Temporary lies?
The numbers continue to rise on people who claim they were ensnared by President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban, only to have their experiences exposed as hoaxes.
One of the most recent was Michigan resident Mike Hager, who claimed his ailing mother died in Iraq because she and other members of his family were not allowed to travel back to their home in the U.S. The only problem was she died on Jan. 22, five days before the executive order was signed. When his hoax was exposed, Hager mumbled something about being on "heavy medication."
A more prominent hoaxer was Olympic athlete Ibtihaj Muhammad, an American citizen who said she was detained "just a few weeks ago" by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
"I personally was held at Customs for two hours," she said. "I don't know why. I can't tell you why it happened to me, but I know that I'm Muslim. I have an Arabic name. And even though I represent Team USA and I have that Olympic hardware, it doesn't change how you look and how people perceive you.
"[P]eople talk about this having a lot to do with these seven countries in particular, but I think the net is cast a little bit wider And I'm included in that as a Muslim woman who wears a hijab."
Although many reputable news agencies ran with the story, implying she was stopped by the temporary ban, she was detained in 2016 while Barack Obama was president. Further, she was stopped on a random basis, and the delay was less than an hour.
But, hey, what's the importance of truth when a lie makes a much better story?
Done with Clintons
Americans finally may have reached Clinton fatigue. After eight years of President Bill Clinton and his assorted scandals and two presidential runs by former first lady Hillary Clinton, Democrats are trying to make sure a third one doesn't run for office.
Reports have surfaced that former first daughter Chelsea Clinton is interested in a run for office, though she denies it. Still, Democrats who attended the recent Democratic National Committee forum in Baltimore said they'd rather she just stayed in her block-long, 5,000-square-foot, $10 million Manhattan apartment.
"Chelsea needs to go away," Guinevere Boyd told the Washington Times. "She has nothing to offer. She has said some horrible, clueless things about progressives and progressive issues."
"The country does not have any more appetite for Clintons," Mike Bender said. " Enough is enough, and frankly I think the Clinton policies, going back to Bill, are what took the Democrats to the center and the right, and you can see what kind of enthusiasm that inspired."
Double standard
In California, bashing President Donald Trump may have become part of the curriculum. So when the mother of a Campana High School student complained because her son's English teacher told the class she lost a $100 bet because the president had not been shot on Inauguration Day, school and district officials all but laughed at her.
"A public school teacher using classroom time to share with students how she lost a bet because the president was not shot is beyond reprehensible to me," said Jane Germaine, "and I do not see how the school district does not find this troubling.
"Teachers telling students that Trump hates women, Fox News is 'fake' news, it's raining so much in Southern California these days because Trump is president, a teacher telling students she is estranged from certain family members because they are conservative - I could go on and on," she said.
Germaine said if the shoe were on the other foot, things would be different.
"If my son were to say such comments, even remotely similar in nature," she said, "he most likely would have been escorted out of class, I would have received a phone call, law enforcement notified and my son would have been suspended or expelled."
Moo-ving lunches
Meat and cheese are largely out for public schools in Oakland, Calif., because officials say lunches need to be more climate friendly.
The city's school system has partnered with the environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) to eliminate food it says is "unsustainable for our planet."
"This is a landmark moment for school food," Jennifer LeBarre, head of nutrition services for Oakland Unified School District, said in a FOE statement. "We were so excited to see how the data showed that we could reduce our carbon and water footprint by serving healthy, delicious food - like the vegetarian tostadas with fresh made in-house salsa all while saving money."
Perhaps LeBarre forgot to check with students across the country, who were forced to endure the healthier lunches perpetrated on school systems by former first lady Michelle Obama. The upshot was that some school systems dropped out of the school lunch program, large amounts of food went to waste and many children failed to eat because they considered the food they were served was inedible.
Among the Oakland changes, beef hot dogs and pepperoni pizza will be replaced by vegan stir fry tofu and vegan tostadas. Any meat or cheese used will come from "pastured, organic dairy cows."
If you're stumped about how cows affect global warming, some environmentalists believe methane expelled by cows is a more dangerous global threat than automobiles' exhaust.