Blog Heap of Links for the day 11 April 2015

President Barack Obama… is warning Christian parents that the federal government wants their kids. This is not how the story is being reported, however. …

New research indicates that William Shakespeare wrote a "lost" play, "Double Falsehood," that had been attributed to Lewis Theobald. Here's a look at the poet and playwright's vast influence, which lives on almost 400 years after his death.…

The Oklahoma Republican Party ousted its chairman on Saturday despite the party's November election success in increasing its majority control of both chambers of the state Legislature, winning every statewide elected office, all five U.S. House and both U.S. Senate seats.

The party elected former state Sen. Randy Brogdon as its new chairman, replacing Dave Weston. Party spokeswoman Courtney Blossey said Brogdon defeated long-time GOP activist Pam Pollard in a runoff after Weston was earlier eliminated from the race. …

Brogdon thanked Weston for his leadership, and said he does not think the vote was a repudiation of Weston.

"It's not necessarily someone doing a bad job, just people wanted a change," Brogdon said. "I've always been a grass-roots campaigner ... we just had more of our people there."

Brogdon said he wants the party to become more conservative, supporting limited government and individual freedom.

"I want to move the party in the 'right' direction," Brogdon said, meaning that he wants to move it politically to the right, not that it's been going in the wrong direction. …

…The decision makes it a lot harder for producers to be hit with aggressive infringement lawsuits. The company that owns the patent in question, Personal Audio, says it invented podcasting. In 2013, it began going around to podcast-makers, threatening to take them to court unless they paid a licensing fee. … "We’re glad the Patent Office recognized what we all knew: ‘podcasting’ had been around for many years and this company does not own it," said Daniel Nazer, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which called for the patent's invalidation. …

When identity politics intersect with liberal judicial activism, expect bizarre results.… Punishing criminals is a basic state function, and deciding how (and at what expense) to run prisons is a quintessential legislative judgment. As long as prisoners are adequately fed and housed and are not arbitrarily abused, it should be of no concern to a judge—and especially a federal judge—whether prisoners have access to color TV, air-conditioning, recreational facilities, or elective medical procedures. Serving a prison sentence is a punishment; it is not supposed to be enjoyable.

It is nonsensical to grant imprisoned convicted felons health-care “entitlements” that many law-abiding, hardworking taxpayers don’t enjoy. One hopes that the state appeals Judge Tigar’s unprecedented ruling. Unless resisted, jurismania will destroy popular sovereignty. …

…So Charlie Hebdo's nationally beloved cartoonists were massacred and yet, [Doonesbury creator Garry] Trudeau thinks its helpful to contextualize their deaths by characterizing them as hate-spewing fanatics. …

…Historians say that visit to Randall's [grocery] shattered his belief in communism once-and-for-all... two years later, he was the reform-minded president of a non-communist Russia.

…“Just because you’re black doesn’t mean you’re a victim. Just because you’re white doesn’t mean you’re a racist. Just because you’re a cop doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. This world really needs to stop putting labels on people and things and see them as who they are. People. Doing Jobs. Doing things. Ignorance has no color. God doesn’t see color. Why should we?”…

[This is great, a total non-news story. "Nothing happened." Life as it ought to be, unremarkably. Video, 2:10, Caleb Rechten, YouTube]

On Wednesday, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed a gathering at the White House that focused on the topic of creating opportunity for Native American youth… "Folks in Indian Country didn’t just wake up one day with addiction problems. Poverty and violence didn’t just randomly happen to this community. These issues are the result of a long history of systematic discrimination and abuse. … we literally made their culture illegal. … I could continue on like this for hours. …"

Whittle, Krauthammer, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Klavan, Washington Free Beacon, C Steven Tucker, Trifecta, School Choice Rally, WAKE UP! says Sheriff, and the Life and Death of Severus Snape.

A planned discussion in the Finnish parliament featuring Lars Vilks has been cancelled. The appearance by the Modoggie Man was taken off the calendar after a threat assessment by the Finnish security police (Supo).

In other news, the leader of the largest jihad group in Libya has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Meanwhile, a Tunisian group calling itself “Soldiers of the Caliphate” is threatening jihad within Tunisia, using ISIS’ Twitter feed to send messages and pictures.

On the home front, a would-be mujahid named John T. Booker, a.k.a. Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was arrested by the FBI for planning a suicide bomb attack on Fort Riley in Kansas. …

Lots o' links. Like…

Bill Clinton Takes Oath of Office in Chicken Suit?

Vic sets everyone on the right track first thing in the morning. Or later, if you please.

"…On this day in 1951 Democrat Harry Truman relieved Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.…"

The hilarious and the dopey.

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