Americans having a Holly Jolly, Stress Free Christmas

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Christmas Cheer‘Tis indeed the season to be jolly for Americans, who are experiencing their lowest levels of holiday stress in years, according to a new CNN/ORC nationwide poll.

The poll suggests they’ve already decked their halls with boughs of holly, as only 30% of the public said they’re feeling a great deal or fair amount of stress from all the things they need to do to get ready for Christmas.

That’s a steep drop from 2005, when a vast majority of Americans must’ve left the tree-trimming to the last minute, as 86% said they felt a great deal or fair amount of stress that year. In 1989, 76% felt the same, perhaps because they waited too long to buy the new Nintendo Game Boy, the hot toy released that year.

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Watch: Man Shotguns Eggnog in Office Contest, Winds Up in Hospital With Pneumonia

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EggNogRyan Roche of Lehi, Utah, beat two co-workers by chugging a quart of eggnog in 12 seconds, as revelers cheered him on with chants of “Chug! Chug! Chug!”

When he began feeling ill later that evening, he went to the hospital, where doctors informed him that the holiday drink had triggered pneumonia.

After a 3-day stay at the hospital, Roche is fully recovered and ready to use the $50 gift card he won for his 12-second chug.

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Sony Reverses Course, "The Interview" to Now Play on Christmas Day

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MovieDespite threats from hackers, Sony (SNE) Pictures is making the controversial Seth Rogen comedy available at a limited number of theaters starting on Christmas.

The movie studio’s CEO, Michael Lynton, said Tuesday afternoon that “while we hope this is only the first step of the film’s release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech.”

By Tuesday evening, slightly more than 200 independently-owned theaters had agreed to show the film.

More might still get on board: one Sony source said the studio is “still counting” the total number, and that it could end up “around 300.”

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SWAT Teams Posted After Gang Members Threaten to Attack NYPD Station Houses

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Two NYPD cops shot deadThe NYPD set up SWAT teams at two Bedford-Stuyvesant police precincts Tuesday night — after a confidential informant told cops about overhearing a gang plot to “shoot it out” at the station houses.

Four Emergency Services Unit officers, outfitted with helmets and assault weapons, were stationed at the 79th precinct. Another two were at the 81st.

The beefed up security was prompted by a confidential informant, who told cops of overhearing a member of the Baltimore-based Black Guerrilla Family talking with fellow gang members about plans to “shoot it out with police” at the two precincts, law enforcement sources told The Post.

The gang member served three years in jail for robbery and attempted murder.

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State Dept Offering Millions to Recapture Terrorist Freed From Gitmo

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

On December 18, 2014, the State Department put Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, a senior leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, on a Specially Designated Global Terrorist watch list. Al-Rubaysh plays a key role in operational planning for the terrorist group and provides justification for their attacks. He’s also made public statements on more than one occasion calling for war against the United States. For these reasons, there’s been a $5 million reward offered since October for information that could lead to his capture.

The problem is not the terrorist per se, or the State Department’s decision to place him on the global watch list; it’s the fact that the U.S. already had him once—and let him go.

Judicial Watch explains:
“Hundreds of Gitmo terrorists have been discharged over the years under a program that started with President George W. Bush and continued full-throttle with this administration. Intelligence report after intelligence report has revealed that many rejoin terrorist missions after leaving the military prison. In fact, Judicial Watch has been reporting this for years. Back in 2010 JW wrote about a report that the Director of National Intelligence gave Congress documenting that 150 former Gitmo detainees were confirmed or suspected of “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer.” At least 83 remained at large, according to the document.”

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Russia, 4-ex-Soviet Nations Finalize New Alliance

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

MOSCOW — Russia and four other ex-Soviet nations on Tuesday completed the creation of a new economic alliance intended to bolster their integration, but the ambitious grouping immediately showed signs of fracture as the leader of Belarus sharply criticized Moscow.

The Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, comes to existence on Jan. 1. In addition to free trade, it’s to coordinate the members’ financial systems and regulate their industrial and agricultural policies along with labor markets and transportation networks.

Russia had tried to encourage Ukraine to join, but its former pro-Moscow president was ousted in February following months of protests. Russia then annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea Crimean Peninsula, and a pro-Russia mutiny has engulfed eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the new union will have a combined economic output of $4.5 trillion and bring together 170 million people.

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Black Progression and Retrogression

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williams_walterThere is no question, though it’s not acknowledged enough, that black Americans have made greater gains, over some of the highest hurdles and in a very short span of time, than any other racial group in mankind’s history. What’s the evidence? If black Americans were thought of as a nation with their own gross domestic product, they’d rank among the 20 wealthiest nations. It was a black American, Gen. Colin Powell, who headed the mightiest military in mankind’s history. A few black Americans are among the world’s wealthiest. Many black Americans are among the world’s most famous personalities.

The significance of all this is that in 1865, neither an ex-slave nor an ex-slave owner would have believed that such progress would be possible in less than a century and a half. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people. Just as importantly, it speaks to the greatness of a nation within which such progress was possible. That progress would have been impossible anywhere except in the United States of America. The challenge that lies before us is how those gains can be extended to a large percentage of black people for whom they appear elusive.

A good start to meeting that challenge is to recognize that much of the pathology seen in many black communities is entirely new in black history. Let’s look at some of that history. In the late 1800s, depending on the city, 70 to 80 percent of black households were two-parent. In 1925 New York City, 85 percent of black households were two-parent. As late as 1950, only 18 percent of black households were single-parent. From 1890 to 1940, a slightly higher percentage of black adults had married than white adults. In 1940, black illegitimacy was about 14 percent.

Today it’s an entirely different story. Black illegitimacy is 75 percent. Close to 50 percent of marriage-age blacks never marry. Close to 70 percent of black households are female-headed. If one thinks family structure doesn’t matter, consider that the poverty rate among black female-headed families is about 47 percent, but among married families it has been in the single digits for more than two decades.

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George H.W. Bush Rushed to Hospital

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Photo Credit: Helen Thorgalsen/Facebook

Photo Credit: Helen Thorgalsen/Facebook

Former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized on Tuesday after experiencing what a spokesman called a “shortness of breath.”

Bush, 90, was taken by ambulance to Houston Methodist Hospital Tuesday evening as a precaution. The former president will remain there under observation.

In late 2012, he was admitted to the hospital with a bronchitis-related cough. Bush was released Nov. 19 but returned the day after Thanksgiving with a persistent cough. He was later admitted to intensive care with a stubborn fever. Bush spent that Christmas at the hospital, only leaving intensive care on Dec. 30.

He spent nearly two months at the hospital until his release in mid-January 2013.

The oldest former president, Bush has health problems that have forced him in recent years to rely on a wheelchair or motorized scooter to get around.

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Elderly Orthodox Christian Nun Describes ISIS Atrocities as a Repeat of Early 1900's Armenian Slaughter

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Sister DoganBy Leo Hohmann. Today’s political climate draws [this Orthodox nun] back to 1915 and her native Turkey, when her family experienced the cruelty of the Ottoman caliphate, which slaughtered 3 million Christians and reduced others to second-class status under subjugation, or “dhimmitude.”

ISIS is nothing new, [Sister Hatune Dogan] said, just the re-emergence of Islam’s dark side.

“ISIS is not fanatic. ISIS is not more terrible. ISIS is real Muslim believers who like to follow the Quran and Muhammad,” said the founder of Warburg, Germany-based Sister Hatune Foundation, a worldwide relief organization that has been honored by the German government for its dedication to human rights. “Others say they are Muslim. They say they believe Quran, but they don’t follow it.”

Armenian Christians accounted for about half of the 3 million victims in Turkey, but the other half were Christians of various ethnic backgrounds – Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox and Protestants. All felt the boot of jihad against their heads. . .

She believes Christians in the West should learn what is written in the Muslim holy book. If they did, they would realize that the Islamic State, also called ISIS, is not doing anything that hasn’t been done in the past by devout Muslims who have conquered a people they see as “infidels.” Read more from this story HERE.
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Multiple Terrorist Attacks Reported Across Europe

By Oliver Lane. French authorities have ruled out terrorism as a motive for [yesterday’s] van attack, despite reports the driver shouted “Allahu akbar” as he piloted the white Fiat van into crowds of people doing last minute Christmas shopping. Hours later police arrested a man reportedly “armed to the teeth” on Tuesday morning.

Despite the similarities to an almost identical motor-attack that occurred less than 24-hours before in the French city of Dijon, the local prosecutor speaking in the wake of this latest event said “We cannot speak of a terrorist act”, saying evidence suggests it was an “isolated case”.

British newspaper The Times reports a number of reliable sources, including a police officer, witnessed the driver of the white van attack in Nantes shouting “Allahu akbar” as he drove into people. The phrase is Arabic and translates as ‘God is Great’.

It is reported the ram-attack specifically targeted a chalet serving mulled wine. After his vehicle came to a rest and he had injured eleven bystanders, five seriously, the driver began to stab himself repeatedly in an apparent, unsuccessful, suicide bid. He is now in police custody.

The two motor attacks followed a knife attack in a French police station, which left one officer fighting for his life. A French-Burundian Muslim convert reportedly walked into the station on Saturday and shouted the now familiar phrase “Allahu akbar” as he started his attack. He was shot dead after injuring three. Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul Hints at 2016 Run in ‘Festivus’ Grievances

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, hinted at a possible 2016 run for president Tuesday in his annual airing of grievances for Festivus.

In a lengthy series of tweets — some mostly serious, all at least somewhat humorous — Mr. Paul said having a “fashion forward” campaign is one key to success in politics, posting pictures of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former presidential candidate Rick Santorum in sweater vests, but said he prefers to wear something different.

“Of course, everyone has to be themselves, and I have my own style. I think this will be a popular item this year,” he said, posting a picture of a black sweatshirt that said “Rand Paul 2016.”

Mr. Paul and Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, have been feuding over the president’s recent change to U.S. relations with Cuba, but in the holiday spirit, Mr. Paul left the other possible 2016 contender out of his annual grievance list, a “custom” of Festivus.

“Tempting to air a grievance @marcorubio again, but we’ve done that enough for this week. Instead I will say an early Merry Christmas,” he said.

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