Blog Heap of Links for the day 23 January 2016

… NSA Chief Says U.S. at ‘Tipping Point’ on Cyberweapons

Policy makers largely agree on rules of engagement for defense, but offense still undecided.… still an open discussion, however, about when cyberweapons should be used for “offense,” such as carrying out attacks against a group or foreign country.…

I set about gathering reports on the Islamic advance across the West with the plan to write up one week's worth of information. However, at the mid-week point it became clear that the post would be much too long if I went the entire week. So I stopped. What you find below is a sample of overt and abject barbarism; stealth advance; and Western weakness, stupidity, and dhimmitude that unfolded in just under four days…

…Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a first-grade teacher conducted an unapproved classroom experiment without notifying the school or parents. Kids, ages 7 and 8, were separated by eye color, then discriminated against for several hours. …“Everybody in the class was crying.”…

Gun manufacturers could be sued by victims of gun violence under new legislation from Democrats.

The Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act would roll back long-standing protections enjoyed by the gun industry that shields it from many lawsuits.…

…“If you’re a carmaker and your airbags kill someone, you’re potentially liable… If you’re a pharmaceutical company and sell faulty drugs, you can be held liable. If you’re a liquor store and sell alcohol to minors, you can be held liable."

…Retired Reverend Richard Chartres said the two vicars have grown full beards "of an opulence that would not have disgraced a Victorian sage" and is applauding their efforts to share in the culture of the East End's majority Muslim population.…

Last year’s historic deal between Tehran and the world powers has apparently left a mark on Iran’s political jargon, as evidenced by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s choice this week to refer to the United States as “the Great False Idol” instead of the traditional “Great Satan.” …

…Staff Sgt. Robert Van Hook, a critical skills operator with the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, was presented with the Silver Star on Jan. 15. …credited with “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy” while serving as the element leader of Marine Special Operations Team 8224 while deployed to Afghanistan's Herat province in 2013…

“Any Raider could have been switched out with me and done the same exact thing,” he said. “A Raider isn’t going to let anybody down: not the brothers that went before him, not the Marine beside him. He might have done it differently, but he would have got the job done.”…

The 12 Marines who went missing after their two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters apparently crashed off the coast of Hawaii during a nighttime training mission last Thursday evening have officially been declared dead.…

…Arkansas teen …Anthony Bauswell, 18, has the rebel flag inked on his rib, with the words 'Southern Pride' emblazoned underneath. Bauswell was in the process of enlisting at the Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Conway on Monday when the recruiter said it made him ineligible. …

An Oklahoma state senator is proposing changes to the controversial "stand-your-ground" law.… Sen. Kevin Matthews is making a push for residents to have to retreat first, if possible, before using deadly force.

“This law almost gives an excuse for killing somebody when another option is available,” Matthews said.…

The German government has admitted that 600,000 “refugees” (more than half the total number that arrived in 2015) have gone missing. They may have absconded to other EU countries, or they may still be in Germany — there’s no way to tell.

In other news, a man with a gun entered a school in northern Saskatchewan and shot seven people, killing five of them (some reports say four). Many observers expressed surprise that such a tragedy could occur in Canada, which has very strict gun control laws. …

According to various media reports, forces fighting for the Islamic State have attacked the oil terminal of Ras Lanuf in Libya. Photos published with the reports show a huge column of black smoke rising above the terminal.

In other news, decades after diphtheria was eradicated from Denmark, the highly contagious disease has reentered the country along with recently arrived “refugees”. …

The International Olympic Committee will now allow transgender men to compete as women without reassignment surgery. …

…“Medicare for All.” …$19.6 trillion in tax increases. …loves him some Fidel Castro. …loves him some Soviet Union.…

…“And you know what else they say about my people? The polls! They say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters. It’s incredible.”…

…“Let me be clear – I am pro-life,” Trump wrote in a Washington Examiner op-ed. "…I support that position with exceptions allowed for rape, incest or the life of the mother being at risk… I did not always hold this position, but I had a significant personal experience that brought the precious gift of life into perspective for me. …

First up, the GOP front-runner came out against letting states control public lands now run by the federal government saying, “I don’t like the idea because I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know what the state is going to do”:lands…

Speaking to a crowd in Las Vegas Thursday night, Donald Trump said he’d be part of the establishment if elected;… "And you know what, there’s a point at which, let’s get to be a little bit establishment, because we gotta get things done, folks, okay?"…

El Trumpo deleted a campaign video this morning because even though it was about supporting U.S. veterans, it had a picture of a Russian soldier instead!!…

This isn’t the first time he’s done this – earlier he had actually put a picture of NAZI soldiers into an ad!!

Republican voters have a very stark choice facing them: Do they vote for the candidate who promises to resurrect American greatness through the power of his will, or do they vote for the candidate who promises to resurrect American greatness by recognizing the Constitution’s centrality in American governance? …There’s no room in Trump’s rhetoric for the Constitution. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the only allusion Trump has made during the primary season to the Constitution is to express support for the Second Amendment (and believe me, I appreciate that). … As best as I can tell, Ted Cruz is the only candidate who has true reverence for the Constitution, seeing it as the sublime document that it is. …

…Orrin Hatch, Bob Dole, Lindsey Graham… The fact that Ted Cruz makes these do-nothing, limp-wristed appeasers crap their pants in terror only makes me like Cruz more. And, on the flipside, the fact that these do-nothing, limp-wristed appeasers are suddenly warming up to Donald Trump as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio fail to gain any traction leads me to be even more suspicious of the New York moderate.…