ll have emitted much more CO2. So Earth Hour may actually increase CO2 emissions.
Lomborg is no climate sceptic, but says the global warming hysteria has us blowing billions:
In 2012, solar and wind power was subsidised by $60 billion. For all this extra money we spent on energy, we generated just 0.3 per cent of global energy from wind and 0.04 per cent from solar. The emission savings from that translate into climate benefits of just over $1bn. Ninety-seven cents of every dollar invested was wasted.
UPDATE
Tim Blair notices a cooling among Earth Hour warmists:
Like a crippled boy with asthma, tonight’s Earth Hour crept up on us slowly. Fairfax has barely bothered to promote its annual darkness festival, and the usual Earth Hour boosterism from the ABC and others is utterly absent. It’s almost as though people aren’t excited any more about turning their lights off for 60 minutes. 
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ABC balance

Andrew Bolt March 28 2014 (6:15pm)

Does the ABC even try to be balanced? Gerard Henderson continues his Maurice Newman scorecard:
How frightfully Aunty on the “Journo’s Forum” on ABC Metropolitan Radio 702 late yesterday evening. Wendy Harmer was in the presenter’s chair (standing in for Richard Glover) and her guests were Emma Alberici (ABC TV), John Mangos and Malarndirri McInerney (SBS/NITV News).
Soon discussion got around to the Racial Discrimination Act – Section 18 (c) and Section 18 (d) – and all that. Plus George Brandis and Andrew Bolt and all that. Soon Wendy Harmer agreed with Emma Alberici who agreed with John Mangos who agreed with Malarndirri McInerney who agreed with Wendy Harmer who agreed with herself that the Attorney-General’s proposed amendment to the Racial Discrimination Act was a BAD THING. No other view was heard as everyone agreed with everyone else in the usual ABC way.
The Age, as a newspaper owned by shareholders, is at least entitled to be biased, and, boy, it sure is. Take yesterday:
In short, one editorial critical of the Coalition along with 100 per cent of the letters published plus 100 per cent of opinion pieces. Neither Green Left Weekly nor The Saturday Paper could do better than this.
Today’s Age carries 12 letters on national politics – all of which are critical of the Coalition – plus a column by left-wing academic Waleed Aly which is also critical of the Coalition. Another 100 per cent score-line.
The fact is that there is more political diversity in The Australian than there is in The Age which increasingly resembles the content of a university student newspaper like, say, Farrago
Henderson will join me for the NewsWatch segment on Sunday’s The Bolt Report. 
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Before you believe Manne, read the following

Andrew Bolt March 28 2014 (4:52pm)

Professor Robert Manne, I’m told, is touting one of his essays on the social media. It is one he’s written some time ago, claiming he really has met my challenge to name just 10 names of children truly stolen under “stolen generations” policies to end Aboriginal culture.
I have written several articles disproving his claims, including this one. More can be found here.
Needless to say, Manne is very rich in abuse but still short of 10 names. It seems it is easier to scream “racist” than to provide evidence. In fact, in 20 court cases so far, only one has found a child who was stolen - and even then the boy was stolen by an official defying government policy, and to save him from suspected neglect.
Meanwhile, his “stolen generations” myth destroys the lives of some Aboriginal children. 
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"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E.B. White
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Julia?
Julia?
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The monkeys were supposed to be wise .. 
The monkeys were supposed to be wise .. 
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Post by David Daniel Ball.

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G’day,
It’s a good start but in no way is it the end. Thomson & Williamson must truly be considered as the tip of this corrupt iceberg. I foresee many movements and resignations coming up by some of the Union movements movers & shakers.
Godspeed & have a great weekend.
Zeg
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist/Caricaturist
0414293765
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=== Posts from last year ===

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4 her, so she knows how I see her





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One more Death Valley Desert Dunes image for today.
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The Mesquite Sea. Death Valley, April 2009. — atStovepipe Wells.
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Nixon was a good bloke .. but people don't look good when they are assaulted over decades daily by the press. Have you ever heard his "Checkers" speech? He wrote it himself .. neither Clinton nor O could do that. But more .. he was a warm, loving man and a very good President who made tough choices, compared to O or C who made decisions appear tough. - ed
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Santorini, Greece.
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McCloud — in McCloud, CA.
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Diablo Oak — in Rock City, CA.
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so long as there isn't capital punishment this is meaningless - ed
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The longest recorded marriage lasted 91 years and 12 days.
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With Britain facing its coldest Easter on record, and with fears that at least 10,000 sheep may have perished from the record freezing temperatures – farmers are resorting to dressing sheep in woolly jumpers to prevent them from freezing to death.

It is unknown if the UK’s Department of Global Warming is issuing grants to farmers to buy the woolly jumpers to prevent sheep from freezing to death from the record cold.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4865238/Lambs-get-woolly-jumpers-to-survive-coldest-Easter-on-record.html
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The Alamo
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Ladies and gents, we officially present to you FUSEFEST 2013! Can't wait to perform next to all these great Sydney artists May 12 @The Basement! Tix are $30 and all profits go to Heart Reach Australia. It will be hosted by the CLEO bachelor of the year nominee, Andy Minh Trieu! Instead of easter presents, please buy a ticket or 2 :-) xx 
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Except the proposal isn't to ban it, but to make it a life preserving choice, not a lifestyle choice - ed
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"Change of Our Lives" is casting for Vietnamese-Chinese extras. All ages and genders. Shooting in May. PM me to join in the filmic fun!
Maria Tran
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March 29: Earth Hour (20:30 local time in various areas, 2014); Boganda Day in the Central African Republic; Martyrs' Day in Madagascar (1947)
Flag of the New People's Army
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Holidays and observances[edit]

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“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” - 1 Timothy 2:5-6
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"The love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
Ephesians 3:19
The love of Christ in its sweetness, its fulness, its greatness, its faithfulness, passeth all human comprehension. Where shall language be found which shall describe his matchless, his unparalleled love towards the children of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow but skimmeth the water, and diveth not into its depths, so all descriptive words but touch the surface, while depths immeasurable lie beneath. Well might the poet say,
"O love, thou fathomless abyss!"
for this love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless; none can attain unto it. Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus, we must understand his previous glory in its height of majesty, and his incarnation upon the earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell us the majesty of Christ? When he was enthroned in the highest heavens he was very God of very God; by him were the heavens made, and all the hosts thereof. His own almighty arm upheld the spheres; the praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded him; the full chorus of the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly flowed to the foot of his throne: he reigned supreme above all his creatures, God over all, blessed forever. Who can tell his height of glory then? And who, on the other hand, can tell how low he descended? To be a man was something, to be a man of sorrows was far more; to bleed, and die, and suffer, these were much for him who was the Son of God; but to suffer such unparalleled agony--to endure a death of shame and desertion by his Father, this is a depth of condescending love which the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom. Herein is love! and truly it is love that "passeth knowledge." O let this love fill our hearts with adoring gratitude, and lead us to practical manifestations of its power.

Evening

"I will accept you with your sweet savour."
Ezekiel 20:41
The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active life by which he honoured the law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the pure setting of his own person. Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and at length sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the cruel wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his doing and his dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious obedience, the Lord our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in him to overcome our want of preciousness! What a sweet savour to put away our ill savour! What a cleansing power in his blood to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in his righteousness to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved! Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins, Jehovah's gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he sees sin in you, in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ, he sees no sin. You are always accepted in Christ, are always blessed and dear to the Father's heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the merit of the Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of your praise go up also.
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Bernice
The Woman Guilty of Incestuous Conduct
Scripture Reference: Acts 25:13, 23; 26:30
Name Meaning: Bernice (Greek-Bernicke), or Berenice, is a Macedonian corruption of Pherenice, and means, "victorious," or "carrying off victory." Wilkinson informs us that the name occurs in previous history, being given "to the wife of Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, who became King of Egypt, and founder of an illustrious dynasty." Another compound with nike, implying "victory," is found in Eunice (Greek-Eunicke) the name of Timothy's mother. "... The word is expressive of a good or happy victory, and in its origin doubtless commemorated some such event. It is noticeable that nike was a favorite termination of females in the Macedonian age, as for example, Thessalonice, the daughter of Philip, King of Macedon, and Stratonice, the name of the wife of Antigonus, one of Alexander's generals and successors."
Family Connections: Bernice was the eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I who ruled, a.d. 38-45, and is described as the one "who vexed the church" (Acts 12:1). Josephus says that she was first married to Marcus. After a while she married her Uncle Herod, king of Chalcis. When he died, she was suspected of evil relations with her own brother Agrippa, with whom she always appeared as his consort. In company with Agrippa, Bernice visited Festus when he became procurator of Judea. Leaving Agrippa, she married Polemon, or Ptolemy, king of Cilicia who for her sake embraced Judaism by the rite of circumcision. She soon left Ptolemy, however, for a future period of intimacy with her brother. Subsequently she became the mistress of Vespasian, then of Titus, son of Vespasian, but when Titus became emperor, he cast her aside.
"If heredity stands for anything, its lessons are forcibly taught in the history of the Herodian family." For instance, Bernice and her sister Drusilla (Acts 24:24 ), were two of the most corrupt and shameless women of their time in Roman history. As Bernice, a wicked woman who lived an incestuous life, listened to Paul's impassioned appeal as he repeated what God had done for his soul, one wonders what impression it made upon her evil heart. As her brother listened, he said to Paul, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." What a different record would have been written if Agrippa and Bernice had repented of their sordid sin, and yielded their lives to Him whose blood can make the foulest clean!
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Asahel 
[Ä€'sahĕl] - god hath made or god is doer.
1. A Levite sent by Jehoshaphat to teach the law to the people in Judah (2 Chron. 17:8).
2. A Levite Hezekiah employed as an officer of the offerings, tithes and dedicated things (2 Chron. 31:13).
3. Father of a certain Jonathan, appointed by Ezra to take a census of those Jews who had married foreign wives while in exile (Ezra 10:15).
4. The youngest son of Zeruiah, David's sister, and the brother of Joab and Abishai. He was slain by Abner unwillingly (2 Sam. 2:18-32; 3:27, 30; 23:24; 1 Chron. 2:16; 11:26; 27:7).
The Man Who Died in His Boots
Conspicuous among those of David's brethren and those of his father's house who came to him while hiding in the cave of Adullam were the three sons of Zeruiah his sister, Joab, Abishai and Asahel. Asahel was the favorite among the three. Little is recorded of him beyond his activity and the manner of his death.
I. He was famous for his swiftness of foot. Speed was a much valued gift in ancient times.
II. He was near the top of David's thirty heroes. Courage made him a conspicuous fighter.
III. He was a commander of a division in David's army. He had proved himself worthy of position.
IV. He believed in persistence. He persisted in following Abner, the captain of Saul's host in the battle that began by the pool of Gibeon. Abner was unwilling to slay him, knowing how he was beloved. He seems to have struck Asahel at last only in self-defense.
V. He dies for his ambition. Asahel would aim at nothing less than the glory of slaying Saul's general, and he was slain himself instead. Thus he died in harness or as we have put it, in his boots.
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Today's reading: Judges 4-6, Luke 4:31-44 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Judges 4-6

Deborah
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, now that Ehud was dead. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided....

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 4:31-44

Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit
31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34"Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"
35 "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!" 37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area....
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Lent=Devotions-Header
Today's Prayer

Almighty God, who sees that we have no power ourselves to help ourselves: protect us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls. Defend us both from harm to the body and from evil thoughts which assault and hurt the soul. Do this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. -- adapted from the Book of Common Prayer

Today's Scripture Reading: Romans 7:13-25
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Today's Quote

"Now He is led forth to death, carrying His Cross. O what a spectacle is this! Do you see it? Lo, the government is upon His shoulders. See, here is His rod of equity, His rod of empire. Wine mingled with gall is given Him to drink. He is striped of His garments, which are divided among the soldiers; but His tunic is not rent, but passes by lot to one of them. His dear hands and feet are bored with nails; and He, stretched on the Cross, is hung up between thieves. Of God and men the Mediator, He hangs in the midst between heaven and earth; joining lowest things and highest, earthly things and heavenly; and heaven is bewildered, and earth condoles.

"And what of you? No wonder if, while the sun mourns, you mourn also; if, while the earth shakes, you tremble; if, while rocks rend, your heart is torn; if, while the women beside the Cross are all in tears, you cry aloud with them." -- Anselm of Canterbury, Meditation #84

Something to Think About

What do you think it means to be a spiritual "slave" to something? What has enslaved your spirit in the past? Whose slave are you now?
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Today's Lent reading: Mark 13-14 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!"
2 "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4"Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?"
5 Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 6Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains....



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