Friday, January 5, 2018

In the news, Friday, December 22, 2017


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DEC 21      INDEX      DEC 23
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from Anglican Journal
The Anglican Church of Canada's editorially independent newspaper

The Man Who Invented Christmas: Sacred gospel story through a secular narrative
Sometimes the best way into a sacred Good News story is through a secular narrative, and that, it seems to me, is what happens in the movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas. It’s about Charles Dickens and how he came to write the famous 19th-century classic, A Christmas Carol.

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from Asia Times Online

Europe is the loser in the Catalan elections
Pressure from the voting minorities that want to tear it apart could paralyze the European project. Spanish bond yields widened just 4 basis points after last night’s election result from Catalonia; Italy also widened 4 bps, and Portugal by 9 bps.

Pakistan telecom body shutting down dissent, encouraging radical Islamists
Pakistan's telecom authorities are clamping down on secular sites on the internet under draconian censorship laws. Popular liberal website Fasaadi.com was taken down by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Tuesday. It posted a message for all people inside the country trying to access the website: “The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited for viewership from within Pakistan.”

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from Conciliar Post

The commercialization of Christmas is hardly news. Proclaiming a so-called “War on Christmas” is not enough for some, who ante up their virtue-signaling and cultural critique into announcing a “War on Advent.” In 2012, theologian Diana Butler Bass argued, specifically against Fox News, that the shopping frenzy before Christmas degraded Christ’s Nativity more than a cultural shift away from well-wishing “Merry Christmas” toward a more general “Happy Holidays.”  Father Bill Olnhausen, a retired Orthodox pastor, recently opined that Christians have already lost Advent to secularization, and have likewise have also lost Epiphany to football.  It is largely Christians who mourn the loss or minimization of Advent, since the broader American culture barely knows or notices that the season exists.

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from Daily Wire
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, American news and opinion website

There Is No ‘United Nations.’ So Let’s Stop Paying For It.
The worst people in the world gathered in New York on Thursday to condemn the United States for exercising its sovereign right to establish its embassy in Israel at Israel’s capital. The United States, which funds the lion’s share of the United Nations, hosts the organization in its most populous city, and offers $50 billion of taxpayers’ hard-earned money annually in foreign aid to member countries, did not take the condemnation of human rights abusers and terrorists lying down.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Airbnb Regs Are Bad for Small Towns Too
New ordinances may fall in line with larger cities’ regulations but that gives the false idea that they are creating positive effects in large cities.

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from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California

The Lessons Of Dien Bien Phu
The most consequential military engagement in Southeast Asia in the 20th century is the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu. It was fought ostensibly between the French and the communist-led Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, an obscure valley bordering China, in the remote northwestern part of what was then French Indochina. The battle ended with a humiliating defeat for the French, which brought down the French government, ended French colonial rule in Asia, ushered in America’s epic military involvement in the region for decades to come, and fundamentally changed the global geostrategic landscape.

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from Intellectual Takeout
Nonprofit Organization in Bloomington, Minnesota

Musician Has Life Savings Stolen During Police Traffic Stop
Phil Parhamovich is a musician from Madison, Wisconsin. Over the years, he saved up $91,800, only to have it seized by Wyoming Highway Patrol during a routine traffic stop near Cheyenne. Phil was never accused of, or charged with, a crime. Yet, he found himself in the fight of his life to recover the money that belonged to him. Luckily, Phil reached out to the Institute for Justice (IJ), and together we got back Phil’s life savings. But the fight is far from over; Phil’s story only highlights the urgent need to end civil forfeiture.

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from New York Times
Newspaper in New York

Where Jesus Would Spend Christmas
In the city of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos, Christmas is approaching. A tree on the main square is alight in blue; a Nativity scene has Mary and Joseph standing vigil beside the baby Jesus. Locals are busily shopping for gifts and sipping coffee at cafes. Just 15 minutes up the road, at the refugee and migrant camp called Moria, it is not Christmas but winter that is approaching. More than 6,000 souls fleeing the world’s most violent conflicts — in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo — are crowded in a space meant for 2,330. Today Moria is Bethlehem. Those stranded inside are not humans to be disposed of, but Emmanuel, God with us.

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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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from Zero Hedge
CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE,  MIXED,  financial blog with aggregated news and opinion

Swedish Gang Rapes: Hundreds Protest After Third Attack In Weeks Leaves 17-Year-Old Hospitalized
Hundreds took to the streets in the southern Swedish town of Malmo this week to protest the government's response to a three brutal gang rapes of teenage girls over a three week period - the most recent of which took place in a playground last Saturday and left a 17-year-old girl hospitalized.

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