In Syria’s eastern city of Deir el-Zour, supplies are running brief that distressed residents are selling their gold, valuables as well as their houses for an exit or food permit letting them escape a siege by Islamic State militants and both government troops. The extremists have blockaded government-held areas of the city for more than some of its 200,000 residents are slowly starving while, and annually troops and President supporting militias Bashar Assad use their anguish. MORE

The wall in these photos is something more impressive than anything even Donald Trump could build.

While Pope Francis is in the United States effectively advocating for a borderless America, many people are amused by the irony of the giant wall surrounding his own Vatican City.

During his speech before Congress, Pope Francis implored U.S. politicians to embrace migrants seeking to come into America.

“Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the second World War,” the pope said, according to USA Today, including “thousands of persons (who) are led to travel north in search of a better life. MORE

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis has suggested that women threatened with the Zika virus could use artificial contraception, saying there’s a clear moral difference between aborting a fetus and preventing a pregnancy.

Francis was asked Wednesday en route home from Mexico if abortion or birth control could be considered a “lesser evil,” when confronting the Zika crisis in Brazil, where some babies have been born with abnormally small heads to Zika-infected mothers. MORE

Donald Trump, on Wednesday, became the latest American to wonder whether, when al-Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, it could have had some help from the government of Saudi Arabia.

“It wasn’t the Iraqis, you will find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center, ’cause they have papers in there that are very secret, you may find it’s the Saudis, okay? But you will find out,” Trump said in South Carolina.MORE

FIGHTING HAS BEGUN! Turkey Shelling into Syria; Attacking Syrian Arab Army and border of Russian Base in Latakia. MORE

The story of the biggest natural gas leak in US history is not over. SS-25 is dead. But what will be the results for Los Angeles area residents months, years or decades from now? According to Dr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at Univ. at Albany, “… Cancer isn’t going to occur tomorrow, it is going to occur 10-20-30 years from now in people that are exposed…” On the winds across the breadth of the Los Angeles and San Fernando Valleys has been scattered no less than 380,160,000 pounds of gaseous material. Most of it, in the long term, highly poisonous. Add to this the real possibility of large doses of radiation and the health risks are truly staggering. MORE

Hotel rooms for the introverts among us are an anti-social haven. Nothing beats a hot shower, followed by settling into a freshly made bed in a terrycloth robe to watch mediocre television with a glass of wine. No one bothers you and for an exquisite moment in time, you have nary a care in the world.

Then the realization hits. You’ve forgotten your toothbrush at home! You’re going to have to call the snooty concierge. You’re going to have to smile and tip and say thank you. You’ll have to deal with people. MORE

The Pope has shown a rare sign of anger during his trip to Mexico after an eager crowd tugged his arms and caused him to topple over. MORE

Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination. MORE

Russia’s massive bombing of Aleppo is sending massive waves of refugees into Turkey. Is this Russia’s revenge on Turkey for shooting down one of their war planes? I think so.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday that at least 500 people had been killed since the Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes, launched a major offensive from the north of Aleppo on February 1. MORE

Russia accuses U.S. of bombing Aleppo; U.S. officials deny it MORE

This German interview of a 75 year old woman on the streets of Hamburg has gone viral. As she recounts her own experiences having to deal with the migrants/refugees when she goes out, a group of teenage Muslims intrudes on the interview.

The coldest Valentine’s Day on record was just a prelude to something far worse: a fearsome, 1,200-mile-long storm that caused widespread destruction across 17 states, causing more than 2,000 car accidents within just 24 hours. MORE

…Obsolescence is relevant.  That is, if a huge gap opens up between the law and the moral order of society, one or the other must change or law risks becoming irrelevant.  This “gap” also has profound significance for the legitimacy of the law. The very legitimacy of the law and even possibly the legitimacy of the legal system and its institutions (e.g., the courts, the legislature, the government) will be undermined if the law becomes obsolete.  Thus, if legal marriage deviates profoundly from social understanding of marriage, both the institution of marriage and society in general are harmed. MORE

While the President of the United States is seemingly taking the side of radical Islamists, and working to weaken and destroy the fundamental principles that Western civilization and society are built upon, other leaders are stepping up to lead the fight against the destructive and murderous ideology.

The United Kingdom’s Prince Charles is in the middle of a week-long tour of the Middle East, where it is expected that he will deliver a strong message to Muslim leaders regarding the prevalence and growth of the radical Islamist mindset. MORE