Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

Our Angel's Corner archive is here.

DECEMBER 26,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

THINK IT'S TOO WARM? – From KCEN:   (WFAA) -- The long-awaited storm system is making its way into Texas, and promises to bring a variety of weather through Monday. A crippling winter storm will strike West Texas with heavy snow and high winds leading to what the National Weather Service is calling a "historic blizzard."  Meanwhile, severe weather will break out in our part of the state and points south. All forms of severe weather will be possible, including large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. Flash flooding will also be a concern.  But it should also be pointed out that many areas will just be getting a simple soaking rain.  Strong to severe storms will break out to the west and northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon, spreading slowly to the east during the evening.  Take that, global warmers!

UK AMBASSADOR WAY OUT OF LINE – From The Hill:  The United Kingdom's top diplomat in the United States is a fan of President Obama.  “I think the legacy, the balance sheet, doesn’t look bad," Sir Peter Westmacott, the outgoing British ambassador in Washington, said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper.  "It certainly doesn’t feel to me like this is a lame-duck presidency which has given up," he added. "He’s motoring along and he’s doing through executive action what he needs to.”...He lauded the deals Obama struck with Iran and Cuba, saying they took "political courage."  Both Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, "did a remarkable job of making America loved again after the difficult years of the previous regime,” Westmacott said.   Entirely inappropriate comments by a foreign ambassador regarding our internal affairs.  Unusual for a British diplomat, who should know better.  As for our being "loved again," I wonder who the lovers are.  This man deserves a reprimand, but he's retiring anyway.

FROM THOSE INVENTIVE YANKS – From the TimesGazette.com:   Scientists from the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science come with significant results in creating an incredibly strong but still lightweight new structural metal by using a novel way.  Scientists announce that the new metal shows extremely high specific strength (the weight, which a substance can resist before breaking) and particular modulus (stiffness-to-weight ratio). The metal is produced when magnesium is mixed with dense ceramic, silicon carbide nanoparticles, which are equally spread in magnesium. The particular material might be used in creating cars, lightweight airplanes, mobile electronics, spacecraft as well as medical devices. Because of its light weight, this unique metal may also assist in improving the fuel effectiveness of airplane and spacecraft, or other vehicles.  Leave it to our guys to come up with something great.  If the story proves out, this could have an important impact on energy policy.

December 26,  2015     Permalink

HMM.  SOMETHING UP? – AT 11:35 A.M. ET:  Remember Jim Webb?  He's the former Democratic senator from Virginia who, earlier this year, challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Webb, a moderate pro-defense former Republican, never had a shot in a party that is increasingly leftist.  He departed the race early, but there were lingering questions as to whether he would mount a third-party challenge, positioning himself as a traditional, middle guy between Democratic and Republican extremes.  And now there's this, from The Hill: 

Former Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb is accusing his party’s front-runner for her “inept leadership” in Libya as secretary of State.

“Hillary Clinton should be called to account for her inept leadership that brought about the chaos in Libya, and the power vacuums that resulted in the rest of the region,” Webb wrote in a Facebook post Saturday.

Webb said Clinton has tried to frame the situation in Libya as a successful point in her tenure at the helm of the State Department.

But he said the removal of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has only destabilized the region, giving rise to radical Islamic terrorism and fanning the flames of the Syrian civil war.

“The predictable chaos was bad enough, but it also helped bring about the disaster in Syria,” he said.

“While she held that office, the U.S. spent about $2 billion backing the Libyan uprising against Qaddafi,” he continued. “The uprising, which was part of the Arab Spring, led directly to Qaddafi being removed from power and killed by rebel forces in 2011. Now some 2,000 ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] terrorists have established a foothold in Libya.

“Who is taking her to task for this?”

That is a stunningly strong attack.   And then there is this:

The former U.S. senator from Virginia dropped out of the Democratic primary race in October, but said he would still consider running as an independent.

COMMENT:  From the tone of his comments, it sounds like he's very serious.  Even if he takes three or four points away from Hillary, that could be decisive in a close race. There may be many surprises up ahead.

December 26, 2015       Permalink

AFTERMATH OF THE ATTACKS IN FRANCE – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:   More and more recruits from France are slipping off to Syria.  The question is, what will they do when they return?  From Fox: 

NICE, France – Valérie Aubry-Dumont got the news in a WhatsApp message from deep inside Islamic State territory. "Mom, you're going to be a grandmother," wrote her teenage daughter, Cléa.

When Aubry-Dumont last saw her daughter, Cléa was a 16-year-old girl attending Catholic school in a Paris suburb. After a breakup, Cléa met a young man online and within months the couple fled France to live in a stretch of northern Syria ruled by Islamic State.

"I wish Cléa never had children," Aubry-Dumont, a child-care worker, says now that her grandson has been born. Her daughter talks some days of returning to France, Aubry-Dumont said, but is afraid of losing her baby if she tries to leave. “She is trapped.”

In France, the West’s biggest supplier of foreign fighters in Syria, the loss of sons, daughters and grandchildren to Islamic State has been a slow-motion tragedy. For some French families, the Paris attacks, while deepening the wedge between militants and the West, were a painful reminder of their ties to the enemy.

The French wife of Foued Mohamed-Aggad—who along with two others killed 90 people in Paris's Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13—is living in Islamic State territory and ready to give birth “any day now,” said Françoise Cotta, a lawyer Mohamed-Aggad’s mother approached in an attempt to bring the child back to France.

“An alarming number of young men and women are leaving France to start a family in Syria,” said Alain Ruffion, director at Unimed, a group that works to prevent the radicalization of residents around the southern French city of Nice.

COMMENT:  We know that a tiny number of fanatical jihadists can pull off a major attack.  The 9-11 attacks in the United States were carried out by 19 aircraft hijackers.  So even a small number of people leaving a country like France, and returning, can wreak havoc.

There have been a number of reports of young Muslims, especially from the Minnesota area, suddenly disappearing after being radicalized by online sites.  We can expect them back.

December 26, 2015       Permalink

BACK TO THE REAL WORLD – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  A new terror warning in Europe.  From AP:

BERLIN — Police in Vienna say they have stepped up security precautions after a warning to several European capitals about the possibility of an attack using explosives or firearms between Christmas and New Year, but they see no need to call off any events.

Vienna police said in a statement Saturday that the tip from an unidentified "friendly" intelligence service came in the days before Christmas. It said authorities also were given several names of potential attackers, but examination of that list and other investigations brought no "concrete further results" so far.

Police spokesman Christoph Poelzl told the Austria Press Agency there was no concrete threat to a specific place at a particular time.

COMMENT:  The number of successful attacks in 2015 was dramatically high, as were the number of arrests in the United States tied to terrorism.

I suspect the number of terror attacks in 2016 will depend on how terror groups think their actions will affect our presidential election.  However, their sophistication about American politics may not be great.

December 26,  2015     Permalink

DECEMBER 25,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET:

CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT – From Fox:   The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Thursday released 16 pages of sensitive documents related to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.  The documents, released ahead of the Christmas holiday, include mostly blacked-out emails and some press clippings about events in Libya after the attack on the U.S. embassy, which left four Americans dead. The event has become a central part of Republican criticism of Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State as she runs for president.  A few of the heavily redacted emails discuss the drafting of an assessment of the threat level before the attack occurred. Congress had requested the assessment in the months after the attack.  A Christmas Eve "document dump," as it's called, guarantees little press interest.  During most of the year, document dumps are reserved for Friday nights.

THIS RESTORES FAITH IN OUR COLLEGE KIDS – From Fox:   A group of students at Georgia Institute of Technology showed their appreciation for a security guard in a special way.  According to a Facebook post by the school, students from the Scheller College of Business wanted to thank the security guard who always brightens their days.  “We just want to show you how much we appreciate you and all that you do for us each day, bringing energy, making our days better,” a student says in a video.  The 150 students hoped to raise $100 as a token of appreciation, but they surpassed their goal and gave the security guard $1,600.  The security guard was so moved by the act of kindness, he was speechless.  He opened the card from the students and teared up.  “It’s not about the money. It’s about how many people donated and how much we appreciate you every day,” the student said.  Now those are good kids, and I think there are far more of them than news stories allow us to believe.

RECORD WARMTH – From accuweather.com:  Christmas Eve felt more like Memorial Day across much of the eastern United States as temperatures rose between 20 and 35 degrees above average and 5-15 degrees above previous record highs.  Records were broken from the Southeast to New England with some areas breaking their previous record high by more than 10 degrees F.  Some records were broken from the 1800s.
The highs that occurred on Thursday are more typical of late spring and early summer.  This, of course, will be attributed to global warming.  And when temperatures plunge and a blizzard comes, that too will be attributed to global warming.  In 2009, New York got snow in June.  Freak weather occurs fairly often.

December 25, 2015      Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 12:38 P.M. ET:   From Peggy Noonan, in The Wall Street Journal:

A long time ago in a country far, far away, America had less of everything and holidays were easier and more modest.

Only 50 and 60 years ago, well within human memory, Christmas was a plainer, simpler affair. Everyone—even the rich, but certainly the poor and in-between—had less. Because America had less. You’d get a sweater and socks instead of five toys, or five toys instead of 10. Technology was something that existed at places like NASA. No one’s wish list had a hoverboard, an iPad, or a brightly wrapped drone. There were more big families, whose children understood that even Santa couldn’t cover them all.

You could make gifts. Or you could buy one after saving up, and the recipient could guess the sacrifice involved. And because there were fewer gifts, the one you got made a big impression.

And so a nod to the more modest Christmases of years past. These memories came with a declared or implied, “We didn’t have much, but . . .” And this was said not with resentment or self pity but a kind of pride and wistfulness.

COMMENT:  Families were also closer.  You tended to live in the same neighborhood, or at least the same town, with other family members.  We are more stretched out today.  We claim to be connected, but it's only with wires.

December 25, 2015       Permalink

SOME PROGRESS AGAINST ISIS – AT 11:44 A.M.  ET:  We always give credit where it's due.  There seems to be some military progress against ISIS in Iraq.  From Powerline: 

The Washington Post reports that Iraqi troops, supported by U.S. air strikes, have stormed into the center of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. At last word, they hadn’t yet retaken the city from ISIS, but their prospects of doing so seem excellent.

According to the Post, this is the first major offensive by the Iraqi army in which Shiite militias have been largely excluded. Thus, it can be viewed as a test of the army’s ability to go it alone. If so, the army is passing the test.

However, there are reports that ISIS has pretty much abandoned Ramadi, leaving only a few hundred fighters plus the inevitable deadly explosives devices and booby traps.

Before the assault, the Iraqis dropped leaflets urging civilians to evacuate. However, ISIS is believed to have prevented them from doing so. Since the assault, a few hundred civilians have been able to reach Iraqi forces, but thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, are said still to be trapped alongside ISIS fighters, who will use them as shields.

Retaking Ramadi, which is about 80 miles from Baghdad, would have both strategic and symbolic significance. Recall that when the city fell to ISIS, Iraqis blamed the U.S. for not providing enough air support, while U.S. officials didn’t even try to hide their contempt for Iraqi forces, who withdrew despite their superior numbers.

COMMENT:  And Mosul may be next to fall to Iraqi forces.  This is good, but there are some serious asterisks:  ISIS is very shrewd, and knows when to fall back and put its resources elsewhere.  The elsewhere right now is Afghanistan, where both ISIS and the Taliban are growing in power. 

We applaud every victory over ISIS, but the fight is far from over.  ISIS can stage strategic retreats in some areas, only to appear elsewhere in substantial numbers. 

December 25, 2015       Permalink

CHRISTMAS DAY – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  Urgent Agenda is published 365 days a year.  Thus we publish on Christmas Day.  We maintain the same publishing schedule as a daily newspaper, although we're not a newspaper.  But our schedule allows us to be up to date every day.  What it does to my sleep is another matter entirely.

On this Christmas Day, let us not forget that Christianity is now the most persecuted religion in the world, by far.  From Sky News: 

Christianity is facing "elimination" in the Middle East at the hands of an Islamic State "apocalypse", the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby used his Christmas Day sermon at Canterbury Cathedral to say IS is "igniting a trail of fear, violence, hatred and determined oppression".

He branded the Islamic extremists as "a Herod of today" - a reference to the Biblical despotic king of Judea at the time of Jesus's birth.

"Confident that these are the last days, using force and indescribable cruelty, they (IS) seem to welcome all opposition, certain that the warfare unleashed confirms that these are indeed the end times," he said.

"They hate difference, whether it is Muslims who think differently, Yazidis or Christians, and because of them the Christians face elimination in the very region in which Christian faith began.

"This apocalypse is defined by themselves and heralded only by the angel of death."

COMMENT:  I'm very surprised, and somewhat angered, by the silence of many Christian organizations in the United States toward the persecution of Christians elsewhere.  Recall the words of Hillel:  "If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? But when I am for myself, then what am 'I'? And if not now, when?"

Barack Obama, a few days ago, finally got around to offering a prayer for persecuted Christians.  But the persecution is growing, especially in the Mideast.  If not now, when?

December 25,  2015     Permalink