Merry Christmans 2009

Gateway Pundit "The Anchoress posted this wonderful video of Aled Jones as a child and an adult singing “O Holy Night.’It is wonderful.I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas."

Could Jesus Live Safely In Bethlehem Today?

Phyllis Chesler , Pajamas Media "For example, the other day, I engaged my taxi driver in conversation. He was a young man from Turkey. He told me that he was a religious Muslim, that his wife wore hijab — and that he was committed to peace. “Do you understand the Islamic jihadists who massacre innocent civilians in the name of Islam”? Calmly, he answered. “Madame, they are not real Muslims. No real Muslim would do anything like that. I don’t know any Muslims like that.” He was very definite about this. Said I: “But don’t you want to stop such criminals from committing atrocities in the name of your religion?” He remained silent..."

War Against the Wannabe Rich

Victor Davis Hanson "Why the war against the productive classes who want to be rich? Maybe it is because they are not as numerous as the proverbial middle class. Perhaps they do not earn our empathy that is properly accorded to the poor. They surely lack the status and insider connections that accrue to the very rich. Yet continue to punish and demonize them, and the country will grind to a halt — as we are seeing now."

Ex-President Carter offers apology to Jews

GREG BLUESTEIN APNews "Carter's apology was welcomed by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a vocal critic of Carter's views on Israel. When a former president reaches out to the Jewish community and asks for forgiveness, it's incumbent of us to accept it," he said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. "To what extent this is an epiphany, only time will tell. There certainly was a lot of hurt, a lot of angry words that need to be repaired. But this is a good start." "I Do Not Forgive You, Jimmy Carter ", by Alan Caruba: "The calumnies and lies about Israel that the former President has lent his name to and the support he has demonstrated for the enemies of Israel cannot be wiped clean by an apology." Jimmy Carter: Still unforgiven by Ethel C. Fenig in AT: "Not so coincidentally his grandson, Jason Carter, is considering running for a seat in the Georgia state senate from a district with a large Jewish population..."

Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

Townhall

Criminalizing Christmas Cookies, Candy Canes, and Crèches

Jeannie DeAngelis in AT "Eliminating depictions of biblical stories and characters does not go far enough for iconoclasts wishing to totally exterminate Christianity from American culture. Childhood memories embracing flavors, smells, and songs must be stamped out to fully purge even the most remote allusion to Christ. Every good heathen knows that peppermint candy canes and spray snow possess the power to jar Christmas memories and summon dangerous, offensive hymns like "Silent Night." " "Pagan Propaganda: The Other Attack on Christmas" "When addressing the notion that Christmas is a pagan event, we should first start with a very simple pronouncement. It is not. "

We're Staying, We're Praying; Get Used to It

Deborah C. Tyler in AT "There are three kinds of faith: faith in God, faith in oneself, and faith in life. Think of these as building blocks. When the United States was founded, the big block on the bottom of the pile was faith in God. However, something happened through the course of American history: The blocks got restacked, and faith in self, or egocentrism, settled into the first position."

Shameless Islamist Doublespeak Rages On

Pajamas Media "To English audiences, jihadists talk of ending oppression; to Arabic ones, they talk of oppressing the infidel." And the pacifists of the left are their useful idiots.

The War Over California

Ross Douthat , NY Times "The argument about what went wrong with California is really an argument about the future of America. To the right, the Golden State’s ongoing crisis is a case study in liberal failure: A big-spending state that lived far beyond its means, and let its public-policy priorities be dictated by the appetites of liberal interest groups instead of the common good. To the left, it’s a case study in how a malign nexus of conservative intransigence and institutional sclerosis can thwart good governance. The problem in California isn’t the spending, liberals argue: It’s the supermajority requirements that prevent a liberal majority from raising the taxes necessary to pay for it."

Arrogance, corruption, stupidity

Powerline Blog "Republicans didn't have the votes to stop the Senate's Obamacare bill this morning. But they had the better argument. Oklahoma's magnificent Senator (and Dr.) Tom Coburn spoke for a lot of us in explaining his vote against the Democrats' bill: '....This process was not compromise. This process was corruption. This bill passed because votes were bought and sold using the issue of abortion as a bargaining chip. The abortion provision alone makes this bill the most arrogant piece of legislation I have seen in Congress. Only the most condescending politician can believe it is appropriate to force Americans to pay for other people's abortions and to coerce medical professional[s] to take the lives of unborn children.' " Also here: The Culture of Corruption .

Imam Linked to Ft. Hood Rampage Believed to Be Among 30 Al Qaeda Killed in Airstrike

FoxNews In case you were wondering why all the flags around town were at half-mast. "A Yemeni official, also speaking on condition of anonymity to AFP, said those attending the meeting "planned to launch terrorist attacks against economic installations in Yemen, in retaliation for Yemeni strikes launched last week.""

The Prosecution of Rifqa Bary

Pamela Geller in AT (Blogger at Atlas Shrugs) "There is a war of attrition going on in the Rifqa Bary case. Rifqa is the girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled from her family in fear for her life -- and the Islamic machine is attempting to wear her down, grind her down by constant mental abuse. The persecution is so obvious, and yet so mundane that no one seems to take notice. The banality of evil."