I thee tree wed
In what could only be dreamed up by the radical environmental religion and anti-traditional marriage zealots, Peruvian activist and actor Richard Torres recently contracted matrimony with Mexico's famous 1,000-year-old Arbol del Tule, or Tule Tree, in an Inca ceremony.
The ceremony, according to Fox News Latino, began in front of a handful of environmentalists and several dozen inhabitants of the Oaxaca town of Santa Maria del Tule, most of whom didn't know why the man was kissing and "marrying" the tree, which is a form of cypress and - at nearly 140 feet around - has the largest diameter of any tree in the world.
"Stop the hand that cuts down trees," Torres said during the vows. "I condemn this genocide and ask the president of Mexico to halt the destruction."
The wedding was part of the "Marry a tree, save your oxygen" project, whose mission is to stop deforestation around the world, and has already been initiated in Peru, Colombia and Argentina, according to the news agency.
The tree had no immediate comment.
But look for the legalization of such ceremonies to come to a Supreme Court near you.
Governing by percentages
Telling college graduates all that stuff about grit and hard work making a difference in the working world? That's so yesterday. Susan Rice, national security adviser for the White House and the face of the 2012 Benghazi television news show lies about a video causing the death of four American diplomats in Libya, has a different message.
She recently told graduates at Florida International University's commencement there are too many white people in key government posts. That "groupthink," she maintained, could put U.S. security at risk.
Speaking to a population already thought to be pampered and protected, Rice didn't discuss the country's freedom to seek your own way but said a diversified government workforce is more likely to yield "better outcomes" than a predominantly white one. But why a White House with a black president and a black national security adviser wouldn't already have changed a workforce that is "white, male and Yale" to one she believed would serve their interests better, she didn't say.
"In the halls of power, in the faces of our national security leaders," she said, "America is still not fully reflected."
That darn cat
Forget what you know. The rise in violent extremism across the Arab world can be traced, in part, to "Tom and Jerry" cartoons.
Ambassador Salah Abdel Sadek, the head of Egypt State Information Services, said in a recent speech at Cairo University titled "The Media and the Culture of Violence" that the 1940s cartoon featuring the antics of a cat and mouse, along with video games and violent movies, have contributed to the rise of violence.
Sadek said the cartoon, which is still popular in the Middle East, "portrays violence in a funny manner" and leads young viewers to think that violence is natural.
However, he assured his audience the extremist attacks were not motivated by Islamic religious fervor.
An article following up on Sadek's lecture in Youm7 claims the cartoon encourages harmful habits, like drinking alcohol, smoking and stealing, thus warping the concepts of justice and morality. The show also purportedly induces children "to invent sinister plans" using "sharp instruments" like chainsaws and pistols.
It's a wonder, then, that United States baby boomers, who gulped down heavy doses of the cartoon as children, haven't committed cartoon jihad throughout the U.S.
Leftbook?
Facebook executive Tom Stocky continues to deny that the social network site censors conservative news, but there's no doubt where the loyalties of the site's vice president of search lie.
In 2015, he gave $2,700, the maximum amount permitted during a presidential primary, to the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, according to information uncovered from the Federal Election Commission by The Hill. Further, Facebook employees have donated $114,000 to the former secretary of state's campaign and $0 to Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Earlier, the Senate Commerce Committee sent Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg a letter requesting he answer questions about the recent allegation regarding the social media site's Trending Topics feature, where conservative news seems to be sorely lacking.
Stocky denied the allegations, saying "Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum" and has guidelines that "do not permit the suppression of political perspectives." However, he added, guidelines for the Trending Topics feature "are under constant review" and that his team "will continue to look for improvements."