DAILY PRAYER: Dear Lord, May our Advent preparations and prayers bring us spiritual renewal and peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
DEI: CLICK https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZYp-6OvkuKs for a stunning example of why we must embrace biological reality.
EVERYDAY HEROES: Photo: Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey receiving the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from President John F. Kennedy in 1962. In 1960, Dr. Kelsey was one of only seven full-time physicians reviewing drugs for the entire United States.
Her first assignment was a request from a pharmaceutical company named Richardson-Merrell to approve thalidomide for morning sickness and sleep troubles. The company expected approval before Christmas. They were planning to make a fortune. But Dr. Kelsey didn’t like the company’s “evidence” for the drug’s safety and asked for more data. Richardson-Merrell’s executives were furious, insisting the drug was “perfectly safe” and in widespread use in Europe. They threatened Dr. Kelsey. They bullied her and tried to go over her head, but she stood firm, demanding answers to her concerns for the drug’s affect on the unborn.
And in late 1961, nightmare reports of deformed babies began coming in from Europe. Every mother who had taken thalidomide between the twentieth and thirty-sixth day of pregnancy – the exact window when limbs and organs form – gave birth to babies with arms and legs grotesquely shortened or missing entirely, hands sprouting directly from shoulders like flippers. And it wasn’t just limbs. Hearts, eyes, ears, and internal organs were improperly developed or severely deformed. More than ten thousand children across forty-six countries were affected, roughly half of whom died shortly after birth. Thousands more pregnancies ended in miscarriage or stillbirth, while survivors faced lifetimes of profound disability.
Because of one stubborn lady doctor, only 17 babies were harmed in the United States, each one the result of experimental samples of thalidomide that Richardson-Merrell had illegally distributed to physicians.
FAKE NEWS: CLICK https://www.facebook.com/reel/2029580647882249 [1:39] to hear one of The Squad lie her face off.
HOLIDAY SHOPPING: Poptaters! If neither Spock, Leonardo, nor Bob Ross fits your hard-to-please giftee, click the links for more pop character options.
- https://www.amazon.com/Super-Impulse-Poptaters-Star-Spock/dp/B0CJZLW5XL/ref=asc_df_B0CJZLW5XL
- https://www.amazon.com/Poptaters-Interchangeable-Including-Surprise-Original/dp/B0BNP1958S/ref=sr_1_41
PRAYER for OUR NATION: Prince of Peace, Give us the graces we need to disagree without hostility. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.
S&G: Of the 489 LGBTQ characters counted this year, 41% will not be returning next year.
- https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/CONFIDENTIAL-WWATV-24-25.pdf
- https://notthebee.com/article/we-voted-for-this-lgbtq-advocacy-group-warns-almost-half-of-gay-characters-on-tv-are-being-eliminated-from-shows-this-year
TRANS-SANITY: In August 2023, a trans man tried to make an appointment with an OB/GYN. The physician, Dr Victor Acharian of Pau, France, refused, believing he was not qualified. The trans man sued. The French Medical Council suspended Acharian for a month, with an additional five months’ probation. SOS Homophobie, a transgender activist group, thought the punishment too mild. The French National Authority for Health promised to create new guidelines for physicians on how to appropriately treat transgender patients.
WHITE HOUSE: In 1846, the U.S. bishops unanimously named Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of our nation.
From President Trump’s message on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (linked below): “In her honor, and on a day so special to our Catholic citizens, we remember the sacred words that have brought aid, comfort, and support to generations of American believers in times of need: Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/12/presidential-message-on-the-feast-of-the-immaculate-conception/
- https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249814/did-you-know-the-immaculate-conception-is-patroness-of-the-united-states
GRAMMY NOTES: [3:01] – Years ago, one of the ornaments on the White House tree was created by a guy who grew up next door to us.
- https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/local-sellers-ornaments-featured-in-white-house-christmas-display/
- https://fiftystatesornaments.com/
SHORTS:
CLICK https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W7tOE82NovA to see things that make Kylee happy!
polination.blog 
“concerns for the drug’s affect on the unborn.”
Effect.
I remember reading about the thalidomide effects when the story broke. Pictures of the kids in, probably, Life magazine. Still the poster drug for careless Pharma. Glad we don’t have any such problems since then. 🙄
That deaf girl was sure happy. Went to high school with a lovely deaf girl. She taught us a lot about living without hearing. Great sense of humor, too.
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I remember that issue of Life magazine. I was a highly sensitive child and the pictures of the babies with missing limbs gave me nightmares.
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I had a classmate with tiny arms and often thought she must’ve been a thalidomide baby. Now I realize we were born years before this happened. I also didn’t know until writing this up that only 17 babies in the U.S. were affected.
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