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Frank (Jerry Stiller): Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had — but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way!
Kramer (Michael Richards): What happened to the doll?
Frank: It was destroyed. But out of that, a new holiday was born. “A Festivus for the rest of us!”
Kramer: That must have been some kind of doll.
Frank: She was.
— Seinfeld, Season 9, Episode 10 (“The Strike”), original airdate 18 December 1997
Reading Time: 5 minutes 35 seconds
Today is Friday, December 23rd, 2022. It is Festivus, National Pfeffernüsse Day, and National Roots Day.
On This Day
In 1815, Jane Austen’s novel Emma was first published.
In 1893, the opera Hansel and Gretel was first performed.
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.
In 1947, the transistor was first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
In 1954, J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray performed the first successful kidney transplant.
In 1968, North Korea released the 82 sailors of the USS Pueblo after 11 months of internment.
In 1973, President Gerald Ford signed the Metric Conversion Act into law.
In 1977, Cat Stevens converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam.
In 1986, Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, landed in California, becoming the first aircraft to fly nonstop, around the world, without aerial or ground refueling.
In 2002, the pilot of an Iraqi MiG-25 shot down a U.S. MQ-1 Predator in the first combat engagement between a conventional aircraft and a drone.
Today's Birthdays
Retired U.S. Army general and 2004 presidential candidate Wesley Clark is 78. Actress Susan Lucci is 76. Warmongering nutcase Bill Kristol is 70. Singer-songwriter and musician Eddie Vedder is 58.
The Links
‘Stunning Act of Betrayal’: Here Are the 18 Senate Republicans Who Voted to Pass $1.85 Trillion McConnell-Schumer Omnibus Bill (The Heritage Foundation)
“‘Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans,’ McConnell said. ‘That’s how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.’”
“Young, healthy people, most of whom already had covid, are very unlikely to become severely ill, and there is little, if any, lasting difference between the vaccinated and unvaccinated people’s likelihood of infecting others.”
What Is Crimson Contagion? (Brownstone Institute)
“[S]econd only to his longtime crony and comrade in arms Anthony Fauci, Robert Kadlec played a historic leadership role in fomenting the contagious logic that infectious disease posed a national security threat requiring a militarized response.”
FBI Admits It Meddles In ‘Numerous Companies,’ Not Just Twitter (The Federalist)
“The question now is this: how many so-called ‘private’ companies, such as Facebook, Google, Fortune 500 firms, and more, do the bidding of U.S. intelligence agencies that are renowned for their wildly partisan application of unequal standards? According to this recent statement by the FBI, many of them.”
Census: Californians are leaving the state (The Center Square)
“As of July 1, 2021, the state had 39,142,991 residents. The number fell to 39,029,342 on July 1, 2022 — a 0.3% decrease in population. Only New York had a larger population drop in that same stretch (180,341 people).”
Texas Bill Would Create a Process to Review and Reject Unconstitutional Federal Acts (Tenth Amendment Center)
“The legislation would create the Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Enforcement, which would review federal laws, agency rules and regulations, executive orders, federal court decisions, and treaties ‘that challenge the sovereignty of the state and of the people for the purpose of determining if the federal action is unconstitutional.’”
Yankees’ unpaid garage costs hit $162m, everybody but Yankees owners to be stuck with bill (Field of Schemes)
“Nobody, it turned out, wanted to pay $25 to park at the new garages, especially with much cheaper parking available at the nearby Gateway Mall (yet another city-subsidized project, ironically) and tons of public transit, including a new Metro-North commuter rail station that was also part of the new stadium project. Almost as soon as the new stadium garages opened, they were in default on both their bond payments and their rent payments to the city, and they’ve never paid a dime toward either in the decade since.”
Finally, Something Lawmakers Can (Mostly) Agree On: State Symbols (The Pew Charitable Trusts)
“Regardless of the number or variety of state symbols, they just keep on coming. Many are under consideration by legislatures in the upcoming sessions.”
Thoughtcrime is now a reality in Britain (spiked)
“How did this happen? First, Vaughan-Spruce was known to be a member of a pro-life organisation. And second, she was within 150 metres of an abortion clinic, inside a so-called buffer zone. In September, Birmingham City Council introduced a Public Space Protection Order … which makes any ‘act of approval or disapproval’ toward abortion in the surroundings of the clinic a criminal offence, on pain of a £1,000 fine. This restriction applies to any expression related to abortion services, by any method: whether by graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counselling, or in any other way. So Vaughan-Spruce’s alleged silent prayer was apparently enough. Someone had disapproved of her presence and asked the police to get rid of her. All the ploddingly literal-minded copper needed was Vaughan-Spruce’s admission that she might have been privately communing with her god and might therefore have been illegally praying in a restricted area.”
Lawmakers push back against FBI facial recognition tech (Reclaim The Net)
“Our nation is far too familiar with the flaws and built-in biases of facial recognition as the technology currently stands. In my own district, FRT has already been responsible for denying tenants entrance to their own homes, misidentifying suspects of crimes they did not commit, and far more unjust abuses than any of its victims care to remember.”
By Abolishing Fares, Big Cities Embrace Transit’s Death Spiral (Reason)
“[T]he federal government showered transit agencies with nearly $70 billion in operating subsidies during COVID-19. But rather than giving agencies the needed breathing room to claw out of their death spirals, this money appears to have encouraged big city transit agencies and transit-boosting politicians to run headlong into the next one by abolishing fares.”
Northrop Grumman clears key hurdle for space-based solar power (SpaceNews)
“The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Northrop Grumman a $100 million contract in 2018 to develop a payload to demonstrate key components of a prototype space solar power system. AFRL conceived of the flight experiment, called Arachne, to spur the development of technology needed for a prototype space-based system that could provide solar power to remote military bases.”
EU Approves a €28 Billion German Renewable Energy Scheme (Watts Up With That?)
“Why should we get excited about €28 billion? Germany is allegedly already spending €1.5 billion per day in public debt financed energy subsidies, to shield businesses from skyrocketing energy prices. So in a sense this additional €28 billion is a drop in Germany’s rising ocean of debt.”
Russia’s Unfortunate Aircraft Carrier Has Caught Fire Again (The War Zone)
“This is not the first incident of its kind on the flattop in the course of this work, with another blaze having broken out on the ship in 2019. The vessel had also suffered another fire while anchored off Turkey in 2009, which led to the death of a member of the crew.”
Taxes in Everything: Die Hard Edition (Tax Foundation)
“Now, is it a plot hole in Die Hard (a movie from 1988) that the Nakatomi Corporation still has hundreds of millions of dollars in bearer bonds, even though TEFRA was passed in 1982? Not necessarily. While new issuances of bearer bonds effectively ended following TEFRA, making them a ‘disappearing breed,’ as The New York Times observed in 1984, securities issued before 1982 would have still been in use. Additionally, bearer bonds still exist in some foreign markets.”
Your Turn
1. Is Russia overrated as a military power?
2. Do you celebrate Festivus?
3. Why are so many people leaving California and New York?
4. Have you read any of Jane Austen’s novels?
5. One hundred years from now, will the U.S. have adopted the metric system?
1. Is Russia overrated as a military power?
Russia is overrated as an ideology, which is straining the Will of its people! Maybe the US could learn something from Russia’s Totalitarian Regime!!
2. Do you celebrate Festivus?
Festivals for the rest of Us!! However, I’m not a big fan of the traditional beatdowns associated with the Holiday!! I’m more of a Peace on Earth; Good Will To Men, unless it concerns the LBGTQ!
3. Why are so many people leaving California and New York?
Why do you think? Democrat ruled lawlessness, crime and High Taxes!! When a State fails to take care of their citizens, there’s always another State that cares about THEIR citizens!!
4. Have you read any of Jane Austen’s novels?
In school I read the Pride & Prejudice. Too much of an 18th Century viewpoint to really keep me entertained. I’m sure women loved all the novels.
5. One hundred years from now, will the U.S. have adopted the metric system?
Not bloody likely!! If the US even exists as it once was, it will keep the feet and inches standard, which I prefer over metric!!
1. Is Russia overrated as a military power?
Big problems with Army, and it's inability to put down the Ukrainians. Nonetheless, it has thousands of nuclear tipped ICBMs. Not to be underestimated.
2. Do you celebrate Festivus?
Only while watching "Seinfeld."
3. Why are so many people leaving California and New York?
Single party Dem rule is making both states increasingly inhabitable. Additionally, NY, especially upstate, has miserable weather. For many years, upstate NY has had high taxes, miserable weather and a lousy job market. Not much reason to stay (I didn't).
4. Have you read any of Jane Austen’s novels?
I did in high school. My recollection is that it was similar to watching paint dry.
5. One hundred years from now, will the U.S. have adopted the metric system?
Absolutely not. I'm old enough to remember a move in the 1950s to change the US to metric. We were given lessons in grade school. Fizzled out. We're too set in our ways.