2006 was a great year.

Dubya was in the White House. We sent Saddam to hell with a fancy new necktie. And Time named Dane Cook one of its 100 Most Influential People.

Unfortunately, nearly everything from that annus mirabilis has since been flipped on its head. We have Biden fumbling around the Oval, radical Islamic terrorism on the rise, and the bro king of comedy is under attack.

His crime? In a word, love.

You see, at some time in his forties the beloved performer of “Peanut Butter Smack” and other timeless bits met a girl, Kelsi Taylor, a few weeks before her 18th birthday. The two did not start dating until after that, but the morality police handed down their sentence nonetheless.

In 2018, The Daily Beast accused Cook of “grooming” Taylor and solemnly concluded that “while it’s quite possible that Cook and Taylor do have a genuinely healthy, balanced relationship, reading Cook’s behavior as anything less than creepy is difficult, to say the least.”

Well, five years later, Cook and Taylor’s relationship sure seems healthy and balanced. In August, the 50-year-old comedian dropped on one knee and made things official with the 23-year-old.

“I was asking my best friend, the woman who I’ve shared some of the greatest times of my life with, to marry me so we can start the next chapter of our lives together,” Cook said.

The Daily Beast, a disgusting publication, covered the engagement as something that’s “creeping people out.” The beastly reporters compared Cook to other male celebrities who dated much-younger women, including Elvis Presley and Kathy Hochul megadonor Jerry Seinfeld, who dated a 17-year old when he was 38.

Of course, they could have just as easily referenced that known-murderer Alec Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria, have the exact same age gap as Cook and Taylor. They might have noted that radical environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio was linked to a 19-year-old model when he was 43. Or that the liberal billionaire George Soros dated—and abused—a Brazilian soap opera star 50 years his junior when she was in her twenties.

It makes sense that the Daily Beast didn’t mention Soros, since criticizing him is tantamount to anti-Semitism. But what could possibly cause dedicated journalists to leave out the remaining important context?

It probably has nothing to do with the fact that Baldwin makes fun of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live and once spent 28 days as an MSNBC host. Nor are they giving DiCaprio special treatment because he’s a climate change scold who starred in an interminable movie about why Republicans are evil.

They probably just forgot.

But we digress. What matters is this: in the face of this outrage, Dane Cook merely laughed off the haters and pulled out a ring.

We wish the happy couple a long and happy marriage. We congratulate the soon-to-be Mrs. Cook for bringing our favorite comedian from #MeToo to “I do.” And we are proud to name Mr. Cook a Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year.

The post 2022 Man of the Year: Dane Cook appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

(Reuters) -Iran’s Supreme Court has accepted an appeal by rapper Saman Seydi Yasin against his death sentence even as it confirmed the same sentence against another protester, the judiciary said on Saturday.

Yasin, a Kurd who raps about inequality, oppression and unemployment, had been accused of attempting to kill security forces, setting a rubbish bin on fire and shooting three times into the air during anti-government protests, charges which he denied.

Yasin’s mother last week pleaded in a video for help to save her son. “Where in the world have you seen a loved one’s life is taken for a trash bin?” she said in the video posted on social media.

The court had initially said it had accepted the appeals of Yasin and another protester, but in a subsequent statement the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said only Yasin’s appeal had been accepted.

“The public relations of the Supreme Court of Iran has corrected its news: ‘The appeal of Mohammad Qobadloo has not been accepted … Saman Seydi’s appeal has been accepted by the Supreme Court,” the agency said.

Explaining the decision in its original statement, it cited flaws in investigating the case and said it had been referred back to the court for re-examination.

Qobadloo had been charged with killing a police agent and injuring five others with his car during the protests.

Unrest erupted across Iran in mid-September after the death in custody of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.

Late on Saturday, the 100th day of the protests, videos posted on social media showed night demonstrations said to be in areas including the capital Tehran, the northeastern city of Mashhad, Karaj west of Tehran, and Sanandaj, the centre of Kurdistan province in the northwest.

Dozens of protesters were seen braving rain and snow to chant slogans including “Death to the dictator” and “Death to (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei!” Reuters could not immediately verify the videos.

Saturday’s announcement follows the Supreme Court’s suspension of protester Mahan Sadrat’s death sentence 10 days ago. He had been charged with various alleged offences such as stabbing a security officer and setting fire to a motorcycle.

Iran hanged two protesters earlier this month: Mohsen Shekari, 23, who was accused of blocking a main road in September and wounding a member of the paramilitary Basij force with a knife, and Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, who was accused of stabbing to death two Basij members, and publicly hanged from a construction crane.

Amnesty International called on the international community to pressure Iran to halt Qobadloo’s execution and “not allow Iran’s machinery of death to claim another victim while (the) world’s attention is on celebrating the festive season”.

Amnesty has said Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 26 people in what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.

It said all of those facing death sentences had been denied the right to adequate defence and access to lawyers of their choosing. Rights groups say defendants have instead to rely on state-appointed attorneys who do little to defend them.

Rights group HRANA said that, as of Friday, 506 protesters had been killed, including 69 minors. It said 66 members of the security forces had also been killed. As many as 18,516 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it said.

Officials have said that up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest.