MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• "The War On Christmas".Oregon: School Says Christmas Holiday Tree Must be Decorated With Muslim and Jewish Symbols.Ashland public schools can display a decorated pine tree if it is surrounded by symbols from other religious holidays, but they should not display a Christmas tree alone, in order to remain religiously neutral, Superintendent Juli Di Chiro told the School Board Monday.District officials have implemented new holiday guidelines this year, after a controversy erupted at Bellview Elementary School last December over Principal Michelle Zundel’s removal of a holiday tree, because a family complained that it was a religious symbol. After dozens of parents and students protested the decision, Zundel replaced the tree, adding other winter decorations and allowing students to decorate the tree with symbols from their own religions.“Something that was problematic was, we didn’t have any written guidelines for teachers and schools to use,” Di Chiro told the board.Hmmm....MY ANSWER : Art 18 of the Universal Human Rights Charter :Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.Read the full dhimmi story here.THis Comment says it all :
  "I think someone should sue, like that teacher is, because having other symbols violates Christianity. The Ten Commandments strictly forbid having "other gods before Me" and worship of idols and other gods. To force that is offensive to Christians and a direct violation of the First commandment."

• HT:TundraTabloids.Israel MK to Turkey: “Sorry We Didn’t Shoot Sooner”.Danon’s speech was as follows:To the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,(by way of the Turkish ambassador to Israel)Regarding: The request for an apology to the government of Turkey for the events aboard the Mavi Marmara of the Gaza flotilla.I would like to apologize to you in the name of the entire state of Israel for the fact that the state of Israel did not take sufficient care to check the terrorist ship Marmara before it left Turkey. That would have prevented the ship from being armed with guns and other weapons, and from transporting terrorist activists under the patronage of the Turkish government.Because of our excellent relationship, and your great respect for the state of Israel and the Zionist enterprise, I must apologize for the fact that the naval commandos who, when they reached the ship, were greeted by armed terrorist resistance that aimed to murder them did not immediately defend themselves with gunfire, and instead acted with restraint toward the pretend “peace activists” who sought to kill them.Apologies for the fact that the commandos acted carefully, taking into account the presence of civilians on the ship, and killed only nine terrorists. If the state authorities had known that there were terrorists on the ship, the order would have been given to kill any person endangering our troops.With your permission, one more apology is necessary, for Israel’s decision to release the dangerous terror supporters who were on the ship and not put them on trial for attempted murder, and even to pay for their tickets home.And finally, please accept our full and heartfelt apology, for not asking the United Nations to censure Turkey, and for not demanding an investigation into the connection between the IHH terrorist organization, your party and you, Mr. Erdogan.Warm wishes,MK Danny Danon, speaking on behalf of the Israeli Knesset.Hmmm....Now that's my kind of apology !Read the full story here.

• Iran Threat to Kill American Generals Is Real, Experts Say.A leader of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard is promising that American generals will be targeted and killed in revenge for last week's attacks on two of his country's leading nuclear scientists -- a threat Middle East experts say must be taken seriously.In a speech published in Farsi at an Iranian website linked to the Revolutionary Guard, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi was quoted as saying that “the filthy Americans and the Zionists should not think that with killing our scientists, they can divert our nation from its path of Jihad and scare us.” He continued with a specific threat: “We will mark the hanging sites of the American and Zionist generals and we will identify which hanging was in retaliation for the blood of our great martyrs.Shahriari.Reza Kahlili, a former CIA spy who left Iran first discovered the comments, said "that the United States should be concerned about this threat."Jim Phillips, an expert on Middle East Policy for the Heritage Foundation, and Alireza Nader, an expert in Iran’s leadership at the RAND Corporation, said Iran often makes outlandish threats, but they agreed that this one has to be taken as a serious and credible threat because it came directly from Naghdi.“It is significant that this commander made specific threats,” Nader said. “Usually these threats are taken with a grain of salt, but there is a history of the Iranian regime retaliating against U.S. forces in a covert manner, especially in Iraq.”Both Phillips and Nader said that the most likely place for an attack to occur would be Iraq, and any attack would most likely be carried out by surrogates working for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.Read the full story here.

• HT:WZ.Obama Condemns Iran Suicide Bombings, Still Silent on Daily Slaughter of Iraqi Christians.Hmmm...If you were a Muslim would you act in another way?They can murder Christians & Jews but that's not a problem to this President?Read and see the full story here.

• Iran: Two Sunni Jihadist Suicide Bombers Attack Shia Mosque, 38 Killed.Two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a mosque in southeastern Iran on Wednesday, killing at least 38 people at a Shiite mourning ceremony, state media reported.The attack took place outside the Imam Hussein Mosque in the port city of Chahbahar, near the border with Pakistan, the official IRNA news agency said.The bombers targeted a group of worshippers at a mourning ceremony a day before Ashoura, which commemorates the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein, one of Shiite Islam’s most beloved saints.Southeastern Iran is home to an armed Sunni militant group, Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, which has waged sporadic attacks to fight alleged discrimination against the area’s Sunni minority in overwhelmingly Shiite Iran.There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the use of multiple suicide attackers to target Shiite worshippers is a tactic the group has employed in the past.One of the attackers detonated a bomb outside the mosque and the other struck from inside a crowd of worshippers, state TV reported.Security forces shot one of them, but the bomber was still able to detonate the explosives, the report said, quoting deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi. A third attacker was arrested, state TV said.Hmmm.....Is there anyone they don't kill?Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:BigGoverment.Video: Why Net Neutrality Is a Terrible Idea.Network Neutrality is a metaphysically bad idea.But it remains a Leftist wish list item. So Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Don Quixote – I mean Julius Genachowski – is set to ram it down our throats on December 21st, tilting at ideological windmills to the egregious detriment of the American people. And commandeering vast new unconstitutional authority over the Internet in a pathetically transparent attempt to justify Net Neutrality’s emplacement – a power grab to justify another power grab.To best delineate why Net Neutrality is so terribly bad, behold the following video. In which is laid out the worst portions of Net Neutrality – and the Marxist reasons why the Left wants it done.Please, enjoy – aside from the growing anger that will incept and ensue as you watch, I mean.Many thanks to Mike Wendy and MediaFreedom.org for shooting the reel.Hmmm...Big Brother's strangle hold in practice.Read the full story here.

• Iraq Warns U.S. and Europe al-Qaeda Prisoners Have Told Them of Planned Suicide Attacks During Christmas Season.Iraqi authorities have obtained confessions from captured insurgents who claim al-Qaida is planning suicide attacks in the United States and Europe during the Christmas season, two senior officials said Wednesday.There was no way to verify the insurgents’ claims. But Western counterterrorism officials generally are on high alert during the holiday season, especially since last year’s failed attack by Umar FaroukAbdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.Al-Bolani said several insurgents claimed to be part of a cell that took its orders directly from al-Qaida’s central leadership. He said at least one of the captured suspects was a foreign fighter from Tunisia.The confessions were the result of recent operations by Iraqi security forces that have netted at least 73 suspected operatives in the last two weeks, al-Bolani said.Hmmm...Merry Christmas infidels?Read the full story here.

• HT:MichelleMalkin.The Dems’ lame-duck land grab.Environmentalists hate sprawl — except when it comes to the size of their expansive pet legislation on Capitol Hill.In a last-ditch lame duck push, eco-lobbyists have been furiously pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to pass a monstrous 327-page omnibus government lands bill crammed with more than 120 separate measures to lock up vast swaths of wilderness areas. Despite the time crunch, Senate Democrats in search of 60 votes are working behind the scenes to buy off green Republicans. House Democrats would then need a two-thirds majority to fast-track the bill to the White House before the GOP takes over on Jan. 5.Yes, the hurdles are high. But with Reid and company now vowing to work straight through Christmas into the new year (when politicians know Americans are preoccupied with the holidays), anything is possible. The Constitution is no obstacle to these power grabbers. Neither is a ticking clock.The sweeping bill bundles up scores of controversial proposals, including:

1. – A stalled land transfer and gravel mining ban in Reid’s home state of Nevada.
2. – The designation of the Devil’s Staircase Wilderness in Oregon as a federally protected wilderness where logging and road development would be prohibited.
3. – Multiple watershed and scenic river designations that limit economic activity and threaten private property rights.
4. – The creation of massive new national monument boundaries and wilderness areas along the southern border opposed by ranchers, farmers, local officials and citizens.One New Mexico activist, Marita Noon, said the federal plans to usurp nearly a half-million acres in her state would result in an “illegal immigrant superhighway” off-limits to border security enforcement. Security analyst Dana Joel Gattuso pointed to a recent General Accounting Office report on how environmental permitting rules and land-use regulations have hampered policing efforts at all but three stations along the border.Hmmmm....If you wanted to destroy America would you do it any different?Read the full story here.

• Colorado Capitulation: Boulder sheriff will allow Muslima to Wear Hijab in Jail Photo.
  Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle will allow a Muslim woman to wear her head-covering in a jail booking photo, provided she push the scarf back far enough to expose her hairline and ears. The compromise puts an end to a controversy sparked when Maria Hardman, a University of Colorado student and convert to Islam, refused to take off her hijab for a booking photo when she reported for a two-day work-release sentence.The decision came a day after a Boulder County judge denied Hardman’s request to either serve an alternative sentence or keep on the scarf, which exposed her face. However, Boulder County Judge Noel Blum asked jail officials in his ruling to consider whether some accommodation could be made.The judge ruled Monday that the jail’s offer to allow Hardman to have her mug shot taken in a separate room with no men around was an adequate protection of her religious beliefs.“The court is not persuaded that this accommodation would still constitute removal of her headscarf in public, and the accommodation is reasonable in the court’s estimation,” Blum wrote.But the judge also hedged his order by urging the jail staff to see if it could find a way around the ban on head-coverings for booking photos in this particular case.Hmmmm....A pitty her "religious" beliefs didn't prevent her from drinking in the first place?Read the full story here.

• "Walled" Churches and checkpoints. Christmas for Iraqi Christians.Potential new attacks during the Christmas season three meter high concrete walls will be erected around the churches in Baghdad and Mosul. The access points to the parishes will be controlled by police equipped with scanners and metal detectors, according to reports by Catholic News Service. The barriers are the Iraqi government's response to escalating threats and violence against minority religious communities, increasingly the target of crime and Islamic terrorism.The Christmas celebrations will consist of masses and small parties within the boundaries of the parishes, but there is frustration among the faithful. "The sadness of the people is everywhere. Insecurity and uncertainty are everywhere. The question on everyone's lips is 'who is next?” Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda told Aid to the Church in Need. "There's a certain desperation, but whatever happens, the faithful are determined to celebrate the Christmas liturgy at all costs”.Bishop Warda said the barriers and security measures make the faithful feel as if "they were entering a military camp. " In any case, the bishop welcomes the Government's initiative to ensure security during the important religious holiday.Hmmmm....At least there no PC Dhimmi will ask to put Islamic symbols on the Christmas tree.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari wants the country's Blasphemy Law to be reviewed, a minority member of the Sindh Assembly has revealed.MPA Pitanbar Sewani, speaking at the meeting on 'Communities vulnerable because of their beliefs' organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said Zardari had responded to a point raised by him during a meeting held at the Sindh Chief Minister's House.The Dawn quoted Sewani, as saying that he had raised the issue of the blasphemy law being misused to cause harassment to the minorities, and Zardari had agreed to have it reviewed and amended, if necessary."The federal government may examine it and take necessary action," he quoted Zardari, as saying.The action on this issue was to be taken by the federal law minister, he added.Several human right activists have called for a repeal of the Blasphemy Law, following the case of Aasia Bibi, the Pakistani-Christian woman sentenced to death on blasphemy charges.However, Pakistan Law Minister Babar Awan had categorically said in November that no one should think of repealing this law."In my presence, as the Law Minister, no one should think of finishing this law," he had said.Hmmm....Now we know why Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUIF)(firebrand pro-Taliban cleric) left the coalition.Read the full story here.

• A farmer named Suha Arafat? WikiLeaks documents reveal American diplomats were puzzled by request for Tunisian citizenship made by former Palestinian Authority chairman's widow in 2006. One of benefits – owning agricultural land – did not seem very attractive as 'Mrs. Arafat is not known to be an aspiring farmer'.American official were puzzled in 2006 by a request made by former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's widow Suah Arafat for a Tunisian citizenship, a document released Tuesday by the WikiLeaks website revealed.The Americans were occupied with the request because they couldn't understand why Suha Arafat would want a Tunisian citizenship, as she had been living in the African country since 2004 and had a diplomatic passport. "She already enjoyed the privilege of a Tunisian diplomatic passport, and we doubt that she was eager to exercise her right to vote in Tunisia or become a member of the Tunisian National Assembly," said a secret American report sent to Washington.The Americans estimated that "the only other tangible benefit of citizenship is that Tunisian law forbids foreigners to own agricultural land," but noted that "Mrs. Arafat is not known to be an aspiring farmer." The American representative presented an assumption: "One possible motivation is that under Tunisian law, foreign participation in a totally non-exporting service industry cannot exceed 50%. Several months ago, Mrs. Arafat set up one such company – to build an international school in Tunis. Tunisian citizenship will allow her to control this company." Hmmm...International school for what?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGoverment.Supreme Court Justice Breyer: Founders Were For Restricting Guns… Why Breyer is Wrong.On Fox News Sunday, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke of his dissenting decisions in the several Second Amendment cases that he heard as a Justice. He told host Chris Wallace that he thought that James Madison only included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights as a sop to the states and Breyer insisted that historians agreed.In his Report on Navigation of the Mississippi in 1792, Jefferson wrote, “It is a principle that the right to a thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is to say, that the means follow their end.”In other words, if the government can legislate away firearms, saying they “could not be used,” then this would essentially take away the natural right of self-protection, the “means” being the firearms, that nearly every founder agreed existed.In summation, Breyer is wrong. Madison wasn’t dismissive of an individual’s right to bear arms. He and his fellows assumed the right existed as a basic tenet of our natural rights.Read the full story here.

• Virginia: Another Muslim arrested, threatened to blow up DC trains.An Arlington man is accused of threatening to set off bombs around D.C., including in the Metro system, but was caught through messages he sent on Facebook before a plot was developed.Awais Younis, who also goes by Sundullah “Sunny” Ghilzai as well as Mohhanme Khan, was charged in federal court in Alexandria with making threatening communications.Younis was a recent graduate of George Mason University, where convicted terrorist Zachary Chesser attended. He also spent time studying at the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University. He was also a summer intern for three months in the Department of the Interior.Did the terrorist-hosting Congressional Muslim Staffers or the Muslim Public Service Network help this young Muslim get a government internship as they have scores of other Muslims?Hmmmm....Talk about the ennemy within?Read the full story here.HT:CreepingSharia.

• HT:ElderOfZion.China disagrees with Arab world over Jerusalem?It went unnoticed by me, and apparently by much of the international English language media, that China, a traditionally loyal diplomatic backer and arms supplier of the Arab states and their terrorist proxies, is carving out an increasingly nuanced position on the Israeli-Arab conflict, one more balanced to the interest of the State of Israel and more likely to result in a just and lasting peace agreement.A dispute on Jerusalem between the Chinese and the Arab delegation, attending the fourth session of the Ministerial Meeting of China-Arab Cooperation Forum in the port city of Tianjin. The dispute erupted after Chinese officials refused to sign a joint document with the delegation, which includes the Arab Foreign Ministers, East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. According to Al Jazeera's correspondent in China, Ezzat Shahrour that the Arab delegation was surprised at the last minute when Chinese officials refused to sign the document, despite all the efforts that have been made at the last minute in order to contain the situation.The Al Jazeera article does seem to say that - the Chinese refused to sign a paper calling Jerusalem the capital of a Palestinian state.So while it does indeed appear that China is not officially supportive of Jerusalem being the capital of a Palestinian Arab state, they still want Jerusalem to be divided. It is an interesting piece of political intrigue, though.Hmmm...Interesting stand they took.Read the full story here.

• HT:WZ.Video - Hilarious: Baghdad Bob Says He Thinks Dems Will Stay up Late Reading 1924-Page Omnibus Spending Bill…Promptly Laughed at by White House Press Corps.See the full story here.

• HT:TheJawaReport.Sandcrawler PSA: Buy an Israeli Product for Christmas.The poisonous organisation, Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK) had the wonderful idea to find every Israeli product they can in the UK supermarket Tesco, put them all in their trolley and take them to the check out. Once there they allow the Tesco checkout person to scan everything and then, in such a witty and ironic statement of defiance, they refuse to pay and start lecturing all around on the evils of buying Jewish and Israeli products.That is all.Wanna really annoy MPAC? Buy a fine bottle of Israeli Wine!Hmmm...Just imagine if all Non Muslims would bring all the "Hallal" labeled stuff to the checkouts and refuse to pay after scanning them?Read the full story here.

• New 'Hijab' Charges Brought Against Iranian Rights Lawyer.New criminal charges have been brought against detained Iranian human rights lawyer and women's rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, her husband has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.Reza Khandan told Radio Farda on December 14 that his wife must appear in court on December 27 to defend herself against charges of "not wearing the hijab" and "not observing Islamic standards of conduct."Khandan said that when his wife was barred from leaving Iran to receive an international human rights award in 2008, she sent a message via video clip to the International Human Rights Committee in Italy, which had selected her as the awardee."Her new charge is that she did not wear a head scarf in that video clip," Khandan said.Khandan said Sotoudeh has not yet been sentenced, but in a phone call late on December 13 she said that she was told by officials that they would not let the judge sentence her to less than 10 years imprisonment.Sotoudeh has staged three hunger strikes since her detention. She began the most recent one on December 7. Khandan said that she has become extremely weak:"She could barely talk, and during our last phone conversation it cost her a lot of energy to utter every sentence," he said.Sotoudeh represented a number of political prisoners who were arrested during the unrest following last year's disputed presidential election.Hmmm....The barenaked Hardline Islamic Mullahs,when will the US President speak up against all the opression world wide?Read the full story here.

• HT:TundraTabloids.More Muslims praying in the wrong direction.remember the Capitol Prayer?TIME: WASHINGTON – SEPTEMBER 25: Muslims say prayer during the ‘Islam on Capitol Hill 2009′ event at the West Front Lawn of the U.S. Capitol September 25, 2009 in Washington, DC. Thousands of Muslims gathered for the event to promote the diversity of Islam.Since a Muslim is to always point in the direction of Mecca for prayer, this is proof that mass praying isn’t really of religious significance, but primarily of showing primacy of numbers and clout .KGS. Hmmm...Teach them how to work with a Mecca locator?Location,Location!Read and see the full story here.

• Kids write Santa this year for basic needs instead of toys.Santa Claus and his elves are seeing more heartbreaking letters this year as children cite their parents' economic troubles in their wish lists.U.S. Postal Service workers who handle letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole say more letters ask for basics — coats, socks and shoes — rather than Barbie dolls, video games and computers.At New York City's main post office, Head Elf Pete Fontana and 22 staff elves will sort 2 million letters in Operation Santa, which connects needy children with "Secret Santas" who answer their wishes.Fontana, a customer relations coordinator for the Postal Service, has been head elf for 15 years."The need is greater this year than I've ever seen it," he says. "One little girl didn't want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother."At more than 20 post offices, workers log every letter, black out identifying information except first name and age, and ask the public to respond. Lobby displays promote the program. People return with gifts and letters, which carriers deliver.Cesar, 7, wrote for himself and his baby sister."This year my moom don't have much money to spend on Christmas gifts so I'm writing to you," Cesar told Santa. "It would make us very happy if you and your elves would bring us toys and clothes."Hmmmm.....This is the "Change" people asked for??Read the full story here.