Free Republic

<p>The New York City Police Department is ramping up security around tourist hotspots, but denies a report claiming it received a "credible threat" against the city ahead of Christmas.</p> <p>Commissioner William Bratton held an emergency meeting with authorities Tuesday to urge police officers to remain vigilant during the busy holiday season, sources told PIX11 News.</p>

The cover of the December 1970 issue of the National Lampoon showed a Chinese fighter pilot shooting down Santa's sleigh. As St. Nick tumbles from the sky, the pilot growls: "Eat Death, bloated lackey of the capitalist toy mongers!" In 1970, the war on Christmas was just a gleam in the eye of an ACLU lawyer. Today, it's everywhere. 'Tis the season to pretend there's no reason for the season – that Ramadan, Kwanza and Diwali are just as important to the American people as mistletoe and holly. The Wittensville, Kentucky school district announced that, based on a single complaint,...

BLAINE, Minn. (WCCO) — Some parents in the Anoka-Hennepin School District are questioning a choir teacher’s decision to use a song about Ramadan performed in Arabic at a holiday concert. At Thursday night’s concert at Blaine High School, one of the songs students will be singing includes Arabic words, including the phrase “Allahu Akbar,” which means “God is great.” Christian and Jewish songs will be performed as well, but the Ramadan song is getting all the attention. It started with a post on Facebook. A parent of a ninth-grade Blaine choir student posted the lyrics to the song the choir...

IT is 10 days until christmas. Will Google notice and have a special Christmas logo? Or a non-denominational "Happy Holiday" OR will they do what they did on Easter instead of honoring the day of the Resurrection of Christ they used someone more important - Cesar Chavez?

Here is Jesus H. Christ, walking around modern America, right now. Can you imagine him? Here is, in other words, a dark-skinned, bearded, unkempt Middle Eastern Jew, acting all kinds of suspicious, ranting on street corners and hanging around with prostitutes and fanatics, rejecting money, violence and the ruling class, seen by Muslims as the divine precursor to their prophet as he lures the innocent and the seditious into his lawless cult of pacifism and peace.

Santa Claus is banned. The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited. "Harvest festival" has replaced Thanksgiving, and "winter celebrations" substitute for Christmas parties. New principal Eujin Jaela Kim has given PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a politically correct scrub-down, to the dismay of teachers and parents. "We definitely can't say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa,"PTA president Mimi Ferrer said administrators told her. "No angels. We can't even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David." Kim, 33, did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment.

Beard baubles are so last year. This year, hirsute hipsters too cool for ugly Christmas sweaters have decided to pay tribute to the spirit of the holidays by glitter-bombing their beards.

A man who was linked Wednesday to the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings was described by someone who identified himself as his father as a Muslim who was "very religious." NBC News has reported that one of the suspects killed by police after the shootings at the Inland Regional Center is Syed Farook. Farook and a woman were killed in a gunfight with police in nearby Redlands after the rampage at the center that killed 14 people and wounded 17 others. San Bernardino County records showed that someone with that name was an employee at the county's Environmental Health Department. The...

Directly after a mass shooting, in the minutes or hours or days between the first trickle of news and when police find a suspect or make arrests, it is very difficult to know what to do. Some people demand political action, like greater gun control; others call for prayer. In the aftermath of a violent shooting spree in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday, in which at least 14 victims are reported to have died, people with those differing reactions quickly turned against one another. For example: Here’s the Washington editor at the liberal publication The Nation, George Zornick, on reactions...

Local LA Breaking

This just in to the newsroom — Deval Patrick is no longer governor of the commonwealth. We are reminded of these glad tidings by a simple press release that was issued Thanksgiving Eve. It announced that next Tuesday evening, the new governor will be lighting a “Christmas tree” at the State House. No muss, no fuss, no controversy. It’s Christmas, so a Christmas tree is going up on Beacon Hill. Merry Christmas! Granted, it’s a small step on a long road, but after eight years of the PC malaise that marked Deval Patrick’s disastrous tenure, at least a bit of...

Chicago protesters pulled down barricades and tore light strands off the city Christmas tree Wednesday night in Millennium Park, WGN-TV reported. It was the second night of protests over the death of Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer.

Well, it’s that time again – time to get out the Christmas list and start hitting the stores. The problem is – what stores? For any Christian who wants to spend hard-earned dollars with family-friendly, Christian-affirming retailers, restaurants and service providers, the list is growing shorter all the time. I stopped shopping at Macy’s in 2011 after learning about the retailer’s grossly unjust policy against women. Macy’s management said “yes” to a transsexual young man’s demand to change in the women’s dressing room and rejected a Christian employee’s attempt to block his inappropriate access, even firing her because of her...

A Facebook group criticizing the Staten Island Mall for canceling its Christmas tree-lighting ceremony and Santa parade has attracted tens of thousands of followers, energizing debate about the loss of holiday traditions. The mall later apologized, announcing it would host a holiday celebration on Dec. 4 featuring Santa, a tree lighting and a toy drive. "We heard the disappointment in your shopper feedback regarding the cancellation of the annual Santa Parade. At Staten Island Mall, we pride ourselves on being a community partner and take our shoppers' sentiments to heart -- good and bad," mall officials said in a statement.

New York City public schools have added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced Wednesday. Schools will now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, making New York City the largest school district in the nation to recognize the two holidays on the official school calendar. “We are committed to having a school calendar that reflects and honors the extraordinary diversity of our students,” said Farina. De Blasio said the change means that Muslim families won’t be forced to choose between observing the holidays and sending their kids to school....

One of the secular left’s latest windmills at which to tilt is America’s fanciful “rape culture.” There is a universal ethos of violence against women, as they imagine it, that stems from a millennia-old global patriarchy chiefly derived from religion in general and Judeo-Christianity in particular (another of their pet nemeses). Paradoxically, these “progressive” Don Quixotes actually believe in said “rape culture,” something that, outside of Islam, does not exist, while they disbelieve in their Creator, Christ Jesus, who both did and does exist. Exhibit A, of course, is the now-debunked UVA fraternity gang-rape hoax concocted in the disturbed minds...

NBC Nightly News offered two stories on Christmas in their December 25 newscast, including a show-ender about “what Christmas means to me.” Substitute anchor Tamron Hall offered this introduction: “Finally, on this special night, a question: What does Christmas mean to you? Maybe it’s the presents, the lights, the music, or getting together with family. We put the question to people around the country and discovered once against that Christmas means something a little different to everyone.” Somehow, this perfectly pleasant three-minute segment included lot of talk about family time and presents, and even someone saying “Happy Hanukkah,” but included...

Another life lesson from the religion of peace. A trio of well wishers were telling passersby “Merry Christmas” in Cologne, Germany, when they happened on a Muslim man accompanying two Muslim women. The man took offense at the greeting and proceeded to attack one of the men with a knife, stabbing him multiple times in the back and neck. Considering the attack took place on Christmas Eve, the Muslim man was probably out searching for a patsy, looking to be offended just enough so that he could carry out his cowardly attack and then claim himself as a victim of...

And the bells chimed for victory at 1211 Avenue of the Americas. The so-called War on Christmas, says overpaid bloviator Bill O’Reilly, has been won by his god-fearing, flag-flourishing side. “We won the war,” the Fox News personality proclaimed last week. “I have to confess, you know, I’m like a guerrilla fighter in the War on Christmas…We did this War on Christmas thing for about 10 years. This is the first year I didn’t get one call or letter saying, ‘This store has said it won’t say [“Merry Christmas”].’” Hallelujah.

He was born in a barn to penniless parents who were part of a people under occupation. Get it? So why do so many of us not get it? I’m against the War on Christmas. No not that one! Wishing someone “Happy Holidays” doesn’t rob Christmas of its meaning—after all, being sensitive to others’ religious beliefs ought to be the attitude of every Christian. And not the one that says we have over-commercialized Christmas—after all, there’s nothing wrong with a time of year when we purchase thoughtful gifts for those we love.