Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO — It was the week before Christmas when Irv Sutley, a former warehouse worker, first saw the offending ornament in a government building in Sonoma County, just north of here. “I was turning around in the lobby, and I noticed the tree,” Mr. Sutley said. “And then, I noticed the angel.” Mr. Sutley, an atheist, said he then went to the office of the county Board of Supervisors. “And there was a star,” he said. Technically, neither stars nor angels belong to any particular religion. But to the mind of Mr. Sutley, 65, a veteran who has fought...

Obama's "Christ"mas (Obamacare) gift to the masses (Xmas Eve Vote A Conspiracy?) Could there be with some narcissistic irony, that on the night of the Christ Child's birth, Barack Hussein Obama (and who knows what faith he really espouses?) gives the gift of Obamacare to the masses of our (last time I looked) constitutional republic, one nation under God and indivisible (?)... Could this Xmas Eve Vote be the mother of all conspiracies?

Meet Chicago's secret Santa ... Steve Albini Stories of seasonal goodwill are increasingly rare these days, especially ones that involve the US postal service, Santa Claus and legendary producer Steve Albini. So prepare to have your cold, cold hearts melted by this joyous tale. According to the Chicago Tribune, Albini (best known for his work with Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Will Oldham, Shellac, oh you get the idea) loads a van with money, clothes and toys raised each year in a charity drive and dishes them out to cash-strapped families across the city. "There's so much money that it can literally...

CHRISTMAS IN JAPAN can be a little lonely and isolated for the Westerner here. What with the distance from “home” and cultural differences. Little things, here and there. Missing some of the usual things from back home, especially for people like one particular 'American in Tokyo'. This year 2009 is again no different. However, in many respects I must say there is nevertheless one little thing that is so refreshing about being stuck in Japan during Christmas—after a few years—and for the occasions one cannot make it back "home". It is almost like the clock has been refreshingly and...

President Barack Obama ... ... is slated to deliver a prime-time address on Tuesday night in which he'll lay out his plans for the American war in Afghanistan. The address before the United States Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday night will not only be used to announce the immediate order to deploy roughly 30,000 more troops, but the administration will also use the occasion to convey how it intends to turn the fight over to the Kabul government, the New York Times reported. But the administration may also face an unforeseen enemy as it lays out its long-awaited...

Since the ACLU doesn't like the word "Christmas", let's send a Christmas Card to them in New York. Make sure the card is all about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ! Address: ACLU 125 Broad Street 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 Merry Christmas!

Starry eyed children around the world are writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole, but this holiday season they'll not likely to get a response from Santa or his helpers. The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular effort begun in 1954 in the small town of North Pole, in Alaska's interior, where volunteers tackle up to 150,000 letters addressed to Santa. Postal Service officials cite privacy concerns loomed last winter when a postal worker in Maryland recognized a volunteer in the agency's Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the...

The Episcopal Church is joining the Interfaith Immigration Coalition postcard campaign, aimed at sending a holiday message to members of the U.S. Congress. The message: "Help keep immigrant families together by supporting comprehensive immigration reform now." An action alert from the Episcopal Public Policy Network (EPPN) said its goal is to collect 10,000 signed postcards "and send a strong message to Congress that people of faith want to see action on comprehensive immigration reform." "Your participation in the Holiday Postcard campaign will help us remind Members of Congress that our broken immigration system is hurting immigrant families, and needs to...

The economy is putting a squeeze on the nation's biggest arts complex. The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is canceling its holiday tree lighting ceremony in December. The decorated tree erected in the center's main plaza has become an annual tradition, with a live televised ceremony drawing both New Yorkers and tourists. Lincoln Center blames the cancellation on what it calls "the challenging economic climate" -- and also construction at the entrance to the plaza. “[Construction] will be completed by next year, but it is in no shape to hold the group that the tree attracts," Kate Merlino, a...

Someone tell me again about how the Religion of Peace is tolerant of other religions. Christians who went to observe their Christmas at Nazareth, the birthplace of Jesus, were greeting with a giant banner announcing that Allah has no son right in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Just wait to see what will happen if the gain control of all of the west bank holy sites. Read the full story below:

The right-wing crusade against the liberal "war on Christmas" is great for rallying the troops. Too bad the war doesn't exist. In 1959, the recently formed John Birch Society issued an urgent alert: Christmas was under attack. In a JBS pamphlet titled "There Goes Christmas?!" a writer named Hubert Kregeloh warned, "One of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." The central front in this perfidious assault was American department stores, where...

’Tis the season … to be green. No, not even the traditions of Christmas are immune to the efforts of global warming activism. No, it’s not Al Gore’s, “How Greenhouse Gases Stole Christmas,” but a children’s story is pushing a similar green agenda. The recently published book by Anne Margaret Lewis called “Santa Goes Green” is about a boy who writes Santa and asks him to help raise awareness about global warming so that his adopted polar bear won’t lose its home. “You see, it’s like this Santa,” the book reads. “I’ve adopted a polar bear named Leopold. He is...

Lots of people love this movie of course. But I’m convinced it’s for the wrong reasons. Because to me “It’s a Wonderful Life” is anything but a cheery holiday tale. Sitting in that dark public high school classroom, I shuddered as the projector whirred and George Bailey’s life unspooled.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The odds of a "white Christmas" in temperate parts of the northern hemisphere have diminished in the last century due to climate change and will likely decline further by 2100, climate and meteorology experts said. Even though heavy snow this year will guarantee a white Christmas in many parts of Asia, Europe and North America, an 0.7-degree Celsius (1.3 Fahrenheit) rise in world temperatures since 1900 and projected bigger rises by 2100 suggest an inexorable trend. "The probability of snow on the ground at Christmas is already lower than it was even 50 years ago but it...

It is the discovery of three almost invisible drawings on the back of Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin and Child With Saint Anne in the Louvre museum in Paris that has the French art world screaming "Sacre bleu!" Reminiscent of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, the mysterious sketches were found by experts looking into restoring the sixteenth-century masterpiece. They were detected when a curator noticed that some of the gray marks behind Virgin and Child With Saint Anne resembled a horse's head. An infrared photo confirmed his suspicion and revealed two other sketches: a human skull and the infant Jesus with...

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – On the day Muslims around the world began to celebrate Eid al-Adha, Fatuma Mohamed was at the Mall of America (MOA), far away from where she would normally say her prayers. But she and other Muslims needed to take time from the activities of the mall and find a quiet area to pray as Muslims do during the festival that commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his only son for God. “I said my prayer right at that corner,” Mohamed said, pointing to the spot. Another Muslim, Amran Ali, did the same. “I had to say my prayer...

A primary school teacher who left a class of 25 pupils in tears after she told told them Santa Claus did not exist has been fired.. When excited youngsters became rowdy as they talked about Santa, the supply teacher blurted out: 'It's your parents who leave out presents on Christmas Day.' The class of seven-year-olds at Blackshaw Lane Primary School, Royton, near Oldham, Greater Manchester burst into tears and told their parents when they arrived home. Mothers and fathers then complained about the incident and were sent a letter by the school saying the substitute teacher, who only worked at...

Because "public life" now entails virtually every part of our lives, erasing references to God entirely from public life means virtually eliminating them from America. Imagine, if you will, a gala birthday party given in your honor. The guests will sing, dance, give presents, eat, drink, and have the merriest of times. The hitch: your name will not be mentioned, the gifts will not be for you, the celebrants won't be thinking about you, and everyone would sort of prefer that you not come. That's all that will be left of Christmas if various groups have their way. All across...

It may not be too late to send the presents back, as astronomers have calculated that Christmas should not be celebrated on December 25 - but on June 17 instead. Researchers tracked the appearance of the 'Christmas star', which the Bible states three wise men followed to find Jesus. Australian stargazer Dave Reneke used complex computer software to chart the exact positions of all celestial bodies and map the night sky as it would have appeared over the Holy Land more than 2,000 years ago. He discovered that a bright star really did appear over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago -...

Astronomers have calculated that Christmas should be in June, by charting the appearance of the 'Christmas star' which the Bible says led the three Wise Men to Jesus. They found that a bright star which appeared over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago pinpointed the date of Christ's birth as June 17 rather than December 25. The researchers claim the 'Christmas star' was most likely a magnificent conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, which were so close together they would have shone unusually brightly as a single "beacon of light" which appeared suddenly. If the team is correct, it would mean...

Just in time for the Christmas season, Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire has insulted Christians all over the world. Inside the state Capitol building in Olympia there is a traditional holiday display featuring a tree and the Nativity scene; perfectly appropriate since the federal and state Christmas holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. But this year Gregoire decided to add another item to the display. Standing alongside the baby Jesus is a giant placard designed by atheists that reads: "There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion...

Here is a sample of how diversity is being celebrated this December: · Elementary school students in Plainfield, Illinois are decorating a “Holiday” tree that represents 18 countries. · A “Holiday Revelry” will be performed at the Framingham Civic League in Massachusetts; it is a “multicultural” event that includes “PAC Sword Dancers” and “traditional” Christmas songs such as “Pat-A-Pan.” · “Winter Traditions” will be celebrated at the Fort Collins Museum in Colorado. They include “Celebrations of Light” that highlight “traditions, cultures and celebrations from across the world.” · At a high school in Ocean City, Maryland, the annual “Winter Concert”...

Dan Barker of the Freedom from Religion Foundation on December 1, 2008's Fox & Friends stated that the nativity scene represented 'hate speech' and 'a direct attack on good human values.'

A primary school infuriated parents after cancelling the traditional Christmas nativity play to make way for the Muslim festival of Eid. Parents at the Nottingham school were told that the planned performance had to be pulled because some of the pupils wanted to celebrate Eid at home with their families. In a letter, sent by the staff at Greenwood Junior School, mothers and fathers were told: 'It is with much regret that we have had to cancel this year's Christmas performances. 'This is due to the Eid celebrations that take place next week and its effect on our performers.' However,...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- An atheist group has unveiled an anti-religion placard in the state Capitol, joining a Christian Nativity scene and "holiday tree" on display during December. The atheists' sign was installed Monday by Washington members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group based in Madison, Wis. With a nod to the winter solstice - the year's shortest day, occurring in late December - the placard reads, in part, "There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

NEW YORK - In a season that inspires earnest letters about toys, one notable batch is being sent not by kids to Santa’s workshop but by parents to the executive suites of real-world toy makers. The message: Please, cut back on marketing your products directly to our children. The letter-writing initiative was launched by the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which says roughly 1,400 of its members and supporters have contacted 24 leading toy companies and retailers to express concern about ads aimed at kids. “By bombarding them with advertisements ... you are placing parents like me in the...

Thank you Tom DeFrank for asking the Idiot Question of the Week: Tom DeFrank: Mr. President-elect, as we all know we’re — as we all know, we’re two — two days away from the biggest shopping day of the year, and a lot of retailers are worrying that this year it could be a disaster that this economy can ill afford. Do you — do you have any shopping advice for nervous consumers? And are you planning to hit the malls yourself on Friday? OBAMA: Well, we are going to do some — some Christmas shopping. And Malia and Sasha...

Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick! Nothing to dampen the Christmas cheer like a free bloody fetus! “People are making really tough decisions about putting gas in their car and food on their table, so we know that many women especially put healthcare at the bottom of their list to do,” said Chrystal Struben-Hall, Vice President of Planned Parenthood of Indiana… “They can be seen for sexually transmitted disease screenings, HIV tests and general prostate exams and those kinds of things,” said Struben-Hall. Some Hoosiers 24-Hour News 8 talked to asked if the gift certificates could be used towards abortions. The...

In the last few years, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ has been celebrated as “winter holidays” with “holiday trees” and “season’s greetings.” December has become the month of the “Christmas wars”: In some schools and public squares, Nativity scenes and Christmas carols are forbidden or replaced by non-religious displays and songs. By now, we are used to seeing movies, TV shows, novels, papers, magazines, websites, works of modern art and stage plays mock religion, especially Christian symbols and practices. The Catholic Church authorities are often portrayed as criminals involved in different kinds of malicious activities. Anti-Christian legislation isn’t...

Insiders are telling me that end-of-year stats regarding DVD sales of 2008's major movie titles are looking like a disaster areas. The guesstimates are that even blockbuster titles like Iron Man and Hancock will be down 30%. Interesting that studios which earlier claimed their film biz was near-recession proof are now blaming the economy rather than new digital media delivery options.

U.S. holiday retail sales will fall 1 percent this year, according to America's Research Group, marking the first time the research firm has forecast a decline in almost a quarter century of surveys. "This year looks so bad that even normally good signs for retail sales, such as more Americans staying home this Christmas, can't save the season for retailers," said C. Britt Beemer, CEO and founder of the research group, in a news release.

What 'culture war'? At the conventions, they'll try to stir up red-blue divisions. But most Americans hold un-partisan views. By Dick Meyer August 27, 2008 As the nation's attention reluctantly turns to the political parties' conventions, with their scripted suspense and stage-managed sentiment, it is important to keep in mind that these are phony representations of American political life. But the slick video profiles, the teary appearance of a beloved party elder -- these are not what is most phony about the conventions. This gathering of America's civic tribes -- and the reporters who love them -- in separate cities...

When it came time to decide what to do with his family's Christmas tree farm in Monroe Township, Thomas Allen didn't have a lot of options. His grown children had no interest in the business, and Allen couldn't work the land while holding down his full-time job supervising town recreation. The farm in Middlesex County, where Christmas trees have been sold for 40 years, didn't generate enough profit to provide his sole income. So Allen did what so many farmers in New Jersey before him have done. He sold his land to developers. As farmers like Allen leave the cut-your-own...

Merchants long have tried to lure shoppers into rising at ungodly hours to snare blockbuster bargains on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. But are the deals actually better? Turns out that often they are not.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Two separate Eugene families whose Nativity scenes were desecrated last week when a vandal replaced the baby Jesus figures with severed pigs' heads say they were targeted because of their religious faith. The culprits left other, more secular decorations untouched and focused only on the families' religious displays. "To me, they definitely wanted to make a religious statement," said David Stahl of Eugene, who discovered a pig head in his front yard Thursday. "This takes definite thought and too much anger." Eugene police are investigating the cases as possible bias crimes, a classification that could lead to...

With Kwanzaa just starting and New Years still days away, retailer's attempts to be inclusive go right out the window with the annual "after holiday" sales that start on December 26. Barnes and Noble, in an effort not to offend, refused to use the dreaded C word in pre-Christmas ads. I guess they don't get the idea that running Barnes and Noble's "after holiday" sale starting December 26 kinda lets people know what "holiday" you meant all along. Kmart goes so far as to have a cartoon in an ad saying to decorations "Lets spend the Holidays together again next...

<p>While a majority of American adults still believe that Jesus should be the focus of the holiday season, a growing segment of the population disagrees.</p> <p>A recent poll conducted by the Rasmussen Reports found that 27 percent of respondents said that there should be less of a Christian emphasis on the holidays. That's up 10 percentage points from a year ago when just 17 percent of adults felt that way.</p>

Christmas in Japan can be a little lonely and isolated for the Westerner. What with the distance and cultural differences. Missing the usual things from back home, especially for one 'American in Tokyo'. This year 2007 is no different. However, in many respects there is nevertheless one little thing that is so refreshing about being stuck in Japan during Christmas—after a few years--for the occasions one cannot make it back "home". It is almost like the clock has been turned back years to a simple and brighter time in our own country. An era years before the phenomenon of "political...

For most Minnesotans, December is a festive month of merrymaking and good cheer. But at the University of Minnesota it's the most dangerous time of the year. A Dec. 5 article on the University's website, "Reevaluating seasonal office parties," sets forth the perils. Its authors, Dee Anne Bonebright of the U's Office of Human Resources and Julie Sweitzer of the Office of System Academic Administration, exhort U employees to be on their guard. The memo makes clear that the limits most of us have learned to put on our Christmas spirit in recent years -- you know, catching yourself before...

(CNSNews.com) - With Dec. 25 only days away, a central image in the celebration of Christmas - the manger scene featuring replicas of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus - has become the focus of attacks by vandals and leaders of "the secular Left," Christian groups charged on Wednesday. While the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights was erecting a nativity scene in New York City's Central Park, the group issued a news release condemning three dozen instances in which manger scenes were vandalized or stolen from Antioch, Calif., to Leesburg, Va., this Christmas season. "In perhaps the sickest...

MARIETTA, GA (Crime Library) — And so this is Christmas, and what has John Hayes done? He's taken the reindeers and rearranged them for fun. Dasher and Dancer used to hold their heads high, but when John boy was finished, they both wanted to cry. He'd taken their innocence and thrown it away, leaving them behind in a sexually explicit display. I'm no poet or songwriter and I admit I might have been influenced a tad by John Lennon's Christmas song, which just so happened to come over the radio as I penned that opening, but then again Lennon was...

Pembroke Pines - The Pembroke Lakes Mall appears to have the standard holiday decorations. There's a photo booth with a Rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer theme by the food court; presents are wedged between palm trees; poinsettias rise from flower pots and combine into the shape of a Christmas tree. And next to a pair of benches in front of Dillard's, on a white-and-blue pedestal, stands a 5-foot-tall menorah. But for Len Torres, 79, of Plantation, who campaigns every holiday season to get Broward malls to include nativity scenes, that Jewish religious symbol makes Pembroke Lakes' refusal to set up a creche feel like...

“You say you want a revolution, well you know, We all want to change the world...” – The Beatles, Revolution Ironic, if one reads all of the lyrics to The Beatles Revolution: Despite being left-leaners for their time, the tune almost sounds like something a conservative music artist might write today. Snapshot of America: For the moment, we are still “allowed” to believe and say what we wish. I am not saying this to underscore my right to say what follows, but to acknowledge the right of those with whom I vehemently disagree to believe and say what we wish....

An e-mail fracas at North Seattle Community College hits on why "the most wonderful season of all" causes us so much angst. Here in Seattle, the phrase "Merry Christmas" has been largely expunged from public discourse. Haltingly and awkwardly, we wish each other happy holiday; we talk vaguely about a holiday season; we plan parties that by all appearances look like Christmas parties, but we never call them such. This despite every indication that Christmas, at least the consumerist trappings of it, is alive and well. Every Starbucks sign hawks a peppermint latte; the sound of Barbra Streisand belting out...

Need something a bit more, you know, sexy and subversive this holiday? Here you go - No fruit baskets. No swell digital cameras and no "Sopranos" DVD sets and no noxious copies of "High School Musical 2" and no "Eat, Pray, Love" and nothing at all approved or endorsed by Oprah. No golfing figurines. No sports paraphernalia. No candleholders. No pink fleece hoodies with little glittery skulls. Not on this, my annual list, anyway. Just random delicious deeply cool things I've come across that make a statement or warm your blood or taste unreal or that serve some sort of...

<p>LONDON (CNS) – A priest from the Diocese of East Anglia, England, has decided to replace a live Nativity scene for a replica of the wall encircling Bethlehem in protest of the Israeli separation barrier.</p> <p>Each year hundreds of people come to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in St. Ives in Cambridgeshire to see the live sheep, a cow and donkey, and actors who occasionally have brought their newborn babies to play the role of Jesus for the Nativity scene.</p>

Only weeks after voting for a resolution that "recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world," nine Democrats in the U.S. House refused to vote for a Christmas resolution that condemns the worldwide persecution of Christians. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., was on the list of those who endorsed the statement recognizing Islam but refused to support the Christmas resolution that noted the holiday "is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States and around the world." The Christmas resolution, like the Ramadan resolution, decried the violence that targets religion around the world. A spokesman...

Congressman backed Ramadan, Diwali, But the Washington Democrat drew the line at Christmas.

Only weeks after voting for a resolution that "recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world," nine Democrats in the U.S. House refused to vote for a Christmas resolution that condemns the worldwide persecution of Christians.

Only weeks after voting for a resolution that "recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world," nine Democrats in the U.S. House refused to vote for a Christmas resolution that condemns the worldwide persecution of Christians.