Blog Heap of Links for the day 24 April 2016

…More than 15 years after Western leaders declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan, the insurgents now control more territory than at any time since.… Western leaders want to pretend the war is over and the media has been falling in line, even though 12,000 NATO troops are still there, including 9,800 Americans and 500 Brits. The wife of one deployed British soldier told me the Post Office refused to take her care package, assuring her “all the troops left long ago.” …

A university professor has been hacked to death in Bangladesh, in an attack police say is similar to killings of secular bloggers and atheists by suspected Islamist extremists.… for "calling to atheism"… [claim] IS-linked Amaq Agency… colleagues earlier said that he had not written anything controversial and was not an atheist…

Chicago Tribune Editorial Board member Clarence Page argued…

The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift argued…

MSNBC’s Joy Reid reacted Saturday…

When I first encountered the idea that body pH was important to health, it made total sense to me. …

A recent West Texas thunderstorm sparked a raging inferno at an oil storage facility near Ozona, Texas. The location was so remote that it took over 30 minutes for firefighters to arrive.… …

…Target itself has had incidents of predators threatening children in its bathrooms. Only weeks ago such an incident occurred in a Cedar Park, Texas store.

But there are dozens of such stories over the last 16 months or so highlighting the problem with setting policies that would make access to public restrooms easier for predators.…

The Blue Man Group is the latest musical act to cancel shows in North Carolina…

A Satanic group is scheduled to hold a “black mass” at the government-owned Oklahoma City Civic Center in August, prompting more than 107,000 people to sign an online petition demanding that the event be cancelled.…

Lawmakers in Oklahoma have passed a resolution that will place on the November ballot the question of whether or not a section of the state constitution should be abolished that was used as the basis for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument at the state capitol.…

…now to the posters, good ones all. Some, by the way, might be duplicates. I fell a little behind on my “file” housekeeping this week.

During her trip to Turkey, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited a refugee camp in Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, accompanied by EU Council President Donald Tusk, EU Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Critics of the gesture maintain that the camp Mrs. Merkel visited had been “sanitized”, and did not show the actual conditions that refugees in the area suffer.

In other news, eight people were murdered execution-style in four different locations in Ohio. All the victims were members of the same family, and the youngest was sixteen. Police have a person of interest in custody, but at least one additional perpetrator is thought to be at large.…

Did Trump Buy Off Cuomo To Protect His Bogus University?
Donald Trump says he buys favors from politicians with campaign donations. That could be why Andrew Cuomo as attorney general didn’t prosecute Trump University.

Ted Cruz Gives Perfect Response to Gay Marriage Question
Senator Ted Cruz was on Good Morning America Monday morning for a live town hall event. When asked about his feelings on gay marriage, here is what he had to say

Please DO NOT SHARE this “Bernie is My Comrade” graphic
Nasty lawyer letter claims trademark infringement. Can you say Streisandski Effect?…

• Japan’s Next Generation of Farmers Could Be Robots
• UCLA Student Calls Police over ‘Hateful’ Chalk Messages
• Nooo! Cracker Jack Ending Toy Prizes In Favor of Digital Codes…

…Now, before we get the Cruz campaign response let me just say one thing: how stupid are you people? Do you honestly believe that if someone were giving out a bribe to a delegate they would do it in front of an enormous crowd, at a campaign stop? Are you complete and utter morons?

If you shared this video you probably are.

I mean honestly, you have shamed your family and every one of your ancestors by your abject idiocy if you shared that with the dim-witted expectation that it’s actually proof of a bribe.…