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The only kind of Santa that is allowed Just so that you know that the Saudis are cracking down on the really important crimes, like jihad terrorism -- no, wait... Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Saudi detains dozens for 'plotting to celebrate Christmas,'" from al-Akhbar, December 27 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur): Saudi religious police stormed a house in the Saudi Arabian province of al-Jouf, detaining more than 41 guests for “plotting to celebrate Christmas,” a statement from the police branch released Wednesday night said. The raid is the latest in a string of religious...

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It took some 22 hours for American help to arrive in Benghazi after all the t’s had been crossed and the i’s had been dotted, and the body of America’s ambassador to Libya had been dragged through the streets by “rescuers” stopping along the way to pose for cell phone pictures with his corpse. By way of comparison it takes about 16 hours for a boatload of Libyan illegal immigrants to row to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Support for the Americans under fire in Libya would have arrived sooner if a few former members of the Harvard Rowing Team...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Hurricane Sandy Hamas ReliefPosted By Joe Kaufman On December 28, 2012 @ 12:34 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 2 Comments The clean-up effort is still underway in the northeast, where Hurricane Sandy unleashed its imprint of death and destruction. A number of highly-rated charitable organizations have sent out relief workers to the area to help with things like food, clothing, shelter and medical treatment. Yet another group, ICNA Relief, is in town claiming to assist in the effort and asking for donations. Their donations have reached terror-related groups in the past, so their motives...

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Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said Thursday he won't seek a fourth term as leader of Minnesota's largest city, creating the first open race for the office in two decades. Rybak's announcement came less than a year before voters in the city of almost 400,000 will choose a new mayor. Several potential candidates had been waiting on Rybak to make a decision before declaring whether they would run, and the field is likely to be large. The decision also should ramp up speculation about Rybak's next political move. The 57-year-old Democrat has been mentioned as a possible addition to President Barack...

President Barack Obama and the Democratic Senate are considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition. "Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said California Sen. Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability (POI) to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer...

Yisrael Beiteinu head Avigdor Lieberman, until recently the Foreign Minister, reacted with joy Friday as Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas threatened to quit if negotiations do not resume. Abbas has refused to negotiate in absence of several Israeli concessions, including a complete freeze on construction east of the 1949 armistice line. According to Lieberman, Israel "can't wait" for Abbas to follow through on his threat. "We congratulate Abu Mazen [Abbas] for reaching the correct conclusion, that only his leave from the PA leadership will allow the diplomatic process to resume," Lieberman said. "We anxiously await the official announcement from the...

Police and family members are wondering why a 44-year-old man was attacked and set on fire outside a Miami gas station on Christmas night. While Darrell Brackett was being treated for burns over 75 percent of his body at a Miami hospital on Thursday, police continued their search for answers. Brackett and his girlfriend dropped their guests off after hosting a Christmas night cookout. On their way home, the van ran out of gas and Brackett walked to the gas station.

In the fortnight since Chuck Hagel's name was floated for secretary of defense, we have witnessed Washington at its worst. Who is Chuck Hagel? Born in North Platte, Neb., he was a squad leader in Vietnam, twice wounded, who came home to work in Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign, was twice elected U.S. senator, and is chairman of the Atlantic Council and co-chair of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. To The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, however, Hagel is a man "out on the fringes," who has a decade-long record of "hostility to Israel" and is "pro-appeasement-of-Iran." Lest we miss Kristol's...

The reason President Obama and Republicans can't come to an agreement on the fiscal cliff negotiations is that they don't share the same goals. This is also the key to understanding why President Obama appears far less worried about going over the cliff. Republicans are focused on restoring the nation's financial health by promoting economic growth and reducing our horrendous deficits and debt. President Obama's primary aim is to complete his project of fundamentally transforming America. I ask you loyal Democrats to please consider these things. Obama has demonstrated almost no concern for our crushing debt or deficits -- at...

President Obama's decision to nominate Senator John Kerry as his next secretary of state will prove to be a disaster for Israel. The choice of the American Jewish establishment to vehemently protest the expected nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel while granting Kerry a free pass for his anti-Israel behavior follows a longtime pattern. Hagel is a Republican who has a history of marking foolish remarks regarding Israel and has long been seen as an independent thinker on Middle East policy with a non-interventionist outlook. Kerry, however, is the much bigger problem for Israel. Hagel as SecDef will be tasked...

<p>More than 250 Illinois clergy — most of them in the Chicago area — have endorsed a gay marriage bill that could come up for a vote in Springfield before Jan. 9.</p> <p>On Sunday, rabbis and pastors from denominations that support gay rights in varying degrees unveiled a declaration supporting equality for same-sex couples. Fostering faith, justice and compassion is a key component of their jobs, they said.</p>

Mike Harris is contributor to a publication called VeteransToday.com. If you peruse through it closely, it’s basically a website for former military officers turned Ron Paul types or “vast Zionist conspiracy” kookoos for Cocoa Puffs. Here he is on Iran’s state-run PressTV blaming Israel for the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre.

Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel, Dec 27, 2012 / 04:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, has issued a Christmas message that both laments the violence and refugee situation in the Middle East and calls on Christians to live out their faith. “The joy of Christmas is overshadowed by the staggering violence in Syria,” he said Dec. 20. He noted the Catholic Church’s work to assist 250,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, saying this shows the Church is “full of compassion for the victims.” Conflict between rebel forces and the Syrian government has...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- With time running short to avoid tax increases and spending cuts, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday urged House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to offer new fiscal-cliff proposals. "I would hope that the speaker and the Republican leader here in the Senate would come to us and say here's what we think will work," Reid said on the Senate floor. Boehner has said that the Senate must act first to avert the cliff......

Hobby Lobby is a well-known store that many people rely on to supply the needed materials for their arts and crafts projects. I even purchased a wicker basket to carry my eggs in from the chicken house. The store was started in a garage in Oklahoma City and has grown to 525 stores across America. It is a very popular store and highly regarded, but it has a couple of major points against it. First and foremost, it is a Christian-owned business. Secondly, it is in the midst of the fight of its life, as it uses every avenue available...

One of my New Year's resolutions is to work harder to persuade ideological friends and foes alike that the way to reduce partisanship and maximize happiness in America is to embrace federalism -- the view that we should push as many decisions as possible to the lowest local level feasible. Federalism reduces partisanship by shrinking the importance of the federal government. It increases happiness by maximizing the number of people who get to live the way they want to live. Unfortunately, proponents of federalism tend to start the conversation with the really big issues: gay marriage, drugs, guns, abortion, etc....

Yesterday we lost a true American giant, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf. Today, I'm starting a betting pool on how many times obama uses the words "I" "me" or "my" in his eulogy to the General. As was noted in the Weekly Standard, Zero used "I","me" or "my" a total of 63 times in a 1,600-word eulogy to the late Medal of Honor recipient and Senator, Daniel Inouye, to whom he referred as "Danny" in the speech. I will donate $50 to FR in the name of the freeper who posts the closest numeric guess, prior to publication of Dear Reader's failure...

The calendar reads December 27th. Secular society has us fully ensconced in “after-Christmas” sales and is already prepared to move us along to Valentine’s Day. And yet we Catholics know that in terms of the liturgical season of Christmas, we’re just getting started.Some of you may fall prey to the “after Christmas blues” that seem to hit in these days after the big holiday. We’ve spent so much time planning, preparing, cooking and making the past week special for our loved ones that when it finally comes, and then goes by so quickly, we may be left feeling exhausted and...