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A call earlier this week from the leader of the Jewish community in Marseilles for Jews to stop wearing kippot in public caused a fierce uproar in France, with scores of Frenchman putting on the ritual head covering in a demonstration of solidarity with Jews French parliamentarians Meir Habib and Claude Goasguen joined the demonstration on Wednesday, proudly adorning kippot at the National Assembly as a show of solidarity after a brutal anti-Semitic stabbing attack in Marseilles on Monday. The move was very unusual given France's principle of "secularism" and its prohibition against wearing religious articles in official or state...

It is hard not to feel protective over Donald Trump while the political classes are seething and scornful. They are unacquainted with such powerlessness. Control was never supposed to stray this far from their grasp. And their rage, manifested in every hapless attack on Trump and his supporters, actually seems to be improving the likelihood of that outcome they fear most of all. How tempting, under these circumstances, to rush to his defense, as so many in the conservative movement have already done. The Donald has boldly made himself a standard bearer of unpopular (…within the political bubble), yet critical...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: John F. Kerry (who served in Vietnam, by the way) has thanked the Iranians for taking our sailors hostage and humiliating them. The audio sound bite will be coming up in due course. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I'm not kidding on this, either. John Kerry thanked Iran for humiliating our sailors, one of whom was a woman, by the way. He thanked 'em for rescuing 'em, thanked 'em for humiliating them. Well, that's what he thanked 'em for. He thanked the Iranians for capturing Americans engaged in harmless activity on a boat. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here, you gotta...

The Latino-focused super PAC "Vamos for Jeb 2016" is shutting down after raising no money in the 2016 election cycle. The group was formed by Claire Hardwick, founder of the conservative news site Elephant News. Andrea Wong, the super PAC's treasurer sent a letter to the Federal Elections Commission on Tuesday requesting that the group be terminated.

Yesterday we had a mischievous thought: What if Donald Trump, on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, were to announce (or merely suggest) that if elected, he would nominate Ted Cruz to the next vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court? Such a move would give some Cruz supporters a reason to switch while reassuring other conservatives nervous about the soundness of a President Trump's judicial nominees. Trump could even use the occasion to reinforce his current Cruz-directed mischief. After all, nobody can claim that Cruz's Canadian birth would pose an obstacle to a Supreme Court appointment. Several early justices were...

Does Islamic company selling 'Sharia~compliant mortgages' control Asbury Park NJ boardwalk?With ISIS committing acts of terror on 4 continents, and President Obama importing refugees from their home territory, now is a bad time to offer interest-free Sharia Law mortgages in America, but that’s exactly what one company is doing. The beach town of Asbury Park, New Jersey has undergone a slow-grinding redevelopment for the better part of 30 years. Bereft of money in 2007, the city sold millions of dollars worth of storied boardwalk buildings including Convention Hall to a private company -- Madison Marquette. Madison Marquette also owns...

CHICAGO — Police officers are making drastically fewer investigative stops and confiscating fewer guns as murders and shootings have increased so far this year, DNAinfo Chicago has learned. So far this year, the number of so-called investigative stop reports — formerly known as “contact cards” — has decreased by about 80 percent compared to the same time period last year, police sources told DNAinfo.com. There also been a 37-percent decline in gun arrests and a 35-percent decrease in gun confiscations compared to last year, according to police data. Meanwhile, there have been 72 more shootings (a 218 percent increase) and...

The currency's decline is having a pronounced effect on Canadians' grocery bills. As Bloomberg reminds us, Canada imports around 80% of its fresh fruits and vegetables. When the loonie slides, prices for those good soar. "With lower-income households tending to spend a larger portion of income on food, this side effect of a soft currency brings them the most acute stress," Bloomberg continues. Of course with the layoffs piling up, you can expect more households to fall into the "lower-income" category where they will have to struggle to afford things like $3 cucumbers, $8 cauliflower, and $15 Frosted Flakes. Have...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Obama last night, in his State of Obama speech... I mean, we could go through it. We've even got a condensed version here. "White comedian Paul Shanklin" has put together a condensed version. In fact, grab part one of that. We've got two parts. But did you see the most ridiculous aspect of it? It's difficult to pick one. When Obama said that the most disappointing thing of all the past seven years is that he was not able to create this post-partisan existence in America. In other words, he was not able to fix the partisan...

A "disgruntled" ex-employee who allegedly set fire to the home of his former supervisor early Saturday morning has been arrested on suspicion of arson and attempted murder, according to police.

ice President Joe Biden told CBS New the U.S. did not apologize to Iran after the country released ten Navy sailors it had abducted on Tuesday night. “When you have a problem with the boat, (do) you apologize the boat had a problem? No,” he explained. “And there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.” The vice president explained that the “the Iranians picked up both boats — as we have picked up Iranian boats that needed to be rescued.” Iranian officials then “realized they were there in distress and said they would release them,...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- North Korea's U.N. mission claimed Wednesday that its successful nuclear bomb test showed that it could now "wipe out" the United States, as the U.N. Security Council grappled with a response to the underground blast.

If you're what Obama considers the right religion, or you have the right kind of sex, or have the right kind of political beliefs, chances are you were welcome at Obama's final State of the Caliphate Union address. 1) A Syrian refugee. This particular refugee hasn't killed anyone in a terrorist attack, proving we should invite more. 2) An illegal alien (since legalized), with a college education subsidized by taxpayers. What could be more American than that? 3) The homosexual man (Jim Obergefell) who fought to impose homosexual marriage on the rest of us. The question remains: would Obama still...

Three truths fuel Donald Trump. One, Barack Obama is the Dr. Frankenstein of the supposed Trump monster. If a charismatic, Ivy League-educated, landmark president who entered office with unprecedented goodwill and both houses of Congress on his side could manage to wreck the Democratic Party while turning off 52 percent of the country, then many voters feel that a billionaire New York dealmaker could hardly do worse.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Wow. I look as orange on this Dittocam as Obama did last night during the State of the Union. I may need to white balance this thing at some point. No big deal now. Did you notice the orange makeup that Obama had on last night? Did you watch...? Some birthday. Some birthday to sit there and watch this. It was a replay, a combination of previous Obama speeches mixed with lines that were stolen from the West Wing TV show, which Obama has done before in these speeches. But Obama is not the big news last...

This is really interesting from the point of view that Trump makes it clear he wants to win Iowa. He talks about his view on anchor babies and illegal immigration. He also goes into what is happening in China and that China is doing just fine. Todd asks Trump about how to deal with North Korea. Trump is very consistent from 6 months ago. Talks about the Muslim immigrants. A very interesting interview.

We just saw The Big Short. It was an interesting and entertaining movie. The language was pretty coarse, but I've no doubt that's the way those high rollers converse. It was s serious subject, but there were many humorous exchanges. Most of the bad guys were hit pretty hard blame wise (banks, lenders, rating agencies), but there was no mention of the role of government policy over many years (Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) in leading to the subprime mortgage crisis. Surprisingly, Bush wasn't blamed! I did take issue with the observation at the end that minorities and...

"As religion has declined in Europe there has also been an increase in acceptance of personal autonomy on issues concerning sexuality and family. Each generation is more liberal on these issues than the one before. In contrast, we find no evidence that moral values have become more self-interested or anti-social." The research also found that religious people are slightly less self-interested on average, but this can largely be accounted for by their age. This is because the average religious person is older than the average nonreligious person, and older people, whenever they were born, are less likely to justify self-interest...

When Al Jazeera America was launched to great fanfare in 2013 its then-leader told The Wall Street Journal that it planned to skip tabloid fare in favor “fact-based, in-depth, long-format news” in part because it didn’t have to worry too much about profits. After all, it was backed by the oil-and-gas-rich government of Qatar, and oil was trading around $100 a barrel. On Wednesday, with oil trading near $30, Al Jazeera made an about-face, announcing it was shutting down American cable channel by April 30 for economic reasons. “While Al Jazeera America built a loyal audience across the U.S. and...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is doubling down on his support for in-state tuition for illegal aliens. On ABC, George Stephanopoulos asked Rubio about his work in the Florida statehouse in which he "co-sponsored legislation to provide in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants." Stephanopolous asked Rubio directly: "Do you stand behind that position now?" Rubio said that he "absolutely" stands behind that legislation: RUBIO: It was a very narrowly drafted bill. You had to have a certain GPA, you had to live in the U.S. a long time, you had to graduate from a Florida high school. It was very narrowly tailored...