Blog Heap of Links for the day 15 August 2015

As the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war looms, two would-be suicide pilots described how they prepared to die for their emperor and country…

By now you’ve probably watched a few hilarious rants from the “Stump For Trump” ladies. And even if you don’t agree with them on absolutely everything, they do make some good points and can give you a good laugh.

According to this, they were scheduled to go on MSNBC with Steve Kornacki. They dedicated around 4 hours preparing for their appearance, but MSNBC cancelled them at the last minute after they refused to give them their home address, the names of their children and the names of their employers.…

John Kerry In Cuba: “I Feel Very Much At Home Here”

Headline: Oklahoma Gun Range Causes Outrage With Racist Sign That Business Is 'Muslim Free'

The EPA is reportedly trying to strong-arm Navajo Indian leaders to sign away their rights to future claims against the agency from the Gold King Mine disaster.…

Six decades after "Gunsmoke" debuted on television, several actors who appeared in the show, including Burt Reynolds, are scheduled to reunite in Dodge City. … "Gunsmoke" ran on CBS from 1955 through 1975 and was nominated for more than a dozen Emmys. … Other key actors from the show have died, including James Arness, who starred as Matt Dillon; Amanda Blake, who played Miss Kitty; and Milburn Stone, who was Doc Adams.

They stood together in the dugout at Shea Stadium and stared. It was Aug. 15, 1965, and the Beatles had just been flown into Queens by helicopter and hustled through a stadium shaking with screams.

There had never been an outdoor concert of this scale—a sold-out sports stadium. As archival footage shows, teenagers clawed at the metal fences behind home plate, and more than 55,000 fans pressed forward for their first glimpse. Raw shrieks ripped the air.…

Wiley Post didn’t have time to react when the plane he was piloting began to sputter after taking off near Point Barrow, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 1935 — 80 years ago today — on what was supposed to be a 10-minute flight.

The Lockheed Orion Explorer included a massive 550-horsepower engine and, when it began to misfire and lose power, the plane tilted to the right and plunged 60 feet into the ground. The force of the impact drove the engine into the fuselage, killing Post and Oklahoma’s favorite son, Will Rogers.…

It was an unscripted moment like few others on the presidential campaign trail Monday in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Ted Cruz paused for a moment and looked into the audience at a community center for a man who changed his family’s life.

“I was told Pastor Gaylon Wiley was here…”

……whale appeared to be asking for help as it swam closely to their boats … One of the men removed fishing lines and rubbish bags out of its mouth … whale apparently showed its appreciation by flapping its fin…

Here are the latest standings of conservative news and opinion sites, which are ordered using theirAlexa traffic rankings. Yes, some of these are center-right, libertarian, or more middle-of-the-road sites, but they are included because they do publish center-right opinion pieces on a regular basis.

…"Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body,” Carter said in the statement released by the Carter Center. “I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare.”…

…“Now I’m in their crosshairs again,” she said reminding them of the opposing corporations and “right wing operatives” that were trying to block her agenda.

“Now they’ll try and tell you that this is about Benghazi, but it’s not,” she said, referring to the attacks as a “tragedy” that should be prevented in the future.

“It’s not about Benghazi, and you know what, it’s not about emails or servers either, it’s about politics,” she shouted.…