People are saying . . . Did you read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school? The creator of Atticus, Scout, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson died last Friday at age 89. Many fans of the author, Harper Lee, were incensed last year when her publisher, HarperCollins (owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch) published an early version of the book, Go Set a Watchman, in which Atticus Finch was a racist.
Obama pledges to nominate a Supreme Court Justice to replace Justice Scalia, who died last week. Republicans have pledged to block the nomination, hoping that a Republican will be elected President in November and that he would nominate a conservative to the court.
The latest conspiracy theory: Leonard Nimoy, Mr Spock in Star Trek, is not dead. He faked his death, and is now the head of the Illuminati. Nimoy is responsible for the murder of Scalia who would have been the decisive Supreme Court vote blocking President Obama’s attempt to cancel the 2016 election after Hillary is indicted for sending classified information on her personal e-mail server as Secretary of State.
Back on planet earth: Hillary won the Democratic Nevada caucus, and The Donald won the Republican South Carolina primary on Saturday. Republicans are now facing the possibility that Trump could actually win the nomination. It now looks like a three-way race, with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz splitting the anti-Donald vote. Jeb Bush, who was once declared the “front-runner,” has now dropped out of the race. Kasich and Carson are way behind. Despite Hillary’s win, she is way behind Bernie in the race for $$$.
Should the FBI compel Apple to create a “backdoor” that would allow the Justice Department to override the encryption on the iPhone? The FBI wants to know who the San Bernadino shooters talked to on their iPhone in the days before they killed 14 people at a holiday party. Apple says the new software would become commonly available and compromise all internet security.
The Donald versus the Pope: A cornerstone of Donald Trump’s campaign is his promise to build a “huge” wall to prevent migrants from entering the U.S. Pope Francis recently said that “a person who thinks only about building walls – wherever they may be – and not building bridges, is not a Christian.” Trump replied that “for a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”
Pope Francis is the most activist leader of the Roman Catholic Church in over a hundred years. He is a strong advocate for the poor, criticizing “the cult of money.” He supports a state for Palestine, and advocates addressing the issue of climate change. He has initiated a debate on the Catholic doctrine on divorce, and has criticized church leaders for being “obsessed” with issues of abortion, homosexuality, and contraception.
Recently Pope Francis suggested that birth control might be the lesser of two evils in confronting the spread of the Zika virus that causes microcephaly (small heads) in new born infants.
Nobody has died from a hoverboard fire yet, but they have caused over two million $$$ in property damage, destroyed two houses and an automobile. If you have one, you should also have a fire extinguisher.