Links To End The Month

The first month of 2017 has reached its last day, and the number of foreigners whose rights have been violated by not being allowed into the United States continues to be zero.  This is because entry into a country of which one is not a citizen is not a right, but a privilege.  And in other news:

President Trump signs an order to strengthen the government's cyber security.

Somehow, I'm sure Trump will still be called a homophobe.

One Trump cabinet nominee gets confirmed.

Trump's SCOTUS pick has been identified.

As he did while in the private sector, Trump says, "You're fired."

One French politician might emulate Trump's temporary ban.

Another French politician allegedly got favors for his family.

Mrs. Trump has been good for her old country's tourism.

A man suing for wrongful expulsion can't subpoena his accuser.

Blocking traffic might get a little more risky.

Some historical perspective on immigration restrictions.

No, the temporary ban is not un-American.

The ban gets support from the Speaker.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka talks about ISIS.

All those migrants in Germany are getting expensive.

In India, a terror leader gets detained.

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela's grandson bans booze.

And finally, here are seven signs of having heart problems.

Who Supports President Trump's Temporary Ban?

It's pretty obvious that there are a lot of vocal people who don't like President Trump's temporary ban on admitting people from seven specific Muslim-majority countries.  They seem to like mis-characterizing the ban as a ban on all Muslims, as evidenced by the #MuslimBan hashtag on Twitter.  But as it turns out, the measure has gotten quite a bit of support.

According to Rasmussen, 57% of polled Americans support the president's order.

As reported by the Patriot Tribune, so does the Head of General Security of Dubai.

In the Express, the Polish Foreign Minister says that Trump is "well within his rights", to which I say, "Niech żyje Polska, i niech żyje duch Jana Sobieskiego!"

And finally, if you get in your Tardis and go back two years, as pointed out by DownTrend, so did Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

There's one last thing to note.  From Reuters, 872 refugees will be allowed in this week.

Six Fatally Shot At Québec Mosque

Last night, news broke of a shooting at a mosque in Québec City, Canada.  Six people were killed and eight others injured when two gunmen opened fire at the Grande Mosquée de Québec, while worshipers were conducting Sunday night prayers.  Shortly afterwards, the two suspected shooters were arrested, and have been identified as Alexandre Bissonnet and Mohamed Khadir, both students at Université Laval.  They reportedly shouted "Allahu akbar" during the shooting.

UPDATE:  Bissonnet is now called the sole suspect.  Khadir apparently has been called a "witness".

Read more at The Guardian, Reuters, the Daily Mail, The Star and the National Post.

What's Going On With Trump's Order?

To hear some people, or read some Tweets, or read some protester signs, you'd think that President Trump has announced plans to round up the world's billion or so Muslims and either enslave them or exterminate them in concentration camps.  Trump is the new Hitler, after all.  (Wait a minute, wasn't Bush the new Hitler?  Oh, never mind.)   OK, maybe I exaggerate, but as pointed out by David French in National Review, so are some of Trump's critics.  From NR:

To read the online commentary, one would think that President Trump just fundamentally corrupted the American character. You would think that the executive order on refugees he signed yesterday betrayed America’s Founding ideals. You might even think he banned people from an entire faith from American shores.

French has one criticism for how the president's order has been implemented, with which I agree.  Some Green Card holders, in other words, immigrants who came here the right way, have reportedly been detained.  This would seem unnecessary, since these people presumably have already been vetted up to their eyeballs.  But in any event, to learn what's really going on, read French's article.

Why Those Particular Seven Countries?

President Trump's temporary ban on entry to the United States for people from certain Muslim-majority countries has certainly proven controversial, but as it turns out, the particular choice of those countries didn't start with himself.  As explained in Mic:

How, though, did the Trump administration choose these seven Muslim-majority countries? The truth is it didn't: The countries were chosen during Barack Obama's presidency.

According to the draft copy of Trump's executive order, the countries whose citizens are barred entirely from entering the United States is based on a bill that Obama signed into law in December 2015.

Sounds rather interesting.  President Trump's executive order is intended to carry out a law signed by President Obama.  From what I can tell, Mic seems to be rather Islamophilic, and a few of its pics contain some off-color language (from signs shown therein), but whether you agree with Trump's policy or not, read the full story.

My Childhood Memories Rearranged

Back when I was a Littlefoot, one of my favorite TV cartoons was based on the Archie comics series.  There were several versions of the show, including The Archie Show and The Archie Comedy Hour.  Each show included the adventures of the title character Archie Andrews and his friends Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones, all of whom were teenagers living a town named Riverdale.  Betty and Veronica were rivals for Archie's affections, but still managed to be each other's best friend.  These five characters formed a band called The Archies, who performed a song during each episode, with Jughead's dog Hot Dog acting as a conductor.  (In reality, The Archies were singer Ron Dante and whoever backed him up in the studio.  They had a huge hit with Sugar Sugar.)  Occasionally, we got to watch other teenage characters such as Ethel and Moose, and adult characters such as Mr. Weatherby (the principal of Riverdale High) and Ms. Grundy (a teacher).  Of the parents of the above-mentioned teenagers, the only one I can recall seeing was Veronica's father.

Two Interesting Reads

Today, I've run across two essays which I've found very interesting.  The first was published in National Review and written by Frederica Mathews-Green, entitled "When Abortion Suddenly Stopped Making Sense".  The author points out that when Roe v. Wade was decided, she was a college student in favor of legalizing abortion, and a contributor to a feminist publication named Off Our Backs.  Her recollection of their view of the decision:

The first issue of Off Our Backs after the Roe decision included one of my movie reviews, and also an essay by another member of the collective criticizing the decision. It didn’t go far enough, she said, because it allowed states to restrict abortion in the third trimester. The Supreme Court should not meddle in what should be decided between the woman and her doctor. She should be able to choose abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.  [italics as in original]

To find out what changed her mind on abortion, read the first full story.

The other essay is a post on Ace Of Spades HQ entitled "How Losing My Political Values Helped Me Gain My Freedom [Warden]", by Open Blogger.  Whether Warden and Open Blogger are the same person, or Open Blogger is posting the essay on behalf of Warden, I don't know.  Here are the first two paragraphs:

There's a frustrating game that the left plays with conservatives. It's an Alinksy tactic called, "Make them live up to their values." Now, living up to one's values isn't a bad thing, but setting high standards ultimately means that you'll sometimes fall short.

The left loves to exploit these shortcomings--every Christian who falls short of perfection is a hypocrite; the social values candidate you voted for just got arrested for drunk driving. Haha, everything you believe and advocate is now discredited.

Warden/Open blogger discusses how he intends to use the left's tactic against them, particularly when they criticize President Trump.  Read the second full story.

Thursday Links

Once again, Thursday is a good time to rattle off some things in the news.  So here we go:

From PoliZette, President Trump has managed to keep one Mexican out of the United States.

From Russia Today, Trump didn't consult Putin when setting up "safe zones" in Syria.

From The Washington Post, the State Department senior management resigns.  (via The Hill)

From The Washington Free Beacon, the Border Patrol chief has been asked to resign.

From Africa News, 90 Somalians and 2 Kenyans have been deported.

From The Telegraph, U.K. Prime Minister May announces a change in policy.

From Independent Journal Review, Vice President Pence will speak at tomorrow's March For Life.

From National Catholic Register, there was a small scale march for life last Saturday in Los Angeles.

From ABC News, this bus has no driver.

From Fox News, on the 50th anniversary of their deaths, the Apollo 1 astronauts are honored.

From American Thinker, it's time to stop appeasing Iran.

From Breitbart Texas, a teacher shoots an image of Trump.

From FrontpageMag, a reaction to the Women's March.

From National Review, another reaction to the Women's March.

From the Mirror, the expression "they blow up so fast" becomes tragically true.

From the Express, migrants terrorize Vienna.

From the Daily Mail, migrants attack Britons visiting Germany.

From Fox5, a student wins her lawsuit.

From CNET, NASA unveils their latest spacesuit.

And from Philly(dot)com, a lost ring finds its way home.

Mary Tyler Moore 1936-2017

Actor/dancer/producer/author Mary Tyler Moore has died at the age of 80, from cardiopulmonary arrest at a hospital in Connecticut.  She had recently had heart and kidney problems.  She had been dealing with type-1 diabetes since age 33.

Mary Tyler Moore was born in Brooklyn, New York to George Tyler Moore and the former Marjorie Hackett.  When she was eight, her family moved to Los Angeles.  Originally a dancer, her first television role was the elf "Happy Hotpoint" in Hotpoint appliance ads.  In her first regular role, as a telephone receptionist on Richard Diamond, Private Detective, only her legs were seen on camera.  After several guest appearances and movie roles, Moore was cast as Laura Petrie, the wife of the title character of The Dick Van Dyke Show.  The show ran from 1961 to 1966.  She starred in her own eponymous sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970 to 1977.  For her TV roles, she won multiple Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe Awards.  With her husband Grant Tinker, she founded MTM Enterprises, whose logo featured a meowing cat, spoofing the roaring MGM lion.  Moore wrote two memoirs, and was an activist for animals rights and for research pertaining to type-1 diabetes.

Moore was married three times, first to Richard Meeker (1955-1961), then to Grant Tinker (1962-1981), and finally to Dr. Robert Levine (1983-her death), by whom she is survived.  Her only child was Richard Meeker Jr., who died of an accidental gunshot in 1980.

Read more at CNN, The New York Times, People, TMZ and Us Weekly.

Finnish Man Gives Muslims A Piece Of His Mind

This old Finnish guy tells Muslims where to stick it - in English.  He makes a pronunciation mistake or two, but his English is still way better than my (non-existent) Finnish.

You can also watch the video on YouTube, and if you know the Finnish word for "balls", please tell me in a comment.

Recipient Of Obama Commutation Killed In Michigan

A convicted drug offender and former gang member, whose sentence was commuted by President Obama this past November, was murdered yesterday by two gunmen at a halfway house in Saginaw, Michigan.  According to reports, one of the men shot their intended victim, Damarlon Thomas, while the other held the other residents at bay.  No one else was shot.

Read more at WNEM, MLive, CBS Detroit and ABC7.

President Trump Signs Orders To Advance Pipelines

Reversing actions done by his predecessor, President Trump signed two executive orders to advance the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.  These actions quickly elicited protests from pipeline opponents, but were welcomed by the Canadian government.  Terms under which the pipelines will be constructed or completely will still have to be negotiated.

Read more at CNN, Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC and CBC News.

Various And Sundry

A bit of this, that, and the other thing:

The women's march was not spontaneous.

Here's a women's march I can agree with.

As I pretty much expected, she won't go away.

An old excuse gets recycled.

Good news, if true.

Mr. T and Ms. M to discuss trade.

Mr. T wants to cut regulations bigly.

Obama's average approval rating ain't so great.

Virginia teachers lobby their legislators.

United gets their IT working again.

He wants money, but only deserves a dentist.

France takes custody of one of the world's most wanted jihadists.

ISIS finds yet another method of execution.

The #NotMyPresident meme gets parodied.

And finally, a song for both Mr. T and his detractors.

Well, That Was Quick

Just one day into his term, President Trump has already been hung in effigy.  Not by any of the participants in the liberal women's march yesterday, but by a man in Kentucky.  Via WSPA from WNCT:

One Kentucky man is turning heads due to a display he created at his home in Crestview Hills.

Ken Blair built the display depicting a life-size Donald Trump doll hanging from a noose, with a controversial quote written below that Trump received backlash for during the campaign.

The video at WNCT has edited out a certain slang term which can refer either to the female privates or to a cat, but Blair's neighbors get to see the uncensored quote.  Read the full story.  I'd say that Trump now deserves a "welcome to the club" from his two immediate predecessors.

Music Break - Alabama

A while back, I posted the story on how grocery shoppers in Brooklyn were triggered when the song Sweet Home Alabama came over the store's PA system.  This strange little story made me realize that there were other songs which evoke that particular southern state, so I've decided to present them in a music post.  First up, of course, is the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic itself.  There are quite a few YouTube videos of the song, but I chose one that uses scenes from the movie Forrest Gump, which includes the song in its soundtrack.

A Little Humor

Someone put this short conversation on Twitter, but I have no idea where it comes from.  I have removed the names to protect the innocent (or maybe not-so-innocent).

One Person:  I've awakened from an eight-year nightmare.  Did I miss anything?
The Other Person:  Yes.  Bruce Jenner's a woman, and the Cubs won the World Series.

I could add that Frank Beamer is no longer coaching football at Virginia Tech.

In DC, The Anti-Trumpers Come Out

As some may have expected, rioters and vandals whom we charitably call "protesters" have made their presence known in DC.  Well, I'm sure there were also genuine anti-Trump protesters who kept their actions within the bounds of civility, but unfortunately, they were overshadowed by the more unhinged faction.  Some even threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas and concussion grenades.

Read more at Breitbart, The Federalist, NBC Washington, Sky News and LifeNews.

Donald Trump And Mike Pence Take Office

Today at noon, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America.  Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath.  President Trump used two bibles, one used at Abraham Lincoln's inauguration and more recently used by President Obama, the other a gift from Trump's mother.  Moments earlier, Justice Clarence Thomas had sworn in Vice President Mike Pence.

Read more at The Washington Post, The Hill, Reuters and ABC News, who posted President Trump's inauguration speech on YouTube.

Congratulations on taking office, Mr. President.  Now enjoy your inaugural balls and then get to work.

Thursday Links

Hang in there, fellow rightwing nutjobs, because today is the last full day of the Obama presidency.  With the transition almost complete and the inauguration set for tomorrow, here are some other things going on out there:

I will call this Trump's first mistake in office.

Was Trump elected by the Russians?  Nyet!  It was his supporters.

Threatening the new president is not a good idea.

Neither is threatening the old president.

Here's one more postmortem for the Obama presidency.

No, Obama was not a leftwing Reagan.

Speaking of nutjobs, here come our leftwing counterparts.

The RNC picks Romney to be their chairperson - no, not that Romney.

How do you "rethink capitalism"?

Amazon (the retailer, not the river, nor even the legendary female warriors) drives retailers crazy.

In a historic British cathedral, a different kind of prayer.

Learning Arabic can come in handy.

In France, attacks on Christians are on the rise.

Iranian authorities arrest a female bodybuilder.

Indian authorities arrest 52 suspected ISIS supporters.

An avalanche buries an Italian hotel.

The Bushes are feeling healthier.

Are you ready for the Las Vegas Raiders?

When you die, you can leave behind a digital time capsule.

And to finish........rats!

Obama Commutes Manning's Sentence

Just three days before leaving office, President Obama has commuted the sentence of convicted document leaker Chelsea Manning, despite objections from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.  The former Bradley Manning is now due to be released this coming May 17.  Obama also pardoned former General James Cartwright and commuted the sentence of Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera.

Read more at The Washington Times, The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian and CNET.

UPDATE:  As reported by ESPN, Obama has also pardoned baseball Hall Of Famer Willie McCovey.

Major Technical Difficulties

Due to nobody's fault but my own, I've been disconnected from the Internet for a few days.  To make a long story short, let's just say that computers and soup do not mix.  Now that I'm back, I've been catching up, re-establishing my bookmarks, plugging in usernames and passwords into all the sites I visit, and surely but slowly getting things back to normal.  Fortunately, the ability to transfer data from an old hard drive to a new computer does indeed exist.  But due to the self-inflicted nature of my problems, the "Stupid People" label goes to yours truly.

Of course, the world did not take time out during my cyber-absence.  So pretty soon, I'll be gathering up and relaying out all the stuff that I find fit to post, and adding my own $0.02 worth of opinion.  But for now, it's good to be back.

Thursday Links

With eight days left until the presidency is transferred, here are some things going on:

From FrontpageMag, a former Obama voter gives his thoughts as Obama's tenure comes to its end.

From National Review, how hate-crime legislation was a good idea that went bad.

From Radio Poland, American troops arrive in that country.

From The Guardian, Russia doesn't like American troops being in Poland.

From Fox Business, Donald Trump's victory has been very costly for one wealthy left-winger.  (via The Politistick)

From Twitchy, L.L. Bean CEO and Trump supporter Linda Bean fires back at leftwingers calling for a boycott.

From the Los Angeles Times, Trump's nominee for CIA chief says he won't obey orders to use torture.

From Fox News Insider, Trump seems to have found a place for former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  (via The Washington Free Beacon)

From SBS, a "far-right" candidate has been seen at the Trump Tower.

From Philly(dot)com, New Jersey's lieutenant governor announces that she will run for governor.

From The Hill, "Mad Dog" gets his waiver.  (via RedState)

From The Washington Post, the white working class aren't the worst off.

From ABC News, the DOJ's inspector general will investigate the actions of the DOJ and the FBI during this past election.

From ABC7, in Arizona, an armed civilian defends an ambushed cop.

From ARA News, Turkish border guards kill two civilians fleeing Syria.

From the Express, an Italian archbishop criticizes his church.

From AsiaNews, another Pakistani secular activist goes missing.

From BBC News, a Hindu saved his own life by reciting from the Koran.

From ESPN, the San Diego Chargers are moving to Los Angeles.

And from TMZ, bad dog!

Random Musings #7

Now that Dr. Thomas Sowell is no longer writing columns, the "Random Musings" posts at this blog will carry forth the tradition he started with his "Random Thoughts" columns.  Since this type of post is thus not my creation, anyone else out there who wants to put out anything similar won't need my OK, or have any obligation to acknowledge anything I've written.  But I would suggest that any such writer or blogger would acknowledge Dr. Sowell, as I previously have.  So with that, here we go:
--------------------
According to some people, this past election has been hacked by Russia, or maybe somebody in Russia.  As a result, a new humorous meme has arisen, blaming various people's failures on Russia or the Russians.  Apparently, this includes Mariah Carey's attempted lip-syncing on a recent New Year's Eve show.

MTV recently put out a video of proposed New Year's resolutions for white men, one of which was not regarding "Black Lives Matter" as the opposite of "All Lives Matter".  If that's true, it should be a two-way street.  In other words, "All Lives Matter" should not be viewed as the opposite of "Black Lives Matter", nor as an insult toward blacks.  I would also suggest that if the "Black Lives Matter" movement wants more respect, they should refrain from things such as blocking roads and calling for the deaths of cops.

Will Chelsea Be Released?

No, this is not about Trump's rival's daughter, but a former Army intelligence analyst once known as Bradley Manning.  She (in the Caitlyn Jenner sense of the pronoun) adopted the name after being imprisoned for leaking over 700,000 documents to Wikileaks, and is reportedly on President Obama's "short list" for commutations before he leaves office.  Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence.

Read the full story at NBC News.

The Session On Sessions

While Donald Trump will not be inaugurated until January 20, Congress started their session (if you'll forgive the pun) on January 3.  This includes starting the confirmation hearings on some of Trump's nominees, such as current Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) for Attorney General.  In what has to be a historically rare occurrence, his fellow Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) will testify against him, even though at one time, he regarded Sessions more favorably.  Some other black Americans have come out in favor of Sessions.  Meanwhile, in a move which merits the "Stupid People" label, an MTV writer accused Sessions of stealing a little Asian girl from Toys "R" Us.  The girl is actually his granddaughter.

The Obama Wall

Someone from The Daily Caller went down to Washington, DC to see the wall being built around the house where soon-to-be-former President Obama will be living.  Here's their video:

You can also watch the video at The Daily Caller.

Some Other Stuff

Here are some things going on, other than the shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport:

In response to events in Florida, New York airports beef up their security.

Obama says "no" to testing for oil under the Atlantic.

A yuuuuge iceberg looks ready to break off from the Antarctic ice shelf.

Looks like the presidential golfing tradition will continue.

Trump talks about a wall, but Obama builds one.  (H/T Toni No Bologny for the Retweet)

Trump says that hacking did not affect voting machines in the election.

Congress certifies the election results.

How the number of Americans not in the labor grew under Obama.

Ethiopia's "Spice Girls" lose their funding.

Chapels and shrines in Austria get vandalized.

A refugee center in Germany gets torched.

A dictator's son is tried for spending large amounts of state money on himself.

Some clarification on the Santa outfit worn allegedly by the Istanbul nightclub shooter.

If astronomers are right, we'll be able to see an upcoming stellar explosion.

My blogosphere buddy Holger Awakens has posted a video that's very much worth watching.

And to finish, life might be a bitch, but sometimes she's a good mother.

Shooter Strikes Fort Lauderdale Airport

At the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, a gunman fatally shot one person and injured nine others, before being taken into custody.  The incident reportedly occurred near the baggage claim area of the airport's terminal 2.  Authorities have closed down the terminal and evacuated people to a nearby tarmac.

Read more at NBC News, Hollywood Life, WTSP and WSVN.

UPDATE:  All four links are now reporting 5 dead and 8 wounded.

UPDATE 2:  Some information has come out about the shooter, now identified as Esteban Santiago, originally from Puerto Rico, but most recently a resident of Alaska.  The Blaze reports that during this past November, Santiago walked into an FBI office and claimed that he was being "forced to fight for ISIS".  According to True Pundit, Santiago texted family and friends before opening fire, and has used several aliases.  ZeroHedge reports that GotNews did some research on Santiago, which appears to indicate that Santiago watched an "e-jihad" video in 2007.

UPDATE 3:  According to CBS Miami, Santiago got into an argument during his flight.  He was on a Delta light, not an Air Canada flight as some sources had previously reported.  He was born in New Jersey to Puerto Rican parents, not in Puerto Rico itself.

Things I Don't Believe #4

This post will deal with some things relating to religion.  I don't believe:

That Noah's Ark, or some remnant thereof, currently sits on Mount Ararat.

To preface this topic, I'm setting aside the question of whether a global flood really did occur, and was survived by a man named Noah and his family aboard a large wooden vessel called an Ark.  I'm also setting aside the question of whether that vessel actually landed on Mount Ararat (singular) or somewhere in the mountains (plural) of Ararat, as actually stated in the biblical Book of Genesis, chapter 8, verse 4.  Instead, I will assume that at some point in the ancient past, there really was an exceptionally catastrophic flood, a man remembered by the name Noah, and a vessel which came to rest somewhere on the singular mountain known as Mount Ararat.  Even if all that is true, I believe that the chance of the Ark being there today is just about zero.

Clintons And Bush To Attend Trump Inauguration

Contrary to earlier indications, the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump will be attended by most of his living predecessors.  Former Presidents Clinton and Bush the Younger will be in attendance, along with President Obama, who will hand over the presidency, and former President Carter.  Former First Lady Hillary Clinton will also attend.  Before today, reports had indicated that only Carter would accept Trump's invitation.  Former President Bush the Elder will not be present, due to health reasons.

Read more at USA Today, NBC Washington, the Washington DC Patch and CNN.

Save The Snowflakes

Here's something that was played, in its audio form, by Vito Esposito on his BlogTalkRadio show.  (He's the same dude who once requested my "bear on a pipeline" picture.)  When I asked if there was a YouTube video, his co-host Al provided the link, which is now available here.

A fellow listener known as DrMeola provided this link, where a larger version of the video may be watched.  The producer of the video is the Media Research Center.

UPDATE:  The originally embedded video has been removed from YouTube due to claims of copyright infringement.  Fortunately, the video (or perhaps a version that doesn't infringe on anyone's copyright) is still available at the link provided by the above-mentioned DrMeola.  I have posted the video from that particular link, and have accordingly changed the first link at the top.

Links To Start 2017

As the new year gets started, here's some of what's going on:

From the New York Post, police in Turkey are still hunting for the terrorist who shot up a nightclub in Istanbul.

From The Times Of Israel, the attacker did indeed say the key words.

From Breitbart's Big Government, one particular refugee group is the least educated.

From Fox News, the police in Cologne, Germany might have gone overboard.

From The New York Times, with respect to the iconic Hollywood sign, history repeats itself.

From the Daily Mail, one TV host had a bit too much last night.

From CNN, when the new boss takes office, he might soon undo some of the old boss's regulations.

From National Review, the old boss gets one last report card.

From NPR, coal country tells the new boss to keep his promises.

From The Star Online, a 10-year-old girl blows herself up in Nigeria.

From the Sunday Express, a British media host says, "We should defend British culture."

From the Deccan Chronicle, an Iranian official proposes to sterilize prostitutes.

From Pakistan Today, police accuse the son of a slain governor of "hate speech".

From One India, ISIS warns Muslims against celebrating New Year's.

From the Chicago Sun-Times, why can't parents have school choice?

From Fox5 San Diego, 17 things to look forward to in 2017.

From TribLive, Pennsylvanians go for a swim.

And from WGN, at today's Bears-Vikings game, teh stoopid shows up.

Happy New Year 2017

To all who read this blog, and to those who might just stumble across it: