Blog Heap of Links for the day 14 June 2015

The latest religious minority to be caught in the Syrian crossfire are the Druze, who have long enjoyed the protection of the Assad regime, but now find themselves under attack from the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front and could soon look to Israel for help.

The slaughter Wednesday of more than 20 members of Syria's Druze community, a monotheistic religion that incorporates elements including philosophy, Judaisim, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, could signal a coming humanitarian crisis, according to officials in Israel, which has a sizeable Druze population of its own….

Israel, whose Druze community is generally well-regarded, has so far stayed out of the Syrian war. But recent events have prompted speculation that Israel could move to aid Syria's Druze population considering the faith's status in the Jewish State.…

The historic Christian Syrian town of Maaloula celebrated Saturday as a new statue of the Virgin Mary was erected in its center, replacing the figure destroyed in rebel attacks in 2013.

Dozens of families gathered alongside government officials and religious dignitaries in the main square, which was adorned with government flags and a giant portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.…

As we all know, Pamela Geller’s home address has been outed.

Most people think it was Islam that outed her, it wasn’t. It was CBS.

Specifically, it was Inside Edition.

More specifically it was this guy-

[photo: Steven Fabian]

Just wanted to make this clear.

The Clinton administration had bankrupted the intelligence community and refused to let the CIA prioritize anti-terrorism over other major priorities in the late 1990s, leaving the agency stretched too thin in the days ahead of the 2001 terrorist attacks, former Director George J. Tenet said in a 2005 document declassified Friday.

AUSTIN, Tex. (June 12, 2015) – Today, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill establishing the nation’s first state-level gold depository, an important first step towards gold and silver as commonly-used legal tender in the state. … Professor William Greene is an expert on constitutional tender and said in a paper for the Mises Institute that when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve Notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money. …

Calling it a salute to the “genius” of the country’s founding fathers, Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday signed legislation allowing Texans with licenses to openly tote their handguns in a hip or shoulder holster. The signing… came at Red’s Indoor Range, a popular gun store and shooting range in Pflugerville. Abbott said he would also sign legislation later in the day that requires the state’s public universities and colleges to allow handguns on campus buildings and in dorms.

“There is nothing more important in democracy than the voice of the people stepping up and saying ‘We expect the Constitution of the United States of America to be our guiding doctrine,’” he said.

The home address of the Counterjihad blogger and activist Pamela Geller has been tweeted by the Islamic State. An ISIS tweet posted Ms. Geller’s address in New York, including her apartment number, and advised believers to go forth and kill her. The Twitter account involved has since been taken down. Ms. Geller was relieved to learn that the threat had nothing to do with Islam.

In other Twitter news, a British Muslim activist for MPAC said in a tweet that agents for the Mossad had entered his home while he was asleep and removed one of his shoes.