Blog Heap of Links for the day 19 February 2016

*LIVE* MIGRATION CRISIS COVERAGE
Great American Hero Who Saved Hundreds of Lives at Garland Texas Free Speech Muhammad Event Named
ByPAMELA GELLER on February 18, 2016
JIHAD IN AMERICA 37 Comments
muhammad garland
Jurors at the trial of the third jihadi accused of helping plan an attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas were shown evidence Thursday found in the aftermath of the gunfire, including two ISIS flags.

Other items recovered from the scene of the May 3 attack in Garland, Texas, included three assault rifles, three pistols, bulletproof vests, a large supply of ammunition and a book titled, “Fortress of the Muslim.”

But the most significant piece of information to come out of the trial today was the name of the Texas hero who saved hundreds of lives: Garland Officer Gregory Stevens.…

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT filed a motion this morning asking a federal court to compel Apple to help the FBI hack into an iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooter suspects.… Apple responded on Friday evening saying the FBI changed the password to Farook’s phone and then forgot it.… Apple could have recovered information from the iPhone had the iCloud password not been reset,…

…A reporter asked [Mark] Levin, “What do you make of Marco Rubio not being on the schedule?”

“This is a conservative convention. First he said he was coming. Then he didn’t come. So the voters can draw their own conclusions from that,” he answered.…

“Maybe he had a meeting with the Ripon society or something. Or LULAC [League of United Latin American Citizens], or La Raza.

“It was pretty damn rude of Rubio, quite frankly. It is up to him to do what he wants to do, but … we had several thousand people to hear what he wanted to say,…”

Sen. Marco Rubio canceled his scheduled appearance at the Conservative Review Conference in South Carolina five minutes before he was slated to go on stage.

Conservative Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) harshly criticized Rubio on his amnesty positions right before the Florida senator was supposed to go on stage.…

Rubio’s campaign offered an explanation. “FYI – Because of a delay in today’s schedule, Marco is unable to make the event below tonight.…

…The real reason the war on cash is gearing up now is political: Politicians and central bankers fear that holders of currency could undermine their brave new monetary world of negative interest rates.… Negative rates are a tax on deposits with banks, with the goal of prodding depositors to remove their cash and spend it to increase economic demand. But that goal will be undermined if citizens hoard cash. And hoarding cash is easier if you can take your deposits out in large-denomination bills you can stick in a safe.…

…After the uproar from pundits, religious leaders and Christians who believe in state borders, the Vatican tried desperately tried to clarify the pope’s remarks today. Rev. Federico Lombardi told Vatican radio on Friday the comments were “in no way a personal attack” on Donald Trump. … The remarks by Pope Francis were in response to a direct question on Donald Trump, were directed at Trump and were an attack on Donald Trump. This Vatican is not being honest.…

The discovery of yet another period of interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals is adding to the growing sense that sexual encounters among different ancient human species were commonplace throughout their history. …

…over the past several years, discoveries have begun to yield some tantalizing clues about the end of the Ediacaran. Evidence gathered from the Namibian reefs and other sites suggests that earlier theories were overly simplistic — that the Cambrian explosion actually emerged out of a complex interplay between small environmental changes that triggered major evolutionary developments.

Some scientists now think that a small, perhaps temporary, increase in oxygen suddenly crossed an ecological threshold, enabling the emergence of predators. The rise of carnivory would have set off an evolutionary arms race that led to the burst of complex body types and behaviours that fill the oceans today.…

But last year, a major study1 of ancient sea-floor sediments challenged that view.… oxygen could already have been abundant enough “for a long, long time before”.… The gradual emergence of predators, driven by a small rise in oxygen, would have meant trouble for Ediacaran animals that lacked obvious defences.…

Our legal team, the AFLC, has taken on the case of the Oklahoma gun range that was targeted in a jihad sting by designated terror group CAIR. On February 17, 2016, Raja’ee Fatihah, a board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Oklahoma, with the assistance of CAIR legal counsel and the ACLU, sued Chad (a disabled Iraqi war veteran) and Nicole Neal, the owners of the Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gun Range, which is located in Oktaha, Oklahoma.…

…alleges that he was not permitted to use the Neal’s firing range because he was Muslim… But the facts will prove otherwise…

A car bomb that exploded in Ankara, killing 28 people, and a bomb that exploded at a Turkish cultural center in Stockholm (causing no injuries) may both be the work of Kurdish separatists, reacting to Turkey’s ongoing military offensive against the Kurds in both Turkey and Syria.

Meanwhile, European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos has written to the Austrian interior minister, warning her that Austria’s decision to cap the number of migrants entering the country is forbidden under EU regulations and international law. …

… On this day in 1807 former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr was arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert. He was later acquitted…

Ted Cruz at the Conservative Review Convention, 2/18/2016. It shows a fantastic speech from the senator, and a fired up, conservative crowd. …