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LE BOURGET, France (AP) -- France presented negotiators from 190 nations with what it called a "final draft" of an unprecedented climate deal to slow global warming and urged them to approve it on Saturday. The deal, called the "Paris agreement," would limit rising temperatures and sea levels, and eventually hold man-made emissions to the levels that nature can absorb. If the pact is approved, nations would be committed to keeping the rise in global temperatures by the year 2100 compared with pre-industrial times "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and "endeavor to limit" them even more, to...

As the Islamic State amped up attacks around the world, the Pentagon responded by bravely announcing that American women will now be put in direct ground combat. Whereupon "military intelligence" secured a permanent place in the Encyclopedia of Oxymorons...SNIP...There's plenty of evidence that women and men as groups aren't equal in the demands of combat, even if some women may be and some men may not be. The few and far between shouldn't be the basis for institutional overhaul, though this seems to be our template for mandates these days. Among the evidence ignored by Obama, Carter and others are...

A federal court in California will hear a case next week that could pave the way for women to be required to register for the draft. The hearing involves an existing suit from the National Coalition for Men against Selective Service, which oversees the process by which men age 18 and above register for the military. The case is set to be heard Dec. 8 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Pasadena, California. The hearing will take place just days after Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced all military combat positions would be open to...

[Snip]...I think it might be time to bring back the draft. We have become a society of ungrateful, horrid little greedy, grabby whiners. Everybody wants something for nothing. And it is most evident on our college campuses. College students today are thin-skinned, navel-gazing crybabies so desperate to be victims they create elaborate hoaxes and whine over “micro-aggressions” while they scamper to their safe spaces. But it’s nothing that six weeks with a drill sergeant screaming in your face couldn’t fix.

Army Secretary John McHugh said Monday that opening up all combat roles to women would push lawmakers to engage in an “emotional discussion and debate” about whether or not women should also be required to enter the draft. “If your objective is true and pure equality, then you have to look at all aspects and at some point Selective Service will have to be one of those things considered very carefully,” McHugh said at the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., according to the Washington Examiner. McHugh said that Congress would have to decide to require women to sign...

Integrating women into combat will eventually force lawmakers to have an "emotional discussion and debate" about whether women should also be part of the draft, the Army secretary said Monday. John McHugh said it's still too early to discuss whether women should have to sign up for the Selective Service as men have. But, as the military drives toward a Jan. 1 deadline to open some or all combat positions to women, McHugh acknowledged the country will need to have the conversation if women have the same opportunities in the military as men. "If your objective is true and pure...

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, has announced the names of the nine prelates who will work with him to draft the final report of the upcoming synod on the family. Each of the three weeks of the synod, which begins on October 4 and concludes on October 25, is devoted to the discussion of one chapter of the synod’s instrumentum laboris, or working document. The final report, based on the discussions, will be presented to the synod fathers on October 24, whereupon it will be presented to the Holy Father, who is free to...

Vladimir Putin has conscripted 150,000 new troops into the Russian army as the country unleashed a new wave of airstrikes in Syria - while and Iran and Islamist group Hezbollah prepare for a major ground offensive. Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria over the last ten days, backed by the country's Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, and rebel fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, two Lebanese sources claimed today. One of the sources said the Iranian ground forces were 'soldiers and officers', not advisers, adding: 'We mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more.' They are being...

'Draft Biden' committee chief blabs in phone call that 'Joe is in!' – and train's entire cafe car hears him! The man in charge of laying the financial groundwork for a potential presidential run by View President Joe Biden is '100 per cent sure that Joe is in,' according to a passenger who overheard one of his phone calls on Wednesday. Josh Alcorn raised $1.2 million in 2013 for a possible run for Delaware governor by the late Beau Biden, who succumbed to brain cancer this year. Now he's doing the same thing for the elder Biden, working the phones...

The NFL Draft is tonight from Chicago. I will miss the J-E-T-S fans booing the draft pick. To get it started according Bucs drafting Jameis Winston at #1 is a done deal: http://floridastate.scout.com/story/1542262-bucs-players-told-it-s-winston-per-report?s=16

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, Mayor de Blasio is positioning himself to be the leftist “progressive” alternative to Wall Street-friendly Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president, a national party operative told The Post. De Blasio’s hope, the operative said, is a “draft de Blasio’’ movement will develop among progressive activists over the next several months that will lead to the mayor being able to defeat Clinton in the primary elections next year in much the same way leftist Sen. George McGovern successfully challenged the initially front-running establishment Democratic candidate, Sen. Edmund Muskie, more than 40 years...

The scenario has been floated before, but when someone like ESPN’s John Clayton predicts that the Washington Redskins will select Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota with the fifth overall pick of next month’s NFL draft, ears perk up. And so, that’s what happened late Tuesday night and early Wednesday, after Clayton said just that during a radio interview on the first day of the league year, when the league was whipped into a frenzy by trades and big-money free agent signings.

Hitting on every draft prediction made right now would be nice, but the main purposes of this and most subsequent mocks are two-fold. They are meant to A) offer some insight into a team's needs, with the picks hopefully highlighting a current hole; and B) reveal a little bit about how the prospects are stacking up against one another.

Jameis Winston, winner of the 2013 Heisman Trophy, has opted to enter the NFL Draft. The Florida State quarterback’s father, Antonor, said his son will forgo his junior season and enter the NFL draft, according to ESPN. Antonor Winston said that his son had initially wanted to announce his plans until after the College Football Playoff National Championship game but, after praying Tuesday night, decided he would acknowledge his plans on Wednesday.

I wanted to do something for my country during the holidays, so I went to the movies. I watched the Christmas Day opening of “The Interview,” to show North Korea that I wasn’t afraid of its threats to blow up theaters that screen the parody of Kim Jong Un. The $9.50 I paid in the name of patriotic pride bought me stadium seating, a preview of the coming feature “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” and a feature film full of jokes about rectums, sex organs, ricin and the Supreme Leader defecating in his pants. Except for the Asian stereotypes, it...

A veteran of the Cold War–era draft argues that once again sharing the burden of defending the country would produce better foreign policy—and better Americans. The author doing his draft-time duty at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1960.As the struggle with the Islamic State, or ISIS, grows more intense and the Obama administration’s air-attack strategy—if the experts turn out to be correct—proves unavailing, the calls for boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq are likely to become more insistent. Despite the coalition of nations aligned against ISIS and other terrorist groups, no one doubts that any...

Karl Eikenberry couldn't understand why the staff sergeant insisted that he take a loaded pistol to patrol the barracks. The West Point cadet was in Hawaii for the summer, serving as a staff duty officer with the 25th Infantry Division, which had recently returned from Vietnam. It was his job on weekend nights to ensure good order. "Why would I take a sidearm?" Eikenberry asked. "In case you need it, that's why," replied the sergeant. As soon as he entered a darkened barracks building, Eikenberry says, he understood why his staff sergeant was so nervous. Soldiers were gathered in small...

When the wackiness of the final play was over and one forward pass and three laterals had come up nine yards short for the Titans, two words likely crossed every smart Jets fan’s mind: It figures. Rex Ryan and his players rejoiced over this December win during this lost season, while the legions of team followers cursed a meaningless moment that almost certainly cost the Jets a chance at drafting a franchise quarterback in the coming months.

While I am optimistic about our Commander-in-Chief’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, I voted against the Continuing Appropriations Resolution 2015 that would grant the President the authority to provide funds to train and arm Syrian rebels against the enemy. I opposed the amendment because I strongly believe amassing additional debt to go to war should involve all of America debating the matter. That is why I have called for levying a war tax in addition to bringing back the military draft. Both the war surcharge and conscription will give everyone in America a real stake...

Michael Sam, who became the first openly gay football player to be drafted by an NFL team, has made waves in just three preseason games. But on a surprisingly deep St. Louis roster, Sam's spot is hardly guaranteed. "He’s no different than any other late-round pick or college free agent that we have. He’s just trying to make this team,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said in his office the other day. “We have a reality that we can only keep so many players at that position. Is he better than that fourth or fifth defensive end? Right now, I can’t...