Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
What Two Former Trans Men Want You To Know About All The Lies ~ So very sad. These poor people don’t need affirmation and encouragement – they need psychiatric help ~

“I wanted to be a woman. Badly. My mental health was very poor at the time and I was very much socially isolated. I felt I could either try living as a woman or else I wanted to kill myself.”

 
Boy Scouts, or One of the Girls? ~ No, the two sexes are not interchangable. Rebecca Hagelin with a eulogy for the this late great American institution ~

When the BSA decided to become “politically correct” by pandering to the homosexual activists and abandoning their principles and the families that believe in them, it was only a matter of time that they would decide to further destroy the mission of the organization by allowing girls in too […]
 
The Scout program was successful because it helped boys truly believe that manliness was something to be achieved and treasured.
 
Sorry folks, but you just can’t do that when you throw a bunch of girls into the mix.

 
“Trump’s Benghazi?” Americans Were Deployed to Niger Under Obama ~ They never did care to discover the truth about Benghazi, but now Democrats and the mainstreams are trying to create another false narrative where Trump’s the bad guy. Daniel Greenfield sets the record straight.
 
NHS (UK health care) provokes fury with indefinite surgery ban for smokers and obese ~ Yes folks, misery is inevitable with “free” government health care ~

In recent years, a number of areas have introduced delays for such patients – with some told operations will be put back for months, during which time they are expected to try to lose weight or stop smoking.
 
But the new rules, drawn up by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Hertfordshire, say that obese patients “will not get non-urgent surgery until they reduce their weight” at all, unless the circumstances are exceptional.
 
The criteria also mean smokers will only be referred for operations if they have stopped smoking for at least eight weeks, with such patients breathalysed before referral.

 
I’m a Conservative Who Was Roofied by a Stranger. Here’s What I Think of the ‘Me Too’ Hashtag ~ Heritage Foundation fellow Amy Swearer was moved to tell her personal story in a heartfelt effort to explain the #MeToo sexual assault meme triggered by that sicko Harvey Weinstein ~

I’m not asking anyone to refrain from having honest conversations on the subjects of victimization and assault. I’m simply asking you to refrain from categorically judging the stories behind the hashtag as nothing more than slacktivism or attention-seeking hogwash.

 
Cruz Stomps Sanders: ‘What’s The Difference Between A Socialist And A Democrat?’ ~ From Wednesday’s CNN debate on the GOP tax plan between the two senators ~

America’s “free enterprise system,” said Cruz, has been history’s greatest generator of prosperity, adding, “Bernie likes to glorify socialism, but if you look at the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever seen, it’s the American free enterprise system. There’s a reason millions of people risk their lives to come here.”

Spoiler alert: Cruz won. Because even most lefties get it if someone explains it to them ~ Students love Trump’s tax plan…when told it’s Bernie’s
 
Apple removes popular pro-life prayer app after liberals complain ~ Apps are totally optional digital tools. How is anyone justified in demanding that something they don’t even see, much less use, be eliminated? It’s like saying I hate spinach so I demand that my grocery store not carry it! ~

The app, launched in 2014 for both Apple and Android phones, sends anonymous, real-time information about women who call crisis pregnancy centers considering abortion so that pro-lifers can pray for them.
 
One of the top five “Must-Have Pro-Life Apps” according to the American Life League, the HC app alerts prayer warriors with messages such as “pray for someone in Texas who just placed a call to inquire about abortion,” or “who scheduled an appointment with a Colorado pregnancy resource center.” The app suggests that Christians pray for women to keep pro-life appointments and to choose life for their baby.

On the plus side, I hadn’t heard about Human Coalition until Apple made news by banning their app. But now, since I have an android phone, I just downloaded it

 
Backlash: Week 6 of the NFL Reveals Several Nearly Empty Stadiums As Fans Continue to Leave the League ~ Are the anti-American, anti-Trump antics starting to affect the bottom line? ~

Throughout the league, stadiums could be seen with thousands of empty seats at kickoff, and, in some cases in the middle of the game.

 
THIS IS WHO THEY ARE: Student leader says Constitution doesn’t apply to Ben Shapiro ~ Radical campus leftist unabashedly reveals his fascistic worldview ~

In one of the most stunning and infuriating displays ever of honest, unashamed progressivism, the leader of the student organization opposing Shapiro’s First Amendment right to speak, Sean Taylor, outright states that Ben Shapiro should not have the right to speech and that the Constitution is not a “relevant” document.

 
Liberals Look the Other Way as More Cases of Voter Fraud Pile Up ~ Despite progressives’ denial the massive evidence for voter fraud only continues to grow ~

The Heritage Foundation database now documents 1,088 proven instances of election fraud, including 949 cases that have resulted in criminal convictions, 48 that have ended in civil penalties, and 75 that have seen defendants enter diversion programs.

 
MSNBC Hosts Suggest White House chief of staff John Kelly Is a Racist Because He’s From Irish Catholic Neighborhood in Boston ~ Because they’re morally bankrupt, with a limited capacity for intelligent debate, leftists frequently try to score points by projecting their own prejudices onto their opponents. Sad but true.

 
Judicial Watch Chief of Investigations: US Is Becoming Failed State – Entire Justice Department is Compromised ~ At this point, the swamp may be undrainable. In this Oct. 18th video Lou Dobbs talks to Chris Farrell, Judicial Watch Director of Investigations, about the Deep State scandals consuming Congress, the Secret Service and the Department of Justice.

 
I Don’t Care If It’s Halloween. Your Gruesome And Tacky Yard Decorations Are Sick And Rude ~ I couldn’t agree more

For some reason, people think it is acceptable to array their homes with all manner of symbols and graphic depictions of evil, even on streets populated by young families. Decency, it seems, is deader than the decaying corpse you propped up on your porch swing.
 
This problem of indecency isn’t unique to decor. People get weird when they don costumes—even the ones that don’t make you look like a prostitute. Halloween is an excuse for young adults to indulge in defacement of property, cruel pranks, drunkenness, and debauchery—or at least to amusedly watch other people do such things, in real life or in fiction. Halloween is an opportunity to give in to the dark side, and no one feels bad about it. But why exactly? Because the license to be an idiot expires at dawn on November 1? This trend doesn’t just indicate that decency is dead, of course. It suggests that the ordinary kind of evil is very much alive, and is given special opportunity to manifest itself on Halloween.