The  U.S. Congress finally passed that budget bill  shortly after the deadline to prevent a government shutdown.  President Joe Biden signed it.  Merry Christmas.  Next brinksmanship date, 14March2025.  On 3January2025, the House re-elects a Republican as Speaker of the House.  The Constitution leaves the door open on who can become speaker.   This person need not be an elected member of Congress.   He could well be Elon Musk. About that  mass killing at the German Christmas Market  I posted on yesterday, the number of deaths rose to 5, with more than 200 injured, some so seriously that more could be added to the kill list.  The assassin was a 50-year old Muslim doctor, Taleb A. (full name cannot be announced at this time), who emigrated from Saudi Arabia in 2006.  No motive yet reported. If you're wondering what channel that first NCAA championship football playoff game is on, don't bother.  On TNT, TBS and truT...

 How much do you really know about Santa Claus?   To begin , historians identify Bishop Nicholas of Myra, who was born around the year 260 in what is today southwestern Turkey, as the first Santa Claus.  He was known to be a miracle maker, and was known as the patron saint of schoolchildren. But it took until the end of the 11th century for his relics to be transferred to Italy for the cult to begin. The Feast of Saint Nicholas (this painting by Jan Steen in the 17th century) was welcomed in the Netherlands, which spread the tradition. Around this time, Dutch Calvinists fleeing religious persecution set sail for what became Nieuw Amsterdam, later named New York.  But Sinterklaas was introduced to the New World.  He was also called De Goedheiligman (The Good Holy Man), so who knows where this would have gone if it had prevailed. His Dutch name was Americanized to Santa Claus, as a symbol of resistance against the British around the time of the 1776 Revolutio...