Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
Study: Franchise Workers Will Lose Out on Minimum Wage Hikes ~ Majority of small business owners say they’d replace workers with robots. The Left is just stuck-on-stupid with this reality-defying $15/hr demand.
 
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch: “No one defends Islam like Arab Christians” ~ Way to embrace Dhimmitude dude ~

Melkite Greek Catholics and all the victims and the present and future and potential victims of Islamic jihad deserve better than these clerics who do nothing but betray them into the hands of those who hate them. Siding with killers against their victims isn’t Christian charity by any rational standard, however much Gregory III and his minions try to dress up their betrayal in clerical robes.

 
Keeping the piranhas busy: the terrifying implications of legalizing assisted suicide ~ Jonathon Van Maren at Life Site wonders where giving doctors the right to kill will ultimately lead society.

 
At the Pentagon, General Chaos is in Charge ~ Great summary of the awful damage the Left has inflicted on our military. It’s desperately in need of restoration by a conservative administration. ~

The surrender (earlier this month) of two US Navy vessels of war and their crews to the Iranians without firing so much as a shot and the subsequent and sickening apology by the commanding officer, speaks volumes about the current fighting spirit, training and state of readiness of the US military in 2016
 
The conduct of the US Navy officer in charge, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was nothing less than a complete and utter disgrace.[…]
 
The Shining City on the Hill is in danger, because we are losing the one force that has always defended it, the United States Military.

DHS: More than Half a Million Aliens Overstayed Visas in 2015 ~ And no one has any idea where they are… (Dear Lord, make it stop!)

 
Climate Change May Spell More Traffic Fatalities ~ Economists find bikers, motorcyclists and pedestrians are most at risk. Yes, they’re serious – it’s SanFran logic. “Climate change” is such a convenient phony demon for progressives. Anything at all – the “polar vortex,” terrorism, climate refugees… traffic fatalities – can be said to be caused by global warming (since the whole theory is based on a massive load of false data), thereby justifying any and all new controls they want to impose, While at the same time claiming they’re doing so in the name of protecting we-the-people from ourselves. What an evilly ingenious, scam.

 
Detroit motorist watching porn on phone crashes, dies ~ Whoa. Porn is a victim-less crime? I think not.

 
I Criticized Black Lives Matter In My High School Newspaper And Got Death Threats ~ It’s not just most college campuses that are rejecting the first amendment and trying to silence free speech, the thought police are now popping up in secondary education as well ~

As managing editor of my high school newspaper, The Centralizer of Central High School in Philadelphia, I’ve always been concerned with the issue of censorship and free speech on campus. As I’ve learned from the past few weeks, the culture of micro-aggressions, safe spaces, and political correctness many of us lament arises not from a vacuum, but from the high school classroom.[…]
 
The article, headlined “A Case of Overreaction,” ironically enough elicited from students, alumni, and teachers the precise brand of mindless overreaction to which the article itself alluded. Students posted on Twitter that someone ought to “shoot” me, that I must be “dealt with,” and that I will “catch these hands” in the main hallway […]
 
I, as a student journalist, wrote an article that faculty approved. We published the article, I received threats against my life, and the response of the administration was censorship of my speech, silence on my security, and suppression of my editorial duties.

 
Indicted Detroit Principal Claims Robin Hood Status, Collected Six-Figure Paychecks ~ Robin Hood didn’t get $112,000 salary. Multiply this story by a couple hundred and you’ll begin to understand how the Motor City has become a disaster area ~

Wilbourn, who said in the story she considered herself like Robin Hood, was also quoted about her own financial problems: “We’re talking about systemic poverty and what does that look like?” she said. “Yes, I may have a Gucci bag or a pair of Cartier (glasses), but I don’t have any money for an emergency.”

And that would be whose fault?

 
Bankers & Investors Close Ranks & Doom Wind Industry to Death By A Thousand Cuts ~ Reality (and what remains of the free market) is catching up with windmills ~

The big operators have absolutely no interest in wind power; and every interest in killing off the Large-Scale RET (Renewable Energy Technology) that created, and for the time being sustains, the wind industry.
 
As pointed out previously, the retailers’ switch to large-scale solar is a canny, but fleeting move – designed to avoid the shortfall penalty for the few years it takes for the LRET to collapse; as the political and economic toxicity of the policy escalates over the next year or two.

 
Allowing Transgender Olympians Is Unfair To Women ~ When will this lunacy end??

To accommodate transgender athletes, many women will have to give up their dreams of Olympian gold. That goes for girls in everyday sports leagues, too […]
 
Aside from being wholly unfair and dangerous to women, your heart has to break for these athletes. Many are very young women who have trained all their lives to compete in the Olympics, in hopes they’ll bring home gold. Imagine being one of these girls as they watch a man identifying as one of them walk away with a medal he shouldn’t have. What’s worse is that in today’s political climate these girls will have to smile and pretend it’s wonderful, or else they will become public pariahs, with all the ridicule and non-endorsements that go with it.

 
Things are really getting surreal these days… 😯 Here, have a few laughs ~ You Should Probably Stop Worrying About the 2016 Election Because These Seven Things Suggest the End of the World Is Nigh

Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
The Democratic Party’s Choice: Lenin or Nurse Ratched ~ Daniel Greenfield with a hysterical recap of last Sunday’s debate.
 

Where the Boys Are Death by Demographics ~ As a result of massive Muslim migration, Sweden has now passed up China (with its one-child policy) as the nation with the biggest gender disparity ~

It took Beijing three decades of a ruthlessly enforced totalitarian crackdown to arrive at a sex imbalance of 119 boys for every 100 girls. Sweden has caught up in nothing flat simply by being the second most welcoming country of “Syrian” “refugees”.

 
Why Ted Cruz is the Smartest Wolf in the Pack ~ Interesting analysis from Fr. Longenecker, although it ends with: “A very smart man might be a great president…..or he might be the most dangerous candidate of all.” Hmmmm… Perhaps he’s referring to an altogether different candidate there (?)
 
After two ‘selfie deaths’, experts warn parents to tame children (Asia) ~ Tragically, this seems to be a growing worldwide trend ~

“There have been cases where youngsters have put themselves at unnecessary risk to take that one good picture. It is crucial that you draw a line between habit and obsessive behaviour,” Dr Ashish Mittal, consultant psychiatry at Columbia Asia Hospital in Gurgaon, told IANS.

Narcissism kills.

 
Fascinating Discovery Shows Unborn Baby’s Cells Go to Mom’s Brain and Body ~

(S)cientists are examining how the baby’s cells can travel through the placenta, into the mother’s bloodstream and then to her brain, liver and other organs […]
 
It appears these cells are often a beneficial gift from baby. Fetal cells can make collagen, which facilitates wound healing, and they may reduce the mother’s risk of rheumatoid arthritis. They may also help protect the mother from cancer…

The human body; awesomely designed by our Creator.

 
Will Smith’s ‘Fresh Prince’ Aunt Blasts Him Over Oscar Boycott ~ Actress Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Viv in the hit TV series, takes Smith to task for his whiny hypocrisy (video)
 
Fame, Fashion & Fascism: The Many Masks of David Bowie ~ Very thoughtful reflection from Joseph Pearce on the life of David Bowie ~

The saddest thing about the life of David Bowie is not the years he spent abusing his body sexually and chemically, but the years he spent failing to see the real presence of goodness, truth, and beauty because of what might be called the myopia of masks.

But in the end perhaps, a beautiful reflection on God’s eternal truth.

 
Dear Christians, If You Vote For A Godless Man, You Are Asking For Tyranny ~ Just a friendly little reminder from Matt Walsh, “Professional Truth Sayer.” Well worth your time, if your faith truly matters ~

Any Christian who is serious about his faith knows, first, that man separated from God cannot be trusted. Our faith and trust should be in God alone, and we can trust another man only to the extent that he has faith in God. A man who rejects God is a man with no true strength, no identity, and no fidelity to truth. A man who rejects God is a man spinning uncontrollably in the darkness; a man who soon becomes his own golden calf, his own idol, the center of his own universe. How could any Christian possibly choose to elevate such a man to our nation’s highest office?

Organisms Refusing to Evolve Over Millions of Years ~ How do the Darwinians explain tree shrews, squids and crustaceans that are perfectly happy with their genus/species and in “millions of years” show absolutely no inclination to evolve into anything else?

 
Oldest Christian monastery in Iraq is razed ~ Brought to you by the Religion-of-death-and-destruction

 
Clinton: ‘Detroit students and teachers deserve better’ ~ Pigs fly! I actually agree with Hillary! Motown’s been run by corrupt leftists like her for decades.
In a related article ~ Don’t Blame Lack of Money for Deplorable Conditions in Detroit Schools ~ Dems first reaction to any problem is to throw tons of taxpayer dollars at it; which just attracts flocks of greedy vultures ~

Detroit Public Schools received more money per pupil in the 2013-14 school year than any of the state’s 10 largest school districts. Detroit got $12,931 in local, state and federal funding for operations, compared to the statewide average of $9,121 (see attached chart). To cite just one comparison, that year Detroit received about $4,400 more per pupil than the Chippewa Valley School District ($8,549), which is just 30 miles away from Detroit.

 
Study: Franchise Workers Will Lose Out on Minimum Wage Hikes ~
Majority of small business owners say they’d replace workers with robots

See? Always with the more money. The Left is just stuck-on-stupid with this reality-defying $15/hr demand.

 
The Mystery of Snowflakes ~ Although the east coasters currently experiencing “the Blizzard of 2016” may not fully appreciate them at the moment ~

No two snowflakes are ever alike because the conditions in which they were created cannot be exactly duplicated.