N.B.J.D. 🇺🇸

I don’t like this place, but I can never seem to leave. SKOL!! Re-tweets are not endorsements.

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

Tom Bombadil is the most mysterious character in The Lord of the Rings.

He's the oldest being in Middle-earth and completely immune to the Ring's power — but why?

Bombadil is the key to the underlying ethics of the entire story, and to resisting evil yourself...

Tom Bombadil is an enigmatic, merry hermit of the countryside, known as "oldest and fatherless" by the Elves. He is truly ancient, and claims he was "here before the river and the trees." He's so confounding that Peter Jackson left him out of the films entirely.

This is understandable, since he's unimportant to the development of the plot. Tolkien, however, saw fit to include him anyway, because Tom reveals a lot about the underlying ethics of Middle-earth, and how to shield yourself from evil.

The hobbits meet Bombadil early on in their quest, before they reach Bree and the Prancing Pony Inn. He rescues Merry and Pippin from Old Man Willow, and invites the hobbits to stay at his house in the Old Forest.

There, the hobbits realize something strange about him: the Ring has no power over Bombadil whatsoever.

When he wears it, he remains visible. He treats it as a plaything, making it disappear with a magic trick. Indeed, at the Council of Elrond, Gandalf rejects the idea of giving the Ring to Tom, for he would likely misplace it or forget about it entirely.

So just who is he, exactly?

When Frodo asks this very question to Tom's wife Goldberry, she simply responds "He is." It's a cryptic answer that echoes God's famous answer to Moses in the Book of Exodus: "I am who I am."

Thus, many theorize that Bombadil is God, some kind of angelic being, or even the spirit of the Music of the Ainur (due to the fact that he is constantly singing). But Tolkien's letters reveal something considerably more interesting…

In April 1954, Tolkien wrote:

"The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship… but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control.But if you have, as it were, taken a 'vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself… then the questions of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless…"

So, Bombadil is a representation of what it means to take pure delight in the world around you — to experience people and things simply as they are, without any thought for what they could be or how you could use them. And this is why the Ring has no power over him.

To Bombadil, the One Ring is simply a ring, and the possibilities of what can be achieved through its power are of no importance. He is able to resist its evil precisely because he is entirely content with the world around him.

At the end of the story, having accomplished what he set out to do in Middle-earth, Gandalf pays Tom a visit before returning to the Undying Lands:

"I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time."

If Bombadil is the epitome of simply enjoying life and being, Gandalf is the epitome of doing. He guides the hobbits, fights the Balrog, and runs up and down Middle-earth to help destroy the One Ring.

But now that he's finally liberated from doing, he immediately heads to Bombadil's. He does so with a sense of relief, as if he's at last able to access a purer and higher mode of being — a sort of innocence that cannot be fully experienced by those consumed by doing.

Of course, by this Tolkien doesn't disparage the value of action. The entirety of LOTR displays the importance of rising up against evil, even in the face of all odds. But with the inclusion of Bombadil, he does remind readers that fighting isn't all there is.

Bombadil reminds us that while it's important to strive and *do*, it is just as important to occasionally step back and *be*. Indeed, your ability to do so plays a crucial role in helping you resist the allure of evil…

Read the full piece here:

https://t.co/aqK2daehIL

The unsung hero of The Lord of the Rings...

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

One of the great political moves by the left in recent years has been convincing a large portion of America that we don’t already spend most of our money on healthcare + entitlements…

The vast majority of Democrats truly believe our largest budget item is the military.

[Shipwreckedcrew @shipwreckedcrew]

I think it is important to point out that Adam Kinzinger is a moron.

"Title 8 USC § 1357. Powers of immigration officers and employees

(a) Powers without warrant --

Any officer or employee of the Service authorized under regulations prescribed by the Attorney General shall have power without warrant-

(5) to make arrests-

(A) for any offense against the United States, if the offense is committed in the officer's or employee's presence, or

(B) for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States, if the officer or employee has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such a felony."

[Tony Seruga @TonySeruga]

Every Christmas Eve, I think about George Bailey.

He dreamed of escaping Bedford Falls—of shaking off the dust of a small town, building skyscrapers, exploring the world. Instead, he stayed. He ran the Building & Loan his father left behind. He sacrificed his college money, his honeymoon savings, his chance to see the world, over and over, because people needed him.

By the time the crisis hits, George feels like a failure. His life looks like one long series of missed opportunities, thwarted ambitions, and quiet resentments. He stands on the bridge, convinced the world would be better without him.

Then Clarence shows him the truth: a Bedford Falls without George Bailey is a darker, meaner, hollowed-out place. The people he quietly helped, the small acts of integrity he performed without recognition, the risks he took to protect others—those weren’t detours. They were the substance of his life.

The film’s deepest insight isn’t just that “no man is a failure who has friends.” It’s that real impact is almost always invisible in the moment. The lives you steady, the small kindnesses you extend, the responsibilities you shoulder when no one else will—these things ripple outward in ways you may never see.

A strong sense of purpose doesn’t erase pain; it transforms it. It doesn’t merely explain why hard things happened. It asks: What are you now responsible for because they happened?

Faith, at its best, does the same. It doesn’t promise that everything was “meant to be” in order to make suffering palatable. It invites you to look at what has been entrusted to you in light of what you’ve endured.

George’s story reminds us that meaning is rarely found in the grand escape, but in the faithful presence. The dreams we surrender don’t always vanish—they often become the raw material for something more enduring than we imagined.

If you’re carrying the weight of roads not taken, of dreams deferred, of a life that feels smaller than you once hoped—watch It’s a Wonderful Life again tonight. Not as nostalgia, but as revelation.

You may not see the full difference you’ve made yet.

But it’s there.

And it matters more than you know.

Merry Christmas, friends.

🎄🇨🇽🎅🦌☃️⛪️✝️❤️

[Adam Johnston @adamkjohnston]

The movie Gettysburg was released in 1993, a mere 32 years ago.

There was no cultural or political backlash over the respectful, even heroic, depiction of General Robert E. Lee.

We were a different country then

[Guy Benson @guypbenson]

I’d like to ask my non-conservative followers to pay attention here for a moment. I don’t need a response or a rebuttal or a ‘whatabout.’ Just read on and consider what I’m saying. Please.

We are only a few weeks removed from a leading conservative figure being shot in the throat and killed by a leftist, for and during his speech, at a public speaking event. Stunning, jarring numbers of leftist Americans justified or celebrated this assassination, aligning with multiple public polls showing that a sizable minority of leftists in this country think political violence can be acceptable.

Today — just today — many conservatives are thinking about:

(1) a major leftist statewide candidate being exposed for sending texts to a political opponent (R) explicitly hoping for the death of another conservative political opponent…along with the deaths of that opponents’ young children. He WROTE DOWN that the pain of those deaths might promote his own agenda, which would be worth it, in his estimation. This candidate is now condemning his current conservative opponent for noticing this information.

And also (2) a development in the case of a leftist would-be assassin of a conservative Supreme Court Justice, who traveled across the country, heavily armed, with the stated intent of murdering up to three right-leaning Justices because he was angry about their abortion jurisprudence. The leftist judge in the case rejected prosecutors’ request for a multi-decade sentence, giving the defense team the very lenient sentence they’d sought. The leftist judge, in her reasoning, cited the criminal’s trans identity as a factor & expressed happiness that the assassination plot and its aftermath helped with the criminal’s family therapy around the trans issue.

And also (3) yet another violent leftist attack — this time an apparent ambush — against federal immigration officers. This did not take place in Dallas, where a leftist sniper very recently went on a deadly spree while trying to murder as many ICE officers as possible. This one happened in Illinois, where the leftist governor just called these officers “jack booted thugs.” Violent attacks on these federal agents (thugs, fascists, gestapo, per various leading leftist politicians) are up approximately *one thousand percent,* per DHS.

And also (4) a prominent university being pressured into reversing its attempt to shut down a conservative event commemorating the second anniversary of the Oct 7 terrorist massacre of Jews — because, the school said, they were worried about the security situation around the event. They were referring, of course, to the violent Islamist-Leftist coalition pro-Hamas mob, which has engaged in harassment, threats, violence and murder ever since that mass slaughter.

AND YET, we see many of our leftist friends tweeting and posting about how *their opponents* are the “dangerous” and “authoritarian” “fascists.”

I ask you to try to contemplate, even for a quiet moment or two, how this might strike many of us.

That’s all for now. Thank you.

[Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley]

This is major victory for free speech. Google acknowledged past political censorship and stated that it “values conservative voices on its platform.” The company admitted that it yielded to the pressure from the Biden Administration to censor Americans. https://t.co/jU7fs5xQVd

[Rep. Harry Niska @HarryNiska]

Here’s what @Tim_Walz’s announcement video would say, if he were honest.

[James Woods @RealJamesWoods]

Here is the roadmap to Charlie Kirk’s assassination…

[Political Polls @PpollingNumbers]

77% of Republicans believe it is always unacceptable to feel joy at the death of someone they oppose, while only 38% of Democrats share this view (YouGov)

[Jeremy Wayne Tate @JeremyTate41]

Another 8th grade graduation exam—this one from rural California in 1899. These were not elite prep school kids, but farm children.

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

The Biden White House solicited questions ahead of time so far in advance that they have time to print them out on note cards and White House journalists went along with it.

@brianstelter never covered it. Never cared, but now Trump Fields questions from friendly outlets and it's a scandal. Just a complete ethics-less clown. Soulless.

[Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley]

The Jackson opinion seemed to fan the flames of “democracy is dying” claims of protesters, suggesting that limits on injunctive relief threaten our core institutions. It was a hyperventilated opinion better suited to a cable program than a Court opinion. https://t.co/CkYjgWeaAD

[Jeremy Wayne Tate @JeremyTate41]

8th grade graduation exam from 1912.

This wasn’t for affluent kids in New England. This was rural Kentucky.

[AF Post @AFpost]

A recent study published in Oxford’s Journal of Sexual Medicine sampling 107,583 patients found that sex-change surgery doubles depression rates among gender dysphoric individuals rather than reducing them.

Males who underwent surgery had a depression rate of 25.4%, compared to 11.5% in those who did not have surgery. Likewise, females who underwent surgery had a depression rate of 22.9%, compared to 14.6% in those who did not.

Follow: @AFpost

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

The best way to prevent fascism is to try and lock up your political opponents and then criminally pardon your allies, making it impossible to hold government officials accountable for alleged wrongdoing.

[Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer]

People who said goodbye to their dying grandmas with a poster from the street, and couldn't have a funeral or attend church, would like a word about distress.

[Bonchie @bonchieredstate]

Mike Johnson describing Joe Biden having no idea he had signed an EO banning LNG exports, instead believing he had just authorized a study, is the biggest presidential scandal in history.

Staffers were lying to Biden about EOs they wanted and getting him to sign them. Insane.

[Peter St Onge, Ph.D. @profstonge]

Biden is looting the Treasury on his way out.

While it’s normal for deposed dictators to fly out pallets of cash, Biden’s doing it to the tune of $2 trillion.

This leaves a giant hole in Trump's budget before he even takes office.