Dan Calabrese

Oh my: Sanders takes lead over Hillary in Iowa

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Hillary's inevitability run into some problems once before? This all feels very familiar. Not that a poll here and a poll there in two states means Bernie Sanders is going to be the nominee. That's not the point. The point is that she's supposed to be the overwhelming clear choice, and he's supposed to be a socialist crank with crazy hair running to give voice to the left-wing fringe. A race like that is not supposed to be close to being close.

Khamenei: Israel will not exist in 25 years

In case you were wondering, the left already has a standard pat answer to this: He doesn't mean it. Every time an Iranian leader vows to obliterate Israel, the left insists it's all just bluster for internal political consumption - as if ayatollahs needed to run for re-election.

Daily Beast: 50 U.S. spies say admin altered their dire reports on ISIS into 'happy talk'

If this sounds familiar, it should. Tomorrow marks three years since the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which was followed by several days' worth of bizarre talk from the Obama Administration about the whole thing starting with a YouTube video. That was all complete garbage, of course, but they were desperate to pitch that narrative in order to protect the larger political narrative that Al Qaeda was on the run.

While claiming to be sorry, Hillary lies again about e-mails being 'allowed' and about top secret info

I guess the focus groups said it was time to pivot to conditional remorse or something. In an interview with ABC's David Muir, who asked a few tough questions but let her off the hook on the biggest one of all, Hillary decides it's time to go ahead and let the word "sorry" pass through her lips - knowing full well that will be the headline.

Jesus, Hillary . . . what's the difference? Women's chorus makes slight alteration to hymn

About the spiritual issues, I'll just say this: If your life really belongs to Jesus, I don't have to explain to you what's wrong with this. If it doesn't, it's useless to try because you'll say something like "Come on, lighten up, don't take it so seriously, etc." and I'll quickly recognize it's a waste of time explaining it to you.

If Kim Davis is in jail for 'not doing her job,' then she needs to be released immediately

As Christians rise up against the jailing of Kim Davis, citing it as an example of persecution against someone engaging in the constitutionally protected free exercise of religion, a common retort from the secular left has been as follows: "She's not in jail for exercising her religion. She's in jail for not doing her job."

Army investigates injuries suffered in out-of-control, excessively violent . . . pillow fight?

I'm not much for "spirit events" - and I've never been in the Armed Forces - so don't take my lack of familiarity as disdain for the idea in general. I suppose a bunch of soldiers-in-training standing around a courtyard whamming each other with pillows could be fun. It's probably not the sort of thing that makes the Russians cower in fear, but then again maybe they watch it with envy because they only "spirit" in their army is the one of fear over being sent to the gulag if they screw something up. At any rate, the video is less than a minute long, and it gives you a sense of what goes - and also of what could happen if someone decides it would be a grand idea to hide a helmet inside the pillow they're swinging.

Hillary was paying State Department employee (who's now taking the Fifth) separately to run her server

This just keeps getting better all the time. First Hillary tells Andrea Mitchell that, hey, you know, she didn't really think that much about her e-mail setup. There were too many things to do around the world. Now think about that one: If you're not really giving it much thought, then when do you do when they tell you, oh, hey, here's your state.gov e-mail address? You say, OK, thanks for the e-mail address. What you absolutely do not do if you're not thinking much about it is pay $5,000 of your own money to have your own separate setup, even though it means you're shelling out for a guy who's doing it anyway at taxpayer expense and would have been handling yours if only you'd used the government account you were supposed to use.

Gay marriage end game: No Christians serving in any public office, ever

I'll start with an admission that might surprise you. For this evangelical Christian opponent of gay marriage, the Kim Davis question is not clear cut. On the one hand, I absolutely do not think the law should compel her to issue licenses for gay marriage. I also have a very big problem with the way this law was established, which was by no legislative process at all.

Trump signs pledge not to run third-party

Just announced. There's a 30-minute video of his announcement on his Facebook page, which I haven't found a way to embed yet but you can see it here. There's a 30-minute video of his announcement on his Facebook page. In case you're wondering, because I know you are: "No, I see no circumstances in which I would throw out that pledge."

Goodell deflates: Federal judge throws out Tom Brady suspension in its entirety

Judge Richard Berman did this morning what NFL Commissioner refused to do, and what the preening sports media had neither the integrity nor the brains to do. He delivered justice, favoring evidence over scuttlebutt and public perception.

Excellent: Daily Signal destroys Obama's doom-and-gloom global warmist speech in Alaska

While everyone is talking about President Obama's decision to rename Mount McKinley, it's worth remembering that his main purpose in taking the Alaska trip in the first place was to do more blustering about global warming. And it's even more worth remembering why liberals talk about global warming, which is that they're using it as a pretext to push for massive tax increases, new federal controls on manufacturing and more government intervention in energy markets.

Politics: WaPo: At least 188 of Hillary's e-mails contained classified material

Remember when Hillary insisted that she never sent or received classified material on her poorly secured, illegal homebrew server? Actually you don't have to remember it because she's still going around saying it - which becomes more hilarious every day with what we're finding out about what she actually did on that server.

Yes: Norm MacDonald lays the smack to horrible comedian who ripped on the Bible

I think I recall hearing in passing that Saturday Night Live alum Norm MacDonald is a Christian, but until today I had never seen him display his faith in the context of his show business career. That doesn't mean he never had, just that I hadn't seen it, which is probably more on me than on him.

VIDEO: James O'Keefe catches Hillary's staff breaking campaign laws

In one sense, what you're about to see is as classic Clinton as it gets. You know the law, but you come up with a kinda sorta technical way to skirt it while still being able to claim you "techically" stayed within in. And at any rate, you figure, it's small potatoes and no one will care anyway.

At U of Tennessee: Goodbye he and she, hello 'ze'

If you want to find some sort of silver lining in the cloud of America's exploding cultural insanity, consider: The sort of stuff that conservative cartoonists would five years ago have depicted liberals doing, they're now doing for real. Speech codes have actually been around for awhile, but it was only a matter of time before they took aim at specific outrages that offend their widdle sensibiwiddies, like the use of pronouns that oppressively acknowledge there is a distinction to be made between males and females.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Why isn't Black Lives Matter classified a hate group?

Nice object lesson this morning on how the left reacts to questions that make it collectively uncomfortable. It basically comes down to this: "Can you believe she asked that question? What a horrible question! Destroy her!"

Illinois now giving lottery winners IOUs

This is perfect in so many ways. People seek free money from people who promise free money in exchange for votes. They get the votes. But when it comes to doling out the free money, well, they're a little short of money and they have a little problem passing the budget that would give them the legal authority to distribute it anyway.

VIDEO: Remember Scott Walker? MTP appearance reminds why you should

The more time I spend watching this, the more I think I could do a whole piece on what a moron Chuck Todd is. But we'll save that for another day. Instead, we'll just enjoy the complete shellacking Scott Walker puts on him over the course of 30 minutes here. It doesn't matter what issue Todd comes at him about - Wisconsin job growth, the Milwaukee Bucks arena, border security, the fight against ISIS, the Iran nuclear deal, gay marriage - no matter the issue, Walker is prepared, responds with facts and doesn't get rattled.

Michele Bachmann lookalike confirms: Yeah, I think Trump's hair is real

I'll be honest. I sort of assumed it was a toupee too, mainly because I can't work out the physics of where it starts and how it swoops in those implausible directions.