Throughout much of the Middle East, it is downright dangerous to openly profess belief and faith in Jesus Christ:
  http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/01/16/report-middle-east-christians-on-the-eve-of-destruction/

“Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian territories are amongst the most dangerous places on earth for Christians, according to a new report. Although Christians claim the area as their Biblical heartland alongside Israel, persecution and discrimination, especially in the past 15 years, means they now constitute no more than three to four per cent per cent of the region’s population, down from 20 per cent a century ago.

To THE AGE          Your scornful description of the decision of the British people to leave the European Union as ‘nativist populism’ (15/1) ignores the big issues behind it: the protection of the monarchy, the retention of national identity, the resumption of a great legal tradition and a return to greater liberty. It is shocking but not surprising that certain powerful individuals and groups are doing everything possible to annul the Brexit result. Other members of the EU had their votes to leave overruled by political chicanery. It is to be hoped that British character and integrity will prevail against it. Better to be poor and free than wealthy and corrupt.
  NJ, Belgrave, Vic

To THE AUSTRALIAN          Rebecca Weisser is right to say (‘Look, Mr Keating, they are fleeing their republics’, 15/1) that ‘republics are less stable than monarchies precisely because they are not bound by tradition.’ She could have added that tradition is based in reverence for the sacred and that, without that reverence, public morality wanes and ruthless unselfishness grows.

     Australia, as a nation, as a people, needs, more than anything else a renewed awareness of, and respect for, the holy. Not a return to antiquated dogmatism, but a profound reform of the spirit. Yes, this is mysterious, but it is also the truth. We must shed the post-Enlightenment prejudice that logical reason is humanity’s best guide to building fruitful community. It can neither explain why the universe exists nor inspire the human heart nor satisfy the longings of the human soul. A constitutional monarchy is the best guarantee of national wellbeing.
  NJ, Belgrave, Vic

To THE AUSTRALIAN          In opposition to Fred Chaney’s claim (‘They were first, and they survived - we should listen’, 17/1) that Aboriginals should be recognised as ‘first nations within the nation’, that is no longer true in present time or acceptable to the majority of Australians who will not tolerate any proposal that might lead to dismemberment of our constitutional unity as the nation of Australia.
Also questionable is his assertion that the ‘collective identities’ of these ‘first nations’ have survived here.

     The considerable intermarriage of Aboriginals with persons of other ethnicity, as well as the dubious definitions of ‘Aboriginality’ promoted since the first Whitlam government (allowing part-Aboriginals to be viewed as Aboriginals), suggest that there is a gradual merging taking place of different ethnicities, which is good for national harmony.

     There has been debate about whether there is an “Africa crime crisis” in Australia, with victims saying that there is, and the government and police denying it:
  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/no-african-gang-crisis-wrong-says-victim-val/news-story/608233a6f6a2082c218be556fd13a8c8

     Here though is the real situation summed up in a hard-hitting article:

     An agreement has been struck between Japan and Australia to conduct military exercises out of Darwin, as part of a regional strategy to counter China’s growing military might:
  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/military-deal-with-japan-to-counter-chinas-might/news-story/25ec275dec028bad99b9e41bbc98a4eb

“The wide-ranging agreement, which will also allow military equipment and ammunition to be transported far more easily between the countries, will be progressed during the Prime Minister’s trip to Tokyo next week, as Australia faces a growing row with China over government criticism of Beijing’s Pacific aid. After official Chinese media branded Australia an “arrogant overlord’’ in the Pacific this week, Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi yesterday added to the diplomatic storm, saying he was shocked by International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells’ public criticism of China’s Pacific aid and demanded a formal apology from Canberra. “I think she should apologise — and apologise very soon to stop the further damage in the relationship between Australia and Pacific leaders,” Mr Tuilaepa told The Weekend Australian.

“Since good-looking politicians win more votes, a beauty advantage for politicians on the left or on the right is bound to have political consequences. We show that politicians on the right look more beautiful in Europe, the United States and Australia. Our explanation is that beautiful people earn more, which makes them less inclined to support redistribution. Our model of within-party competition predicts that voters use beauty as a cue for conservatism when they do not know much about candidates and that politicians on the right benefit more from beauty in low-information elections. Evidence from real and experimental elections confirms both predictions.”

  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272716302201

     The MSM has been beside itself, doing cartwheels over Trump’s alleged description of places like Haiti as “sh*thole countries.” Trump denies that he used this turn of phrase, but he did indicate that he would like more people from places like Norway. Behind this is a weak racial identity, which the deranged cosmopolitan liberal/Left smelt immediately and pounced on. Writing on the national identity significance of Trump’s remarks, and the savage response by liberals, Patrick J. Buchanan had this to say:

“Still, by contrasting Norway as a desirable source of immigrants, as opposed to Haiti, El Salvador and Africa, Trump tabled a question that is roiling the West, the answer to which will decide its fate. Trump is saying with words, as he has with policies, that in taking in a million people a year, race, religion and national origin matter, if we are to preserve our national unity and national character.

The famous Flynn effect, of a rise in IQ levels now seems to be reversing across the West:

“The IQ gains of the 20th century have faltered. Losses in Nordic nations after 1995 average at 6.85 IQ points when projected over thirty years. On Piagetian tests, Britain shows decimation among high scorers on three tests and overall losses on one. The US sustained its historic gain (0.3 points per year) through 2014. The Netherlands shows no change in preschoolers, mild losses at high school, and possible gains by adults. Australia and France offer weak evidence of losses at school and by adults respectively. German speakers show verbal gains and spatial losses among adults. South Korea, a latecomer to industrialization, is gaining at twice the historic US rate.

     This is one of those link, look and like posts, where you have to see it to believe it:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54

     Here Canadian free-speech academic Jordan Peterson takes apart some of the leading feminist myths of the Left, such as the gender pay gap, which has become an item of faith for the chattering class. Even the MSM is admitting that Peterson utterly destroyed his opponent’s arguments:
  https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/watch-cathy-newmans-catastrophic-interview-with-jordan-peterson/

     While young tigers at our universities put up posters on round cement structures telling us about the joys of communism/socialism, and how great the Russian revolution was, the reality of socialism is seen in every socialist experiment. Venezuela is the latest failure:

  http://collapse.news/2018-01-16-starving-venezuelans-ransack-food-banks-slaughter-grazing-cattle.html 
  http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/how-the-collapse-of-venezuela-really-happened-part-2_01182018 
  http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/socialist-dystopia-starving-venezuelans-loot-as-runaway-inflation-forces-pillaging-for-food_01172018

     I am just a bit too old to be a baby boomer, but I grew up with them, went to university with them, and hated them in the 1960s, all their self-righteousness, selfishness and lack of humility. Indeed, it turns out that this generation, who have essentially set Western civilisation on fire with their greed, do not want to leave anything for their children at all:
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/pensions/article-5263603/More-half-50s-prefer-spend-not-leave-money.html

“The majority of over-50s would rather spend their money now than give it to their kids, research by life insurer SunLife has found.
Fifty six per cent of those babyboomers surveyed said that they wanted to keep hold of their hard-earned cash instead of passing it on to someone else, and 62 per cent said that the money was ‘there to be spent’.
This is despite one in 20 people saying they are relying on their parent’s cash, with one in ten complaining that their parents are having too much fun with their ‘inheritance’."

     The Neo Con artists and globalists who are so desperate to start a war with Russia, maybe because the “Christian” wing thinks that this will bring on a return of Christ, as in the 1970s book, The Late Great Planet Earth, need to seriously read this:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-18/pentagon-document-confirms-existence-russian-doomsday-torpedo

“A leaked copy of the Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review states that Russia is developing a “new intercontinental, nuclear-armed undersea autonomous torpedo.” The existence of the weapon, known as Kanyon to the Pentagon and “Ocean Multipurpose System Status-6” to Russia, was first leaked by Russian television in November 2015. A test involving the Sarov-class submarine mothership was leaked in December 2016. The Nuclear Posture Review report, dated January 2018, lists the weapon as part of Russia’s underwater nuclear arsenal….

To THE AGE          Jenna Price asks (‘Day of atonement needed’, 24/1) why we should not change the date of Australia Day ‘if most Indigenous Australians want it’. One reason is that they are only a tiny minority and there is evidence, as in the recent Research Now poll, that the great majority of Australians support the present arrangement, being proud of our intrepid forebears who pioneered the land and of the culture and civilization they brought here.

     A second reason is that she provides no proof that most “Indigenous Australians” actually want the change; and a third is that her terminology is suspect, since many such Australians carry some settler blood, while we of British ethnicity who were born here are also indigenous, in the essential meaning of the word. Her comparison of Good Friday and Yom Kippur is interesting. All human beings have shortcomings (‘sin’) and we are wise to acknowledge our own. However, hijacking this spiritual truth to support one-eyed political propaganda, as Price does, is regrettable.
  NJ, Belgrave, Vic 

     According to some researchers women have a survival advantage over men in critical, life-threatening conditions, such as wars, famines and social collapse:

“Women in almost all modern populations live longer than men. Research to date provides evidence for both biological and social factors influencing this gender gap. Conditions when both men and women experience extremely high levels of mortality risk are unexplored sources of information. We investigate the survival of both sexes in seven populations under extreme conditions from famines, epidemics, and slavery. Women survived better than men: in all populations, they had lower mortality across almost all ages, and, with the exception of one slave population, they lived longer on average than men.

     It is interesting to note the mutterings of a few people each Australia Day, giving vent to their ignorance of Australian History when they complain of the date, 26th January, as the day to celebrate nationhood. It is not the date that offends but Australia Day itself. They will not be happy until all of our cultural celebrations are consigned to the ‘black hole’ of ‘white’ memory. Australian history and the building of this Nation since 1788 is something to really celebrate!

     The early settlement was part of a deliberate plan, driven by pseudo economics, as European countries sought to protect and expand their trade routes. It is still happening today with Asian and other Nations. The early settlers brought with them, their political, religious and cultural beliefs and were ordered by the King of the day, George III, to befriend any indigenous people as they settled the new land – this they did! The convict element were also selected for the skills they could contribute to developing the new land … yes, it was a form of conscripted labour but many were far better off than they would have been in the old country. You would not think so reading the socially engineered history taught today.

To THE AUSTRALIAN          The Life in Australia Historic Events Survey, as described by Darren Pennay (‘Bright side of the past leaves a big impression on us’, 24/1), does not itself seem to be very significant or authoritative in cultural terms. How many of the 2000 respondents knew enough about themselves and about the world they have lived in to be able to provide truly wise and insightful answers? It all looks like another example of ‘the blind leading the blind’. Pennay states that the survey shows us ‘who we are as a nation’ (but does not specify what that is) and warbles about our ‘rich, multicultural history’, which, however, looks meagre compared with those of Britain, China and India. Likewise his term ‘our global identity’ remains opaque.

     The survey seems to have totally missed what is the most important event of all in our current history (perhaps because it is slow-moving): the intense struggle between defenders and opponents of traditional Australia, a war operating on many fronts and one very similar to that waged in Russia in the nineteenth century between authority and revolution as described by Turgenev and Dostoyevsky.
  NJ, Belgrave, Vic

     January is here and the invasion versus settlement debate is back making news headlines. The Prime Minister wants to keep Australia Day as it is while the Greens are calling for the date to be changed. We’ve all heard the generic talking points. Team ‘Invasion Day’ says 26 January is offensive to some Australians. Team ‘Australia Day’ says 26 January is a day for all Australians regardless. Yet there is a fundamental point which goes to the heart of this debate that literally no one, to date, seems to have picked up on. Hence, this article.

     Native title can only exist if Australia was settled, not invaded. Why? Because international law recognises all territories acquired through invasion and annexation by force, prior to World War II, as lawful conquests. This ‘Right of Conquest’ doctrine was first conceived by the International Law Commission of the United Nations and later adopted as UN General Assembly Resolution 3314. Provided that all citizens of a lawfully conquered territory are granted equal rights by the local law, international law doesn’t consider the descendants of the conqueror and the conquered as two separate peoples. This in turn invalidates any claims to separate land rights under the same jurisdiction. As one of the 193 member states of the United Nations, Australia is not exempt from this doctrine.

     At present, the Liberal/Left are excited about the prospects of TV agony-aunt Oprah Winfrey running against Trump in the 2020 presidential elections. As one would expect in a media-saturated, dumbed-down culture like America, an opinion poll has shown that 48 percent of the grunters would vote for Oprah, while 38 percent would vote for Trump:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-oprah-tops-trump-likely-153141049.html
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/10/poll-oprah-beats-trump-48-38-with-likely-voters-in-2020-election/

    Here is a good example of white pathology, for according to some media reports, this saint of the TV thinks that old whites, who are racist, have to die out:
https://jezebel.com/oprah-joins-the-long-line-of-people-waiting-for-old-rac-1465485814
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/09/oprah-might-run-for-president-we-did-the-opposition-research-for-you/?utm_term=.55bd12f1fd0b

To THE AGE          Perhaps not surprisingly, as she represents a rationalist group, Tosca Lloyd appears to be unduly unsympathetic to the interests of religious people and thus unfair to them in considering laws against unjust discrimination (8/1). In some contexts what she sees as ‘discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation’ may be justified defence of the right of religious people to practise their faith without being forced to dishonour their conscience.

     One wonders on what basis, having dispensed with divine authority, Lloyd can claim that there is something called ‘human dignity’, possessed by all, which is to be protected. Another problem is that zealots opposed to ‘discrimination against’ too often forget that ‘discrimination between’ is a good thing, frequently requiring subtlety of approach and vital for the wellbeing of society.
  NJ, Belgrave, Vic