Blog Heap of Links for the day 9 July 2014

Hessy Taft, the winner of a 1935 contest commissioned by the Nazis in Germany to find the most beautiful Aryan baby, recently revealed that she is Jewish. … Hans Ballin, a well-known photographer, to have the 6-month-old's picture taken. Unbeknownst to her, Taft's image soon turned up on the cover of Sonne ins Hause, a Nazi family magazine. Taft's mother, terrified, asked the photographer about it, and was told that he knew the family was Jewish and submitted the photo to the contest to make the Nazis look "ridiculous." …

Lois Lerner Email: We Should Be Careful What We Say In Emails And, Say, Just Curious: The IRS' Internal Instant-Message System Isn't Archived By Any Chance, Is It?

So first she says that we should be careful what we say in emails, and then asks if the OCS system -- an internal IRS instant-message system -- is also archived, as emails are.

She is told "no."

She responds: "Perfect." …

I'm sure she meant "I'll just change the default setting to archive these instant messages right now, in order to carefully preserve a record of official documents."

“I don’t believe he particularly cares whether or not the border of the United States is secure,” Perry said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” charging the president was either “inept” or had an “ulterior motive” in failing to secure the border.

ISIS militants take sledgehammers to Mosul tomb of Prophet Jonah

"I’ve been a deep believer my whole life. 18 years as a Southern Baptist. More than 40 years as a mainline Protestant. I’m an ordained pastor. But it’s just stopped making sense to me. You see people doing terrible things in the name of religion, and you think: ‘Those people believe just as strongly as I do. They’re just as convinced as I am.’ And it just doesn’t make sense anymore. It doesn’t make sense to believe in a God that dabbles in people’s lives." [This sad case is more proof that belief is not faith. Whatever he believed, and quit believing, was an idea. Apparently not a very strong one, at that.]

In fact, a mind-altering compound found in some 200 species of mushroom is already being explored as a potential treatment for depression and anxiety. People who consume these mushrooms, after “trips” that can be a bit scary and unpleasant, report feeling more optimistic, less self-centered, and even happier for months after the fact. [Paging Dr. Alpert, Dr. Leary]

For 50 years Raju the elephant was held in chains, beaten and abused… legs bleeding from spiked shackles… But last week animal charity workers swooped to save him in a daring midnight rescue operation on the streets of India. … Raju’s rescuers insist the giant animal wept as he realised his ordeal was coming to an end. …

'We Didn't Get Elected Just to Cut Ribbons, Kiss Babies, and Hold Office' -Gov. Bobby Jindal at Resource Bank 2014 [Video at link]

“They started to ask, ‘Well, why didn’t she finish her documents in the Ukraine?’ And I said, ‘Well, there’s a war in her region. That’s the reason why.’ And they started asking us why she just couldn’t return and I said, ‘Well, there’s still battling going on to this day there,’” Price said. “She was then handcuffed and taken into another room.”