SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:05 P.M. ET: 

MAJOR CULTURAL ADVICE – Sent by my Iranian dissident friend, Banafsheh Zand.  From Britain's Independent:  "Women should not laugh in public in Turkey, the Deputy Prime Minister has said in a speech on 'moral corruption' in the country.  Bülent Arinç used a meeting for Eid al-Fitr on Monday to condemn perceived moral regression, consumerism and even excessive mobile phone use."  It's all those night and weekend minutes.  That's what's destroying us.  I always knew it.  And women laughing in public?  Read any history of civilizations that die and you'll find it.

GOOD FOR FRANCE – From Reuters:  "France said on Monday it was ready to welcome Christians from northern Iraq who have been told by the al Qaeda offshoot group now ruling the region to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death.  Islamic State insurgents seized large swathes of northern Iraq last month, prompting hundreds of Christian families in Mosul to flee a city which has hosted the faith since its earliest years."  I don't recall that devoted Christian, Barack Obama, saying anything about this.

MORE FROM THE STREETS OF CHICAGO – From CBS:  " In broad daylight, two older men armed with guns held up a medical clinic on the West Side and made off with hundreds of dollars’ worth of Viagra and other drugs.  Causing little attention, two men entered a West Side medical center Saturday on the pretense of wanting to see the dentist. But as soon an employee opened the door of the office, he was met with two bandits brandishing a semi-automatic and a handgun. They told him to put up his hands and get on his knees.  Minutes later, the robbers started filling a box with drugs. They took 56 Viagra pills worth $1,700. "  That's what you call optimism.

SUICIDE – From the Washington Times:  "For the first time in U.S. history, a Middle Eastern-based firm is poised to manage a strategic U.S. port on Florida’s Atlantic coast, rekindling national security concerns inside Congress. Rep. Duncan Hunter, the California Republican who oversees port security as chairman of the House Transportation’s maritime transportation subcommittee, demanded Tuesday that the Obama administration conduct a full national security review of the decision last month by Gulftainer to sign a 35-year contract with Florida’s Port Canaveral.  The firm is a privately owned cargo terminal operator based in the United Arab Emirates, a confederation of governments friendly to the U.S. but which has also been identified as a source of terrorist funding over the years. The 9/11 commission, in fact, reported that much of the money for the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington flowed through UAE’s open financial sector."  This is madness, but expected in the age of Obama.  One great national-security fear is that weapons of mass destruction could be infiltrated into the United States through our harbors.

July 29,  2014