Warship Named For Fallen Mexican-Born Marine

In 2004, Sgt. Rafael Peralta sacrificed himself in Iraq to protect his fellow Marines from a grenade.  Today, a naval destroyer bearing his name was christened by his mother at the Bath Iron Works in Maine.  Although other naval ships have been named after Americans of Mexican descent, the USS Rafael Peralta is thought to be the first one named after someone born in Mexico.  From Fox News:

The mother of Sgt. Rafael Peralta asked God to bless the ship named for her son and keep the crew safe before smashing a bottle of Champagne on the ship's bow Saturday.

The ceremony to christen the future USS Rafael Peralta paid homage to the slain Marine, who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service of a country to which he emigrated as a boy.

Peralta, who pulled a grenade against his body to protect his fellow Marines during close combat with insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, on Nov. 15, 2004, is believed to be the first serviceman born in Mexico to have a naval warship named in his honor.

Read the full story.

Paul Ryan Elected House Speaker

Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis), who unsuccessfully ran for Vice President as Mitt Romney's running mate in 2012, has been elected Speaker of the House.  At age 45, he is the youngest Speaker in almost 150 years.  As outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) handed over his job, he cried one last time.

Read more at People, The Hill, Politico, The Washington Post and The Washington Times.

ISIS Fighters Wear Darth Vader Masks

It appears that the fictional Dark Side of the Force has found some admirers within the real life Dark Side.  According to a Turkish site (linked below), police in the province of Diyarbakir raided several homes in which ISIS terrorists were hiding, and found several Darth Vader masks.  Reportedly, some of the ISIS fighters wore the masks while battling the police.  Let's hope ISIS doesn't acquire any lightsabers or develop the force choke technique.

This story comes via Truth Revolt via the New York Post via the International Business Times from Haber Turk.  This means that if you only read it here, you're getting fifth-hand information.

Links For A Rainy Wednesday

As the wet stuff falls from the sky, here are some things going on:

From National Geographic, paleontologists in Peru find a fossilized whale, surrounded by fossilized vomit.

From the New York Post, more women have been getting surgery in what I'll just call a very sensitive area.

From Fox News and the sometimes ballyhooed military-industrial complex, the U.S. Air Force picks Northrup Grumman to produce the next bomber.

From Nebraska Watchdog, a former Nebraska governor advises the current incumbent to be "transparent about his travel".

From NBC News, the schoolgirl who was flipped out of her chair by a policeman, in an incident caught on video, does not appear to be so innocent.  (via Gateway Pundit)

From CNN, the above-mentioned policeman has been fired.

From American Thinker, two cops have been fired "for telling the truth about black violence".

From ABC News, Human Rights Watch questions the conduct of Mexican police.

From The Washington Times, the GOP debate on November 10th will include an "undercard" forum.

From Politico, GOP candidate Donald Trump believes that tonight's debate will be "stacked against him".

From the Express, a British supporter of ISIS tells fellow Muslims that wearing poppies is apostacy.

From Frontpage Mag, the Obama administration asks Congress to fix a problem that they themselves imposed on the American people, without the consent of Congress.

In National Review, Michelle Malkin writes about Hillary Clinton's immigration flip-flops.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, according to a study by Oceana, a lot of salmon is getting mislabeled.

From the Chicago Sun-Times, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) pleads guilty.

From The Sean Hannity Show, would-be House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) makes three promises to conservatives.

From The Daily Wire, on the other hand, Ryan has backed the latest Obama budget deal.

From DNAinfo, a former gang member who now works for the anti-violence organization CeaseFire has been shot for the second time in two months in the same area.

From Breitbart London, some stories about violence by migrants in Germany.  It looks like you might have to read German to understand the linked sources.

From Breitbart National Security, Turkish police raid the offices of an opposition media group in Ankara.

From Wired, clothing that responds to your sweat.

From The Washington Free Beacon, five years after the Dodd-Frank law created the position of Vice Chairman for Supervision on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, President Obama still hasn't appointed anyone for it.

And from Pardon The Parody, "if Muslim's but's were fruit's and nut's".

Shooter Reported In Quad Cities

According to local sources, a shooter was reported near a Navy recruiting center on Kimberly Road in Davenport, Iowa.  Another possible shooting was later reported in nearby Bettendorf, Iowa.  There are reports of injuries or whether the two incidents involved the same alleged gunman.

Because of its location, the first reported shooting would be reminiscent of the recent shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee and would raise the possibility of a "copycat" motive.

Read more WQAD and KWQC, which I believe are local sources.

Conservatives Win Polish Election

While I had paid some attention to the recent Canadian parliamentary elections, I did not realize that the same thing would soon happen in my ancestral country of Poland.  The result appears to have gone in the opposite direction of that in Canada, with the victorious Law and Justice party being described as "conservative", "right wing" and "eurosceptic".  This party, led by Jarosław Kaczyński, received 39.1 percent of the vote and took 242 out of 460 seats, enough to govern alone in the lower house of Poland's Sejm (parliament).  Current Prime Minster Ewa Kopacz, whose Civic Platform party received 23.4 percent of the vote and took 133 seats, has conceded defeat.  Although Kaczyński is his party's leader, he is not expected to run for Prime Minister.  Instead, their deputy leader Beata Szydło is expected to run for that office.

A few notes:

Kaczyński is the twin brother of the late Lech Kaczyński, who was president of Poland until he was killed in a plane crash in 2010.

This election marked the first time since the end of Communist rule in 1989 that any Polish party has won an outright majority.  But a few centuries earlier, Polish nobility actually elected their kings.

From my admittedly limited knowledge of Polish:  The name "Szydło" translates literally as "awl", a kind of tool.  The word "sejm" is pronounced like the English word "same".

Read more at Yahoo News, Politico, BBC News, Reuters and Radio Poland.

Hurricane Patricia And Other Stories

Hurricane Patricia, called the most powerful storm in history, made landfall yesterday on the western coast of Mexico, and has weakened down to a tropical depression.  Spawned by the current el niño, Patricia had strengthened from a tropical storm all the way to category 5 hurricane on Thursday.

Read more at The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, CNN and The Weather Channel.

In other stories:

From the Express, ISIS sends their assassins into refugee camps to target Christians.

From The Jerusalem Post, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says that his government will not allow Kurds to "seize" northern Syria.

From Fox News, Secretary of State John Kerry says "Leaders must lead," to stop the violence in Jerusalem.

From the Chicago Sun-Times, some lessons to be learned from a domestic violence tragedy.

From the Chicago Tribune, bison are back at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie "after a few thousand years".

According to Eagle Rising, 97% of the newly insured under Obamacare are from its Medicaid expansion.

From ABC News, President Obama calls for limiting the amount of class time used to prepare students for taking standardized tests.  (How about getting rid of federal tests and let education be a state matter, like it mostly was before Common Core and No Child Left Behind?)

From The Blaze, California adopts a visa for illegal aliens victimized by domestic violence.

From The Washington Times, according to a report, the Bureau of Land Management "illegally sold thousands of wild horses for slaughter".

From American Thinker, how to apply the "broken window theory of policing" to illegal immigration.

From Blabbermouth.net, Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden and owner of Cardiff Aviation, talks about his company and the aviation industry.

From CNS News, Republican legislators in Wisconsin move to end "John Doe" probes.

And from The Washington Post, Maureen O'Hara, the Irish-born actress who became a U.S. citizen in 1946, has died at age 95 at her home in Boise, Idaho.

Chafee Drops Out

Lincoln Chafee (D-RI) has ended his campaign for his party's nomination for president.  Coming just after the withdrawal of former Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and the decision by Vice President Joe Biden against entering the race, Chafee's decision narrows the Democratic field down to former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (NY), current Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.

Chafee has previously successfully run for Senator as a Republican and for Rhode Island Governor as an Independent.  As a Senator, he became known as the most liberal of the Republicans.

Read more at CNN, The New York Times, Politico, USA Today and The Washington Post.

Lenin Statue Converted To Darth Vader

In Odessa, Ukraine, a statue of Lenin that was scheduled to be demolished in accordance with the country's de-communization law was instead converted into a statue of Darth Vader.  The head of the statue contains a Wi-Fi router, thus enabling anyone nearby to feel the Force - of the Internet.

I'd say that the statue went to the fictional Dark Side from the real Dark Side.  Read the story at Meduza.

Joe Says "No"

Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del) has announced that he will not run for president.  He thus becomes the second consecutive sitting vice president to refrain from running for his party's presidential nomination, after Dick Cheney (R-Wyo) during the 2008 campaign.

Read more at ABC News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Los Angeles Times, CNBC and The Washington Post.