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Along with many of you, I am reading Pope Benedict’s latest book, volume 3 of Jesus of Nazareth, on the infancy narratives. I was very moved at a very brief reflection that he made on Mary, as the Angel Gabriel left her. His remarks consider on her faith in a very touching manner. I must say that I have always been moved by the faith of the Blessed Mother and intrigued too, for she is a woman wrapped in silence. The Pope’s words capture both her faith and the mystery of her. Here is what the Pope says:I consider it...

Here's the link.

The link between a mother and child is profound, and new research suggests a physical connection even deeper than anyone thought. The profound psychological and physical bonds shared by the mother and her child begin during gestation when the mother is everything for the developing fetus, supplying warmth and sustenance, while her heartbeat provides a soothing constant rhythm. The physical connection between mother and fetus is provided by the placenta, an organ, built of cells from both the mother and fetus, which serves as a conduit for the exchange of nutrients, gasses, and wastes. Cells may migrate through the placenta...

Private notice question on Syria Any use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government against its own people would be "abhorrent and universally condemned", Foreign Office Minister Baroness Warsi has said.***************************************Video att Website.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/73-new-jobs-created-last-5-months-are-government (CNSNews.com) - Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United States over the last five months are in government, according to official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In June, a total of 142,415,000 people were employed in the U.S, according to the BLS, including 19,938,000 who were employed by federal, state and local governments. By November, according to data BLS released today, the total number of people employed had climbed to 143,262,000, an overall increase of 847,000 in the six months since June. In the same five-month period since June, the number of...

Fiercely anti-American lyrics from Korean rapper Psy have been unearthed just two weeks before the star is scheduled to perform for President Obama. The “Gangnam Style” singer calls for U.S. soldiers to be killed in one song, prompting a short-lived petition to ax Psy from the bill at the Christmas in Washington celebration. The petition had fewer than 500 signatures when it was pulled offline for violating terms, according to whitehouse.gov. In 2004, Psy rapped on a South Korean metal band’s song, “Dear American,” at a protest concert, The Washington Post reported. “Kill those f---ing Yankees who have been torturing...

The Federal Reserve announced today that consumer credit rose $14.2 billion in October. The Federal government (aka, student loans) accounted for $6.9 billion of the increase. Quite an increase since January 2009! Overall, here is the revolving credit versus the non-revolving credit growth. Non revolving credit (auto loans and student loans) has boomed when revolving credit is relatively flat. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays … with your auto and student loans! Remember, you start paying soon graduates!!

In fact, Ms. Watson said it was the President’s obligation to help Detroit because “our people in an overwhelming way” voted for him, so “there ought to be a quid pro quo.” Because 75% of Wayne County voters supported Obama, Watson says that Detroit leaders should bring home “some bacon” as they did during the Jimmy Carter administration. Maybe Ms. Watson does not realize that vote buying is illegal. Her attitude is typical of many Obama supporters who want something such as a check, a phone, a job or in this case “some bacon” from the federal government.

As negotiations on a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" enter the final three weeks, Republicans face a stark reality: The American public continues siding with President Barack Obama and Democrats on issues crucial to any potential deal. Polls taken over the past month have continually shown that a post-election bump for the President, combined with the relative unpopularity of Republicans, gives Obama a lot of leverage in the debate. Voters overwhelmingly support the key element of Obama's plan for a deal — raising taxes on incomes above $250,000. They also support blanket entitlement cuts, which is what the GOP...

Sources close to French Defense Ministry reported Friday, Dec. 7, that a Western-Arab military intervention against the Assad regime is due to begin shortly with the participation of the US, France, Britain, Turkey, Jordan and other anti-Assad Arab nations. (reference is to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar’s special forces) Our military sources add that the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle carrying a complement of marines is deployed in the Mediterranean, having joined the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group and at least five British warships which are also carrying a large marine force. In the second and third weeks...

Every year average Americans pay dozens of different types of taxes, and yet many of our politicians are very open about the fact that they want to raise rates even higher and invent even more ways to bleed us all dry. Someday historians will look back and be absolutely amazed at how stupid we were. We have the most complicated tax code in all of human history and at this point the federal tax code is more than four times as long as the entire collected works of William Shakespeare. In many places it is so incomprehensible that nobody...

Before Psy became an international singing sensation with his infectious hit “Gangnam Style,” the Korean rapper sang about “slowly and painfully” killing American soldiers. Psy, who recently earned the title of most-watched YouTube video of all time, protested the presence of 3,700 US troops in Korea during a 2002 concert, according to a Mediaite report. WATCH: PSY SMASHES COPY OF US TANK AT CONCERT AUDIO: PSY'S ANTI-AMERICAN RAP (WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE) Some of the "Dear American" lyrics he rapped: "Kill those [bleep]ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives / Kill those [bleep]ing Yankees who ordered them to torture /...

Why US Air Corps servicemen were allowed to wear such badass bomber jackets in WWII In honor of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, Lisa Hix of Collectors Weekly has put together a fascinating and sobering article that both commemorates and explains why members of the US Army Air Corp were allowed to customize their bomber jackets to such outlandish and extreme degrees. The Army, not known for its lax uniform standards, allowed their air-bound servicemen to decorate their jackets with pictures of scantily clad pin-up girls, favorite comic characters, lucky charms, and any other assortment of icons. The reason, says historian...

www.commonsensepolitics.org As it currently stands, the Second Amendment guarantees U.S. citizens the right to own firearms. But each state is permitted to place its own restrictions on the types of firearms -- and the manner in which they're possessed -- that people are allowed to own.A bill making its way through Congress would grant "reciprocity" for gun owners in states where they don't actually live. In other words, if you can carry a concealed handgun under Ohio law, an Ohio resident can carry a concealed weapon in New York -- regardless of New York's gun laws.The bill is designed...

As House Speaker John Boehner continues to hide the details of what happened and why during his conservative purge of House committees, House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan is eschewing comment and instead directing all inquiries about the purge to Boehner’s office. For several days, spokespeople for Ryan – the Republican Party’s most recent vice presidential candidate who’s widely rumored to be positioning himself to run for president in 2016 – have refused to answer any questions about whether Ryan was involved and, if he was, what role he played. Then, on Friday, Ryan spokesman William Allison would not...

Before it had a chance to recover from a devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people in 2010, Haiti was hit by a drought this past spring, followed by a tropical storm, two months of heavy rains, and eventually, Superstorm Sandy. No wonder the disaster-torn country is considered one of the worst places to live, according to a new global study of infrastructure and quality of life by New York City-based consulting firm Mercer. According to Mercer, Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s quake-ravaged capital, has the world’s worst infrastructure when judged by metrics including the availability of electricity, fresh water and public...

Something odd is happening at the Bureau of Labor Statistics - The unemployment rate has fallen rapidly - But the job market is not getting better - It's actually getting worse

Once upon a time I was an aspiring media professional. My very first foray into the business was as summer newspaper intern with The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Near the end of my internship, I was given an assignment that haunts me to this very day. I was told to go out to a Cleveland suburb where a shooter was reportedly spraying bullets in a residential neighborhood. When I arrived at scene, police had cordoned off the block where the shooter – a troubled 17 year-old kid – was holed up in his house. After what seemed like hours, but probably...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers has turned back requests by federal lawmakers and the barge industry to release more water from the Missouri River, believing the drought-starved Mississippi River it feeds still will remain open to shipping despite mounting concerns about water levels. Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy, in a Thursday letter obtained by The Associated Press, told lawmakers from Mississippi River states she doesn't consider it necessary to boost Missouri River flows into the Mississippi — something the politicians urgently had sought. Darcy, a top Army Corps official, noted this week's revised National Weather Service...

The last few days have seen plenty of talk about former congressman J.C. Watts as RNC chairman. I liked J.C. Watts’ congressional record. He also was a good interview. He’s youngish. He’s black. All these things are in his favor. But once he left Congress he became a K Street lobbyist for corporate clients, many of whom were asking the federal government for money. That hardly seems like the future of the GOP. Watts’s lobbying clients include giants like AT&T, and green-energy companies lobbying for renewable-fuel standards like Syntroleum, plus government contractors like Lockheed Martin. Most of clients seem innocuous...

The Tatler has learned that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is almost certain to appoint former South Carolina Republican Party Chair and former S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster to fill the unexpired term of retiring Senator Jim DeMint. McMaster was a prominent supporter of Haley in a contentious GOP primary. Haley has reportedly already informed key South Carolina politicians of her decision. Yesterday I blogged that Haley should appoint Congressman Joe Wilson to this post, or in the alternative, Tea Party favorite Rep. Tim Scott. A Republican in Washington in 2012 must have experience with the organized Left that now...

Most Americans remember December 7 as Pearl Harbor Day. But the seventh haunts many World War II Ranger veterans for another reason: It marks the anniversary of one of the great untold small-unit actions of World War II — the Battle of Hill 400, the U.S. Army Rangers’ “longest day.� My new book, Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, chronicles that epic battle, as well as the other heroic efforts of this remarkable Ranger company.“Fix bayonets!� barked a hulking Ranger officer.In a scene reminiscent of a World War I battle, Germans and Americans stared at each other...

Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president this year, received the lowest level of support among evangelicals of any Republican presidential candidate since Bob Dole in 1996, according to a report by Barna Group, a Christian polling organization. Romney received the support of 81 percent of evangelicals, compared to 88 percent for John McCain in 2008, and 83 percent and 85 percent, respectively, for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Only Dole received a lower level of evangelical support at 74 percent in Barna's polling. Barna's results differ from other polls showing Romney received a higher proportion of the...

Weekly Preppers' Thread to post progress, good buys, DIY projects, advice, ideas.....

Jamie Foxx caused some controversy when he referred to President Barack Obama as "our lord and savior" at the 2012 Soul Train Awards, but the Academy Award-winning actor is defending his actions. Foxx, 44, drew criticism from the likes of Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, and Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California. Donohue has been vocal about protesting Obama's policies like the HHS Mandate and released a statement calling Foxx's remarks "startling." "It just goes to show that even though Obama did not succeed in stopping the oceans from rising (as...

Americans have the right to keep loaded, unlocked guns in their homes. This constitutionally protected right was reinforced by the Supreme Court in the D.C v. Heller decision, and in turn applied to the states in the McDonald decision. Here are the quotes from the Heller decision: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., PETITIONERS v. DICK ANTHONY HELLER Here is the first half of paragraph 4 of part IV: “We must also address the District’s requirement (as applied to respondent’s handgun) that firearms in the home be rendered and kept inoperable at all times. This makes it impossible for citizens to...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will take up California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case that could give the justices the chance to rule on whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals.</p> <p>The justices said Friday they will review a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state's gay marriage ban, though on narrow grounds. The San Francisco-based appeals court said the state could not take away the same-sex marriage right that had been granted by California's Supreme Court.</p>

On July 22, a U.S. Air Force pilot assigned to Misawa Air Base, Japan, had to eject from an F-16 Fighting Falcon over the turbulent and cold waters of the North Pacific. Over the next six hours, the pilot, JEST 73, focused on surviving in his small life raft - constantly using his helmet to bail water out to keep afloat. While ejecting from an aircraft and landing in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean would probably not qualify as the man's best day, the pilot was fortunate in that an improbable, varied mix of different people and agencies...

December 7, 2012 Allen West: Negotiating with Obama who is a “Marxist, Socialist, rigid ideologue” is silly RightScoop Allen West was on with Mark Levin last night in what I think was one of his better interviews. Not only did Levin put West on the spot and really press him on his future, but West weighed in on this debate over the ‘fiscal cliff’ saying that the House should be passing good policy and not negotiating with a “Marxist, Socialist, rigid ideologue” like Obama. He says that instead of Obama telling people how he’s going to give them $2,000 by...

Rep. Tim Scott already brought a remarkable personal story to his first term in the House: a conservative black Republican, raised poor in the corner of South Carolina where the Civil War started. But if the buzz in Washington and South Carolina is right, Scott might soon be the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction if Gov. Nikki Haley decides to appoint him to the seat vacated by Sen. Jim DeMint, who abruptly resigned Thursday to take a job running The Heritage Foundation. It seems to be a logical fit: DeMint and Scott are close, personally and ideologically,...

<p>The Supreme Court will take up California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case that could give the justices the chance to rule on whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals.</p>

SPRINGTOWN (CBSDFW.COM) - An accused burglar is in the Parker County jail after he called 911, afraid of the homeowner who was holding him at gunpoint. He stayed on the phone for more than 10 minutes with the operator, even trying to convince himself the scenario wasn’t real. The man, Christopher Moore, was in the process of burglarizing a home in the 100 block of Lelon Lane in Springtown Tuesday morning when the owner of the home woke up and found Moore in his bedroom. James Gerow said he thought it was his son, until he got up and realized...

If there's been one topic that has entirely dominated the post-election landscape, it's the fiscal cliff. Will taxes be raised? Which programs will be cut? Who will blink first in negotiations? For all the talk of the fiscal cliff, however, I believe the US is facing a much more serious problem, one that has simply not been talked about at all: corruption. But this isn't the overt, "bartering of government favors in return for private kickbacks" corruption. Instead, this type of corruption has actually been legalized. And it is strangling both US competitiveness, and the ability for US firms to...

Public pressure continues to mount on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to launch "investigations into alleged mob ties at United Maintenance Inc., which got a $99 million airport contract" as reported by John Byrne for the Chicago Tribune: "Paul Fosco, a vice president at United Maintenance's parent company, went to prison following 1987 charges of racketeering conspiracy related to a scheme to swindle the Laborers Union through manipulation of lucrative benefit plans. Alleged former Chicago outfit boss Anthony 'Big Tuna' Accardo was charged in the same case as Fosco, but acquitted." Last week it was alleged that United Maintenance owner Richard...

A senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard claimed Friday that Western sanctions are helpful because they promote Iranian self-sufficiency and insisted the country’s leaders should welcome the measures. Oil and trade embargoes have helped Iran reduce its reliance on the outside world, Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi told worshipers at Tehran University in a pre-sermon speech. The remarks echoed the defiant mantra of Iranian conservatives who say the economy is strengthening and that Iran is developing more modern technologies—including building missiles, drones, satellites and advancing its uranium enrichment program—precisely because of the West’s punitive measures. …

Pre-ordering for the Atlas Shrugged Part II Special Edition DVD and d'Anconia Copper Blu-ray today. Now available for pre-order, delivery Feb. 19, 2013. (click link for details)

On 12/07/12, We the People, WhiteHouse.gov wethepeople@whitehouse.gov wrote: Your petition “rescind invite to Gangnam Style rapper PSY to perform for Pres. Obama at Christmas party over troop killing song lyrics” has been removed from the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov because it was in violation of the We the People Terms of Participation. This petition was removed for the following reason: o The petition was outside the scope of We the People. Learn more about the We the People Terms of Participation: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/how-why/terms-participation Learn more about the We the People Moderation Policy: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/how-why/moderation-policy If you would like to request...

David Axelrod finally oversaw a campaign in which he was happy to end up the loser. President Barack Obama’s senior strategist shaved off his trademark mustache on live TV Friday, fulfilling a promise to slash his 40-year-old ’stache to help raise $1 million for epilepsy research. “We're cutting it off because there are people who have lost a lot more than a mustache to epilepsy,” Axelrod said. …

The gleaming UPMC letters atop the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s corporate offices downtown might as well be a bull’s-eye for all the attention being generated by the biggest labor organizing effort in the system’s history. The Service Employees International Union represents janitors at Harvard University, home care workers in Los Angeles and employees at HCA, the biggest for-profit hospital chain in the country. Now, the union is going after UPMC, Pennsylvania’s biggest hospital network. To prevail, the health system has to convince employees they’re better off without a union at a time when the health care industry is undergoing

We have a lost generation of Americans. We who make up the baby boom generation still talk about the American dream. For the lost generation, the American dream is now dead. Who are the lost generation and why is the American dream nothing but a myth to them? The lost generation is the group we call “Millennials.” They are the people under 30. Why is their generation lost?

It’s been 40 years since a human being last set foot on the Moon, and the Golden Spike Company wants to go back – routinely. The space startup announced their plans at a press conference today. Their plans were unveiled by its Chairman of the Board, Gerry Griffin, and its President and CEO, Dr. Alan Stern “We’re a startup and we’ve been at this for two years,” he said. “But we don’t have anything built yet but an interesting business plan.” Stern emphasized to me that they are at a “very early stage” in their plans. But those plans, he...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- New rules issued by Pope Benedict XVI for the governance of Catholic charities will not prevent such charities from accepting government funding, so long as the funding does not entail conditions that conflict with church teaching, said the second-highest official of the Vatican office in charge of applying the new legislation. Msgr. Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, spoke to Catholic News Service about the pope's apostolic letter on the "service of charity," issued "motu proprio" (on the pope's "own initiative") Nov. 11, and released by the Vatican Dec. 1. The...

A Michigan judge who came under fire for texting nude photos of himself to a female bailiff is now accused of impregnating a complaining witness and discussing a punishment for the defendant in the case. Third Circuit Court Judge Wade McCree is accused of carrying an affair with Geniene La’Shay Mott, a woman who had brought her ex-boyfriend into his court on felony charges for not paying child support, MyFoxDetroit.com reports. ~~~~ An alleged text message sent from McCree's phone to Mott promised that she would get anything she needed in return for an abortion. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/07/michigan-judge-in-nude-picture-scandal-under-fire-for-impregnating-witness/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2EOik9SBF

EAGLE ROCK (CBSLA.com) — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa [aka Tony Vilar] and the Department of Water & Power have signed an agreement to purchase power from a solar panel project built on Native American tribal land. KNX 1070′s Pete Demetriou reports the city will join Sempra Energy and the Moapa Band of Indians to develop long-term renewable energy sources. Villaraigosa was joined by DWP Board Chairman Tom Sayles at the Solar Array project at Occidental College on Thursday for the signing of two city ordinances that approve large long-term solar power purchasing contracts for the DWP. The development of the K-Road...

JACKSON, Ky. THIS is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms and dads fear that if kids learn to read, they are less likely to qualify for a monthly check for having an intellectual disability. Many people in hillside mobile homes here are poor and desperate, and a $698 monthly check per child from the Supplemental Security Income program goes a long way — and those checks continue until the child turns 18. “The kids get taken out of the program because the parents are going...

The amount of money spent on welfare programs equals, when converted to cash payments, about "$168 per day for every household in poverty," the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee finds. Here's a chart detailing the committee's findings:[see link] "Based on data from the Congressional Research Service, cumulative spending on means-tested federal welfare programs, if converted into cash, would equal $167.65 per day per household living below the poverty level," writes the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee. "By comparison, the median household income in 2011 of $50,054 equals $137.13 per day. Additionally, spending on federal welfare benefits,...

The left consistently takes the moral high ground, and the right is left grasping at air. In order to prevent this happening, conservatives need to be secure in the values they stand for, but they also need to understand the twisted psychology behind the left’s celebration of victimhood. Romney has been roundly beaten up over his now infamous 47% comment regarding the culture of entitlement that afflicts our country. He was then beaten up again for his comments about the Obama administration in effect bribing sections of the voting community with ‘extraordinary gifts’. Never mind that both comments were patently...

Most preppers should be familiar with the ‘rule of three’ – this means having one main method of an important function and a backup for it and a backup of the backup. It doesn’t necessarily entail 3 versions of the same thing but distinctly different ways of accomplishing a priority task. In the case of personal security arrangements, the main or level 1 version would be firearms within easy reach within a structure. These would be the primary weapons used for hunting and defence. And while it’s been said that the time to hide weapons is the time to bring...

Rick Santelli sees no signs of strength in the November jobs numbers and rejects arguments the economy wouldn't be hurt by higher tax rates.

People wonder why conservatives moan endlessly about what they label “the mainstream media”. One reason is that it often displays a subconscious prejudice against religion. Catholics, for example, are sometimes presented as misogynistic cultists with the blood of millions on their hands. To anyone who occasionally attends Mass, this can come off as rather insulting. Sorry, but we’re sensitive that way.Take the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar, who died earlier this year in a hospital in Galway, Ireland. Here’s how The Guardian reported the story:Ireland's near-total ban on abortion has come under renewed scrutiny amid an outcry over the death...