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The Scriptural recounting in the Gospel of Saint Matthew of the mysterious wise men who visited the baby Jesus bearing gifts is one of the most enduring and compelling scenes in Sacred Scripture. The rudimentary nature of St. Matthew’s description of the Magi’s arrival has encouraged a flowering of apocryphal literature across the centuries which has added depth and detail to the occasion of the Epiphany. There are numerous references to the Magi in early post-Scriptural literature. Saint Justin Martyr mentions them prominently in his debate with Trypho (Chapter 78) in the mid-second century AD. Magi were of the priestly...

D.C.’s hysteria is dangerous. The strike wasn’t necessarily wrong, but the president must tread carefully. Too much of D.C. wants him not to. D.C. is all worked up over the killing of Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s top military operator. Democrats, driven by anti-Trump madness, have taken to eulogizing Soleimani. That’s insane. Meanwhile, D.C. Republicans are ecstatic about the killing.Soleimani certainly deserved it. During the heyday of the Shiite uprising in Iraq, his forces were responsible for bombs that killed countless American servicemembers. It’s good that he is dead.Soleimani was hit because Iranian proxies were behind recent attacks in Iraq, including...

In case anyone missed this when it aired live — and why would anyone watch the Golden Globes? — spend 450 seconds on its opening monologue from Ricky Gervais. “Let’s have a laugh at your expense,” Gervais said, and then delivered in “savage” manner, as Caleb Hull says. Gervais kicks it off with a Felicity Huffman joke, but then cuts a lot closer to the bone when it comes to Hollywood political hypocrisy.But even before that — which comes at the very end — Gervais spent nearly seven minutes declaring American cinema dead. “No one goes to the theater...

On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration is cleaning up the “mess” the Obama administration created in Iran. Partial transcript as follows: STEPHANOPOULOS: There’s also the question going forward if you take any new action against Iran is congressional authorization needed. Former Vice-President Biden spoke about that yesterday. Let’s listen. (BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE-PRESIDENT: I’m going to make it clear, President Trump has no authority to take us to a military conflict with Iran, period. The bottom line is any further action against Iran requires congressional authorization. (END VIDEOCLIP)...

There is no such thing as a gun free zone. A person intent on criminal violence will not be deterred from bringing a gun to a location because of a “no guns” sign or an anti-gun statute. The only consequence of such measures is to ensure law-abiding citizens are disarmed and vulnerable. As demonstrated by Texas churchgoer Jack Wilson and the other armed congregants of West Freeway Church of Christ, allowing law-abiding citizens to carry for the defense of themselves and others can prevent harm. As counterproductive as gun free zones are, Virginia’s Michael Bloomberg-bought General Assembly wants to go...

Authorities in Australia have arrested close to 200 people for deliberately starting the bushfires that have devastated the country, yet the media and celebrities continue to blame “climate change” for the disaster. The fires have caused at least 18 deaths, destroyed thousands of homes, millions of hectares of land and killed hundreds of millions of animals. A total of 183 people have been arrested by police in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania for lighting bushfires over the last few months, figures obtained by news agency AAP show. In New South Wales, 24 people were arrested for arson, risking...

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas -- An American family returning to the U.S. after a holiday visit to Mexico came under attack just south of Texas on Saturday night, with armed gunmen killing a 13-year-old and wounding three other people. The attorney general's office in the state of Tamaulipas said the child was a U.S. citizen and that the parents were permanent residents of the U.S. They did not release the victims' names. The family was traveling in a Chevrolet SUV with Oklahoma state plates, returning from a holiday visit to relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi. SNIP

Actor George Lopez appeared to accept an Iranian bounty to assassinate President Donald Trump on Sunday evening. Iranian authorities had recently put an $80 million dollar bounty on the president’s head, but according to Lopez, he’ll do it for $40 million instead. “[Iranian] authorities have put a bounty on American President Donald Trump’s head during the televised funeral of General [Qasem Soleimani] after he was assassinated last week,” said Chicano Worldstar to Instagram. “What are your thoughts?” “We’ll do it for half,” replied Lopez from his official Instagram account. When the George Lopez is not threatening to assassinate the president,...

Dozens of masked men in New Delhi stormed one of India’s most prestigious universities on Sunday, attacking students and professors with rods and bricks, vandalizing dormitories and injuring at least 42 people, some of them seriously, officials said. Some students accused the police of complicity, and videos posted on social media appeared to show officers standing by as students were beaten in front of them. SNIP In recent weeks, as protests swelled over a contentious citizenship law that many Indians see as discriminatory against the country’s 200 million Muslim minority, there were at least two similar attacks at other colleges....

Michael Bloomberg is wasting no time building out his campaign's ground game, with 500 organizers and staff in more than 30 states, including all 14 of the delegate-rich Super Tuesday states, his campaign told NBC News. The ramp-up — both in staff and in spending on TV ads — has been quick. Just six weeks after he announced his candidacy, the former mayor of New York now boasts more than 800 staffers on his payroll and over $100 million spent on advertising. The roughly 300 staffers working in the campaign's New York headquarters are set to move into a new...

German police have shot dead a man who tried to attack officers with a knife in the city of Gelsenkirchen. The man struck a police car with an object and attempted to assault officers who were standing by the vehicle, a police spokesman said. He was holding a knife behind his back and refused to cooperate with officers, police told AFP news agency. The man, who was Turkish, was warned by officers to stop his attack before he was shot, but refused. Germany revised its terror threat level on Friday, citing possible attacks after the US killed an Iranian general.,...

No one really knows what happens inside an atom. But two competing groups of scientists think they've figured it out. And both are racing to prove that their own vision is correct. Here's what we know for sure: Electrons whiz around "orbitals" in an atom's outer shell. Then there's a whole lot of empty space. And then, right in the center of that space, there's a tiny nucleus — a dense knot of protons and neutrons that give the atom most of its mass. Those protons and neutrons cluster together, bound by what's called the strong force. And the numbers...

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When US President George HW Bush craved "a smoking gun" in 1992 to politically kneecap his White House challenger Bill Clinton, the British government delved into its files for damaging information. So, did the Bush camp solicit foreign interference to help him win an election - the allegation that has seen President Trump impeached? "A guy like that doesn't deserve to be president," President Bush told his sister about Clinton. He viewed the young Arkansas governor, who was the same age as Bush's eldest son, as a scoundrel and felt confident he could roll over him. But the president sorely...

After delivering a scorching opening monologue at the Golden Globes on Sunday, Ricky Gervais rounded out the ceremony by laying into the room of Hollywood insiders for their complicity in the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Bringing Sandra Bullock on stage to announce the final award, Gervais said, “Our next presenter starred in Netflix’s ‘Bird Box,’ a movie where people survive by acting like they don’t see a thing. Sort of like working for Harvey Weinstein.” After the crowd erupted in boos, Gervais replied, “You did it! I didn’t, you did it!”

Texas Church Incident Shows How 2A Stops Mass Shooters The recent use of arms by a skilled, armed defender, Jack Wilson, in the West Highway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, was recorded on live stream video. (below)In spite of rapid attempts to suppress the video, it has been made available to the world, via social media and the quick actions of freedom-loving activists. The actions in the video are crystal clear. An armed, skilled, volunteer congregant stops an active murderer with one shot after two of his friends are shot and killed. The entire action happens in six...

While campaigning in Iowa on Saturday night, former vice president Joe Biden criticized President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Quds Force general Quasem Soleimani and said that any further military action would require congressional approval. He also blamed the start of the “cycle of violence” with Iran on President Trump’s decision to exit the nuclear deal between the Obama administration and Iran.

By Colin Kaepernick’s logic, the operation to kill the Japanese commander was racist and illegitimate. Before there was Qasem Soleimani, there was Admiral Yamamoto. In 1943, the U.S. targeted the exceptionally skilled Japanese commander and killed him in what constituted a precision attack for the time — with the P-38G Lightnings that intercepted him midair playing the role of the MQ-9 Reaper. If it was wrong to kill Soleimani, it was wrong to kill Yamamoto — just as barbaric and illegal, just as damnable an “assassination.”

President Trump ordered a U.S. airstrike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of the foreign wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The strike spurred mass displays of public mourning by Iran and its network of allies across the Middle East. Iranian leaders issued strident calls on Friday for revenge against the United States after the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in an overnight airstrike at the Baghdad airport. The strike spurred mass displays of public mourning by Iran and its network of allies across the Middle East. But there is another side of this story. Remember when...

This is a small sample of Iranians celebrating the termination of terrorist leader Suleimani. These tweets are under the hashtag #FreeIran but there are so many other hashtags under which Iranians are communicating their thanks, their joy, their hopes for he future.