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

A PROPER GOODBYE – From Fox:  Renato Bialetti, the coffee king whose name is synonymous with the iconic aluminum stovetop esspresso makers, died last week at the age of 93.  In an unusual and strangely befitting tribute, the ashes of this well-known Italian coffee impresario were placed in a giant Moka pot, which he made famous, at his funeral this week in Montebuglio, Italy.  Bialetti didn’t invent the Moka. He just made it famous. A man named Luigi di Ponti designed the appliance in 1933 and sold the patent to Renato’s father Alfonso Bialetti, an aluminum vendor.  When John Kerry departs, they can entomb him in a Cuban cigar.

KERRY IN HOLLYWOOD – From the Washington Free Beacon:  Oh, to have been at John Kerry’s meeting Tuesday with a dozen Hollywood executives at Universal Studios. To have sat in one of the cushy leather chairs beneath a vintage poster for The Phantom of the Opera, sipping bottled water, relaxing in the Mediterranean climate of southern California, and been solicited by the U.S. secretary of State for advice on how to defeat radical Islam. What a confirmation of one’s status in the film industry, of one’s place in the global economy, of one’s importance to the Democratic Party. “Great convo w studio execs in LA,” Kerry tweeted after the discussion, “Good to hear their perspectives & ideas of how to counter #Daesh narrative.”  I have been at a number of Hollywood meetings.  The most important objective is fighting insomnia.  The second most important objective is remembering the names of executives whose careers will last another two weeks.

WHY WE FIGHT – From American Thinker:   The top spiritual leader appointed by the Palestinian Authority, Mufti Hassan Al-Laham, appears regularly on Palestinian TV talk shows discussing sharia law and how it applies to everyday life.  Recently, the mufti talked about the finer points of beating your wife – permissible under Islamic law.  The shocking interview with Hassan Al-Laham, who holds the title “mufti of Gaza,” came during a weekly Palestinian Authority TV program on social issues. Explaining that divorce must be a last resort in Islam, Al-Laham laid out the four steps that should come first.  "Allah said: Warn them [the wives], and separate from them, and hit them, and bring an arbitrator from his family and an arbitrator from her family," he said.  Please notice the absolute silence of "women's" organizations about this obscenity.  I guess left-wing agendas trump women's rights on the feminist left.  They always have.

February 19, 2016