SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY: Peace be with you on this special day. Contrary to popular belief, it is not about the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary. It is about the equally miraculous sinless conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, Saint Ann. Some people find this problematic, but I think it makes perfect sense. God can’t stand sin, so how could he grow in the womb of a woman stained with Original Sin? And God is outside of time, so it’s no biggy that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was used to redeem her.
Dogma: Truths revealed by God that have been declared infallibly and that are fundamental to the Catholic faith. It’s kind of like … if you don’t accept the truths of them, you’re really not a Catholic.
Solemnity: One of the Catholic feast days that is of the greatest importance in the church’s calendar. The next one will be Christmas. Solemnities are often, but not always, also holy days of obligation — i.e., Catholics are obliged to attend Mass. Sometimes a feast day’s obligation is abrogated when it falls on a Saturday or a Monday, but that exception does not apply for this feast because the Immaculate Conception is the patroness of the United States. IOW, Catholics need to get to Mass today AND tomorrow.
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TAKING IT SERIOUSLY: Property managers at the retirement community trailer park where Millie Francis, 85, lives in west-central Florida have reportedly demanded that she remove the painted image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from the outside of her mobile home. “They’ll have to kill me first,” Francis says.
CHINA: “President Donald J. Trump has been the subject of criticism recently because of some confusion about a recent agreement between China and the United States on trade. Although the media will not cut the president a break, as time has worn on, the agreement with China seems likely to be yet another trade victory for President Trump,” Corey Lewandowski writes in The Hill.
OUTRAGEOUS MISCONDUCT: Colluded to skirt scrutiny of Hillary — On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the Justice and State departments Thursday to reopen an inquiry into whether Hillary Clinton used a private email server while secretary of state to deliberately evade public records laws, and to answer whether the agencies acted in bad faith by not telling a court for months that they had asked in mid-2014 for missing emails to be returned. Lamberth wrote he took no pleasure in “questioning the intentions of the nation’s most august” Cabinet departments, but said it was necessary when their response “smacks of outrageous misconduct.”
ILLEGAL ALIENS: A Mexican man who has been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a co-worker in Oregon was not only living and working there illegally, but also has been deported at least eight times before this! After the shooting, the suspect fled to Washington state, where a SWAT team apprehended him in a local hotel.
THIS IS WELL WORTH YOUR TIME: I am only sorry that whoever subtitled this wonderful video wasn’t “empowered” by his own education to take “responsibility” for getting it right.
CLEAN CONTENT: Facebook and Tumblr change smut policies — Both sides will be banning adult content, including “photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content — including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations — that depicts sex acts.”
YES, ETHICS DO MATTER: The National Institutes of Health will not renew a contract with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) over concerns about the project’s use of fetal tissue.
ABORTION: Every time I read another news story about what pigs abortionists too often are, I am reminded of the Left’s maudlin concern for maintaining the sanctity of the relationship between a woman and her doctor. “Her” doctor? Almost never.
Michigan: The last of 15 babies found in the trunk of Michigan abortionist Michael Roth’s car in September 2015 has now been properly laid to rest.
Florida: The Florida Board of Medicine has revoked the medical license of a notorious late-term abortionist. James Scott Pendergraft, IV was not present at the meeting, because he is in jail for operating an illegal home abortion and drug distribution business out of the back of a van in South Carolina where he holds no license to practice medicine.
GROW UP: When adults are in charge — “Reforming” isn’t the same as “kicking people off.” “Show me when you can make those numbers work.”
EXPLAINING SOCIALISM: From Twitchy — For years, the Left has been babbling about a ‘living wage’ and trying to force employers to pay a minimum of $15 an hour even if that means they higher fewer people because in their little heads the math somehow makes sense.
The rest of us know the only real way to help those who work for a minimum is to do away with the law that allows an employer to PAY a minimum in the first place, and that way these companies have to compete for their employees.
But no, instead of understanding the free market, our dear, sweet, tolerant friends on the Left are pretending the government can fix this. Some chick named Heather (who we have featured before) took these ‘living wage’ talking points APART in an epic thread.
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CLIMATE: Dems say that won’t move forward on an infrastructure deal unless Trump adopts their climate change policies. The same policies France is now rioting over. This guy’s plan to stick it to the big corporations and big oil is stooopid. As if their costs aren’t all passed on to consumers. Sheesh. Odd how we never hear any concerns about higher energy prices from the oh-so-compassionate Left, seeing as it is always the poorest who are hit hardest.
HATE GOOGLE? Read this guide to quitting –– “Since Google owns some of the best and most-used apps, websites, and internet services, making a clean break is difficult—but not impossible. We’re going to take a look at how to leave the most popular Google services behind, and how to keep Google from tracking your data.”
FOOD: “Adding a bit of pure cocoa powder to food can give it a huge (and delicious!) antioxidant boost. And those antioxidants may help curb inflammation.” – WebMD … Hmmm, I get Dearest unsweetened cocoa powder for his coffee, because it’s heart healthy. And kudos to him for learning to drink his mocha with NO sweetener, cuz sugar is definitely not heart healthy. (Amazing what an incentive a few heart procedures can be.) Anyway, it had not occurred to me to use it in my cooking, but I am definitely going to start experimenting!
