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The strange beliefs of Nicholas Kristof A couple of years ago, to celebrate the Catholic feast of the Assumption, Nicholas Kristof wrote a column called “Believe it or Not” (New York Times, 8-15-03), in which he scoffed at the naïve religious beliefs of Americans and in particular at the absurdity of believing in the Virgin Birth of Christ. This year, to celebrate Christmas, I wish to reply to his charges. In publishing his column, Kristof showed considerable bravery. Not by attacking religious believers (which is mere political correctness) but by exposing his own beliefs, which are touchingly old-fashioned and naive....

With statewide elections on Tuesday in Virginia and New Jersey, the PBS NewsHour week-in-review segment strangely focused on Democrats for a change. Liberal analyst Mark Shields shocked PBS anchor Judy Woodruff by saying if Virginia’s Democratic candidate for governor, Ralph Northam, can’t defeat Republican Ed Gillespie with his alleged Trump baggage, there will be hell to pay: MARK SHIELDS: I would say this, Judy. If, in fact, the Democrats lose on Tuesday in Virginia, that it will lead to — close to civil war within the Democratic Party. JUDY WOODRUFF: Whoa. SHIELDS: It will be — there will be reprisals...

The head of the agency responsible for overseeing the troubled HealthCare.gov repeatedly refused to disclose how many people have enrolled in ObamaCare -- during a hearing where she did not deny that officials have that information. Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, testified Tuesday before the House Ways and Means Committee. At the top of the hearing, she apologized for the failures of the main ObamaCare website and vowed to fix them. But, raising more questions about the administration's transparency on the project, she declined to cite enrollment numbers. She did not claim, as Health...

From ORB LAB's FB page: Shark fishing season has officially begun for the ORB LAB. Last Friday, a crew struck out to try and recapture sharks carrying tags containing valuable information about the species assemblage encountered by these coastal apex predators. We caught one large female on our first line Friday, but we were not expecting to catch her like this! This unlucky smooth dogfish couldn't resist the menhaden used as bait and unfortunately fell victim to one of the top predators in the bay. The dogfish was about 3 feet long and completely swallowed by the sand tiger shark.

Meet the Stooges: Larry, Curly and Barack. Bill Clinton meets another member of the Blue Dress Brigade. Larry Flynt: the latest soldier in the Democrats’ war on women. And the Huffington Post declares jihad on sense. All this — plus — Obama eats dogs. Presented in 1080 hi-def, FOR FREE! It’s The Great Eight, from the Personal Liberty Digest™!

A day after President Barack Obama declared, "I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth," a not-so-subtle swipe at Mitt Romney's wealth, the former Massachusetts governor responded by accusing the president of "attacking people" instead of "attacking problems." In an interview on "Fox & Friends," the presumptive Republican nominee said he would not apologize for his father's achievements and his upbringing. "I'm certainly not going to apologize for my dad and his success in life," Romney told Fox News. "He was born poor. He worked his way to become very successful despite the fact that he didn't have...

Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades threatened Monday night to kill all of Hamas's leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as well as Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal. In a message sent to news agencies, the group said that it considered Mashaal, Interior Minister Sayid Siam and another high-ranking member of the ministry, Yosef al-Zahar, responsible for the deaths of Palestinians killed over the last two days during Hamas-Fatah clashes. Eleven Palestinians were killed and more than 150 were wounded in fierce clashes that erupted between supporters of Hamas and Fatah over the past 48 hours in the Gaza Strip and West...

One Democrat calls his rival the "anti-Christ of outsourcing" U.S. jobs and argues that he's trying to buy a win in the Virginia primary. The other fires back, labeling his opponent a sexist who is hostile to affirmative action and is, at heart, a Republican. Accusations fly freely in the Democratic primary between decorated Vietnam veteran and Reagan-era Navy secretary Jim Webb and former Internet industry lobbyist Harris Miller. The winner Tuesday will face first-term Sen. George Allen, a potential 2008 presidential candidate. Virginia is unaccustomed to primaries, especially bitter ones; the last Democratic Senate primary was in 1994. The...