Month: December 2024

Commentary: Seven Forgotten Christmas Traditions to Bring Back

Star News Contributor

Tradition is the cumulative experience of thousands of human lives. It is the conclusions reached by countless ancestors who tested what it meant to live well. Unfortunately, we are losing many of our traditions and their accompanying wisdom, abandoning the practices by which we speak to the past, and the past speaks to us.

One way our ancestors lived well was by engaging in certain yearly celebrations surrounding Christmas and the holiday season. They bequeathed many of these delightful and meaningful celebrations to us—if we care to receive them.

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Experts Warn That Proposed FDIC, FERC Rules Could Hurt Banks, Energy Sector

The Center Square
Bank Teller

Some recent proposed regulatory changes by two key federal agencies are raising alarms among experts and former regulators, who warn that the moves could destabilize the banking sector and drive up energy prices.

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced proposed rules on Regulations Implementing the Change in Bank Control Act that would tighten control over index fund managers’ investments in banks. The proposed rule would require asset managers who own more than a 10% stake in a regulated bank to secure FDIC approval through a written notice, adding a new layer of scrutiny on top of Federal Reserve Board oversight, which already reviews such investments.

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Navy Admits DOD Will Shell Out Funds for Obscure Environmental Initiative with No Impact on Military Readiness

Daily Caller News Foundation
Navy Cadets

A little-known environmental provision in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has no impact on military operations, but will instead serve to “protect the native vegetation,” a Navy spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement Tuesday.

The nearly $884 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday includes an initiative to “manage, control and interdict the coconut rhinoceros beetle” — an invasive species of insect that bore holes into the canopies of palm trees — “on military installations in Hawaii.” By the Navy’s own admission, the initiative’s purpose is to preserve vegetation, and thus is effectively unrelated to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) stated mission “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”

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Commentary: The Way an American Magazine Helped Launch One of Britain’s Favorite Christmas Carols

Star News Contributor

In 1906, a new carol appeared in “The English Hymnal,” an influential collection of British church music. With words by British poet Christina Rossetti, set to a tune by composer Gustav Holst, it became one of Britain’s most beloved Christmas songs. Now known as “In the Bleak Midwinter,” it was voted the “greatest carol of all time” in a 2008 BBC survey of choral experts.

“In the Bleak Midwinter” began life as a poem, which Rossetti simply titled “A Christmas Carol.” When the hymnal paired her words with music, the poem took on a new identity in song – a phenomenon documented by literature researcher Emily McConkey. But it also became embedded into popular culture in nonmusical forms. “A Christmas Carol,” or parts of it, has appeared on Christmas cards, ornaments, tea towels, mugs and other household items. It has inspired mystery novels and, more recently, became a recurring motif in the British television series “Peaky Blinders.”

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