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That’s the gist of this piece by writer Cara McDonough, who raises a question that’s increasingly common these days. I get several calls a year from people who ask if I can do a wedding for them in a catering hall or on a beach. (Usually, it’s after a priest has turned them down; deacons, of course, are always the last resort.)McDonough writes: My sister-in-law is getting married this spring. I’ve tried on my bridesmaid dress, jotted down the date of her New York City bachelorette party and also, intrigued, watched her struggle as she strives to book a priest.Like...

http://internet-haganah.com/harchives/007413.html "Whither the jihadi forums?" SNIPPET: "There are currently only three jihadi forums that are sufficiently active and well-connected to be of any interest whatsoever. Why we claim to be on the verge of defeating al-Qaida while simultaneously watching passively as they use these forums to regroup and regenerate is beyond me. These are the forums three: • al-Fidaa, a forum created by al-Qaida core. That it is directly linked to al-Qaida by definition moves it to the top of the list. Current membership: 2,462, all of whom can be considered "active" if only because they just joined the forum....

There are few places someone can go to lament the loss of traditional values like FR. Today I'm lamenting the death (or terminal illness) of the sensible American wedding. As a 24-year-old American girl, I attend lots of nuptials, and because of familial obligations certain brides couldn't eschew, I've even been an occasional bridesmaid. Every subsequent wedding I attend seems to be the next in a terrifying sequence of tacky one-upmanship. It's as though each bride has a "ridiculous counter" that ticks up and up during the planning until true perfection of ridiculousness is realized on the big day. Here...

In Afghanistan, wedding celebrations are a unique opportunity for people to show their hospitality. But the size and scale of the events has prompted the government to consider a new law aimed at curbing the extravagant feasts that weddings often become - especially given the level of unemployment and poverty in the country. Officials and other tribal leaders now want to limit the number of guests, as well as the items on the menu, which would instead be drawn up by the municipal authority.

I got some good laughs from the following column (slightly edited) that appeared in the Oct. 4 bulletin of St. Lambert Parish in Skokie, Ill., whose pastor is the staunchly pro-life Father Richard Simon. Humorous, but true! Warning: This episode of the Rev. Know-it-all is extremely offensive. It is not about you or anyone you know. Please read the whole article. The Rev. Know-it-all is not opposed to all wedding celebrations. He is not talking about your wedding, which was a triumph of personal sanctity and good taste. He is probably just having a bad day. Dear Rev. Know-it-all, I...

BANGOR, Maine — The Sabattus woman who enlisted more than a dozen other Mainers, including family and friends, to enter into sham marriages with immigrants was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 10 months in prison. Angela Roy, 37, sobbed as a federal judge described her role as a recruiter and wedding planner in the state’s first spouses-for-hire conspiracy as “extremely significant.” Roy was recruited more than seven years ago by two Massachusetts men, who are natives of Africa, to find men and women willing to marry foreign nationals for a fee so the immigrants could more easily achieve...

The jilted bride who sued her ex for almost $100,000 in wedding expenses may not have been jilted at all. So says the groom, who has filed his own lawsuit, claiming that the decision to cancel the wedding was mutual. He’s seeking the return of a $45,500, 3-carat engagement ring. Both lawsuits do agree on one matter: There was a bachelor party — featuring strippers and lap dances — at a South Loop gentlemen’s club called the Pink Monkey. Dominique Buttitta, the former bride, an attorney who works in Hoffman Estates, filed a breach of promise suit Dec. 11 in...

Timing truly is everything and sometimes - when it comes to love - the timing is just, well, wrong. Or is it? A New York couple is causing quite a brouhaha after their wedding profile ran in the New York Times' Vows section this weekend. Why the controversy? The couple - a New York City television reporter and a high-powered ad executive - told the paper how their love blossomed while they were each married to someone else. That's right. They were each in long-term marriages, and each have children. In fact, it was the children who brought them together,...

If you're looking for a fairy tale ending, you'll need a proposal from your very own Prince Charming and a dress fit for a princess. But how would you feel dressing like a Disney princess? Wedding outfitter Alfred Angelo has teamed up Disney on a collection of gowns inspired by those worn by princesses Ariel, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White and Tiana. No, we're not joking. You can actually dress like the Little Mermaid on your wedding day. Granted there is no aqua mermaid tail, but sea-inspired dress does have a mermaid-style cut, pearl beading, and sequin...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown filed motions Friday calling for resumption of same-sex weddings in the state.</p> <p>The officials filed the motions after U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker previously overturned Proposition 8, California's voter-approved gay marriage ban.</p>

I ran across this historical collection of photos of First Family Weddings and I thought that I'd post some of them for your enjoyment. Many of these I've never seen before. Please go to the link to see all of them.

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters

SNIPPET: "U.S. counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation's most wanted terrorists to last year's thwarted plot to bomb the New York City subway system, authorities said Wednesday. Current and former counterterrorism officials said top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the 9/11 terror attacks."

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

Breaking News: Pakistan Reportedly Detains Five D.C.-Area Muslims on Suspicion of Terror IPT News December 8, 2009 **Updated December 9, 9:00 a.m. EST A Pakistani newspaper reports the arrest of five foreign nationals after a raid in a town called Sargodha. The raid took place at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani movement designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2001. According to the report, "The DPO told that these people had been living in Sargodha since Nov 30 and it was quite a possibility that they were engaged in acts of...

A group of senior clerics, including the Bishop of Salisbury, the Dean of Southwark and four retired bishops, wrote in a letter to The Times today that religious denominations should be allowed to choose whether to register civil partnerships on their premises. "Straight couples have the choice between civil marriage and religious marriage. Gay couples are denied a similar choice. To deny people of faith the opportunity of registering the most important promise of their lives in their willing church or synagogue, according to its liturgy, is plainly discriminatory," they wrote. The Lords amendment to the Equality Bill is likely...

Donald Trump is at odds with officials in Rancho Palos Verdes over weddings at an oceanfront park next to his Trump National Golf Club. Couples can pay less than $1,000 to get married at Founders Park, a 5.5-acre park with spectacular ocean views that sits behind Trump's clubhouse. The park has no bathrooms, limited parking and just a few benches.

ADD to post no. 105: http://www2.lasvegasnow.com/docs/terror_complaint.pdf http://www2.lasvegasnow.com/docs/terror_indict.pdf LAS VEGAS, NV — SNIPPET: “The real end, however, came in a Minnesota Federal Court. Two weeks ago, the FBI arrested Abdow Munye Abdow for two counts of making false statements to a federal official. The FBI believes Abdow lied about his trip to Las Vegas, and a passenger he was with who was on the terrorism watch list. The Nevada Highway Patrol pulled over Abdow and four other people on October 6, 2009 for speeding. Trooper Alan Davidson, a spokesperson for NHP, said the officer on the scene began asking questions.” SNIPPET:...

Terror Suspect's Computer Said to Show Sports Stadiums, Fashion Sites Officials Report Denver Man Sent Texts Suggesting Attack Coming; 'Wedding Cake' Is Ready By RICHARD ESPOSITO, BRIAN ROSS and CLAYTON SANDELL Sept. 19, 2009— --snip-- A computer belonging to alleged al Qaeda suspect Najibullah Zazi showed he had researched baseball and football stadiums and sites used in the recent Fashion Week event in New York City, law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com. Zazi, 24, had been scheduled to spend a fourth day today being questioned by the FBI but his lawyer, Arthur Folsom, canceled the session. "He has taken the day...

SNIPPET: "Two Pakistani students arrested over an alleged terror plot have returned to Pakistan after deciding to leave the UK voluntarily, the Home Office has said. Abdul Khan, 26, and Shoaib Khan, 27, were among 12 people held by police after raids in north-west England in April, but the pair were never charged. The Home Office tried to deport them, saying they remained a security threat. It is understood the men decided to leave after being denied bail while appealing against deportation." SNIPPET: "Twelve students were arrested in the terror raids in Manchester and Liverpool as part of Operation Pathway,...

Two decades ago, when young girls wondered how brides were supposed to look and behave, they'd most likely conclude—with some prompting from Cinderella—that on their big day they'd be a princess. They'd be blushing, virginal and wrapped from head to toe in tulle and lace.

SNIPPET: "Is Tsedkon that I told you there was a large wedding ... and soon .."

Cheney warns of new attacks Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed. In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects. And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than...

Note: Photos included. A Jordanian Wedding Turns into a Massive Show of Support for Al-Qaeda; Al-Zarqawi's Circle Identified TO VIEW THIS CLIP AND OTHERS YOU MUST LOG IN/REGISTER FOR MEMRI TV, AT http://subscriptions.memri.org/content/en/member_registr_tv.htm. REGISTRATION IS FREE OF CHARGE. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1988.htm.

Note: Photo included. January 25, 2009 SNIPPET: "The latest form of jihad: Jihad al-Ziwaj, or "Marriage-Jihad"" GAZA CITY: There was no party, no celebrations when 22-year-old Aida al-Qaddumi finally got married this week. There were no regrets either -- she said she was marrying to raise "fighters" and asked only that she might die as a "martyr" in Israel.

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Until yesterday, outdoor weddings were forbidden in the Archdiocese of Seattle. If a couple wanted an official church marriage, a priest had to perform the ceremony in a parish church building - never outside under the blue skies of the Pacific Northwest with beautiful snow capped mountains in the background. Christine Gregoire is the governor of Washington State. Her daughter Courtney wanted an outdoor wedding at the governor's mansion in Olympia. Yesterday, the Archdiocese of Seattle gave Courtney and Scott the outdoor Roman Catholic wedding they wanted. I am very happy for them and for the precedent this sets for...

Malin Alexandersson and Leif Lundgren celebrated 08-08-08 day by climbing on to the roof of the Stockholm Globe arena to tie the knot. The happy couple had to climb to the top of the 80 metre higher Stockholm landmark with the help of safety harnesses while their guests instead followed the wedding ceremony from a nearby balcony. The heavy rain that hit Stockholm on Friday was close to throwing a spanner in the works - but the rain ceased just prior to the beginning of the ceremony. The couple won the right to matrimony on the Globe's roof in a...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Heterosexual couples are rushing to get married in a conservative California county that plans to halt all civil wedding ceremonies as gay marriage is set to be legalized. Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett says Friday is the last day the county will perform civil weddings. Starting Tuesday, when the California Supreme Court's order legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect, Kern will issue new gender-neutral marriage licenses as required by law. But couples seeking to get hitched will have to go somewhere else for the ceremony. Barnett says the increased demand for ceremonies would overwhelm her staff and pose...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Are you a joyful bride-to-be? An eager (or nervous!) groom? Perhaps you have a son or daughter getting married this spring or summer? Perhaps a beloved grandchild? Or maybe a lifelong friend? The peak of wedding season is arriving and many of us have a special acquaintance or family member ready to “tie the knot” in a beautiful marriage ceremony of thrilling romance and holy commitment. So what does any of this have to do with the law? Why am I raising the subject of weddings in my Christian legal column? I’m writing to brides and grooms and those close...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

ATLANTA: Investigators initially thought a terrorism suspect may have been using his wedding plans to cloak the real purpose of his overseas travel, an FBI agent testified Friday. . . . Inside the lining of the bag, agents found two CDs, maps of Washington, D.C., and Fairfax, Virginia, and some scraps of paper with writing on them.Previously, prosecutors have alleged that "casing videos" of the Capitol building, the World Bank and a fuel tank farm were sent by computer from a nonprofit where Sadequee worked in Atlanta to a counterpart in London.

The San Francisco-based Gay-Straight Alliance Network is urging its clubs on high school and middle school campuses across California to “get active and get engaged” in the 11th annual Freedom to Marry Week. [[MarryWkLogo.jpg]]The Jan. 30 GSA Network News encouraged students to join the nationwide event, which begins today and runs through Feb. 16, because “a fundamental human right -- the right to marry those whom we love -- is denied to LGBT people.” Among the “more than 1000 rights and benefits [that] come with legal marriage, but are currently denied to LGBT people” is “the right to provide two...

The number of gay weddings has plummeted by more than 50 per cent in the past year. Civil partnerships became legal for homosexuals in December 2005, allowing them to acquire the same sorts of tax and pension rights as straight married couples. Initially, thousands of gay and lesbian couples held ceremonies. However, a survey by the Local Government Association found that all the 40 councils across England they surveyed had experienced a fall in the number taking place - the figures show an average drop of 55 per cent in 2007 from 2006.

Disney opens Fairy Tale Weddings to gay couples Fri Apr 6, 2007 7:47 AM IST By Gina Keating LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co. has changed its policy to allow same-sex couples to participate in a popular Fairy Tale Wedding program it runs mainly at its two U.S. resorts and cruise line, a Disney spokesman said on Thursday. Disney previously had allowed gay couples to organize their own weddings or commitment ceremonies at rented meeting rooms at the resorts, but had barred them from purchasing its Fairy Tale Wedding package and holding the event at locations at Disneyland...

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/17/fashion/17vows.600.jpg Adam Berger and Stephen Frank By KATHRYN SHATTUCK THEY had been close friends for years, first at college and later in New York, but now Adam Berger was baring his soul to Stephen Frank. “I have news: I don’t play on your team,” he said, adapting the line from “Seinfeld.” They had gotten to know each other as freshmen at Harvard. As college progressed, they became best friends, dated women and ultimately became suite mates. They bickered, they quibbled, they finished each other’s sentences practically before the one speaking knew what he was actually going to say. So much...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lonely? Feeling low? Try taking a walk -- down the aisle. Getting married enhances mental health, especially if you're depressed, according to a new U.S. study. The benefits of marriage for the depressed are particularly dramatic, a finding that surprised the professor-student team behind the study. "We actually found the opposite of what we expected," said Adrianne Frech, a PhD sociology student at Ohio State University who conducted the study with Kristi Williams, an assistant professor of sociology. They expected to find that one spouse's depression weighed too much on the marriage, but "just mattering to...

See for example this thread first. A theme park cancels "Muslim Day" (Just not enough interest, they say.) A park full of burkhas And some derka-derkas(*) Islam's almost as PC as "gay"!

When one of New York’s most-eligible hard-living, jet-setting, model-dating, turban-wearing bachelors decides (or, more precisely, when his dad decides) the time has come for him to get married, it’s bound to be quite a party.Sometimes it takes a father to know when a young man is ready to step into adulthood by stepping to the plate of holy matrimony. This was the case with Vikram Chatwal, the 34-year-old scion of a sprawling, multicontinental hotel-and-restaurant chain, Hampshire Hotels, controlled by his father, Sant. The family owns eleven hotels in Manhattan, including the Majestic and the Dream in Times Square, which has...

Dubai - A United Arab Emirates court has jailed 12 men who were arrested after being discovered preparing for a gay wedding, but acquitted another 14 defendants, an official said on Sunday. "Eleven men have confessed to practising homsexuality. They were sentenced to five years in prison (for homosexuality) and one year for obscenity," said the official. "Another man was sentenced to one year in prison for obscenity, but was acquitted of homosexuality charges... while 14 others have been released after being found not guilty," he said. The 26 defendants, including UAE citizens, an Indian and three nationals of neighbouring...

DUBAI -- Hounded by police India's most-wanted man Dawood Ibrahim was unable to attend his daughter's Dubai wedding but managed to follow the ceremony live on his laptop "elsewhere", local media reported on Wednesday. "Dawood Ibrahim saw it all; captured live by cameras strategically positioned around the ... ballroom here in Dubai and relayed to his laptop elsewhere," the English-language Khaleej Times said of Saturday's nuptials. A prime suspect in a string of blasts that rocked Mumbai in 1993 killing at least 300 people, the man best known as Dawood was declared a "global terrorist" by the United States in...

NEW DELHI -- With even the wedding invitations being investigated by police, few will admit they're on the guest list let alone boast they're planning to attend the marriage in Dubai this weekend of an Indian crime don's daughter. A mobile phone message invitation - "Your presence is solicited for the auspicious wedding of Mahrukh. For travel arrangements, contact Noorabhai. Regards, from D" - has been sent to top politicians, officials, film and media personalities in Mumbai, according to police and journalists. It was purportedly sent by international fugitive and India's most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim, popularly known by his...

OK, just curious what current wedding etiquette is... among polite society. ie: single people aren't "allowed" to bring a guest unless it is their fiance, or as miss manners asserts, "gifts are brought to a childs birthday party, not a wedding." I have no judgements on either subject I posted above...but I'm just curious what FR folks think since we are in wedding season... any aspect is fair game. who should be tipped by who, is-there-still-a-bride-or-groom-side-of-the-church to who should be giving toats... (I say give a plastic cup and plastic fork to anyone obnoxious enough to start banging their fork...

You're supposed to be happy at your wedding, even though some people aren't. At the same time, it's still considered selfish and immature to run away and abandon the caterers if you're distraught -- even though lots of people probably want to. Part of the culture says the conventional, social bits of weddings don't matter, and part of the culture says they do. Part of the culture says weddings are about true love, and part of the culture says they're about Cuisinarts. It's been hard, to avoid learning that she and her husband had planned to have 28 attendants and...

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – December in Pakistan is known as the Season of Weddings. It is a time that brings young hearts closer, and saddles some families with lifelong debt. A Pakistani wedding is much more than a single event. It stretches over days of songs, dances, meals arranged for hundreds of guests, and a heavy dowry presented to the bridegroom. This lavish social custom is expected even among the poor, which make up more than 30 percent of Pakistan's 140 million people. Now, in a novel effort to help the poor, Pakistan's Supreme Court has upheld a ban on serving...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

UCC: "CBS, NBC refuse to air church's television advertisement" December 1, 2004 - According to a UCC press release, CBS and NBC have refused to air the new UCC television advertisement... and predictably, UCC leaders are going nuts. According to the release, CBS offered this explanation: "Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast...

the French team is confident they have identified a portion of a protein that is common to all types of HIV. It is called CBD1 and is part of the gp41 protein, which is important for helping the AIDS virus dock and infiltrate target cells. The researchers created a peptide chain, the building blocks of proteins, that corresponded to CBD1 and immunized a group of rabbits. The rabbits proved to be resistant to a range of subtypes of HIV-1.

The New York Times broke the media silence on the cause of Arafat's death Friday by suggesting the terrorist leader may have died from AIDS. In an article entitled "Secrecy by Aides and Silence by Doctors Persists, and What Killed Arafat Is Still a Mystery" the paper chronicled Arafat's rapid health decline and the mystery shrouding his illness. Two days before his death, aides revealed that Arafat was in a coma after having a brain hemorrhage. But the Times doubts this stroke was likely not the cause of Arafat's death. Another clue: "At the time of his medical evacuation to...