Saudi king warns West will be jihadists' next target AFP 1 hr ago  —  Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has warned that the West will be the next target of the jihadists sweeping through Syria and Iraq, unless there is “rapid” action.

Considering Catcalls  —  No one is catcalling Rosie O'Donnell, Barbara Bush, or Janet Napolitano.  No one is catcalling my plump elderly mother as I wheel her down the sidewalk in her wheelchair.  Marilyn Monroe once observed that she could walk down the sidewalk without drawing attention …

Douglas Carswell's defection to Ukip is a seismic shock to the British political system  —  There are very few MPs I admire more than Douglas Carswell.  He is principled, decent, and has gone into politics for all the right reasons.  He believes in all the things to which ordinary politicians pay lip service …

McConnell campaign chief resigns amid scandal  —  Jesse Benton resigned as Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign manager Friday following reports that he had emerged as a figure in an endorsement scandal during the 2012 Iowa presidential caucus.  —  In an emailed statement Friday evening …

Walnut Creek officer accused of beating woman with bat  —  A man who'd been in charge of upholding the law for three decades is now accused of breaking it.  Richmond police arrested an off-duty Walnut Creek Police Officer for allegedly donning a mask and beating a woman with a baseball bat on August 16.

Why the $#&@!  Did Your Airline Cancel Your Flight Today?  They Had a Very Good Reason.  —  An airline-industry expert explains why you get screwed over—and how to avoid it  —  Comedian Louis CK has absolutely no patience for the complaints of airline passengers, as he explains in one very funny, albeit profanity-laced bit.

Ferguson isn't about black rage against cops.  It's white rage against progress.  —  Carol Anderson is an associate professor of African American studies and history at Emory University and a public voices fellow with the Op-Ed Project.  She is the author of “Bourgeois Radicals …

Lost chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory published  —  Chapter with more characters and Quentin Blake illustration deemed ‘too wild’ for British children appears for first time  —  A lost chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, deemed too wild, subversive and insufficiently moral …

A Federal Judge Just Called Out The Big Lie Behind Texas's Latest Abortion Restriction  —  Texas's justification for an anti-abortion law enacted last year is “disingenuous,” according to Judge Lee Yeakel's opinion striking parts of that law on Friday.  Indeed, Judge Yeakel's opinion dismantles …

Syria's violence prompts worst humanitarian crisis in a century  —  IRBIL, IRAQ — Nearly half of Syria's population has been displaced either internally or externally as refugees in the worst humanitarian crisis to strike the Middle East in at least a century, according to new data released by the International Rescue Committee.