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That’s a startling question, to be sure. But it’s a question that haunted me during my recent visit to Australia. There, political conservatism is experiencing a revival of sorts after six years of socialist wilderness. While in Australia, I kept thinking about a surprising statement made to me by a prominent American conservative leader during the last U.S. election. At that time, he said, “I will not support the Republican candidate. In fact, I hope Obama wins.” When I couldn’t hide my shock, he went on to explain his perspective: eventually the socialist ideology in our country would over-tip its...

MORE than 300 Australian troops will be deployed to Iraq for a training mission, starting tomorrow. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the 300 strong force, first announced last month, will be largely from army’s 7th Brigade in Brisbane and will serve alongside New Zealanders at the Taji military complex, north of Baghdad Federal cabinet has approved the deployment of the additional Australian troops to the Middle East to help train Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic State. The deployment will be for two years from the middle of May. “It is a dangerous place and I can’t tell you...

Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry Maurie Trewhella, of Victoria University (Australia), has just made a stunning claim about global warming, in a letter to the editor. According to Trewhella; Ian Dunlop’s warning (Comment, 7/4) is especially sobering. The slowing of atmospheric temperature rise over the past 15 years or so, used by climate change sceptics to debunk the work of the IPCC, is, on the contrary, evidence that the solar energy delivered to the Earth is being absorbed by the oceans. The Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets are acting as giant dampers to contain temperature rise in the oceans. When...

The exponential growth in global food production has not only sent the price of fertilisers skyrocketing, but could lead to a world shortage of phosphate within decades. Beyond a temporary market spike driven by richer developing countries and increased supply of biofuels, researchers are warning that the world could face dwindling supplies of phosphate by 2040 unless steps are taken to use it more efficiently and recover it from human waste. But unlike oil, which can be managed by substituting other sources of energy, there is no substitute for the critical role of phosphate in plant development and production. Mineral...

You can guarantee it. When Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee next year, she and her team will frame the election as “historically significant”. In doing so, they will ignite a great social movement to elect the first Madame President. In the last twelve months, Secretary Clinton’s public speeches and commentary have discernibly shifted in focus and content, to female empowerment, pay equity and her “grandmother glow”. Never far away with a ready and helping hand, the media are showing their intent to advance the Clinton 2016 narrative. Just last month, following the conclusion of her prepared remarks at her...

The scientific world is stunned by research which backs an Aboriginal legend about how palm trees got to Central Australia. Several years ago Tasmanian ecologist David Bowman did DNA tests on palm seeds from the outback and near Darwin. The results led him to conclude the seeds were carried to the Central Desert by humans up to 30,000 years ago. Professor Bowman read an Aboriginal legend recorded in 1894 by pioneering German anthropologist and missionary Carl Strehlow, which was only recently translated, describing the "gods from the north" bringing the seeds to Palm Valley. Professor Bowman said he was amazed....

Protesters waving Australian flags and carrying signs such as "Yes Australia. No Sharia" rallied around the country on Saturday in events organisers said were against Islamic extremism. The "Reclaim Australia" events drew hundreds of supporters but also triggered counter-rallies from other groups who criticised them as racist and called for greater tolerance. "We are pro-Australian values and anti-extreme Islam, but we're not anti-Muslim," Reclaim Australia spokeswoman Catherine Brennan told AFP, adding there was no racism behind the rallies, which she said had attracted people from diverse backgrounds. "Since when is it being racist to love your country and to love...

Protesters waving Australian flags and carrying signs such as "Yes Australia. No Sharia" rallied around the country on Saturday in events organisers said were against Islamic extremism. The "Reclaim Australia" events drew hundreds of supporters but also triggered counter-rallies from other groups who criticised them as racist and called for greater tolerance. "We are pro-Australian values and anti-extreme Islam, but we're not anti-Muslim," Reclaim Australia spokeswoman Catherine Brennan told AFP, adding there was no racism behind the rallies, which she said had attracted people from diverse backgrounds.

Someone's running a poll in Oz. http://www.9jumpin.com.au Let's help them decide.

An Australian government official made the mistake that is every office workers’ nightmare: an autofill mistake causing an email to go to the wrong person. Except in this person’s case, the mistaken email exposed the personal details of 31 world leaders, including President Barack Obama. “The cause of the breach was human error,” said an email sent to the Australian privacy commissioner and obtained by The Guardian under freedom of information laws... excerptedThe exposed data included not only names and dates of birth, but passport numbers and visa details as well. On Monday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz...

The personal details of world leaders at the last G20 summit were accidentally disclosed by the Australian immigration department, which did not consider it necessary to inform those world leaders of the privacy breach. The Guardian can reveal an employee of the agency inadvertently sent the passport numbers, visa details and other personal identifiers of all world leaders attending the summit to the organisers of the Asian Cup football tournament. The United States president, Barack Obama, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, the Japanese prime...

The idea of a bank deposit tax was raised by Labor in 2013 and was criticised by Tony Abbott at the time. Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has indicated an announcement on the new tax could be made before the budget. The Government is heading for a fight with the banking industry, which has warned it will have to pass the cost back onto customers. Mr Frydenberg is a member of the Government's Expenditure Review Committee but has refused to provide any details

The Federal Government looks set to introduce a tax on bank deposits in the May budget. The idea of a bank deposit tax was raised by Labor in 2013 and was criticised by Tony Abbott at the time. Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has indicated an announcement on the new tax could be made before the budget. The Government is heading for a fight with the banking industry, which has warned it will have to pass the cost back onto customers. Mr Frydenberg is a member of the Government's Expenditure Review Committee but has refused to provide any details.

Joseph Ratzinger, better known as Pope Benedict XVI, in Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity and Islam, details the rising tide of secularism that seeks to banish Christianity from European history and the public square. While the situation in Australia appears nowhere near as dire, it is the case here that Christianity is often misrepresented and undermined. This happens especially in subjects such as history and in relation to what American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington terms the “clash of civilisations”. The expectation is that school textbooks present a balanced, objective and impartial view of ideas, beliefs and events. Such...

AS the count continues in the NSW, seats are starting to be decided. With about 5.5 per cent of the overall vote counted, our experts have already called 32 winners. The Coalition is already well in front with 27 seats being called in their favour, including Albury, Baulkham Hills, Ryde and Wagga Wagga for the Liberals and Barwon, Coffs Harbour and Oxley for the Nationals. Our experts have called Charlestown, Liverpool, Maroubra, Summer Hill and Wollongong. Exit polls of voters taken moments after they cast their ballots pointed to the Coalition being re-elected despite a swing to Labor. Opposition Leader...

War veteran Sarbi dies a hero dog: Army explosive detection warrior gets highest canine military honour DECORATED canine war hero Sarbi died yesterday after a short battle with brain cancer. The army explosive detection dog was awarded the highest military honour for canine warriors, the War Dog Operational Medal, as well as the prestigious Purple Cross by the RSPCA for her war-time services. The 12-year-old newfoundland-labrador retriever cross suffered several seizures in recent weeks and scans detected a tumour in her brain. Sarbi had spent the past five years as a pet of her army handler Warrant Officer David Simpson...

Certain situations coming up now will not be explainable or even understandable without first coming to the Shepherd of your ways for truly as "THE" WORD(Eternal) now my children of light "will see" that to step out into unfamiliar ground will be utter futility and that inquiring first of Me before they take a step or speak a word will bring the correct illumination, judgment and the eventual decision or action to take . Here are the Keys to The Kingdom seek Me first in all you do and the other keys will reveal themselves to you . Matthew 26:40...

A 400 kilometre-wide impact zone from a huge meteorite that broke in two moments before it slammed into the Earth has been found in Central Australia. The crater from the impact millions of years ago has long disappeared. But a team of geophysicists has found the twin scars of the impacts – the largest impact zone ever found on Earth – hidden deep in the earth’s crust. Lead researcher Dr Andrew Glikson from the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology said the impact zone was discovered during drilling as part of geothermal research, in an area near the borders of...

Fuente Magna Rosetta stone of the Americas "Atlantis: the Andes Solution" by J.M.Allen (pub Windrush Press 1998) and basis of the Discovery film "Atlantis in the Andes" by Lisa Hutchison proposes the question "did anyone ever consider that the first reed boats may have crossed from west to east perhaps following the route from the River Plate eastwards across the Atlantic, past the Cape of Good Hope and via the Indian Ocean to enter the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to found the early civilisations of Mesopotamia and Egypt?" It is obvious that at that time, the author suspected a...

During a recent TV debate on the destruction of antiquities by ISIS, Syrian political analyst Yahya Badr said that the Egyptian people was entitled to claim legal rights in Australia, since inscriptions in ancient hieroglyphics had been found near Sydney, indicating that the grandson of a pharoah had landed there. On the show, which aired on the Turkish TRT TV channel on March 6, 2015, Badr was introduced as owning the patent to mummy technology. Following are excerpts: TV host: Let's discuss the destruction of antiquities. Yahya Badr: This is a crime, because antiquities constitute documentation, which preserves the [legal]...