Blog Heap of Links for the day 12 July 2015

The CW has picked up Riverdale, the subversive television adaptation of Archie…

…When you put all those pieces together, or "connect the dots" as the Democrats used to say when Bush was in office, you see the entire fabric of American society being rapidly and deliberately unraveled by orders and edicts.…

President Obama is slated to become the first president to visit a federal prison while in office.

The White House announced on Friday that he will tour the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma and meet with inmates next week.

Throughout his long career, the Egyptian star Omar Sharif, who died Friday at the age of 83, was known for both the subtlety and grandeur of his roles. He won acclaim for many of them — multiple Golden Globes, a Cesar award and an Oscar nomination.

And, of course, there’s his signature scene: the one in which he moves across the desert on a camel in "Lawrence of Arabia," now etched into out cinematic consciousness. …

The story of the Waldensians is a story of devotion to the Scriptures, and of perseverance—a story that should inspire us all. Because of their origins in the distant 12th century, they have been called “the oldest evangelical Church”; because they became an embattled pocket of stubborn “heretics” in the valleys of the Piedmont Alps, unwilling to surrender their beliefs, they have been called the “Israel of the Alps.” The Waldensian story is fascinating, and legendary. …

This Fourth of July, God and America have a complicated relationship.A third of Americans say the United States is a Christian nation. But more than half say the country has a special relationship with the Almighty. …

Despite having family members to sponsor them, a group of 20 Chaldean Christians who fled ISIS have been detained for over four months at the Otay Detention Facility in San Diego. The large Chaldean community in Southern California are unhappy with the unexplained delays and are demanding their release.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claim they are undermanned and face a backlog of cases but have offered little to the media about the prolonged detention of the Chaldean 20.

Mark Arabo, an activist and spokesmen for the local Chaldean community says, "What we do know is that they are being held without a real reason." …

A Calgary bird who lost his feet to frostbite is now walking thanks to a pair of artificial talons created on a 3D printer.…

…The piazza in Sant'Eufemia a Maiella, located deep within Italy's central Majella National Park, will be covered with a 650-sq-m (7,000-sq-ft) board as part of the event later this month… billed as the biggest game of Risk in the world… Super-sized playing pieces designed to fit with the gigantic board will be used by those taking part.…

Mayor Francesco Crivelli… "Usually I like to play using the green pieces, but I lose, I always lose…."

Wheaton College May Have to 'Outsource Sin'

A photo of a question from a high school health test posted by Slate’s Will Saletan caught our eye. What’s the definition of “family”? Apparently, it’s literally anything that the test giver wants it to be…

…"The Congress, the courts, and the president ignore the Constitution we have today and our Founders knew we would eventually get to that point, and they gave us a method… to amend it to keep the federal government limited in its scope and its jurisdiction," Coburn said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

The method he is referring to is Article V of the U.S. Constitution.…

"Most people don't think about this, but the states created the federal government -- the federal government didn't create the states," Coburn said. "And the supremacy, if you read the enumerated powers, written in the Constitution, it was very limited what the federal government was supposed to have, but everything else was supposed to be left to the states and to the people." …

[Re possibility of runaway convention] Coburn dismissed such fears.

"That's just hilarious to me," he said. "You have a runaway convention right now. You have a president that doesn't pay any attention to the Constitution. You have a Congress that doesn't fulfill its responsibility. And you have a Supreme Court that ignores its own precedents and the Founders' intent. Tell me why that isn't a runaway constitutional convention? That's what's happening to us now." …

…On this day in 1812 The U.S. invaded Canada at Windsor, Ontario…