Why Islamic State wants to destroy the treasures of the ancient world; Tim Tebow Interview: ‘I Know Where My Identity Lies’...more links

 Why Islamic State wants to destroy the treasures of the ancient world  ...Experts say the wave of wreckage amounts to cultural cleansing – a deliberate bid to erase the traces of centuries of sectarian coexistence, a notion that is anathema to Islamic State.

“The destruction is not just of physical structures – it’s the texture of the city and the lives of its different communities,” said Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.

And Islamic State is known to have reaped significant revenue from black-market trafficking in archaeological relics. The group “considers antiquities a natural resource, like mining or oil,” said Christopher Jones, a Columbia University historian who has documented cultural damage in the region on his blog...

Iraqi Christian Girls, Hiding under Bed from ISIS, Text Priest: ‘Please Come for Us’ ...After the girls notified their church leader in Erbil, he set the wheels in motion to save them. People started praying, and the church reached out to the Iraqi and Kurdish forces, asking them to save the girls. While the rescue was being planned, Fr. Ammar stayed in touch with them through texts.

“All this time they were hiding under their beds, undiscovered by IS. At some moment the IS warriors even entered the bedroom, to pray and to care for one of their soldiers who’d got hurt. Luckily the electricity was cut off, so it was dark. Nevertheless it was a miracle the girls weren’t discovered,” he said.

After three or four hours, Iraqi soldiers liberated the house and the girls were taken to safety. Arriving in Erbil a few hours later, they were greeted with cheers. “In the end none of the students or nuns were injured. Praise God for that,” said Fr. Ammar...

"My 96-percent increase in premiums is a useful, unvarnished look at Obamacare’s effects"  ...This year, my premium is going up 96 percent. Ninety-six percent. My monthly payment, which was the amount of a decent car payment, is now the size of a moderate mortgage. The president refers to these for thousands of citizens as “a few bugs” when to us it feels like a flameout.

For this astronomical payment, I get a plan with an astronomical deductible that my healthy family of three will likely never hit except in the most catastrophic of circumstances...

Jerusalem reference found on ancient wine ledger Israeli archaeologists have discovered an ancient wine ledger they believe contains the earliest written reference to Jerusalem outside the Bible.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) seized the 2,700-year-old papyrus from thieves who had taken it from a desert cave near the Dead Sea.

Two lines in Hebrew detail the shipment of wine from the king's household.

"From the king's maidservant, from Na'arat, jars of wine, to Jerusalem," it reads.

"The document represents extremely rare evidence of the existence of an organised administration in the Kingdom of Judah," said Dr Eitan Klein of the IAA...

2 powerful earthquakes rattle central Italy 2 hours apart

Canadian gender-neutral pronoun bill is a warning for Americans ...Free speech is so fundamentally important that restricting it in any manner carries serious risk. Nonetheless, we shouldn’t be allowed to yell “fire” in a crowded theatre. Sensible people can also debate the control of hatred (although hate speech laws present a significant danger themselves).

 

There is, however, a crucial difference between laws that stop people from saying arguably dangerous words and laws that mandate the use of politically-approved words and phrases. We have never had laws of the latter sort before, not in our countries. This is no time to start.

 

So, a note from a Canadian friend. The citizens of your great country, and ours — and of our allies across the Western world — are at risk.

 

Careless, ideologically-addled legislators are forcing us to use words we did not freely choose. We have to draw a line in the sand. That’s why people are watching. It’s a vitally important issue. We cannot afford to get it wrong.

 

Tim Tebow Interview: ‘I Know Where My Identity Lies’  ...“There are going to be great times, and there are going be tough times,” he said. “So, who was I when I won the Heisman Trophy versus when I got cut three times—well, maybe four times—in the NFL? Was I the person that was praised by presidents or the person that was debated and scrutinized by most of the media? So, who was I? Am I that person who I was at the high or am I that person who had all those lows?”...

 

Mister Bossy

I had a teacher in middle school named Mister Bossy. Yes, we made fun of his name. He was a stern gruff tart-tongued blunt brisk unamused teacher. He was a hard grader and he had no time for fools and mountebanks and silliness in his class, which meant that most of us feared and disliked him and thought him autocratic and spent far more time making snippy jokes and finding endlessly creative ways to waste class time than we did paying attention to the subject or Mister Bossy’s steady undramatic efforts to teach us basic biology.

He had a wooden leg. No one knew why...


Funny political ad-at least it's one I can watch...