SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 7:06 P.M. ET:

MADNESS – FROM TIMES OF ISRAEL:  A host on the Palestinian Authority’s official television channel recently praised a man who attacked and stabbed three Israeli policemen at a police station in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.  In a remarkable statement, Palestine TV’s Dana Abu Shamsiya said of assailant Abdul Rahman Abu Jamal that he “harvest[s] souls in the battlefield” and was “desired by the black-eyed virgins [of Paradise].”  On November 14 Abu Jamal arrived at the entrance to the police station, attacked and lightly injured three officers. During the scuffle a fourth officer was lightly hurt by shrapnel as others shot at the attacker.   Black-eyed virgins of Paradise?  Who in this day and age talks like that?  And what else do they believe?

I'M SO SHOCKED – FROM DC WHISPERS:  Via Zero Hedge:  The CFO of the Clinton Foundation, thinking he was “meeting an old professional acquaintance,” admitted to investigators that the charity had widespread problems with governance, accounting and conflicts of interest, and that Bill Clinton has been commingling business and personal expenses for a long time, reports The Hill’s John Solomon.  Clinton Foundation CFO Andrew Kessel made the admissions to investigators from MDA Analytics LLC – a firm run by “accomplished ex-federal criminal investigators,” who have been probing the Clinton Foundation for some time.  Kessel told MDA “There is no controlling Bill Clinton. He does whatever he wants and runs up incredible expenses with foundation funds, according to MDA’s account of the interview. “Bill Clinton mixes and matches his personal business with that of the foundation. Many people within the foundation have tried to caution him about this but he does not listen, and there really is no talking to him.”  Haven't seen this in The New York Times.  I wonder why.

HOW FAR BACK YOU WANNA GO? – FROM YAHOO SPORTS:   Kyler Murray won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, making him the second straight quarterback from Oklahoma to win college football’s most prestigious award.  Just hours after winning the award, though, several of his old homophobic tweets surfaced on Twitter.  Update: He apologized in the early hours of Sunday morning via Twitter:  I apologize for the tweets that have come to light tonight from when I was 14 and 15. I used a poor choice of word that doesn’t reflect who I am or what I believe. I did not intend to single out any individual or group.Murray used an anti-gay slur both on its own and when tweeting at his friends in 2011 and 2012 — when he was 14 and 15 years old. The tweets in question were deleted from Murray’s account late Saturday night.  It's absurd to go back to someone's early adolescence to find something damning.  Can we grow up?  At the same time, this is another lesson in the need to be careful when using social media.  You may only get one, "I'm sorry."

December 9, 2018