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Before Christmas became the holiday it is today, it was the original "Halloween" in which poorer people would visit homes of the wealthy in order to obtain a food treat - such as soul cake. The original trick or treaters. Sting - Soul Cake

Russia might take unspecified new measures to ensure its security if the U.S. and its allies continue to take provocative action and ignore Moscow's demand for guarantees precluding NATO's expansion to Ukraine, a senior diplomat said Saturday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused Western allies of continuously pushing the envelope in relations with Russia, and warned that Moscow could also up the ante if the West doesn't treat its demands seriously. Ryabkov's statement in an interview with the Interfax news agency came a day after Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former...

I'm thinking Hanukkah might be over, not sure, because I'm not Jewish. But I am a fan of Hanukkah music and this is set to become one of the all time Hanukkah classics. Adam Green - Dreidels of Fire.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong was voting Sunday in the first election since Beijing amended the laws that reduced the number of directly elected lawmakers and vetted candidates to ensure that only those loyal to China can run. The rubber-stamp Chinese parliament in March passed a resolution to alter Hong Kong’s election law that many saw as effectively ending the “one country, two systems” framework under which Hong Kong was to retain its separate legal, political and financial institutions for 50 years following the handover from Britain in 1997. The assembly voted to give a pro-Beijing committee power to...

Brexit is now secure. The challenge for the Government now is to deliver on the opportunities it gives us. You know my concerns about the current direction of travel. I hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low-tax, entrepreneurial economy, at the cutting edge of modern science and economic change. Three hundred years of history show that countries which take that route grow and prosper, and I am confident we will too. We also need to learn to live with Covid and I know that is your instinct too....

State Sen. Doug Ericksen, a stalwart conservative, former leader of Donald Trump’s campaign in Washington and an outspoken critic of COVID-19 emergency orders, died Friday. He was 52. Ericksen had said last month that he tested positive for the coronavirus while on a trip to El Salvador, although his cause of death was not immediately confirmed on Saturday.... ...Ericksen, a Republican from Ferndale, had been in El Salvador, where he tested positive for the virus that causes COVID. He wrote last month to his Republican colleagues asking if they could help him get treatment.... ...A longtime foe of environmental regulations,...

It is tough to find a modern presidency that has collapsed as swiftly as Joe Biden’s.

CALIFORNIA POPULATION TALLY: LA County, all 9 San Francisco Bay Area counties lost residents in same year for 1st time - AP

There were 3,589 COVID-19 patients in the state’s hospitals as of Friday, an increase of roughly 12% from two weeks before... California had recorded 49 cases of the Omicron variant as of Wednesday, although not all samples are sequenced to identify variants. That’s much lower than the 184,700 identified cases of the Delta variant, which remains dominant in the state, but health officials expect the number will rise. Omicron is thought to be more contagious than Delta and better at evading immunity generated by vaccines or previous infections... While there are early indications Omicron might cause less severe illness than...

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI Those of you who are more "mature" Marines & Sailors will remember one of the pre-eminent TV series of the '50's, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. Many of these programs were quite scary, but they usually had a good moral and made the point in a rather unforgettable manner. On one episode, an astronaut is readying for his blast off on a fifty-year mission to outer space. He is to be placed in a state of suspended animation and will not age one day by the time he returns to Earth. As fate has it,...

The Ohio Department of Education said Bishop Sycamore High School is "a scam" and was a way for students to play football in hopes of increasing their chances of playing at the college level. The department detailed its findings in a 41-page report released Friday. It began investigating the school in August at the request of Gov. Mike DeWine after concerns were raised over a blowout football game between Bishop Sycamore's team and Florida powerhouse IMG Academy. IMG Academy beat the school 58-0.... ...At one point, Bishop Sycamore said it was located at 3599 Chiller Lane, which is the location...

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he would have not gone to an event in Connecticut if he had known it was linked to the Communist Party in an interview with the Hartford Courant. On Dec. 11, Blumenthal spoke at the annual Amistad Awards ceremony hosted by the Connecticut People’s World Committee, which is associated with the Communist Party USA.

A new poll, conducted by the Trafalgar Group, showed that Josh Mandel is leading the crowded field seeking the Republican nomination to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate. However, JD Vance, Mike Gibbons, and Jane Timken are all within striking distance of the frontrunner, as the trio battles for second place. According to the data, Mandel has captured the most support among voters thus far with 21.4 percent. Mandel’s numbers are likely boosted due to his statewide name recognition as Ohio Treasurer and failed Senate campaign in 2012. Venture capitalist and author JD Vance is the next strongest contender, collecting...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that Democrats “were right to try to be FDR, try to do something big” with the Build Back Better reconciliation bill. Brooks said that if the new inflation numbers in January show an increase in inflation, that will make passing the bill far more difficult. “Because Joe Manchin’s really concerned about inflation and federal spending boosting that. I think — in retrospect, I think they were right to try to be FDR, try to do something big, there are a lot of problems in this country, and try to...

"If the last administration did this, all experts would be outraged," tweeted University of California San Francisco medical professor Vinay Prasad. The federal agencies in charge of COVID-19 response are taking hits from former officials and high-profile medical professors for "sidelining experts," not conducting basic research, and mischaracterizing evidence related to vaccines and masks for young people. The Biden administration is getting a pass for "extreme political pressure" that "appropriately" prompted outrage against its predecessor, two FDA alumni wrote in The Washington Post Thursday. Former Office of Vaccines Research and Review Deputy Director Philip Krause and former acting Chief Scientist...

A stunning gold-wrapped jar crafted out of rock crystal has finally been uncovered in its entirety, revealing a Latin inscription that might provide new clues about its mysterious origins. Researchers at National Museums Scotland, where the Viking-Age vessel is being conserved, think the receptacle was probably used for religious purposes. And one expert believes it may have been a diplomatic gift from the Roman Empire to an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain. The treasure was discovered in southwest Scotland in 2014 and is part of the Galloway Hoard....the jar's inscription states "Bishop Hygauld had me made." .....

Six weeks ago, Revolver News published a blockbuster investigative report on Ray Epps — a man who, more than any other individual, appears to be the key unlocking the question of active federal involvement in the so-called “Capitol Siege” of January 6th. Out of all of the thousands of January 6’s protesters, and the thousands of hours of publicly available footage from that fateful day, Ray Epps has turned out to be perhaps the only person nailed dead to rights confessing on camera to plotting a pre-planned attack on the Capitol. On both January 5 and January 6, Epps announced...

The Second Atomic Bomb Has Exploded: CDW Issues Directives Banning Traditional Confirmations and Ordinations, Decrees the End of Ecclesia Dei CommunitiesCFN will hold a LIVE Q&A Session on this topic tonight, December 18, at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Join us with your questions!The predicted document of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) extending the totalitarian measures against the Traditional Latin Mass has been published. It takes the form of a letter from Archbishop Arthur Roche, the Congregation’s Prefect, and a series of responses to dubia (questions) it says are a consolidation of questions submitted by...

Explanation: The first identified compact galaxy group, Stephan's Quintet is featured in this eye-catching image constructed with data drawn from the extensive Hubble Legacy Archive. About 300 million light-years away, only four of these five galaxies are actually locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters. The odd man out is easy to spot, though. The interacting galaxies, NGC 7319, 7318A, 7318B, and 7317 have an overall yellowish cast. They also tend to have distorted loops and tails, grown under the influence of disruptive gravitational tides. But the predominantly bluish galaxy, NGC 7320, is closer, just 40 million light-years...

“Blake Percival is one of the most important whistleblowers in recent history,” Attorney Larry Golston says. “We as a country are safer because of what he did.” Blake Percival was born in Panama City, Florida where he was raised in a traditional Southern home. He graduated from High School in Montgomery, Alabama in 1984 and served 6 years in the U.S. Army where he was Honorably discharged at the rank of Sergeant in 1992. He then worked as a Police officer in West Virginia and Alabama. He is a graduate of the West Virginia State Police Academy, The Montgomery Police...