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On this date in 756, the imperial consort Yang Guifei was expediently executed during the An Lushan Rebellion. The Tang dynasty Emperor Xuanzong, whose beloved concubine Yang was, undertook this cruel extremity only in great duress. Initially married to one of the emperor’s sons, Yang so enamored the emperor that he usurped the prince’s place and got the kid a different wife. In the c. 800 classic poem “Song of Everlasting Sorrow” the poet Bai Juyi mused on the smitten sovereign rushing headlong into waiting tragedy. The emperor neglected the world from that moment, Lavished his time on her in...

Roseanne doesn't hold back. She describes the "civil war" within the Jewish community between the Leftist/Marxist liberal types and "normal" (conservative) ones. That explains a lot. Her definition of "woman" is hilarious. See video at link.

HOUSTON - The last two months are described as "terrifying" for a Houston woman who we’re told is being detained in Dubai. So, why is she being held? The "crime" Tierra Young Allen is charged with may surprise you. Dubai is increasingly a vacation destination for a number of Houston women. Now, one is trying to get back to the Bayou City, but we’re told her passport has been confiscated because her mom says she’s been charged with the crime of screaming in public. "It also could result in prison time. So it’s very scary," explains Allen’s mom Tina Baxter...

Nearly a dozen European countries that pledged this week to train Ukrainian pilots are still waiting on the U.S. to formally approve the program before instruction on American F-16 fighter jets can begin, according to U.S. and European officials involved in the discussions.A coalition of 11 nations, led by Denmark and the Netherlands, formally agreed to train Ukrainians to fly F-16s and potentially other fighter aircraft at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week. European officials have said they hope to begin the program in August in Denmark, and a training center will also be set up in Romania.But...

In a historic move, a Jan. 6 prisoner has taken his challenge of the infamous obstruction charge, levied against him and hundreds of other Jan. 6 prisoners and defendants, all the way to the Supreme Court. On July 7, attorneys for Jan. 6 prisoner Edward Jacob (Jake) Lang filed a document with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) challenging the government’s obstruction of Congress charge—one of the most common felony charges used against Jan. 6 defendants—which carries a 20-year prison sentence. “We filed what’s called a writ of certiorari, or a request to the Supreme Court to hear...

DES MOINES, IA — Federal authorities have begun a massive manhunt for an arsonist who on Friday completely torched three presidential campaigns. "He left nothing but ashes," said Chief of Police Ron Miller. "All three campaigns were burned to the ground in a matter of hours. We're dealing with a professional." According to police, the suspect lured unsuspecting presidential campaigns to Iowa, where they were each set ablaze in rapid succession. "The campaigns never saw it coming," said local firefighter Wes Bailey. "Witnesses say the arsonist had brown, slightly disheveled hair, and looked somewhat confused as he lit the match....

<p>As experienced professionals involved in direct care for the rapidly growing numbers of gender-diverse youth, the evaluation of medical evidence or both, we were surprised by the Endocrine Society’s claims about the state of evidence for gender-affirming care for youth (Letters, July 5). Stephen Hammes, president of the Endocrine Society, writes, “More than 2,000 studies published since 1975 form a clear picture: Gender-affirming care improves the well-being of transgender and gender-diverse people and reduces the risk of suicide.” This claim is not supported by the best available evidence.</p>

Russia sacked two generals in the past week, as Moscow’s Ministry of Defense reportedly continues to purge its top officers, pointing to a growing disarray in the military leadership following the aborted rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group. Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu canned Maj. Gen. Vladimir Seliverstov, commander of the Tula Airborne Division, this week, according to Belarusian news outlet Charter97. The governor of the Tula region, which borders Moscow, Alexei Dyumin, tried to stand up for Seliverstov, who was involved in the battles in Bakhmut, but to no avail, according to the Russian publication VChK-OGPU. Seliverstov’s reported...

After ten days of intensive inquiries and scrutiny of 1,000s of hours of video evidence, the Secret Service decided to close the investigation into how a bag of cocaine ended up inside the White House. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle explained that "as improbable as it might seem, in all the videos of the area where the baggie was found the potential suspects all had their backs toward the cameras. Then as it turned out, the FBI was unable to find any fingerprints or DNA on the baggie. Finally, when we questioned the 500 persons shown to have been in...

Cardinal Burke to offer Traditional Latin Mass for faithful, persecuted Chinese CatholicsCardinal Burke's Mass on Tuesday, July 25 in Stamford, Connecticut, will honor Our Lady of Sheshan in support of the persecuted clergy and faithful of the underground Catholic Church in Communist China.STAMFORD, Connecticut (LifeSiteNews) — Later this month, Raymond Cardinal Burke will celebrate a solemn traditional Latin Mass in honor of Our Lady of Sheshan, praying for the persecuted clergy and faithful of the underground Catholic Church in Communist China.The solemn Pontifical Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, July 25, at 6 p.m. ET at the Basilica of St....

In the first two weeks of Ukraine’s grueling counteroffensive, as much as 20 percent of the weaponry it sent to the battlefield was damaged or destroyed, according to American and European officials. The toll includes some of the formidable Western fighting machines — tanks and armored personnel carriers — the Ukrainians were counting on to beat back the Russians. The startling rate of losses dropped to about 10 percent in the ensuing weeks, the officials said, preserving more of the troops and machines needed for the major offensive push that the Ukrainians say is still to come.

The developers of Mountain Valley Pipeline have asked the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency intervention to allow the project’s construction to progress. The pipeline developers made their application late Friday to vacate the stays of the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Such applications represent a request for emergency action addressed to a specific justice, in this case Chief Justice John Roberts. Each justice is assigned to circuits to handle such applications, and Roberts has the Fourth Circuit, which includes the region where the pipeline is being developed. The 35-page filing is in...

The department store will probably disappear in the next ten to twenty years, according to everyone who still cares about department stores. Writing in the early months of the pandemic, the New York Times predicted that lockdowns would deal the killing blow. If they didn't disappear outright, "there is expected to be an enormous reduction in the number of stores in each chain, which once sprawled across the American continent like a pack of many-headed hydras." That sort of bleak language – "many-headed hydras" sprawling across a continent – paints a bitter picture of an institution that was once a...

Matthew 10:24-33 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples not to fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Through the power of his being, he has linked us to the creative source of all existence. And in that “place,” loved in the Spirit by the Father and the Son, we are safe—even from those who would kill the body.But this means that our perspective can and must change. Most of us spend most of our lives defending ourselves against assaults on the “body”—keen, almost every waking moment, to protect our psyches, When we do that,...

Conservative commentator George Will criticized 2024 GOP primary favorites former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a column Friday, saying that both candidates will come out of the GOP primary weaker. “The 2024 Republican nomination question was supposed to be: Could anyone harpoon the Great Orange Whale? Who knew that he would harpoon himself, repeatedly? Or that DeSantis, playing Captain Ahab, would pay Trump the sincerest form of flattery by imitating his persona as an unhappy warrior?” Will wrote in a Washington Post column.

[Update July 14 6:35 pm]: After initially telling The Daily Beast that the Snow White set photos were fake, a spokesperson now says that the photos are in fact from the production, but are not official photos. We regret the error (and, in our mind, they still look pretty fake). The following story has been updated to reflect this fact. People who love to be mad and loud on the internet really do just jump at any possible opportunity to get really mad and really loud—even opportunities that are very clearly produced with that exact purpose in mind.

Failing the New York State teachers’ exam really paid off — especially for a Queens man who learned this month he’s getting a $2 million windfall over it. Roughly 5,200 black and Hispanic ex-Big Apple teachers and once-aspiring educators are expected to collect more than $1.8 billion in judgments after the city stopped fighting a nearly three-decade federal discrimination lawsuit that found a certification exam was biased. It’s the largest legal payout in city history. Court rulings found the exam violated civil-rights laws, allowing far more white candidates to pass.The case is expected to generate hundreds of other future million-dollar...

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that incidence of a common stomach illness is on the rise on cruise ships. In an update posted several days ago, the federal agency is now listing 13 outbreaks of norovirus on cruise ships this year, which is the highest number of outbreaks recorded on cruises since 2012. The most recent reported norovirus outbreak was on June 20 on a Viking Cruises ship in which about 120 passengers and crew members reported being ill out of about 1,200 people who were on board. Viking Cruises recently told The...

Planet Earth is plagued with terrible governments, most notably those of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. It is not difficult to argue that one of these is the world’s worst. My vote, however, goes to the current US government for this reason: When the most powerful and influential country in the world has a dysfunctional government like the one run by Joe Biden, the equilibrium of the entire world is threatened.

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida appeared to take a page out of former President Trump’s campaign playbook on Friday with a visit to a Dairy Queen in Des Moines, Iowa. However, unlike Trump’s rallies, which drew large crowds, DeSantis’ stop at the ice cream chain drew a muted response. n an attempt to connect with Iowa voters, DeSantis visited the Dairy Queen at Des Moines, ordered a Blizzard ice cream treat, and answered questions from the few present journalists. His visit seemed a clear nod to a Trump tradition – the former president was known for his fondness for fast-food...