Links For Cesar Chavez Day

Today is Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday in California.  It is, as you might expect, the anniversary of the man's birth, which actually occurred in Arizona.  Known for founding the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) and sometimes called a civil rights activist, there one other thing about him that I learned a few years ago that bears repeating.  It is the subject of the first of the articles linked below.

From National Review, Cesar Chavez was no fan of illegal immigration.

From FrontpageMag, here comes the ICE-man.

From ABC News, there's still no peace deal for Syria.

From The Local DE, Germany's Foreign Minister thinks that a NATO defense spending goal pushed by the United States is "completely unrealistic".

From Politico, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson garners applause in his NATO debut.

From MLive, protesters target a Planned Parenthood facility in which a woman allegedly died from a botched abortion.  (via LifeNews)

From the New York Post and the "Why am I not surprised?" Department, President Trump's former rival doesn't like his proposed budget cuts.

From The Daily Caller, "new evidence" suggests that a corporation illegally funneled money to the re-election campaign of a West Virginia judge.

From the Washington Examiner, the Freedom Caucus state what they want when it comes to repealing Obamacare.

From The Washington Free Beacon, more on the subject of my other post earlier today.

From The Washington Times, this year there will be less wheat and more soybeans.

From KTLA, in Arkansas, plans to carry out executions face an unusual technical difficulty.

From the Express, the Pound gains against the Euro and Spain talks about taking back Gibraltar.

From The Two-Way, Japan makes Captain Ahab proud.

From Gateway Pundit, someone got a lot of rubles, and it's not Trump or a member of his campaign.

From the Daily Mail, a story about three college students charged with prostitution, in which one picture shows someone who looks vaguely familiar.

From CNN, more older people are drinking.

And from Jacksonville(dot)com, someone I once watched play football for Virginia Tech is now an award-winning policeman.

Some Pence For My Thoughts

Vice President Mike Pence (R-IN) has recently drawn quite a bit of media reaction for his statement that he will not dine alone with a woman who is not his wife.  For example, People discusses some "internet reactions" and Adequate Man asks, "What does Mike Pence think happens at restaurants?"  It's interesting that the same people, generally speaking, who accuse President Trump of disrespect for women, based on his 12-year-old comment about grabbing a certain place, also fault Pence for his way of showing respect for his wife.  (I would add that Pence's policy of avoiding the appearance of wrongdoing can also be regarded as an act of respecting women in general.)

This little kerfluffle reminds me of an episode in which a man dining alone with a woman who's not his wife was regarded as a rather serious faux pas.  In 1989, President George Bush the Elder nominated a former Senator named John Tower (R-TX) to be his Secretary of Defense.  The nomination was rejected by the Senate, in part due to allegations of drinking and womanizing by the nominee.  Back then, it seems, socializing with women you're married to was seen as a negative.  An article entitled "John Tower's Rocky Road", appearing in the Los Angeles Times, contains this paragraph:

Jan. 31--Conservative activist Paul Weyrich testifies that on a number of occasions he has seen Tower drunk and socializing with women who were not his wife. He questions whether Tower has the "moral character" for a high Cabinet post.

The Chicago Tribune provides some context to the rejection of former Senator Tower.  There had been some scandals in the then-recent past, causing some Senators to be believe that having a man of flawed character at the top of the Defense Department could lead to even more troubles for the federal government.

In Mexico City, Watch Where You Sit

The people in charge of the Mexico City Metro have come up with an innovative - and bizarre - way to admonish riders against sexual assault.  They have installed some seats that are, shall we say, very masculine - so masculine as to include the defining member.  Only men are allowed to sit there, as indicated by a sign which says, "Exclusivo para hombres".  (Yes, the word "hombres" is in bold.)

Someone posted a picture relating to this story on Twitter, but without any link, but I was able to find some corroboration.  Read more at AdWeek, the Daily Mail, Louder With Crowder and Your Tango.

A Sasquatch's Dozen

Twelve stories which I've run across this morning:

From the Independent, one body part deserves its own museum.

From TribLive, Pennsylvania wants photos for the Wall Of Faces.

From Breitbart Texas, illegal aliens are getting more aggressive.

From LifeNews, a horrifying admission.

From ABC News, your college's commencement could have a musical guest.

From WJLA, near the Capitol, a woman is in custody after ramming a police car.

From Neos Kosmos, guns and ammo are found in a house of worship.

From the Toronto Sun, ISIS supporters work at Canadian airport.  (via Jihadwatch)

From FrontpageMag, sanctuary city officials appear set to keep defying immigration law.

From Politico, Secretary of State Tillerson tells NATO to "show Trump the money".

From The Local DE, in Berlin, Muslims remove their children from a nursery school which has a gay employee.  (via the Geller Report)

And from The Two-Way, Westinghouse files for bankruptcy.  (Full disclosure:  My father worked for Westinghouse, and was laid off when I was a teenager.)

Did Chuck Loose His Cool?

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) reportedly recently caused a scene at a New York restaurant in which he mouthed off to a woman named Hilary, because she had voted for the major candidate whose name does not resemble her own.  She and her husband, Joseph Califano Jr. (who had been President Carter's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, back when those things were all within a single department) were dining at Sette Mezzo in Manhattan, when the senator allegedly made a scene, yelling, "She voted for Trump".  He then continued his tirade while following the Califanos out the door.  Some witnesses, on the other hand, claim that the conversation was pleasant, and that Hilary's voting for Trump was merely a joke made by her husband.

Read the full story at Page Six, which is a section of the New York Post.  When looking for other sources for this story, all that I've found refer back to Page Six, but I will also link the article from the Daily Mail, because it has some good pictures.

Various And Sundry

As the work week starts off, here's some things in the news:

That's not a golf ball, it's a hail stone.

What happens in a dismemberment abortion?

In an not-too-unexpected development, tourists abandon London.

Meanwhile in the Netherlands, someone doesn't want a new mosque.

But in Iowa, residents welcome the new mosque.

AG Sessions: Comply with the law.

My Pennsylvanian coal mining ancestors wouldn't like this idea.

Daniel Greenfield:  Here's what the left wants.

60 votes?  Not so fast, Chuck.

This quarterback has a Bear in his family tree.

In Pakistan, a man changes his religion, with the government's permission.

In Australia, one imam would not allow such conversion.

In England, an imam keeps his job after admitting slapping children.

An Indonesian man heads home after serving 6 months in a Saudi jail.

The Soviet Union's plan to attack NATO.

A woman is accused of "mansplaining".

My response to this claim would start with "Hey Joe".

"Earth-like waves" are found in the Sun's atmosphere.

The Trump stock rally stumbles.

Judge Gorsuch will have to wait a while.

And to finish, if you don't want a cat or a dog, try one of these.

Some Sense On The Westminster Attack

While running down my Twitter stream, I found a Tweet referring to an article in National Review by Andrew McCarthy, in which he opines on Islam, Muslims, and the recent attack on Westminster Bridge and near Parliament.  He opens with an interesting observation.

It was a careful choice of words, Bernard Lewis being nothing if not careful.  In 2004, the West audibly gasped when its preeminent scholar of Islam famously told the German newspaper Die Welt, “Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century,” if not sooner. 

Listen carefully.  He did not say that Muslims will be the majority population in what is still recognizably Europe. No, Professor Lewis said “Europe will be Islamic.”  [italics as in original]

The state of affairs Lewis predicted for Europe was true of the Middle East about 900 years ago when the Crusades were launched.  If my sense of history is correct, the areas invaded by the Crusaders had a Christian majority population at that time, even while being under Islamic rule.  In other words, such an arrangement in Europe is not only foreseeable, but has a historical precedent.  McCarthy also observes, with respect to "Western political and opinion elites":

They cannot help but project onto Islamic beliefs and practices their own progressive pieties - which take seriously neither religion nor the notion that there is any civilization but their own.

I have long held the opinion that in reality, Islam is similar to, but in some ways worse than, what the left accuses conservatism of being.  For example, Islam's attitudes toward women and gays are not only opposite to those of the Western left, but by any standard of proportionality, are also clearly harsher than those of the Western right.  But enough of my $0.02, read the full story.

Another Car Collides With Pedestrians In London

Earlier tonight in the Islington area of London, four people were injured when a car plowed into them.  After the collision, two men got out of the car and fled on foot.  One man was arrested soon afterward.  One knife was found in the car, and another on the pavement nearby.  Police are saying that this event is not terrorism.

In view of what happened earlier this week on Westminster Bridge, I'd say that this incident being a copycat crime shouldn't yet be ruled out.

Read more at the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Sun and the Mirror.  (The Daily Mail reports three people injured, the other links say four.)

Friday Links

Some things going on, as the weekend approaches:

From ZeroHedge, get a grip, everyone.

From FrontpageMag, if you support illegal immigration, register as a foreign agent.

From Fox Business, Keystone XL gets a presidential permit.

From InfoWars, double standards, anyone?

From Fox10, in Alabama, fewer spring breakers are getting arrested.

From CNET, the creators of the movie Life wanted to make their alien "as scientifically accurate as possible".

From The Corner at National Review, which is it, Chuck?

From AhlulBayt News Agency, a Canadian attempting to join ISIS is arrested in Turkey.

From Sky News, more on the London terrorist.

From the Independent, the face of the London terrorist.  (Like the man incorrectly identified as the attacker, he doesn't look "Asian" in any sense that I'm familiar with.)

From ANSA, this weekend, do not fly anything over Rome.

From Gatestone Institute, the West should stop siding with criminals.

From The Pickering Post, some historical perspective on Mohammed.

From Fox News, 29 Mexican prisoners tunnel their way out.

From Townhall, President Trump is right to want Big Bird's head on a platter.

From LifeNews, the House Rules Committee votes to defund Planned Parenthood.

From The Daily Caller, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin says that the Trump administration is ready for tax reform.

And from Road Show, a billboard that purifies the air around it.

London Terrorist Named

The name of the terrorist who carried out yesterday's attack in London has been released, along with the names of the three people he killed.  The perpetrator was Khalid Masood, who was born in the county of Kent, and who had a previous criminal record.  The victims were Kurt Cochran, an American from Utah who was celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary, Aysha Frade, a teacher in London who had relatives in Spain, and police officer Keith Palmer, who was stabbed before his fellow officers shot the attacker.  Cochran's wife was injured and hospitalized.

Read more at The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Irish Times and ABC News.

UPDATE:  The links now indicate that a fourth victim has died, but have not stated his name.  He was a 75-year-old man.

Car-And-Knife Terrorism In London

Today in London, two people were reportedly killed and about a dozen others injured when a car plowed into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge and a policeman was stabbed near the Parliament building by an attacker who was then shot by other police.  Metropolitan Police are calling the attack a "terrorist incident".  The man with a knife had reportedly been seen leaving the car, and is described as "Asian", which in the United Kingdom often refers to people from the Indian subcontinent.

Whether the alleged knife attacker was the car's driver or a passenger has not been reported.  If he was the driver, this incident would be very similar to what happened on the Ohio State University campus, where a man ran into people with his car and then continued his attack with a knife, before he was shot by a cop.

Read more at The Telegraph, the Mirror, BBC News, the Independent and The New York Times.

UPDATE:  Some of the linked articles now report four dead and about 20 injured, and that a single assailant both drove the car and stabbed a policeman.

UPDATE 2:  A member of Parliament tried to help the policeman who had been stabbed.  The MP had lost his own brother in the Bali bombing 2002, as reported by the Express.

UPDATE 3:  The attacker, who has died, was identified by several media outlets as Abu Izzadeen, a member of a Muslim organization which has been banned for "glorification of terror".  This identification turned out to be erroneous, because Izzadeen, once known as Trevor Brooks, is currently in jail.  He appears to be of African descent.  Read more at AOL News and Jihad Watch.

Links For Spring

As the Spring Solstice arrives, here are some things going on:

It's going to be warm and wet.

In Berlin, a man on a bike attacks women.

Tom Brady's stolen jerseys have been found.

But the question remains.  Who stole them?

Libya will help stop the migration - for a price.

Women's weightlifting is dominated by one of the Caitlyn type.

A teenager and teacher, before going missing, were allegedly seen kissing.

Watch out, world.  Here comes another Trump.

The president keeps on Tweeting.

Young ladies, some definitions, please.

Could the Trump Tower have been under surveillance, but without wiretapping?

Judge Gorsuch speaks before his confirmation hearing.

Gorsuch has some defenders.  (via here)

His main backer will stay out of the fray.

Of course, Democrats lose their minds over one quote.

Senator Feinstein says you can't change a "super-precedent".

According to one critic, the kung fu in Iron Fist isn't very good.

The European Parliament passes more gun control laws.

A "sanctuary county" releases more illegal aliens.

One critic of sanctuary policies wants their perpetrators prosecuted.

In Indonesia, masked enforcers carry out sharia punishments.

Here's yet one more "end of the world" prediction....well, sort of.

The Bixby voice assistant will soon be available on all Samsung devices.

Energy and bank stocks are going lower.

The former #1 golfer thinks he can come back.

And last but not least, five traditions for the start of spring.

Chuck Berry 1926-2017

Chuck Berry, one of the pioneers of rock and roll music, died at his home in St. Charles, Missouri today at the age of 90.  Police and medical personnel arrived at his home, but were unable to revive him.  The cause of his death, as far as I know, has not yet been reported.

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born in St. Louis to a middle class black family.  His father Henry was a contractor and a Baptist deacon, while his mother Martha was a school principal.  While in high school, he was convicted of armed robbery, which resulted in his being sent to a reformatory until he turned 21.  He got married and worked in two automobile assembly factories and as a janitor, and eventually starting performing with some local bands in order to earn extra income.

In 1955, Berry signed with Chess Records, thus starting his long recording career.  He produced a series of hit records through the end of the 1950's, and opened a nightclub in St. Louis.  An arrest for transporting a teenage girl across state lines resulted in a 18-month prison term in 1962 and 1963, after which he resumed his music career.  In 1972, he released his only #1 single, My Ding-A-Ling, written by Dave Bartholomew.  He would afterwards record music less frequently, but numerous bands would cover many of his songs.  He continued performing up to 100 gigs per year, often getting paid in cash, which led to a conviction for under-reporting his income, resulting in a 4-month prison term in 1979.

Chuck Berry's contributions to early rock and roll, and his influence on musicians who came after him, can never be overstated.  According to John Lennon, who sang the lead vocal on the Beatles' cover of Berry's Rock And Roll Music, "if you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'."  Ted Nugent once said, "If you don't know every Chuck Berry lick, you can't play rock guitar."

Read more at Billboard, Variety, Rolling Stone, Ultimate Classic Rock and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Some More Saturday Links

As the last weekend of the winter gets underway, and Stella's snow continues to melt, here are some things, other than the incident at Orly airport, going on out there:

From Fox News, and speaking of Stella and airports, her remaining snow delayed the arrival of an airplane at LaGuardia.

From the Associated Press, it shall be built bigly.

From KTLA, please show us your designs for it.

From Gatestone Institute, a month in France.

From the Daily News, Kellyanne Conway gets a tasty new name.

From The Daily Caller, the House shows some respect to our veterans - and the Second Amendment.

From TribLive, Indiana troopers get their man.

From WorldNetDaily, some countries won't take back illegal aliens.

From Mediaite, attorney Alan Dershowitz discusses the court order against President Trump's three-month pause.

From The Washington Times, a college scholarship fund is reactivated.

From The Times Of India, an atheist gets hacked to death.

From Sputnik International, Germany uses software that can recognize a refugee's dialect.

From AL(dot)com, the FBI wants to bring 4,000 jobs to Alabama.

From AhlulBayt News Agency, Jerusalem gets its tallest minaret.

From National Review, the G-File, with links of its own, written by Jonah Goldberg while in Alaska.  (If you want to know why he's up there, read the article.)

From Philly(dot)com, residents on a street in Fishtown are still inconvenienced by a water-main break.

From Legal Insurrection, both sides of the media aisle debunk the hysteria over proposed cuts to Meals On Wheels.

From ABC News, Meanwhile, Meals On Wheels, sees greatly increased private donations.  In other words, it moves toward being a real charity.

There is another breaking story of which I've just learned, but it's something that I believe deserves a post unto itself.  Stay tuned.....and pull out a musical instrument.

French Muslim Dies Attempting Airport Attack

Earlier today at the Orly airport near Paris, a man described as a "radicalised Muslim" was fatally shot after he tried to take a soldier's rifle.  The suspect, identified as Ziyed Ben Belgacem, had previously shot at police during a traffic check in Stains, a northern suburb of Paris, and had reportedly stolen a car by which he then traveled to the airport.  He already had a police record and was known to both police and intelligence agencies.  In response to the shooting, police have started a terror investigation.

Read more at The Local FR, the Metro, the Independent, Reuters and the Evening Standard.

Si vous lisez français, lisez plus à Espace Manager, Turess and JeanMarcMorandini(dot)com.

Judicial Overreach And Other Stories

Late last night, a federal judge in Hawaii stayed President Trump's revised Executive Order temporarily suspending travel into the United States from six countries.  (The original EO included seven countries.  Iraq has been removed.)  Earlier today, a judge in Maryland made a similar ruling.  Naturally, various people and websites on the right quickly published their reactions.  For example, go here, here, here, here, and here.  I would merely add that the judge's decision seems to place an inordinate amount of importance on then-candidate Trump's statements during his campaign, while downplaying the actual text of the EO and the law (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)) under which the EO was made.  This is troubling because while laws and EO's can be amended by the appropriate authorities, campaign statements, no matter how later clarified, will always stand as historical fact from when they are first uttered.  I have also noticed that, generally speaking, the attitude of the left has completely reversed from their opposition to Arizona statute SB 1070.  Back then, they regarded immigration as a federal matter, not a state matter.  Now, it appears that states can sue to undo the actions of the federal government, including the president, on immigration policy.  On the other hand, no one seemed to have a problem when Obama paused the processing of refugees from Iraq in 2011.

In related matters, some have noticed that former President Obama traveled to Hawaii a few days before the decision was handed down, and the judge and Obama graduated together at Harvard Law School.  These things are probably irrelevant, but they still make you wonder what's going on.  Meanwhile, our ambassador to the United Nations gives her opinion.

In other news:

Is it now OK to threaten the president?

Rightwing radio host Michael Savage was allegedly attacked after walking out of a restaurant.

My alma mater is reportedly planning to demolish and replace the student's center in which I had done my fair share of hanging around.

If your jewelry has been stolen, you can look for it on a website.

Some Catholics are still discussing the reason for Pope Benedict XVI's resignation.

To force down drug prices, the U.S. could use its own patent rights.

Yesterday, there was an election in the Netherlands.

Once again, dogs prove themselves to be man's best friend.

In Peru, a woman pulls herself out of a flood.

And finally, watch out for snow when a train comes in.

Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By

YouTube user Mark Dice has put out a short compilation video of CNN losing the feed while interviewing people in the middle of such things as criticizing Obamacare or Hillary Clinton, or expressing concern about refugees.  President Trump appears in two clips which run into such technical difficulties, but even Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is not immune.  If anyone thinks that Dice has deceptively edited these clips by merely cutting them off, he also includes admissions by CNN personnel that the feed has been disconnected.

You can also watch the video directly on YouTube.

Links For Pi Day

Today is 3/14, which is called "Pi Day" because it reminds people of the first three digits of what it probably the world's best known irrational number.  So I've decided to find 14 things to share.  If not any irrational number, some of these items might refer to irrational people.

From The Daily Caller, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) doesn't seem to know much about guns and silencers.

From Zero Hedge, how dare those Hungarians defend their border!

From The Two-Way, you can really catch a falling star - if you're a black hole.

From the Coventry Telegraph, a mosque leader admits stabbing a child with a pen.

From The Telegraph, a British judge sends a boy to a Muslim school, despite objections by his father.

From Arutz Sheva, in 30 British church schools, Muslim students outnumber Christians.

From BBC News, the Saudi Arabian girl's school council hides its female members.

From The Roanoke Times, Virginia Tech's basketball team returns to the NCAA tournament, and former VT quarterback Tyrod Taylor will stay with the Buffalo Bills.  It's all on one page.

From Fox News, Somali pirates hijack an oil tanker.

From The Washington Free Beacon, a lawsuit says, "Free the Obamacare documents."

From the Daily News, a NYPD officer dies of "9/11-related" cancer.

From Politico, Press Secretary Sean Spicer says that President Trump is "extremely confident" that there is evidence for his wiretapping claims.

From The Politistick, Senator Lisa Murkoski (R-AK) can't handle a CNN reporter's question.

And from ABC News, a professor describes how his children crashed his BBC interview.

Good Riddance

As usually happens when a new president and attorney general take office, the U.S. attorneys who had served in the previous administration were all asked to turn in their resignations.  An Obama holdover named Preet Bharara, however, decided not to resign and was then fired, which generated a bit of controversy.  As Glenn Reynolds points out in USA Today:

There’s been a lot of faux outrage about this decision of Trump’s, but it’s all bogus. And Bharara’s refusal to resign was childish, an effort to score anti-Trump points with Democrats that, all by itself, demonstrated why Bharara was unfit for office and why Trump was right to let him go.  [italics in original]

Reynolds continues by pointing out that there's nothing unusual about such resignation (or firing) and replacement:

It’s traditional for new administrations to request the resignation of holdovers from the previous administration. It’s considered more polite than outright firing people. But that’s all it is: politeness.

To learn more, read the full article.

Boaty McBoatface And A Brief Music Break

About 50 years ago, the Beatles sang about a "Yellow Submarine".  Today the United Kingdom is sending a real yellow submarine, which has been named Boaty McBoatface, to Antarctica for its first scientific mission.  But unlike the subject of the Beatles song or its namesake movie, there will not be any people, either real or cartoon, aboard the craft.

Read more at BBC News, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Fox News Tech and Quartz.

Play the video to hear the song.


We All Live in A Yellow Submarine by FUNKYFRANKIE

Instead of YouTube, this one comes from Dailymotion.  Click the link below the video to watch it there.

Make Baseball Great Again

During his younger days, our current president was quite the baseball player.  He was, according to his own boast, "the best baseball player in New York".  (It has been generally assumed that he meant "amateur" baseball player, since it would be extremely unlikely that a high schooler could be as good as Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, etc.)  He went into real estate because back then, baseball players didn't make all that much money.  (I know it sounds strange today, but it's true.  Trump's high school years came before MLB free agency and skyrocketing salaries.  I myself am old enough to remember the highest salaries consisting of only six figures.)

While "best in New York" is most likely a stretch, the Donald might have been pretty good, because both the Phillies and the Red Sox scouted him.  In the latter case, had he been good enough to make the major league roster, he would have become a New York kid playing in Boston, and probably seen as a traitor to his home town, and subject to quite a bit of disdain.  But I guess he doesn't have to worry about disdain, does he?  Oh, wait....never mind.

Read more at Complex Sports, 12UP and SportsGrid.

Some Random Stories

Here are a few things I've across that are not necessary current, but might be interesting anyway:

How, exactly, does a man gird up his loins?

You can eat like a Super Bowl MVP.

A well-known French lady will soon get a facelift.

A U.S. Attorney takes one last shot after being told "You're fired".

My response to this request would be something like palić w piekle.

Out with the PED's, in with the painkillers.

Some old basketball coaches never change.

Al Gore's invention is in peril.

Armenia enables halal certification.

Here's one reason to support the wall.

Here's a pro-amnesty Republican.  Well, partial amnesty, anyway.

Swedish Muslims fighting for ISIS collect welfare.

In Sweden, foreign rapists are rarely deported.

British imams are encouraged to preach in English.

One man can't tell an Arab from an Indian.

New York might get rid of a literacy test - for teachers.

Weird sleep schedules can affect our mental health.

Two U.K. preachers have been punished for reciting the Bible in public.

A Jordanian soldier who killed 7 Israeli girls in 1997 is released from prison.

Should we take in refugees from this place?

The British Secretary of State tells Parliament to not delay Brexit.

The Russian ambassador allegedly met with the campaigns of both Clinton and Trump.

And to finish, Trump demonstrates her golf swing.  (Yes, I said "her".)

Man Scales White House Fence

Last night, a man from California scaled the White House fence, and was soon afterwards arrested by the Secret Service.  The man was carrying a backpack, which was searched and found to be free of any dangerous materials.

I vaguely recall several intrusions into the White House grounds during the last few years, including one involving a drone.  The reigns of power have changed, but teh stoopid is still going strong.

Read more at The Washington Post, ABC News, NBC News, The Guardian and Reuters.

Friday Links

As the weekend and a cold front approach, here are some things in the news:

From The Washington Post, first year medical doctors will soon be allowed to work 24-hour shifts.

From ABC News, due to job growth, we might be headed for a rate hike.

From TribLive, Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is still above the national average.

From Crux, the Vatican's ambassador to Ireland is transferred to Albania.

From USA Today, you can watch as Native Americans protest the pipelines.

From the Daily News, a Jewish senior center in New York receives a bomb threat.

From NPR, an "oral history project" seeks to remember military dolphins.

From Twitchy, a feminist accidentally endorses the GOP on health care.

From KTLA, a Canadian judge resigns over comments he made during a rape trial.

From Fox News, increases in the minimum wage have led to some unintended consequences.

From the New York Post, Iraqi troops continue to pound ISIS near Mosul.

From The Daily Caller, the House passes two tort reform bills.

From CNN, how to drink wine without removing the cork from the bottle, and a 3000-year-old statue has been found in Cairo.

From FrontpageMag, President Trump's immigration policies are already working.

From National Review, the media should stop fawning over Trump's rival's daughter.

From the Daily Mail, an example of how Shariah works in Indonesia.

From STV, a fake hate crime in Scotland.

From Gatestone Institute, in Europe, jihadis live on welfare.

From The Salt Lake Tribune, another senator apparently wants to die of old age while in office.

And from Mashable, a man and his twin daughters recreate a scene from The Shining.

Five Injured In Ax Attack At German Railroad Station

Five people were reportedly injured today at the main railroad station in Düsseldorf, Germany by a man wielding an ax.  Police arrested the suspected attacker, and two other people who were "acting suspiciously", but not necessarily in connection with the attack.  Police have not reported any motive for attack.

Read more at The Local DE, Deutsche Welle, the Independent, the Evening Standard and the Express.

UPDATE:  DW now indicates that the suspect acted alone, is 36 years old, comes from the "former Yugoslavia", and lives in Wuppertal.

Links For International Women's Day

Here a few stories relating to International Women's Day, this year a.k.a. Day Without A Woman:

Participants in the women's strike pledge to "avoid spending money".

Women "around the world" skip work.  (I suspect that women who live in places where they're not allowed out of their homes without a male guardian might not have had the chance to change their normal routines.)

In one woman's opinion, it's really "a day without privileged women".

The Alexandria, Virginia school district took today off, but it won't help.

Here's some video footage from New York's Central Park.

The protest in Washington, DC is being led by someone who isn't a woman.

The pro-Sharia organizer of the Women's March from 1/21 has been arrested.

The "women's strike" platform calls for the destruction of the only country in the Middle East which respects women's rights.

Did any participants in today's activities show any concern for these women?

And to finish, America's one and only Slavic First Lady and her stepdaughter observe International Women's day at the White House.

Music Break

Once again, I've found a quintet of songs for your listening pleasure.  First up is Top Of The Pops, from the Blow Up album by the Smithereens, who hale from New Jersey.  At the time, the band included Pat DiNizio (lead vocals), Jim Babjak (guitar), Mike Mesaros (bass) and Dennis Diken (drums).  Mesaros was later replaced on bass by Severo Jornacion.  (H/T RZ for playing this one on his BTR show.)  The video was shot in Atlantic City, NJ.

London Bridge Area Evacuated

In London earlier today, the London Bridge and the adjacent railroad and bus stations were evacuated, due to a car with broken windows being abandoned in the vicinity.  The car had reportedly been stolen.  Police have given the "all-clear".

Read more at the Evening Standard, The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Independent and Russia Today.

Trump Tries Again

As expected, President Trump has issued an executive order revising a temporary ban on travel from six countries, this time excluding Iraq.  The order will not affect people who already have visas or green cards, and will last for 90 days, starting on March 16.  It also does not distinguish between different religious groups.

Read more at The New York Times, BBC News, The Times Of India, The Hill and The Daily Signal.  Currently, 300 refugees in the United States are under FBI investigation for possible terrorism, according to Fox News.  This order, like the original one, is based on this law:

Sunday Links

As the new week starts, here are some things going on:

From USA Today, Vice President Pence (R-IN) jokes about his own email controversy.

From Legal Insurrection, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del) walks back his earlier accusations.

From Politico, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) says that there's no evidence of the Obama administration wiretapping then-candidate Donald Trump.

From Bizpac Review, pundit Mark Levin sets forth his case about the alleged wiretapping.

From Twitchy, a reminder of how President Obama targeted political enemies.

From Fox News Tech, filing taxes online and other questions.

From Business Insider, suburbia is dying.

From The Globe And Mail, Austria tells migrants to get out.

From AhlulBayt News Agency, while meeting with a delegation from Azerbaijan, the Iranian president attributes terrorism to Wahhabism and Salafism.

From National Review, a discussion of "fake hate crimes".

From Reuters, one of yesterday's pro-Trump rallies was marred by violence.

From the Daily Mail, in five years, terrorism in Britain has "trebled".  (In this case, "trebled" is not a musical term.)

From the Sunday Express, an SAS unit saves 12 children from ISIS, and more on terrorism in Britain.

From Gatestone Institute, France is in a "death spiral".

From Breitbart's Big Government, Senator Lindsey Graham (RINO-SC) proposes a new requirement for presidential candidates, which if passed probably wouldn't withstand a court challenge.

From Breitbart London, a Somali asylum seeker goes on trial for alleged sexual assault.

From The Daily Caller, you can now buy Les Déplorables wine.

From The Two-Way, more than 100 people in Somalia have died of hunger.

From AP News, Pope Francis gives out a price of advice with which I can definitely agree.

From the Daily News, "10 things you need to know" about the NFL combine.

From CNN, a Russian lawmaker wants his country to ban Disney's remake of Beauty and the Beast.

From ABC News, the march that sparked "bloody Sunday" will be re-enacted.

And from Time, Saturday Night Live satirizes Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Turkeys Circumambulate Dead Cat

In Randolph, Massachusetts, a group of about 15 wild turkeys were videoed walking in a circle around, of all things, a dead cat.  Why they were doing this has aroused some speculation.  But then, for those of us who went a college whose mascot is a modified turkey, this event is especially amusing.  Or maybe this is the 102nd use for a dead cat.

Read more at Philly(dot)com, The Verge and Russia Today.  And of course, you can also watch the video on YouTube.

UPDATE:  The video that I originally included is now unavailable, but fortunately, there were other versions on YouTube.  I have modified the link and embed accordingly.

Anti-Jewish Bomb Threat Maker Arrested

A St. Louis man has been arrested for making bomb threats to at least eight Jewish community centers, either by phone or by email.  In making these threats, the suspect, Juan Thompson, was allegedly trying to frame an ex-girlfriend.  Thompson was recently a reporter for The Intercept, who have released a statement on his arrest.

Read more at the New York Daily News, The New York Times, ABC News, the Riverfront Times and Fox2.

Patient Plays Guitar During Brain Surgery

You might be talented.  You might be a badass.  But are you a badass talented enough to play guitar while surgeons remove a tumor from your brain?  From the Daily Mail:

This is the astonishing moment a patient serenaded surgeons with his guitar while he had his brain tumour removed.

Rolden Batista, 40, was handed his instrument in the middle of a complex operation to remove a heart-shaped growth.

And to the relief of the Brazilian surgeons conducting the procedure, he played out a popular local song.

The "astonishing moment" is shown in a video.  Read the full story.

Even More Stuff

Some things in the news during the last day or so:

The GOP can't figure how to proceed on questions about AG Sessions.

No, Sessions did not commit perjury.

The Sessions controversy is a "witch-hunt", according to one opinion writer.

Sessions's predecessor did not recuse herself from the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails.

Sessions will recuse himself for investigations about the Trump campaign.

Former President Bush the Younger explains his earlier comments about freedom of the press.

Will President Trump help endangered Christians?

Here's one reason why the wall should be built.

When Dylan sang "everybody must get stoned", I don't think this is what he meant.

Syria retakes Palmyra.

How Israel deals with illegal immigration.

Fake black person gives herself a new name.

Turkish opposition figure is accused of using "spells and genies".

Video shows a jihadi scouting the Antwerp, Belgium railroad station.

Women get attacked with acid - in Berlin.

Rick Perry and Ben Carson are confirmed.

Will another very rich TV personality run for president?

And finish, I say, "Good dog"!

Illegal Alien Speaks Out, Gets Detained

Via The Daily Caller, from The Clarion-Ledger:

Moments after an immigrant spoke out about her fears of deportation, she was detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Daniela Vargas, 22, was detained by ICE agents Wednesday morning, shortly after speaking at a news conference in downtown Jackson, according to her attorney, Abby Peterson.

Vargas was just 7 years old when she entered the United States, and thus qualifies for DACA, but has to reapply every two years.  Her current reapplication is "pending".  She is reportedly classified as a "visa overstay", which if correct would make her an illegal alien, although TC-L never uses that term.  Read the full story.