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A group of religious castoffs has been attacking fellow Amish, cutting off their hair and beards in an apparent feud over spiritual differences, including incidents in Holmes and Carroll counties.

A BOY of 15 has been banned from class because he has grown a beard. Teachers put 6ft 2in Harrison Cerami in isolation when he refused to shave. But mum Kerry, 41, claims razors would trouble her son’s acne and has taken him out of the school in protest. She said: “There are ­children with earrings, nose rings, eyebrow ­piercings – yet Harry’s being singled out for having a beard. “He’s hit puberty and is just a hairy lad who wants to have a nice, trimmed beard. “I could understand the isolation punishment for something more serious, but to be...

She's standing by her man -- but that act seems to be wearing thin. Rep. Anthony Weiner's humiliated wife sheepishly showed her face at a Washington event yesterday, keeping a stiff upper lip amid the swirling scandal surrounding her husband's tawdry Twitter photo. Huma Abedin, 34, briefly hesitated at the State Department ballroom door before working up the courage to go in -- but she left after just five minutes and steered clear of her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Meet the man with the world's most impressive beard. Elmar Weisser, a 47 year-old hairdresser, beat 160 hopefuls from 15 countries to take first prize in the World Beard and Moustache Championship, held this year in Trondheim, Norway. His facial creation included a moose and a Norwegian flag. Weisser was well-groomed for victory – he'd won the competition several times before, he told AFP. He won in 2005 in Berlin by shaping his beard into the landmark Brandenburg Gate. In 2007, he declared victory in won in England for his recreation of the Tower Bridge.

“Celebrities have other needs,” so says the Israeli super-duper model Bar Refaeli, she of the Illustrated Sports sexy swimsuit edition, and the part-time girlfriend of the aging boy actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. > ...she used the fake marriage to avoid having to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, something required of all young Israelis, both male and female. Here is the full quote from the Israeli website Ynet.com. “I really wanted to serve in the IDF, but I don’t regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time,” she said. “That’s just the way it is, celebrities have other needs. I...

Patrick Kennedy, the 43-year-old former Rhode Island congressman and son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, is engaged to be married to a New Jersey middle school teacher. Kennedy, a lifelong bachelor, got engaged Saturday in Rhode Island to Amy Petitgout, former aide Sean Richardson said Monday. No wedding date has been set.

WASHINGTON – Here's Michelle Obama's advice for couples this Valentine's Day: laugh with your partner. She says it's what she and President Barack Obama do, and it seems to be working.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California's attorney general says religious beliefs aren't enough to trump a corrections department ban on prison guards wearing beards - a stance that drew protests Tuesday from civil rights organizations. Attorney General Kamala Harris argued in a Sacramento County Superior Court filing Jan. 6 that Trilochan Oberoi can't be properly fitted for a gas mask if he keeps the facial hair required by his Sikh religion.

Sen. Tom Coburn caught Washington’s attention Tuesday by sporting a new beard for the lame-duck session, just in time for what are sure to be intense debates over extending tax cuts, repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and ratifying START. Is the Oklahoma Republican sending a political message with his new look? Coburn’s spokesman, John Hart, said he was aware his boss’ facial addition caused a stir, particularly on Twitter, but insisted he’s not trying to attract attention. “He just decided to stop shaving,” said Hart. “It has no premeditated point to it.”The senator’s mostly white facial hair sticks out because,...

An annual contest in Austria that determine most creative beard & moustache.

According to the Politico's Maggie Haberman, US Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has married Huma Abedin, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and a Muslim. The wedding occurred on July 10th on Long Island, NY. The short article states the wedding was officiated by Bill Clinton. This should be interesting. One wonders if the Jewish population of Weiner's Brooklyn and Queens district knows of this and if how they will react. Weiner is up for re-election this coming November. Thomas Lifson adds: According to Jewish law, only children of Jewish mothers are regarded as Jewish. Should the happy couple have children,...

Call him the officiator-in-chief: Former President Bill Clinton will preside at the wedding of New York Rep. Anthony Weiner to a longtime aide of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. That's according to people familiar with the ceremony. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. Aides to Weiner and the former president declined to comment.

A Pakistani man was detained at the U.S. Embassy in Chile yesterday after field tests detected explosive residue on his hands and personal items, the State Department said today. A U.S. official tells ABC News the man had been recently added to a U.S. terror watch list, and as a result his U.S. visa was in the process of being revoked. In accordance with U.S. law, the man had been notified of the intention to revoke his U.S. visa and he was at the embassy to discuss the matter.

OAKLAND — A You Tube video showing a fight between two AC Transit bus riders has ignited a flurry of online debates about violence, race and the safety of public transit. The video, which shows an older white man exchanging blows with a younger black man, is attracting hundreds of thousands of hits. The fight took place Tuesday afternoon on a bus in downtown Oakland, near the corner of Harrison and Webster streets. We will update this story when further details are available.

An Arab ambassador escaped married life by a whisker. The diplomat had his marriage instantly annulled after he tried to kiss his veiled bride and discovered she had a beard and was cross-eyed. The unnamed groom had never seen the woman's face because she wore a niqab throughout their entire courtship, according to reports. He freaked out after they signed the marriage contract in Dubai, canceled the reception and went right to an Islamic Sharia court. He demanded the union be annulled, that $137,000 he'd spent on wedding gifts and expenses be returned, and the bride be examined for "hormonal...

A Dubai man whose fiancée kept her charms hidden under a niqab opted for a quick divorce after his first glimpse beneath the veil revealed she was cross-eyed and sported a beard. According to Gulf News, the unnamed "ambassador" never saw his intended's face on the few times they met, but was convinced all was well since the bride's mother had shown his mum pictures of his wife-to-be.

(Excerpt): he envoy had only met the woman a few times, during which she had hidden her face behind a niqab, the Gulf News reported. After the marriage contract was signed, the ambassador attempted to kiss his bride-to-be. It was only then that he discovered her facial hair and eyes. ... He sued for the contract to be annulled ....

FBI agents hoping to break up an alleged interstate crime ring dealing in arson, fraud and possibly stolen vehicles, ended up in a gunfight at a Detroit-area warehouse, after which a suspect lay dead. The FBI sought to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a. Christopher Thomas, 53, who a criminal complaint said was the imam of a radical fundamentalist Sunni group called Masjid Al-Haqq that seeks to establish a sovereign Islamic state inside the United States... Abdullah and 10 others were charged today in a criminal complaint with conspiracy and theft of interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of...

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Showdows of things to come? Now we see why she wears the pants in the Family.

PC Javid Iqbal: 'My beard is an important part of my identity' A Muslim police officer claims he was forced out of his job by colleagues who made fun of his beard and called him a 'f***ing Paki'. PC Javid Iqbal, 38, said white officers openly discussed in front of him how they were ' better' than their ethnic-minority colleagues. The married father of two also claims officers pulled faces at each other if told they had to go out on patrol with him and forced him to walk home from a job instead of picking him up. Mr...

 Maxim Ali Campoverdi (above) is rumored to be dating White House speechwriter Jon Favreau. For the bevy of single ladies interested in dating Obama’s speechwriter Jon Favreau, the news that he is off the market was sad enough. But to learn that his current girlfriend, Ali Campoverdi, not only works for the White House, but is also a former Maxim model and a Harvard grad seems a bit much. Click here to see Campoverdi bare it all in Maxim. Indeed, rumors are swirling that Campoverdi, whose spread in Maxim no doubt helped her win Favreau’s heart, has the White House’s...

Obama's 27-year-old whizz kid speechwriter 'dating former Maxim model who is now a White House aide' 26th January 2009 He is said to work 16 hours a day and and was unable to get a date during the presidential campaign. But now Barack Obama's 27-year-old speechwriter, Jon Favreau, is dating a former Maxim model and actress who is working with him at the White House. Ali Campoverdi stripped off for Maxim in 2004 - and told the men's magazine that she was looking for a man who was 'passionate' about something.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Dec. 12) - Gov. Charlie Crist became the first sitting Florida governor to wed in nearly 42 years, exchanging vows Friday at a ceremony attended by some 200 relatives, friends and celebrities. The 52-year-old governor wed his 39-year-old bride, New York socialite Carole Rome, at First United Methodist Church, a short walk from Crist's rented condo in St. Petersburg. They had met at a dinner in New York City in September 2007 and Crist proposed less than 10 months later with a sapphire engagement ring.

"Wow!" That was Chris Matthews' immediate reaction to Barack Obama's response to a question from a Fox News reporter about why his pick for Commerce Secretary, Bill Richardson, shaved his beard off. After playing a clip from Obama's press conference introducing Richardson on Monday night's "Hardball," Matthews awed at the "intellectual" way Obama analyzed Richardson's personal grooming habits.

A former corrections officer has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Kane County Sheriff's Department, claiming he was forced to resign after refusing to shave his traditional Muslim beard. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, seeks unspecified damages and a letter of apology to Abal Zaidi, who says he was forced out of the department because of his faith. "I always had a beard as long as I can remember," Zaidi, 31, said in a brief telephone interview Tuesday. "They were just giving me a hard time." According to the lawsuit, Zaidi, of Streamwood, was a Kane County...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist won't be sleeping alone in the governor's mansion much longer -- he is engaged (video: MyFoxOrlando) to a woman he met in New York City last September who quickly captured his heart. Crist, 51, asked Carole Rome to marry him Thursday morning at his St. Petersburg apartment, giving her a blue sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds. She immediately said yes. "I'm very happy and couldn't be more pleased. What a great way to celebrate America's birthday," said Crist, who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain....

ST. PETERSBURG - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is engaged to a woman he met last September during a trip to New York, according to a published report Thursday evening. Crist asked Carole Rome, his girlfriend of nine months, to marry him on Thursday at his St. Petersburg apartment, the St. Petersburg Times reported on its Web site. Crist says she said yes without hesitation.

FORMER DRIVER: I HAD THREESOME WITH JIM & DINA March 16, 2008 -- A former driver and aide for former N.J. Gov. Jim McGreevey says Dina Matos McGreevey must have always known her husband was gay - because he was the other man in bed with them. In an explosive interview with The Post, the McGreeveys' longtime man-in-the-middle, Teddy Pedersen, recounted explicit details of alleged, titillating, three-way sex romps he had with the now-divorcing duo, starting during their courtship and continuing into the marriage. Pedersen - who said he has already spilled the beans on the steamy ménage a trios...

For months, Gov. Charlie Crist has insisted that New York socialite Carol Rome is just "a friend," but Tuesday night at a soiree in the Governor's Mansion, he introduced her as "my girlfriend," says the Tallahassee Democrat, which snapped the picture above. In November, the New York Post reported that Rome, in the midst of divorcing Bluestar Jets CEO Todd Rome, was dating Crist. Then, the governor's staff said Rome, a mother of school-age girls, was just "a friend." Still, last month Crist took Rome to the White House for a dinner with President Bush. So far, that's two high-profile...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Elizabeth Edwards says avoiding the "Made in China" label on toys is not exactly child's play. With millions of recalls rolling in this year because of lead in toys, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards vowed during a debate there would be no Chinese made gifts under his Christmas tree. But, the former North Carolina senator says he immediately had to check with his wife to make sure he was right. The Edwards campaign says the kids will be unwrapping U.S.-made toys, but wouldn't get into the specifics as not to spoil anyone's gifts.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful John Edwards inadvertently made the late night comedy shows this year when his campaign spending reports included two $400 haircuts. Now Mrs. Edwards has joined other candidates helping a Concord hair stylist who wants to turn the controversy into help for a good cause. David Holden owns Hair Biz on Main Street, a couple of doors away from an Edwards campaign office. After the Democratic former senator's haircut made news last spring, Holden challenged presidential hopefuls to come in for $400 haircuts of their own, promising to donate all of the proceeds to autism...

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/NEWS09/709150332/1001/NEWS Cannot be posted due to copyright issues.

Characteristically, no one is picking up on the significance of the dye job. The Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence forbids men and women to dye their hair black "except when the intention is jihad...as a show of strength to unbelievers" ('Umdat al-Salik e.4.4). Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in his The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, says essentially the same thing: "Some of the early Muslims, including some sahabah [companions of Muhammad] such as Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, 'Uqbah ibn 'Amr, al-Hassan, al-Hussein, Jarir, and others permitted the use of black dye. Some scholars, on the other hand, do not consider...

Elizabeth Edwards Responds to Attack Over Parenting Skills August 28, 2007 7:36 PM ABC News Sunlen Miller Reports: Elizabeth Edwards is taking some heat about her parenting skills from the mom-friendly website "Silicon Valley Moms Blog." Blogger "Rebecca" wrote a fiery tirade on the site Monday morning attacking Mrs. Edwards choice to bring her two small children, Jack and Emma Claire, on the campaign trail with her while her husband, John Edwards runs for president. "…. you are being a terrible mother, forcing your young children, who should be in SCHOOL, to ride in buses and talk to the press...

ELIZABETH EDWARDS complained to the Progressive magazine that anti-war critics such as Sen. Barack Obama are "behaving in a holier-than-thou" manner on Iraq. Too bad for Edwards that Obama opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, while her husband then-Sen. John Edwards - as well as Sens. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd - voted for the Iraq war resolution. Holier-than-thou anti-war Democrats. Isn't that phrase redundant? Elizabeth Edwards now is more than John Edwards' wife. She has become his Spiro Agnew. Remember Agnew, President Richard M. Nixon's first vice president and designated hatchet man, known famously for dismissing...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: In an interview in August's edition of The Progressive magazine, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., takes candid shots at the other candidates battling for the Democratic nomination against her husband. "The problem for me with the other candidates is I don't know what it is that drives them," she explained, "I should think the president has to be somebody who has that kind of vision outside themselves." Mrs. Edwards praised her husband for apologizing for his vote in favor of the Iraq War, and questioned Senator Hillary Clinton's, D-N.Y., for not...

I just got off a conference call with John Edwards' deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince and two supporters in the LGBT community in which the campaign sought to portray Edwards as the Democratic field's best champion of gay rights ahead of tonight's debate on gay issues in Los Angeles. Predictably, most questions focused on gay marriage. Edwards, like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, does not support gay marriage but backs civil unions. For the most part, Prince ducked the question of why Edwards does not support marriage by emphasizing the candidate's advocacy for civil unions, which he called "an issue...

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards included Helena-West Helena in his recent eight-state tour focusing on poverty issues. But local leaders feel somewhat slighted. Mayor James Valley says Edwards' brief visit was disappointing. Valley says he had wanted to hear more about what Edwards envisioned for east Arkansas, and he had hoped to pitch to the former senator from North Carolina reasons why there should be more development in the state's struggling Delta region. The Reverend Julious McGruder of the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church said he was glad to have the chance to see a presidential candidate, but said he...

July 17, 2007 | Elizabeth Edwards is not wasting time. She cut through the fog of sympathy and second-guessing about her decision to continue campaigning for her husband, John Edwards, despite learning in March she had incurable breast cancer, simply by hitting the campaign trail hard. By most accounts she has always been the campaign's leading strategist and still is. But lately she has emerged as its leading risk taker, too. At the end of June she won the nation's attention -- and the gratitude of many -- for confronting right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter live on MSNBC's "Hardball," after Coulter...

Why does the elegant senator from North Carolina continue his run for the presidency? Washington correspondent Geoff Elliott reports: POOR John Edwards. He follows Barack Obama on the podium at a conference of mostly anti-war Democrats and it's like watching air whistle out of a balloon. Obama, a charismatic candidate for change in the mould of Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy, has just worked the crowd brilliantly. Then Edwards walks in, a little later than scheduled at the Take Back America conference, thanks to an impromptu grab-and-grip show from Obama. Cameras are being pocketed again and seats resumed for...

Elizabeth Edwards told a prominent gay rights group Saturday night that her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards, would help repeal more than a thousand laws that discriminate against same-sex couples. As she campaigns for her husband in California, Elizabeth Edwards has staked out an independent position on gay rights. She appeared last month at a breakfast before San Francisco's gay pride parade, where she announced her support for gay marriage. The next day, her husband, John Edwards, said her position surprised even him. The former North Carolina Sen. opposes gay marriage but supports civil unions. Her speech Saturday to the...

"Democratic presidential hopeful, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, left, helps Richard Knight, right, and David Martin with a firehose at a firefighter's muster in Moultonborough, N.H., Saturday, July 7, 2007. Edwards is vacationing in New Hampshire with his family. ""Rain begins to fall as Democratic presidential hopeful former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina walks with his family, wife, Elizabeth and children, Jack, and Emma Claire, at a firefighter's muster in Moultonborough, N.H., Saturday, July 7, 2007. Edwards' is vacationing in New Hampshire with his family."

For four decades, Joseph Torrenueva has cut the hair of Hollywood celebrities, including Marlon Brando and Bob Barker, so when a friend told him in 2003 that a presidential candidate needed grooming advice, he agreed to help. The Beverly Hills hairstylist, a Democrat, said he hit it off with then-Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) at a meeting in Los Angeles that brought several fashion experts together to advise the candidate on his appearance. Since then, Torrenueva has cut Edwards's hair at least 16 times. At first, the haircuts were free. But because Torrenueva often had to fly somewhere on the campaign...

Three months after Elizabeth Edwards said that her cancer had returned in inoperable form, her role and influence in John Edwards’s presidential campaign is undiminished. She has made a flurry of charged public appearances, become a regular presence advising Mr. Edwards on the campaign trail, and wields behind-the-scenes influence in many internal campaign decisions, aides said. Mrs. Edwards has also become a free operator on behalf of her husband of 29 years, a development that her friends suggest reflects the clarity and perspective that come from her cancer diagnosis, and her increasingly confident political instincts as she advises Mr. Edwards,...

This week, I read that Ann Coulter had said some pretty shocking things about Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards. I wondered why she would say such things. Then, as Paul Harvey might say, I read the rest of the story. Here's the gist: On ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast, Ann Coulter was asked about some critical language she had used about Edwards. In her response, she recalled something that the often-coarse comedian Bill Maher once said about Vice President Dick Cheney. She said, "… you know, Bill Maher was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed...

Chris Matthews bushwacks Ann Coulter by setting up a call from Elizabeth Edwards during his full hour with Coulter on Hardball last night.Video Here Mrs. Edwards gets owned by Ann Coulter when it is brought up the sleezy tactics that Edwards (A Democrat candidate for President of the United States of America) has used in his profession as an Attorney that exploits doctors and children for his own enrichment.

"U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and his wife Elizabeth appear on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" with host Jay Leno (R) during a taping of the show at NBC Studios in Burbank, California, June 25. 2007."

Let us say right up front that it's terrific that John Edwards lives in a country where he can lose an election and still land a $480,000 part-time job as a consultant to an investment firm that keeps its hedge funds in the Cayman Islands as a tax shelter for its clients. This truly is the land of opportunity. We're also encouraged to hear that, according to the former Senator's spokesman, "John Edwards is running for President to give every American the opportunities that he's had." While there may not be enough half-a-million-dollar-a-year part-time consulting gigs to go around just...

Amanda Beard, a swimmer who has won seven Olympic medals, is planning to pose in Playboy, and Swimming World Magazine says that fact is "dominating discussion among the swimming community." Is a swimmer posing in Playboy really such a big deal that it should dominate the discussion among the swimming community? I don't think it is, but With Leather cites someone who thinks it's a very big deal: