Today is a very happy day - two Israeli hostages were freed, men aged 60 and 70 from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak.
They are the husband and brother of another hostage who was already released in the previous deal.
They are said to be relatively well.

They were courageously released by Israeli special forces who raided the building in which they were held in the middle of Rafah.

At the end of the day, this is the one thing which really matters!

134 more to go.

Does promoting LGBT lead to more gay or gay-tolerant adolescents, who will then never vote for conservatives?
- and have a beef with them but will only vote for a pro-gay candidate, which the elites have put in place to be elected?

It almost seems like vote rigging, where you can effectively produce non-conservative voters by pushing this LGBT agenda.

Hi AC,

I have two sons, one is gay, the other has 5 children. The gay son is a Liberal voter, the other staunch Labor. Some of my gay friends are very conservative in many of their attitudes. One of our problems is we stereotype people too often. The vast majority of people living in Gaza are first and foremost concerned with their's and their families safety, and not some religious extremism. We really can't comprehend what life is like for the vast majority under the conditions that exist there.

Hi Paul,
Well that blows my theory out of the water then doesn't it.

"We really can't comprehend what life is like for the vast majority under the conditions that exist there."
- That's true, we can only imagine, it would be like nothing anyone in this country has ever experienced.

Hi AC,

My experience with politics, not real active theses day, but have become friends with the local ALP councillor, really nice lady, and very gung-ho, as she's new at the job, being a replacement for a bloke who was 27 years in the job, resigned did a Barney, but wasn't lying in the gutter, coppers got him drunk sitting in his car 200m from home, with keys in the ignition, engine off, me thinks a "friendly" neighbour shafted him. The majority of voters have very little knowledge of the candidates, the incumbent has a bit of an advantage with their profile in the community, most others have a "profile" problem, with no recognition. Local federal member LNP, met him a coupe of times, nice guy, don't know a lot about him, other than he's into soccer.

p/s How's the Mayor out your way, still "pissed" after an AA Meeting or whatever it was. She wouldn't resign. That was a stinker, I think she crashed her car.

Dear Paul,

FYI, Israel's Knesset Speaker from Netanyahu's Right-wing Likud party, is openly homosexual. Orthodox MK's were furious when he brought his male partner to the gallery at the ceremonial opening of the Knesset as well as thanked him for all the support.

«The vast majority of people living in Gaza are first and foremost concerned with their's and their families safety, and not some religious extremism.»

I estimate some 40% are first and foremost concerned with their's and their familu's safety.
Some 10% are first and foremost concerned with extremist Islamic ideas.
Some 25% are first and foremost concerned with extremist nationalistic ideas.
Some 25% first and foremost hate Israel, even more than they care for themselves, their families, their people or their religion.