Links For The Feast Of Stephen

Today is the Feast of Stephen, the man regarded as the first Christian martyr.  Accused of blasphemy, he was executed by the traditional method of stoning.  According to the song Good King Wenceslas, on a Feast of Stephen a few centuries later, the song's namesake looked out and saw lots of snow.  Speaking of songs, I've occasionally wondered if Bob Dylan might have thought of Stephen when he wrote that line "everybody must get stoned".  So whether or not you have "deep and crisp and even" snow today, here are some things going on out there:

From Legal Insurrection, the U.S. gives a big fat "bah humbug!" to the U.N.

From The Jerusalem Post, Guatemala announces that their embassy in Israel will move to Jerusalem.

From the Daily Mail, the Nazis made a fake town that was really a concentration camp near Prague.

From Yahoo News, four fetuses were found in a body parts warehouse in Detroit.

From the Los Angeles Times, is the Big Bend area the weakest link in the border?

From News(dot)com(dot)au, police break up an unauthorized beach party in a no-alcohol zone.  (via the New York Post)

From Balkan Insight, dozens of invaders refugees demand to be let into Croatia from Serbia.

From Reuters, Italy rescues over 250 migrants in the Mediterranean.

From Voice of Europe, some French double standards.

From Russia Today, according to the German foreign minister, Turkey and Ukraine are unlikely to join the E.U.

From the Express, a British economist calls the E.U. "deeply immoral" because it forced poor Brits to buy "expensive" goods.  (Perhaps the people of the above-mentioned Turkey and Ukraine might want to know about this, before asking to join.)

From Gatestone Institute, are the British just going about their "normal" lives?

From the Daily Star, migrants are still gathering in Calais, France trying to enter Britain.

From National Review, the failure of the Obamacare individual mandate is bipartisan.

From AccuWeather, Erie, Pennsylvania gets a record-breaking amount of snow.  (I don't know how crisp and even it is, but it's extremely deep.)

From Fox News, this year's biggest celebrity losers.

From The Guardian, Australian football (a.k.a. soccer) has had a weird year.

From The Week, "the weird and wonderful world of body suspension".  (I would add "masochistic".)

From the Daily Post, 13 things to do between Christmas and New Year's Day.

And from K5 News, five things other than balls will drop on New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone.  Enjoy unwrapping your presents, while remembering the best Christmas present ever, given to the world a little over 2000 years ago.

Here are some Christmas wishes from:

The Captain at HotAir

The Philadelphia Eagles

Baghdad, Iraq

The Prime Minister of Israel (where that greatest gift was given)

And America's First Lady.

Christmas Eve Links, But First A Song

I've driven down to Virginia, bought a few more presents, and found some time to blog.  But before I proceed to pass along some stories, here's some Christmas cheer, as in The Santa Claus Boogie by The Tractors.


Now then, here are some things going on:

From National Review, "a Christmastime reflection".

From Townhall, the Bundy mistrial shows why some people don't trust the federal government.

From The Hill, the DHS calls a series of shootings in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania an act of terror.

From ABC News, the shooter's ex-brother in law says that he was a "chicken".

From ZeroHedge, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley gets pranked by Russian comedians.

From Breitbart London, France deploys 97,000 security forces for Christmas.

From Sputnik International, an interview with Alternative for Germany's Frauke Petry.

From France24, the E.U. plans to take in 10,000 refugees from Libya, and for the first time in four years, Christians celebrate Christmas in Mosul, Iraq (via The Blaze).

From Deutsche Welle, Austria's new chancellor recommends backing safe areas for refugees with military power.

From WestMonster, merry Brexmas.

From the Sunday Express, fewer than half of polled Europeans "have a positive image" of the E.U.

From Gatestone Institute, how the west misunderstands Islam and Turkey.

From Rûdaw, Turkey is upset with President Trump's continuing aid to Syrian Kurds.  (via Assyrian International News Agency)

From the Independent, at least 10,000 people died in the Tianenmen massacre.  (via The Daily Caller)

From The Daily Caller, the truth about Kwanzaa and its creator.

From The Express Tribune, a local Santa Claus in Rawalpindi, Pakistan is now unemployed.

From Fox News, five reasons why all Americans will benefit from the tax cuts.

From the New York Post, doctors in Florida plan to remove a 10-pound tumor from a Cuban boy's face.

From Variety, The Last Jedi keeps keeps bringing in movie-goers' money.

And from Malay Mail Online, at a charity golf tournament in Jitra, Kedah, Malaysia, the prize for a hole-in-one eats grass and provides milk.  (via Golf)

Some Stories Before Travelling

Tomorrow I'll be travelling down to Virginia, which is my normal routine this time of year.  Today, naturally, I'll be packing my suitcase and presents for the family, gassing up the vehicle, and generally running around a bit.  So for the time being, let me leave you with some things in the news:

From The Guardian, a story that will make Santa Claus cringe with horror.  (via the New York Post)

From PopZette, one Christmas special could not be made today.

From The Federalist, the Grinch did indeed hate Christmas.

From Media Equalizer, the federal work force has decreased by 11,000 since President Trump took office.  (In the past, reductions in the number of federal employees has simply meant that the work was contracted out to private companies.  In other words, the scope of federal power was not reduced.  Thus, I would not read too much into this development.)

From the Malta Independent, the U.N. Migration Agency reports the totals of migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe, and the deaths of those who don't make it.

From DutchNews, the Netherlands will have just three centers where refugees are processed.

From the NL Times, for the first time in years, the number of burglaries in the Netherlands has increased.

From Russia Today, two passenger trains collide in Austria, resulting in over a dozen injuries.

From Voice Of Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says that western Europeans need to rejection migration.

From Hungary Journal, Orban also says that an attack on Poland is an attack on central Europe.

From Breitbart London, British politician Nigel Farage says that the British will be happy to once against have their old blue pre-E.U. passports.

From The Local FR, French police reopen the case of a British family who were murdered in the Alps five years ago.

From The Local CH, Switzerland opens a humanitarian office in Damascus.

From The Times Of India, a Muslim cleric in Kerala tells doctors to avoid the Red Cross symbol.  (I'm pretty sure that Muslim medical personnel may use the Red Crescent instead.)

From the Express, the E.U. will not accept Catalonia as a member, if the region breaks away from Spain.

From National Review, "the ten best movies of 2017".

From Townhall, the federal government releases immigrant crime data.

From the Washington Examiner, over 30 percent of all federal prisoners are illegal aliens.

From the New York Post, the Australian run-'em-over terrorist explains his motives.

From CNN, the U.N. Security Council adopts new sanctions on North Korea.

And from Page Six, an old friend of Mr. Bill now has her own strain of weed.

Stories For The Solstice

The winter solstice occurs today in the northern hemisphere.  However, the first story comes from Australia, which is experiencing the summer solstice.  In Melbourne, a man driving an SUV rammed his vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians, injuring 17.  He has been identified as an Australian of Afghan descent.  The driver was quickly arrested, while the victims were taken to various hospitals.

Read more at the Herald Sun (posted by Kel the Red Fox Blogger in her BlogTalkRadio chatroom), BBC News and the Daily Mail.

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In other stories:

From One American News Network, the city council of Memphis, Tennessee has voted to remove statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Nathan Bedford Forest.  (The latter was a founder of the KKK, so in his case, good riddance.)

From the Daily Mail, behind the scenes in support of the Trump tax cut was another Trump.

From NBC News, DOJ prosecutors ask the FBI for information on the Uranium One deal.

From Space Daily, according to the South Korean defense agency, a North Korean soldier defected to the South.

From Fox News, the U.N. votes to condemn the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

From NPR, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants more bipartisanship.  (I've come to realize that "bipartisanship" means that one side makes a demand, and the other side gives in to it.)

From The New Observer, over 1,900 Muslims in Germany are being investigated for terrorism.  (The site will check your browser for a few seconds before opening the page.)

From El País, the votes are being counted in Catalonia.

From Deutsche Welle, Germany's efforts to return failed asylum seekers is not working as well as it was a year ago.  (via WestMonster)

From The Local DE, more on the decrease in the number of refugees leaving Germany.

From The Local FR, migrants going from Italy to France try to cross the Alps.  (A much earlier group of migrants, led by a guy named Hannibal, did that sort of thing in the opposite direction.)

From the Express, French opposition leader Laurent Wauquiez calls for a referendum on the future of the E.U., and the United Kingdom and Poland sign a military agreement.  (Niech żyje brytyjsko-polski sojusz, I mean, long live the British-Polish alliance.)

From Voice Of Europe, Hungary will support Poland against the E.U.

From the Mirror, a woman is fatally stabbed in an Aldi supermarket in North Yorkshire, U.K.

From Channel NewsAsia, Indonesian police fear that Islamists will raid business for Santa hats.

From Arutz Sheva, Europe needs to end the double standards.

From Gatestone Institute, Canada's obsession with Islamophobia.

From FrontpageMag, #MeToo, with an asterisk.

From Townhall, more businesses react to the Trump tax cut.

From LifeNews, some information about pregnancy centers.

From The Daily Caller, two Turkish-American supporters of President Erdoğan plead guilty to attacking protesters earlier this year.

From Screen Rant, why did a character revived for Star Wars The Last Jedi look weird?  (Spoilers)

And from ForTheWin, this year's Bowl games are off to a bad start, due to lopsided scores.

The Tax Bill And Other Stories

Today, Congress passed the GOP tax cut bill, which required a second vote due to a procedural matter, causing President Trump to celebrate.  Here are some related stories, and other items which are not related (and a bit of commentary from yours truly):

From The Washington Times, Trump holds an outdoor event with some GOP congresspeople.

From PoliZette, Congressman Dave Brat (R-VA) praises the tax legislation.

From National Review, despite what some Democrats think, this is not a "heist".

From The Daily Caller, several business respond by directing their money toward employee training and education.

From the Washington Examiner, Senator Al Franken (D-Minn) chooses his last day in office.  (The Senatorial version of the Al Franken Decade thus will have lasted only nine years.)

From the St George News, the Bundy defendants get a mistrial.  (H/T Call Me Mom for the Tweet)

From Breitbart's National Security, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declares a temporary cease-fire in fight against the Marxist terrorist group NPA.

From LifeNews, abortion reportedly increases a woman's risk of premature death.

From Voice Of Europe, a school in Lüneburg, Germany postpones their Christmas celebration because a Muslim student said that its songs are "incompatible with Islam".  (Why songs used in a Christian event need to be compatible with any other religion has not been explained.  If you read German, you can read more in NDR.)

From the Express, the E.U. calls upon its member states to sanction Poland.

From The Guardian, Poland cries foul.  (If anyone wonders about my opinion in this matter, let me just say, "Niech żyje Polska!")

From Russia Today, President Trump threatens to withdraw aid to U.N. member states that vote against the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

From YNetNews, more on the president's threat.  (H/T Gadi Adelman for the Tweet)

From the Evening Standard, in Paris, Santa Claus chases down a suspected hit-and-run driver.

From the NL Times, with Christmas shopping in full swing, Amsterdam monitors its crowds.

From EuroNews, Europe's top court will not recognize a divorce made in a sharia court.

From Reuters, Denmark will no longer accept U.N. refugee quotas.

From the Daily Mail, MI5 is dealing with a surge in "high risk" terror suspects.

From USA Today, Turkish prosecutors indict an NBA player for insulting President Erdoğan.

From Gatestone Institute, the Arab Street rises up - in Europe.  (The last two items were found at The Religion Of Peace.)

From the New York Post, Disneyworld isn't so nice this time of year.

From CBC News, Oumuamua has yielded no alien signals.  (Reports of its elongated shape have reminded me of the alien probe in Star Trek IV.)

And from WPVI, during a party at a fraternity house in Maryland last month, the surrounding air had enough alcohol to register on a police breathalyzer.

Tuesday Links

Tuesday is the day when Wimpy would repay whoever buys him a hamburger, or so he promises.  Tuesday Afternoon is a song by the Moody Blues.  Another band called themselves 'Til Tuesday.  But on Tuesday today, here are some things going on:

From LifeNews, 77 percent of the abortion clinics open in 1991 are no longer in business.

From Breitbart London, the Council of Europe engages in some creative historical revisionism.

From Voice Of Europe, a Belgian woman is attacked by a North African man at a Christmas market.  (If you read Flemish, read more at HLN.)

From Sputnik International, the presidents of France and Syria point fingers at each other.

From New Europe, according to a German newspaper, Poland could lose funds from the E.U. for not taking in migrants.

From Wales Online, armed police are deployed to Swansea.

From the Express, the new Austrian government quickly rolls out their policy on migrants.

From FrontpageMag, the fake feminism of Linda Sarsour.

From National Review, the United States was not founded on gun control.

From Townhall, the story on words being banned at the CDC is fake news.

From the Daily Mail, an Islamic radio station in Britain is faulted for giving potentially harmful advice to people with diabetes.

From The Straits Times, two Malaysian MPs fault two Malaysian airlines for the uniforms worn by their stewardesses.  (via the Independent)

From XinhuaNet, Christmas in the land where the real Santa Claus lived comes under pressure from conservative Muslims.  (Again, I must ask.  Does "conservative" Islam favor low taxes, limited government, and a strong national defense?)

From ABC News, a refugee from Iraq gets 16 years for attempting to make explosives for ISIS.

From Gatestone Institute, is Jerusalem really the problem?

From the Washington Examiner, President Trump "is on a roll".  (via HotAir)

From The Daily Signal, a review of The Last Jedi.

From Variety, "the worst films of 2017".

From The Root, a weird video by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).

And from Newsweek, there are giant sugar cube ice formations in Antarctica.

Amtrak Derails In Washington, And Other Stories

An Amtrak train travelling south from Seattle derailed between Tacoma and Olympia, with some of its cars falling from an overpass onto Interstate 5.  Six people are reported to have been killed, with more than 70 taken to hospitals.  Some vehicles on the highway were struck by train cars, which resulted in injuries to people on the road, but no fatalities.

Read more at The Spokeman-Review, KOMO News, K5 News, FOX 12 and Valley News Live.

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In other stories (with some of my own commentary):

From Voice Of Europe, a Hungarian minister runs into Godwin's Law.

From Breitbart London, the E.U. president calls the E.U. "too white".  (Why is it always that Europe, its countries, or even the United States is "too white"?  Ever notice how no one calls Africa "too black", Latin America "too brown", or the Far East "too yellow"?)

From the Daily Mail, Austria's "far-right" coalition takes office while protesters have their say.  (These days, at least by European standards, wanting your country to be run by its national government instead of by the E.U. Commission, desiring finite limits on immigration and the entry of refugees, and opposing illegal immigration makes you "far-right".)

From the Express, the Italian eurosceptic Five Star Movement might become the largest party in that country.

From WestMonster, a Dutch eurosceptic party has also made gains in the last nine months.

From Russia Today, a car tries to ram the gates of Mildenhall Air Force Base.

From the Evening Standard, the driver is arrested and "quizzed".

From Flanders News, Belgium will not negotiate with returning ISIS fighters.

From BBC News, the U.S. vetoes a U.N. resolution against the U.S.

From The Local DK, a Danish party spokesman says that refugees should go home when it becomes safe.

From Sputnik International, U.K. Prime Minister May pushes for a "soft Brexit".

From Hürriyet Daily News, an Islamic preacher in Turkey warns men against shaving their beards.  (In 2006, I walked around in Turkey, clean-shaven as usual, without any problems.  I wonder if this guy knows that some racial groups, such as native Americans, have very little facial hair.  The idea, however, that native Americans have none at all is a myth.)

From the Sunday Guardian Live, the Labour Party creates a Muslim Network in the U.K. parliament.

From Gatestone Institute, the United Kingdom appears to be overthrowing its own "Christian Basis".  (H/T Kel the Red Fox Blogger, for using this in her BlogTalkRadio show.)

From AhlulBayt News Agency, the Syrian army destroys a tunnel used by terrorists.

From National Review, what went wrong in Zimbabwe.

From FrontpageMag, what's wrong with #MeToo.

From Townhall, some advice for conservatives for 2018.

From The Daily Signal, a chart showing what's in the pending tax bill.

From Fox News, the capital of Venezuela has a five-hour power failure.

From TechSideline, someone gives Virginia Tech's athletic program a donation of over $15 million.

From SB Nation, five new bowl sponsors, "ranked by weirdness".

From AOL, 21 weird travel facts.

And from Newsweek, whatever happened to a certain white Hispanic?

Sunday Links

As I take a break from Christmas shopping, here are some things going on:

From the Daily Star Sunday, the E.U. is spying on the British using "Cold War tactics".  (via the Sunday Express)

From CNN, a U.K. embassy employee in Lebanon has been found dead.

From Russia Today, President Putin thanks President Trump for U.S. aid in foiling a terror plot.

From Voice Of Europe, Dutch politician Geert Wilders stands with eastern Europe against Islamization.

From the Daily Mail, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair will not be prosecuted over the Iraq war.

From the Sunday Express, British politician Nigel Farage explains the real reason for Brexit shock.

From Ekathimerini, Greece tries to accelerate the asylum application process.

From the Irish Examiner, protesters in Killarney "raise concerns" about a new asylum center.

From Reuters, protesters in Bethlehem burn pictures of Vice President Pence.  (via Fox News)

From The Daily Star, Bangla Deshis are not like the NY Port Authority subway bomber.  (I'd have to agree.  He's only suicide bomber I've ever heard of coming from that country.  This publication is based in Bangla Desh, and should not be confused with the similarly-named British one linked above.)

From Fox News, a singer is not allowed into an airport lounge because of her Ugg boots.  (via Legal Insurrection, posted by a writer with the appropriate pen name "Fuzzy Slippers")

From the New York Post, the main Atlanta airport has a power outage.

From The Daily Caller, The New York Times has made some wrong assumptions about Patriot missiles.

From the Niarobi News, if you're going to practice polygamy, you might as well be efficient about it.

From National Review, hurrah for prosperity.

From Townhall, global warming is "fake news from the start".  (Wait a minute.  Isn't it called "climate change" now?)

From the Greek Reporter, the disputed origin of baklava.

And from the Metro, "5 weird Christmas foods from around the world".  (Due to my Polish heritage, I do not find the last item, "pierogi dumplings", to be weird.  In fact, the Polish word pierogi means "dumplings", which means that "pierogi dumplings" is redundant.)

Happy Beethoven's Birthday, And Some Links

On this date in 1770, in the city of Bonn, in the Holy Roman Empire (which is known historically to have been none of these three things), a baby was born to Johann van Beethoven, a music teacher who also sang tenor, and his wife, the former Maria Magdalena Keverich.  Named Ludwig after his paternal grandfather, he would grow up to be one of the most renowned composers of classical music.

The idea of observing Beethoven's birthday comes from the character Schroeder in Charles Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.  Although he uses a toy piano, he is still able to play classical music like a virtuoso.  One of my favorites, which I also played in real life, is the second movement of Beethoven's Sonaté Pathetique, which was much later reworked into Midnight Blue by Louise Tucker and Charlie Skarbek, and This Night by Billy Joel.  On the hand, if you're not that much into Beethoven, you can go here (and skip to about 1:40) and just have a small glass.

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Meanwhile, here are some things going on these days:

From Politico, for about 10 years, the Pentagon has been searching for UFOs.  (via the New York Post)

From The New York Times, more on the Pentagon search for UFOs.  (also cited by the New York Post)

From Voice Of Europe, Palestinians in Germany disrupt a Christmas market with music, which definitely was not composed by Beethoven.

From The European Post, the Visegrad 4 will help Italy protect its sea borders.

From Reuters, the Libyan coast guard is having some success.

From Breitbart London, gay men are assaulted and told that they're "not welcome" in part of London.

From Turkish Minute, 32 Turks, including teachers and doctors, seek asylum in Greece.

From the Mirror, a refugee from Somalia in Britain goes back and pockets benefits.

From Russia Today, the top constitutional authority in France rules that visiting terrorist websites should not be illegal.

From the Express, European leaders unite to oppose U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May.

From Deutsche Welle, European right-wing leaders meet in Prague.

From British Pakistani Christian Association, more than 30 priests and seminarians in India are arrested for singing Christmas carols.

From The Express Tribune, Sikhs in Hangu, Pakistan are forced to convert to Islam by a government official.

From AhlulBayt News Agency, Iraqi troops find two more Izadi mass graves.

From The Guardian, the chief inspector of schools in England receives threats after criticizing schools run by religious conservatives.  (Which particular religion(s), as far as I can tell, was/were not specified.)

From Townhall, as President Trump opens more offshore areas to oil drilling, it's time to go fish.

From HotAir, Roy Moore is still in the "denial" phase of coping with his election loss.

From the Toronto Sun, a billionaire and his wife are found dead in their mansion, from a suspected murder-suicide.  (via the New York Post)

From the New York Post, CC Sabathia is returning to the New York Yankees.

From The Florida Times-Union, what are these weird mushrooms?

And from The Roanoke Times, this year's guide to the bowls.