Blog Heap of Links for the day 19 January 2016

Islamic State militants have enslaved an estimated 3,500 people in Iraq, primarily women and children from the Yazidi community, a UN report says.

The report says the terror group has committed atrocities in Iraq that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.…

…Driven into the area in the back of a Toyota pickup truck, eight brave SAS soldiers were decked out head-to-toe in female Muslim attire, posing as the wives of militants in the area to gain access. Under their full black dresses were grenades, tactical rifles, and every other Special Forces goodie you could imagine, and the team used it all to wreak havoc on the Islamic scum.

As they made their way through town, the British soldiers radioed coordinates of the commander’s home to an Air Force plane circling high above the town, which then sent a Reaper drone to launch a hellfire missile into the building, vaporizing everyone inside. However, the blast caused Daesh militant to go on high alert, and the SAS soldiers ended up having to fight their way out of town.…

A friend of mine whose parents grew up in East Germany once told me that the Stasi would have loved Facebook. “Millions of people voluntarily offering up their personal lives, their addresses, their photos,” she said. “The Stasi had to force people to do that!” …A power the Stasi — or, yes, the Gestapo — could only dream of has been handed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. At her behest, the social network has begun a Europe-wide campaign to counter so-called “hate speech” on its platform. It is also working with a German publisher to remove “racist” posts in Germany. …

Still don’t believe Media Matters functions as a propaganda machine to aid and abet Hillary Clinton’s political aspirations? Just read its response to a Vanity Fair article titled Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?

The left-wing attack machine wasted no time in posting an article with false information and smears in order to protect the Clinton campaign. …

Inpouring rivers of hydrogen gas could explain how spiral galaxies maintain the constant star formation that dominates their hearts, a new study reports.… "We knew that the fuel for star formation had to come from somewhere…"

Univision Communications Inc., the parent company to the nation's leading Spanish-language broadcast channel, has acquired a controlling stake in the satirical news site The Onion…

The most plausible explanation for the 10 riverine sailors captured by Iran …

…I used to be such a mush-headed product of the Lefty education system that I tolerated the intolerable for way too long. It was only when she decided that her special snowflake identity was as a vampire that my reason started to reassert itself. …

NASA has released an incredible image of the haze layers in Pluto’s atmosphere taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. The processed image is the highest-resolution color look yet at the haze layers…

A Twin Cities great-grandfather is getting a lot of attention for a video showing him shoveling his neighbor’s sidewalk. … “I’ve always been active, always doing something,” St. Paul resident Richard Mann said.… Mann says he was just doing his neighbor a favor and not expecting anything in return, just as he was taught growing up.…

I’m so pleased to report that Caped Crusader, after a devastating illness, is well on his way to recovery. A large number of these superb posters are from him. Welcome back, friend!…

The Slovenian government says that if Germany and Austria continue with tightening border controls, it will suspend the Schengen rules itself. When Vienna imposes limits on the number of migrants that can enter Austria, Slovenia will do the same at its own borders.

In other news, private security guards are being used to patrol some streets in the Hague, handling issues that the Dutch police don’t have time for. …

…On this day in 1977 it snowed in Miami. This is the only time in the history of the city that snow has fallen.…

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared to walk back his campaign spokesman’s earlier comments about Gov. Sarah Palin’s expected endorsement of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in Ames, Iowa on Tuesday evening.

Cruz posted on Twitter:

I love @SarahPalinUSA Without her support, I wouldn’t be in the Senate. Regardless of what she does in 2016, I will always be a big fan.

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 19, 2016 …