Blog Heap of Links for the day 17 May 2015

Sister Diana Momeka, OP, finally made it from Kurdistan to Congress to testify about the fate of the Nineveh Christians among whom she lived before ISIS invaded Mosul. …

[Video & text of her talk.]

Boko Haram has suited up 600 women with bomb packs for suicide missions in Borno State.…

The Afghan Taliban justified targeting foreigners after a brazen hours-long siege on a Kabul guesthouse that killed 14 people… Four Indians, two Pakistanis, an American, an Italian and a British-Afghan dual national were among those killed in Wednesday’s attack on Park Palace, located in downtown Kabul and popular with international aid agency workers.

“Every foreigner from an invading country especially NATO is considered an invader. We don’t classify any of them as civilian,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a Twitter posting on Friday.

Islamic State fighters took control of Ramadi, Iraq on Saturday. The ISIS rebels immediately began public executions of anti-ISIL fighters.…

A prominent hacker and security researcher who was kicked off a United Airlines flight last month had previously admitted to the FBI that he had taken control of a plane and made it fly sideways.

Mitt Romney… 68-year-old former Massachusetts governor lost to retired professional boxer Evander Holyfield in the second round of a charity match in Salt Lake City on Friday.…

…2012 federal transportation bill designated Broadway and 7th Avenue [Times Square NYC] as federal highways… subject to the billboard limits… Federal officials say they are working with the city to try to find some way to keep they signs from having to be removed.

[EARLIER Nicole Winfield / AP STORY, BY WAY OF Mark Tapson, TRUTH REVOLT, BOTH AP AND TR PAGES SEEMINGLY REMOVED NOW]

Pope Francis praised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as an "angel of peace" during a meeting today at the Vatican.…

[UPDATE 2015-05-17 BY chrissythehyphented AT POLINATION: Pope Francis prayed that Abbas would be an Angel of Peace.]

The US spends more than 17 times that of socialist China on social programs!…

A guitar George Harrison played at a time when Beatlemania was taking flight… 1963 Mastersound electric guitar went for $490,000… at a New York auction.…

The moonfish, which are about the size of a manhole cover, is now considered the first-known warm-blooded fish, scientists report in the journal Science. Through some physiological tricks, the fish is able to keep its entire body — heart, brain, swimming muscles and viscera — warmer than the surrounding water.

The bodies of all eight people on board the U.S. Marine helicopter that disappeared this week during a relief mission in earthquake-hit Nepal have been recovered, Nepal's army said Saturday.… [I have seen no word on why this helicopter might have gone down.]

Today’s lessons… an atheist is like colorblind person looking at a rainbow—Texas ain’t France, and liberals are all for free speech with rules. …

Some funnies are funny. Some make you sad.

Reaganite Sunday Funnies, "committed to excellense."

Hillary Clinton has forced the online store Zazzle to remove from its site a bumper sticker mocking her presidential campaign over an alleged trademark infringement.

The bumper sticker was offered by Marinka Peschmann, an author who published two investigative books about the Clintons…