MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• "The War On Christmas"!'The Evils of Christmas': Muslim group launches poster campaign against festive period.Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have launched a nationwide poster campaign denouncing Christmas as evil.Organisers plan to put up thousands of placards around the UK claiming the season of goodwill is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and paedophilia.They hope the campaign will help 'destroy Christmas' in this country and lead to Britons converting to Islam instead.Labour MP and anti racist campaigner Jim Fitzpatrick branded the posters 'extremely offensive' and demanded they were immediately ripped down.The placards, which have already appeared in parts of London, feature an apparently festive scene with an image of the Star of Bethlehem over a Christmas tree. But under a banner announcing 'the evils of Christmas' it features a message mocking the song the 12 Days of Christmas.It reads: 'On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me an STD (sexually transmitted disease).'On the second day debt, on the third rape, the fourth teenage pregnancies and then there was abortion.'According to the posters, Christmas is also to responsible for paganism, domestic violence, homelessness, vandalism, alcohol and drugs. Another offence of Christmas, it proclaims, is 'claiming God has a son'.The bottom of the poster declares: 'In Islam we are protected from all of these evils. We have marriage, family, honour, dignity, security, rights for man, woman and child.' The campaign's organiser is 27-year-old Abu Rumaysah, who once called for Sharia Law in Britain at a press conference held by hate preacher leader Anjem Choudary, the leader of militant group Islam4UK.Mr Rumaysah told the Mail that he was unconcerned about offending Christians.He said: 'Christmas is a lie and as Muslims it is our duty to attack it.Sister Christine Frost, founder of the East London Neighbours in Poplar charity, said: 'The more posters I saw, the more angry I got.'Someone is stirring hatred which leaves the road open to revenge attacks or petrol bombs through letter-boxes.'I told the Mayor we are all scared.'If we said such things about Muslims, we'd all be hanging from lamp-posts.Read the full story here.

• Erdoğan recalls Nobel spirit in genocide bill debate.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has expressed hope that US President Barack Obama would support Turkey’s stance concerning a vote by the US House of Representatives on a resolution declaring the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide, suggesting that such support would comply with the Nobel spirit. Erdoğan, speaking to reporters late on Tuesday, was cautious as he said that last-minute developments could occur.“We are following this closely. However, we have always been told of the Nobel as peace and as love. I believe that those who argue for peace and love will stand behind this argument,” Erdoğan said at a joint press conference with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otri. In October 2009, the Nobel committee awarded Obama the Peace Prize, citing what it expected he would accomplish in reducing threats around the globe.
  Hmmmm....Read the full story here.

• Turkish man goes on trial for plot to kill rabbis.Suspect says he 'hates Jews' but denies murder allegations, faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. A Turkish news agency said that a court has released a man whom prosecutors accuse of plotting to murder Jewish rabbis and the Istanbul-based leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.The Anatolia agency says suspect Ismet Recber was freed pending the outcome of the trial following the first hearing Wednesday. Recber, a carpenter, resident of the eastern city of Kars, was arrested by the police's counter-terrorism forces last June. He told his investigators that he "hates Jews" but denied that he had planned to kill leaders of Turkey's 20,000-member Jewish community. He faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of plotting to kill Patriarch Bartholomew I. The arrest came on the backdrop of the serious diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey, which began during the Israeli operation in Gaza and peaked following the deadly Navy raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, which prompted Ankara to recall its ambassador in Tel Aviv and sever ties with Israel. However, Turkish leaders have stressed all along that their only problem was with the Israeli government, not with its citizens or with Jews.Anatolia says the man was arrested after an anonymous letter was sent to authorities claiming that a suspect in a separate trial had chosen Recber to carry out the killings.Hmmmm....Remember another case in June?: "Funeral of Turkish Bishop: Brutal Beheading. Muslim Confesses 'I killed the great Satan!'".Read the full story here.

• Obama’s Attny Gen. Says Americans More Dangerous Than Al Qaeda.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News that he has “sleepless nights” over his worry about domestic terrorists. He thinks that Americans, natural born are far more dangerous than foreign terrorists. At some level he has a point, but the way he phrased the whole issue once again proves that neither he, nor his president by extension, really have any logical grasp of the evil we face in radical Islam. In fact, they are philosophically resistant to even see Islam as the enemy.“It is one of the things that keeps me up at night,” Holder told ABC News. “You didn’t worry about this even two years ago — about individuals, about Americans, to the extent that we now do. And — that is of — of great concern.”“The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens — raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born,” he said. Notice the phrasing here? Look at the words he used: individuals; Americans; citizens; for whatever reason; decided to become radicalized.Did you notice what word or words are not present? You guessed it: Islam and/or Muslims.Apparently the Attny. Gen. thinks that Americans simply “become” terrorists “for whatever reason” and not because they’ve converted to Islam. You see, Mr. Holder, the “whatever reason” happens to be Islam. That is the common denominator for domestic terrorism today.Hmmmm....Stop listening to the voices,just keep taking the red and the blue pill?Read the full insanity story here.

• HT:EmergingCorruption.First Amendment Blues.“Congress shall make no law, respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – First Amendment, U.S. ConstitutionWhat part of the First Amendment does the Federal Communication Commission, led by Chairman Julius Genachowski, and three of its five appointed commissioners, not understand?If the Internet is not about free speech, than nothing is.Need it be said that President Obama made it known that he supports “net neutrality” as “an important step in preventing abuses and continuing to advance the Internet as an engine of productivity growth and innovation.” Blah, blah, blah.Dictators hate any form of mass communication they cannot control. Consider the news in early December that Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez, was defending plans for a law that would, according to the Washington Post, “impose broadcast-type regulations on the Internet, saying Sunday that his government should protect citizens against online crimes.”In Venezuela, criticizing Hugo Chavez, who has just been granted power to rule by decree, will no doubt be considered an Internet crime. Chavez thinks Obama is the best thing that ever happened to America and so does Cuba’s Fidel Castro.Even a small step toward the regulation of the Internet is a very big step toward curbing free speech and free access to information of all kinds, good, bad or just plain evil. In America citizens are expected to sort out lies and make their own judgments. That’s why a million of them showed up in Washington, D.C. in March to demand Obamacare be rejected.“The rules the FCC will impose are unenforceable without Congressional approval—as a federal court made clear in April,” notes Bruce Walker, managing editor of The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News. ”The FCC has now only prolonged the regulatory uncertainty its net neutrality threats originally created. This will negatively impact jobs and investment in the Internet industry.”This is not the end of this abomination, but it is a loud signal and indication of the way the leftist administration of President Obama has striven to harm the economy, imposing huge debt, grasping control of the healthcare sector, the financial sector, major auto manufacturers, the insurance industry, and now the power of the Internet to inform Americans against its tyranny.It is, however, the FCC’s attack on free speech and freedom of the press via the Internet that tells Americans everything they need to know about President Obama and his lackeys.Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.'Palestine' is big. It includes all of Israel.The official Palestinian Authority Television station is telling viewers that 'Palestine' is 27,000 square kilometers. To be that big, it would have to include the entire state of Israel.The official Palestinian Authority Television station is telling viewers that 'Palestine' shares a border with Syria. For that to happen, Israel would have to disappear.The official Palestinian Authority Television station is telling viewers that Tiberias and Rosh HaNikra are part of 'Palestine.' Both these locations are on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice lines.Contrary to the repeated statements by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to foreign leaders that the PA recognizes Israel, the PA internally in Arabic continues to deny Israel's existence and to present a world without Israel.The PA transmits the message to its people that it does not recognize Israel's existence, describing all Israeli land, cities and regions as "Palestinian." Palestinian TV is one tool among many used by the PA to disseminate this message.Hmmm...It's pretty obviousPalestime will NEVER recognise Israel,and judging from the way Obama keeps hammering Jewish construction neighter will he.Read the full story here.

• All aboard the high-speed 'Gül Train' from Pakistan to Turkey.A train named after the Turkish president may soon transport cargo at high speeds between Turkey and Pakistan, opening both countries up to large European and Asian markets, the Pakistani president has said.“The upgrading of the existing rail link will cut the travel time between the two countries,” he added. “It will open up vast European and Asian markets to the benefit not only of Pakistan and Turkey but also of all people in the region.”Zardari, who is in Turkey to attend the Economic Cooperation Organization summit taking place in Istanbul from Wednesday to Friday, even has a name picked out for the planned train. “I would suggest that the train may be named after the Turkish president as the ‘Gül Train,’” he wrote.Despite its close ties and cooperation with the United States, however, Zardari said Pakistan feels uneasy about the U.S. military’s drone attacks in its territory.“Pakistan has asked that drone technology be given to it for use against militants. Drones operated by Pakistani security personnel under the Pakistani flag will be acceptable, but drones operated by foreign forces under a foreign flag are viewed as an intrusion of sovereignty and deeply resented by the people and therefore counter-productive,” he said.“While both the United States and NATO leadership apologized for recent incursions, drone attacks are still continuing,” Zardari added. “We consider this to be counter-productive and against our sovereignty. Such incidents negatively impact Pakistani public opinion.Religious education in Pakistan’s madrassas needs to be reformed and brought up to the same level as any other modern school in order to fight extremism, the country’s president has said.“We need international assistance in the education sector. Substantial financial support is needed to set up educational institutes that serve as alternatives to radical madrassas in parts of the country that promote a militant mindset and taught extremism,” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said.Saying that these radical schools were created by very intelligent minds as an ideological “monster” for strategic military purposes, he said the schools needed to be countered with better schools and colleges.Hmmmmm....."Murder On The Islamabad....Ankara....Teheran Nuclear express"?Read the full story here.

• HT:KleinVerzet.Spitting in our food. In the ongoing case of 'stealth halal', featured earlier on KV here and here, there was some news last week: Almost all Dutch (Gouda and Edam) cheese in Dutch supermarkets is halal. And nobody knows or is being told.We learned all this form an item in the little viewed TV magazine 'Uitgelicht'. The broadcast in question can be found here (NL). The pertinent section starts at 11:30.The gist of it: Friesland Campina, arguably the largest supplier of supermarket cheese, produces halal cheese. In fact all but one of the brands of cheese is halal.To produce cheese, milk has to be coagulated. This can only be done by using rennet, which is extracted from the stomach of butchered calves. In the case of halal cheese (at this point you may already have guessed) the rennet comes from halal butchered calves.The goal is that all cheese whey will be halal certified by February 1st, 2009.The reason for this is as depressingly mundane as it is shocking:The demand for halal lactose for halal child food is far greater then the supply. The profit from halal lactose suitable for children's food is € 0,25 per kilo higher then lactose for regular food applications. Lactose is made from cheese whey from, amongst others, the Campina cheese factories. That is why we want to have our cheese whey certified.You may wonder why the fact that this ambition to become 'halal certified', or that all cheese from Friesland Campina factories is now halal, was never communicated.Or why Friesland Campina refused an interview on camera for the Uitgelicht item. Evidently Friesland Campina is quite reticent, embarrassed even, about letting us know in what manner their cheese has been produced. The reason is not hard to fathom. Halal is part of shariah law and as Afshin Ellian notes in the item: If a label "Conform Shariah" were to be put on a product it would instantly stop selling.In the same vain we learned that Nutrilon baby food is 100% halal (NL), or that Hollands largest supermarket chain, Albert Heijn, cannot guarantee its meat products are not halal. We learn this from De Dagelijkse Standaard (NL), who published en exchange of emails between ALbert Heijn and an inquisitive consumer. The main issue with halal butchering is not whether an animal was stunned or not before having its throat slit. Rather, the main issue seems to be invoking the name of Allah when the throat is slit, while the animals head is pointing towards Mecca. As Abdullah Ali-Salah, boss of the organisation Halal Correct, that provides halal certificates explains in the Uitgelicht item, it is a short prayer: "Bismallah, Allahu Akbar" (In the name of Allah, Allah is greatest).In fact the entire food industry is submitting us to sharia law, without even having the decency to tell us about it. And if you think I am exaggerating, I refer you to the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Halal food movement has the strength to lead Muslims to rule the global economy as the food is the basic need of every human beingAll of a sudden we are back on very familiar territory: Muslims trying to conquer the world, by waging economic jihad in this matter, in the name of the perversion they have for a god and those we entrust with an important aspect of our daily lives, betraying us for a few measly bucks. I don't think 'betrayal' is too strong a word in this matter. However else can call it when the industry is turning all of our food into halal food, but tries to hide this form their customers? Was this supposed to be an in-joke, a bitter prank at our expense, by Friesland Campina (or Albert Heijn) and the Ummah in Holland?Hmmmm....Read the full story here.

• HT:ElderOfZion.IHH and HRW: Two sides of the same coin.Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has an important report showing that Turkey's IHH is not a "humanitarian organization" but is pushing a political, anti-Israel agenda.Some of the aid IHH gave the Palestinians was humanitarian, intended to ease the physical distress of the Palestinian population and improve its economic standing. However, some aspects of the aid, as described in the booklet, also clearly have political implications, such as the large amounts of money and equipment given to the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, donations of money to the families of shaheeds in the Gaza Strip and the construction of houses (possibly of terrorist operatives) to replace those destroyed by Israel in Judea and Samaria. The donations help Hamas' civilian network, which supports terrorism, and its educational system in the Gaza Strip, which indoctrinates the younger generation with radical Islam and sets them on the path of terrorism ("resistance"). In addition, IHH waged a propaganda campaign in Turkey during the years before Operation Cast Lead, contributing to Turkish hatred of Israel and sympathy for Hamas.This is not terribly surprising, but it is important for those who still consider IHH a "humanitarian aid" organization.Human Rights Watch, when dealing with Israel, is not following a human-rights agenda, but rather a political agenda to delegitimize and punish Israel for often-imaginary abuses, while allowing governments that have real human rights abuses to pass without any specific recommendations to punish them. Which means that HRW does not treat Israel as a violator of human rights but as a political target.Just like IHH.Read and see the full story here. More here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.USA: Southern California To Hear Ahmadiyya Muslim Peaceful message.The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the peaceful community that has accepted Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the second advent of the Messiah. We are in excess of 170 million living in 195 countries of the world. We are different from other Muslims in the following ideologies:

1. Terrorism in all forms, shapes or styles is totally un-Islamic.
2. Jihad with weapons and violence is not required or needed as we have full freedom of practicing our faith.
3. We denounce all forms of suicide bombings and do not subscribe to any form of violence as per Islamic teaching: If one kills a person it is as if he has killed a nation.
4. We do not believe that apostates should be given the death penalty as Islam teaches that there is no compulsion in religion.
5. We do not believe in the literal graphic picture of heaven and hell as other Muslims view these Quranic expressions; they are metaphorical, as we will not carry the same physical bodies of this world into the next.
6. We believe that God the Merciful is a living God with all His beautiful characteristics and traits, one of which is communicating with humans. He has not discontinued talking with His chosen ones. He continues to hear and speak as He always did.At this annual convention we are sharing our views of spreading the peaceful message of Islam throughout the world.We convey season's greetings to all our neighbors and all Californians and visitors to our great land. May God protect them and strengthen their families to live the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Zorast, Krishna, Tao, and Holy Prophet Muhammad; all of these were noble Messengers of God.Hmmmm...The Ahmadiyya Muslims are being persecuted by other Branches of "The Religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• Saudi Arabia girls' schools investigated over 'illegal' sports day. Private Saudi girls' high schools are being investigated by the education ministry for holding an "illegal" sports tournament.The Dec 8 event involving 200 females from six Jeddah private high schools broke ministry rules against girls' sports in schools, a ministry official said. "We don't have any regulations that say that it's OK for girls' schools to hold sports classes or training," said Ahmed Al-Zahrani, director of girls' education in Jeddah. "This tournament was held by these schools, something that has now led us to know about their illegal activities," he said. Women's access to sports overall is tightly constricted in Saudi Arabia, which is governed according to an ultra-strict version of Islam. Women cannot participate in the Saudi Olympics team, and are not allowed to attend public football matches. While a few women-only private clubs and private women's universities offer sporting possibilities, sports are prohibited at primary and secondary schools for girls.Hmmm...Read the full story here.

• Indonesia: West Java tops reports of religious intolerance.Nahdlatul Ulama’s affiliated non-governmental organization, Moderate Muslim Society (MMS), reports that West Java tops reports of religious intolerance.“From 81 cases reported on [religious] intolerance, 49 cases, or 61 percent, took place in this province,” MMS Chairman Zuhairi Misrawi said at the Tolerance and Intolerance Report 2010 in Jakarta on Tuesday.According to MMS data, cases of intolerance in West Java this year increased more than four times to 49 incidents, up from 11 in 2009.Most cases occurred in the areas of Bekasi, Bogor, Garut and Kuningan.“All of the victims of intolerance in Bekasi are Christians,” Zuhairi said.Christians were barred from performing masses, their houses of worship were sealed and some HKBP members were attacked, he added.Christians were also the victims in seven of the 10 incidents of intolerance documented in Bogor.“In Garut and Kuningan the victims of intolerance were members of Ahmadiyah,” Zuhairi said.Zuhairi attributed mounting intolerance to inaction of local authorities in West Java.“There are also increasing numbers of groups acting violently in West Java. They need to be brought to dialog to understand diversity,” Zuhairi said.Zuhairi called on the government to take stern actions toward the perpetrators of violence.“Otherwise people will suspect that the government has deliberately protected extremist groups,” he said.Hmmmm......Obama "Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance".Read the full story here.

• HT:Gallup.Americans See U.S. as Exceptional; 37% Doubt Obama Does.PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans widely agree that the United States has a unique character because of its history and Constitution that sets it apart from other nations as the greatest in the world. This view, commonly referred to as "U.S. exceptionalism," is shared by at least 73% of Americans in all party groups, including 91% of Republicans.At the same time that Americans believe the U.S. is exceptional, they also are inclined to believe that status is far from secure, according to the Dec. 10-12 USA Today/Gallup poll. Three-quarters of those who believe the U.S. is exceptional (62% of all Americans) also believe the U.S. is currently at risk of losing its unique character.The poll does not delve into possible reasons why Americans think the United States' stature is at risk. It is possible this viewpoint reflects Americans' tendency to see national conditions as getting worse rather than improving. Gallup has observed this pattern in a variety of areas, including the state of U.S. morals, the quality of the environment, the crime situation in the U.S., and the economy.Some Republican critics, however, imply that Barack Obama's policies, including his approach to foreign policy, are a threat to the United States' status as the world's greatest nation.On the whole, Americans, by 58% to 37%, believe Obama thinks the U.S. is exceptional, consistent with what he and his advisers maintain. But Americans are less likely to believe Obama holds this view than they are to think the same about Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.Hmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Yad Vashem: 4 million Shoah victims identified.Holocaust Remembrance Authority reinstates identity of some two-thirds of Jewish victims. Hall of Names director: Every name rescued is victory over Nazis.Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority announced Tuesday it has collected the names of 4 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust – some two-thirds of the total number of Jewish victims estimated to have been murdered by the Nazis. Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said that during the last decade the museum's staff had tracked some 1.5 million names and added them to the databases."The Germans not only wanted to annihilate the Jews, but also to wipe them from memory," Shalev said. "One of Yad Vashem's central aims is to give a face and a name to each Holocaust victim, and give them back their identities. We have managed to use technology in the service of memory, and thus accelerated the collection of names and the accessibility of the information for people around the world."The names hardest to track are of those murdered in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In these regions, in contrast to Western Europe, Jews were murdered near their places of residence, and the Nazis made no deportation lists.During the last five years, there has been significant improvement in this field. According to Alexander Avraham, director of Yad Vashem's Hall of Names, there has been a huge increase in the known and documented names of victims in the Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary and Greece.Hmmmm....4 Million victims recognised.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Iran Transfers Deposits From Foreign To Domestic Banks.The governor of Iran's central bank, Mahmoud Bahmani, told the Iranian news agency IRNA that the central bank has decided to reduce its deposits in foreign banks by transferring them to domestic banks. He said, "An agreement has been reached to use these deposits to support the needs of local projects in foreign currency instead of in the riyal, to prevent the worsening of local domestic inflation."Bahmani did not elaborate. However, it was suggested that the move reflects Iran's fears regarding its capacity to maintain liquidity because of sanctions or because it needs to use foreign currency to cover the cost of projects that foreign companies have abandoned under the pressure of the U.N. and U.S. sanctions regime.Hmmmm.....Domestic?Are Turkish banks also domestic?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Islamic Cleric Praised by Ground Zero Mosque Imam Reiterates Support For Palestinian Suicide Bombers.The martyrdom operations which I approve are the ones that target the occupiers. That is why I sanctioned martyrdom operations in Palestine. When I was asked, in London, how I could permit martyrdom operations in Palestine, I said that they are a necessity, because these people want to defend themselves, the things that are holy to them, and their land. I said to them: "You want them to stop the martyrdom operations? Then give them Apache helicopters, planes, tanks, and missiles, and then they will abandon martyrdom operations." They do not have bombs, so they turn themselves into human bombs. This is a necessity.I only sanction martyrdom operations in defense of a plundered and occupied land.GZM Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has held up Yusuf al-Qardawi as an example that Islam does not condone terrorism, yet here he is again doing just that. But don’t worry, Imam Rauf is still a “moderate".Read the full story here.See the clip here.

• HT:Memri.Video : Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Joins Crowds In Jihad Chants At Rally In Mauritania, The Internet, October, 2010.Hmmm....Iman Rauf's "Moderate" friend?Read and see the full story here.

• HT:DenverPost.Harsanyi: Save the 'Net; abolish the FCC.Because there exists no area of human activity that couldn't benefit from more paternalistic attention . . . Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Federal Communications Commission to your Web browser.Congressional Democrats could not find the votes to pass "net neutrality." No problem. Three un-elected officials will impose rules on hundreds of millions of satisfied online consumers. A federal appeals court stops the FCC from employing authority over the Internet. Again, not a problem. Three out of five FCC commissioners can carve out some temporary wiggle room, because as any crusading technocrat knows, the most important thing is getting in the door.It's not that we don't need the FCC's meddling, it's that we don't need the FCC at all. Rather than expanding the powers — which always seem to grow — of this outdated bureaucracy, Congress should be finding ways to eliminate it.Read the full story here.

• EU to take farm, fish imports duty free from Gaza.The European Union said on Wednesday that it had agreed with the Palestinian Authority to import fruit, vegetables, oils and fish products from Gaza and West Bank duty free for up to 10 years.The deal affects relatively small volumes of trade. EU imports from Gaza and West Bank were worth €6.1 million ($8.02 million) in 2009 and were mostly early potatoes, oils and seeds such as soya and sunflower seeds, according to EU data.To protect EU farmers, fruit and vegetables will enter the EU at a minimum import price or face duties.The deal aims to benefit only Palestinian products, the Commission said -- a reference to the thorny issue of farm goods from Jewish settlements in the disputed territories, which previously benefitted from EU concessions to Palestine.Hmmm...What's the true reason for this?Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsFromBangladesh.Explanations of some questions raised by people and western media about Islam: Some critical comments.Islam is the super misogynistic religion on earth because Islam denigrated and degraded women more than any other religion. Because, Muslim women’s rights are still guided by the Islamis Sharia law, which makes them half of human, but all other religions have no say or control to the rights of women today.In the pure Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia—women are like domestic animals. On the contrary, women of all other religions are guided by the democratic and secular western laws (not by Papal laws) which treat women equal to men. This is not the case with Muslim women even today. Hence, it is immaterial or irrelevant what other religions said in their holy books about women today.Now, my humble questions to Dr. Sultan Ahmed are as follows: 

1. In your article you have mentioned Koranic verses (81: 8-9) which telling us that pre-islamic Pagans used to burry their girls alive. If that was the case then there should have been an obvious severe shortage of women in their society, don’t you think so? In that situation, how Prophet Muhammad had at least 11 wives and many slave girls and concubines in his harem; and also all his disciples had harem full of wives. How come prophet’s mother escaped the episode of ‘burial alive’ and how all those disciples of prophets had also their mothers alive? Don’t you think this story could be a simple myth only to bluff people after Islam?
2.  You have so proudly mentioned that—Islam brought so much rights and prestige which pre-islamic women could not even dream! Now, could you give me a list of five Islamic women who were established after Islam came because of the rights and opportunity given by islam (Koran) which would not be possible at the time of pre-islamic period? Please bring examples from the early period of Islam only; and do not please cite some names from the modern world.
3.  If pre-islamic period was so bad for women then how in the world Khadija (first wife of Prophet Muhammad) was an established big business women under whom many men including Islamic prophet were simple employees in her big business her?
4. Why women in Islamic nations are so much uneducated, backward, and utterly superstitious even today?
5. Why women in Islamic nations are the most oppressed, humiliated, and lead life as second class citizen in their own country?
6.  Why thousands of women die for the sake of honor-killings in many Arab and non-Arab Islamic nations?
7. How does your claim that “ Every Muslims should know that it was Islam that brought honor and dignity to women in many respects” can stand against what I just said in my above questions to you?
8. Why Koran orders husband to beat his unruly wife if you think Koran gave men and women equal rights?
9. Why child marriage (marrying girls as young as 8 or 9) in Muslim nations are so rampant even today? Is it because Prophet of Islam married Ayesha whn she was only a child of six year?
10. Finally, how your proud bragging about Koranic goodies for the Islamic women fits the reality of poor and inferior qualities of women in Muslim world today? I would highly appreciate if you please respond to my questions above. Thank you for your patience! I will be waiting for your kind response!By Syed Kamran Mirza.Hmmm....Anyone care to respond?Read the full story here.

• Related from the same author :My debate with Bangladeshi Mullah Scientist who considers Islam brought all the women’s rights on Earth!Dr. Sultan Ahmad has not responded to my questions to the point at all, and he was simply beating around the bush leaving my questions unaddressed. Like most fanatical Islamists (who usually will claim some untrue goodies in Islam to fool the readers) who do not have any clue to defend their non-existent claims/lies about Islam always jump on his critic and start personal attacks instead of answering the questions asked by the critic. Dr. Ahmad is not an exception and I am not surprised at all. When these Islamists hypocritically lie profusely about Islamic goodies but can not defend them when challenged, only thing they do is attack the critic personally with incoherent and ludicrous arguments. His tirades have been targeted on my person leaving my all queries totally unanswered. Hence, I will not respond to his unnecessary personal attacks which deserve no response from me because, I don’t need to stoop down so low like Dr. Ahmad.Read the full story here.

• HT:WZ.Mass Town Requires Students to Have Parents Sign Permission Slip to Recite Pledge of Allegiance.A Brookline public school is bringing back the Pledge of Allegiance next month — and the principal is asking parents to fill out permission slips before their children participate.“It’s uncomfortable. The pledge is a promise, and I’ve always taught my kids to think very carefully before making any promise. It’s not a decision I want to make for them,” said Judi Puritz Cook, who has two sons at the Devotion School.On Monday, Devotion Principal Gerardo J. Martinez sent a letter to parents telling them that the school would begin weekly recitations next month of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag that he’d lead over the public address system.He said teachers and students can’t be mandated to participate in the pledge under the Constitution, and called it a personal choice to participate.“I urge you to have a conversation as a family to help your children understand why I will be reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and to support them in feeling comfortable and confident in the decision on whether or not to participate,” Martinez said in the letter.But Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union in Boston, said she hasn’t heard of another school using permission slips to handle the pledge.“It suggests that this is a decision for parents alone. Are they going to enforce that?” asked Wunsch, calling the use of permission slips “really strange.She said that the permission slip raises the issue of what would the schools do if a student’s wishes differ from his or her parents.“I think that’s really strange that they’d do that… even children don’t lose their right of expression simply by walking into a schoolhouse’s doors,” said Wunsch, herself a Brookline resident.In a follow-up e-mail, Lupini said the permission slips are intended to encourage discussion among parents and their children about the pledge.The Devotion School also sent home a copy of the pledge with definitions of several of its terms, including “under God,” which was defined as “there is one Supreme entity for every citizen.”But Lupini said that was a mistake: Martinez’ letter was reviewed by Lupini and Associate Town Counsel Joslin Ham Murphy, but neither reviewed the handout that included the reference to “under God.” Lupini wasn’t aware of it until a Brookline TAB reporter pointed it out.“It unfortunately didn’t get reviewed and ended up as part of the packet” sent to parents, said Lupini, who noted that school officials will meet on Wednesday to discuss how to contact parents regarding the mistake.Hmmmm...."Mistake"?Read the full story here.Click here to read the letter.

• Seven Belarusian Presidential Candidates Face 15 Years In Prison.A Belarusian human rights organization says seven presidential candidates who ran against the country's authoritarian leader could face up to 15 years in prison in the wake of postelection violence and massive arrests.The human rights center Vesna said the security service, which is still called KGB, has filed charges against 20 top opposition figures, including the seven presidential candidates, for organizing mass disturbances.They include 64-year-old Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, who was beaten unconscious during the protest and subsequently snatched from his hospital bed by men in plainclothes.A KGB spokesman, Alyaksandr Antonovich, declined to comment.More than 600 people, including the candidates, were arrested during mass protests after the December 19 election that gave Alyaksandr Lukashenka a fourth term in office with some 80 percent of the vote. The Interior Ministry said the activists were given sentences from between five to 15 days. Two of the arrested candidates were later released, but both of them -- Ryhor Kastusyou and Dzmitry Vus -- were summoned to KGB offices today for further questioning.Earlier, Justice Minister Viktor Golovanov has warned that political parties associated with the protests in Minsk may be "liquidated."Lukashenka, a former collective farm manager, has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994.In comments broadcast on December 20 on national television, he said any attempt to stage a "revolution" would be thwarted, adding that there would be no more "senseless democracy" in his country."Kids, you are messing with the wrong guy," he warned demonstrators.
  Hmmmm....Lukachenko the Last Eastern European Dictator.Just look at his "friends" Ahmadinnejad , Kim Jong Il and Chavez.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Did BP Break The North Atlantic Loop Current (And Are We Entering An Ice Age?).According to Dr. Gianluigi Zangari (theoretical physicist) of the Frascati National Laboratories in Italy, BP and millions of gallons of Corexit may be responsible for the breakdown of the North Atlantic Loop Current that brings warm water up from the equator and keeps Europe from being buried under ice.Abstract: BP Oil Spill may cause an irreparable damage to the Gulf Stream global climate thermoregulation activity.The Gulf Stream importance in the global climate thermoregulation processes is well assessed. The latest real time satellite (Jason, Topex/Poseidon, Geosat Follow-On, ERS-2, Envisat) data maps of May-June 2010 processed by CCAR1,2 (Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research), checked at Frascati Laboratories by the means of the SHT congruent calculus3 and compared with past years data, show for the first time a direct evidence of the rapid breaking of the Loop Current, a warm ocean current, crucial part of the Gulf Stream. As displayed both by the sea surface velocity maps and the sea surface height maps, the Loop Current broke down for the first time around May 18th and generated a clock wise eddy, which is still active.Hmmmm...Actually it's not the first time it happened the Gulf Stream’s flow turned south in early May 2007, and continued moving southward through May 15. By May 22 it was beginning to show signs of recovery, however what had been one of the hottest springs on record in the British Isles has been transformed into a cold and wet beginning of June.Read the full story here.

The Amazing Grace Christmas Light House

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Afghan sex practices concern U.S., British forces.A document released by WikiLeaks described efforts by high-ranking Afghan officials to quash reports of police officers and other Afghans arrested for "purchasing a service from a child." The leaked diplomatic cable quoted former Minister of the Interior Hanif Atmar's concern that publicity about the arrests, which involved the hiring of "dancing boys," would "endanger lives."The author of the diplomatic cable fretted that the case would be "blown out of proportion, an outcome that would not be good for either the U.S. or Afghanistan."The vast gulf between U.S. and Afghan attitudes about homosexuality and pedophilia has generated concern among U.S. advisers in Afghanistan since the American presence there began to expand.In late 2009, U.S. and British forces ordered a study of Pashtun male sexuality. They were worried that homosexuality and pedophilia among Afghan security forces and tribes could create cultural misunderstanding with allied troops, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Examiner."I know Marines and soldiers who have refused to work with Afghan military or police," said one U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's not about homosexuality as much as it is about the young boys. Some of them like to show pictures on their cell phone -- that should be illegal. Some of the Afghans have their own young boys they use for sexual purposes and we can't do anything about it."Hmmmm....Someone tell me again why our troops are there?Read the full "Story" here.

• "The War On Christianity "!PALESTINE - ISRAEL - Christmas in Bethlehem: the cross banished from souvenirs shops.This Christmas in Bethlehem, the cross has been banned from souvenirs for tourists and pilgrims in the Holy Land. Some textile workshops in Jerusalem and Hebron have begun to print and sell T-shirts depicting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem without the cross. Because of the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the Palestinian territories, the cross was also removed from t-shirts of football teams. Interviewed by AsiaNews, Samir Qumsieh, journalist and director of the Catholic television station Al-Mahed Nativity TV in Bethlehem, said: "I want to launch a campaign to urge people not to buy these products - he says - because the removal of the cross is an intimidation against Christians, it is like saying that Jesus was never crucified. "The reporter says that if this exodus continues there will be no more Catholics in the Holy Land and that one day the Church of the Nativity could be turned into a museum. "If there are no more Christians in the Holy Land - he says – then there will no longer be Christians anywhere."Hmmmm.....Obama :"Islam is a great religion".Read the full Islamic Crusade story here.

• Asia Bibi affair: Islamic parties set strike date for 24 December, same day as Christian march.Pakistan’s Islamic parties are setting up a steering committee to oppose any attempt to change the blasphemy law. Representatives of all Islamic parties met yesterday at the Zarghoni mosque in Hayatabad under Sahibzada Fazle Rabbani, head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan. In the meantime, a decision by the High Court in Lahore concerning Asia Bibi’s appeal against her death sentence could come as early as tomorrow.Nazir S. Bhatti, president of the Pakistan Christian Congress, who is in exile in the United States, said that he was surprised about the announcement of the strike and demonstrations on 24 December. He called on Islamic parties to move their action plans to a later date since 24 December is part of Christmas celebration.For Nazir Bhatti, the decision to hold a strike on 24 December harms Christians because on that day they will hold a march demanding the abolition of the blasphemy law.Read the full story here.

• F.C.C. Approves Net Rules and Braces for Fight.Want to watch hours of YouTube videos or sort through Facebook photos on the computer? Your Internet providers would be forbidden from blocking you under rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. But if you want to do the same on your cellphone, you may not have the same protections.The debate over the rules, intended to preserve open access to the Internet, seems to have resulted in a classic Washington solution — the kind that pleases no one on either side of the issue. Verizon and other service providers would prefer no government involvement. Public interest advocates think the rules stop far short of ensuring free speech. Republicans believe the rules are another instance of government overreach.The two Republican commissioners, Robert M. McDowell and Meredith Baker, vocally opposed the rules as unnecessary and unjustified.“The F.C.C. has provocatively chartered a collision course with the legislative branch,” Mr. McDowell said, alluding to the complaints of Republicans in Congress. Before the F.C.C. meeting even began on Tuesday, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement that the Internet “should be left alone,” and that his colleagues would “push back against new rules and regulations” next year.Read the full story here.

• Obama wants to give America back to the Indians. President Obama likes the “U.N. Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” He says it can “help reaffirm the principles that should guide our future.” The State Department added helpfully that although the declaration is not legally binding, it “carries considerable moral and political force and complements the president’s ongoing efforts to address historical inequities faced by indigenous communities in the United States.” This declaration - which carries”considerable moral and political force,” don’t forget - contains this little gem of a paragraph, in Article 26: “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired,” and nations “shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources.” In other words, President Obama wants to give the entire land mass of the United States of America back to the Indians. He wants Indian tribes to be our new overlords.I see no reason why the president, after he leaves office, can’t submit himself to the authority of any Indian tribe he wants to. Perhaps he figures that, as an adopted Crow Indian, he will be the new chief over this revived Indian empire.But for the other 312 million of us, I think we’ll settle for our constitutional “We the people” form of government, thank you very much.Hmmmmm....I fear it might be to the Turks(Gulen) working with the native indians.Read the full story here.

• Abu Hamza's daughter-in-law arrested 'trying to smuggle sim card into Belmarsh Prison under her burka'.The daughter-in-law of hate preacher Abu Hamza has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle a mobile phone sim card into his jail under her burka.Chayme Hamza, 26, was apprehended by guards during a routine search when she went to visit the firebrand cleric in Belmarsh high security prison in south-east London last Friday.Police were called and she was arrested on suspicion of bringing a prohibited article into a prison.The sim card was found in a pocket in clothing under her burka, according to The Sun. Hamza's eldest son Mohamed Kamel Mostafa - Chayme's husband and a convicted terrorist - was arrested over the same incident the next day.The pair have been bailed until February pending further inquiries, Scotland Yard said.The arrests have raised fears that Hamza has had access to a mobile phone while he awaits extradition to the U.S on terror charges.Hmmmm....We need to wear a burka to smuggle stuff?Read the full story here.

• HR:BigGoverment.Pigford: How to Get $50k from the Government for ‘Attempting to Farm’.The Pigford scandal is big enough that there’s no reason to overstate the case or get the facts wrong. Understanding what actually happened should be sufficient to make anyone deeply troubled.One common misconception is that Pigford is about people who defrauded the government by pretending to be farmers. From the research I’ve done, there’s almost nobody who pretended to be a farmer. The shocking truth is that you didn’t have to fake a farming resume to collect $50,000 — all you had to do was to make a credible enough claim that you “attempted to farm.”This category of “attempted to farm” was a huge slap in the face to the bona fide black farmers that the Pigford case was supposed to help. Many of these farmers faced real discrimination at the hands of the USDA and it’s clear they had legitimate claims.In this video clip, you’ll hear what happened right before the consent decree was issued. It’s a class action bait-and-switch. This is Tom Burrell, head of the Black Farmer Agricultural Association, Inc.Hmmmm....Something smells real bad and it aint the manure!Read and see the full story here.

• "Change you can see"Or not?Playing games in dark too dangerous, Court of Appeal tells scouts.Playing games in dark too dangerous, Court of Appeal tells scoutsChildren's groups have been warned not to play games in the dark after the Court of Appeal upheld a compensation award to a scout injured during night activities.In ruling that playing ball games at night created an unacceptable risk to youngsters, the court upheld a £7,000 compensation payout to a former scout, who was injured during a game called Objects in the Dark. The Scouts Association had urged the court to overturn the award, arguing it would make it harder to draw youngsters away from computer screens and televisions. But Lady Justice Smith and Lord Justice Ward, dismissed their appeal. They ruled that Mark Barnes, of Castle Bromwich, West Mids, had been a victim of negligence and that playing the game in the dark had created an unacceptable risk. Despite expressing "instinctive sympathy" towards the Scout Association, Lord Justice Ward said that "scouting would not lose much of its value" if such games were played with the lights on. In a dissenting ruling, Lord Justice Jackson found that it was not the function of the law "to eliminate every iota of risk or to stamp out socially desirable activities". Hmmm...What has become of America?Read the full story here.

• South Korea stages massive show of strength with three-day land and sea live-fire drill close to border with North.South Korea is to stage its largest ever live-fire drill close to the border in a series of military manoeuvres that is certain to ratchet up tension with the North.The land and sea exercises, which will take place over three days starting from tomorrow.The land drill alone will involve three dozen mobile artillery guns, six fighter jets, multiple launch rocket systems and 800 troops, the largest number of personnel in a single peace-time exercise.It is seen as a bold move by President Lee Myung-bak to look strong on the domestic stage.'We'll be sure to deal a punishing blow if the North tries to repeat the kind of situation like the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong,' Brigadier General Ju Eun-shik said in a statement.'The drills are an indication that (the South) is aiming to keep tensions very high, partly because of the possibility of the North striking back,' said Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University. 'Dialogue is clearly not high on the agenda. It's still very much in the mode of how they can respond to incidents like the one on Yeonpyeong and to show that response in the future will be overwhelming.' The South Korean army is making no secret that the drill is aimed at displaying its firepower to its neighbour. 'Yes, it will be a show of force against that,' an army officer said, when asked if the shelling of Yeonpyeong last month was a factor in the land drill's planning. He said similar drills had been staged previously on more than 50 occasions, but the scale this time was unprecedented. 'The scale of mechanised assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanised artillery, we'll have 36. We'll have the F-15 jets firing. We'll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanised assets taking part will be firing live ammunition.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyCaller.TheDC Analysis: Yes, Virginia, the Palestinian Arabs do have a deep connection to the Holocaust.The loquacious Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad likes to repeat certain rhetorical flourishes incessantly.His favorite, of course, is that Israel, which he often endearingly refers to as the “Zionist entity,” will be “wiped off the map” — or, in some more literary translations, “eliminated from pages of history.” Perhaps his second favorite rhetorical flourish, though, is asking why Palestinian Arabs should have to suffer for what Europeans did during World War II?“Let’s assume (the Holocaust) happened, the extent of which everyone is speaking of,” Ahmadinejad said in one iteration of this favorite rhetorical styling. “If the crimes were committed in Europe, why should the Palestinian people be victimized as a result?”This formulation, obviously, is wrong on many levels, not least of which because Israel’s legitimacy as a nation does not depend on the Holocaust. But since the Iranian president is determined to press this point, it seems only appropriate to point out, well, actually yes, the Palestinian Arabs do share a deep and sordid connection to the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews.With a new report published by the National Archives incorporating thousands of newly declassified documents, some shedding new light on this connection, this little piece of not-so-well-known history seems relevant to address again.The Palestinian Arab tie to the Holocaust comes primarily through Haj Amin al-Husseini, the recognized leader of the Arabs of Mandate Palestine from shortly after World I until well after World War II. Forced out of Mandate Palestine by the British in the late 1930s for inciting violence, al-Husseini found his way to Nazi Germany during World War II.Hitler’s Mufti, as some would later not so affectionately call him, spent the war years in Germany aiding the Nazis and plotting to bring the Final Solution to the Jews of the Middle East.“Hitler himself signaled his intention to eliminate the Jews of Palestine,” the National Archives new report, “Hitler’s Shadow,” reads. “In a November 29, 1941, conversation in Berlin with the Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hitler said that the outcome of the war in Europe would also decide the fate of the Arab world. … Hitler said that Germany’s only objective there would be the destruction of the Jews.This was a cause that al-Husseini was more than ready to sign on to.The newly declassified documents also show just how lavishly al-Husseini lived in Berlin during the war years – thanks to the generosity of his benefactor, Adolph Hitler.
  Hmmmmmm.........Arafat's Uncle Haj Amin al-Husseini Hitler's Mufti,a man who started first with aiding in the Armenian Genocide.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Video : Leading Sunni Scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Supports Suicide Bombings in Palestine and Declares: "I Am Against the Peace Process"Hmmmm....That peace process is really "booming" Mr President.Read and see the full story here.

• UN Restores Sexual Orientation Reference To Violence Measure, After U.S. Push.The United States has successfully persuaded the United Nations to include "sexual orientation" as a category of vulnerable populations whose targeted killings the world body condemns.The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on a vote of 122 in favor and 0 against, with 59 nations abstaining.Controversy broke out after African and Arab states successfully stripped the resolution of a reference to killings for reasons of "sexual orientation," which was included along with killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious, or linguistic reasons, and killings of refugees, indigenous people, and other groups.U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said she was "incensed" at the move and vowed to restore the original language in a U.S.-sponsored amendment, which was adopted.In a statement issued after the December 21 vote, she said, "The United Nations General Assembly has sent a clear and resounding message that justice and human rights apply to all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation."A spokesman for President Barack Obama said the U.S. leader "applauds those countries that supported the amendment." The statement continued, "Protecting gays and lesbians from state-sponsored discrimination is not a special right, it is a human right."A heated exchange of statements and opinions in the General Assembly chamber delayed the voting for more than two hours. African and Asian states -- among them Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan -- resisted the inclusion of the "sexual orientation" reference, arguing that it is a personal matter and as such has no place among human rights issues.Homosexuality is a crime in many African and Arab nations.Hmmm...I think they mean Islamic countries like :Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan ?Read the full story here.

• HT:GulagBound.Hugo Chavez Militarily Confiscating Farms of Venezuelan Patriots? Using Foreign Forces?Late Sunday night, we began to see sketchy reports from individuals that farmers in the region of Sur del Lago, Venezuela were being attacked by Venezuelan as well as foreign military, all directed by Hugo Chavez.Initial and unconfirmed reports allege that fellow perpetrators are Cubans, thugs from the drug cartel FARC, and even Hezbollah, all there for the action.This seems to be a crackdown on elements of the Venezuelan populace which opposed Hugo Chavez in the recent Venezuelan election. The blog, Venezuelan News and Views puts it this way: “Sur del Lago people are resisting. The legislative assembly of the state moved down there to seat, the representatives elect are stirring the pot, the regime sent a Cuban general!”It was reported that up to 47 farms have been taken by Marxist forces. Is it the official Venezuelan military? Just who if any, are assisting them?Another said that the media in Venezuela has been completely closed and that Twitter is the only way they can get the word out.Read and see the full story here.

• The Freedom Center’s New Campaign: Countering an Anti-Semitic Propaganda Assault on Israel in Seattle.Responding to an advertisement on municipal buses in downtown Seattle accusing Israel of war crimes, the David Horowitz Freedom Center today began its own counter campaign to denounce Palestinian War Crimes.Placed by a pro Palestinian group calling itself the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, the anti Israel ads, designed to fill full panels on the sides of 12 King County Metro buses, show the words “Your Tax Dollars at Work” under the headline “Israeli War Crimes.” King County Metro Transit spokesman Linda Thielke told members of the local press that the ads, scheduled to appear on 12 buses beginning two days after Christmas on the second anniversary of the Gaza War, were within the company’s guidelines which, she claimed, forbid only pornography, alcohol, tobacco and incitements to riot.David Horowitz, President of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, said today, “These ads are part of an escalating attack on Israel by the left throughout American culture. We expect this sort of obscene propaganda in our radical universities but not on our city streets. These lies can not go unanswered. The Gaza War took place because Hamas, a group committed to the mass murder of Jews, was rocketing Israeli civilians on a daily basis. War crimes are the Palestinian terrorists’s reason for being.”Under the headline “Palestinian War Crimes,” the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s ads also carry the legend, “Your Tax Dollars at Work.” The ad panels also show a picture of Israeli buses destroyed by Palestinian suicide bombers and Israeli victims of this violence. They will appear on 25 metro buses at about the same time as the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign’s ads.“The U.S. government gives the Palestinians about a half a billion dollars a year,” Horowitz notes, “which is basically a subsidy for rejectionism and terror. It is ironic, moreover, that this Seattle pro terror group chose to put their ads on buses, since buses carrying innocent Israelis have always been the targets of Palestinian murderers.”Read and see the full story here.

• HT:MichelleMalkin.Internet Access Is Not a ‘Civil Right’.When bureaucrats talk about increasing our "access" to x, y or z, what they're really talking about is increasing exponentially their control over our lives. As it is with the government health care takeover, so it is with the newly approved government plan to "increase" Internet "access." Call it Webcare.The "net neutrality" mob -- funded by billionaire George Soros and other left-wing think tanks and nonprofits -- has openly advertised its radical, speech-squelching agenda in its crusade for "media justice." Social justice is the redistribution of wealth and economic "rights." Media justice is the redistribution of free speech and other First Amendment rights.The meetings of the universal broadband set are littered with Marxist-tinged rants about "disenfranchisement" and "empowerment." They've targeted conservative opponents on talk radio, cable TV and the Internet as purveyors of "hate" who need to be managed or censored. Democratic FCC panelists have dutifully echoed their concerns about concentration of corporate media power.As the Ford Foundation-funded Media Justice Fund, which lobbied for universal broadband, put it: This is a movement "grounded in the belief that social and economic justice will not be realized without the equitable redistribution and control of media and communication technologies."For progressives who cloak their ambitions in the mantle of "fairness," it's all about control. It's always about control.Read the full story here.

• U.N. Passes Religious ‘Defamation’ Resolution Sponsored by Islamic Nations, But Support Dwindles. For the sixth consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday passed a controversial resolution on religious “defamation” sponsored by Islamic nations, but this time, the measure passed by a mere 12 votes.Lobbying by a broad range of religious freedom and other groups has steadily eroded the vote tally for the resolution each year since 2006, but outright defeat of the measure sponsored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) remains elusive.Tuesday’s vote in the 192-member General Assembly passed by 79 votes to 67, with 40 abstentions. The full voting record was not immediately made available.Earlier this month a petition opposing the resolution, signed by 428,856 people from more than 70 countries, was handed to senior U.N. officials in New York City.Tad Stahnke of Human Rights First said Tuesday’s U.N. vote affirms the dwindling support for the religious “defamation” concept.It was nonetheless “unfortunate for both individuals at risk whose rights will surely be violated under the guise of prohibiting ‘defamation of religions,’ as well as for the standards of international norms on freedom of expression,” he said.Tuesday’s U.N. meetings did not take place in the usual General Assembly building, which was evacuated because of noxious odors caused by sewage problems attributed to unusually high tides in the East River. The session was moved to a temporary building nearby.Read the full story here.

• Energy Policy in Iran Leaves Many Gasping.TEHRAN — One of Tehran’s signature landscapes — the imposing, rugged line of the Alborz Mountains at the city’s northern boundary — has suddenly become an elusive one. Instead, Tehranis’ eyes, and complaints, have turned toward a dense and noxious wall of smog that has only rarely lifted during the past two months. “I had an eye infection for two consecutive weeks,” said Azadeh Kimiyai, a 32-year-old public relations manager, describing one of the health problems residents have complained about over the past month, a long list that includes headaches, dizziness and fatigue. “Two of my colleagues had the same problem. The pharmacist told us it was caused by the pollution.”According to e-mails circulated to industry experts and reproduced on unofficial news sites and blogs, Iran’s new supply of domestic gasoline may contain high levels of aromatics — more than twice the level permitted by Iranian law. Burning aromatics in car engines produces exhaust packed with high concentrations of “floating particles” or “particulates” that, added to the typical smog caused by nitrous oxides and ozone, can cause a range of health problems from headaches and dizziness to more serious cardiac and respiratory complaints. “Previous governments knew that petrochemical plants could produce this kind of gasoline,” said an oil industry expert who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. “But Ahmadinejad has gone ahead and done it — despite the consequences — for his own populist and political reasons,” he said, referring to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, within days, an official in Tehran’s municipal government leaked Health Ministry statistics for pollution-related deaths on his personal Web site — more than 3,600 in the first nine months of the Iranian calendar year — figures that until now had never been released to the Iranian public. With pollution warnings this year lasting for weeks on end, the possibility that the Ahmadinejad administration may have achieved a partial victory over international sanctions at the cost of public health has alarmed industry experts and Tehran residents alike. “If independence comes at the cost of people’s health, it’s not worth it at all,” Ms. Kimiyai said. “Instead of that, they should give up on some of their stupid demands on the international scene.”Hmmmm......"Late last month, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi reported a 30 percent increase in pollution-related health problems and an 18 percent increase in emergency hospital admissions, though she did not say over what period."Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.Terrorizing Our Own.Airline travelers flying the unfriendly skies are presented with two options, that are actually only a single option, to have themselves and their children degraded in public in order to spare Muslim feelings. That we have a ban on profiling travelers, but no ban on molesting or humiliating them, tells us everything we need to know about why we have the current system that we do.In a war we terrorize the enemy. In a siege we terrorize our own. And we have been terrorizing our own for a long time now.We molest 3 year olds in airports, because we can't possibly screen Muslim terrorists. No, we must spread the abuse and humiliation to ordinary Americans, so that the people who are trying to kill us never feel bad about it.Muslims don't need to actually blow up planes in order to terrorize Americans. All they need to do is to force Americans to live with the possibility that their plane might blow up. To make them live with the checkpoints, with the sense of helplessness and humiliation of tough security measures, and to pit them against their governments. And right now they're laughing themselves silly in Riyadh and Tehran, every time there's another TSA story coming down the wire. Because their endgame is working.In a war, you terrorize the enemy. In a siege, you terrorize your own. The Muslims are fighting a war against us, while we're living under siege. And terrorizing our own.Muslim terrorists don't expect to wipe out America with a bomb. Their goal is to break American morale. To shift the context so effectively that America will be willing to cut any kind of deal with them, in order to get things back to normal. The idea seems absurd right now, but it's actually coming along really well.Hmmm..." I shall terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle."--Qur'an:8:12.Read the full story here.

• The Big Lie: ‘1967 Borders’ is a Fallacy, Says Former Ambassador.The term “1967 borders,” the Arab world’s mantra for the borders of a PA state, never existed, says former Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker in a research paper for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.Ever since neighboring Arab countries attacked Israel in 1948 as it became an independent country for the first time in 2,000 years, there were no borders, only temporary military lines defined by the 1949 “Armistice Lines” that ended, at least formally, the War for Independence.However, the Arab world has repeated the term “1967 borders” so much that it has been adopted as fact by mainstream media and most international leaders. The term refers to the 1949 ceasefire line from which Israel military forces advanced at the beginning of the Six-Day War on June 4, 1967 and should be called "pre-1967 War Armistice Lines" or "1949 Armistice Lines". INN, it should be noted, has used those accurate terms consistently.Baker (pictured) noted that Jordan, which also has adopted the fallacy of “1967 borders,” said in the same debate, "There is an Armistice Agreement. The Agreement did not fix boundaries; it fixed a demarcation line. The Agreement did not pass judgment on rights political, military or otherwise. Thus I know of no territory; I know of no boundary; I know of a situation frozen by an Armistice Agreement.".Although the “1967 borders” denote lines of separation, they have no basis in history, law, or fact,” Baker explained. “The 1949 armistice agreements specifically stated that such lines have no political or legal significance and do not prejudice future negotiations on boundaries,” he continued.“There are no provisions in any of the agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians that require withdrawal to the ‘1967 borders.’ There were never any geographic imperatives that sanctify the 1967 lines."The "Armistice Lines” of 1949 were determined in agreements signed by Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. They were not borders, Baker pointed out. “The armistice demarcation line represented nothing more than the forward lines of deployment of the forces on the day a ceasefire was declared…. The line was demarcated on the map attached to the armistice agreement with a green marker pen and hence received the name ‘Green Line.’“The Security Council in its resolution stressed the temporary nature of the armistice lines that were to be maintained ‘during the transition to permanent peace in Palestine.'"The PA in the past several months has called for “negotiations” but in reality has demanded that Israel accept the so-called “1967 borders” without negotiation, lines which Baker’s research paper shows havs no legal or historical foundation as borders.Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.Canadian elected Politician Joins Arab Stormtroopers in Terrorizing Jewish Storeowner.In a shocking affront to democracy, publicly elected politician Amir Khadir from Montreal, Quebec, has joined in a demonstration to harass an Israeli store owner.Yves Archambault is owner of the shoe store Le Marcheur which carries Israeli made shoes. Regular pickets to boycott the store have been ongoing since October by a Montreal based pro- Palestinian group. Signs have been brandished labelling Israel Apartheid and “terrorist” and tensions have escalated to the point of police intervention. Archambault responsed to Khadir, solidaire Member of the National Assembly:I was sickened to see him distributing flyers and stopping people who were coming into the store to tell them they shouldn’t support a business that sells Israeli products.In Quebec we have free enterprise, and as long as it is legal, nobody has the right to tell me what I can and cannot sell in my store.Sadly Amir khadir thinks he has the authority to dictate the freedoms of a citizen, in his own riding to boot and he makes no apologies for it:Just because a business is in my riding, I am not going to abandon my principlesPrinciples? This man should be stripped of his office for lack thereof, or at least be publicly reprimanded by MNA authorities. Scary that as a politician, Khadir does not adhere to the principles of his country’s democracy of which he owes allegiance. He has resorted to intimidation tactics against one of his own constituents, and even sent an e-mail prior to the demonstration asking Archambault to stop selling Israeli-made products. Furthermore he said:Business without conscience is a crime.How many pickets and boycotts does Khadir conduct in solidarity with the victims of atrocities in Islamic regimes where women are forced to cover themselves, suffer scorn, unspeakable abuses, stonings and FGM? And what about the human rights abuses of communist regimes likeThe People’s Republic of China? Does Khadir set up pickets against stores that carry products from there– Canada’s biggest trade partner? Khadir is clearly a man of questionable principles, double standards and an anti-Semite with an obvious agenda to delegitimize the Jewish state.The case of Yves Archambault represents a deeply disturbing twist: that a Canadian elected politician has engaged in an attack on a citizen’s democratic rights and freedoms. With the publicity Khadir tried to explain his position as a terrible misunderstanding between him and Archambault on a local radio station and embarrassingly groped for an explanation on why it is necessary to single out Israel for boycotts. Then he finally encouraged people to go to Archambault’s store but not buy Israeli products. The question still at large is: when does Khadir face accountability to the Canadian public?Archambault said he did not respond, because he is not interested in talking about politics."I don't care where my products come from. I only care about comfort and quality," he said.Read the full story here.

• Government liabilities rose $2 trillion in FY 2010: Treasury.The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in fiscal 2010 with net liabilities swelling more than $2 trillion as commitments on government debt and federal benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Tuesday.The Financial Report of the United States, which applies corporate-style accrual accounting methods to Washington, showed the government's liabilities exceeded assets by $13.473 trillion. That compared with a $11.456 trillion gap a year earlier.Hmmm....The Obama policy,how to destroy America from within.Americans will be nothing but worker slaves in future.Read the ful story here.

• Turkey slams Cypriot-Israeli accord demarcating maritime borders; says it is "null and void". Turkey on Tuesday slammed a maritime border accord between Cyprus and Israel, saying it was "null and void" because it disregards the rights and jurisdiction of Turkish Cypriots on the island.The agreement, signed last week, was aimed at facilitating the search for mineral deposits in the east Mediterranean, where huge natural gas reserves have been discovered by a U.S. firm.Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it has no claims on the areas subject to the agreement, but "Turkish Cypriots have also rights and jurisdiction over the maritime areas of the island of Cyprus." It said the Greek Cypriot government should not unilaterally sign international agreements without a solution to the division of the island.The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said countries in the regions should not back moves "that would have a negative impact on the comprehensive settlement negotiations" and that "agreements signed by the Greek Cypriots with countries of the region are null and void for Turkey."A spokesman for the Greek Cypriot government, Stefanos Stefanou, had no comment on the Turkish statement on Tuesday, saying he had not seen it. But asked Monday on media reports referring to Turkish objections, he said no other country has the right to interfere in Cyprus' affairs.Turkey does not recognize the Greek Cypriot government as representing the entire island and its ties with Israel have been strained over a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in May.Turkey stated that it "does not have any claim regarding the maritime areas," subject to the demarcation agreement.Cyprus has licensed Noble Energy to explore an 800,000-acre area bordering Israeli waters where massive gas fields have been found under the seabed. Two fields, Tamar and Dalit, discovered last year, are due to start producing in 2012, and experts say their estimated combined reserves of 5.5 trillion cubic feet (160 billion cubic meters) of natural gas can cover Israel's energy needs for the next two decades.Read the full story here.

• 'This is in honour of Michelle Obama': Sarah Palin takes aim at the First Lady as she attacks her anti-obesity campaign.Rummaging through her kitchen cupboards looking for marshmallows, crackers and chocolate, the former governor of Alaska said: 'Where are some more ingredients?'This is in honour of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.'The jibe was aimed at the Let's Move campaign which aims to encourage schools and families to eat better food and take more exercise.In speeches in the past, Mrs Obama has told children on the campaign that 'dessert is not a right'.She has also avoided angering Americans on Thanksgiving by telling them to tuck into whatever they wanted to eat, as long as they watched their portion size.In an interview, she said: 'One of the reasons I talk about pie and burgers is because if you tell people they can never have the stuff they love, they'll shut down.'What is life without the things you love to eat? For me it's pie.'Hmmmmm....Freshly baked Chocolate chip cookies?Read the full story here.

• HT:BloggerBase.Good News! Building On The Mount Of Olives.Construction of Jewish Neighborhood in East Jerusalem Underway.Year after building project approved, bulldozers begin infrastructure work atop Mount of Olives Ridge; housing units to serve married students attending nearby yeshiva. Rabbi: Project strengthens Jewish presence in united Jerusalem .Ronen Medzini, Kobi Nahshoni, December 2010.Construction commenced on Wednesday on a new residential Jewish neighborhood atop the Mount of Olives Ridge in east Jerusalem, near Hebrew University.The neighborhood will be an extension of the Irving Moskowitz Yeshiva & Campus - Yeshivat Beit Orot – named after the Jewish-American millionaire who purchases land with the purpose of "Judaizing" the eastern part of the capital. In early 2010, the Jerusalem Municipal Planning and Construction Committee authorized the construction of 24 housing units at the site. The project is likely to draw harsh condemnation from the US and Europe.Good! The U. S. and Europe will have yet another opportunity to show their true colors. Actually, they have many times, but we Israelis never seem to get it.Read the full story here.

• Saudi Cleric: Don't Wish Christians Happy Holidays.Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Salih Al-Uthaymeen posted a fatwa banning Muslims from wishing Christians a merry Christmas or greeting them on their other holidays. The fatwa was posted on the website of the Saudi religious police. He said that wishing non-Muslims happy holidays or imitating their symbols is a crime graver than drinking wine or committing suicide.Hmmmm....I'll take the drinking wine anytime!Du pain,du vin et du Boursin!Read the full story here.

• Anti-Semitic website back online: York U student on the run from Interpol.VANCOUVER - An anti-Semitic Islamic website police say is operated by an Ontario student who is on the run is now back on the Internet after being shut down earlier this year by a Canadian web-hosting provider.Salman An-Noor Hossain, 25, of Mississauga, operated a website called Filthy Jewish Terrorists and he and the site were the subject of a five-month investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.The site was shut down in March and Hossain was suspended from York University as the OPP investigated him.But the anti-Semitic site has re-launched, using a host in Switzerland.On Tuesday, Hossain posted a blog identifying himself as the operator of the re-launched site, and using the same design as the old one. The new web site is registered with generic information making it impossible to locate him.Last July, the OPP said in a statement that Hossain "wilfully promoted hatred and advocated genocide of the Jewish community." His website called for direct terrorist attacks.Hossain was charged with five counts under the seldom-used hate-crime section of the Criminal Code, but he didn't show up for his court date.Last month, the Ontario Superior Court issued an international warrant for his arrest on Interpol. Hossain's picture, birth date, height, weight, colour of eyes and hair are listed on the international police web site."Every single Muslim in North America and Europe has a right to go and physically fight alongside the Islamic resistance groups in the various regions under external occupation (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia, and other places)," the website reads.The Canadian Security Intelligence Service issued a statement Tuesday saying it knows of such sites."CSIS is very aware of certain Internet websites which support or incite terrorist violence, and that some of those sites are based in Canada," the statement said.Read the full story here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.Stopping Obama: A Republican Game Plan.Barack Obama may have had a licking, but he keeps on ticking. How will the new Congress deal with a president who is relentless in his agenda to create a transformed America?But people who fall for Obama's feints to the center (such as the faux pay freeze for federal employees or the tax deal he was forced into by Republican victories in November) have no one to blame but themselves. Who says so? Barack Obama, through his rhetoric and actions over the last two years. Lest we forget, when he was forced to swallow the tax bill, he showed his true nature, lashing out at Republicans and saying that he was "itching for a fight on a wide range of issues."Obama is on a mission to advance a far-left agenda, and he will use all means at his disposal to accomplish his goals. "The end justifies the means" is his modus operandi. The means may not be as apparent as they were when he was riding high with a sledgehammer in his hand; instead, he will rely on stealth. (Stanley Kurtz researched Obama's career as a state senator and nicknamed him "Senator Stealth" in recognition of the subtlety Obama resorted to when he was a lowly state senator.)We have seen already that Barack Obama is inclined to use all the powers and tricks he can to force his ideology on us: executive orders that favor his allies and donors, big Labor among them; presidential signing statements that signal the provisions of legislation he feels he is entitled to ignore (a tactic that has riled even his own Democrats); appointments of czars and czarinas; and repeated reliance on recess appointments to circumvent the Senate confirmation process, helping him to choose key officials who are ideologically compatible with him, albeit not with the American people (see the Justice and Labor Departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and a raft of other agencies). The the list goes on and on.Hmmmmm.... "Senator Al-taqiyya "would be more like it?Read the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.Obama's ShoreBank: Jeremiah Wright's $10 Million Cash Machine.And what bank underwrote Wright's mortgage and $10 million line-of-credit? That would be none other than the troubled ShoreBank, a favorite of the Obama family and other Democrat politicians, who have worked mightily to have the feds rescue it despite the fact that it would otherwise not qualify for a bailout.In fact, while other banks in ShoreBank's boat have been permitted to fail, the Obama administration allegedly pressured Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and others to prop up the bank. According to news reports, this infusion would permit ShoreBank to receive an additional $75 million in TARP funds. The Central Illinois 9/12 Project has described the bank's ties to the president and his associates, including Rev. Wright and Obama's self-described "Communist" associate Van Jones. In fact, according to erstwhile 2010 GOP Congressional candidate Joel Pollak, Illinois Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky -- one of Nancy Pelosi's favorite far left House members -- has strenuously argued for the bailout of the bank.Read the full scandal story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Was General George S. Patton Assassinated Sixty-Five Years Ago Today?Sixty-five years ago, on December 21, 1945, America lost one of its greatest champions of liberty – Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., a largely unsung hero today of the Liberal-Conservative battles that have raged in America most of this century. There is evidence he was assassinated.Patton, perhaps America’s greatest fighting general, died twelve days after a mysterious vehicle accident outside Mannheim, Germany, December 9, 1945. He was the only person injured. Sitting in the rear of a chauffeured Cadillac limousine with an aide beside him, Patton suffered a broken neck when a two-and-a- half-ton US Army truck suddenly veered into the Cadillac’s path without signaling. Patton’s driver, who couldn’t avoid the crash, would later privately tell his son that the truck had been waiting for them on the side of the road as they’d started up from a railroad track stop. All on-scene reports and military investigative reports of the incident have vanished.Patton when he was injured on that fateful Sunday was just a day away from leaving Europe for good. During and after the war he’d angered the Roosevelt Administration with his antagonism toward the Russians. FDR, believing the Soviets crucial to maintaining world peace, wanted them appeased and had acquiesced to their domination of Eastern Europe at Yalta. Patton, an ardent anti-communist who foresaw the Iron Curtain descending over Russian-occupied countries, wanted to fight them; in effect, start World War III. “We’ve kicked hell out of one bastard (Hitler),” he lamented, only to “help establish a second one (Stalin)…more evil and more dedicated than the first.”By late 1945, with the like-minded Truman continuing FDR’s pro-Kremlin policies, he was the lone, high-ranking voice against the Democrat administration’s foreign policy. His bosses, political and military, no longer needed him to win battles and had exiled him to an almost meaningless command. He was angry. And, on the eve of the crash, Patton was vowing to reveal “blockbusting” secrets about the war, including how badly it was conducted by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and to rally Americans against the Soviets when he arrived home, possibly even run for office. Patton, in late 1945, was high on the list of most popular Americans and the loudest critic of the Left’s love affair with the Soviets, who had clandestinely infiltrated the White House and other top US government branches and were manipulating them for communist aims.We now know how extensive this infiltration was through the “Venona” revelations. “Venona” was the ultra-secret US deciphering of Russian codes at that time that only recently was declassified. It details the Russian spying in America but had just started when Patton was injured. While the driver and passengers of the truck that hit him mysteriously disappeared – as did the sergeant driving the jeep leading his limousine – Patton was taken, already paralyzed, not to the nearby Mannheim hospital, but to Heidelberg where it was assumed he would die soon. But Patton rallied and was soon deemed fit enough to withstand a grueling trans-Atlantic flight home. On the eve of that flight, however, he had a sudden and unexpected relapse, dying from a spate of embolisms that migrated to his lungs, stopping his breathing.Although he was the highest ranking general in Europe at the time, he had uncharacteristically requested a guard be posted outside his room. After his death, rumors immediately circulated that he’d been assassinated. Curiously, there was no autopsy.Read the full story here.

• Smoke the Iraqi donkey in centre of three-way custody battle.A donkey in Baghdad is in the centre of a custody battle involving a marine, now back in the US, a sheikh and an Iraqi family that has demanded $30,000 to give him up.Affectionately called Smoke, the donkey wandered onto a US military base in Baghdad two years ago and won the hearts of the men there. Now, a retired Marine colonel wants to bring Smoke from Iraq to Nebraska to work with the children of soldiers who have been killed or wounded, the Christian Science Monitor reported.It's unclear who the skinny young donkey originally belonged to, but for the Marine unit that adopted him in 2008, he quickly became part of their family."Marines aren't all tough guys with hard hearts - we're suckers for kids and animals," says retired Marine Col. John Folsom, who was commandant of Camp Taquddam in Anbar province when Smoke showed up.The military made an exception to its ban on pets, officially declaring the gregarious donkey a working therapy animal."He's a symbol in my mind of humility and peace," adds Folsom, who now runs Wounded Warriors Family Support and is spearheading an effort to bring Smoke to Nebraska to work with children whose parents have been wounded or killed.Once Folsom located Smoke, he worked out a plan with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to bring Smoke to the States.The donkey would fly via Kuwait, Amsterdam, and Washington Dulles, where he would be quarantined for two weeks before being sent to his new home in Nebraska - first at Take Flight Farms in Omaha, and then to a Wounded Warriors retreat in the northwestern part of the state.But Kuwait has stopped allowing donkeys to enter the country. "I was hoping to have the donkey back in Dulles by Christmas," says Folsom, who isn't giving up. "If not (via) Kuwait, there's Jordan. Or perhaps Turkey."Hmmmm......Lets hope their Christmas doesn't go up in "Smoke"?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Japanese woman sues Google for displaying images of underwear.A Japanese woman is suing Google for displaying images of underwear hanging on her washing line on its Street View function.The woman, who has not been named, is suing the internet giant for 600,000 Yen (£4,588) claiming the images caused her psychological distress, according to Japan's Mainichi newspaper. The first hearing in the case was held this week in the southern city of Fukuoka. "I was overwhelmed with anxiety that I might be the target of a sex crime," the woman told a district court. "It caused me to lose my job and I had to change my residence." According to the suit, the woman first saw the photo on Google this spring when she did a search for her own apartment, where she lived alone. The suit claims her existing obsessive-compulsive disorder was worsened by the anxiety brought on by the photo, as she feared that everything she was doing throughout the day was being secretly recorded.Hmmmm....I think she might have a case there.Read the full story here.

• Japanese scientists said that they had produced a Mouse tweets like a bird.Japanese scientists said that they had produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered "evolution" that they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their Evolved Mouse Project, in which they use genetically-modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and are thus prone to mutations."Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen," lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura said."We checked the newborn mice one by one ... One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird," he said, noting that the "singing mouse" was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations."I was surprised because I had been expecting mice that are different in physical shape," he said, adding that in fact the project had also produced "a mouse with short limbs and a tail like a dachshund."Hmmmm...What's next snakes that fly?Read the full story here.