Make Beards Great Again

Hello one and all, and welcome to another collection of Laura's Links. Anyone else glad the holiday season is over? I kept losing track of the days and not a small number of my brain cells, but I have been assured that all the attendees at Camp Mommy over the past two weeks were very satisfied with their experience. To recover, Dr. Laura is prescribing herself a double dose of retail therapy this week, just don't tell Mr. C, let's just please keep this between us, ok? Shhhhhh.

The New Year – the new decade – is officially in gear, and humans continue to amaze, amuse and depress me as usual!

Obviously the big news over the past few days was the obliteration of some evil by a very talented man, a stable genius! I refer of course, to President Donald Trump and the late Iranian General Soleimani, rest in pieces. But in fairness, my comments apply equally to Ricky Gervais. And, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Mark had some thoughts about both.

If you come to SteynOnline for the lighter fare, make sure to check out Mark's Twelfth Night Live special. It's full of wonderful songs and stories which will help ease you into your post-holiday routines.

Friends, we have much ground to cover, so let's get started!

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North America:

Thoughts on New York's violent crime surge from Seth Barron at City Journal.

Yet another reason to never forget and never forgive.

Jared Kushner, putting his critics to shame.

Culture of Death alert: not gruesome or organ harvesty a la communist China or anything.

Prime Ministrel of Canada looking a little rough around the edges.

John Podhoretz: the reverse blood libel.

DeBlasio intervened in prosecution of accused anti-semitic attacker Tiffany Harris. That he intervened is really not surprising to me. What is surprising and interesting to me is that he cared at all about media and public criticism. That's weird. Was this situation just too disgusting for most normal people for him to be able to ignore it? Who knows?

Report suggests the Obama administration stopped Israel from assassinating Soleimani in 2015.

New York using taxpayer's money to bribe liberal Jews to stay in the DNC. My idiot people will never learn.

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Israel and Jews:

Let's make peace with these people! Jerusalem Post: Palestinian boys are raised to be ammunition.

Critically injured Monsey victim is a beloved scholar who collected for the poor.

Holocaust survivor who took his political art underground sees daylight in the UK.

Melanie Phillips: antisemitism is the ultimate marker of cultural derangement (really good).

Caroline Glick: when will American Jewry wake up? Oh-never.

Ruth R. Wisse: the anti-Semitism conference at Bard College.

I really hate Jews for Jihad.

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Middle East:

Why aren't more media outlets covering Iran?

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Jihad and other Barbarians:

Christians beheaded for Christmas.

All cultures are equal, etc.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Nothing has improved. I would argue things are worse.

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Formerly Great Britain:

Boris Johnson's aide puts out "bizzare" job ad. Actually it's not so "bizarre" if you know any history and know how spies and cryptographers were recruited in WW2.

And just when you think the U.K could not have gotten any worse, and the stories could not get any more repulsive, stupid, embarrasing and evil, something else comes along. More here.

Migrants welcome. Best and brightest, etc. Always welcome.

Umm. OK.

The U.K. is doomed.

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Wokestapo, Kook and Humourless Left and Trans:

The phrase you know you needed: "moral grandstanding".

Woke censorship is out of control.

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Europe:

Sweden to offer migrant women free Arabic language driving lessons.

If it's wrong of me to feel schadenfreudelcious about this, then I don't wanna be right.

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Human (and animal) Grace:

Meet the man who adopts disabled orphans wounded by failed abortions.

The moment an Ohio cop reunites a 3-year old with his lost stuffed animal.

Stranger helps out little shopper.

Via Kathy Shaidle: Uber passenger pays off driver's college debt!

From Chabad (this one made me cry): you could be the person with the skill or gift that can change someone's life. So go do it!

"The moment when an orangatang is smarter than every pro-choice person."

Now comment away!

Mark Steyn Club members are encouraged to let Laura know what they think about these or any other stories from the week in the comments below. Commenting is a perk reserved for Club members, so if you're suffering from FOMO you can join up here and comment away. Laura and her family will also be aboard this year's Mark Steyn Cruise, alongside the bearded one himself (Steyn, that is – not Trudeau), Douglas Murray and John O'Sullivan. Staterooms are still available here.