Deal Reached With Iran

After about 20 months of negotiating, a nuclear deal has been reached between Iran and a group of nations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, France and Germany.  The deal limits Iranian nuclear activity in return for lifting international sanctions.  President Obama has reportedly stated that "every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off".  The U.S. Congress has 60 days to consider the agreement.

Read more at NBC News, The Washington Post, CNN, BBC News and USA Today.

UPDATE:  The Daily Signal has some reaction.

Ack! Ack! It's Back!

During most of the 1980s, I was a devout reader of the comic strip Bloom County, produced by cartoonist Berkeley Breathed (whose last name rhymes with "method", as I once read).  In 1989, two years after winning a Pulitzer Prize, Breathed discontinued the strip, but for a few years used some of its characters in a weekly comic named Outland, and later in another weekly comic called Opus, named after a penguin who appeared in all three.  Today on Facebook, Breathed revived his first famous creation by releasing its first cartoon in 25 years, under the title Bloom County 2015.

Read more at the two-way (at NPR), The New York Times and Wired.

Most of the Bloom County characters are human, but there are several animals, including the above-mentioned penguin Opus (who allegedly looks more like a puffin than a penguin).  Another one is a disgusting, occasionally dead cat named Bill, who rarely speaks but instead makes unintelligible noises such as the "ack" used in this post's title.

Hillary Clinton Supports Sanctuary Cities.....Or Does She?

What is the opinion of former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D-NY, formerly D-Ark) on sanctuary cities?  It depends on which report you read, and how recently you asked the question.  As of July 7, according to HNGN, she supported them.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is taking heat from pundits over her previous unabashed support of sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and thereby afford deportation protection to illegal immigrants.

But just one day later, as reported by Fox News:

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton joined the condemnation of San Francisco’s “sanctuary” policy Tuesday.

Clinton chided law enforcement officials in an interview with CNN, saying the city was wrong to ignore an Immigration and Customs Enforcement request to hold Francisco Sanchez for federal authorities. Sanchez is accused of killing a young California woman along a pier last week.

So which is it, Madame Secretary?  Should cities cooperate with federal authorities or not?  Did one of these two sources misrepresent your stance on this issue?  Or are your views still evolving?

Read the respective stories at HNGN and Fox News.

The Fuller Family Football Camp

Over the past 14 years, four brothers from central Maryland have played football for Virginia Tech.  Three of them were drafted by the NFL, while the youngest looks forward to his third year as a Hokie.  This summer, the quartet have opened their own football camp, giving area youngsters an opportunity to improve their skills.  From The Baltimore Sun:

The presence of three brothers who have played in the NFL and another still playing in college — Chicago Bears starting cornerback Kyle Fuller, 23, Detroit Lions wide receiver Corey Fuller, 25, retired former Tennessee Titans safety Vincent Fuller Jr., 32, and 20-year-old Kendall Fuller, an All-American junior cornerback and future top NFL draft prospect at Virginia Tech — imparted more than words during the first annual Fuller Family Football Camp.

The oldest of the four Fullers is now pursuing a law degree.  Read full story.

Friday Links

As the first weekend after July 4 approaches, here's a bit of what's going on the world:

From The Washington Free Beacon, Iranians burn American and Israeli flags in support of Quds Day.  (Yes, this is the country which Secretary of State has been negotiating with.)

From The Hollywood Reporter, actor Omar Shariff, who starred in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, has died of a heart attack in his hotel room at age 83.

American Thinker asks if President Obama is trying to "love ISIS to death".

From the Washington Examiner, the Confederate battle flag has been removed from the South Carolina statehouse grounds.

From Crain's Chicago Business, McDonald's swears that its talking toys, based on the movie Minions, do not say curse words.

From AOL, Katherine Archuleta, the head of OPM, will not step down in the wake of the recent hack, in which information on 21 million people was stolen.
UPDATE:  From Fox News, she has resigned, effective at today's close of business.

From The Washington Times, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WS) has accused the Inspector General's office of the Department of Veteran's Affairs of a cover-up and "smearing whistleblowers".

From FrontpageMag, the recently murdered Kate Steinle is just one of many victims of illegal immigration.

From National Review, Michelle Malkin thinks that Ariana Grande "needs her diaper changed".

From The RightScoop, radio talking head Mark Levin thinks Hillary Clinton should be "in an orange jumpsuit".

From The Hill, former Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) joins the presidential race.

From Fox News, a Civil War-era soldier, who was born in Germany, received the Medal of Honor, and was buried in an unmarked grave, was given full military honors and reburied at the San Diego national cemetery.

From LifeNews, TV personality Rachel Campos Duffy calls pro-abortion feminists "science deniers".

From ABC News, the Women's World Cup champions get a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

And from WGN, Pope Francis stops at a Burger King in Bolivia, to change his clothes.
UPDATE:  From MyFoxChicago, more on the Pope's travels in South America.

D-Day Memorial, Part 2

The D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, as mentioned in Part 1, includes an area called the Beach Tableau, which comprises statues of soldiers landing on the Normandy beaches.  This one portrays two soldiers moving across the sand, with a fallen soldier behind them.  In the water is a replica of a Czech Hedgehog, one type of obstacle placed on the beaches by the Germans, but first developed in Czechoslovakia.

To the west of the Beach Tableau is the George "Jimmy" Green Circle, in which the contributions of the Allied naval forces are recognized.  In the middle of the Circle is this anchor.

The Green Circle also includes this ship's bell.

South of the Beach Tableau and Gray Plaza is Estes Plaza, which includes the Overlord Arch.

This statue, surrounded by flags, is at the south end of Estes Plaza.

South of Estes Plaza is a walkway named Stettinius Parade, along which is a recasting of the statue Le Monument aux Morts, originally by French sculptor Edmond de Laheudrie.  The statue was created to honor 44 men from Trévières, of which Laheudrie had been mayor, who died in World War I.  Believed to have sustained damage to its face on or around June 9, 1944, the as-damaged statue was later recast to produce the replica seen here.

Stettinius Parade was the southernmost part of the Memorial.  On the way back to my car, parked near the northern end, was the statue Homage, which was unveiled only a year ago.  This sculpture was specifically dedicated to the men from Bedford who died on D-Day.

D-Day Memorial, Part 1

After visiting family in Virginia, I decided to avoid my usual route back to Maryland and instead take a course that went through Bedford, where I could visit the D-Day Memorial.  The memorial is located there because the town suffered the highest per capita losses on D-Day of any community in the United States.

Visitors to the Memorial may go on a guided tour, or walk around at their leisure.  Either way, the recommended starting point is the Reynolds Garden, the Memorial's northernmost section.  This area includes a sculpture of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France.  To the right in this picture is a bust of British Field Marshall Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, one of six Allied commanders thus portrayed.

This sword-shaped structure is designed to make the Garden resemble the SHAEF shoulder patch, worn by the the invasion's planners.  In the background are the flags of all the countries that participated in the landings, along with the Overlord Arch.

Here's another shot of the Eisenhower statue and its rotunda, showing part of the "sword", from a different angle.

These plaques commemorate the contributions of the alumni of the United States Military Academy at West Point (L), Virginia Polytechnic Institute (C) and the Virginia Military Institute (R).  During the war years, VPI, a.k.a. Virginia Tech, had not yet added "and State University" to its name and was primarily a military school.

In the Beach Tableau as seen from the Gray Plaza, statues represent soldiers advancing through the surf, moving on the beach, dead on the beach, or scaling a wall.  The Plaza is a large area in the center of the Memorial.

East of the Beach Tableau is the Maurice T. Lawhorn Circle, dedicated to recognizing the contributions of the Allied air forces.  Standing in this Circle is an Aeronca L-3 (or maybe L-3B) "Grasshopper" surveillance plane.

There will be more to see in Part 2.  Meanwhile, more on the D-Day Memorial can be found at the Encyclopedia Virginia and Roadside America.

The Dukes Of Hazzard, PC-Style

In what appears to be a fantasy sequence from The Jeff Foxworthy Show, which ran during the mid-1990s, The Dukes Of Hazzard gets a politically correct makeover.  Since the General Lee's Confederate battle flag gets replaced, and "Daisy" appears to have gotten the Rachel Dolezal treatment, I wonder if someone on the TJFS production team had a vision of 2015.  Or maybe it's just a case of SSDD (same stuff, different decade).

Han Solo To Get His Own Movie

The Star Wars character Han Solo, known for flying around in a spaceship called the Millenium Falcon and getting into trouble, will be the subject of a spinoff movie to be released in 2018.  It will be prequel, focusing on his life before he met up with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.  Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who made The Lego Movie, will be in charge.

Perhaps in this film, we'll learn about Han's dealings with Jabba the Hutt and how he met Chewbacca, who if you ask me, bears an uncanny resemblance to the earthbound creature known as Sasquatch.

To the young male actors out there, if you resemble a young Harrison Ford, here's your chance.

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter, the New York Post and the Star Wars website (the last link coming via Engadget).

Man In Maine Kills Himself With Fireworks

While celebrating the Fourth of July, a man in Calais, Maine set off a fireworks mortar tube on his head, killing himself instantly.  He had been drinking with some friends.  This incident is the first reported fireworks-related fatality since Maine legalized fireworks in 2012.

I'd say that a Darwin Award nomination is richly deserved.

Read more at WGME, the Portland Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News.