IN ITS protocols for trials of its COVID vaccine, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer acknowledged that the vaccine could cause birth defects. It admitted this by requiring study participants to abstain from sexual activity for a month afterward and by eliminating women who are possibly pregnant from the study.

On page 132 of the trial protocols, we find this:

10.4. Appendix 4: Contraceptive Guidance 10.4.1.

Male Participant Reproductive Inclusion Criteria

Male participants are eligible to participate if they agree to the following requirements during the intervention period and for at least 28 days after the last dose of study intervention, which corresponds to the time needed to eliminate reproductive safety risk of the study intervention(s): (more…)

HUNDREDS of restaurants in Pennsylvania stayed open over the New Year's weekend, defying Gov. Tom Wolf's "order" that they must close. This little girl supported the cause. Meanwhile, the war against small businesses continues:  

"PHILOSPHERS have explained space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself!" --- Arnold Bennett, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day; 1908  

  ONE OF the deep pleasures of Christmas is the stream of memories. One by one, the people we have known and loved appear before us. We don't have much to give them. But if we ask, He will bestow the presents we can't give. The baby in the lowly manger --- and we are born anew.  

DEBBIE HICKS, 46, of Gloucestershire, England has been arrested for posting a video she took at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on the Internet. The video showed empty corridors and units at a time when the government has reported overcrowded hospitals. Hicks was released on bail pending a hearing on Jan 21 for a public order offence.  

  THE famous Von Trapp family portrayed in the movie The Sound of Music was not all that much like its Hollywood counterpart in style of singing or in many of their biographical details. The singing siblings were classically-trained vocalists who toured Europe and later the United States in the 40s and 50s. They sang folk songs, madrigals, sacred music and Christmas carols.  

https://twitter.com/JoshLekach/status/1343257477127708675?s=20  

FROM The Christmas Holly (Sheldon & Co, 1897) by Marion Harland, in which a wife speaks to her husband as the children overhear: “I have mince-pies and turkey for tomorrow!” was the curt reply. “I knew you would not be satisfied unless you had as good a dinner as your neighbors. But as for dough-nuts—they are oily, rank, indigestible abominations, fit only for an ostrich’s stomach, and one doesn’t get the smell of the hot fat out of the house in two weeks after they have been cooked. I never mean to make another while I live.” Two pairs of sorrowful eyes stole a glance of mutual pity at one another, when this announcement was made; two pairs of cherry lips took a piteous curl, for a second; two curly heads bent lower over the plates set before their owners. Not that there was any dearth of sweet things in the Dryden larder, or that Ally and Nettie, the proprietors of the eyes, lips, and heads aforesaid, were gormandizers. But this matter of frying doughnuts was great fun to them, as it is to most other small people who have ever been permitted to stand by and see the rings, leaves, birds, circles, triangles, and the endless variety of nondescript figures leave the kneading-board pale, flat surfaces of soft dough, and, upon being thrown into the bubbling fat, sinking, like leaden shapes, with a tremendous splutter and “fizz,” arise slowly and majestically…

EARLIER THIS YEAR, Kidist Paulos Asrat at Reclaiming Beauty in a post titled "The Three Wise Men in the Modern World" wrote about the anti-American flavor of E. Michael Jones's references to the Magi who visited Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. Miss Asrat's points are consistent with the recent essay of Andy Sloan at Fitzpatrick Informer which raises deep and legitimate concerns about the popular author's agenda. Miss Asrat wrote on January 12, 2020: E. Michael Jones is referring to the Three Wise Men as "The Three Wise Persians." This is both biblically and historically incorrect. It appears that Jones' insistence on the Persian origin of ALL the magi may be to give credence to the current, Islamic, anti-American, regime in Iran and to connect the birth of Christ with a Persian legacy, and to legitimize the "Death to America" chants of Iranians in Tehran. The Persians after all acknowledged the birth of the Messiah, and even brought him gifts. The world is becoming anti-American, anti-West, and anti-Christian. Jones should know this. No ancient gift would expiate the ruthless aggression of this "Death to America" or its subtext, "Death to Christian America," proclamation. And why doesn't Jones understand, or acknowledge this? Perhaps he does wish "death to America," in an innocent desire to abate what he believes is now a sinful, Godless, country, and to start afresh with a country which he believes could be re-positioned closer to God. Here are some…

AN unidentified restaurant owner in Pennsylvania, where all restaurants have been "ordered" closed to indoor business until at least January 4th (Jan. 15th in Philadelphia), tells others in the business at a meeting of Entrepreneurs Against Tyranny that things are only going to get worse unless there is organized resistance. In fact, these "orders" are not orders at all. Governors and health departments do not have the authority to make laws. And there is no law in Pennsylvania or any other state prohibiting businesses from remaining open during the outbreak of a flu.  

  THIS version of the French Christmas carol "Il Est Né, Le Divin Enfant" ("He Is Born, the Divine Child") is sung by opera tenor Roberto Alagna. This charming carol was first published in the 19th century but is older in origin. A translation can be found here.  

“HE WAS was taken to Rome in the year 95, during the reign of the cruel Emperor Domitian, and cast into a kettle of boiling oil; by divine assistance he was preserved in a wonderful manner, but was banished by the emperor to the island of Patmos, now called Palmosa. Here he received those marvellous revelations, called the Apocalypse, which are included in the holy Scriptures, and foretell the fate of the Church of God. After the death of Domitian, St. John returned to Ephesus, where at the prayer of the faithful, and to refute the heresy which denied the divinity of Christ, he wrote his gospel, in which he soars like an eagle to the subject of Christ’s divinity, and proves it indisputably against the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus. (more…)

By St. Alphonsus Liguori

Mary sings, the ravished heavens
Hush the music of their spheres;
Soft her voice, her beauty fairer
Than the glancing stars appears;
While to Jesus, slumbering nigh,
Thus she sings her lullaby:

“Sleep, my Babe, my God, my Treasure,
Gently sleep; but ah! the sight
With its beauty so transports me,
I am dying with delight;
Thou canst not Thy mother see,
Yet Thou breathest flames to me. (more…)