Good Morning!
Before concluding his record-breaking speech early this morning and yielding the floor just after 5 A.M. Eastern, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “I know some of you are mad at me, think I spoke too long. But I’ve had enough. America has had enough.”
Representative McCarthy’s speech brings to mind Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a Hollywood classic starring Jimmy Stewart as Senator Jefferson Smith.
“I guess this is just another lost cause,” the idealistic senator says thru his raspy, weary voice. “All you people don’t know about lost causes … Love thy neighbor … a man who knows that rule has great trust.”
We begin in Washington:
- In 8-Hour Marathon Speech, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Warns America at “Tipping Point”
From the Washington Examiner:
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California stood up in the well of the House around 8:30 p.m. Thursday to deliver criticism of the Build Back Better plan, which is the centerpiece of Biden’s economic agenda. It would create a broad array of new government programs and green energy policies and would implement new tax hikes.
McCarthy forced irritated Democrats to postpone Thanksgiving recess plans, including important fundraisers, by dragging the debate into Friday. Instead of wrapping up in about one minute, as is traditional, he kept talking — and talking.
“This one-minute feels almost like eight hours,” McCarthy said, wrapping up the all-nighter. “This is the longest one-minute I have ever given. It’s the longest one-minute ever given in this body. There’s a reason why. This is a tipping point. This is a point of not coming back. The American people have spoken, but unfortunately, the Democrats have not listened.”
- Christian Florist Settles Lawsuit with Same-Sex Couple After Eight Year Legal Battle
From The Daily Citizen:
After fighting for her free speech rights and religious liberty for nearly a decade, Barronelle Stutzman’s legal battle has finally reached its end. Sadly, it wasn’t the end that Stutzman and faithful Christians were hoping and praying for.
Stutzman’s legal fight began on April 9, 2013, when the Washington state attorney general filed a complaint against her for refusing to design and create a custom floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding.
The customer who asked Stutzman to create the arrangement was Rob Ingersoll, who Stutzman describes as a “dear friend” to this day.
Shortly thereafter, Ingersoll also filed a lawsuit against her through the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Notably, the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t decree same-sex marriage to be legal nationwide until 2015.
After more than eight years up and down the court system, including two petitions filed at the U.S. Supreme Court, Stutzman has reached a settlement with Ingersoll and the ACLU putting an end to the litigation.
The settlement requires Stutzman to retire and turn her business over to her employees. She also must pay a $5,000 fine to Ingersoll and his partner.
The fine is bittersweet since Stutzman was facing the possibility of paying millions of dollars’ worth of attorney fees. While $5,000 seems like a drop in the bucket compared to what she could have been forced to pay, forcing Stutzman to pay any fine in this case is unjust.
Stutzman has written a letter explaining her decision to settle the lawsuit, which she also shared on camera.
RELATED: Liberals Want to Ruin Time Cherished Traditions. They Will Not Succeed (Daily Citizen)
There is a renewed aggression and desire on the left to topple long held and cherished traditions of our culture. Iconoclasts have always been among us, but a string of court and electoral victories have seemed to embolden them. And they don’t just want to win – they want to make conservative pay in the form of misery and attorney fees.
The tragic irony of this clash is that nearly everything they’re trying to tear down has been an historic net good for America.
How must we respond to these relentless attacks?
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory,” wrote the Psalmist. “No good thing will He withhold from those that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).
- Will Roe Go?
From First Liberty:
(Video interview with The Daily Citizen’s Bruce Hausknecht)
On Dec. 1st, the Supreme Court is going to hear a case that could decide the future of abortion in America. While First Liberty focuses on religious liberty issues, how the three new Supreme Court justices rule in this case could provide crucial insight on how they will rule on religious freedom cases in the future.
- New York Attorney General Dismisses Lawsuit Against Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselors
From The Daily Citizen:
All Scott Fitchett Jr. did was share the gospel in front of an abortion clinic. But in our culture, where good is now evil, the New York attorney general saw his act of charity and compassion as a crime.
For his day job, Fitchett is a preschool through kindergarten teacher. But in his spare time, on Saturdays, he decided to peacefully share the gospel “on public sidewalks throughout New York City.”
One of the places where Fitchett shared the gospel outside was outside of New York’s largest abortion business, Choices Women’s Medical Center.
His purpose was “to persuade women to change their minds about seeking an abortion by communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
- J.K. Rowling Shunned from Major Harry Potter Reunion for Saying Boys and Girls are Real
From The Daily Citizen:
J.K. Rowling became one of the most powerful and beloved writers of our age with her wildly popular Harry Potter books. But she also became one of the most despised people in the world because she holds a belief no one questioned yesterday. And now, she has been unceremoniously banished from the magical world she single-handedly created.
HBO Max announced it will be streaming the four-part special Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts starting Jan. 1. But as The Hollywood Reporter notes, the most prominent player in its creation is canceled from the celebration: J.K. Rowling herself.
How could Rowling not be included in her most significant literary child’s milestone birthday party?
Well, the beautiful Hollywood talent that helped bring Rowling’s fantasy stories to the screen don’t want her there because she holds some unorthodox beliefs about male and female. What are those beliefs? Simply that male and female are singular biological realities. But it is not just that she believes this. Her crime is actually that she spoke that conviction out loud. And that made all the wrong people very angry. The Atlantic explained that, by voicing these beliefs, Rowling had become the Dark Lord Voldemort himself. And for that, she is exiled from Harry Potter World at the time of its biggest celebration.
- Bill Containing Draft Mandate For Women Advances In Senate, Likely To Pass Despite Conservative Opposition
From the Daily Wire:
On Wednesday, the Senate advanced the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), part of which would mandate the military draft for women, moving the legislation to the floor debate stage by a vote of 84-15.
Debate on the bill might begin on Thursday, and amendments to remove the provision on drafting women for the military might still be made. One of the initial setbacks for bringing the bill to the floor included disagreements between Republicans and Democrats about a provision relating to China that was eventually decided to be determined apart from the NDAA.
The Hill reported, “The agreement to enter formal negotiations on the China bill also freed up the defense bill. Leadership now needs to work through hundreds of amendments to figure out which potential amendments can get a vote.”
Several of the senators who voted against bringing the bill to the floor were Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Rand Paul (R-KY). Some Democrats also voted not to bring the bill to debate, including Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
- Support for Black Lives Matter declining across US, poll shows
From the NY Post:
Support for Black Lives Matter in the US has declined in the 18 months since George Floyd was killed, a new poll shows.
The poll, conducted by Civiqs — an online survey organization associated with the progressive media group Daily Kos — found 44 percent of respondents currently support the BLM movement.
It has dropped from the high of 52 percent of respondents who supported BLM after Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May last year.
Meanwhile, opposition to BLM has spiked over the same timeframe — 44 percent currently oppose it, which is up from 28 percent in the days after Floyd’s killing.
- America Slowly Learns to Live With Covid
Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal:
Where does wisdom lie the next few months? In this space we’re not in love with federal mandates on vaccines and masking. Such powers are best held by those governmental entities closest to citizens. Let businesses, schools and institutions make their decisions and carry them out; let states fight things out within themselves.
People who don’t want the shots are often painted as right-wing nuts, but they are a various and broad swathe of the population. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a leading anti-vaxxer. His latest book, released this week, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” accuses Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and big Pharma of being partners in a $60 billion global vaccine scheme that flooded the world with propaganda exaggerating Covid’s dangers. It was an instant Amazon bestseller. When I checked Wednesday it was outselling books by Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Karl and Dale Carnegie. It may be nut stuff, but anti-vaxxers are a movement, and they are dug in.
The federal government should put its emphasis not on restriction but creation. Continue to focus on the availability and production of the therapeutics that already exist, such as monoclonal antibody treatments, and those that are coming. Every drug company in America is trying to create new therapies, antiviral drugs that keep viruses from multiplying, and immunomodulators that attempt to tamp down the body’s immune reaction so it doesn’t turn on itself. It’s exciting when you read about them. Pfizer just announced it’s racing to develop an antiviral pill. Weeks before, Merck said its experimental antiviral might cut in half the chance of those infected dying or being hospitalized. The federal government should be leaning hard into therapeutics.
9. Is there a cure for Alzheimer’s? Not yet, but a new study is offering hope
From the Deseret News:
A small phase 1 study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston is looking at the “safety and tolerability” of a drug researchers hope will eventually be proved to prevent and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
If all goes well, the nasal spray might eventually be approved as a vaccine for the neurodegenerative condition, which impacts millions of Americans. But the clinical process is slow by design and there’s a long path — and many hurdles — ahead.
Still, the new study is the first hint that a vaccine for Alzheimer’s might be possible. The trial is the culmination of nearly two decades of research by Dr. Howard L. Weiner, co-director of the hospital’s Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, according to a news release from Brigham and Women’s.
The release explains that the new vaccine, like other vaccines before it, uses an immune modulator called Protollin to help boost the immune response. Protollin, which is made of proteins derived from bacteria, is supposed to “activate white blood cells found in the lymph nodes on the sides and back of the neck to migrate to the brain and trigger clearance of beta-amyloid plaques,” the news release says.
10. Overdue book returned to Scottish library after 73 years
From UPI:
A Scottish library said officials were stunned to open a package that arrived in the mail and find an overdue book that had been checked out 73 years earlier.
OnFife Libraries said the Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries received a package in the mail last week that contained a copy of Stately Timber by Rupert Hughes.
The book was accompanied by a letter from the daughter of the man who had borrowed the book in 1948. The woman said her father, who is now deceased, had lived in Thornton in the 1940s, and the book was recently discovered among his belongings.
