Hasta La Gadget!

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – At least two American soldiers were killed and two others wounded on Saturday when an Afghan commando opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan, a local official said.

The shooting occurred in Achin district, where U.S. special forces have been fighting alongside Afghan troops against Islamic State and Taliban militants, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor.

The commando was also killed in the incident, Khogyani said.

“The cause of the shooting is not clear. An investigation has already begun,” he said.

A spokesman for the U.S. military command in Kabul said they were aware of the report but could not yet confirm any details.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the shooter was a member of the militant group and had killed four Americans and wounded several more.

(Additional reporting by Josh Smith in Kabul; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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‘The Get Down,’ ‘Sense8’
Cancellations Signal
That Netflix’s Originals
Are ‘Destructible’
Daniel Holloway,
Variety

In the span of about a week, Netflix cancelled both The Get Down and Sense8 — two noteworthy series from its slate of original show…

I remember the infancy of online dating: before Tinder, before apps. I was on Nerve and Jdate fifteen years before Bumble or JCrush had even been conceived. Back when I was 25 and new to the game, a good looking, erudite stranger popping up in my inbox would inevitably give me a little thrill. Fifteen years later, divorced and online again, I’m encountering something surreal – exes are popping up on my screen. These men are ghosts from another time and stage of my life, yet here they are, coming up as ‘Suggested Matches.’

In my twenties and early thirties, many of the guys I dated wrote in their profiles that they wanted marriage and children, but it turned out that a lot of them were simply looking for fun: Most had no immediate aspirations to settle down. I don’t think I was really ready for marriage and kids back then either. But by the time I reached my mid thirties, I was ready for a more conventional life.

On Halloween almost three years ago, I received a message from a tall, dark, handsome stranger on Jdate. Lou* and I had lived less than three miles away from each other for a decade, but our paths had never crossed. We had a whirlwind courtship and married eleven months after our first date. I praised the merits of online dating to anyone who’d listen, and, after our wedding, I even wrote a ‘Success Story’ for Jdate, complete with photos of us grinning in our wedding car.

Not too long after I’d sent off the ‘Success Story,’ Lou abruptly ended our marriage. I knew that he’d been engaged several times before he’d met me, and that he’d called off each of his engagements. That information should have been a big red flag, but because our relationship felt so right, and because he’d actually got married this time, this felt different. In the end, for reasons that only Lou knows, he headed for the divorce court just seven months after we’d wed.

One year after later, I was still grieving. Even so, I was now 40, still wanting to be a wife and a mother, so I decided that I had to start getting back out there. I knew that I couldn’t give up on my dreams because this very sad thing had happened to me. But no part of me wanted to go back online: I’d been there, done that, met the man and got married. However, around the time that our divorce was finalized, I had a scary episode with my health. I felt firsthand the fragility of life then and realized that I had to move towards my next step. With some trepidation, I set up an online profile again.

Three years after my last experience of online dating, I was surprised to see some of the same men popping up on my screen: ghosts from my past, now with a different photo or new words. I’d gone out on a few dates with these men in the past – dates without a spark. They were still scaling mountains, satisfied in front of their sports cars and looking sharp in their suits. A few still had their arms around their Jewish mothers. I wondered briefly what their last three years had been like — had they been married, divorced, too? Or had they spent three years trying to find the right woman, to no avail?  

Scrolling through profiles one day, I came across two ex-boyfriends. One ex sent me a message, which was awkward, because I don’t want to restart anything; I’ve moved on. And with every log in, a part of me wondered if I’d come across my ex husband’s profile; thankfully that hasn’t happened. That ‘Success Story’ bar still dazzles on the right of my screen with a joviality that sometimes makes me roll my eyes but sometimes makes me smile as I think of how much we can’t possibly know about the future on our wedding day. 

Some of the guys who I’d sent personalized, well-crafted messages to three years ago had never written back to me, and here they were, three years later, showing up as a suggested match. A few guys who’d written to me before I met Lou wrote again, not mentioning that they remembered me from before — maybe they didn’t. One of the first messages I received after I set up my profile read: “You’re a teacher? I’d like to have detention with you. What beautiful eyes.” This cheesy message made me laugh out loud. I’d almost forgotten the comedic aspect of online dating. Thankfully, there are plenty of men who take a less corny, more cerebral approach.

Not too long after I signed up, a few interesting emails began to arrive in my inbox, and I started setting up dates. Pretty soon, I started to get into the spirit of online dating again, to enjoy the unpredictable stream of emails, likes, winks and ‘matches’ that would come my way, to roll with the highs and lows of internet dating again. Sitting in a bar with a stranger on my first date after my divorce, I had a realization: Meeting a stranger for a quick drink is infinitely easier than going through the agony of divorce.

As it happens, it’s not only the ghosts of men popping up on my screen, but also the ghost of the woman I used to be three years ago. Sometimes when I’m scanning the profiles, I see the woman I was then: more naive. I’m smarter now — more alert to potential red flags. The fact that I can still feel a bit of a buzz when a dashing stranger sends me a lovely email reassures me of the life beyond grief — that, to quote Leonard Cohen, there’s always the crack in the darkness; that’s where the light gets in. After all I’ve been through, trying to find love again feels life affirming.

*Name has been changed

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While most of Washington was eagerly awaiting former FBI Director James Comey’s Thursday appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, they may have missed an important confirmation hearing that occurred a day earlier. On Wednesday, Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) appeared before the Senate Budget Committee where he was subjected to stiff questioning by Senator Bernie Sanders.

At issue were a number of statements Vought had made in support of Wheaton College’s decision, last year, to suspend and then fire a tenured African American professor, Larycia Hawkins. The reason: Wheaton College is a Christian school and Hawkins, who is Christian, not only donned a hijab in a gesture of solidarity with America’s Muslim community but then later declared that Christians and Muslims “worship the same God”.

In an article defending Wheaton’s action, Vought argued that Hawkins’ views were in err since “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology, they do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned”.

At Vought’s confirmation hearing, Senator Sanders read the above quote and then asked the nominee, “Do you believe that statement is Islamophobic?”

Vought responded, “Absolutely not, Senator. I’m a Christian and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith. That post [the one quoted by Sanders] …was to defend my alma mater, Wheaton College, a Christian school…”

Sanders: “…Do you believe people in the Muslim religion stand condemned?”

Vought: “Again Senator, I’m a Christian and I wrote that piece in accordance with the statement of faith at Wheaton College.”

Sanders: “…What about Jews? Do they stand condemned too?”

Vought: “Senator, I’m a Christian…”

Sanders: “I understand that you are a Christian, but this country is made up of people who are not just [Christian]…there are other people of different religions in this country…In your judgment, do you think that people who are not Christian are going to be condemned?”

Vought: “…As a Christian, I believe that all individuals are made in the image of God and are worthy of dignity and respect regardless of their religious beliefs. I believe that as a Christian that’s how I should treat all individuals”.

Sanders: “You think that your statement…[that] they do not know God because they rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned, do you think that’s respectful of other religions?”.

Sanders concluded his questioning saying, “I would simply say, Mr. Chairman, that this nominee is not really someone who this country is supposed to be about.”

Following this exchange, Sanders was attacked for what one National Review writer termed, a “disgraceful and unconstitutional line of questioning” and in a few more mainstream publications for “imposing a religious test for public office”.

I cannot agree with Sanders’ critics. He is right. Vought is not what America is “supposed to be about” and he is not fit to serve as Deputy Director of OMB for two important reasons.

In the first place, it is Vought, not Sanders who has used a religious test to support the firing of a tenured professor. His demonstrated intolerance is a disturbing trait for someone in public service. Vought may claim that all are “worthy of dignity and respect regardless of their religious beliefs”, but when it came to Professor Hawkins, a fellow Christian, Vought behaved quite differently, precisely because her description of her faith did not comport with his narrow interpretation of Christian theology.

Secondly, OMB is the office in the White House that not only helps the President develop his budget, it also advises agencies on how to implement their programs in accordance with the priorities set by the Administration. To have a Deputy Director of OMB who has not only expressed intolerance toward those who do not share his interpretation of his faith, but who has also demonstrated this intolerance in practice is worrisome. This behavior calls into question his ability to implement policies and disperse resources without prejudice.

One wonders if we would even be having this discussion if the nominee were a Christian who claimed, as some have, that their faith holds: that Jews are condemned because they rejected Jesus; or that Black people are the descendants of Noah’s son Ham marked by God for their sin; or that women are inferior to men; or that gays are condemned, etc? Of course, individuals have the right to hold such beliefs, but when seeking a position of public trust aren’t we entitled to know whether these beliefs will impact their judgments?

As the ACLU noted in its comment on this controversial nomination, “Religious freedom is such a fundamental liberty that the framers of our Constitution enshrined it in the First Amendment. That’s why it’s so disturbing that Trump continues to pack his administration with appointees like Russell Vought, whose views threaten that very freedom… We know that diversity is one of our nation’s greatest strengths, and it is vitally important that Americans have confidence that their public servants will serve our entire nation in good faith.”

Senator Sanders is right. At issue is not Vought’s Christian faith or his theology. It is his intolerance for the faiths of others, including a fellow Christian whose termination he supported because he did not agree with her theology. His nomination should be rejected.

Follow @jjz1600 for more.

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Tom Hardy may be known for playing hardened characters, but in real life, he’s a man with a soft spot for animals.

“The Revenant” actor has penned a heartfelt tribute to his “bestest friend ever,” a 6-year-old rescue dog named Woodstock that died following a six-month battle with an inflammatory muscle disease called polymyositis.

“I don’t normally speak out about family and friends but this is an unusual circumstance,” he wrote in a blog post that was shared on Tumblr Wednesday. “He was far too young to leave us and we at home are devastated by his loss.”

In the detailed tribute, Hardy recalled first laying eyes on Woodstock WHEN he was an 11-week-old puppy that was scared, hungry and covered in feces, near an Atlanta interstate during filming of his 2012 movie, “Lawless.”

After an uncertain chase near the bustling traffic, he was able to bring the dog to the safety of his car where he said the exhausted dog “lay on my shoulder and fell asleep.”

“Never forget that night. It was wonderful,” he wrote. “I will always be eternally grateful to Georgia. It gave me the greatest of joys of being a dog owner.”

A representative for Hardy confirmed to HuffPost UK that the actor had penned the tribute.

Woodstock went on to have a well-known presence as Hardy’s four-legged sidekick of sorts.

He appeared alongside him at the premier of his movie “Legend” and, as Hardy pointed out, earned a spot on Time magazine’s Most Influential Animals of 2016, coming in at number 73.

“He beat JAWS. Something we all thought was brilliant,” Harvey raved.

The pooch also protected his wife, actress Charlotte Riley, when she was pregnant with their child, he said.

“He was an Angel. And he was my best friend. We went through so much together,” Hardy praised his beloved dog. “Thank you Woody for choosing to find us. We will love you and be with you and you with us forever. Never ever ever forgotten. Your Boy tom,” he signed his letter.

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