NewsWatch

Trump Returns “Jihad” To Intelligence

FrontPageMag.com, 12/20/17, “Trump Returns “Jihad” to Intelligence” [Excerpts]: President Trump’s new national security strategy is set to return words relevant to understanding Islamic terrorism—such as “jihad”—that had been expunged from the Intelligence and Defense communities’ lexicon, most notably under the Obama administration.  According to the new strategy document, “The primary transnational threats Americans face are from jihadist terrorists and transnational criminal organizations.”

This is significant on several levels—the first being as basic as “knowing one’s enemy,” which President Obama had refused to do. In 2011 it was reported that “the Obama administration was pulling back all training materials used for the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam that some Muslim groups have claimed are offensive.”

(https://goo.gl/4PSnuq)

Rapid Finch Speciation Counters Evolution

ICR.org, 12/18/17, “Rapid Finch Speciation Counters Evolution” [Excerpts]: About a dozen species of Darwin’s famous finches inhabit the various Galapagos Islands. Textbooks have long used these animals as examples of evolution. Now, Peter and Rosemary Grant, career researchers into Darwin’s finches, describe how a new finch species established itself as a bona fide population on the tiny island of Daphne Major. What do these new observations imply about textbook evolution?

 It all began in 1981 when a male hybrid between Geospiza fortis and G. scandens, as later determined by genetic testing, appeared on Daphne Major, an island that was already home to three different Darwin’s finch (Geospiza) species. Body size, bill size and shape, song, and diet all help characterize each species.

The male hybrid pioneer mated with two G. fortis females that already lived on the island. The offspring had unique mixtures of their unlikely parents’ traits.

The new family line achieved species status first by surviving droughts, mostly using their larger bodies and beaks to reach food that their smaller counterparts couldn’t access. Then the family remained isolated from other species, which it did by preferring mates that looked and sounded like their parents. It only took three generations to establish this new finch species.

According to Science Alert, “Charles Darwin would have been delighted” with the results of this field work. But would he really? His book On the Origin of Species used several examples of hybridization to illustrate the supposed potential of gradual, natural changes to transform virtually any creature feature into anything else. In this finch example, as in the examples Charles Darwin described, changes were limited to certain aspects of certain features.

For example, the new finch species has a larger bill, but they all still have bills instead of something else, such as teeth and lips. They sing a slightly different song, but they all share the same vocal cord construction and they still all sing finch songs.

(https://goo.gl/L2oACy)

[TBC: Simply put, a finch remains a finch.]

40% of US Births Out of Wedlock

FriendsOfIsrael.org, 11/17/17, “Hamas reiterates: We will never recognize Israel” [Excerpts]: A spokesman for Hamas reiterated on [November 15] that the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip will never recognize Israel’s right to exist, a firm prerequisite for peace. 

Sami Abu Zuhri insisted that Hamas would remain true to its principles and work for the realization of national reconciliation and unify the Palestinian people to their agenda of “liberating” every last inch of the Holy Land.

The remarks were made at the opening session of the 26th International Conference of the Association of Islamic Organizations (ESAM) in Istanbul.

(https://goo.gl/ZwhZu8)