Daniel Ortiz

From Grok: Roy Hallums (born June 23, 1948) was an American contractor working in Iraq who was kidnapped on November 1, 2004, and held captive for 311 days before being rescued on September 7, 2005. Kidnapping: Hallums, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and was working as a government contractor providing food services to the Iraqi Army (via a Saudi company), was abducted along with five others when gunmen stormed their office compound in the Mansour district of Baghdad. His captors (linked to militants) demanded a $12 million ransom and released a "proof of life" video of him. He was bound, gagged, and held in harsh conditions for much of his captivity. Rescue Operation: On September 7, 2005, U.S. Army Delta Force operators (1st SFOD-D, A Squadron), supported by helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment ("Night Stalkers"), conducted a raid on a farmhouse about 15 miles (roughly 25 km) south of Baghdad, near the town of Marda (or similar spelling variations in reports). Intelligence lead: An Iraqi detainee (captured earlier, with help from signals intelligence/SIGINT tracking mobile phones linked to kidnappings) provided actionable information on Hallums' location. Coalition forces moved quickly—reportedly planning and executing the raid in under three hours from receiving the tip—to prevent him from being moved. The raid: Operators fast-roped or inserted via MH-6 Little Birds and other helos. The kidnappers had fled by the time the team arrived (no resistance was encountered). Hallums was found imprisoned in a concealed cement cell built under the farmhouse floor, accessible only via a hidden entrance, with a breathing tube for air. He was blindfolded and bound. Delta operators broke into the cell. One famously asked, "Are you Roy?" Hallums confirmed, hugged his rescuer, and was freed along with an unnamed Iraqi hostage. He was in reasonably good health despite the ordeal. The operation was a rapid, daylight or near-daylight raid authorized by U.S. Central Command. Supporting conventional forces (e.g., elements of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment) provided outer cordon security. Aftermath: Hallums was flown out of Balad Air Base on a U.S. Air Force C-17 shortly afterward and returned to the United States. He expressed deep gratitude to the rescuers, intelligence personnel, and his family. His story was later documented in books (e.g., Buried Alive), interviews, and a 2006 TV movie (Kidnap & Rescue: The Roy Hallums Story). He has spoken publicly about surviving "day by day" and the heroism of his rescuers. This rescue highlighted effective special operations-intelligence integration during the Iraq War and was one of the more successful high-profile hostage recoveries of that period. No U.S. or coalition personnel were injured.

He will not be forgotten always clear about his point of view

"Lahaina Noon," is a trippy phenomenon that happens twice a year in Hawaii, where all objects lose their shadows It begins in Hawaii TODAY, starting on the Big Island

This dude captures aerial footage taken by his drone above Mount Everest, the world's highest peak and it looks insane

Milton Friedman on responsibility to the poor.

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🚨 Obama spent $34 MILLION of your tax dollars renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. No Media meltdowns. Here’s some reactions when it reopened 👇

"As straightforward as securing the border seemed to be once you got into office, it almost implies that another President could reverse it as quickly. Is there any way to protect against that in the future?" @POTUS: "Yeah, vote Republican. It's very simple."

It never doesn’t amaze me. One of my very best friends is a USC fan and he texted me saying “that run is art”

This so called Teacher has the most ridiculous ideas when millionaires leave. 😂🤣

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Counterpoint:

May 8, 1972. A Sabena Airlines plane is hijacked by four jihadists. They demand the release of over 300 convicted terrorists—or they’ll start killing hostages. Ninety passengers sit in terror at Lod Airport. Enter Bibi Netanyahu. Disguised as a technician, Bibi infiltrates the plane with his elite unit, Sayeret Matkal. In overalls and holding tools, they pretend to inspect the landing gear. Then—BOOM. They breach the cabin. In a brutal close-quarters firefight, the two male terrorists are killed, the two females are captured, and every single hostage is rescued. Not a movie. Not a myth. This is Jewish history.

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Seattle, USA: A 77-year-old American man steps off a bus in the city center and is brutally beaten — without any reason by Somali migrant Abdullahi Olman. The entire savage attack was captured on the city’s real-time crime cameras. But Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s response? She openly said she wants to turn off all the surveillance cameras because they might “endanger refugees and migrants.” Her priorities are crystal clear: Protecting migrants > Protecting elderly American citizens. This is what progressive leadership looks like in 2026. When will Americans finally wake up?

A Jewish organisation asked Thomas Sowell what Jews could do to minimise the venomous hatred they face around the world. His answer was one word.

Elon Musk on the regulatory absurdity of launching Starship: Elon explains that before SpaceX could launch Starship, regulators required them to study whether the rocket would hit a shark in the Pacific Ocean. "It's a big ocean. There's a lot of sharks. It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely." When SpaceX agreed to do the analysis, they hit a wall. Elon recounts the exchange: "We said okay fine, we'll do the analysis. And then, well, can you give us the shark data? They're like, no, we can't give you the shark data." The reasoning behind the refusal left him stunned: "They were worried about the shark density data, like the people who are hunting sharks for shark fins somehow getting their hands on this shark data… Am I in a comedy sketch here?" Eventually they got the data, ran the analysis, and confirmed the sharks would be fine. But the saga didn't end there. "Then we thought, okay now we're done. They said, but what about whales?" Elon's response captures his disbelief: "When you look at a picture of the Pacific, what percentage of the surface area of the Pacific do you see as whale? I don't see any. Where's a whale?" He jokes that if Starship somehow did hit a whale: "Honestly, that whale had it coming, because the odds are so low. It's like Final Destination: the whale edition. Fate had it in for that whale." After clearing the whale analysis, regulators raised yet another scenario: "Well, what if the rocket goes underwater then explodes and then the whales have hearing damage? And we're like, look, if we could make a rocket go underwater and be a submarine, that would be a feat of physics we could not accomplish." Elon sums up his frustration: "It's just one crazy thing after another. This is why I'm really feeling the pain of the overregulation."

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Elon Musk: Since I bought Twitter, no left-wing voice has been banned or suppressed. “I just bought Twitter because I thought it was having a negative effect on civilization and pushed ideas that were anti-civilizational. It was captured by the far-left—I'd say it's fair to say the radical left. That meant it wasn't a good forum for debate because they suspended many people on the right, including the president, as you may recall, a sitting president, which is really unprecedented. I think we need to have a public square where there's true freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy. If there's not freedom of speech, people cannot make an informed vote. And if you can't make an informed vote, you don't have a real democracy. The purpose of acquiring Twitter was to try to bring it more to the center. No left-wing voices have been banned or anything like that or suppressed. We're trying to give equal weight to all parts of the country so that they can be a public town square where people can exchange ideas and hopefully not resort to violence. Free speech is the bedrock of democracy. It's why it's the First Amendment, because people came from countries where they could be killed or imprisoned for what they said. And in fact, this is happening all around the world as we speak, even in places like Britain. Anyway, I did it because I felt like the civilizational risk had to be addressed. If America is not strong, then what do businesses matter? America is the central pillar that holds up Western civilization, and if that pillar falls, everything falls.” From: Barron Investment Conference, November 14, 2025