Not a moment too soon

ASIAN LIVES MATTER!

'Significant drops in crime'

'Don’t put me in a category with that guy!'

'It's extremely frustrating'

Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, Chanukah, which began last Sunday evening, has always been one of my favorites. Even when I was younger and far less observant, I appreciated the holiday’s well-known rituals and customs: lighting the menorah, spinning the dreidel, eating potato latkes, and so forth. My given Hebrew name—”Maccabee,” because Judah Maccabee was nicknamed “the hammer”—is also synonymous with the hero of the holiday’s story. Because of the holiday’s timing and the general desire by corporate America and elected officials to include Jewish Americans in annual Christmastime festivity, Chanukah is the most commercialized and among the most frequently discussed of all the Jewish holidays. The commercialization of Chanukah is anodyne, if a bit of a distraction. More problematic is the time-tested tradition of American politicians distorting the holiday’s meaning—often, for self-serving reasons. For as long as I can remember, liberal politicians have taken pains to invoke the imagery of the Chanukah menorah’s light in order to pontificate about abstract universalist principles such as justice and freedom and, as former President Barack Obama put it two years after leaving office, about an occasion to “recommit ourselves to building a brighter future for our families, our communities, and our world.” Sometimes they even get the most basic facts of the Chanukah story egregiously wrong, as the Jewish then-second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, did two years ago. I have always found this recurring humiliating ritual to be worse than embarrassing. It’s offensive. Chanukah, I’ve always thought, is the Jewish people’s quintessential particularist and nationalist holiday. It is a tale about the Maccabean revolt against the Greek-Syrian Seleucid Empire, which occupied Judea and attempted to Hellenize the Jews—to crush them physically and subdue them spiritually. Many are familiar with the miracle that followed the Maccabees’ victory: The scant oil found in the courtyard, upon repurifying and rededicating the Temple, lasted eight nights. But the more impressive miracle was the military victory over the Seleucids and the Hellenized Jews who joined them. The core message of Chanukah, then, is one of traditionalism and cultural preservation in the face of menacing and assimilationist forces, both within and without. That’s the real meaning of the holiday—not exchanging gifts or waxing poetic about universalist platitudes. Yet paradoxically, especially in light of tragic recent events, something occurred to me for the first time: This stridently particularist Jewish holiday does have broader—indeed, global—relevance. It’s just not the relevance liberal politicians have ascribed to Chanukah. Indeed, it’s the exact opposite. The Maccabees were able to prevail and thereby preserve Judaism, against the odds, because they had purpose and conviction. They believed that Judaism stood for something important: They believed that ethical monotheism was important, the Hebrew Scriptures were true, and the Land of Israel belonged to the Children of Israel. In short, the Maccabees had national and civilizational pride, and it was because of that pride that they fought so valiantly and refused to bend the knee to Hellenistic assimilation. They rejected the universalist cri de coeur that all cultures and peoples are equal—and perhaps interchangeable. In recent decades, and even more acutely in recent years, Western civilization has had to learn that lesson anew. Human beings, while all made in God’s image and thus all deserving of dignity and moral worth, are immensely complicated. We are not reducible to widgets on an economics chalkboard. Our inherited cultural traditions and learned customs and mannerisms are often very different from one another. We don’t all value the same things, pursue the same goals, hold the same social standards, or believe in the same political institutions. We are, in short, different. The Maccabees understood that there was something special about the truths, values, and principles that Judaism introduced to the world. They were not willing to sacrifice those truths, values, and principles to the siren song of Hellenistic universalism. Western nations today must learn that same lesson anew. The modern Maccabee martyrs senselessly slain last Sunday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach are yet the latest victims of Hellenism gone awry, as one culture tries to replace and erase another. It doesn’t have to be this way. A culture can be proud without being chauvinistic. And a people can be self-confident without being imperious. If there are going to be fewer Bondi Beach-style massacres, moving forward, Western cultures and nations are going to have to rediscover and reprioritize what made them great in the first place. They’re going to have to remember that human beings, and the specific societies they constitute, are unique. They cannot, and should not, be swapped or frivolously bartered like goods in a marketplace. We have our traditions, values, and ways of life that are worth cherishing and preserving from one generation to the next. It might not be politically correct, but that is how we can apply the true lesson of Chanukah. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Chanukah Is Relevant for Everyone—but Not in the Way You Might Think appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Ireland’s Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence has issued a report urging new national laws to regulate how AI systems and social media platforms handle online speech and data. We obtained a copy of the report for you here. The document, released this week in Dublin, outlines a plan to target “hate” and “misinformation” while pressing the government to go beyond European Union standards and impose tighter domestic controls. The committee’s First Interim Report calls for strict oversight of AI-driven recommendation engines, the systems that determine what users see online. It argues that algorithms which amplify “harmful and hateful content” should be directly addressed through legislation, identifying this as a serious gap in current regulation that “must be addressed in any EU and national legislation.” Two organizations featured prominently in the report’s evidence sessions: the Irish Traveller Movement and BeLonG To. Both receive significant public funding for programs centered on “anti-racism” and “LGBT advocacy.” The Traveller Movement told lawmakers that children in its community are vulnerable to algorithmic bias, while BeLonG To said “AI perpetuating discriminatory stereotypes” and producing content that targets minority groups are growing problems. The committee concluded that “strong enforcement of the Digital Services Act and safety by design” is needed to deal with these harms. Beyond content moderation, the committee recommends that governments compel social media companies to stop AI systems from being used “for misinformation campaigns aimed at destabilising society.” It warns that Ireland “must not shy away from the EU AI Act or try to dilute it,” describing the Act as “a minimum baseline for national AI regulation.” One of the most far-reaching recommendations concerns how platforms deliver information. The committee proposes that “recommender systems should be designed so that recommended material that is put out delivers a balanced point of view, that is evidence-based.” For ordinary users, recommendation features would be switched off by default. For younger users, the report calls for a complete ban on enabling these systems. Although the document never uses the term “digital ID age verification,” its logic depends on it. Identifying which accounts belong to minors would require verifying the age of every user, effectively introducing a nationwide system of identity checks before accessing algorithmic feeds. The report dismisses concerns that stricter oversight could harm innovation. Referring to testimony from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, it argues that “the false dichotomy of innovation vs. regulation serves the vested interests of billionaires,” concluding that “robust, well-implemented regulation of AI is essential.” It also advises the government to invest in “publicly owned AI resources and technologies” to reduce dependence on private companies, and to tighten copyright protections so that AI developers cannot train their models on creative works “without the consent of their creators.” The committee wants a new “national AI Office” in place by August 2026 to coordinate these efforts. Disabling recommendation engines, enforcing “balanced” viewpoints, and tracking user ages would move control of digital information flows toward centralized authorities, raising concerns about privacy, free expression, and the long-term direction of internet governance in Ireland. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Ireland’s AI Committee Urges National Laws on Online Speech, Algorithmic Oversight, and Age Verification appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Ben Shapiro Attacks Tucker, Candace and Megyn Kelly

It’s not quite as simple as these claims make it sound, but the answer is closer to yes than no.

While nowhere near the absurdity of Brian Williams’s December 2021 sign-off from MSNBC, Thursday marked the final show for John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois as co-anchors of the CBS Evening News and with CBS News after less than a year of falling ratings and questions about changing the newscast’s format. To cap off their last show, the pair went off by waxing poetic about “facts” and “trust” while knocking President Trump and praising their Gaza producer for reporting the news and staying alive. Here was how Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson signed off Thursday from their final time co-anchoring the ‘CBS Evening News’ Thanking viewers, thanking staff for a dedication to “facts,” throwing a jab at Trump, and praising CBS’s Gaza producer pic.twitter.com/ANWoTcPtoA — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 19, 2025   Dickerson led off by telling the unaware that “this is our last night anchoring the CBS Evening News” and then gave away to DuBois to led off with his reflections. DuBois first thanked the viewers before remarking he spent the year “travel[ing] the country to cover communities dealing with unspeakable tragedy and loss” but also saw “shining brightly always was the heart and soul of everyday people, really, really good people, there for each other and crying out for our leaders to do better to protect them.” Following an anecdote about a couple driving cross-country in an RV and finding their fellow Americans to be good and decent, DuBois praised CBS’s Gaza propagandist, Marwan Al Ghoul as someone who makes “CBS great”: [A]nd what has always made CBS great is its dedicated team of journalists, exemplified by Marwan Al Ghoul, our producer in Gaza. Despite bombs and bullets flying overhead, some even taking out members of his own family, he’s brought the story home to America fearlessly[.] DuBois zoomed out more broadly to the Evening News staff, whom he said “have been fulfilling our commitment to following the facts, not opinions, and accurately informing you.” He concluded by praising his co-anchor: “John, you’re an outstanding journalist, an even better person. I have learned quite a bit from working with you. Proud to call you not just a colleague, but a friend.” Dickerson noted the two “didn’t even really know each other” “a year-and-a-half ago” before providing his thoughts that, as we could have predicted, were thoughtful yet dripping with liberal smugness, starting by insisting they were always thinking of the viewers: What the viewers don’t know is that, long before they could see us, we were thinking about you, the viewers, planning for months. In a conference room, we talked about your attention, how precious it was, and how we would honor it. This led into his point about their dedication to “facts” and questioning “the powerful,” which Dickerson of course meant the President: That question has guided the decisions you saw and many you didn’t, a research team that sweats the facts that shape how you see the world, correspondents who follow the facts into war zones, into countries where they could be jailed, into sharp exchanges with the powerful, who don’t like being held to account, including a president, who insulted them for it. To drive this home, he even played a clip of President Trump calling chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes “stupid” on Thanksgiving. He then concluded: “Stories of wonder, of loss, of courage, asking why until the answers ran out. It has been an honor to put the work of our correspondents, producers, editors and writers before you, and to work with my partner, Maurice, who put his heart into our shared concern, doing right by you. Your expectation has been our responsibility and our reward.” In formally saying goodbye, they drew one last eye-roll as DuBois channeled Edward R. Murrow by saying “good night and good luck.” Following a rotating team of fill-ins over the Christmas holiday, CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil will take the job on January 5. While he’s certainly had quite the character arc and it would not surprise us in the slightest if it became a respectable, centrist newscast, NewsBusters will be there to provide the rigorous oversight you’ve come to respect. To see the relevant CBS transcript from December 18, click here.