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Dozens of people have been killed and many wounded in a government air strike on a bakery in Syria's central Hama province, opposition activists say. The incident took place in Halfaya, a town recently captured by rebels. If activists' reports of 90 deaths are confirmed, this would be one of the deadliest air strikes of the civil war.

There was a time when 10 Commandment displays sat untouched in government halls and schools, when Nativity scenes were placed in parks and in front of government buildings, and when children sang traditional Christmas songs at holiday concerts. I remember my elementary school calendar, which read, “Christmas Vacation” marking a week or so off for the Christmas season. Slowly and methodically, it’s all disappearing thanks primarily to two organizations that are on a mission to eradicate any vestige of God – particularly Jesus Christ – from the public square. The Madison, Wisconsin based Freedom From Religion Foundation, (FFRF) and American...

Mitt Romney’s son says that his defeated dad never actually wanted the top job and he was reluctantly convinced to run for president. “He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to… run,” the eldest Romney son Tagg said in an interview with the Boston Globe. “If he could have found someone else to take his place… he would have been ecstatic to step aside. He is a very private person who loves his family deeply and wants to be with them, but he has deep faith in God and he...

TAMPA — Bill McBride, a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate who once led Florida's largest law firm, died Saturday. He was 67. Mr. McBride had a heart attack Saturday evening while in Mount Airy, N.C., with family, according to his wife, Alex Sink, Florida's former chief financial officer and also a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Mr. McBride, who lost the 2002 gubernatorial election to Jeb Bush, was once managing partner of the Holland & Knight law firm. He later became a partner in the Barnett Bolt Kirkwood Long & McBride boutique law firm on Tampa's Bayshore Boulevard. He had been a...

woman was found dead in an Anoka cemetery Saturday, Dec. 22. Anoka Police responded to reports of an unresponsive woman inside Forest Hills Cemetery, 2400 Forest Ave., just after 9 a.m. When police arrived, they found the 57-year-old woman dead, according to the Anoka County sheriff's office. There were no signs of foul play. Police are calling it a "medical event."

Currently there is no tourism in Egypt," grumbled Adel Anwar, the 32-year-old owner of a trinket stall. "The new Islamist government has no experience in managing the state," he said. "The Islamists care only about their interests, not us. They forget about everyone else." The complaint is a common one among workers dependent on Egypt's tourist industry, a key earner for the economy. ... Extremist Islamists are keeping tourists away from Egypt

A Wall Street Journal report detailing the broken-down status of talks between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner on the year-end “fiscal cliff” reveals that Obama threatened to use both his inaugural and State of the Union speeches to blame Republicans if there’s no deal. Negotiations reportedly came to a standstill after Boehner proposed increasing the tax rate on top earners: Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn’t reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his...

BOSTON (JTA) -- At the 2009 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington, 50 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews and their allies gathered in a small room on the ninth floor of the conference hotel. The event was not part of the official GA program, and the room was in the hinterlands of the hotel, hidden from the public eye. It reminded me of photos of 1950s gay bars, underground dives with no signs or windows. At the biggest annual gathering of Jews in the world, it felt like LGBT Jews were still stuck in...

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Being anti-Western trumps all for the Left. You can be a narrow-minded fascistic political organization like the Muslim Brotherhood that treats women and religions other than fanatic Muslims like dirt but that is all okay with the Left as long they proclaim themselves to be against Western Civilization. Thus we have a situation in which American liberals consider Pat Robertson to be much more dangerous to freedom than Mohammed Morsi who now rules Egypt under their new Sharia Law constitution. The DUmmies and the KOmmies have yet to react to Sharia Law Egypt but we have a HUffie THREAD...

Sheriff’s detectives hope the public can help them find approximately 300-square-feet of brick pavers stolen from a driveway Tuesday. The victim told Deputy Michelle Wright that she left her home in the 4500 block of Northwest 120th Street around 7:30 a.m. When she arrived home at 6 p.m. and drove onto the driveway, she felt a large “bump.” She said she got out of her vehicle and noticed that the concrete pavers used to make the driveway were missing. A witness told the deputy about seeing two men digging up the pavers, but said the activity didn’t seem suspicious because...

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it. In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical...

Radical plans to privatize the nation’s motorways and A-roads to create new pay-as-you drive toll roads are set to be given the green light by ministers, MailOnline can reveal. The aim is to pump new private-sector money into the nation’s crumbling road network in a bid to ease the growing gridlock logjam at a time when cash is tight and raising taxes is politically unacceptable. Under the Government shakeup, private firms will run and manage the roads in the same way that controversial utility companies run gas and electricity supplies. Private companies will pay to run the roads and be...

David Gregory is not above the law; he is a journalist, and must be held accountable to the same law as every other person. DC High Capacity Ammunition Magazines – D.C. Official Code 7-2506.01 (b) No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm. For the purposes of this subsection, the term large capacity ammunition feeding device means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more...

Poland is addicted to coal. That is the message the country has been sending both domestically and internationally as Warsaw prepares to host the global climate summit next year. In Europe, the Poles are isolated in their fight for looser emissions reduction goals and against fixes to the EU’s cap-and-trade system. … The apparent pressure on environmental groups, while concerning, does not seem inconsistent with Warsaw’s approach to issues relating to climate change. On Monday, coal-dependent Poland continued its virtually solitary opposition to a widely-supported—and badly needed—short-term fix for Europe’s carbon-trading system, the continent’s flagship policy in the fight against...

62 soldiers, fighters and officers stood up on Sunday for the chairman of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home), Naftali Bennett, who has been under attack by members of the Likud. Bennett, who served in the elite IDF unit Sayeret Matkal, said during a television interview last Thursday that if he ever receives an order to evict Jews, he would ask his commander to release him from his position and added he would be willing to serve time in prison over this issue. While he did not advocate refusing to obey orders, candidates from other parties and particularly from the Likud...

David Gregory mocked the NRA's Wayne LaPierre for proposing that armed guards be at every school in America. But the NBC host seems to have no problem with armed guards protecting his kids everyday where they attend school in Washington, D.C. -snip- The Gregory children go to school with the children of President Barack Obama, according to the Washington Post. That school is the co-ed Quaker school Sidwell Friends. According to a scan of the school's online faculty-staff directory, Sidwell has a security department made up of at least 11 people. Many of those are police officers, who are presumably...

The push to ban standard magazines is insane. It is easier to make a 30 round magazine than it is to grow a marijuana plant. The left is pursuing an unachievable result that will not help stop mass murder. Rifle magazines are made from plastic, steel, aluminum, or fiberglass. There are 100’s of millions of them in existence in the United States. They are easily made at home. They are just a box with a spring. If you have a few 10 round magazines it is easy to convert them into 30 round magazines. Technology has improved to the point...

Chicken soup is good for the soul, they say. And as a homespun remedy for everything that might ail you during winter, there are few things as deliciously soothing. But could such a broth be more than just a cold comfort? According to the latest scientific study, the answer is yes. Research in the American Journal of Therapeutics showed that a compound found in chicken soup—carnosine—helped the body’s immune system to fight the early stages of flu. But the authors warned this benefit ended as soon as the soup was excreted by the body, so that means you may need...

Sunday morning on Meet the Press NBC host David Gregory grilled NRA leader Wayne LaPierre in a heated exchange over the gun control debate.

Painting: Michaelangelo's Prophet Isaiah Dear friends, We are all familiar with Isaiah's well known prophecy of Christmas: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.� (Isaiah 7:14) However, Isaiah made another (lesser known) prophecy of Christmas: "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a Manchild" (Isa 66:7) This verse is the basis for the Catholic teaching that Mary experienced no pain when she delivered Christ at Bethlehem. The Roman Catechism teaches that Christ passed through her...

Enlarge Image Risk factor. Smoking may cause chemical modifications of DNA. Credit: Hemera/Thinkstock Cigarettes leave you with more than a smoky scent on your clothes and fingernails. A new study has found strong evidence that tobacco use can chemically modify and affect the activity of genes known to increase the risk of developing cancer. The finding may give researchers a new tool to assess cancer risk among people who smoke. DNA isn't destiny. Chemical compounds that affect the functioning of genes can bind to our genetic material, turning certain genes on or off. These so-called epigenetic modifications can influence...

Tory MP David Davies recently caused outrage when he suggested that parents wanted their children to be heterosexual and that plans to legalize gay marriage were “barking mad”. Now the politician has attempted to defend his comments by saying that he has not “done years of diversity training”. Mr. Davies’ continued opposition to gay marriage and outspoken comments have angered equal rights campaigners and the MP admitted that he has been “tactless”. … In an interview with the Guardian, the 48-year-old said: “I haven’t done years of diversity training, so sometimes I say things which are probably tactless, and I...

Someone needs to tell Barack Obama—it must get particularly confusing this time of year—that his own birth is not Year One, the date around which all other events are understood. His much-noted, self-referential tic was on cringe-worthy display Friday when the president gave his eulogy for the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, who served in Congress for half a century representing Obama’s birth state of Hawaii. Inouye was a Japanese-American war hero (he lost an arm in World War II, destroying his dream of becoming a surgeon), and as a senator he served on the Watergate committee, helped rewrite our intelligence...

Sen. Barrasso: Obama sees a ‘political victory’ in going over the cliffBy Alicia M. Cohn - 12/23/12 09:32 AM ET Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Sunday he thinks President Obama wants to dive over the so-called "fiscal cliff." "I believe the president is eager to go over the cliff for political purposes," Barrasso told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "He senses a political victory at the bottom of the cliff." The senator also said he believes the nation will go over the cliff, with the deadline just nine days away. Barrasso said he thinks Obama is eager to blame...

Let's get an arrest warrant out for David Gregory.

Legal Insurrection@LegInsurrection @davidgregory Was that a high capacity ammunition clip you were holding? Did you check D.C. law? Update 5:15 p.m. — It has been 4 hours since I emailed the two communications people at NBC News with responsibility for Meet the Press, and almost two hours since I emailed the S.V.P. of Communications and left a voice mail on her cell phone, but no response yet from NBC News. -snip- It sure looks that way, unless the gun clip Gregory held up today was just a dummy prop. I saw a number of tweets linking to this post David...

The economic crisis and its social impact is a major concern for most EU citizens, according to a survey published Thursday (20 December) by survey group Eurobarometer. “The proportion of Europeans who say that the situation of their national economy is rather bad or very bad exceeds two-thirds for the ninth consecutive time,” notes the survey. Unemployment, the general unchanged nature of the economic crisis, and rising prices are among the greatest concerns. … The fear of losing a job or not finding one is pervasive throughout the EU. More than six Europeans out of 10 believe that “the worst...

Golden State legislators join the gun control chorus in the wake of Sandy Hook. It took only days before California’s lefty legislators reacted to the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy with a fusillade of bills designed to take California closer to Democratic leaders’ unstated but obvious goal: making it essentially illegal for citizens to own firearms in California.I write “essentially” because the strategy isn’t to ban guns outright, but to mire ownership in so many layers of regulation that owning a gun becomes even more frustrating and costly than operating a business in this state. Legislators aren’t stupid. Direct...

US Navy SEAL commander dies in Afghanistan AAP December 24, 2012 8:51AM A SAILOR identified by US media as the commanding officer of US Navy SEAL Team 4 has died in Afghanistan, military officials say. The Pentagon said Commander Job Price, 42, did not die in combat, and that his death was under investigation. Price, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died on Saturday of a "non-combat related injury while supporting stability operations in (central) Uruzgan province, Afghanistan," a Defence Department statement said. It said Price was assigned to a Naval Special Warfare unit in Virginia Beach, Virginia. NBC News reported that Price...

Apache co-pilot Prince Harry launched a missile attack on the Taliban in a devastating airstrike in Afghanistan. The 27-year-old was called in to provide air support to troops and discharged a 100lb Hellfire missile. The attack happened in late October, shortly after the prince returned to Afghanistan for his second tour of duty as gunship co-pilot. Captain Harry Wales – as he is known in the Army – is a co-pilot gunner in the Apache unit which has the highest ‘kill rate’ in the war. As the co-pilot gunner, Harry commands missions, fire the weapons, navigates and sometimes take over...

Mitt Romney didn't want to be president, anyway. That's what Tagg Romney, Mitt's oldest son, told the Boston Globe for its big post-mortem on his father's failed presidential bid published on Sunday. “He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life," Tagg Romney told the paper. "He had no desire to ... run. If he could have found someone else to take his place ... he would have been ecstatic to step aside.

Here on the 4th Sunday of Advent, we are but a day away, practically speaking, from the unfolding of the great mystery of the Word made flesh. It is possible for us to look right past this 4th Sunday of Advent, but we do well to pause and ponder what is taught to us today about the salvation that is to unfold. One significant way we can do this is by pondering the first reading today from the prophet Micah. In four short verses we behold a kind of summary of our salvation, a snapshot of what ails us and...

Don’t mess with Marlboro Township. The leafy, well-heeled New Jersey suburb will station a permanent armed cop in each of its nine schools starting Jan. 2. It’s apparently the first district nationwide bent on packing heat in every schoolhouse since madman Adam Lanza gunned down 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. “We’ve made a collective decision as a town that we need armed security in each of our schools,” Mayor Jonathan Hornik told The Post. “With this new evil, you can’t just sit there and hope that it doesn’t happen in...

FIREARMS "A" Accuracy International AE Accuracy International AW-50 Accuracy International AW Sniper 7.62x51 Accu-Tek AT25, AT32, AT380 Accu-Tek AT380 II AK-47 AKDAL M-1919 American 180 Rifle American Arms Escort American Arms P98 American Tactical AK47 American Tactical AT15 American Tactical AT94 American Tactical Double Action Pistols American Tactical FX45 American Tactical JR Carbine American Western Arms 1873 AMT 45 DAO AMT Automag II AMT Backup .22-.380 AMT Backup DAO AMT Hardballer AMT Lightning AMT On Duty Amtec 2000 Anschutz 54 Anschutz 64R Anschutz 64P Anschutz 275 Anschutz 380 Anschutz 525 Anschutz 1388 Anschutz 1400-1500 Anschutz 1403 Anschutz 1408 Anschutz 1411-1413...

After tragedies there is often a call for action – any action- regardless of how ineffective it might be. This week Wayne LaPierre of the NRA made a speech in which he called for armed cops in schools and it was ridiculed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen-elect Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Blumenthal called it “sadly and shamefully inadequate.” Murphy called it “revolting and tone-deaf.” The New York Daily News called LaPierre the “craziest man on Earth.” Let’s examine those accusations. Among LaPierre's remarks: - We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards. American airports,...

Nowadays, however, there are four states that require no permit at all to carry a gun, and 35 states have permissive “shall issue” or “right-to-carry” laws that effectively take the decision of who should carry a weapon out of law enforcement’s hands. These laws say that if an applicant meets minimal criteria — one is not having been convicted of a felony, and another is not having a severe mental illness — officials have no choice about whether to issue a permit. Some states go even further by expressly allowing guns where they should not be. Nine states now have...

full title...CIA chief sends out extraordinary email to entire staff complaining about agency's portrayal in Zero Dark Thirty'I would not normally comment on a Hollywood film, but I think it's important to put Zero Dark Thirty which deals with one of the most significant achievements in our history, into some context,' Mike Morell began in his note to his staff on Friday.

Catholic Traditions for Advent and ChristmasMICHAELANN MARTINIssue: How can families better live the spirit of Advent and Christmas in their homes? ResponseThe Catholic Church has designated the four weeks preceding Christmas as Advent, a time to “prepare the way of the Lord” for His coming as our King and Savior. In addition, the Church teaches that: [w]hen the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating [John...

I’m happy to pay my fair share — which is whatever the tax is right now. The thing about capital gains is, I made the investment. I put in the original money. The house cost $3 million and then I put in an additional $6 million because the house was in terrible shape. We added rooms, sections, areas, and basically it was my investment. When I bought that house I think Obama was in high school, and I certainly have paid taxes ever since. -snip Now I’m being told the right thing is to do more. And because I can...

Is Christmas Pagan? A Jewish Star of David Tops This Christmas Tree   THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT:   About this time every year we hear the usual misnomer that Christmas is a Pagan celebration whitewashed by the medieval Catholic Church. We hear this from all corners. Secularists just accept it as fact. Catholics, rather embarrassingly, often try to gloss over it. While Protestant Fundamentalists frequently rail against it, usually calling for either a boycott of the holiday, or else a return to the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. (For some ridiculous reason, some Fundamentalists subscribe to the notion that if a certain...

Ordinarily, I'd agree that THIS is no time to be arguing gun control. With the pain still intense in Connecticut, there should have been a truce declared, to allow for grieving. But the plain truth is, those who declare that a good crisis must not be wasted, jumped the gun (as they usually do) and began a nationwide PR war through the national Mainstream Media to bring as much pressure to bear as they possible could on our government for laws to ban certain guns, eventually ALL guns in the hands of US civilians. To those on the political and...

From Gas Prices to Food Stamps; from 'Bulk Ammo' to Consumer Confidence; and from Earnings to Economic Data, these 12 charts of the 12 months of 2012 are definitely Not Jim Cramer's.

Saying he was unwilling to let what he called a “lazy-a** Congress” go on a Kwanzaa break without doing something to end gun violence, President Obama on Friday wrote and signed Executive Order No. 57-ought-nought, demanding that law enforcement officials in all 57 states immediately arrest any and all guns believed to be used in crimes. “This will get those dang guns off the street,” the president remarked as he signed the order, which was written on a cocktail napkin from the Kappuhualuhannilannamaliki-aha Hotel where he, the family and their entourage of 700 personal assistants, servants, cooks and interior decorators...

Three churches in the Austrian town of Amstetten (pop: 21,000) were burned this morning. All of the indications point to arson. Several eye-witnesses saw a suspect. As is their custom, the police and newspapers have given a detailed account of his stature and clothing, but fail to mention his skin colour. Amstetten has a large Mohammedan population.

The details and translations emerged Saturday of a December 13 interview on Egyptian television Al Baghdadia. During the discussion the Shiite ayatollah Ahmad Al Hassani Al Baghdadi issued a that against Christians in Iraq. Labeling them as “polytheists” and “friends of the Zionists”, the leader stressed that they must choose “or Islam or death,” while “their women and girls may legitimately be regarded wives of Muslims.” This last statement regarding the females is the Muslim indirect way of authorizing any Christian woman or girl may be captured and raped, even if she is already married, within Islam captive women may...

full title...Turkey, mac and cheese: Michelle reveals she's throwing out 'Let's Move' campaign to give her family a good stuffing on Christmas DayMichelle Obama put her campaign to end childhood obesity on hold as she helped cook up some turkey, stuffing and mac and cheese. The First Lady dubbed herself ‘hostess in chief’ as she welcomed the country into her family’s home for the holidays. ‘This is the time when I throw “Let's Move” out the window for a moment, and get that mac and cheese. Everybody deserves their mac and cheese,’ she told The Today Show this week.

Dental assistant Melissa Nelson was fired by her boss of 10 years because he felt her presence was a threat to his marriage Horndog bosses in Iowa have a new tool to save their marriages — they can fire employees who are too hot for the workplace. The state’s all-male Supreme Court ruled 7-0 Friday that an Iowa City dentist legally canned his female assistant because she was “irresistibly attractive” and a threat to his marriage. The bombshell ruling came after Melissa Nelson sued her boss of 10 years, Dr. James Knight, for discrimination. The married mother claims she was...

Must see for anyone that enjoys Christmas lights :)

Well-known religious businessman Moti Zisser predicted Saturday evening that Europe will unleash a second Holocaust – but this time, the victims will be Muslims, not Jews. "I think another Holocaust is brewing in Europe," he told congregants at Bnei Brak's Heichal Shlomo synagogue, according to Maariv-NRG. "I said it five years ago and everyone laughed at me. Today nobody is laughing; today they only argue with me over when it will happen." The entrepreneur, who has businesses in Israel as well as Poland and other European countries, explained that Muslims are increasingly gaining control of the European economy, and that...