The cartoon at top is by a rabid ritewinger — Zanetti... While Moir today in the SMH shows a crying Julia for winning silver at the polls not the pools... I can tell you that Julia is made of sterner stuff than this... If she cries (she would do it in secret) it would not be about her poll "predicament" but at the stupidity of Abbott... Yes her prime minstership has been plagued by the most vile and sneaky opposition leader who has but one goal in mind : Tony Abbott... All you've hear from him has been and will be porkie-plus. 

This is why some commentators want a bit more blood sports... Hit Tony in the budgies... because being nice and telling good news is NOT enough against such Tony Detritus rigmarole... One needs to punch him below the belt:

 

 

According to comments from Bob Hawke this week, "… the Australian economy is doing better than any other developed economy on almost every measure. That's the point they have to hammer home."

But Hawke is dead wrong. It's the wrong approach, even if objective analysis suggested Labor policies have been successful.

The reason for Labor's poor polls? It's not because of lies, or because Labor needs to sell its policies better. Not because of Gillard's wooden, fake communication.

The real reason is Abbott's negativity - and Labor's lack of negativity.

A lot of Labor supporters prefer the holier-than-thou approach. Just persist, Labor says, and closer to the election voters will realise the logical correctness of our policies and realise that the Coalition's policies don't add up. Yeah… right.

Political scientists will tell you that negative campaigning will win hands down against rational, logical arguments. It's not just a matter of selling it better, that's the approach that treats voters like idiots.

Negative campaigning is more effective than truthful, honest campaigning. Positive Labor spin-doctoring won't be enough.

Look at past elections. In 2007 Labor won thanks to a negative campaign around WorkChoices. In 2004 - okay, Latham - but also interest rates. In 2001 it was terrorism and asylum seekers. In 1998 Labor achieved a big swing thanks to an anti-GST campaign, which is also how they won in 1993. In 1996, Howard's small-target approach attacked Keating's big-picture arrogance.

And why does negativity work? Because fear is a powerful motivator. Because we are naturally sceptical of politicians and so any negative campaign seems plausible. We often need a scapegoat for social problems and politicians are easy to blame.

So here's what the Coalition is fighting with at the moment: two new taxes, a 'broken promise', a 'knifed' former leader, ongoing leadership speculation, a partnership with the 'extreme' Greens, an increase in Australia's 'credit card limit', increased debt, and lot else besides.

Here's what Labor has: a big fat nothing.

I'm not saying that Labor doesn't have a good story to tell, it does. Bob Hawke is right. Labor is doing a solid job in difficult circumstances, with the difficult hung parliament.

But what is Labor doing? It's being defensive by trying to sell its economic virtues, by distancing itself from the Greens, by denying leadership speculation, and using all manner of 'logical' arguments to defend itself.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4171148.html?WT.svl=theDrum

 

Hi Gus,

As always, I respect your views & agree with many of your comments, in particular as they pertain to the crazed priest, Tonocchio Abbott.

However, I have come to the view that the Australian Labor Party & the Trade Union movement have betrayed their roots & no longer represent the interests of ordinary Australians. Moreover, I think that the likes of Julia, Wayne & the rest of the ‘suits’ currently ‘in government’ are only interested in serving their own self-interest, at the expense of taxpayers.

Whilst Wayne, Julia et al might come from ‘working-class’ backgrounds, I’d suggest that none of them has the slightest idea about the real day-to-day difficulties & challenges being confronted by the majority of ordinary Australians.

The fact that Julia is the highest paid politician on the planet says everything about just how far out of touch they all are & makes a mockery of their claims that the government is working to secure & protect the interests of ordinary Australians.

And whilst it’s doubtless fun for Wayne to poke fun at the likes of Gina Rinehart & Clive Palmer, he & his government have nothing to say & nothing to offer to the 40% of Australians who are eking-out a living as casual employees. Whilst Australians enjoying full-time employment earn an average of $47 an hour, plus paid benefits, the hundreds of thousands of casual employees who enjoy no job security at all are expected to get by on an average of $17 an hour, with no paid benefits, such as sick leave or holiday pay.

Wayne & Julia have nothing to say or offer to the hundreds of thousands of Australians struggling to survive on fixed incomes. They have nothing to say or to offer to Indigenous Australians, other than to assert that they should somehow be grateful for the continuation of a program of genocide dressed-up as paternalism. They have nothing to say or offer in respect of the future of our country, content to slavishly pay lip-service to the interests of our ‘special friends’ no matter how inimical they might be to the interests of Australia.

Julia & her ministers regularly boast about how many new laws the government has managed to pass since it came to office, not understanding that, to most Australians, new laws don’t put food on the table or pay the electricity bill. Until they realise that good government is about producing worthwhile & beneficial outcomes for our country’s citizens – all of them - & not about arguing the toss in fruitless debate or passing rafts of meaningless laws & regulations requiring an ever-increasing host of public servants to police them, they will be of no value to ordinary Australians.  

In my view, Labor is essentially pursuing the same interests as Tony Abbott & his pals – the interests of big business – whilst the basic needs of the majority of Australians are routinely ignored.

They have the gall to agree with big business that Australian workers need to be more productive, ignoring the fact that the share of GDP going to profits today is greater than its ever been, whilst the share of GDP going to labour is lower than its ever been. But nary a word about the productivity of management: oh no. The movers & shakers continue to gouge billions from the national pie, whilst presiding over record corporate failures & disastrous investment returns, but not a word from Labor about their productivity & not a word about their needing to lift their game or exercise restraint.

Not a word from Labor about how the government is working tirelessly to reduce the predatory powers & activities of the grocery, banking, pharmaceutical, software/entertainment, media & energy oligopolies; not a word about how the government is working to remove the obscene privileges enjoyed by the bevy of rent-seekers that we all routinely subsidise, such as the doctors, lawyers & pharmacists.  

As far as I’m concerned, Julia, Wayne, their ministerial colleagues, the Australian Labor Party & the Trade Union movement have all been corrupted, intent as they are on enjoying the benefits of office at the expense of the Australian electorate.

I wouldn’t piss on Wayne, Julia, Tony Abbott or any of them if they were on fire.

 

Hi John

Yes, to a point... (read above).

But things are not as simple as we lambast them, considering that the edifice of the Australian society (and that of many other "modern" human societies) is built on firm belief in capitalism... I don't like it any more than you do, but this is where we're at... A socialist/communism system may not suit the moires of this country well, though, who knows... Even in China there are "echelons" of power and controllers/suppliers/workers in which a value is placed on one's rank or influence. Every time we buy a "cheap TV" from China, do we support slavery? 

An anarchistic non-system would soon bring chaotic bum-fights and massive inequalities, and could not be sustained for long as alliances would soon be made, defeating the beneficial randomness of such non-systems.

The capitalist system in the entire world is nonetheless "fragile" and opened to abuse since it's based on acceptance of fluctuating illusionary values (money) for "concrete results" (like being able to buy goods for our lounge rooms) in comparison to other people's receipts from the system... Yet Capitalism is very resilient due the way it is constructed and it is influenced by many factors, including envy and manipulations of currency. 

Not new... Newton, the apple/gravity science-man when head of the Royal Mint of England, knew a few things or two about the manipulation of exchange rates, with which he would pay say the French or the Spanish, all for extra profit or paying less... Capitalism bets a pecuniary worth on individuals, with the hope that the kitty will grow ... One day, two clams are worth 10 feathers, the next day, the rates are three clams for ten feathers and so forth depending on the availability of clams and feathers — or whatever the sellers and buyers decide in a devious manipulation of the market. The more people play the game, the less market-fiddles are possible according to the rule of competition, but this can be easily by-passed by the secrecy of cartels and other smart shenanigans. 

Capitalism is a system — not a philosophy — but it is a system that influences the philosophies... Even in China, clams and feathers have their opportune values... Capitalism is a system that by definition cannot be static or defined by intrinsic value but by the values accepted at the time of day.

At present, too there is a strange mix of capitalism and religious Wahhabism in Mecca that is turning the town into a "Las Vegas style" city. The draconian religious police is slowly encouraging the destruction of historical shrines and holy heritage building to stop idolatry, meanwhile the royal rulers are building a modern city with concrete and steel, where some bad tongues in Turkey and iran suggest there is furious gambling behind secret doors...

Thus we swim in illusions that translate into hard cash, the value of which is also part of the illusions and at many levels the game is a gambling game in which some of the stakes are higher than the benefits, for thrill value... It is thus perverse...

Humans — we — in our stylistic endeavours beyond survival, often value entertaining illusions more than reality. 

The reality being that we could all live in little huts and cultivate our little plots and kill our little rabbits without asking any favour from anyone, except from the neighbours when we'd be in need to copulate... 

The human illusion of having more and better than one's neighbour is not new either... The bible is full of stories and commandments about not to envy or not to steal the neighbour's whatever and yet we all do it to a certain extend — by demanding more by rights, charity or by compromised values — until we reach a level at which our neighbours envy us for what we've got. The Visigoth come in for rape and pillage... The Norman invade... The richer-than-us, those early thugs who had strong fists to bash us into a pulp, used us to build castles to defend against such invasions... then we, the plebs, disappeared into the foreground as fodder. But the richer-than-us needed us to stay alive, to toil the earth on their behalf, otherwise they starved. The bishops needed to enticed people to build their cathedrals... On the same plank, the rich and powerful will stop us — while giving us the illusion we can — from acceding to the same level of riches and power. For them there is no value if all of us were rich and powerful... the price of milk would be US$10,000 a litre...

The splitting of labour with casual employment and full-time employment is a curly one... It was started mosltly when the "accord" between government and unions was smashed by John Howard... who also encouraged Labor to dump the unions (which Crean though was a good idea?), unions, which, some of them at the time were suffering a bit from delusion, complacency or rot. The HSU is a case in point... I personally know union leaders who work hard to make sure their members are not trodden into the mud... In a full-on capitalistic society, it's not easy and employers have side-stepped the issue by using "casuals". This is an issue still difficult to resolve as some workers are happy about the flexibility of casual work, but not all people are not so fond of the rewards, in which competition for employment turns most into submission...

For example, News Limited has sacked a few (who knows the numbers?) "permanent journalists"  asking them to take their belongings away, until such time — I guess — they can be be re-employed at a lower rate on a casual basis... And there is little any government can do, though I know Labor is working to find a way to go around this problem without "upsetting" employers... The Libs want to resurrect Work Choices with a diferent moniker...

--------------

Since the early days of civilisations, we have valued entertainment to fill our down times with things to do, including get excited about two flies on a wall... Religion is entertainment. Sport is entertainment. Work can be entertainment if we know how to extricate ourselves from the boring mills so we can do a bit of colourful basket weaving, while singing a lullaby. News is a summary of entertainment apart from three or four titbits which fills the criteria of "information"...

The roman built the Coliseum for the purpose of entertainment... It kept the masses and their masters amused... It could seat around 50,000 people and was built with amazing engineered design... The drainage, the structure, the stepped viewing, the arena, the techniques of building, including the use of roofing clay-tiles in some of the arches demanded some lateral human ingenuity. All of this for entertainment. Entertainment in those days was the bloodied reality of death which we still perform virtually using electronic consoles ... No one dies, this would be illegal — except if, allowed by our masters, we remotely pilot a drone for war and/or killing "terrorists" in nappies.

We "choose" (though our political structures have been chosen for us, historically by evolution of tribal systems)... We are given the illusions to vote for this or that and in the end, only small variations are allowed into the system, because at the root of it all lies the envy of the illusions or the dislike of those whose achievements are greater than us, whether by crookery or hard work... 

See Gore Vidal quoted by Gonzomeetthepress: 

 

Vidal [after having watched Blair] continues: “The press, seeing that I’m all that’s left in the room, surround me. The blondes try to shoo they away. Question: ‘Are we becoming more Americanized?’ Answer: ‘Well, you do resemble us in that you now have a single party with two right wings.’ Question: ‘Which wing is more to the right?’ Answer (in my gravest and most reverential voice): ‘One does not bring a measuring rod to Lilliput’.”

 

At this stage, I will bring a measuring stick, rightly or wrongly, and say with some weak conviction from knowing some of the people in the political arena, that the Labor Party, with Gillard and Swan can be easily manipulated towards helping the underclass as a whole properly more than say the Liberal/ Abbott ticket... Abbott promises golden riches beyond the moon to all, but any sane person would have to know that's a lot of codswallop and the flogging would greatly intensify for those who are not in richly fortified bastions... most of us.  Abbott is a person who tries very hard, in order to appear to redeem himself, by spending a charitable week of good deed in Aboriginal community, along with other capitalists (Harvey, etc). Michelle Grattan's glasses are fogging up with fond excitment. Then invigorated, Abbott comes back to flog us harder with stupidity and crap — as flagellation is a catholic thing... Abbott chooses to be helpful to the community of Aurukun in Cape York, mostly because this is where Noel Pearson, the deeply religious and "committed to his people" Aboriginal leader, lives... I knew of Noel Pearson's battle with cancer, but he only revealed this major problem himself recently... Abbott's catholic dedication here smells of redeeming bonus points for having visited a brothel where handcuffs are a must... As a reader of literatchur, Abbott admitted to being a fan of "Fifty Shades of Grey", a successful light-porn novel for older chooks, where, apparently (I have not read it...) the erotic use of the whip is mentioned...

There are many other dynamics that influence the decisions being made, at all levels at which the average society is at and individually we're at, such as fear, religious crap, tax carrot-cake and punishment... but most of these are the product of manipulation of perceptions by the controllers of information: the media barons and their money suppliers, the advertisers who are clever at tempting us with illusions... If we don't spend our illusionary cash — especially that on credit, they suffer and we suffer. if they die, we die unless we can quickly grow vegies on our concrete footpaths...

What is extraordinary is that within this quite fluid social structure, most of us find our level of illusion, in which ambition and abilities are in "balance-plus"... "Balance-plus" is the way we walk slightly bending forward to increase our momentum... Until we become hunched and shuffling very slow... Let's not be too idealistic about our "abilities"... Some of us are more able than others by accident of birth, education and biophysical development... Accident of birth can bring money, religious straightjacket, poverty... Education should be a great leveller, but we learn at different pace and our memory can play tricks. Our teachers may not be so good or could be hell-bent in opinionated views, including more religious crap... Our biophysical survival means are often below par in comparison to the rest of the animal world, despite our dexterity. We could be crippled and have a brilliant mind or the reverse... Our survival in most circumstances depends on the good-will and/or the benefit to others, such as money. Our singular abilities are so specified by our "education" (parental and formal) that we end up having to rely on someone else's service to provide most of our comforts and maintenance of our comforts. We need someone else to scratch our backs... or do the plumbing.

The idea in a social political system is to equalise as much as possible all these "abilities" and make sure everyone has a reasonable life with as less trauma as possible — though we cannot escape the ultimate trauma (death) where everyone ends up purely equal. Swan is doing his best when the press is against him...

And despite some seemingly abandonment of the little people, they are not as "forgotten" as it may seem, by Labor ... The difference here of course is that labor (left) is trying to redress the problem through "social justice" (yes it does) in equalising as much as possible the value of individuals in a framework that has little give in its elasticity, while the other side (including labor's right), the Liberals (conservatives) want to only do the thingy via charitable enterprises that make sure people survive, at their station of birth... This is of course a generalisation of purpose and there are many shades in between... Thus I often ponder about the disparity between rich and poor, but if one consider the relative scale that poor is nil and rich is whatever, the rich in a growing society always become richer... In the end it's a question of statistics where we define how many rich people, how rich they are, and all the shades of colours in between till we count the poorest amongst us... Trying to "equalise" all this will in no doubt leave a few rich people escape the canning for flaunting the system and leave a few poor in the gutter when they do not get the needed succour. 

We are the mercy of a faulty system, where we have to rob Paul to pay Peter a bit more... It has always been and will always be a case of how much can we rob Paul, without him fighting back by killing the goose in front of our eyes... It demands a lot of tact. The Libs, more often than not, make sure we don't rob Paul, because Peter can stay where he is — the gutter, to which we (the Libs) provide a charitable pillow.

In many ways, for me, the goal is to try to make the political system improve and recognise all this and make sure there are less and less people "left behind" — without destroying the planet, by using a system (the capitalist system) which has the mission to destroy the planet as we know it — in order to exist. Thus beyond a certain critical size of human endeavours, things will become very ugly.

Change is the nature of the universe. Life is about change. Humans are clever but dippy. We seem to always want something else without appreciating nor understanding what we have... Sometimes (often) having a win may make us uncertain. We worry about what's around the corner because we know the "cycles" of good and bad luck... Coming second may not be an option though I ran most of my life avoiding winning first prize — but this is another story... A lot of things we do are unnecessary for our survival and have fleeting distracting entertaining values... In all this, individually we float with various memory of who we are, what we have been and of the illusions we seek. 

In this system of goods and services exchange, we are also permeated with "values" of behaviour and of our relationships... There various codes which conflict in their origins and their application... One needs to be horrified that here in Australia, we're still under influences going back to the time of Abraham... and Moses... Both uttered some glorious crap that is dictating ideas into the political philosophy — though the Greeks and Romans had other ideas — and into the capitalist system... Most of these ideas (dictums) are about the management of envy, rather than creating human loving relationships, and according to them (the new testament, the k'oran, the old testament) everything that humans do has to go through control of women, war and god for appraisal... In most cases this "morality" is designed to validate really bad behaviour from men, in relation to women and to other tribal groups. Lucky, there has been a few revolutions that have dampened the effect of these cloddy books... But revolutions tend to kill off good people as well as the bad ones... Thus we have to be careful in the management of revolt and opposition to whatever... 

I know, Swan and Gillard are not always fantastic... But hell! If you see one crappy monk on the horizon, be prepared to take arms. 

What is different at this point in time — and I am here talking about it by my accidental presence and having deliberately awaken to this fact — is that we, Homo sapiens sapiens, are changing the planet beyond its natural flux — fast. And the main culprit is greed — capitalistic greed. But greed is what makes humanity grow. From the workers who want a bit more so they can get a decent living to the super rich who have never enough until they are top-dog with their biggest and latest super yacht. 

Thus we are placed in a situation in which we have to manage greed so that everybody get their slice of the cake while not destroying our planet, while we grow beyond the limits of this planet... In short we have to put the brakes on excesses and growth without destroying our ability of invention. This limitation includes that on population growth. in the next forty years our human species is going to consume more food than in the last 8000 years of its history... Though we're using nature as a food source, nature is being pushed aside, in order to feed the multitude... There won't be any miracles... only wars.

It's hard to unscramble eggs...

------------------------

appendices:

 

30 [a]Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel: “This is what the Lord commands: 2 When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.

3 “When a young woman still living in her father’s household makes a vow to the Lord or obligates herself by a pledge 4 and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she obligated herself will stand. 5 But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand; the Lord will release her because her father has forbidden her.

6 “If she marries after she makes a vow or after her lips utter a rash promise by which she obligates herself 7 and her husband hears about it but says nothing to her, then her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand. 8 But if her husband forbids her when he hears about it, he nullifies the vow that obligates her or the rash promise by which she obligates herself, and the Lord will release her.

9 “Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her.

10 “If a woman living with her husband makes a vow or obligates herself by a pledge under oath 11 and her husband hears about it but says nothing to her and does not forbid her, then all her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand. 12 But if her husband nullifies them when he hears about them, then none of the vows or pledges that came from her lips will stand. Her husband has nullified them, and the Lord will release her. 13 Her husband may confirm or nullify any vow she makes or any sworn pledge to deny herself.[b] 14 But if her husband says nothing to her about it from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or the pledges binding on her. He confirms them by saying nothing to her when he hears about them. 15 If, however, he nullifies them some time after he hears about them, then he must bear the consequences of her wrongdoing.”

16 These are the regulations the Lord gave Moses concerning relationships between a man and his wife, and between a father and his young daughter still living at home.

----------------------------------------

31-1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.

3 And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian.

4 Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.

5 So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.

7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.

8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.

9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.

10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.

11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.

12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.

14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

19 And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.

20 And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood.

21 And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses;

22 Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

23 Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

24 And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.

25 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

26 Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation:

27 And divide the prey into two parts; between them that took the war upon them, who went out to battle, and between all the congregation:

28 And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:

29 Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for an heave offering of the LORD.

30 And of the children of Israel’s half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.

31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.

32 And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,

33 And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,

34 And threescore and one thousand asses,

35 And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him.

36 And the half, which was the portion of them that went out to war, was in number three hundred thousand and seven and thirty thousand and five hundred sheep:

37 And the LORD’S tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and fifteen.

38 And the beeves were thirty and six thousand; of which the LORD’S tribute was threescore and twelve.

39 And the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred; of which the LORD’S tribute was threescore and one.

40 And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the LORD’S tribute was thirty and two persons.

41 And Moses gave the tribute, which was the LORD’S heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.

42 And of the children of Israel’s half, which Moses divided from the men that warred,

43 (Now the half that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,

44 And thirty and six thousand beeves,

45 And thirty thousand asses and five hundred,

46 And sixteen thousand persons;)

47 Even of the children of Israel’s half, Moses took one portion of fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, which kept the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses.

48 And the officers which were over thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses:

49 And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us.

50 We have therefore brought an oblation for the LORD, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the LORD.

51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels.

52 And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the LORD, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.

53 (For the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.)

54 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of the congregation, for a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD.

 

----------------------------------

Abraham lived around 2100 BC in what is now Iraq. God told him to move to Canaan, which later became Israel. Unlike many people, Abraham believed in the one true God. God rewarded Abraham's faith, making him the father of a great nation (Israel), and an ancestor to the Messiah (Jesus Christ). 

1446 BC (about 3400 years ago) Exodus begins

The Hebrews, or Israelites (descendants of Jacob), are enslaved for 400 years in Egypt until Moses leads them out of Egypt. They wander the desert for 40 years. Moses then brings them to the border of Canaan, the land that God had previously promised to their forefather Abraham.

 

The Treasurer has quietly put income equality on the agenda.
WAYNE Swan tells us his source of inspiration is Bruce Springsteen, and his anthems for the working-class battlers of America. It's a new way to try to persuade us that Labor's goal is to make Australia a more equal place - and the Liberals' goal to make it a more unequal one.

Swan has quietly put income equality back on Australia's political agenda. 

It might work, because this is an issue on which Labor has a good story to tell. While John Howard in his first eight years as PM was sensitive to the needs of the ''battlers'', he lost office largely because he lost that focus as he went on. Swan as Treasurer has done nothing dramatic to make Australians more equal. But he has persistently pushed his ''Labor values'' into virtually every reform, every fiscal package, to nudge the outcomes in that direction.
It's gone surprisingly unnoticed, except by those on high incomes, who have found themselves excluded from virtually every initiative Labor has taken to ''ease the burden on struggling Australian families''. That has fuelled the perception among some of them that Swan is a class warrior, and his bid to recruit Springsteen to the cause only intensifies that.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/swans-reforms-truly-are-music-to-the-ears-of-working-class-20120806-23q4g.html#ixzz235jzAnI4