Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
--------
Question: Sydney Hostage Crisis: Australia has lost its innocence. Australia is known as the "lucky country." It was a phrase first coined in 1964 by social critic Donald Horne, and has come to represent the visceral feelings of both Australians, and visitors to the nation . It is seen as a reflection of a high standard of living, and a geographical insulation from the bad actors of the world theater . But ten days out from Christmas, Australia has lost its innocence . On a day of brilliant blue skies, the terrorism of the post-9/11 world finally arrived on Australian soil , taking hold of city streets . A man wielding a gun and an Islamic flag took customers and staff hostage at a cafe in central Sydney . As a native of Sydney, home for the holidays, safe and sound but shaken and furious, December 15 is a day that will forever be seared into my mind . I've been to the Lindt Cafe ; in fact ,  I once worked across the street from it . Emotions have run high here all day -- from fear to anger to a desire for vengeance . I never expected this in Sydney . The profoundly shocking standoff with all its disruptions to city life has struck fear in Sydneysiders, unaccustomed to these types of events . The mood in Sydney is one of fear and uncertainty . Until now, Australian authorities have been flawless in preventing terror attacks on Australian soil . They have been aggressive in their pursuit of intelligence and would-be terrorists , foiling plot after plot . September saw the biggest anti-terrorism operation in Australia's history , involving up to 800 police in coordinated raids , sparked by intelligence reports that Islamic State supporters were planning to seize a random member of the public and behead them live on camera . Yet , it was inevitable that one would finally slip through the cracks , and Monday Sydney joined the ranks of cities such as New York, London and Madrid as the latest victim of what appears to be Islamic terrorism . Monday's distressing events have renewed Australians' concerns about Islamist objectives, and a growing Islamic presence in the country . Some Australians recognize that this likely terrorist attack is a result of the poor immigration decisions of Australian governments, both conservative and liberal, over the last four decades . A lack of liberty, an abandonment of reason, the imposition of Sharia on Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as the treatment of women are just some of the serious moral problems within the Muslim world . Islamist views are incompatible with the liberty enjoyed by Australians and Americans . Interestingly, Monday's events have also prompted Australians to revisit their gun laws . With Islamic supremacism a mainstream interpretation of Islam, deeply rooted in Islamic scripture and endorsed by many of Islam's most influential scholars, Australians are beginning to understand the nature of the Islamic threat , and studying their own weaknesses in its wake . The United Kingdom has had two beheadings of members of the public in the last two years, with neither police nor civilians able to prevent it . It also has prohibitive gun laws . Australians are looking to America, and not the UK for guidance . With this sort of threat, the normal calculus of a civilized society with a small, armed (or unarmed) police force upon which the citizens are forced to rely, no longer adds up . It is unsurprising that home-grown terrorism is most rampant in nations with strict gun control . It is a reality that Australia's powerful anti-gun lobby seems to wish to ignore . It is times like these that Americans should be thankful for their Second Amendment, and crush any effort or force seeking to weaken or remove it . Right now, they are the envy of a growing number of Australians that wish they were armed . Australia will never be the same again . Sydney just lost a little of its shine .

Answer: A man wielding a gun and an Islamic flag took customers and staff hostage at a cafe in central Sydney On a day of brilliant blue skies, the terrorism of the post-9/11 world finally arrived on Australian soil


Question: US economy: Why I'm optimistic about growth in 2015. Could 2015 be the breakout year for the economy? Last week we got very joyful news :. All of this is good news as we ring in the new year . And the best may be yet to come . So why is the economy finally shifting into a higher gear? This isn' t a story of government-directed growth or stimulus spending . It's the opposite : Washington's role in the economy is starting to shrink after years of Obama administration activism . The private sector is starting to take over . The growth was propelled by a big rise in business investment, up nearly 9 percent; personal consumption, up 3.2 percent; and exports, up 4.5 percent . Government spending, which is a negative for the economy, grew by 4.4 percent, thanks to a big rise in military spending , but domestic spending is still restrained . The news was so good that even the threat that the Fed will now have an excuse to raise interest rates hasn't deterred the bulls on Wall Street . Here is the case for optimism going forward . First ,  a huge factor in the economic rebound has been the fall in energy costs . As the price of oil has fallen from $105 a barrel this summer to closer $70 by September,(and at the end of December it was at $53) the cost of oil imports has tumbled . Imports fell by nearly 2 percent , and this alone added almost 0.2 percentage points to GDP growth . Even that greatly understates the economic windfall from cheap energy . Production costs fall when energy costs do , so the supply of American-produced non-oil and gas products, such as manufactured goods, rises when gas is cheap . Gas prices should continue to fall , the good-news story rolls on , and the addition to GDP from energy should be even higher . Thank you, Texas and Oklahoma and North Dakota . And thank you, fracking . Second , businesses are clearly feeling less trepidation about investing , and some of the wet blanket of Obama's anti-business, anti-shareholder agenda has dissipated as the Republican Congress repels his worst ideas: cap-and-trade, minimum wage hikes, new taxes on the energy industry and massive new spending initiatives out of Washington . Gridlock now looks to be built into the political system for the next two years, and in many ways that's reassuring . Third ,  government spending has fallen a lot more than people think . Despite the boost in military spending in the last quarter, the biggest story of the U.S  economy over the last three years has been the retrenchment of government spending . Federal spending has fallen from 24.4 percent of GDP in 2009 and 23.4 percent of GDP in 2010 to 21 percent of GDP in 2014 . Even better news is that in the fourth quarter of 2014, federal spending as a share of GDP fell to below 20 percent, according to a new analysis by Dan Clifton of Strategas, an economic policy consulting firm . This is creating an anti-Keynesian boost to growth, because the government is taking fewer private sector resources each month . The 4 percentage points less of GDP that the government is spending means 4 percent more GDP for private businesses and families to spend . That's close to $700 billion a year more for private investment and construction and spending . This, by the way, shows the foolhardiness of the Keynesian notion of a government-spending free lunch . Five years ago the Obama economics team was talking about multiplier effects from higher federal outlays -- the stimulus bill spent $830 billion-- that would juice the economy with even more private spending . It never happened . Even President Obama's own economic analysis found the economy grew more slowly than it would have without the government debt- financed spending . The real effect of government spending is to crowd out private spending . A final reason for optimism is that the incoming class of Republican governors and conservative state legislators across the country should mean more growth policies coming out of state capitals . At least a dozen governors from Massachusetts to Illinois to Tennessee are talking about tax cuts to create jobs . So even if we don't get tax reform at the federal level , states should be providing an additional tax cut stimulus . Skeptics will say that Obama's executive actions on climate change, immigration, energy policy and so on will continue to be a restraint on growth . That's for sure . This recovery from recession is still nearly $2 trillion behind where we should would be if we had a Reagan-paced boom . This is still one of the most anemic recoveries , though it is belatedly picking up steam . It's also true that wages are still flat for most workers , so the big challenge for the economy is raising productivity so Americans get a well- deserved pay raise . As 2014 comes to a close, here's where we are : Interest rates are as low as they've been in 40 years ; inflation is tame, thanks to the surge in oil and gas output ; and corporate profits remain high . The rest of the world economy, from Germany to Japan to Russia, is a debacle . But that's all the more reason to bet on the USA in 2015 . And ,  no, Mr  President, you didn't build that .

Answer: Could 2015 be the breakout year for the economy?


Question: Why Washington should fear the silence of the anti-war movement. On this 73rd anniversary of the last declaration of war by the United States, as the Pentagon escalates its military actions in Iraq and Syria , the silence of the US peace movement carries an ominous warning for Washington, DC . The streets of major US cities are not filled with anti-war demonstrations , yet the apparent quiet does not signify consent . A look at history shows why . The US has been attacked on domestic territory twice in the past century . On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbour , killing 2,403 Americans and wounding 1,178 others . The next day, US Congress voted to declare war on Japan , thus committing to active hostilities in World War II . That declaration of war has since proved to be the last in the history of the US . The next and last mass scale violent attack by an outside aggressor on the domestic territory of the US occurred 13 years ago, on September 11, 2001, with the immediate death toll approaching 3,000 . Three days later, Congress adopted an Authorisation for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against those held responsible for the September 11 attacks . In so doing, Congress delegated war-making powers to President George W Bush under the terms of the War Powers Act of 1973 . December 7 and September 11 are notable in part because in both cases horrendous violence against the people of the US was responded to with an act of Congress . Oppose or support US entry into either of those wars, question or affirm that those wars were lawful, there was no question in either case that Congress had signed off on them . Congressional approval . It mattered that Congress approve , because Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution accords primary war powers, including the power to commence and end war, to Congress alone . For a president of the US to make war without congressional approval was an unthinkable act that would have threatened the legitimacy of the federal government . With his war on the so-called Islamic State, US President Barack Obama has committed that unthinkable act , and Congress has let him . And yet ,  by all appearances, no one outside of a handful of members of Congress, legal scholars, and peace activists has spoken out in protest . Contrast this moment with that of the weeks and months following September 11 . On September 29, 2001, upwards of 25,000 people marched through Washington, DC, against the impending invasion of Afghanistan ; tens of thousands demonstrated elsewhere throughout the US . By April 20, 2002, the anti-war protest in Washington drew over 150,000 . By February 15, national protest turnout hit 2 million . Given this history, one cannot conclude that the size and volume of anti-war protests directly resulted from the relative popularity of a particular war . After all ,  the 2001-2003 protests erupted and swelled over a period in which polls showed continued strong support among the US public for Washington's war operations . And in fact, as in 2003-2008 public opinion turned against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the size and volume of anti-war movement went down . The simple and correct explanation for this history is that anti-war organisers made decisions in 2001, 2002, and 2003, to focus their energies on mobilising street protests , and that in the years 2004-2008, as anti-war sentiment was taken up by a majority of the American people, many anti-war organisers shifted much of their focus to electing anti-war candidates to office . What has changed since Obama assumed the presidency? In Washington, in terms of war and security, very little . Guantanamo remains in operation . The police state has expanded . Assassination and missile strikes have increased . Border militarisation and deportations have escalated . And US military operations have continued and spread further across the globe . Having lived and struggled through this history, why would anti-war organisers choose to respond to Washington's undeclared, unauthorised war against the so- called Islamic State by mobilising street protests? Why would they mobilise to elect anti-war candidates? The core of the peace movement remains active in many parts of the US . Every day I receive notices about civil disobedience at military bases, hunger strikes, local government resolutions calling for a shift in spending priorities away from the military, and much more . For this reason, the relative silence of anti-war organisers in the face of the war against the so-called Islamic State stands out as a warning to the Washington establishment; those who oppose their policies question whether Congress and the presidency can provide effective redress for the grievances of the American people . Washington should fear the silence of the US anti-war movement , for it is full of sound and fury and signifies everything .

Answer:
the silence of the US peace movement carries an ominous warning for Washington, DC