Blog Heap of Links for the day 8 January 2016

Reports from Philadelphia are that a cop was ambushed by a man that said he did it for Islam.…The police are saying it had absolutely nothing to do with the teachings and tenets of Islam …

NORMAN, Oklahoma - A judge in Oklahoma ruled Friday that there is enough evidence to go forward with a trial against the suspect in the Moore workplace beheading. …

Nashat Milhem, the Israeli Arab gunman who killed two people at cafes in Tel Aviv a week ago and who is believed responsible for killing an Israeli Bedouin cab driver, had been on the run since the shooting. After a massive manhunt, Milhem was located near his hometown in northern Israel and was killed today by Israeli police. …

…On the same day they posted Death to all Jews on the Palestinian page and Death To All Palestinians on the Israeli page.

Then they reported each page to Facebook.

What do you think happened?…

Gov. Greg Abbott, aiming to spark a national conversation about states’ rights, said Friday that he wants Texas to lead the call for a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution and wrest power from a federal government “run amok.”…

…Instances of volcanic eruptions are their highest for 300 years and scientists fear a major one that could kill millions and devastate the planet is a real possibility.

Experts at the European Science Foundation said volcanoes – especially super-volcanoes like the one at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, which has a caldera measuring 34 by 45 miles (55 by 72 km) - pose more threat to Earth and the survival of humans than asteroids, earthquakes, nuclear war and global warming. …The chance of such as eruption happening at one of the major volcanoes within 80 years is put at five to ten per cent by the experts.…

…According to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, Netanyahu will make common cause with moderate Arab governments in order to sabotage Obama’s plan to succeed Ban Ki-moon when the South Korean diplomat ends his term as United Nations secretary-general on December 31 of this year.…

A bill has been filed in the Indiana state House that would end mandatory government licensing of marriages in the state, effectively nullifying in practice both major sides of the contentious national debate over government-sanctioned marriage.…

Thousands of Oklahomans were rocked by several strong earthquakes late Wednesday and early Thursday.

Overall, nearly twenty have been recorded in the past 24 hours.

They weren't just frequent, they were strong, too. Now, several people are wondering what could be next to come.…

…The New York-based Center for Reproductive rights asked Oklahoma County District Judge Thomas Prince on Friday to prevent the [Oklahoma] law from going into effect. …law encompasses four abortion-related topics: minors and parental consent; tissue preservation; inspection of clinics and legal liability for abortion providers. …

Reporter Instantly Regrets Question On Live TV

More slate blackboards with well-preserved writings and drawings dating to 1917 have been uncovered at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City.…

…Where I came from, China had killed thousands of the students by its own government during the massacre of Tian An Men square in 1989. I surely wish my fellow Chinese citizens back then had guns like this one I am holding in the picture.

I am a Chinese immigrant and an American citizen by choice. I once was a slave before and I will never be one again.…

A number of states will consider bills to reform state asset forfeiture laws during the upcoming legislative session. One special interest group opposing the reform movement shows why so many people call asset forfeiture “policing for profit.”

The Oklahoma bill, along with legislation introduced in other states, would require a criminal conviction before law enforcement and prosecutors can proceed with asset forfeiture. It’s hard to imagine how anybody could oppose such a reform. No person should have their property confiscated if they did not commit a crime. But prosecutors and law enforcement lobbyists in Oklahoma do indeed oppose the reform – passionately. …

ZHUSHIGANG, China — Days after photographs of a giant, golden statue of Mao spread across the Internet, drawing ridicule for its grandiosity amid the bare fields of Henan Province, the statue has been quickly torn down.…

The latest video from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb promises attacks on Rome, Naples, and Madrid. Another video by the same group shows a Malian AQ leader calling for attacks on France.

In other news, gunmen fired on an Israeli tour bus near the Pyramids in Egypt, but no one was injured. The tourists on the bus were Israeli Arabs. …

…On this day in 1964 LBJ declared "War on Poverty" in the United States. He lost and we are still shoveling out billions. …

An Iraqi refugee has been arrested in Houston as part of an investigation into an alleged terrorist plot… California- Criminal complaint against the suspect, 23, accuses him of lying to immigration authorities about activities overseas…