Today is Christmas Eve...

a time to gather with family and friends 

and to remember the true meaning of the season.

And to all my blog followers of the Christian faith 

I wish you and yours a very

Merry Christmas 

filled with love, peace, and joy.  

Love this pic...Santa with our beloved flag.

Be back on the 26th...

Time to be with my family and friends.

Merry Christmas

Some Good News  

S. E. Cupp / Townhall Columnist

 

As we gather around our holiday tables this year, it's hard not to notice that something feels different. While the news is always an uninvited guest at family functions, this year the uninvited guest is suffocating us and will not leave.

You can feel it as you catch up with old friends and visit with family. There's fear and anxiety over terrorism here and overseas. There's sadness that so many will celebrate Christmas without a loved one, victims of an endless stream of violence in some of our nation's big cities. There's disbelief that someone could mow down more than 30 pedestrians on a Las Vegas sidewalk, with a toddler in the backseat. There's anger that our presidential candidates don't seem to get it and resentment that our opportunities might be fewer than they were a couple years ago.

But in the doom and gloom of current events, it's important to remember that it's not all bad. There are some bright spots on the horizon, and rather than dwell on the dire, the dark and the dangerous, let's try to find some relief in the little things this holiday season.

America at Christmas 

Judge Andrew Napolitano / Townhall Columnist

 

As if to promise a Christmas present, Congress has just finished approving the finances of the federal government for the next few months. Santa Claus would have done a better job. During early 2016, Congress will pay the government's bills by borrowing money from individual and institutional lenders.

Those folks will lend the feds all the money the feds need because the law requires the feds to pay them back.

The "pay them back" ideology is a very curious one. It is true that the full faith and credit of the federal government guarantees the payment of the government's debts. Without that lawfully binding guarantee, who would lend money to an institution that carries a debt of $18.8 trillion? So the investors who have lent money to the feds know that their debts will be repaid in a timely manner.

Because the federal government spends $1.5 trillion more annually than it collects in taxes and other revenue and because its payments of interest alone on the money it has borrowed will soon be about $1 trillion a year, it can only repay its debts by borrowing more money.