The Westboro Baptist Church has announced plans to picket Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., this Saturday. In a typically garbled press release, the notorious church—which mainly protests high-profile funerals, LGBTQ events, and Jewish groups—declared that Scalia “presently well knows and understands the folly and fatality of that Catholic Monster he spent his life time nourishing and worshipping.”

http://twitter.com/WBCFliers/status/700027184132464640/photo/1
As it so happens, the Supreme Court affirmed Westboro’s free speech right to protest funerals in the landmark 2011 case Snyder v. Phelps. Scalia joined that decision in full and consistently affirmed the critical constitutional principle that the First Amendment protects even execrably hateful expression. Intriguingly, Westboro’s press release about Scalia’s funeral includes a note about Snyder. “Thanksgiving to God,” it reads, “for the great and miraculous deliverance generally known as the SCOTUS opinion in Snyder v. Phelps … an event on par with the sundry great miracles described in Holy writ”:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/02/19/westboro_baptist_church_to_protest_scalia_s_funeral.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160219-lake-superior-ice-video/

This wintery scene on Lake Superior in Minnesota is getting increasingly rare.


Watch this stunning sight of ice stacking like shards of glass on Lake Superior.
1

By Brian Clark Howard
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 19, 2016
When conditions are right, the ice sheets that form on bodies of water in winter will break, and the motion of the water underneath will cause the pieces to slide and stack, causing ethereal, hypnotic scenes like the ones in this video from the Lake Superior coast in Minnesota.


Dawn M. LaPointe of Duluth's Radiant Spirit Gallery took the video on February 13 on Brighton Beach in Canal Park. She says the ice was 1/4" to 3" (0.6 to 7.6 centimeters) thick and sounded like breaking glass, which you can hear in the video.

"The sparkles visible in some segments were from the sun gilding the frost flowers that had formed on top of the new ice overnight—icing on the cake!" She wrote.

And even though the footage looks like it's been sped up in places, it's all in normal speed, revealing just how fast ice can move under the right conditions. (See photos of Lake Superior's ice caves.)

The video is a stunning reminder of the beauty and often dynamic nature of lake ice, says Lisa Borre, a senior researcher with the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in New York, who studies lake ecosystems. It is also a reminder of how lake ice has been shrinking across much of the planet as it warms, she notes.

Obama walks into White House clutching binder full of individuals who 'may be worthy of consideration' for Supreme Court nomination - as he continues to come under fire for missing Scalia's funeral

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3455274/White-House-finally-reveals-Obama-snubbing-Scalia-s-funeral-plans-spend-weekend-vetting-potential-nominees.html

Source: nbc

Fighting erupted in the ISIS-stronghold of Fallujah on Friday after the extremist militants attacked a local woman for not covering her hands, according to Iraqi officials.

"The clashes started when tens of Fallujah men stood against ISIS militants who started to beat a woman in a Fallujah market because she was not wearing gloves," said Sabah Karhoot, the chairman of the governing council of Anbar province where the city is located. "Therefore, the men could not stand and do nothing."

ISIS, which has conquered much of Anbar, imposes an extremely strict dress code on populations it controls, with women having to cover almost every part of their bodies — including their hands — when in public.

"In the beginning they fought ISIS militants with their hands and knives," Karhoot added. "After a while the situation evolved into armed clashes."

-----------

By the afternoon, ISIS militants were fleeing from the northern and southern parts of the Fallujah to head to the center, the exiled mayor of Fallujah, Sadoon Ubaid Al-Shalan, told NBC News.

Many Fallujah residents have grown restive amid food and water shortages. Strict codes of behavior mean an attack on one member of a tribe — particularly a woman or a girl — is considered extremely offensive.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-beating-woman-triggers-fallujah-clashes-officials-n521671

Marco Rubio suggested Thursday that he would end parts of President Barack Obama's deferred action program for undocumented immigrants on his first day in office, an apparent break from previous statements and inviting attacks from more hardline rivals.

Rubio has long maintained that he would eventually end the White House program that shields some undocumented immigrants who entered before their 16th birthday from deportation, but he has been less clear about when that would happen.

Rubio told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead" on Thursday that he would revoke the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order immediately, a departure from past comments that suggests it would not take effect until deeper into his presidency.

"I said that DACA has to go away and that it will," Rubio told Tapper. "I will on my first day in office get rid of it because it's unconstitutional."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/18/politics/marco-rubio-daca-jake-tapper-shift-immigration/index.html

Barring some sort of cataclysm, Donald Trump is going to easily win Saturday's Republican presidential primary in South Carolina. It would be his second straight large victory out of three contests so far in the presidential contest. In the other -- the Iowa caucuses -- Trump got the second most votes of any Republican candidate ever, but he finished second behind the guy who got the most votes in the history of the caucuses: Ted Cruz. Three days after the South Carolina vote, the race will move to Nevada where a poll released on Wednesday showed Trump ahead by almost 30 points. Then comes the March 1 "SEC" primary, when voters in 13 states across the country — including six Southern states — vote. Polling puts Trump first in most, if not all, of those states.


All of which raises a simple but profound question: Why isn't Trump being covered as the overwhelming favorite to be the Republican nominee?

Substitute any other Republican in the race into Trump's current position. There is a 100 percent chance that that person would be touted as the prohibitive favorite or the odds-on nominee. Imagine Marco Rubio -- he of the third-place finish in Iowa and fifth-place finish in New Hampshire -- with the same poll numbers as Trump in South Carolina, Nevada and beyond. The coronation would be on. Hell, Rubio is now seen as a likely third-place finisher in South Carolina -- behind Trump and Cruz -- and laurels are virtually being thrown at his feet.

why isn't Trump getting the credit and coverage he deserves? Because, at root, there is still a belief within the party establishment and the ranks of the media that he will somehow implode or voters will "wise up" or "get real" or something. The problem with that theory is that, well, Trump has done lots and lots of things that would a) be described as "gaffes" and b) would have ended or severely compromised other campaigns. And yet, none of it has touched him. In fact, his willingness to say anything -- no matter the underlying facts -- seems to affirm to his supporters just how "independent" from the political system he really is.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/18/why-arent-we-talking-about-how-big-a-frontrunner-donald-trump-is-for-the-republican-nomination/

And it’s in Europe.

Saturday marks the first Saudi Arabian election in which women will be allowed to both run for office and vote in municipal elections.

In a statement released after the King Abdullah’s decision on the matter—which was made four years ago—Amnesty International said granting women the right to vote was “much overdue” and “does not go nearly far enough.”

While a number of restrictions remain, and the municipal councils have limited power in the religious kingdom, it is still a huge step forward for a country that has never seen a single female minister, and where simple day-to-day activities like driving are often forbidden.

While 2015 seems like a bit late for women’s suffrage, Saudi Arabia is actually not the last country to give women the right to vote. The only country that remains is Vatican City, home of the Roman Catholic church.

But before we go call the Pope sexist, it must be noted that not even all men have the right to vote in Vatican City, as the only people who have voting rights are cardinals (and the only voting is for a new Pope). Because only men can become cardinals, this effectively means that no woman has a say in the election of a new Pope.

http://fortune.com/2015/12/11/one-country-women-vote/

A baby dolphin in Argentina has tragically died after a mob of tourists yanked it out of the sea to pose for selfies with it.

Video evidence of the incident appears to show a man taking the defenseless animal from the sea and walking around with it in his arms as the thoughtless crowd poke and prod at it.

The horrific incident is believed to have happened sometime last week, shortly before the video was posted to a witness's Facebook page on February 10.

Beachgoers gathered around the little dolphin in droves and oversaw its avoidable death all in a sick bid to get a cute picture


http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2535887.1455805904!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_635/lvdolphin19n.jpg

The thoughtless crowds at Santa Teresita beach in Argentina killed the baby dolphin by keeping it out of water for too long while posing for selfies

The tiny dolphin, one of the smallest in the ocean, appears to have overheated while out of the water and died.

Even after the helpless creature was traumatically killed, camera-wielding tourists continued to pass its small, lifeless body around before tossing it aside in the sand.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/dolphin-killed-tourists-sick-bid-selfie-graphic-article-1.2535897

more pics for public shaming:

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I got this today from a woman named Alisen Booth. She lives in the Bay Area, and her son has autism.




A Trader Joe's checker helps Hank scan groceries

Alisen was sharing a story about what happened to her in the supermarket today. She says no one has EVER been that kind to her family before. Here's what she wrote:

I was at Trader Joe's today. Hank was not behaving very well.

I was extremely embarrassed. The checker saw that. She let Hank scan and bag all of the items.

She gave him a bunch of stickers too. More importantly, she gave him her time and saw past his Autism. When I got to my truck, I cried.

No one has EVER done something so kind and gracious for our family before out in public.

She changed our entire day and mood around for the better today. I am forever grateful.

Thank you beyond words.

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Kindness-of-Trader-Joe-s-checker-brings-mom-of-6839483.php

One of Poland’s most popular weekly magazines has splashed a graphic depiction of the rape of Europe’s women by migrants on its front cover. The image may be one of the most politically incorrect illustrations of the migrant crisis to date.

While Poland is generally much more relaxed about expressing itself than the self censoring tendencies of western and northern Europe, the cover of the latest wSieci (The Network) conservative magazine has already prompted reaction just 24 hours after release, being beamed around the continent by social media.

Featuring a personification of Europa being pawed at by dark hands — what the German media would perhaps euphemistically term “southern” or “Mediterranean” — the headline decries the “Islamic Rape of Europe”
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/02/17/islamic-rape-of-europe-polish-news-magazines-shockingly-frank-cover/