Thursday, November 06, 2014

Thu Nov 6th Todays News

ALP is bad
Whitlam to be honoured by a city named after him? And even conservatives support it? Remember, even his funeral suffered from a failure of central planning. The best one might say of him as PM is that he wasn't as bad as Rudd or Gillard. All three PMs were serving at a time when the public wanted change from conservative governments, but all the public got was betrayal, corruption and incompetence marked by substantial debt. All three PMs had their reigns marked by deaths of people related to their policy. Whitlam probably killed more innocent people than Rudd or Gillard. From Balibo 5, Vietnamese refugees, Cambodian peoples oppressed by the people Gough embraced and people in disaster zones while Gough was on holiday, Gough achieved more. Rudd had his pink batt deaths, some soldiers and a bungled assassination attempt in Timor as well as refugees. Gillard seemed to feel that drowning refugees was compassionate too. Any conservative who lauds Gough needs to hand in their conservative credentials and run as an independent. ABC's Jonathan Green tweeted his love for Whitlam's funeral. Many good people have looked forward to it too. 

Cate Blanchett's claim she had free tertiary education is fact checked. She hadn't. She is welcome to thank Gough Whitlam, but his lousy policy stopped scholarships for high achieving students and cost the tax payer too much so that it was stopped. Meanwhile Cate is regularly not washing her hair to save the planet. 

Andrew Carswell, of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, lists some of the dead beat professional activists who stop billions of dollars of investment annually because of their socialist beliefs. 

The ALP is accepting money and policy advice fro the CFMEU. Gillard withdrew legal protections of oversight from the CFMEU. Don't vote for the ALP until they reform. 

Fairfax slimed Newscorp journalist Sharri Markson, claiming she had been evicted from an Emirates tent at the Melbourne cup for harassing ABC's Barrie Cassidy. The truth is the emirates did not evict her or try to, but Cassidy did ask an executive producer to get her removed. Cassidy had not wanted to be interviewed when drinking free grog. 


Democrats fail their constituents
Another terrorist attack in Israel. This time by a terrorist Obama ordered free for peace. They still managed to kill a policeman before being killed. 

Islamic peoples on Q&A showed that even moderates were buying an inflamed since of victimhood. What about the greatness of Islam? What about pride and the belief they are better than their worst?

Dutch intelligence warns of the rising threat of Islamic violence related to Jihadism. As Bolt notes "True, most Muslims will not support the jihadists. But as we’ve seen here, remarkably few will condemn them, preferring to condemn instead government attempts to fight them."

Another bonus from GOP taking Senate next January is Obama failing to get through an ETS. He promised one in '08. He also said the oceans would slow and the planet heal.

The Abbott government is good, but it will not survive if it cannot sell itself. Addressing the issue of Hamidur Rahman might be a good start. Obama is a lame duck because, although he had popular support, people are suffering from his policies, most people. Obama's policies have given him no political leverage in his second term, even so, he could work with GOP and save his legacy. Or he could fight with the GOP and be forever remembered for failure. Just like Gough. 

from 2013
Babylon 5 was written by Joe Michael Straczynski. JMS wrote a few years ago about a basic premise of story telling. Two threads run through an episode as thesis and antithesis, leading to synthesis. Watching Blue Bloods this morning, I was struck as a policeman kills a guy who suicides by cop, calling the police to his location and waving a gun at school kids. The second thread involves the NY Mayor not testifying at a trial, he is witness for, in an election year. In the first thread, the cop is troubled after he killed the suicide. Why would a person do that? But in thread analysis, there is humor .. people want the Mayor to lie before an election, and not commit suicide politically. This feeds into analysis of the US President .. voters want him to lie .. but want the media to pursue it .. they want the chase, not a political suicide. I feel the hardest thing Israel can do .. and the best course for her atm, is to do nothing, because she is not being given good alternatives. I can't see a better alternative to Netanyahu in the Israeli parliament. This isn't to say criticism of him is wrong. But it does suggest it is overstated. Netanyahu must not commit political suicide. 

Over a million dollars had been spent, a few years ago, rehabilitating a horse with a broken leg. It took months. When it was over, the horse was led from the pool in which it had been standing .. tripped on some moss, broke a leg, and was put down. One day there will be rehabilitation options for race horses. But it is easier to put a man on the moon. But, what can be done with Obama. If he were a race horse .. 

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This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott 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 https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball


Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR

Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.netwhich will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Karen ChuDave Imms and Stacy Host. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
November 6Guru Nanak Gurpurab (Sikhism, 2014); Constitution Day in the Dominican Republic (1844); Finnish Swedish Heritage Day in Finland
Portrait of George Eliot by François D'Albert Durade
You are first. George did her best. Poland has many intellectual elite. Washington has begun production. Be considerate of other's safety. Let us party.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2014
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WHITLAM CITY

Tim Blair – Thursday, November 06, 2014 (12:40pm)

If just three years as Prime Minister is enough to give you naming rights over a city, shouldn’t half the Eastern seaboard already be named after Robert Menzies? 
He may be a Labor hero but Gough Whitlam’s legacy is so strong even Liberal politicians want to re-name a city in his honour.
Labor’s Blacktown mayor Stephen Bali applied to name a new suburb and a new North West Rail Link station after the late Gough Whitlam last week.
But his Liberal colleagues want to go further and make Blacktown Gough’s town by calling it Whitlam City. 
There’s one possible way this could work: make Whitlam City a kind of idiot theme park, where Whitlam-era policies are exclusively applied throughout. People would visit to witness the bedlam and be reminded why Whitlam was rejected three times by the electorate. Elsewhere, James Morrow observes
Does anyone else find it ironic that Whitlam’s memorial service was marred by a failure of central planning? 
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STOPPISTS

Tim Blair – Thursday, November 06, 2014 (2:52am)

Britain has its swampies and the US has Occupy, but for sheer ignorant malevolence neither bunch of pointless deadbeats can match Australia’s Travelling Stop-Everything Roadshow. Hit that link for Andrew Carswell’s roundup of our world-standard moveable malcontents, who make it their business to block business in every remote region they infest.
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SO FAR AS I KNOW

Tim Blair – Thursday, November 06, 2014 (2:47am)

Of all the people I’ve dined with in the company of John and Janette Howard, Mark Steyn is the only one to have ever recorded a cover version of Ted Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever
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Another terror attack in Israel. UPDATE: And another

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (8:31pm)

Another terrorist attack on civilians in Israel and again praised by Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza:
At least one person has died and 13 others have been injured after a Palestinian man rammed a car into a crowd on a light rail platform in east Jerusalem Wednesday in what Israeli police describe as a terror attack…
The driver slammed his car into the train platform in east Jerusalem first, backed out and proceeded to drive away, hitting several cars along the way, according to authorities. He then got out of the car and attacked a group of civilians and police officers on the side of the road with a metal bar before he was shot and killed…
The incident was the second attack in Jerusalem involving a car running over people in two weeks. On Oct. 22, a Palestinian driver plowed his car into a crowd of people near a light rail station, killing two people, including a three-year-old girl…
“We praise this heroic operation,” said Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum. “We call for more such ... operations.”
Will the Greens now condemn Hamas as they condemn Israel for defending itself from it?
UPDATE
Yet another:
A Palestinian driving a large commercial vehicle rammed into three IDF soldiers standing near a pillbox by al-Arroub in the West Bank on Wednesday night.

The three soldiers were wounded in the attack near a Palestinian refugee camp close to the Gush Etzion Junction, one suffering moderate-to-severe injuries and the other two moderately wounded.
(Thanks to reader Rocky.)                      
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Truth incomplete: Cate Blanchett claims she’s a beneficiary of Whitlam’s “free” education

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (9:53am)

Cate Blanchett at the memorial service for Gough Whitlam, whose government ended when she was just six years old:
When I heard Gough Whitlam had died, I was filled with an inordinate sadness. A great sorrow. I wasn’t even in school when his primeministership was ended. Why was I so sad? His public presence over the course of my life was important, but he was no show pony. So what had gone?
The loss I felt came down to something very deep and very simple. I am the beneficiary of free, tertiary education. When I went to university I could explore different courses and engage with the student union in extracurricular activity. It was through that that I discovered acting.
Blanchett was born in 1969. She studied at Melbourne University from 1987 before dropping out and eventually switching to the National Institute of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 1992.
Her first, abandoned stint at uni may indeed have been free, but most of Blanchett’s tertiary education was not.
The Hawke Government realised handing free tertiary education to the middle classes was unaffordable and unfair to the poor. In 1988, Labor reintroduced fees and the legislation makes clear that Blanchett did not qualify for exemption from the fees that applied from 1989.
And how fair would it have been for the taxes of struggling Australians to go to giving free tertiary education for a woman wealthy enough to attend Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School and then Methodist Ladies’ College?
Was it fair to hit struggling taxpayers for the funds that allowed young Cate to splash on going to bands?:
I am the beneficiary of good, free healthcare, and that meant the little I earned after tax and rent could go towards seeing shows, bands, and living inside my generation’s expression. 
(Thanks to reader CA of WA.)  
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Forget a carbon tax from Obama

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (9:20am)

Remember Barack Obama’s madly messianic boast in 2008 when Democrats made him their presidential candidate?

This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal.
Greg Sheridan says global warmists here can now go weep over what American voters have just done there, giving Republicans control of Congress:
Obama now faces a frustrating final two years in which he may need to exercise the presidential veto to protect his unpopular healthcare package…
For Australia, one of the most important consequences of the election is that it cements an implacable congressional majority against any US carbon tax or emissions trading scheme.
The US joins Canada, Japan and Australia — and of course the entire developing world — in rejecting a carbon tax or ETS as the primary national response to climate change…
Obama could never live up to the emotionalism, hype, hysteria and transcendent expectation of his election in 2008. Finally, Icarus fell to earth.
Charles Krauthammer:
The National Weather Service has upgraded the election from tropical storm to tsunami, especially the results of the governorships. If you look at the bluest states in the country, Maryland, Illinois, Massachusetts, all gone Republican ... I think the president’s reaction is going to be aggressive. He doesn’t like being ignored as he was in the run-up [to the Mid-terms] and he’s going to hate becoming irrelevant.
(Thanks to readers the Old and Unimproved Dave and Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Why does Labor take cash from this dirty union?

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (9:01am)

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WHY is Labor taking money from a union buried under allegations of thuggery, blackmail, intimidation, death threats and links to organised crime?
Why did Labor under Julia Gillard agree to get workplace police off the back of this union, the CFMEU?
And why does Victorian Labor under Daniel Andrews still let the CFMEU help decide party policy and candidates?
You wonder why union corruption has been so flagrant, involving even a former Labor national secretary, Michael Williamson?

One reason is the protection some union spivs get from parts of Labor.
Another? Voters keep electing a party which should be punished for consorting with lawless lowlifes.
Watch this month’s Victorian election and see if it happens again.
No party with respect for the law should be where Victorian Labor is today — especially not after last week’s submission to the royal commission into union corruption by its counsel assisting, Jeremy Stoljar.
(Read full article here.)    
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Wonderful!

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (8:46am)

I’m not sure quite what ABC presenter Jonathan Green’s tweet demonstrates - the ABC’s wonderful love of Labor or Green’s wonderful crawling to boss Mark Scott:
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Meanwhile, Green busies himself with retweeting Labor propaganda:
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The ABC balanced?
The ABC is out of control.  
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Muslim audience does ABC no favors

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (8:01am)

Islamism

THE ABC’s plan: confront Attorney-General George Brandis with an audience stacked with “moderate” Muslims and make him hop.
It took precautions. It did not select extremists to ask questions — no jihadists who’d illustrate the danger the Abbott Government is battling. Despite that, last Monday’s Q&A backfired spectacularly.
It simply confirmed concerns that too many Muslims have a group loyalty and inflamed sense of victimhood that made them the sea in which jihadists swim.
One reason it backfired was that Brandis was brilliant in defending the Government’s anti-terrorism strategy. But what really undid the exercise was the audience which grabbed the ABC’s microphone.
(Read full article here.) 
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Cate Blanchett washes her hair of warming scare

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (8:01am)

Cate Blanchett fronted a wildly deceptive ad telling the rest of us to say yes to a carbon tax to stop global warming, which we’re told will cause huge rises in sea levels.
And she announced she was making her own little sacrifices. In 2007 Blanchett claimed global warming was causing droughts so severe that she often skipped washing her hair:
THE drought has hit so hard that even one of the world’s most glamorous women is doing it tough, resorting to not washing her hair.
“I actually have little races with myself, thinking ‘Oh no, I’m not washing my hair. I only need to have a two-minute shower’,” Blanchett revealed.
Blanchett and Australian Conservation Foundation director Don Henry visited the [North Pine] dam – presently at just 16 per cent of capacity – to see the effects of the drought and to share her passionate views about climate change.
Yet now, for all the talk of rising sea levels and having to cut our use of water and dirty power:

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Cate Blanchett and her Sydney Theatre Company artistic director husband, Andrew Upton, have secured a Hawkesbury River retreat with jacaranda vista… It comes with a spa, sauna, terraced gardens and a pontoon...
When Blanchett acts like she talks I’ll take more seriously her claims that global warming is a threat.
UPDATE
The North Pine Dam’s current level: 64.8 per cent full. Total SE Queensland dam supplies:  82.5 per cent full. One more dud prediction.
(Thanks to readers derFred, philj and others.) 
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Who cares if true? Fairfax slimes Sharri Markson with ABC help

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (8:01am)

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald claimed The Australian’s Sharri Markson was evicted from the Emirates’ Melbourne Cup marquee after requesting an interview with ABC presenter Barrie Cassidy.
Four consecutive refusals later, both Cassidy and the Emirates people had decided enough was enough and suggested Markson should leave, which she did.

How Fairfax would like that to be true - just as it would like global warming to be actually happening. But there were not four refusals, not any eviction and not any attempt to check the facts:
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Samantha Maiden sums up:
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Sharri is my NewsWatch guest on Sunday’s The Bolt Report.
Oh, and note the tight colleagial bond between the ABC and Fairfax? Ideology makes them as one against The Australian.
(Thanks to readers PB and John.) 
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Dutch intelligence service warns: jihadism a rising threat to Dutch “democratic legal order”

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (7:33am)

Islamism

From a new report by the Dutch intelligence service, the AIVB:
The number of Dutch jihadists travelling to Syria to join the conflict there has increased substantially since late 2012. About 130 have left so far, almost thirty have already returned and fourteen have been killed in the fighting. The AIVD counts several hundred people in the Netherlands as supporters of this exodus, including a number who are prepared to make the journey but have yet to do so. They are maintaining a constant stream of propaganda in support of the jihadist ideology and so contributing to wider radicalisation. Several thousand people support the cause
The AIVD believes that fighters returning from Syria pose a potential risk. They have witnessed acts of extreme violence, or even take part themselves… It is not inconceivable that international jihadist organisations are sending returnees back to Europe with orders to carry out terrorist attacks here…
For adherents unable or unwilling to join the armed struggle in Syria or elsewhere, social media offers a form of involvement that allows them to identify themselves as jihadists… without actually having to fight. After all, the movement also considers ‘dawah’—preaching the ‘call to Islam”—a form of jihad…
Dutch jihadists are convinced that the caliphate is not some utopian dream but an achievable reality for Syria and other Muslim nations—and even for the Netherlands…
Tellingly, Muslims in the Netherlands who openly oppose joining the Syrian conflict and challenge the highly intolerant and antidemocratic dogma of jihadism have found themselves increasingly subject to physical and virtual intimidation. The potential threat this movement poses to the Dutch democratic legal order and society is therefore greater than ever before.
(My emphasis.)
The unstated conclusion is absolutely clear. Any Western society with a large Muslim minority has imported not just a security challenge but an ideology opposed to every freedom and faith that gives it its identity.
True, most Muslims will not support the jihadists. But as we’ve seen here, remarkably few will condemn them, preferring to condemn instead government attempts to fight them.
(Thanks to reader Brian.) 
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Think survival, not succession

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (7:23am)

Scott Morrison really has some colleagues worried:

TONY Abbott has warned his cabinet not to take anything for granted and senior ministers have told colleagues to cease jostling over political territory and stop “jockeying”.
After months of internal competition between senior cabinet ministers over public-service turf wars and long-term ambitions to be the “heir apparent”, the Prime Minister told ministers at Monday’s cabinet meeting in Melbourne to concentrate on their jobs and take nothing for granted…
A cabinet minister told The Australian yesterday that normal ambitions and anxieties of MPs who had been overlooked was understandable but competition between senior ministers “was at a whole new level”. Another cabinet minister said it was ridiculous that, a year into what should be at least a two-term Abbott government there was positioning to become the heir apparent to Mr Abbott…
In the past four months internal Liberal tensions have risen as Joe Hockey, Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop have been seen to be competing to be the successor to Mr Abbott as prime minister and over ministerial responsibilities.
Morrison is clearly an under-used resource now that the boats have essentially stopped.
That said, it is true that ministers of a government behind in the polls should worry more about survival than succession. 
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The travelling job-killing show

Andrew Bolt November 06 2014 (7:17am)

The Daily Telegraph:
THEY are the smug mugs that are holding NSW to ransom — a clutch of professional protesters that hike from one mining town to the next, killing jobs and damaging the economy.
Magnificent pen portraits:
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More here.
(Via Tim Blair, who is frank.) 
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"First she complains about being teased for looking like a boy then starts spewing hatred about colored people.
"I want to be black"... "I don't want the negative response of being black"
"black people give aids....ebola, should ban them from coming to our country."
"Black people should not exist."
The title of this video needs to be changed. Television doesn't create racism, it was taught to her by the people around her, parents, friends, others like-minded. I'm definitely not influenced by television to hate someone of a different ethnic background. She does know a bit when she said she wanted to be black but doesn't want the negative responses of being black. Well it comes with being colored (different) in this country and not only blacks experience it. Unfortunately, people like her can't see pass skin color and resort to being racist when they are not happy with themselves. If she knows that blacks face lots of negativity just for being black, then she should have stopped there but of course we are the problem in this world and shouldn't exist. Sorry God doesn't agree with you and therefore we are still here. Honey, you can change your hairstyle so that the negative comments stop, but we cannot change our colour." LH
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=== Posts from last year ===

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013
Why Most of the Mass Media Can't Report Honestly on Israel—or Other Middle East Issues
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2013/11/04/why-most-of-the-mass-media-cant-report-honestly-on-israel-or-other-middle-east-issues/
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Sultana Rivkah Davda
Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi

A person can choose any facet which needs fixing, although some take priority as they are central and of essence because of their tremendous impact on improving ones overall spiritual state (for example, Torah study for men, modesty for women, being in a Torah environment, coming close to and honoring Rabbis, keeping kosher, observing Shabbat and the like). In fact, the choice is personal and greatly varies from one individual to another. Each person should examine himself and determine which are the personal and important areas that need improvement for his spiritual growth.
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<While burying his young son, Yehuda Wachsman was worried that his death might have brought about a crisis of faith amongst the hundreds of thousands who had prayed for his safe rescue. Just like a father cannot always give a child everything he wants, Yehuda explained, so God our Father cannot always give us what we most want.
Our prayers did not go unanswered, he explained, but this time, for reasons we humans cannot understand, the answer was “no.” But those millions of prayers uttered during the last week on his son’s behalf, were not in vain, nor were the tears shed pointlessly. Tears are never wasted. We don’t know when God will use them to save another soul.
How many times since that tragic, unforgettable week have I quoted Yehuda Wachsman’s words, often to myself? No we don’t always get what we pray for. We may not know if what we want is really the best for us. But, like Yehuda Wachsman who accepted the ultimate ‘no,’ we have to accept that we don’t make that final decision.>
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Climate Change LIES
The 17-year pause in global warming is likely to last into the 2030s and the Arctic sea ice has already started to recover, according to new research.


A paper in the peer-reviewed journal Climate Dynamics – by Professor Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr Marcia Wyatt – amounts to a stunning challenge to climate science orthodoxy.


Not only does it explain the unexpected pause, it suggests that the scientific majority – whose views are represented by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – have underestimated the role of natural cycles and exaggerated that of greenhouse gases.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2485772/Global-warming-pause-20-years-Arctic-sea-ice-started-recover.html#ixzz2jkT0OhC0
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


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"If you like the plan you're on, you can keep it?"
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Roma Downey
When you plant a seed of love, it is You that blossoms...
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Lenticular Sunset over the Diablo Hills — withMike Oria and John Dejesus at Round Valley Regional Preserve.
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Sarah Palin
ng to the Faith & Freedom Coalition in Iowa this Saturday and launching the tour for my new book coming out next week! It's time to STAND UP, America, and declare good tidings & great joy! It's to our nation's detriment if we shy away from this battle & let the PC police win!>

See this article:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/05/hundreds-will-protest-islam-lovefest-history-textbook-foisted-on-high-school-students/

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In a two-part exclusive, Cleveland kidnapping victim Michelle Knight breaks her silence to reveal the story of what happened inside Ariel Castro’s house of horrors. http://bit.ly/DrP110513
#DrPhil
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“This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.” Romans 13:6 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper."
Isaiah 54:17
This day is notable in English history for two great deliverances wrought by God for us. On this day the plot of the Papists to destroy our Houses of Parliament was discovered, 1605.
"While for our princes they prepare
In caverns deep a burning snare,
He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
And the dark treachery brought to day."
And secondly--today is the anniversary of the landing of King William III, at Torbay, by which the hope of Popish ascendancy was quashed, and religious liberty was secured, 1688.
This day ought to be celebrated, not by the saturnalia of striplings, but by the songs of saints. Our Puritan forefathers most devoutly made it a special time of thanksgiving. There is extant a record of the annual sermons preached by Matthew Henry on this day. Our Protestant feeling, and our love of liberty, should make us regard its anniversary with holy gratitude. Let our hearts and lips exclaim, "We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us the wondrous things which thou didst in their day, and in the old time before them." Thou hast made this nation the home of the gospel; and when the foe has risen against her, thou hast shielded her. Help us to offer repeated songs for repeated deliverances. Grant us more and more a hatred of Antichrist, and hasten on the day of her entire extinction. Till then and ever, we believe the promise, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." Should it not be laid upon the heart of every lover of the gospel of Jesus on this day to plead for the overturning of false doctrines and the extension of divine truth? Would it not be well to search our own hearts, and turn out any of the Popish lumber of self-righteousness which may lie concealed therein?

Evening

"Be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
Psalm 100:4
Our Lord would have all his people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning his blessed person. Jesus is not content that his brethren should think meanly of him; it is his pleasure that his espoused ones should be delighted with his beauty. We are not to regard him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water, but as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing delight. To this end he has revealed himself as the "pearl of great price" in its peerless beauty, as the "bundle of myrrh" in its refreshing fragrance, as the "rose of Sharon" in its lasting perfume, as the "lily" in its spotless purity.
As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is had in beyond the skies, where things are measured by the right standard. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, his unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of him, as they count it their highest honour to veil their faces at his feet. Consider what the blood-washed think of him, as day without night they sing his well deserved praises. High thoughts of Christ will enable us to act consistently with our relations towards him. The more loftily we see Christ enthroned, and the more lowly we are when bowing before the foot of the throne, the more truly shall we be prepared to act our part towards him. Our Lord Jesus desires us to think well of him, that we may submit cheerfully to his authority. High thoughts of him increase our love. Love and esteem go together. Therefore, believer, think much of your Master's excellencies. Study him in his primeval glory, before he took upon himself your nature! Think of the mighty love which drew him from his throne to die upon the cross! Admire him as he conquers all the powers of hell! See him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before him as the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, for only thus will your love to him be what it should.
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Today's reading: Jeremiah 34-36, Hebrews 2 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 34-36

Warning to Zedekiah
1 While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. 3 You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.
4 “‘Yet hear the LORD’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; 5 you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, master!” I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.’”
6 Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 7 while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah....

Today's New Testament reading: Hebrews 2

Warning to Pay Attention
1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Jesus Made Fully Human
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
7 You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
8 and put everything under their feet....”
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