Blog Heap of Links for the day 25 February 2016

…Despite Twitter’s shady dealings, conservatives should not leave twitter for several reasons. …if conservatives leave, nobody will be around to expose Twitter’s duplicity. …if conservatives abandon Twitter, it just cedes the territory to liberals, again. …using Twitter frankly doesn’t make Twitter or its shareholders any money. …quitting Twitter just won’t work. …quitting Twitter is something the liberal, social justice warrior, safe spacers would do.…

…What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.

Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsored paramilitaries on motorcycles roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting.

People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shooting tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We have videos of soldiers shooting civilians on the street.…

Wednesday morning, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, dismissed the remaining charge against former Gov. Rick Perry. …indicted in 2014 by a Travis County grand jury for abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant… The coercion charge had been tossed out by the Third Court of Appeals in Austin last year on First Amendment grounds, and this dismissal now puts the rest of the case to an end.… It’s a victory, but a bittersweet one, coming months after Perry suspended his presidential campaign. This has been a tough year for any candidate to get traction against Donald Trump, but pending criminal charges made it even more difficult for Perry…

…the main reason I'd discourage feeding cats "people food" is that there are a number of foods that are toxic to cats.…

A Krystal restaurant in Alabama has come under fire after it was alleged that its staff refused to service a local police officer.… …officer’s wife… posted about the incident to Facebook… post has gone viral with many people slamming the company…

A 14-year-old girl carrying two knives went on a stabbing rampage in a Toronto high school, wounding eight people. The alleged suspected perpetrator is now in custody. Victims were apparently selected at random, and no motive has been established, but the attacker reportedly wore a long black coat, and was known to change her first name frequently.

In other news, the Slovenian parliament has approved the use of army troops to supplement the border police and help protect the country’s borders.…

The Finnish movement “Soldiers of Odin” has spread to Norway, where a group by that name is now patrolling the streets to protect native Norwegians against immigrant violence.

In other Norwegian news, Prime Minister Erna Solberg warns that Norway will have to abandon international law if the political order in Sweden collapses. Any mass influx of refugees across the border from Sweden will cause Norway to withdraw from the Schengen Agreement and the Geneva Convention, and all migrants coming from Sweden will be deported without being allowed to apply for asylum.…

…No matter how careful I think I am entering data over the year, I always discover so many mistakes when it’s time to make the report for her. Sigh. Anyway, it’s round-up time…

… On this day in 1836 Samuel Colt was granted a patent for the Colt revolver. The ironic thing about that was he made a rifle first before his first revolver.…