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Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church Matthew 21:28-32 Friends, today’s Gospel is the parable of the two sons, a story about obedience to God. To live the good life is not finally a matter of autonomy but of obeying commandments. The obedience that Jesus desires is a surrender to the one who wants what is best for the surrenderer. The entire to-be of the Son is a listening to the command of the Father, and the creature, consequently, is meant to be nothing but a listening to the command of the Son. This...

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that text messages of Donald Trump, Jr. urging his father’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows to help stop the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, showed hypocrisy that “smacks you in the face.” Mitchell said, “What is the impact do you think of Don Jr.? Publicly, he was saying one thing and denying the severity of the insurrection while privately, he was pleading with Mark Meadows. Does it, first of all, suggest that they all were aware that Donald Trump, alone, could have stopped the violence...

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed a regulation aimed at “Small Off-Road Engines” on Thursday that will ban the sale of portable generators in the state — which includes generators mounted in recreational vehicles. The ruling bans the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers in the state beginning in 2024. Portable generators will be required to meet more stringent standards in 2024 and meet zero-emission standards starting in 2028. In the 2024 model year, portable generators will have to improve their efficiency by somewhere between 40% and 90%, which seems unrealistic in such a short period of time,...

A helicopter crashed on the I-10 spillway bridge near mile marker 212.Louisiana State Police say east-bound I-10 from LaPlace toward Kenner is closed, with traffic being diverted at U.S. 51. I-55 south-bound is also being diverted to U.S. 51.Louisiana State Police: "Troopers are currently responding to a helicopter crash on I-10 eastbound at milepost 212 (Bonne Carré Spillway Bridge). I-10 eastbound at US Hwy 51 is currently closed. I-10 eastbound traffic is being diverted to US Hwy 51 southbound. I-55 southbound is also currently closed and southbound traffic is being diverted to US Hwy 51."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) spoke at an awards ceremony over the weekend hosted by a Communist Party affiliate whose leaders used the event to recruit potential members to the organization.Blumenthal, one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, presented certificates of special recognition from the Senate to three winners of the "Amistad Award," given annually by the Connecticut People’s World Committee, an affiliate of the Communist Party USA and the Marxist People’s World news site.Blumenthal appeared even as Democratic leaders have downplayed allegations that many in the party support socialist or communist policies. President Joe Biden distanced himself from...

Ex-NFL player Phillip Adams (pictured in 2011, four years before he retired) killed six people and then himself in April this year in an as-yet unexplained rampage Ex NFL player Phillip Adams had 'unusually severe' levels of CTE when he killed six people in April before turning the gun on himself, pathologists revealed on Tuesday as they shamed the NFL for allegedly ignoring his pleas for help. Adams, 32, played 78 NFL games for six different teams across six seasons before retiring in 2015. In April, he shot and killed Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara, two of their grandchildren...

Plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods — best known for their Impossible Burger — has launched its own chain of fast food restaurants… kind of. Using a modern method favored by everyone from Applebee's to Guy Fieri, Impossible's new delivery-only restaurant will operate as ghost kitchens, namely, working out of the Dog Haus hot dog chain. Launched last week in nearly 40 locations across eight states nationwide, "The Impossible Shop" is available on delivery platforms including DoorDash, Postmates, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Worth noting, not all Dog Haus locations will be operating as Impossible ghost kitchens; the chain itself has locations...

What happened to the Viking Kittens? I had a FB Friend post a photo of kittens with Viking helmets and the words "We come from the land of ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow." It reminded me of the viking kittens. I miss them.

Leading doctors in Massachusetts are now recommending that residents wear masks in all public indoor spaces regardless of whether they are vaccinated as a growing number of states, but so far not Massachusetts, return to the mask mandates that were ubiquitous earlier in the pandemic. Dr. Carole Allen, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said Tuesday that the growing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations point to “an alarming upward trend” that is straining the state’s health care system. The Department of Public Health on Monday reported 11,078 new cases from over the weekend, and hospitalizations from the virus climbed...

Knicks legend and current broadcaster Walt Frazier has entered into COVID-19 protocols, joining three of their players, according to a source. He is expected to miss 10 days as the virus keeps spreading within the organization. Frazier turned 76 last March. He was recently on a holiday hiatus around Thanksgiving but was on the San Antonio-Indiana-Toronto road trip where the Knicks seemed to have picked up the virus. In addition to Frazier, the Knicks have three players out due to COVID-19 – Obi Toppin, RJ Barrett and Quentin Grimes. The rookie Grimes tested positive on Tuesday, according to a source.

A top Russian diplomat has warned that Moscow will respond “militarily” and deploy tactical nuclear weapons outside Ukraine, if NATO does not guarantee an end to its eastward expansion. His remarks raise the stakes even higher in the confrontation between Russia and Western powers just days after Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin held a two-hour video conference aimed at defusing a burgeoning crisis over Russian military movements near Ukraine’s borders. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov’s threat comes amid rising fears that Putin is considering a further military incursion into Ukraine in a rehash of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean...

The number of known exoplanets made a big jump up in November 2021, when astronomers announced a whopping 301 newly confirmed planets and an additional 366 new planet candidates. NASA’s Kepler planet-hunter – a space observatory – gathered the data. Kepler launched and began operations in 2009. It ran out of fuel and was retired in late 2018. But astronomers are still mining the mission’s data, making new discoveries of distant worlds... Overall, the Kepler mission was immensely successful. As of December 6, 2021, astronomers recognize 4,888 confirmed exoplanets. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Kepler single-handedly discovered most...

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The record-shattering 9.6 percent rise in producer prices indicates a startling level of inflation inflicting the U.S. economy. Things are even worse once you get beyond the headlines. Further out on the supply chains, prices are rising even more rapidly, suggesting that product shortages and even more inflation are yet to come. When you look at goods that are processed by U.S. manufacturers for sale to other businesses, such as an appliance manufacturer selling to a retailer or a software maker selling to an digital game store, prices are up by more than 26 percent.

Commons backs Covid passes by 369 votes to 126 The House of Commons backs the government's plan to introduce Covid passes - or passports - for entry to large venues in England, such as nightclubs, by 369 votes to 126. The Labour leadership supported the move, but the Liberal Democrats and many on Boris Johnson's own Conservative benches opposed it.

‘If immune erosion occurs after two doses and just a few months, how can we exclude the possibility that effects of an untested “booster” will not erode more rapidly and to a greater extent?’A Lancet study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Sweden was conducted among 1.6 million individuals over nine months. It showed that protection against symptomatic COVID-19 declined with time, such that by six months, some of the more vulnerable vaccinated groups were at greater risk than their unvaccinated peers.Doctors are calling this phenomena in the repeatedly vaccinated “immune erosion” or “acquired immune deficiency”, accounting for elevated incidence...

The core indexes for U.S. inflation just continue to soar to the moon, while the media behave like apostles for President Joe Biden’s leftist economic agenda and spin bad news in his favor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported at 8:30 a.m. that the Producer Price Index for final demand, which “measures costs” from the perspective of the industries that make products, skyrocketed a whopping 9.6 percent in November. CNBC said the PPI spiked at “the fastest pace on record.” The results beat economists’ expectations of a 9.2 percent increase, according to CNBC. This immediately follows the recent spike in...

Earlier today, Steve Baker, Member of Parliament (“MP”) for Wycombe, tweeted an image of an Impact Assessment on the health care’s work force if Covid injections were made a condition of deployment in health and care providers. The Assessment is dated 12 November 2021.“While it is uncertain how many and when workers may choose to leave their jobs rather than have a vaccination, our central estimates are of around 88,000 (73,000 workers in NHS, 15,000 in independent health sector) and 35,000 workers in domiciliary care and other care services having not fulfilled the conditions of deployment by the end of...

Kroger, the nation's largest traditional grocery chain, announced significant policy changes this week aimed at compelling employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. What are the details? Starting next year, the Cincinnati-based company will no longer provide two weeks of paid emergency leave to unvaccinated employees who become infected with COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday after viewing a company memo. The paper noted that Kroger also plans to add a $50 monthly surcharge to company health plans for salaried nonunion employees who are unvaccinated. Both policies are set to take effect on Jan. 1, the Journal said. According...

People around the world have now been lining up to get their third Covid-19 “booster” jab due to their “waning” protection from the first round, the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has announced that people are going to need a fourth booster sooner than expected.In an interview with CNBC, the CEO said that Pfizer is carrying out studies on the Omicron “variant”, stating that whilst results may show that a third shot could fight the variant, the pharma giant is already preparing for a fourth vaccine that will only boost profits.Bourla said that while he originally believed a fourth shot...