(Via Deadline) American Sniper is huge. So huge that the Clint Eastwood-directed film could, by sunrise, make more in one day than any one of his films ever made in a weekend. Per late night industry estimates, the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow pic looks to gun down $29.1M in its first expanded Friday, within inches of blowing away Eastwood’s previous weekend high, 2009’s Gran Torino at $29.5M.
Hands down, American Sniper’s Friday booty ranks as the highest grossing day ever charted by a film in January – and that goes for an opening (previous record holder was 2008’s Cloverfield at $17.16M) and single day (prior was the $25.8M B.O. racked up by Avatar on Jan. 2, 2010).  (continue reading)

The outlaw parents told by the STATE if they allow their children, 10 and 6-years-old, to be outside the home -unattended by adult supervision- their children will be taken by Child Protective Services and the parents will be arrested.

(Via Daily Signal) Two parents in Silver Spring, Md. are under investigation after authorities picked up their 6-year-old daughter and 10-year old son walking by themselves back from Woodside Park, which is a located a mile from their house.

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say after after the Dec. 20 apprehension of their kids, they have been unfairly targeted by authorities as neglectful parents, according to The Washington Post. The Meitvs are advocates of “free-range” parenting, generally requiring their children to carry cards stating, “I am not lost. I am a free-range kid.”
“The world is actually even safer than when I was a child, and I just want to give them the same freedom and independence that I had — basically an old-fashioned childhood,” Danielle Meitv told the Post. (more…)

This is not a Saturday Night Live sketch, this is real [I cannot stop laughing]. This has to be the ultimate representative optic of all things liberal and ridiculous.
In an effort to repair the optics stemming from the White House skipping the French “unity rally”, someone, somewhere, probably Secretary Kerry himself, thought it would be a great idea to take James Taylor to France to sing “you’ve got a friend” publicly, on stage, with Secretary Kerry – as the liberal audience/media look on swooningly….
I just cannot stop laughing. This is too funny to even be embarrassed. Watch:

Asia Times Online,  Jan 16/2015:
Saudi reset with Iran unavoidable, as Saudi Prince Turki renames IS “Fahesh” (obscene)….

The terrorist strike last week on the Saudi border post facing the Iraqi province of Anbar — known to be the Islamic State’s first assault on the kingdom — could be the proverbial straw on the camel’s back, forcing Riyadh into a profound rethink of its regional strategies imbued with the rivalries involving Iran…
Tehran has effectively countered the Saudi plots in Syria and Iraq and at the moment would seem to have the upper hand. The last-ditch Saudi attempt to hurt the Iranian economy by forcing a steep decline in oil prices is not only not having the desired effect but, as President Hassan Rouhani explicitly warned yesterday, Riyadh may end up shooting at its own feet (as well as the Kuwaiti brother’s).

However, it is the attack on the Saudi post by the IS (killing two border guards and their commanding officer) that becomes a defining moment. The fact that the IS attackers included three Saudi nationals must be a rude awakening. To be sure, the blowback has begun. The Saudis hope to erect a ‘great wall’ and insulate themselves from the IS barbarians next door but that is sheer bravado.
(more…)

Remarkable bravery considering the backlash Recep Erdogan is likely to retaliate with.
(Via PJ Media) A newspaper in Turkey whose roots stretch to the founding of the modern republic will truly live the words “je suis Charlie” on Wednesday when it publishes the new Charlie Hebdo issue in Turkish despite threats.
Cumhuriyet (The Republic), founded in 1924 at the encouragement of Mustafa Kemal, tweeted that it will continue to “defend the freedom of expression” and will dedicate four of its pages to the French satirical paper’s content. They’ll also reportedly double their normal press run to 100,000 copies.
Besides French, the only other language of Charlie Hebdo in print will be Italian. English, Spanish, and Arabic versions will be available in online formats.
Threats have reportedly been pouring into the newspaper in the 99 percent Muslim country, and some overtly posted on Twitter. Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, a member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), stoked the flames by tweeting in all caps that the paper was about to commit a “serious provocation” and asking followers to spread the word. He also accused the newspaper of working with some foreign power and declared it a “game of the enemies of Islam.” (more…)

(London)…Speaking to the NewsHour current affairs programme just hours after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, Mayor Aboutaleb became angered by the failure of some Muslims to adapt to their new homes, as he himself had done.

Unbelievable. Gladiator training while wearing onesies !!

INDIANA – An Indiana couple was arrested after police found videos of a one-year-old placing a real gun in her mouth, authorities said.
When police in Evansville, Indiana, arrested Michael Barnes last Thursday in connection with an armed robbery, they say they searched his phone and were shocked to find two videos of a toddler putting a gun in her mouth and holding the gun up as if to shoot someone else.
In the videos, a man and a woman can be heard prompting the child, who, in one video is dressed in only a brown onesie, to say “bang” and “shoot.” (more…)

DeAndre Joshua (Ferguson, Missouri), Jessica Chambers (Courtland, Mississippi) now another in North Memphis area of Millington, TN.  Pattern?

MILLINGTON, Tenn. (FOX13) – Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a body that was found in a burning pickup truck Thursday afternoon on Mudville Road in Millington.
A sheriff spokesman said a witness saw a pick-up on fire just after 4 p.m. in the 7800 block of Mudville Road.

When deputies and first responders arrived they found a body inside the pickup truck, which was found down in a ditch.
It is unclear if the body is male or female.  The body was found in the passenger side of the pickup truck, SCSO spokesman Chip Washington said. They are considering this as suspicious. (more…)

(Via Red Alert) Following the model set at several law schools, students at Oberlin College are pleading for leniency during final exams and the final grading period this fall semester in light of the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases and the shooting of Tamir Rice.
A petition has been circling around the school community President Marvin Krislov to suspend the standard grading system because students of color, especially black students, are at risk of failing.
“I would really like to see the normal grading system suspended for this semester and replaced with a no-fail mercy period. Administrators should require professors to exercise complete flexibility in what students are saying they can produce academically. Require that every professor listen to what their students are saying and if that means rather than writing a paper students instead meet with their professor to simply discuss in groups their paper topics or if tests are taken collectively with professors there are ways to make sure we are learning what we are supposed to be learning in ways that are not so taxing in times like this,” the petition reads. (more…)