The new issue of Dabiq Magazine (#13) released today contains tributes to several fallen ISIS members, including "Jihadi John." I'm not linking to Dabiq so here's a link to a news article about it. But I am interested in some details as to his background the eulogy clears up so I will quote it.

First, the article refers to him as "Abū Muhārib al-Muhājir" rather than Mohammed Emwazi. In the bio portion, it says his early life was spent in the "northeast of the Arabian Peninsula" but he moved to London with his family at a young age. His mother was originally from Yemen. [More....]

ISIS accuses the Taliban of heroin trafficking in Issue 13 of Dabiq Magazine, released today. The following quote is from an interview with Shaykh Hāfidh Sa’īd Khān (hafidhahullāh), ISIS' Wali (governor) of the Wilayat (Wilāyah) Khurāsān:

Dābiq: Does the nationalist Taliban movement continue to allow farmers to sell opium? How is the Wilāyah dealing with this serious phenomenon?

The Wālī: There’s no doubt that the nationalist Taliban movement has permitted farmers and merchants to grow and sell opium. Rather, the matter has reached the point that the movement itself harvests opium, and even worse than that is that the Taliban themselves transport opium and heroin in their personal vehicles, charging a fee to the sellers and the addicts! They also take a 10% cut as well as taxes from them. Akhtar Mansour himself is considered as being from the major dealers of these narcotics

.

[More....]

R.I.P. Glenn Frey. I read this hours ago and I am still shocked and so very sad. He was 67. I'm also upset to think that despite his access to the best medical care, medicine couldn't save him. He suffered for for a long time.

He and the Eagles were such a huge part of my early adult life -- as they were to millions of other Americans coming of age in the 70's. I've been writing this all night and keep adding more. At some point I need to stop and publish, and this is probably as good a place as any. Here is the announcement on the Eagles' website: [More...]

Everybody has an opinion on the Democratic race for President, particularly those in the media. Outside of statistical polling, how does the media measure the public's subjective impression of the candidates? They don't and can't. They shouldn't even try. But it's futile to try and stop them. Or even to get the media to distinguish between presenting rank opinion and fact. The two have essentially merged.

Example today, from Slate, which I only came across because it was at the top of my Google News list. The article emphatically reports that Hillary won the debate last night. I may subjectively agree, but I have to question whether that is a fact or some writer's opinion. And if it's opinion, why is it leading the Google news section? [More...]

Thread.

Last Democratic debate tonight before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

Here's a place for your thoughts. Mine are expressed by the photo.

Bump and Update: Since when did "gun control" become "gun safety legislation?". That's what O'Malley called it. [More...]

This is an open thread, all topics (TV-related or not) welcome.

How much TV can I watch in one night? There's the Democratic debate and Sean Penn on 60 Minutes. There's the Good Wife, Downton Abbey, Shameless and the Royals. I even like Guys' Grocery's Games (I don't like Worst Cook in America.)

Two shows I tried to like and really didn't, so I won't be watching any more: Ruta 35 on Unimas and the most awful, gratuitously violent novela I've ever seen that just started last week on Telemundo. Called La Querida del Centauro, it seems to be a thinly veiled take on the prison romance between El Chapo and Zulema Hernandez. Sony generally does not make good novelas. The only passable one was En la Boca Del Lobo. I think novela-land will be barren until the return of Senor de los Cielos (season 4) in April. (La Viuda Negra Part 2 may start before then, but it's just okay.) The best, if you speak Spanish is El Capo (Seasons 1 and 2. Season 3 has English subtitles but isn't as good as the first two seasons.) Ranking up there with El Capo: El Cartel (Seasons I and II, not the movie); La Reina del Sur; Pablo Escobar Patron de Mal; and En La Boca del Lobo. [More...]

Sean Penn's interview with Charlie Rose airs on "60 Minutes" tonight. Here's a recap from Variety.

Penn believes he failed to accomplish his goals, which was to talk about the U.S. government’s was on drugs. “We all want this drug problem to stop. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs, just as many of your brothers and sisters, your mothers and fathers, the teachers at school, are doing these drugs. Just as many,:” he said. “And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article come (SIC) out, talking about that? 1– 1%? I think that’d be generous.”

Even so, Penn said he has no regrets about his actions, and was simply trying to offer readers a look at a hard-to-reach figure in order to illuminate discussion around a heated issue. “I’m really sad about the state of journalism in our country,” he told Rose. “It has been an incredible hypocrisy and an incredible– lesson in just how much they don’t know and how disserved we are.”

[More...]

There's another Democratic debate tonight, the last before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. In what reads more like an op-ed than a news article, reporters at the Washington Post say Bernie Sanders seems to be picking up steam and Hillary could be in trouble.

She arrives here in the middle of a rocky stretch, all of a sudden on the wrong side of a new narrative that suggests Sanders is surging and she is weakening, facing possible defeat in the first two contests of the year.

The Vermont senator continues to lead the polls in New Hampshire, and now he has closed the gap in Iowa, the state where Clinton’s campaign fell off the tracks eight years ago. For Clinton, it wasn’t supposed to be this way against a septuagenarian, self-identified democratic socialist who began his campaign with no national profile and no financial network.

How is the following news rather than opinion?

[Heads up: This will not be a popular post with Sanders supporters, so if he's your idea of the best choice for President, you may want to stop reading now. Nor will Trump supporters like it, but I don't much care about them.] [More...]

Thread.

Thread.

thread.

Update [Jeralyn]: I have no interest in watching the Republican debate, but if you're watching, you can put your thoughts here.