Stembridge News Digest

  • McDonald's team admits workload on hated AI Christmas ad 'far exceeded' live-action shoots Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:30:00 +0000


    Another advertiser wants consumers to know how hard people worked on its artificial intelligence-driven ad.

    Sweetshop Films is behind the recently pulled McDonald's Christmas commercial that appeared on YouTube but lasted only about four days before being dropped like a hot Christmas coal.

    'The results aren't worth the effort.'

    The ad was generated entirely by AI for McDonald's Netherlands, which took ownership of the fact that it was poorly received.

    "The Christmas commercial was intended to show the stressful moments during the holidays in the Netherlands," the company said in a statement, per the Guardian.

    "However, we notice — based on the social comments and international media coverage — that for many guests this period is 'the most wonderful time of the year,'" they added.

    Sweetshop Films defended its use of AI for the ad. "It's never about replacing craft; it's about expanding the toolbox. The vision, the taste, the leadership … that will always be human," said CEO Melanie Bridge, per NBC News.

    Bridge took it one step farther, though, and claimed her team worked longer than a typical ad team would.

    “And here's the part people don't see," the CEO continued. "The hours that went into this job far exceeded a traditional shoot. Ten people, five weeks, full-time."

    These statements were not met with holiday cheer.

    RELATED: Coca-Cola doubles down on AI ads, still won't say 'Christmas'

    X users went rabid at the idea that Sweetshop, alongside AI specialist company the Gardening Club, put more effort into producing the videos than a typical production team would for a commercial.

    The Gardening Club reportedly made statements like, "We were working right on the edge of what this tech can do," and, "The man-hours poured into this film were more than a traditional Production."

    "So all that 'effort' and they still managed to produce the ugliest slop [?] just goes to show how useless gen AI is," wrote an X user named Tristan.

    An alleged art director named Haley said she was legitimately confused by the idea of the "sheer human craft" claimed to be behind the AI generation.

    "What craft? What does that even look like outside of just clicking to generate over and over and over and over again until you get something you like?" she asked.

    Another X user name Bruce added that "AI users are like high schoolers who got good grades because they tried hard, then are shocked to find at university they get judged on results, not effort. I have no doubt they try hard. But the results aren't worth the effort."

    RELATED: 'Unprecedented': AI company documents startling discovery after thwarting 'sophisticated' cyberattack

    Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images

    The Sweetshop CEO did indeed express that the road to the McDonald's AI ad was a painstaking endeavor, claiming that "for seven weeks, we hardly slept" and "generated what felt like dailies — thousands of takes — then shaped them in the edit just as we would on any high-craft production."

    "This wasn't an AI trick. It was a film," Bridge said, according to Futurist.

    The positioning of AI generation as "craftsmanship" is exactly what Coca-Cola cited for its ad in November, when it said the company pored through 70,000 video clips over 30 days.

    The boasts resulted in backlash akin to what McDonald's is receiving, which included reactions on X like, "McDonald's unveiled what has to be the most god-awful ad I've seen this year — worse than Coca-Cola's."

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  • Why Jayden can’t use capital letters Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000


    What’s the deal with people typing in all lowercase? You’ve seen that, right?

    everything they type looks like this. it doesn’t matter if it’s a text. it doesn’t matter if it’s a post on x. it doesn’t matter if it’s a comment on someone’s photo. everything they type is lowercase.

  • Minneapolis mayor’s awkward Somali food stunt backfires — and Sara Gonzales’ taste test sets off the left Mon, 15 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000


    Democrat Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is taking a stand for Somalians following the discovery that billions of Minnesota taxpayer dollars went to Somalian fraud, and he’s doing it by recording himself trying to eat their food.

    The key word is “trying.”

    On December 5, the mayor sat down at a Somali restaurant with a few Somalis while the camera rolled. However, the camera caught Frey’s odd facial expressions as he slowly chewed the rice and beans for what seemed to be forever.


    “Jacob Frey ... was not enjoying the Somalian food that he was eating,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments, explaining that his failed attempt at making Somalian food look good inspired her to try it herself.

    “Is Somalian food as bad as Jacob Frey makes it look?” Gonzales asks, before trying it.

    Gonzales tries the food but can’t stomach more than a few bites. And because her reaction was so negative, she received a barrage of angry comments from the left.

    “Jacob Frey kind of started it. He made me curious, and he was correct in his facial expressions, and I just — it’s so crazy how you can get death threats over something like that from liberals,” Gonzales comments.

    One user on the app X messaged Gonzales, writing, “Your heads [sic] gonna end up on a stick you dumb bitch. ... You’re gonna’ get assassinated. Except your [sic] way less relevant than Charlie Kirk.”

    “I can’t even explain why people are so pressed that Sara Gonzales said, ‘Somalian food sucks,’” Gonzales says.

    “Checked it off my bucket list,” she continues. “Jacob Frey was correct.”

    Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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  • Pakistani national suspected in terror attack on Jewish gathering in Australia on first night of Hanukkah; over a dozen dead Mon, 15 Dec 2025 02:22:20 +0000


    A Pakistani national is suspected in what one police official called a "terrorist incident" against a Jewish gathering at an Australian beach on the first night of Hanukkah in which at least 15 were killed Sunday, including a 12-year-old.

    Another 40 people were hospitalized with injuries, including two officers and three children, after the attack at Bondi Beach, CBS News reported.

    'What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of anti-Semitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location, Bondi Beach, that is associated with joy, associated with families gathering, associated with celebrations, and it is forever tarnished by what has occurred last evening.'

    On Monday morning local time, police said two gunmen — a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son — opened fire while the local Jewish community was celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, the network news outlet said.

    The 50-year-old gunman died, and his son was hospitalized in "serious condition," New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said, according to CBS News.

    More from the network news outlet:

    The 24-year-old was identified as Naveed Akram, a Pakistani national based in Sydney, according to a U.S. intelligence briefing and a driver's license provided by Australian police. Police previously said the deceased gunman was the son, but Lanyon later clarified that the father was shot and killed by police.

    New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park said the death toll had risen from 12 to 16 overnight, including a 12-year-old child. Three other children are being treated in the hospital, he said.

    "This is absolutely horrendous for the community broadly, but particularly the Jewish community. ... What we saw last night was the worst of humanity, but at the same time, the very best of humanity," Park told CBS News, which added that it is unclear if the number of fatalities or injuries included the gunmen.

    RELATED: Conservative political group fined $95K after correctly identifying male athletes competing with women in Australia

    The international organization Chabad, which represents a branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, said one of its rabbis — Rabbi Eli Schlanger — was among the dead, the network news outlet said, citing the Associated Press.

    More from CBS News:

    Called Hanukkah by the Sea, the event was held to mark the beginning of the Jewish holiday observed from sundown on Sunday until Monday, Dec. 22. More than 1,000 were at the beach when gunfire broke out, said Lanyon. He called the attack a "terrorist incident" and said the perpetrators used "long arms," referring to long guns such as shotguns or rifles, to carry it out.

    New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also characterized the attack as targeted, with Minns saying it "was designed to target Sydney's Jewish community." The prime minister said it was "a targeted attack on Jewish Australians."

    "What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of anti-Semitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location, Bondi Beach, that is associated with joy, associated with families gathering, associated with celebrations, and it is forever tarnished by what has occurred last evening," Albanese said during a news conference Monday morning local time, the network news outlet noted.

    Lanyon added to CBS News that police believed several improvised explosive devices were inside a vehicle at Campbell Parade — a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach — which officials discovered shortly after the shooting occurred; a rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a social media post said "the United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration. Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia," the network news outlet reported.

    More from CBS News:

    One video appeared to show someone wrestling with one of the suspected gunmen and taking his weapon from him, according to Minns, who paid tribute to that individual in some of his comments Sunday.

    The video was recorded by a bystander along Campbell Parade, a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach. In it, a man jumped up from a crouched position behind a parked car and tackled the suspect, who had just fired his weapon toward something out of view.

    Following a short struggle, the man disarmed the suspect, pushed him to the ground, and turned the weapon on him, at which point the suspect stood up and walked in the opposite direction. The man then lowered the weapon and raised his free hand in the air. Off to the side, one person appeared to be lying unresponsive on the sidewalk beside a different vehicle.

    RELATED: Kids have already found a way around Australia's new social media ban: Making faces

    Minns called the man — whom relatives named Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit shop owner, to Australian media — a "genuine hero," the network news outlet said.

    More from CBS News:

    Mass shootings in Australia are rare. But researchers have recorded dramatic upticks in antisemitic incidents in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas terrorists on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, along with spikes in hate incidents against Muslim groups.

    In response, the Australian government appointed special envoys last year to address antisemitism and Islamophobia in its communities. However, attacks have continued to happen since then. In July, an arsonist set fire to the door of a synagogue in Melbourne, another major Australian city, seven months after a different synagogue in the same city was burned by criminals in a blaze that injured one worshipper.

    This is a developing story; updates may be added.

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  • Why the world hates strong men — but it's exactly what God wants Sun, 14 Dec 2025 23:00:00 +0000


    Something has gone wrong.

    After years of being told they are toxic and problematic, many men have simply cowed in deference to the spirit of our age. They imbibed the poisonous slogans and succumbed to what the world says about them.

  • Democrat-led city's alleged ‘race-based’ housing strategy prompts federal investigation Sun, 14 Dec 2025 22:00:00 +0000


    One Democrat-led city’s housing plan is facing scrutiny from the Trump administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development.

    On Thursday, HUD announced that it had opened an investigation into Boston’s “race-based” housing program, claiming that the city’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices may “violate civil rights protections under the Fair Housing Act and Title VI.”

    'This warped mentality will be fully exposed, and Boston will come into full compliance with federal anti-discrimination law.'

    HUD sent a letter to Boston’s Office of Housing in mid-September, stating that the department had reason to believe the city was using federal grants to support a race-based housing plan. The letter cited the city’s website, which described Boston Housing Strategy 2025 as “provid[ing] tools to … reduce racial disparities through homeownership and development opportunities for BIPOC-led organizations.”

    Boston’s housing strategy states that its goal is to ensure at least 65% of home-buying opportunities are awarded to “BIPOC” households.

    HUD requested numerous documents from Boston to investigate the matter.

    The department informed Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu’s office on Thursday that it had opened an investigation into its housing strategy.

    RELATED: Americans priced out while foreigners pour in: Trump admin report slams Biden for spike in rental costs

    Scott Turner. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

    “To further its racialist theory of housing justice, the City’s Fair Housing Assessment promises to ‘target homebuyer outreach’ at ‘Black and Latinx families’ and pressure ‘banks and mortgage lenders to increase their lending in communities of color,’” read HUD’s notification to Boston.

    HUD Secretary Scott Turner stated that the department believes the city ”has engaged in a social engineering project that intentionally advances discriminatory housing policies driven by an ideological commitment to DEI rather than merit or need.”

    RELATED: Trump proposes drastic cuts to 'dysfunctional' Section 8 housing program

    President Donald Trump, Scott Turner. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    “HUD is committed to protecting every American’s civil rights and will thoroughly investigate the City’s stated goal of ‘integrating racial equity into every layer of city government,’” Turner said. “This warped mentality will be fully exposed, and Boston will come into full compliance with federal anti-discrimination law.”

    A city spokesperson told Blaze News, “Boston will never abandon our commitment to fair and affordable housing, and we will defend our progress to keep Bostonians in their homes against these unhinged attacks from Washington.”

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  • The hidden hope of Christmas the world needs right now Sun, 14 Dec 2025 21:00:00 +0000


    Amid a dark and weary world, on an evening no one expected, the innocent cries of a baby broke through Bethlehem’s silent night. Hope had arrived and was ringing out for all to hear.

    The first Christmas reminds us that God often begins His greatest work not with flash or attention, but with a flicker — a gentle whisper. Light enters quietly, almost hidden, yet strong enough to push back any darkness.

    Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem was God’s declaration that no one is beyond His reach.

    That’s the pattern woven throughout scripture. Long before Jesus’ birth, the prophets spoke of a coming Messiah during a time when life felt unstable and discouraging. Their world was marked by division, oppression, and spiritual exhaustion. Many wondered if God still remembered them. Yet the prophets held on to a small, steady flame: a promise that hope was on the way.

    Today, many feel that same dimming of hope. Some carry grief that resurfaces sharply during the Christmas season. Others feel worn down by the constant noise, conflict, and division around us. Even in a season filled with lights and celebration, joy can feel hidden.

    But God’s story reminds us of this essential truth: Hope is rarely loud or obvious. It doesn’t always arrive in a dramatic or spectacular package. More often, it’s found in quiet faithfulness and small acts of love, moments so ordinary we might miss their significance.

    The world expected a powerful king; God sent a child. The world expected a grand entrance; God chose a manger. The world expected an immediate victory; God chose a slow and steady redemption.

    If God brought His light into the world through unnoticed moments, why would we expect Him to work differently today?

    This is where the mission of Boost Others comes in. We exist to help make that hidden hope visible again. Because hope doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, it grows when people lift one another up. When we encourage someone, when we extend generosity, or when we offer our presence without conditions, we’re doing far more than meeting a practical need. We are participating in the very heart of the Christmas story: shining light into someone’s darkness.

    These actions rarely make headlines, but they reflect the character of the Messiah who came not to be served, but to serve; not to condemn, but to lift; not to overwhelm, but to invite.

    RELATED: Uncovering the surprising truth behind a beloved Christmas hymn

    lovelypeace/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem was God’s declaration that no one is beyond His reach. When we extend hope to someone else, we are echoing that same message.

    When Christ was born, the angels didn’t announce it to the masses but to a few shepherds who happened to be awake. That reminds us that God’s work often unfolds in hidden spaces. The world may overlook smallness, but God uses it.

    Hope isn’t always obvious, and it isn’t always immediate. But it is always present, often waiting in the places we least expect. And sometimes, God calls us to be the instruments of comfort and renewal of another person’s life.

    This season, more than anything, our world needs people willing to live this way: people who carry the joy of Christ into conversations, relationships, and everyday interactions, people who look for the quiet places where others feel overlooked or discouraged and choose to bring light.

    What if the most meaningful gift we could give this Christmas isn’t wrapped at all? What if it’s the way we speak, the way we listen, the way we show up? What if the greatest impact isn’t found in big gestures but in consistent, faithful ones that remind someone that God sees them — and so do we.

    Small lights matter. No act is too small. One candle doesn’t eliminate the darkness, but it pushes it back. And when more candles are lit, when more people step forward to encourage, uplift, and bless, the darkness doesn’t stand a chance.

    So as Christmas draws near, I invite you to be attentive to the hidden places where hope is needed. Slow down enough to notice who might need a lift. Don’t wait for others to shine, take the first step and inspire others to shine alongside you. God delights to work through ordinary people doing ordinary things with extraordinary love.

    When hope feels hidden, it isn’t gone — it’s simply waiting to be revealed. And you may be the one God uses to bring that light into someone’s life, turning a dim flicker into a steady burning flame.

  • Person of interest detained after deadly shooting at Brown University — but very little has been shared about the individual (UPDATE) Sun, 14 Dec 2025 20:15:00 +0000


    UPDATE: 11:51 p.m. ET: According to NBC News, the person of interest named earlier Sunday in connection with the deadly shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, will be released shortly.

    Police initially said they were confident the person of interest was the individual who opened fire in a first-floor classroom at Brown’s Barus & Holley building Saturday before fleeing, the news network reported. But authorities now say evidence “now points in a different direction,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha noted Sunday night, according to NBC News.

    "I think it's fair to say that there is no basis to consider him a person of interest, so that's why he's being released," Neronha told reporters, according to the news network.

    UPDATE: 6:13 p.m. ET: The person of interest in connection with the deadly Brown University shooting is 24-year-old Benjamin Erickson, NBC News said, citing three senior law enforcement officials who were briefed on the investigation.

    Erickson was an Army infantryman from May 2021 to November 2024, the news network said, citing Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro, who added that "he has no deployments and left the Army in the rank of specialist."

    Initial public records searches do not indicate that Erickson had a criminal record, NBC News also said, adding that officials are looking into a possible extensive mental health history for him.

    Public records indicate that Erickson's residence as of 2024 was a Washington, D.C., apartment, and that he previously lived in Wisconsin, the news network noted.

    Original story below

    A person of interest has been detained in connection with Saturday's deadly shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the Associated Press reported.

    However, the outlet added that "key questions remained unanswered" following the attack that killed two students and wounded nine others at the Ivy League campus during final exams.

    'Everybody’s reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us.'

    Col. Oscar Perez, chief of the Providence police, said Sunday afternoon that the person in custody is in the 20s age range and that no one has been charged yet, the AP reported. Perez earlier said the person is in the 30s age range and that no one else was being sought; Perez declined to say if the detained person had any connection to Brown, the outlet noted.

    The New York Times reported Saturday that the shooter was described as a man dressed in black. Police released surveillance video late Saturday night that they said showed the person of interest. The AP said the individual in the clip was walking from the scene of the shooting.

    RELATED: At least 2 killed, more wounded in shooting at Brown University

    The person of interest was taken into custody at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, which is about 20 miles from Providence, the AP said, adding that police officers and FBI agents remained there Sunday, blocking off a hallway with crime scene tape while searching the area.

    College President Christina Paxson told the AP that one of the nine wounded students had been released from the hospital while seven others were in critical but stable condition and one was in critical condition.

    Investigators told the AP they weren't immediately sure how the shooter got into the first-floor classroom in the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and the physics department.

    Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said the building's outer doors were unlocked, but rooms reserved for final exams required badge access, the AP added.

    More from the AP:

    The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building, firing more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. As of Sunday morning, authorities had not recovered a firearm but did find two loaded 30-round magazines, the official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.

    Brown canceled all remaining classes, exams, papers, and projects for the semester, the AP said, and told students they were free to leave campus.

    RELATED: VIDEO: 3 dead, multiple victims injured in North Carolina mass shooting; suspect reportedly flees by boat

    Paxson teared up while describing her conversations with students both on campus and in the hospital, the AP said: “They are amazing, and they’re supporting each other. There’s just a lot of gratitude.”

    “Everybody’s reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us,” she added, according to the AP. “Our community’s strong and we’ll get through it, but it’s devastating.”

    This is a developing story; updates may be added.

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  • Congress strips merit from the military and shackles the president in one bill Sun, 14 Dec 2025 20:00:00 +0000


    The Trump administration recently released an extremely promising National Security Strategy — but the same cannot be said about the proposed National Defense Authorization Act for the 2026 fiscal year.

    The House and Senate’s compromise NDAA appears to be in tension with the goals of the administration’s strategy. While the National Security Strategy prioritizes a hemispheric defense of the American homeland, the NDAA locks decision-makers into maintaining unnecessary overseas troop levels. Despite President Trump’s stated strategic aims, Congress seems intent on safeguarding the national security priorities and infrastructure of previous eras.

    The NDAA represents the ‘deep state,’ a combination of entrenched interests, committees, lobbies, and bureaucracies that value continuity over strategy and reform.

    Restricting the drawdown of troops stationed overseas, increasingly murky foreign entrenchment through legally binding efforts to sell arms, and dubious clauses requiring congressional approval at every turn, all serve to bind the commander in chief’s hands. All of this reeks of a shadowy order desperately trying to maintain the status quo at the expense of the will of the people who elected Donald Trump in 2024.

    This cannot stand.

    Section 1249 of the NDAA states that U.S. forces in Europe cannot fall below 76,000 for more than 45 days without presidential certifications to Congress. This is supposed to ensure that troop reductions present no threat to NATO partners or U.S. national security. (Absurdly, the bill requires the U.S. to consult with every NATO ally and even “relevant non-NATO partners.”) But stripping the president of essential discretion through ludicrous legislative roadblocks categorically subverts his authority under the Constitution.

    Section 1255 states that troop levels cannot dip below 28,500 in the Korean Peninsula, nor can wartime operational control be transferred without an identical trial by fire of congressional approvals and national-security certifications.

    Shifting our military focus to our own backyard was a stated goal of the National Security Strategy. If this vision is to be implemented, Congress cannot serve as a bureaucratic middleman that hinders deployment flexibility through pedantic checklists.

    Americans need to understand that the NDAA would obstruct the execution of President Trump’s agenda. As written, it functions as a deliberate statutory barrier to presidential decision-making. This denotes a redistribution of war powers from the elected executive to a sprawling and unaccountable institutional structure.

    The NDAA represents what Americans call the “deep state,” a combination of entrenched interests, committees, lobbies, and bureaucracies that value continuity over strategy and reform.

    This continuity becomes clear when you look at what the House and Senate didn’t include in the compromise NDAA. The Senate’s original bill contained a provision barring the use of DEI in service-academy admissions — a measure that would have required merit-only standards and prevented racial profiling. Congress stripped that section out. The final bill includes a few weak gestures toward limiting DEI, but none of them meet President Trump’s goal of a military that rejects race and sex as factors altogether.

    RELATED: Mexico has cartel armies. Blue America has cartel politics.

    Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    As written, the NDAA gives a future Democratic president the opportunity to reintroduce woke indoctrination in the military with the stroke of a pen. And laws favoring DEI at our nation’s most vital institutions could resurface on a whim, using typical “diversity is our strength” platitudes.

    Despite its name, the NDAA functions less like a defense bill and more like the legal backbone of America’s global posture. Whatever promises the National Security Strategy makes, they cannot be realized so long as the current NDAA pulls in the opposite direction. Strategy should shape institutions — not the other way around.

    In Washington jargon, the NDAA is treated as “must-pass” legislation. That label has no legal or constitutional basis. And even if it must pass, no one claims it must be signed.

    The National Security Strategy reflects the will of voters; the NDAA reflects bureaucratic inertia. That is why the Trump administration cannot, in good conscience, approve this bill. Our escape from stagnation, mediocrity, and endless foreign entanglements depends on rejecting it — and time is running out.

    Editor’s note: A version of this article was published originally at the American Mind.

  • The AI apocalypse no one wants to talk about: College grad → degree expired upon arrival Sun, 14 Dec 2025 19:00:00 +0000


    America is free falling into an AI abyss. Entire industries are on the verge of becoming fully automated. Robots are rendering flesh and blood obsolete. College diplomas are looking increasingly like worthless pieces of paper.

    And it’s just beginning. We are on the precipice of living in an AI-dominant world.

    Are we ready for it?

    Glenn Beck says we’re absolutely not ready. But there are some smart moves young people can make to help soften the blow that’s coming.

    “I'm begging my kids, trade school, trade school, trade school, trade school because those are the jobs of the future,” he says.

    Unless someone is interested in entering the medical field, which is safe for now but ultimately on track for eventual automatization, a generic college degree will likely end up being a waste of time and money.

    Glenn’s head writer and researcher Jason Buttrill says he’s begging his son to consider electrician school instead of college, but anytime he brings the topic of AI dominance up, his son shuts down.

    “There’s this weird apathy,” he tells Glenn.

    Glenn’s co-host Stu Burguiere acknowledges that it’s a deeply depressing topic for emerging adults. Not only are they entering the adult world — degree or not — with the economic odds stacked heavily against them, but “not everybody wants to be a plumber or electrician.”

    Nobody wants to be “the bad parent in the after-school special, like, ‘Screw your dreams, go be a plumber!”’ he laughs.

    But Glenn says there are other paths young people can take to avoid wasting resources on a useless college degree. He uses his daughter, who wants to be an actress, as an example.

    Instead of agreeing to send her to a “viper’s nest” acting school in New York, he helped “design a school” tailored specifically to her through a series of private lessons that will still hone the skills she needs to pursue her dreams.

    “When they are driven for something, you don't have to say, ‘Be a plumber.’ You can say, ‘Let's find ways for you to learn this in a better way,”’ says Glenn.

    On the flip side, for dreamers with big ideas, AI might actually make success possible. As a creative visionary, Glenn says AI has helped him actualize ideas he’s had for years.

    But just as some kids have zero interest in blue-collar work, not everyone has big entrepreneurial ambitions. Many just want the longstanding path of earning a degree and climbing the corporate ladder.

    So when they hear that that’s no longer a viable option, it sinks their spirits.

    Jason explains it like this: Younger generations are stuck in a vicious cycle where AI has been pitched as the solution that will create explosive economic growth and reinvigorate the American dream for young people. Except it’s also going to destroy the jobs they want.

    “They're in that circle, and they're like, ‘I'm screwed.’ ... None of the math adds up,” he says.

    To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

    Want more from Glenn Beck?

    To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

  • Not all feelings are valid: Why parents need to teach resilience over emotional indulgence Sun, 14 Dec 2025 16:00:00 +0000


    While most parents simply want to protect their kids, stepping in too fast can prevent them from developing problem-solving skills — which is why licensed therapist RaQuel Hopkins rejects the feel-good “protect your peace” culture of today.

    One of the most popular phrases to come out of this has been “all feelings are valid.”

    “I have heard that phrase so much ... and I just think about the word. I always like to think about defining my terms. And valid means there’s truth to it. Like, if something is valid, that is representative of a reality, but that’s not really true when it comes to our feelings, ” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey tells Hopkins.

    “I even talked to someone who’s head of SEL at a school, and she was saying that she teaches these kindergartners that all feelings are valid. And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t know that I want, you know, my 5-year-old to hear that her jealousy of her sister, her anger that she has to share, is valid,” she continues.


    “I would agree,” Hopkins says. “I mean, I don’t teach my children that either. I teach them to be able to express themselves. Learning to figure out what you have internalized to figure out how you want to actually move forward.”

    Hopkins believes that children are actually much easier to teach to think and react this way, because opportunities to teach them are “always presenting themselves.”

    “Whether it’s your kid comes home and says that someone picked on me, the first thing is not to say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that,’” she tells Stuckey, pointing out that when her son first came home complaining that he was being picked on, she had an entirely different approach.

    “I didn’t get wrapped up on, ‘I acknowledge that it hurts when people are not saying what you consider to be nice things.’ But it was also, ‘Son, you have to learn to live with what God has blessed you with,’” she continues.

    And this is what Hopkins believes is missing from most mental health conversations today.

    “The spirituality part is missing,” Hopkins says.

    “If I am made in His image, or fearfully and wonderfully made,” she tells Stuckey, “there are some things that you’re going to have to learn to accept about your own lived realities, and that’s not always coupled with compassion.”

    Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

    To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

  • The country that mocks America’s ‘culture of death’ has embraced one of its own Sun, 14 Dec 2025 14:30:00 +0000


    Canada loves to lecture America about compassion. Every time a shooting makes the headlines, Canadian commentators cannot wait to discuss how the United States has a “culture of death” because we refuse to regulate guns the way enlightened nations supposedly do.

    But north of our border, a very different crisis is unfolding — one that is harder to moralize because it exposes a deeper cultural failure.

    A society that no longer recognizes the value of life will not long defend freedom, dignity, or moral order.

    The Canadian government is not only permitting death, but it’s also administering, expanding, and redefining it as “medical care.” Medical assistance in dying is no longer a rare, tragic exception. It has become one of the country’s leading causes of death, offered to people whose problems are treatable, whose conditions are survivable, and whose value should never have been in question.

    In Canada, MAID is now responsible for nearly 5% of all deaths — 1 out of every 20 citizens. And this is happening in a country that claims the moral high ground over American gun violence. Canada now records more deaths per capita from doctors administering lethal drugs than America records from firearms. Their number is 37.9 deaths per 100,000 people. Ours is 13.7. Yet we are the country supposedly drowning in a “culture of death.”

    No lecture from abroad can paper over this fact: Canada has built a system where eliminating suffering increasingly means eliminating the sufferer.

    Choosing death over care

    One example of what Canada now calls “compassion” is the case of Jolene Bond, a woman suffering from a painful but treatable thyroid condition that causes dangerously high calcium levels, bone deterioration, soft-tissue damage, nausea, and unrelenting pain. Her condition is severe, but it is not terminal. Surgery could help her. And in a functioning medical system, she would have it.

    But Jolene lives under socialized medicine. The specialists she needs are either unavailable, overrun with patients, or blocked behind bureaucratic requirements she cannot meet. She cannot get a referral. She cannot get an appointment. She cannot reach the doctor in another province who is qualified to perform the operation. Every pathway to treatment is jammed by paperwork, shortages, and waitlists that stretch into the horizon and beyond.

    Yet the Canadian government had something else ready for her — something immediate.

    They offered her MAID.

    Not help, not relief, not a doctor willing to drive across a provincial line and simply examine her. Instead, Canada offered Jolene a state-approved death. A lethal injection is easier to obtain than a medical referral. Killing her would be easier than treating her. And the system calls that compassion.

    Bureaucracy replaces medicine

    Jolene’s story is not an outlier. It is the logical outcome of a system that cannot keep its promises. When the machinery of socialized medicine breaks down, the state simply replaces care with a final, irreversible “solution.” A bureaucratic checkbox becomes the last decision of a person’s life.

    Canada insists its process is rigorous, humane, and safeguarded. Yet the bureaucracy now reviewing Jolene’s case is not asking how she can receive treatment; it is asking whether she has enough signatures to qualify for a lethal injection. And the debate among Canadian officials is not how to preserve life, but whether she has met the paperwork threshold to end it.

    This is the dark inversion that always emerges when the state claims the power to decide when life is no longer worth living. Bureaucracy replaces conscience. Eligibility criteria replace compassion. A panel of physicians replaces the family gathered at a bedside. And eventually, the “right” to die becomes an expectation — especially for those who are poor, elderly, or alone.

    RELATED: ‘Stone-cold communism’: Canadian government seizes hospice center when staff refuses to allow euthanasia

    Photo by Graham Hughes/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    The logical end of a broken system

    We ignore this lesson at our own peril. Canada’s health care system is collapsing under demographic pressure, uncontrolled migration, and the unavoidable math of government-run medicine.

    When the system breaks, someone must bear the cost. MAID has become the release valve.

    The ideology behind this system is already drifting south. In American medical journals and bioethics conferences, you will hear this same rhetoric. The argument is always dressed in compassion. But underneath, it reduces the value of human life to a calculation: Are you useful? Are you affordable? Are you too much of a burden?

    The West was built on a conviction that every human life has inherent value. That truth gave us hospitals before it gave us universities. It gave us charity before it gave us science. It is written into the Declaration of Independence.

    Canada’s MAID program reveals what happens when a country lets that foundation erode. Life becomes negotiable, and suffering becomes a justification for elimination.

    A society that no longer recognizes the value of life will not long defend freedom, dignity, or moral order. If compassion becomes indistinguishable from convenience, and if medicine becomes indistinguishable from euthanasia, the West will have abandoned the very principles that built it. That is the lesson from our northern neighbor — a warning, not a blueprint.

  • Ted Nugent's loud protest is the wake-up call Western elites want to ignore Sun, 14 Dec 2025 13:00:00 +0000


    Ted Nugent is known for many things. Subtlety isn't one of them.

    This is a man who treats volume knobs the way toddlers treat bedtime: with open defiance. So when a mosque in his Michigan town began broadcasting the early-morning call to prayer over loudspeakers, Nugent reacted in the way only Nugent would. He turned his back yard into a launchpad for a one-man rock assault.

  • The courage we lost is hiding in the simplest places Sun, 14 Dec 2025 11:30:00 +0000


    If you’ll indulge one more cabin story, it’s only because remodeling an unlevel structure may be the clearest metaphor for the challenges caregivers face — and, I suspect, for the condition of America itself.

    Out here in rural Montana, you learn quickly that when a project needs doing, you can pay a lot for it, wait a long time, use duct tape, or learn to do it yourself. Usually it’s some combination of the four. And while I’ve adapted to that reality, certain home-improvement tasks still give me the willies — mainly anything with a blade spinning fast enough to launch lumber toward Yellowstone National Park.

    There is something life-giving about facing the hard thing in front of us instead of avoiding it.

    Who knew you needed a helmet to cut boards?

    I’ve been a pianist longer than I’ve been a caregiver, and since my hands pay the bills, I prefer to keep all my fingers intact. Let’s just say that when it comes to carpentry, I can really play the piano.

    Recently we removed an old door in our cabin and needed to rebuild the wall. Help was delayed, so I decided to tackle it myself. The wall wasn’t the problem. The miter saw was. When I noticed the blade catching the afternoon light, it looked downright smug.

    It knew.

    Still I’ve met many builders in our county, and only one is missing a finger. Thankfully none answer to “Lefty.” If they can keep their body parts, maybe I can too. My rule is simple: Measure 17 times, cut once — and do it slowly.

    So I got to work. In an old cabin nothing is plumb, so my level and I argued for quite a while. Even so, the studs went in, something close to square took shape, and despite a few caregiving interruptions, the wall was framed by sundown.

    I was proud of myself. I took pictures. I bragged a little. Some builders may roll their eyes, but I’d do the same if they bragged about playing “Chopsticks.”

    But it wasn’t really the blade. It was the fear behind it — the fear of getting something wrong, of creating a problem I couldn't undo. And that fear isn’t limited to carpentry. When we let fear or anxiety keep us from picking up the tool and learning, whole parts of our lives remain unfinished.

    We live in half-built cabins — studs exposed, projects stalled, confidence untested because we never moved toward the thing that intimidates us.

    America was built by people who weren’t afraid to try hard things. They carved farms out of wilderness. Built railroads with crude tools. Raised barns without safety manuals. When something broke, they fixed it; when they didn’t know how, they learned anyway. Imperfectly, but persistently.

    That spirit carried us for generations. Today we struggle to find it.

    We’ve created a culture that treats effort as optional and discomfort as a crisis. We warn people not to push themselves. We offer labels and excuses instead of encouragement. We outsource everything, including our resilience. Hard things are treated as unsafe instead of character-building.

    Many believe our greatest dangers are political, economic, or global. Maybe. But something quieter may be worse: We are losing the courage to try.

    I say that as someone who has spent 40 years as a caregiver. Disease, trauma, addiction, aging — none of it yields to effort or skill. Day after day, fighting a battle you cannot win wears down confidence. Caregiving rarely gives you the satisfaction of a finished job or something tangible you can hold in your hands.

    RELATED: My crooked house made me rethink what really needs fixing

    kudou via iStock/Getty Images

    But tackling something you can finish, even if it makes the hair on your neck stand up, pushes back against that erosion of self-reliance. There is courage in doing the thing we’d rather avoid. When we take on something small but intimidating, we rediscover a steadiness we thought we’d lost — not bravado, not swagger, just the quiet certainty that we can still learn, grow, and accomplish something in a world that feels increasingly out of control.

    And sometimes the payoff is simple. It’s something you can point to. That framed doorway in my cabin isn’t perfect, but it stands as proof that I stepped toward something unfamiliar and did it anyway. In a culture that avoids discomfort, even one small visible victory becomes fuel for courage. It tells you that you can do the next thing too.

    As Emerson put it, a person who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. There is something life-giving about facing the hard thing in front of us instead of avoiding it.

    That is the spirit America needs again — not bluster or political chest-thumping, but ordinary people choosing to try the hard thing right in front of them.

    I will probably always be nervous around saws, but that doorway reminds me that courage often appears in the quiet places where we decide to try.

    And there is absolutely no shame in wearing a helmet.

  • It’s not politics, it’s spiritual war — and the church is still sitting on the sidelines Sun, 14 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000


    Never has it been more obvious that politics are spiritual in nature. The partisan battles over authority, morality, justice, life, and truth can no longer mask the supernatural war raging between good and evil in the unseen realm.

    Although the great war has already been won through Christ, the forces of good often lose earthly battles because Christians refuse to enter the fray. Progressives have a zeal and commitment to their doctrine more ferocious than the majority of Christians these days.

    We’re “dealing with a rival religion,” says Steve Deace, BlazeTV host of the “Steve Deace Show.”

    “If you aren't as convicted in yours, you cannot defeat [your progressive opponents]. They'll just keep beating you.”

    So what needs to happen in order to flip the script?

    To explore this query, Deace spoke with former U.S. senator, author, and devout Christian Jim DeMint.

    “The great divide in Washington and across America really comes down to whether or not you believe the Bible is true. Our whole culture, all of Western civilization, is built on Judeo-Christian ideas that come from the Bible,” says DeMint. “Everything from the moral laws that we see in the Old Testament to how families are formed to marriage, concepts of compassion and charity — everything we take for granted as a country is derived from the Bible.”

    Twenty-five years ago, both parties acknowledged and respected this reality, he says. But today, that isn’t true. One party has departed so far from any sort of moral standard that it fights for nationwide abortion through all three trimesters, equating the barbaric murder of babies to essential health care.

    When these progressive policies are successful, it’s a win for Team Satan, but Christians at large tend to just shrug and hope for better days.

    But they need to pick up their sword and fight. “Pastors and Christian leaders and folks who call themselves Christians [need] to step out of the shadows and start to participate more in deciding how we're governed as a nation,” says DeMint.

    DeMint has a brand-new book out that tackles this subject. Titled “What the Bible Really Says: About Creation, End Times, Politics, and You,” it dives into how centuries of theological misinterpretation and church tradition have neutralized the Bible’s explosive political power, leaving Christians defenseless in today’s spiritual war. It also argues that returning to the plain, unfiltered text of Scripture can re-arm believers to fight and win the battles over authority, life, marriage, justice, and truth that now define our culture.

    Today’s churches are often too “watered down,” “lukewarm,” and “you-centered” to be effective in the political sphere, Deace adds.

    But if Christians got biblically serious, they’d see that Washington's war is God’s war.

    “Republicans have their flaws, and I spent most of my time in the House and the Senate criticizing Republicans for not doing what they said they were going to do, [but] their platform is built on Judeo-Christian concepts. But the Democrat platform is not,” say DeMint.

    But while political victories should be important to Christians, they aren’t the end-all, be-all. “We can't win the battle that way,” says DeMint.

    The real battle remains in each individual heart, where people must finally settle the question DeMint keeps asking: Is the Bible actually true — or isn’t it? Because until we bet our lives that every word is God-breathed, we’ll keep losing the culture to a rival religion that is far more convinced of its own lies.

    To hear more of Deace and DeMint’s conversation, watch the episode above.

    Want more from Steve Deace?

    To enjoy more of Steve's take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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