My mind is open.  It's clear we readers have little information and we must wait for more complete details, from multiple sources.  But from your  information is scarcely any better, James.  You are the only one here who can evaluate it, and there is little reason for anyone else here to put weight on your judgement, though we admire your character, honesty and wisdom.  The kind of faith you have from knowing this family is, unfortunately, not transferrable to others.

Help me out.  Is this a legal or illegal alien?

Q. But maybe that's okay. If a sane man has ascended to the presidency of Iran, isn't it possible that Israel can stop worrying about Iran's ultimate intentions toward her?

We must remember that the Iranian President is a sock-puppet,  an attention-grabber to distract from those who actually dictate the actions of the regime.  Khamenei remains ensconced in power and the Velayat e Faqih still runs the show.  Rouhani is a softer face for the regime, but the regime has not changed.

To use a cold-war metaphor, the President does not have a finger on "the red button".  The Velayat, and more specifically the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, does.  If you're worried about whether the trigger finger responds to a sane or insane actor, keep your eyes on Khamenei.

Chicago.  New York.  Detroit.  Dearborn, MI.  Horsefly, BC.  Iran.  Antarctica.  Denmark.  Saudi Arabia.  Better stop there.

I like the "incredible oversight" business.  

As in, "Oops, there's been an incredible oversight.  Pity."

Watching that I couldn't help thinking about the old warnings about getting STDs from all of your partners' partners.  Something about it suggests that this was actually in the back of the minds of the makers.

Well, it was Dems, after all, who coined this slogan.  It should perhaps be printed as a Hillary bumper sticker.

So...

Obama is the Good Cop

The Obama Admin is the Bad Cop?

Just a point I often make, that Americans discussing this tend to miss:  In Canada we don't have national health care.  It's provincial.  It's in the constitution (it is in the U.S. too, but for some reason y'all don't seem to take that document terribly seriously).

We don't have Obamacare.  We have RomneyCare.

There are horror stories here.  I have some of my own.  My wife's death in 2010 may have been the direct result of an absurdity in the Manitoba Health regulations (there's no way of knowing for sure, but I can point to certain things that are clearly relevant to the progression of her cancer, timeliness of diagnosis and the inability to provide certain treatements available in the U.S.)

We lived in the U.S. for four years.  There were horror stories there too.  I am not ready to judge one better than the other.  But I am prepared to say that ObamaCare will clearly be worse than both.

They're measuring health.

How does the median income in the study group (gays) compare to the mean income in the control group (hetero)?

Oh, DJ, that surely calls for a topper.  But I'm afraid I'm stuck in the horns of a dilemma.  I'm udderly stumped.  Grazed by your Ricochet comment, I can't think of any way to milk it.  This time I surely won't get pasture level.    

McCain was an easy guess.  But I'm a Canadian and was at a loss for the second.  You yanks, I'm afraid, have a leg up on me here.

They were colourful?  But colour wasn't invented until the 60's.  Help.  I'm  suffering from cognitive dissonance here!

Someone must have smuggled in an old ABBA album.

There's nobody who tops Carol Burnette.

Well, except maybe Tim Conway.

I didn't know the Americans cite this poem.  It's a Remembrance day staple in Canada.