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

NEW YORKERS PROTEST – Against the Iran nuclear deal.  From CBS local:   NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Times Square Wednesday evening in protest over the recent landmark nuclear deal with Iran.  As CBS2’s Jessica Schneider reported, some 10 thousand are rallying in solidarity with signs and voices raised against the nuclear deal.  Protest organizers proclaim: “Washington is prepared to give Iran virtually all that it needs to get to the bomb. To release $150 billion to Iran will result in the expansion of worldwide terror.”  The rally was designed to put special pressure on New York Senator Charles Schumer, who's scheduled to take over as Senate minority leader upon the retirement of Harry Reid.  If Schumer is willing to defy a Democratic president and oppose the deal, he could probably bring other Democrats with him.  But it may cost him his new job.  Pro-Obama Democrats would retaliate.

RIDICULOUS – Under the guise of protecting women from sexual assault, many colleges and universities are turning women into children.  From The Fire:  According to Coastal Carolina University, sex is only consensual if both parties are completely sober and if consent is not only present, but also enthusiastic. This is a troubling standard that converts many ordinary, lawful sexual encounters into sexual assault, and it should frighten any student at CCU.  Enthusiastic?  How is this measured?  A very important cause – the fight against sexual assault, is being turned into a punchline by extremists who care little about women, but much more about their positions in "the movement."

COMMON SENSE – From The Daily Signal:  A self-described gay baker named Jesse Bartholomew has come out in defense of Christian bakers who decline to bake cakes for same-sex weddings.  In a video he posted on his Facebook page, he said “they don’t have to bake a cake for you.”  “I bake wedding cakes for a living and I cannot tell you how disgusted I am with my fellow gay and lesbian community, that they would stoop so low to force someone to bake a cake for them who simply doesn’t agree with them,” Bartholomew said.  He speaks common sense.  A belief in traditional marriage is not bigotry, a word thrown around loosely.   Forcing someone to write something, even an inscription on a wedding cake, is a profound step in a free society.  The gay movement would be much better off fighting real bigotry, and not forcing bakers or wedding photographers to participate in a ritual that they cannot religiously accept.

WEIRD MARTY – From Fox:  Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus ripped Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley for linking the rise of the Islamic State to climate change.  “Whether it’s the weak Obama-Clinton nuclear deal that paves the way for Iran to obtain an atomic bomb or Martin O’Malley’s absurd claim that climate change is responsible for ISIS, it’s abundantly clear no one in the Democratic Party has the foreign policy vision to keep America safe,” Priebus said in a statement.  The rebuke comes after a recent O’Malley interview with Bloomberg Television. When asked about terrorism, O’Malley said that climate change and a devastating drought were linked to Syria’s instability and ISIS’ rise.  O'Malley has become increasingly irrational.  It's important that we not allow him to do to America what he did to Maryland and Baltimore.

July 22, 2015