SAR #14127

In the public square, instinct and emotion trump data and reason. Always.

The Men Who Came To Dinner: The US is reportedly “deploying security forces” to Nigeria supposedly to “help find 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram.” Except Nigeria does not seem to have actually asked for US troops, perhaps being aware that inviting the US in is a lot easier than getting us to leave.

Strange Bedfellows: Syrian Kurds are asking arch-enemy Turkey for assistance in their fight against jihadists in Syria

August May 1914 2014 If we all don't end up in an unwanted war, it'll be due to dumb luck.

As I Say/Not As I Do: US Intelligence officials are quite upset that the Israelies have been spying on the US. Why that should bother anyone more than the Israeli control of Congress is a mystery.

Rah, Rah, Rahcovery: Okay, the government reported GDP 1Q GDP to be an extremely modest 0.1% increase. Goldman says it was more likely a -0.6 and JPMorgan prefers -0.8%. 
 
Choose Ignorance Purity: Having premarital sex leads inexorably to sexual assault, prostitution, hard drugs, gang violence, limb-decimating meth lab explosions and death from diet pill addiction. Say's so right here in my handy-dandy guide to Daddy's Purity Balls.

Redefined: Turns out the middle class isn't in the middle any more – it's now that group of folks with incomes in the 80 to 90th percentile. 
 
Don't Call Me In The Morning, Either: The FDA says that if you have not had a heart attack, don't take aspirin, even the little ones. The risks associated with taking aspirin outweigh the benefits, if you have no history of cardiovascular disease 
 
Tensely: Vatican Representative Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, said that the practice of shifting pedophilic priests from diocese to diocese to hide them from the law "was a policy practiced decades ago, mostly.” Mostly.

Porn O'Graph: Bully for us. 
 
The Parting Shot:

 The Convocation.