"Oh my God, it is Obama!" In Alaska?

"Oh my God, it is Obama": Alaska mom, baby meet ex-president https://t.co/hig00Hf1uQ pic.twitter.com/zKhxy7oWnw

— ABC News (@ABC) July 8, 2017

Courtesy of the Star Tribune:  

An Alaska mother is cherishing cellphone photos she snapped of her wide-eyed 6-month-old baby in the arms of former President Barack Obama. 

Jolene Jackinsky was at Anchorage International Airport on Monday looking for an airline when she ended up in a waiting area for private flights where a man she thought looked like Obama was sitting. 

"As I got closer, I thought: Oh my God, it is Obama," she recalled Friday from Newhalen, a small Alaska village where she's vacationing. 

Obama then walked up to her and asked "Who is this pretty girl?"

Oh man! If I would have known that the greatest President of my lifetime was in my state, I would have dropped everything and made a beeline for the airport.

You may not know it from our voting record but a lot of Alaskans admire Barack Obama, and his trip up here in 2015 really endeared to many Alaskans.

So I imagine if this visit had been made public there would have been quite a large crowd of admirers who would have joined me in welcoming this great man to our great state.

Thanks to Donald Trump's new immigration policies we are now detaining elderly Australian children's book authors?

Oz children author Mem Fox detained Los Angeles Airport.
We Australians are no longer welcome in Trump's USA @AlboMP https://t.co/iQVPe3D3NU pic.twitter.com/YvCaTSeiPC

— Kerry Seebohm (@KezzerOz) February 25, 2017

 Okay this is beyond disgusting.

And while we are on the topic they also detained Mohammad Ali's son.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The son of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali was detained for hours by immigration officials earlier this month at a Florida airport, according to a family friend. 

Muhammad Ali Jr., 44, and his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the second wife of Muhammad Ali, were arriving at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Feb. 7 after returning from speaking at a Black History Month event in Montego Bay, Jamaica. They were pulled aside while going through customs because of their Arabic-sounding names, according to family friend and lawyer Chris Mancini. 

Immigration officials let Camacho-Ali go after she showed them a photo of herself with her ex-husband, but her son did not have such a photo and wasn't as lucky. Mancini said officials held and questioned Ali Jr. for nearly two hours, repeatedly asking him, "Where did you get your name from?" and "Are you Muslim?"

"Where did you get your name?"

That actually leaves me speechless.

This is our country now. 

Florida airport shooting kills five.

Esteban Santiago

Courtesy of the Guardian: 

The suspected gunman who shot and killed five people at a Florida airport with a weapon collected from his checked baggage was reportedly an Iraq war veteran known to the US authorities. 

Eight other people were injured in the shooting, after which a suspect identified in reports as Esteban Santiago, 26, was taken into custody without any further shots being fired. 

The Broward county sheriff Scott Israel said the suspect was unharmed after his arrest. “No law enforcement fired shots. He is being interviewed by FBI agents and the sheriff’s office,” he said. 

Asked about any possible terror motives, Israel said: “It’s too early to say either way.”

If you listened to the news reports yesterday you probably heard that this young man flew from Anchorage to Florida where he apparently decided to start killing.

He only lived up here for two years during which time he worked as a security guard, after being discharged from the Alaska National Guard for "unsatisfactory performance." (He also served 10 months in Iraq.)

At one point he walked into an Anchorage FBI office to complain that the CIA was controlling his mind and forcing him to watch Islamic videos. They then called police who took him for a psych eval.

Apparently they did not believe he posed a danger to himself or others, and he was released.

In Florida Santiago retrieved his gun from his checked baggage, loaded the weapon, and without a word of warning started firing. He killed five and wounded eight others.

Santiago continued firing until he ran out of ammunition, after which he put down his weapon and laid spread eagle on the floor until the authorities arrived to arrest him. He was unharmed.

There seems to be a lot of blame to go around here.

Exposure to war, lax guns laws, ineffective mental health evaluations, poor security at airports, you name it.

However the main point is that this was a crime perpetrated with a gun. And without that gun the number of dead and wounded would be greatly reduced, or completely nonexistent.

We live in a society where guns are seen to be as American as apple pie.

But nobody slaughters five people with a wedge of apple pie.

I'm just saying.

New Rule: Sarah Palin should NEVER be allowed to teach young children ANYTHING!

Look who @TheBrodyFile found at Des Moines airport? @SarahPalinUSA holds press avail with kids!Love it. #CBNNews pic.twitter.com/Gmt5TrySoz

— David Brody (@TheBrodyFile) February 2, 2016

"All the resources that God created for us, for mankind's responsible use, we can do it safely and responsibly because we hired the right people."

I am not sure what the original question was exactly, but I am confident that Sarah Palin made all those kids dumber by answering it.

Palin was so proud of her teachable moment, that she also mentioned it on Facebook:

Willow and I find it nice to be stuck in Des Moines airport with great kids like this Santa Monica class that traveled to the Iowa caucus on a field trip. (Preferable to some media jackals weather-delayed in here, too. I asked a few of them to take lessons from these 6th graders.) Such polite students, asking the best questions about our political system! Told them it was the best interview of the week! 

Of course it was the "best interview of the week." The children's understanding of politics is probably only a few years ahead of Palin's instead of decades like most journalists.

There's been a sighting.

@SarahPalinUSA we have the same name HA pic.twitter.com/0tgp2N3iqM
— PLEASE CAM♡ (@itsjusstsara) July 14, 2014

I wonder why she has no problem wearing her fake boobs on a plane these days but did not choose to wear her fake belly back in April of 2008?

Another one here from the same day.

And I might as well include this one, also taken at an airport, which showed up early this morning as well, though I am not sure when it was taken.

I find it interesting that she does not think that her constantly changing bust size will be noticed by people who see her in photographs.

Or perhaps she simply does not care.

Ted Nugent's wife arrested at Dallas Airport after a gun was found in her carry-on bag. Insane, unintelligible rant coming from the Motor City Madman in 3..2..1

Courtesy of Dallas News: 

The wife of singer Ted Nugent was arrested Thursday afternoon after security found a gun in her carry-on luggage at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. 

Airport spokesman David Magana confirmed that the DFW Airport Department of Public Safety took Shemane Ann Nugent, 51, into custody, and “the rest of it is working its way through our system of legal approval.” 

Nugent’s attorney, David Finn, said that taking the gun to the airport was an “honest mistake.” Finn said Nugent has a concealed handgun license.

Look I am going to take Shemane's ("Shemane?" What kind of a name is that?) side on this.

After all if I lived with Ted Nugent I would always be packing heat as well. There is no telling when he might need to be put down.

And as for trying to take it aboard her flight? Well when you live in a house where people use hand guns to swat flies and stir their coffee you are bound to be unusually comfortable having weapons around.

The wife seems genuinely embarrassed, but I imagine that Nugent will have a few choice words to say about this later today or tomorrow. We all knwo how much he enjoys blaming everything on the President.

Just in time for the beginning of the NRA's annual meeting man opens fire in crowded Texas airport and dies from a, possibly self inflicted, bullet wound.

Courtesy of CNN:  

A man was shot and killed Thursday in a pre-screening area at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, authorities said. 

Houston Police Department spokesman Kese Smith told reporters that the man had just come through the doors in Terminal B when he fired at least one shot into the ceiling. 

A Homeland Security Investigations agent was working in an office near the scene, came out and told the man to drop his weapon. The agent fired once at the suspect, who appeared to try to shoot himself at the same time. 

An autopsy will determine whose bullet killed the man, who has not been identified, police said. 

CNN affiliate KHOU reported the man walked into the terminal with a military-style, semiautomatic rifle and fired two shots into the ceiling.

"Fired two shots into the ceiling."  Isn't that how they say hello in Texas?

This is going to be a really hard one for the Right Wing to take on, because they undoubtedly have a knew jerk desire to claim that the Homeland Security officer was suppressing this gentleman's 2nd Amendment rights, but then HE clearly exercised his by shooting the man to death.

I think in Texas they call this a Constitutionally backed disagreement. "No harm, no foul folks. Just two patriots discussing gun control using their 2nd Amendment rights to explain their point of view."

I am sure that this will be discussed at the NRA meeting and after much conversation (five whole seconds) they will decide that this is a clear indication that there needs to be MORE guns at our international airports.

Once relatively famous bag lady spotted at LAX.

I know what you're thinking, "Gryphen, WHY would you pick on the lovely Paz de la Huerta, famous model, and one of the stars of HBO's scintillating series "Boardwalk Empire?"

Well I wouldn't obviously. I have no bone to pick with Paz de la Huerta, and in fact have watched several episodes of "Boardwalk Empire," and enjoyed them immensely.

I'm not talking about her. I'm talking about the pathetic creature behind her.

Yep that one. The one staring daggers into the back of the actress/model.

Oh you can almost see in her bloodshot eyes how jealous she is that the cameras are trained are the much more glamorous starlet, while at the same time hoping like crazy that nobody recognizes her in her frumpy woolen poncho/comforter from her bedroom in Wasilla.

I assume that since this picture was posted yesterday that she was arriving to support her daughter's last night as the most pathetic contestant to ever appear on Dancing with the Stars.

Though I have to say I don't remember seeing her in the crowd.

Is it possible that she had other business in the City of Angels? Or perhaps the dress code for audience members demanded that they not be wearing the bedding from their house in lieu of actual clothing.

Spotted over the weekend at the Ronald Reagan National Airport.

The perfect gift for that conservative relative who mocked you for supporting Obama, and who should just about be over the shock that their candidate lost by December 25th. That is until they open this gift and once again have to face the fact that they got their ass handed to them of course.

By the way I will bet MY Christmas bonus that if you checked the labels on this still overpriced crap they will all say "Made in China."

(H/T to New York Times investigative reporter Andrea Elliott.)