BOB UNRUH — Jill Biden, as is customary for First Ladies, released a video of her decorations at the White House for Christmas, and it features a dance team prancing throughout the building in their version of the "Nutcracker." But observers were unimpressed, even offended.... (more)

CLIFF KINCAID — A recent story in The New York Post about a potential Chinese surprise attack on America’s allies and assets in the world’s “Indo-Pacific” region caught my attention. If accurate, the 23 million people living on the historically free Chinese island of Taiwan are in immediate danger. (For comparison, bear in mind that the total population of Israel is currently 9.4 million.)... (more)

YOUTUBE — The House GOP on Wednesday formalized its impeachment inquiry into President Biden with a House vote, a step Republicans hope will add legal weight to their demands as the probe moves into a more aggressive end stage. Lawmakers voted 221-212 along party lines to approve the resolution authorizing the inquiry. Earlier in the day, Hunter Biden — the president’s son who is at the center of many of the lines of inquiry — defied a GOP subpoena to appear for a deposition on Wednesday morning. Republicans leading the probe said that his refusal “reinforces the need for a formal vote.”... (more)

FACEBOOK — A clever Facebook meme captures the subjectivity that inevitably attends real estate assessments — especially at this time of year, just after annual property taxes have taken their painful bite out of the family budget....... (more)

FOX NEWS — Having children can have a significant impact on a person's lifespan, with two children providing the greatest health benefit, according to a new study. The University of Michigan recently published research after reviewing the health and genetic information of 276,000 individuals living in the United Kingdom. Researchers determined that having children was associated with a greater likelihood of surviving to the age of 76.... (more)

YOUTUBE — Mary was a child still, about the same age as Savanna in this video. What humility and faith and courage she shows as she cries a prayer for mercy. And I think if we listen closely, we will hear a little of ourselves in this song. “Help me be strong. Help me be… help me.” With faith in God and Joseph at her side, Mary pressed on, and gave the world the greatest gift it would ever know.... (more)

YOUTUBE — Before the end of Barack Obama's first term as president, Thomas Sowell of Stanford's Hoover Institution and his colleague Peter Robinson sat down and reviewed together "Obama's legacy" as Chief Executive. The resulting 29-minute video of their conversation examines Obama's devastating legacy before he was even half finished creating it.... (more)

YOUTUBE — A nine-year old fourth-grade student in Florida testified to her local school board about the errors in a "Common Core" test she was forced to take that prevented her from discussing anything about the test with her parents. She wrote the impressive March 2015 speech herself.... (more)

NEWSMAX — The University of Pennsylvania’s president has resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. An hour later, Scott Bok, the school's Board of Trustees chair, announced his resignation.... (more)

AMERICAN THINKER — Under the feudal system of the middle ages, a serf was an agricultural laborer who was bound to work on his lord's estate. The lord owned the land, and the laborer had no choice but to live on the lord's property and hand a significant amount of the fruits of his/her labor over to the lord.... (more)

VARIETY — Brenda Lee’s iconic “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” has hit No. 1 for the first time in its 65-year history. The single, which annually returns to the Hot 100’s top 10, is Lee’s third No. 1 — and her first since 1960 (behind “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted”).... (more)

YOUTUBE — Teaching student drivers can be a dangerous thing. Watch as Mr. Eckelstone does his best to teach the drivers of the next generation.... (more)

YOUTUBE — Some of the biggest proponents of socialism in general, and the Welfare State in particular, are the "Intellectuals" who occupy the universities and the media. Often themselves being quite well off, their support for the welfare state is presented under the guise of "compassion." Thomas Sowell explores the real reasons behind the facade of "compassion" and discusses how reality is not what it seems on the surface.... (more)

YOUTUBE — Fox News personality Laura Ingraham and Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo poke fun at Joe Biden for his fumbles at last week's official lighting of the National Christmas Tree, which was marred by comical timing and his staff's placement of his teleprompter in a way that made it readable to all viewers. Finally, Jill led Joe away, so America could get back to watching replays of Trump rallies.... (more)

BOB UNRUH — The father of an 8-month-old girl condemned to death by United Kingdom judges who ordered her life support turned off and even refused permission for her to be moved out of the country for treatment says when he was fighting in court for his daughter's life, he felt the pull of hell.... (more)

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY — House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) today wrote to Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, reiterating Hunter Biden must comply with the committees’ lawful subpoenas and first appear for a deposition on December 13, 2023, and then a public hearing at a later date.... (more)

FROM HILLSDALE COLLEGE'S 'IMPRIMIS' — In the last few months, Americans, especially those of Eastern European national descent, watched with both awe and elation as democracy and freedom reared their hesitant heads above the ebbing tides of Marxist socialism in the Warsaw Pact nations…. [With that remarkable fact in mind, note that] some years ago I asked Nobel economist Milton Friedman why it was, given the appalling and obvious failures of socialism everywhere in the world contrasted with the stunning successes of market capitalism, that most American students still graduated from high school with such a surprisingly socialist perspective. His answer was characteristically clear: “Because they are products of a socialist system — namely public education. How can you expect such a system to inculcate the values of free enterprise and individual entrepreneurship and competition when it is based on monopoly state ownership, abhors competition, and survives only through compulsion and taxation?”... (more)

THE EXPOSÉ — The dataset was published recently by the UK Government department known as the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and it can be found on the ONS website here, or downloaded here. The dataset includes deaths by vaccination status between 1st April 2021 and 31st May 2023. But because we have extensively looked at deaths up to the end of 2022 in previously published datasets, we decided to take a look at Covid-19 deaths by vaccination status over a full year up to 31st May 2023, and the following chart shows what we discovered... (more)

FOX NEWS — More than 5 million viewers tuned in to FOX News Channel's groundbreaking "The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate" featuring Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The roughly 90-minute debate moderated by FOX News' Sean Hannity averaged 4.75 million total viewers, including 742,000 viewers in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. An encore of the debate airing from 12-1:30 a.m. ET averaged an additional 706,000 viewers for a combined total of roughly 5.5 million viewers.... (more)

OREGONIAN MEDIA GROUP — The "most trusted news source” in Oregon was just installed by the publisher of the Babylon Bee to run all aspects of the Bee, following the dismissal of all Bee staffers for posting “Squirrel Wearing MAGA Hat Seen Scampering Away From Falling National Christmas Tree.” The upgrade of the Bee will remain in place "until all squirrels in and around the White House find other work," a spokesperson from the Babylon Bee told a White House groundskeeper.... (more)

JERRY NEWCOMBE — For the last few generations, Western civilization has been under attack. But recently there were some excellent defenses of Western civilization made by Bill Maher (earlier this month) and by Greg Gutfield in his program on Fox News last Friday. Gutfield said: “So let's talk about the death of Western civilization. It's in trouble, people…. Now, before you accuse me of being too pessimistic, let me just say the West has been tested before and we've come through…. [I]n 1940, when it looked like the Nazis could take over all of Europe, it was the British who stood up to them alone. Sounds familiar to what Israel is doing right now, doesn't it?”... (more)

STEPHEN STONE — In a two-minute tweet, Joe and Jill Biden gave a Christmas-day message that called for acts of charity without acknowledging the biblical principles that enable them – namely, that true charity comes freely from the kindness of those who love God, not from coercion or intimidation by those who hold positions of power (methods that are inevitably doomed to fail, since they ignore human nature).... (more)

CURTIS DAHLGREN — From AmericanWireNews: "A Jewish high school teacher in Queens was terrorized by a mob of left-wing students who reacted with outrage after she attended a pro-Israel rally last weekend, a terrifying incident that left her badly shaken. The target of the 'radicalized' kids was forced to hide for over two hours in a locked office as the halls at Hillcrest High School were taken over by hundreds of young people incensed over her posting of support for the Jewish democracy to her Facebook page. The students chanted slogans and waved Palestinian flags in what was described as a pre-planned protest demanding the teacher’s firing with video of the harrowing display of anti-Semitism being posted to social media."... (more)

COLORADOAN — It makes sense that Jeff Keane would one day take over “The Family Circus” from his father Bil. After all, he’s one of the characters. Jeff Keane is the inspiration for Jeffy. All of the child characters are modeled after Bil Keane’s own children, in fact. But Jeff is the only one with the same name. “Jeffy, he was always the hero,” Jeff Keane said, laughing. “As far as I was concerned he was the savior of the strip.”... (more)

HILLSDALE COLLEGE — The banner that hung across the stage read simply: “Thank You, Alan Brinkley! We’ll Miss You.” As the young professor ended his last lecture, more than 500 students who filled the seats and aisles of Harvard’s Sanders Theater rose in a standing ovation. By all accounts, Brinkley was one of Harvard’s most gifted teachers. At 37, he taught the largest course in Harvard’s History Department and had won an American Book Award for his study of the Depression era. He further stood out from many of his Harvard colleagues because of his open-door policy and willingness to meet with students one-on-one, even though by some estimates, he taught one-third of all Harvard undergraduates in his various classes.... (more)