Reaction To The SOTU, And Other Stories

First up, a bit of reaction to President Trump's first State of the Union address:

From National Review, "the fever of partisan hatred might be breaking".

From FrontpageMag, Trump's speech is divisive, but not in the way Democrats believe.

From Townhall, the DNC was trying to bury something during the SOTU.

From Politico, the president gave a rather conventional speech.  (via HotAir)

From CBS News, most Americans approve of the president's speech.

And from Red State, by their behavior at the SOTU, Democrats got some Republicans elected.

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Some other things going on include:

From Voice Of Europe, a German candy advertisement goes into sharia mode.

From the Express, the real reason Angela Merkel opened the borders.  (via Voice Of Europe)

From Deutsche Welle, the E.U. promises €42.5 million to the Palestinians for "state-building efforts".  (How much of that money will really go to "state-building", and how much will go into rockets aimed at Israeli civilian areas is anybody's guess.)

From Reuters, German police arrest three in connection with alleged human trafficking.

From The Telegraph, an Oxford professor is detained in Paris over accusations of rape.

From Total Croatia News, Croatian police denied asylum for Syrians who were later taken to Montenegro.

From Flanders News, the Belgian and Russian prime ministers meet in Moscow.

From The Local AT, Austria's chancellor meets with Hungary's prime minister.

From The Local SE, the chief of Sweden's national police has resigned.

From the NL Times, the Netherlands prepares for a nuclear disaster.

From The Daily Wire, the NFL's commissioner defends the league's decision against running an ad from AMVETS during the Super Bowl.  (H/T Tapp into the Truth for the Tweet)

From the Washington Examiner, the FBI claims to have "grave concerns" about the accuracy of the Nunes memo.

From CNN, Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC) will not seek reelection this year.

From ABC News, a train carrying members of Congress collides with a truck in Virginia.

From the Daily News, a Jewish boy in France is beaten for wearing a kippa.

From Jewish News Syndicate, the U.S. State Department designates the leader of Hamas and two others as "specially designated global terrorists".

From Al Arabiya, an Iranian-American dual citizen and his wife are sentenced to long prison terms.

From DNA, Indian authorities arrest nine people over an alleged plot to sell a woman to ISIS.

From The Blast, the brother of a former president goes briefly to jail for DUI.  (via The Daily Caller)

And from the New York Post, Ferry McFerryface gets a new name.

Links Before SOTU And The Lunar Eclipse

On the second last day of the month, and the eve of the Super Blue Blood Moon, and the day of the State of the Union address, here are some things going on:

From Space(dot)com, how to see the lunar eclipse.

From BBC News, Ireland will hold a referendum on abortion.  (via LifeNews)

From The Daily Wire, The New York Times defends U.S. Ambassador the U.N. Nikki Haley.

From WSOC, cops seize 65 pounds of marijuana from the home of a police dispatcher.  (via the New York Post)

From the Washington Examiner, one congresscritter wants any illegal aliens who attend the SOTU to walk out in handcuffs.

From Voice Of Europe, "Merkel has lost control".

From the Express, France's budget minister is ask to resign after being accused of rape.

From Reuters, a group of migrants is rescued by an Italian fishing boat and taken to Montenegro.

From NL Times, a diabetic man who drove into a crowd of pedestrians in Amsterdam won't be prosecuted.

From EuroNews, will Belgium get tougher on migrants?

From Euractiv, some Belgians say "no".

From Sputnik International, according to a British professor of politics says that European law will become U.K. law.

From Defend Europa, the head of Italy's Lega party promises to deport illegal aliens.

From the Daily Mail, an Uzbek who unsuccessfully sought asylum in Sweden took a picture just before he struck pedestrians with a stolen truck.

From Middle East Monitor, Spain calls for E.U. help anticipating more illegal migrants.

From FrontpageMag, some differences between past and present immigration.

From AhlulBayt News Agency, Syrian fighters fire warning shots at Turkish troops.

From National Review, five things President Trump should say in tonight's SOTU.

From Fox News, some prototypes for the border wall are testing very well.  (via HotAir)

From TechSideline, Virginia Tech football coach gets a new contract.

And from Blabbermouth, guitarist Phil Collen says it's "a bit weird" that Def Leppard is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Monday Links

I've taken a day off from blogging.  Now that I'm back, here are some things going on:

From the New York Post, Ambassador Nikki Haley gives her opinion of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's cameo appearance at the Grammy Awards.  (Like yours truly, Ms. Haley does not appear to be a fan of the former Secretary of State.)

From National Review, another opinion of Hillary Clinton's Grammy appearance.

From CBS News, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe has resigned.

From Cleveland(dot)com, after this coming season, the Cleveland Indians will retire their Chief Wahoo logo.

From Politico, contenders for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination start to collide.

From Townhall, for their role in the recent (and short-lived) shutdown, Democrats feel the Bern.

From Fox News, a professor claims that Americans who practice yoga "contribute to white supremacy".  (By that "logic", I should stop eating Indian food.)

From Breitbart's National Security, in Colombia, FARC terrorists bomb a police station.

From CNS News, noted defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz would not have campaigned for then-Senator Barack Obama if he had seen the photograph of Obama with noted Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan.

From the Express, French police arrest 17 suspected immigrant smugglers.  (I've written it before, and I will write it again.  The "migrants" going into Europe are not simply migrating.  They are being trafficked.)

From ABC News, according to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, Syria is not yet ready for a return of their refugees.  (It would be interesting to learn what his powers and duties are, in comparison to those of Chancellor Merkel.)

From Voice Of Europe, the Dutch deport a man born in the Netherlands to the United States.  (If you read Dutch, read the story at RTL Nieuws.)

From WestMonster, the Czech prime minister trolls the head of the European commission.

From The Local FR, France will investigate the recent incident over Nutella.

From the NL Times, campaigners for the Forum voor Democratie party are attacked while handing out leaflets.

From Russia Today, Germany will no longer take asylum seekers from Italy and Greece.

From Deutsche Welle, "migrant relocations from Italy and Greece" are "drawing to a close".

From El País, former Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont could re-take his position, emphasis on the word "could".

From Flanders News, the Belgian home minister has created a plan to deal with migrants travelling through Belgium to the United Kingdom.  (Or more precisely, migrants being trafficked through Belgium.)

From Reuters, German Chancellor Merkel and the SPD are still having difficulty forming a coalition.

From The Straits Times, Muslims in Singapore raise concerns about children's books imported from Saudi Arabia.

From UCA News, Indonesia's House speaker wants all gay sexual acts to be illegal.  (I won't hold my breath waiting for LGBT advocates, who call Christian opposition to gay marriage "hate", to denounce the speaker's proposal.)

From FrontpageMag, whatever you think of Megyn Kelly, she's right about Jane Fonda.

From the Daily Mail, a man wearing an oxygen cylinder is killed when he is dragged into an MRI machine.

And from Boston(dot)com, although it won't be seen from much of the United States, this coming Wednesday there will be a super blue blood moon.

Holocaust Remembrance Day, And Today

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we commemorate one of history's most insidious atrocities, the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of other victims by Nazi Germany during World War II, in places known as concentration camps.  Gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals, and people called "anti-social" (today known as "homeless") were also put into the camps.  From what I understand, however, the first group so imprisoned were political dissidents.  In other words, people who said things that the government didn't want to hear.  It's something to think about for anyone who wants to limit the scope of public discourse.

Today, there are people who deny that the Holocaust happened.  I'll be happy to show them my pictures of the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps, located near Oświęcim, Poland, which I visited in 2000.  Although these and other camps were built in Poland, please do not refer to them as being "Polish".  Ja jestem polski także.  (I'm Polish, too.)
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Some things going on today include:

From the Olean Times Herald, an illegal alien gets a three-year sentence for sexual assault against a teenage victim.  He had previously been arrested after overstaying his work visa, but had been released.  (via Illegal Alien Crime Report)

From Voice Of Europe, a march against violence by migrants toward women will be held tomorrow in Germany.  (In other words, it will be, as VOE puts it, the "real Women's March".)

From Gatestone Institute, a report on "the Islamization of Germany in 2017:  Part II".

From Russia Today, the improved Russian economy under President Putin.  (Can a Russian source such as RT be trusted to cover Putin without any bias?)

From Radio Praha, Czech President Miloš Zeman wins reelection.  (via Voice Of Europe)

From the Express, Slovenia fines Croatian fisherman for fishing in disputed waters.

From Sputnik International, thousands of Kurds in Europe protest Turkey's invasion of Syria's Afrin region.

From Radio Poland, the four Visegrad countries discuss immigration and economy in Budapest.

From The Spectator, the new battle for Europe is between east and west.

From The Local FR, the Seine is expected to reach flood level in Paris.

From Breitbart London, five takeaways from George Soros's speech at Davos.

From National Review, a reaction to President Trump's speech at Davos.

From Red State, a little perspective on Trump being "divinely appointed".

From Townhall, Senator Schumer (D-NY) sounds like former Speaker Pelosi (D-Cal) when it comes to tax cuts.

From the New York Post, a teenage pregnant Christian escapes from Boko Haram.  (In my not-so-humble opinion, this a woman worth marching for.)

From Westword, one reader says "Marilyn Manson is as scary as the Easter Bunny".

And from Buzz(dot)ie, the sequel to The Shining will be creepy and weird, just like the original.

Lynyrd Skynyrd To Call It Quits

Lynyrd Skynyrd, the legendary southern rock band, has decided to put on a farewell tour and afterwards call it a career.   They first rose to prominence in the mid-1970's with songs such as Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird.  For their first two albums, their lineup included lead singer Ronnie van Zant, guitarists Allen Collins, Gary Rossington and Ed King (formerly of Strawberry Alarm Clock), keyboard player Billy Powell, bassist Leon Wilkeson, and drummer Bob Burns.  Later, Burns left and was replaced by Artimus Pyle.  King also quit, leaving the band with two guitarists, but was later replaced by Steve Gaines, whose older sister Cassie had already become one of the Honkettes, a trio of female backing vocalists, the other two being Leslie Hawkins and JoJo Billingsley.  In 1977, the plane on which they (other than Billingsley) were flying to Louisiana crashed into a forest, killing van Zant, both Gaines siblings, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and the plane's two pilots.

For ten years, Lynyrd Skynyrd was put on hiatus, with some of the survivors taking part in other musical projects.  One of the most notable was the Rossington Collins band, which included Rossington, Collins, Powell and Wilkeson, along with drummer Derek Hess, guitarist Barry Harwood, and a female singer named Dale Krantz.  In 1987, the band was revived by Rossington, Powell, Wilkeson and Pyle, who brought back former guitarist King, and tapped Johnny van Zant, Ronnie's younger brother, to be the lead singer.  Collins was unable to participate due to paralysis caused by a car accident, and chose Randall Hall to be his replacement.  Since the revival, the band has had numerous personnel changes, and has endured the deaths of Powell, Wilkeson, and Ian Evans, who replaced Wilkeson.  Krantz later married Rossington, and is currently one of two backup singers for the band.  Today, of the pre-crash members, only Rossington is still in Lynyrd Skynyrd, while only he, King and Pyle are still alive.

Read more at The Florida Times-Union, Mass Live, Big Frog 104 and Live For Live Music.

Friday Links

It will soon be the last weekend of the first month of this year.  As it approaches, here are some things going on (with some of my own commentary):

From The Washington Times, the crime rate of illegal aliens in Arizona is twice that of the native population.

From The Daily Caller, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insists that bonuses resulting from the recent tax cuts are crumbs.

From the California Political Review, the IRS can easily block California Democrats' plan to increase tax deductions.  (H/T luchadora for the Tweet)

From Behind The News, a Boko Haram terrorist is arrested in Germany.  (All those people who insist that the migrants entering Europe are not dangerous might wish to reconsider.  Again, the H/T goes to lunchadora for the Tweet.)

From the Independent, food from the Western Midlands of England is found in an ISIS-controlled part of Syria.

From PC Games, how the game Minecraft helped save Poland's Białowieża forest.

From the Tampa Bay Times, lawmakers in Utah advance a bill to prevent abortions based on Down syndrome.  (via LifeNews)

From The Verge, ICE will start tracking license plates.

From Fox News, the Voynich manuscript is being deciphered.

From CNS News, a Catholic archbishop calls for a "ceremony to bless homosexual couples".

From Voice Of Europe, there are now seven anti-immigration countries in the E.U.  (Perhaps a better way to put it might be that seven countries in the E.U. want to decide immigration policy for themselves instead of having those policies dictated by the E.U.)

From the Express, some of its members tell the E.U. to leave Poland alone.

From Radio Poland, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki defends his country's immigration policy.  (via Voice Of Europe)

From The Local DE, a German town wants a pause in refugee arrivals.  (via the Daily Mail)

From France24, French Guiana deals with migration and drug smuggling.  (French Guiana is in South America, and is the only territory on either American continental mainland that is still politically connected to the European country which colonized it.)

From Breitbart London, some Muslim groups in the U.K. don't want a female anti-terror leader.

From the Birmingham Mail, a British teenager who wanted to be a nurse for ISIS gets a jail sentence.

From The Times Of Israel, ISIS reportedly planned a Paris-style attack for Barcelona.

From Russia Today, men in France could be fined for certain behaviors toward women.

From The Express Tribune, two human rights activists get jail sentences in Saudi Arabia.

From the Metro, drivers who stop along the road to pray could be fined in Abu Dhabi.

From The Guardian, French shoppers brawl over discounted Nutella.

From the New York Post, Michigan State's AD steps down.

From Page Six, the latest incarnation of Colonel Sanders is female (and very talented).

From Wired, how to understand microbes, by using math.

And from Digital Spy, 11 weird shows that, believe it or not, were put on TV.  (I plead guilty to having watched nos. 2, 3, and 6.)

Some Stuff For Thursday

The stuff keeps coming around, so here are some of the stuff:

From Reason, in California, unsolicited straws will be illegal.

From Fox News, the DOJ has recovered some of the missing text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

From Accuracy In Media, KFC uses a Tweet by President Trump to humorously promote its brand.

From Sputnik International, Turkey claims to have killed 300 terrorists in its operation in Syria's Afrin region.

From Breitbart London, "Mohammed" is on course to becoming the most popular baby name in Germany.  (How many Arab and Turkish babies are being named Ludwig or Johann these days?  If you read German, read more at Die Welt.)

From Voice Of Europe, a poll shows that Belgians aren't too fond of Islam.

From Deutsche Welle, a "last hope" round of peace talks starts in Vienna.

From the NL Times, a Dutch broadcaster wants to change which word they use for "white".

From Reuters, the E.U. interior ministers "clash" as they try to reform the bloc's immigration policy.

From the Express, France and Ireland clash over Brexit.

From Russia Today, a German judge removes the crucifix from his courtroom during the trial of an Afghan defendant.

From the Evening Standard, supporters of Hezbollah allegedly "run drugs on London's streets".

From Gatestone Institute, are the Stasi back?

From BBC News, an E.U. court rules against psychological tests for gay asylum seekers.

From ZeroHedge, in Sweden, young migrants roam around with Kalashnikovs.

From Flanders New, a "Little Calais" arises on the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium.

From National Review, unfinished railroad bridges could become "California's Stonehenge".

From Townhall, the demographic trend that Democrats should worry about, other than any decline in illegal immigration.

From ESPN, will there be another XFL?

From the New York Post, the doomsday clock moves closer than ever to midnight.

From Science Alert, previously unknown viruses have been found in ocean water.

From Austin360, six weird facts about avocados.  (Eat your guacamole, everyone.)

And from The Coast News Group, some "news of the weird".

Wednesday Links

Here are some things going on, other than the passing of sci-fi novelist Ursula K. Le Guin:

From the Express, according to the WHO, failing to find a sexual partner is now to be regarded as a disability.

From The Daily Caller, musician Erykah Badu finds something good about both Hitler and Bill Cosby.  (When will the Antifa movement, which calls people "nazi" and "fascist" for nothing more than having political views to the right of themselves, call Badu a "nazi"?  Will the #MeToo movement fault her for saying something positive about Cosby?  I won't hold my breath waiting for either answer.  You can read her comments at Vulture.)

From The Daily Signal, "homeschooling is not a crime".  (That's true in the United States, but not in Germany, which has banned the practice since the days of the real Nazis.)

From the Washington Examiner, the DOJ threatens to subpoena 23 jurisdictions over their sanctuary policies.

From Assyrian International News Agency, Turkey promises more action against the Syrian Kurds.

From Yeni Şafak, Pakistani students pray for a Turkish victory in Syria.

From Breitbart London, the Davos conference will include some major climate change hypocrisy.

From Voice Of Europe, the leader of Italy's Northern League party sounds like President Trump.

From the Metro, the Lancashire Council repeals its ban on halal meat in schools.

From Euronews, a member of Germany's AfD party converts to Islam.

From Russia Today, Facebook is hypocritically pretending to be concerned about democracy (op-ed).

From Ekathimerini, Greece's prime minister tells the Davos conference that his country has managed the migrant crisis with "dignity".

From The Local ES, Spanish authorities seized over twice as much cocaine in 2017 as they did the previous year.

From the NL Times, a suspected Dutch jihadist has been arrested in Turkey.

From Euractiv, Panama and seven other countries have been removed from the E.U.'s tax haven blacklist.

From Gatestone Institute, why do western LGBT activists not care about LGBT people in the Muslim world?  (In the west, people who don't support gay marriage are often accused of "hate" and "homophobia".  Where in any Muslim-majority country is gay marriage legally permitted?)

From BBC News, in Afghanistan, terrorists attack a Save the Children office.

From AhlulBayt News Agency, Palestinians go on strike to protest U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Israel.

From National Review, there is no right against being offended.

From the New York Post, a convicted sex offender gets his just desserts.

From Page Six, the TV show Dancing With The Stars is trying to recruit an Olympic gold medalist.

From SB Nation, what Herm Edwards said about college football recruiting isn't really that weird.

And from Bloody Disgusting, visiting the set of Eerie, Indiana is indeed weird.

Ursula K. Le Guin 1929-2018

This past Monday, science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin passed away at the age of 88.  Her family announced her death yesterday.  She was known for her "groundbreaking" novels and has been called "legendary".

Ursula Kroeber was born to Alfred Kroeber, an anthropologist at U.C. Berkeley, and Theodora Kracaw, a writer most noted for her accounts of Ishi, the last of the Yahi tribe.  She obtained her BA and MA in French and Italian literature, and afterwards won a Fulbright Scholarship to study in France.  While there, she met the man she would marry, historian Charles Le Guin.  After they wed, she discontinued her academic career.  They moved to the United States and had three children.

Although she started writing during her childhood, Le Guin was unable to have anything published until 1964, starting with collections of short stories.  In 1966, she published Rocannon's World, the first of the Hainish Cycle.  In 1968, she published A Wizard Of Earthsea, which started the Earthsea series.  Le Guin was influenced by anthropology, feminism, environmentalism, anarchism and Taoism, which she claimed to have practiced since she learned what it was.

Read more at Variety, CNN, The Guardian and Vulture.

During my own time in college, I read two of Le Guin's novels for a science fiction class.  As a result, I would think back to one of them whenever someone says anything about "gender fluidity".  This is because The Left Hand Of Darkness, one of the Hainish Cycle novels, is set on a planet where the natives are gender fluid.  Each person becomes either male or female during two days of a 28-day cycle, and then reverts back to androgyny for the other 26 days.  The sex each person becomes from one cycle to the next is completely random.  Thus, while I regard "gender fluidity", at least among humans in real life, as complete male bovine solid waste, I can cite the setting of The Left Hand Of Darkness as the only place I know of where gender is truly fluid.

Links for One Two-Three

Today is January 23rd, which may be expressed as "1/23", or maybe even as "one two-three".  Here are some things that have been going on during 1 2-3:

From Politico, according to former VP Joe Biden, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) prevented President Obama from calling out the Russians.

From Bloomberg, Senator Charles Schumer takes the wall off the table.  (via The Daily Caller)

From RFI, three female French jihadis face death sentences in Iraq.

From the Daily Mail, airstrikes in Syria led by the U.S. send 150 ISIS fighters to meet Allah.

From the Express, a man in Belgium aims his knife at a policeman, and quickly becomes eligible for the Darwin Award.

From Defend Europa, six migrants assault two train conductors in Milan, Italy.  (If you read Italian, read the story at Il Giornale.

From Voice Of Europe,  a swimming pool in Bonn, Germany will have a special area for Muslim women.

From Deutsche Welle, Germany faces criticism over German tanks being used by Turkish forces invading Syria.

From The Brussels Times, the Belgian police have opened an investigation after the Interior Ministry's plans for dealing with migrants are leaked.

From the Republic Standard, U.K. police and media falsely accuse activist/journalist Tommy Robinson have having influenced the man on trial for running down Muslims near the Finsbury Park mosque in London.

From Sputnik International, an Afghan asylum-seeker goes on trial for allegedly killing a woman who converted from Islam to Christianity.

From The Local DE, a teenager who holds German and Kazakh citizenship is arrested for allegedly killing his German classmate.

From WestMonster, the AfD could soon become the second largest party in the Bundestag.

From Russia Today, the elites start gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

From the NL Times, an Amsterdam city councilman receives a death threat after discussing squatters.

From Newsweek, ISIS looted gold and jewelry to recruit fighters in the Philippines.

From the Kaplan Herald, a nascent #MeToo movement arises in Pakistan.

Form the Hürriyet Daily News, a Turkish academic still insists that Noah called his son on a cell phone.  (Again, I must ask.  Where were the antediluvian cell towers?)

From FrontpageMag, Vice President Pence speaks to the Knesset.

Back to Bloomberg, Pence says that the United States must play a "preeminent" role in Middle East peace talks.  (via the New York Post)

From the New York Post, "one in three Americans can't eat without their phone".

From NME, 11 weird facts about the Teletubbies.  (For any Falwellians out there, the alleged homosexuality of Tinky Winky is not included.)

From Space(dot)com, winds blow the wrong way on a "hot Jupiter".

And from WYFF, yo quiero Taco Bell - in the boss's face.

Monday Links

Some things going on out there, related to the federal shutdown or otherwise:

From ABC News, the Senate votes to end debate and sets up a vote to possible end the shutdown.

From CNBC, the stock markets rise in response to the deal to keep the government open.

From The Federalist, on the other hand, "progressives are not pleased".  (The article contains a "language warning".)

From The Daily Signal, the White House changes its voicemail recording to blame the Democrats.

From Conservative Review, the "ass-backward" immigration position of Senator Lindsey Graham (RINO-SC), and three decades of lies about immigration from Chuck Schumer (D-NY).  (The three decades would include his time in the House and the Senate.)

From American Thinker, the wall is not what the Democrats fear.

From the Washington Examiner, three Republican congressmen discuss releasing the FISA memo.

From The American Conservative, Senate candidate Chelsea Manning (D-MD) is running an anarchist campaign, which is nothing new.

From LifeNews, the media cover the Women's March three times more than the March For Life.

From The Telegraph, Oxford University gives their students more time to take their exams, so that women have a better chance of passing them.  (via Breitbart London)

From the New York Post, "Mexico is more dangerous than ever".  (Here's one reason for the wall, to keep that danger from spilling over to the U.S.)

From Voice Of Europe, YouTube takes down a video made by a German woman who tells what mass migration has done to her country.

From Flanders News, Belgium lowers their terror threat level.

From The Comet, chemical warfare breaks out in Hertfordshire, England.  (via Breitbart London)

From the Express, Belgians protest against the arrests of migrants by the police, and French border guards turn off their stowaway detectors.

From Russia Today, according to Oxfam, the rich keep getting richer.

From Reuters, the prime minister of Bulgaria says that the E.U. rules on asylum are splitting up the E.U.

From Breitbart Tech, L'Oreal Paris UK's model steps down after her anti-Israel Tweets are revealed.

From the NL Times, Pegida plans a demonstration in Amsterdam, and hundreds of Roma children are trafficked in the Netherlands.  (The Roma are also commonly known as "Gypsies".)

From Der Spiegel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel must explain why she has reversed her refugee policies.

From Premier Christian Radio, a Christian asylum seeker in Switzerland could face an effective death sentence if deported back to Afghanistan.  (via Voice Of Europe)

From FrontpageMag, a racist illegal alien has no regrets about killing American policeman.  (This piece of mierda shows another reason why we need the wall.)

From National Review, the Trump administration plans to create a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the Department of HHS, to enforce relevant laws as written.

From the Daily Mail, Turks and Kurds fight - at a German airport.  (If you read German, read the story at Hannoversch Algemeine.)

From Arutz Sheva, Muslim leaders explain how to execute LGBTs.

From Gatestone Institute, the U.S. terrorism report is incomplete.

From Boing Boing, a baby robot is used to study dirt and bacteria inhalation.

From Live For Live Music, Rush calls it a career.  (To any left-wing readers, this is not about Mr. Limbaugh.  Sorry if I've disappointed you.)

And from the International Business Times, what villagers in India thought was a meteor was actually something more earthbound - and disgusting.  (via SFGate)

The Government Shutdown And Other Stories

One event that I could not overlook during my brief hiatus was the federal government shutdown which started Friday night.  It seems that one main sticking point was the Democrats demanding some continuance of DACA, under which certain illegal aliens have been allowed to stay in the United States.  I cannot think of any other instance, in any country in the world, in which elected legislators were so insistent on acting on behalf of people who technically should not even be in the country.  I would thus nominate the following as the Democrat party's new official song.  (I think I used this one in a Music Break post, but it's worth bringing back.)

For some punditry on the shutdown, go to National Review and FrontpageMag.
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Before I post some links from today, here's something from a few days ago.  As reported by American Thinker, there really are some [bleep]hole countries in the world.
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Here are some things going on out there today:

From Voice Of Europe, a Finnish presidential candidate sounds like President Trump.

From the Sunday Express, what's up for Nigel Farage?

From Fox News, the dangers Christian women face where Islamic extremists control.

From Ekathimerini, the Greek migration minister fears a renewed migrant crisis in the Greek islands.

From Russia Today, the last thing Syria needs is the Turkish operation in the Afrin region.

From Sputnik International, Europeans rally for the Kurds.

From the Daily Mail, an Afghan accused of sexual abuse in Germany flees to Sweden.

From Deutsche Welle, the German Social Democrats vote to start coalition talks with Angela Merkel's CDU.

From The Local FR, a man in France is charged with plotting a terror attack.

From The Daily Signal, three reasons for Trump to get rid of the solar tariffs.

From PoliZette, the FBI "failed to preserve" text messages from two members of Mueller's staff.

From Dunya News, there could be a shutdown in Punjab, Pakistan.

From The Sun Daily, a Malaysian cleric says that Muslims should vote for Muslims.  (If a priest or minister told Christians to vote only for Christian candidates, in how many microseconds would he be accused of hate and bigotry?)

From the New York Post, there were (gasp!) Russians attending some of Trump's inauguration events.

From Page Six, former Kinks and Argent bassist Jim Rodford dies at age 76.

And from The Oxford Eagle (in Oxford, Miss.), "weird weather is nothing new".

Mama Bigfoot 1937-2018

I have stepped from away blogging for the past few days to travel to Virginia to pay my last respects to my mother, who passed away from a heart attack this past Monday.  Later that afternoon, I got a call from one of my brothers.  Because this is unusual for us this time of year, I could pretty much sense that he had some bad news.  According to my siblings, Mom had checked herself into a hospital about a week earlier.

We had two viewings this past Thursday and the funeral yesterday, for which I was a pallbearer, as I had been for my father in 2013.  For the viewings, we found about 10 photos from Mom's life, including one from her and Dad's wedding and one of them about to go on a date.  The viewings and funeral were attended by friends and co-workers of my siblings, some out-of-town relatives, and some of the same neighbors who had shown up for Dad.  One relative was a cousin I had not seen since the late 1980's, at her home in Pennsylvania.

Mom was born during the Great Depression and the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, and lived to see a president younger than her first two children, and even to see him step down.  Her father was coal miner and her mother was housewife.  She was the middle of three sisters, who also had an older brother.  About two years after she graduated high school, she married an older alumnus from the same school, who had gone to work in western New York State.  Other than during a one-year hiatus in Connecticut, they raised six children in New York.  In 1975, due to Dad changing jobs, we all moved to Virginia, where most of my siblings still live.

Tuesday Links

Another Tuesday afternoon, another bunch of things going on:

From Sputnik International, Italy rescues about 1,400 migrants in one day.

From Hungary Journal, Hungary is considering banning Hungarian native George Soros from setting foot in the country.  (The story comes via Voice Of Europe.  If you read Hungarian, read more at 444.)

From Russia Today, a Syrian man in Germany is detained on suspicion of planning act of terror.

From Voice Of Europe, some Paris metro stations are becoming "no-go" zones.

From BBC News, France will not allow another "jungle" in Calais.

From The Old Continent, the E.U. task force set up to oppose "fake news" can't figure out what "fake news" is.

From Breitbart London, five incidents which showed that mass immigration into the Netherlands is harmful.

From The Daily Signal, 10 thoughts on President Trump and the [bleep]hole countries.

From The Hill, Trump passes his physical and mental health tests.

From Twitchy, the left goes nuts over Trump's declaration of Religious Freedom Day.  (And yet, their side claims that he has mental problems?)

From Fox News, there could be new charges stemming from the Las Vegas mass shooting.

From France24, in France, an Islamic convict attacks prison guards with scissors.

From the New York Post, Trump now says that he wants immigrants "from everywhere".

From Science News For Students, a creature that Fred Flintstone might have called a "duckasaurus".

And from 11Alive, five things that cold weather does to your body.

Links For The King Holiday

Today is the holiday which commemorates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King.  It is also Dr. King's actual birthday.  This holiday, like several others, is observed on a designated Monday, which this year coincides with his birthday.  Here are some things going on:

From Philly(dot)com, the U.S. military has a new retirement plan.

From Fox News, a very young patient no longer needs a ventilator.

From LiveMint, a timeline of the meetings between the Israeli and Indian prime ministers.  (via Legal Insurrection)

From The Daily Caller, a Puerto Rican columnist blames the Jews for the island's problems.  (I wonder what Juan Epstein, the fictional Puerto Rican Jew from Welcome Back, Kotter, might think of this development.)

From Deutsche Welle, almost half of rejected asylum seekers in Germany are winning their cases on appeal.

From the Express, Italy's house prices have dropped 23 percent in 10 years.

From Russia Today, the British party UKIP "is a mess".

From Reuters, seven migrants die trying to go from Morocco to the Canary Islands.

From Radio Poland, Poland offers humanitarian aid where it's needed.  (via Voice Of Europe)

From The Courier, France's new "fake news" law raises concerns about censorship.  (via Voice Of Europe)

From Voice Of Europe, an Italian politician is worried about his country's "white race".  (If you read Italian, read more at Varese News.)

From Sputnik International, in Austria, 45 people have been arrested for alleged drug dealing involving smuggling by minor asylum seekers.

From the NL Times, 22 percent of Dutch women have been victims of sexual violence.

From FrontpageMag, some foul language that the left seemed to have no problem with.

From Townhall, how Democrats contributed to Haiti being a [bleep]hole.

From the New York Post, several cars in Brooklyn, New York have been damaged by exploding manholes.

And from CBS News, three reasons why the current stock market rally is weird.

Canada Warns Against Illegal Immigration, And Other Stories

Today I ran across an article in Breitbart's Big Government about Canadian immigration policy.  It seems our friends to the north have adopted what I will call a "Lee Corso" policy toward those who would enter Canada illegally, as in "not so fast!"  An excerpt:

With many illegal immigrants becoming uneasy over their status in the U.S., some are eyeing a trip northward to a country many are told will accept everyone and give them lots of free stuff to boot.

But Ahmed Hussen, Canada's immigration minister, recently warned illegals that they shouldn't waltz into Canada and necessarily expect to get cradle to the grave freebies, according to the New York Times.

Hussen, who was an immigrant to Canada himself, warned illegals that while Canada is a welcoming country, they won’t take everyone who illegally crosses into the country.

Did you catch that?  The Canadian immigration minister is himself an immigrant.  Putting someone in charge of immigration who actually has been through the system....what a concept!  But wait, there's more:

In another effort to stave off a wave of illegals, Canada is sending Pablo Rodriguez to Los Angeles, California. Rodriguez, who is from Canada's Liberal Party and a member of Parliament, intends to warn Mexicans and Central and South Americans that they can't assume they'll get a free ride by illegally entering into Canada.

Let's look at this for a second.  A Hispanic Canadian, himself a member of a left-leaning party, is down here in the United States telling other Hispanics, who are not themselves U.S. citizens, that illegally entering Canada is not such a good idea.  These developments beg several questions for Americans who support open borders and call anyone who wants our immigration laws enforced "racists" and "xenophobes".  Does Canada have a right to defend her borders?  Does Canada have a right to have immigration laws, to enforce them, and to discourage non-Canadians from disobeying them?  If the answer to any of these is "yes", then why is it wrong for the United States to carry out any of these measure?  Why is it OK for one country to restrict immigration, but not another?

Whatever your opinion of this matter might be, read the full story, where you can also click to see what the above-mentioned Mr. Hussen told the New York Times.

****

A few other items worth noting:

From Gatestone Institute, Muslim persecution of Christians in August 2017.

From The San Diego Union-Tribune, it's been an interesting week for congress-critters Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter (both R-Cal).

From ZeroHedge, two very rich guys should worry while the Clinton Foundation is investigated.

From the Express, although Angela Merkel has reached an agreement with the Social Democrats, her effort to form a coalition government for Germany is not yet out of the woods.

From Sputnik International, Merkel and Macron will go to Davos, to oppose President Trump.

From Voice Of Europe, how women have become the victims of Europe's migration crisis.

From The Guardian, the French interior minister says that the U.K. must pay more for Calais.

From Hungary Journal, Victor Orban says that Hungary, not the E.U., decides whom Hungary takes in.  (The story comes via Voice Of Europe.  Orban gave his remarks in an interview with Welt am Sonntag, the article being, from my perspective, behind a paywall.  Click there if you read German, and are allowed to access the article or wish to pay for doing so.)

From The Daily Caller, now that there's again a Republican in the White House, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks returns to again run her mouth.

From Business Insider, the trade show CES "still has a woman problem".

From Townhall, there's a variety of "holes" in the world these days.

From the New York Post, the mother of a slain teenager says that he was killed over an iPhone.

From the Los Angeles Times, an escaped prisoner is captured in North Hollywood.

And from CTV News, an automotive maneuver worthy of The Dukes Of Hazzard.  (via Twitchy)

Missile, Manning, And More

At 8:07 a.m. local time, residents of Hawaii were subjected to an alert about an incoming ballistic missile, which turned out to be a false alarm. The alert was sent out to cell phones and televisions, and appears to have been caused by a human error.

Read more at USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Vox and CBS News.
****
The convicted and pardoned leaker formerly known as Bradley Manning has decided to go into politics.  And to my surprise, she (in the Caitlyn sense of the pronoun) wants to be my Senator.  That's right, she has filed in Maryland.  I don't know where his/her legal residence was during his/her seven years of confinement, but I don't recall anything about him/her ever living in Maryland.  But as we've seen with a certain woman from Arkansas who became Senator from New York, the candidate must only inhabit the state from which he or she is elected, without any specific length of time therein being required.  (Perhaps ironically, there are often time-specific residency requirements for anyone wanting to vote in a given state.)  Since Manning is a Democrat, she will have to run against the incumbent Senator Ben Cardin.

Read more at The Washington Post (via HotAir), The Hill, WBAL TV and NBC Washington.

In the above paragraph, I use the slashed pronouns, such as "his/her", because the period in Manning's life to which I refer, the confinement, includes time both before his sex-change operation and afterwards.  Both The Hill and WBAL refer to the article in The Washington Post.  WBAL also cites the Associated Press, and refers to Manning as a "former Army officer".  I'm not sure that this term is accurate, since the highest rank he held was the Specialist (E-4), according to Wikipedia.  This rank is a junior enlisted rank, which is not even regarded as being a type of NCO.  (Yes, there is some irony in citing Wiki, since Manning gave his leaked information to a place called Wikileaks.)
****
Here are some more items:

From Voice Of Europe, for the second year in a row, the most popular baby boy's name in the Netherlands is Mohammed - if you include several known spelling variations.  (How many boys named Hans or Pieter are there in Egypt, Syria or Saudi Arabia?  Just wondering.)

From the Express, an Italian candidate for prime minister calls E.U. treaties "unfair".

From the Evening Standard, some vintage photos of the London Underground.

From Breitbart London, Czech President Milos Zeman wins the first round of his country's election.

From Deutsche Welle, Germany fears that E.U. reforms will bring in even more refugees.

From the Times Of Oman, Turkish President Erdoğan says that his country's forces will "crush" the Kurdish militia in the Afrin region of Syria.

From the Daily Mail, two protesters at a fracking site in Yorkshire, U.K. are arrested after a guard dog is poisoned.

From WISN, a previously-deported illegal alien hijacks a bus north of Chicago.  (via Twitchy)

From the New York Post, as seen in El Paso, Texas, walls can work.

From Townhall, the current winter and the climate alarmists' hypocrisy.

From Al Arabiya, torture and death in Iranian prisons after the protests.

From Fox News, Iranian protesters thank President Trump and want more sanctions.

From News18, a fatwa against marrying bankers is denounced by (as you would expect) bankers.

From The Malaysian Insight, academics in Malaysia say that self-censorship among non-Muslims is unhealthy.

From Newsday, after a cow is killed by a car, a bull runs people off.  (via the New York Post)

And from ESPN, sportscaster Keith Jackson 1928 - 2018.