Cruz Soars to Front of the Pack in Iowa Poll; Trump Support Stays Flat  —  Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa survey also brings no joy to Ben Carson or Jeb Bush.  —  McCormickJohn  —  Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has surged ahead to become the latest front-runner …

How Well Do You Know Religion?  —  Donald Trump's proposal to bar Muslims from America may be a gift to ISIS recruitment and a grotesque echo of the sentiment behind the Chinese Exclusion Act and the internment of Japanese-Americans.  But, like those earlier spasms of exclusion, the Trump proposal has plenty of supporters.

196 countries approve historic climate agreement  —  BREAKING NEWS: Negotiators from 196 countries approved a landmark climate accord on Saturday that seeks to dramatically reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for a dangerous warming of the planet.

Police shoot and kill armed man in East Stroudsburg Walmart  —  A man armed with two handguns and a machete was shot and killed inside the East Stroudsburg Walmart on Saturday night, according to state police.  —  The 20-year-old white male entered the Walmart, on Lincoln Avenue …

Trump: I can't wash my hair properly because of water regs  —  Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says water regulations from the are making it difficult for him to keep his famed mane clean.  —  Asked about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) “Waters of the United States” …

They're ‘so nice,’ until they get religion and want to kill us  —  'We see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people like the Boston Marathon bombers and the San Bernardino killers," President Obama said while addressing the nation in the wake of the latest homegrown massacre at the hands of Muslims.

U.S. Visa Process Missed San Bernardino Wife's Zealotry on Social Media  —  WASHINGTON — Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband carried out the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., passed three background checks by American immigration officials as she moved to the United States from Pakistan.

‘Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate’  —  A reader flags the classic video seen above: … Reason's Ronald Bailey highlighted some key excerpts from Hitch's speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, when his voice was also sorely missed.  From an essay on free speech Hitchens wrote in April 2011:

Carson doubles down on threat to leave the GOP  —  Ben Carson doubled down on his stance that he will leave the GOP if party elite are planning to mount a floor fight at the nominating convention.  —  “Well, one of the reasons that I got into this is because I heard the frustration in the people …

Influential Southeast Asia Scholar Benedict Anderson Dies  —  JAKARTA, Indonesia — Benedict Anderson, a Cornell University scholar who became one of the most influential voices in the fields of nationalism and Southeast Asian studies, died Sunday in Indonesia.  He was 79.