WWhile the likes of Jon Stewart and others in the liberal intelligentsia might dismiss the idea there is a War on Christmas, the truth of the matter is that with every passing year people are more and more reluctant to wish one another a Merry Christmas. At สมัครงาน times, people are expressly forbidden from saying Merry Christmas, as was the case this year at an elementary school deep in the heart of Texas. This is no accident and we are the poorer for it.

Although a recent poll indicates more Americans prefer to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, I believe most of us deep down would rather say Merry Christmas. In my own observations, most people settle for saying Happy Holidays. This term has been generally used as a catch-all phrase for Christmas and Chanukah, and in recent years has encompassed the celebration of Kwanzaa. But this year Chanukah began the night before Thanksgiving, thus giving birth to the term Thanksgivukkah. Although this convergence won’t happen for another 7,000 years it does seem particularly odd to say Happy Holidays when the last night of Chanukah took place on December 5.

Now I have nothing against anyone saying Happy Holidays if they mean it from the bottom of their hearts. No Salvation Army bell ringer ought not to have their bell rung if they choose to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.


Nevertheless, I do find that when people do say Merry Christmas they are far more circumspect about it. The greeting is accompanied by a qualifying statement. For instance, there is “Merry Christmas and whatever else you might celebrate,” or “ หางาน Merry Christmas. I hope I didn’t offend you.” Something is terribly amiss when one feels self-conscious or is afraid of angering someone about conveying good wishes to a fellow human being.

As most people know I am Jewish and do not observe Christmas. Well, this hasn’t always been the case. I should mention that when I lived in Ottawa, there were a number of occasions that I would spend Christmas Day with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and maternal grandparents and found these experiences to be enjoyable. I must also admit that I enjoyed singing Christmas Carols and participating in the Christmas play when I attended elementary school in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In fact, in the fourth grade, I had the pleasure of narrating ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Let me compare those experiences with one I had last week with my roommate Christopher. He invited me to a Winter Solstice Service at the First Church of Boston, which is a Unitarian Universalist congregation. This service was conducted in darkness, illuminated only by candles. In between the somewhat pleasant and inoffensive musical interludes there was poetry read about the bleakness of the winter season as well as five minutes of silence. During this service, there was no mention of God, Christ, or Christmas. What was also absent from this service was any kind of joy or warmth. I could not wait for the service to end.

Now I’m sure there were people who genuinely enjoyed that Winter Solstice service. That’s fine with me. Yet I cannot help but think that such a service is a by-product of an American and Western culture that has been increasingly critical of Christianity and consequently has been made to feel guilty about celebrating Christmas.ลงประกาศงานฟรี

While I don’t generally partake in Christmas festivities I do see the joy and merriment it brings to people. So when someone says Happy Holidays to me, I say Merry Christmas to them. If someone says Merry Christmas to me, I say it back to them. Why tell them that I don’t celebrate Christmas?

So when a UPS driver wished me and my colleague a Merry Christmas the other day, I found it quite heartening. This also delighted my colleague who also has a strong preference for saying Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. The UPS driver told us, “I know some people aren’t comfortable saying Merry Christmas. But it’s Christmas. I always say Merry Christmas. This is America. If I can’t say it here then where I can I say it?” Amen!!! And with that, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas

A jailbreak has been developed for Apple's latest mobile operating system, but there are a few issues that need ironing out หางาน

1. Watermelon is her favorite bubblegum flavor. So when you see Britney smacking away in the documentary, that's what she's most likely got in her mouth.
2. She's actually a very shy person. Don't let the revealing attire fool you. "I'm not built for this industry because I am so shy."
3. In her home in Louisiana, she has a plaque on the wall that says "Go beyond reason to love for it's the only safety there is." Loose translation: Love is why we're here as people.
4. Her sister, Jamie Lynn, can kick her butt. "Jamie Lynn's surprisingly strong. She nails me to the ground every time."
5. Britney and her father, Jamie, are a lot alike. When they're nervous, they both make corny jokes and press their hands together in the same tee-pee shape. "We've got the same mannerisms when we've got something on the brain." Her father also says they don't travel anywhere without duct tape, in case something needs fixing. A wise precaution, it turns out. When shooting the Work B-tch video in Las Vegas, there was no air conditioning in her makeup trailer. So her father "rednecked it" สมัครงาน  by taping a tube that blew cold air to the vent, turning the swampy digs into a cool one.

ลงประกาศรับสมัครงาน ฟรี

ลงประกาศรับสมัครงาน ฟรี...

        Marvel has done an extremely effective job over the past few years of grounding its movie universe in a recognizable reality. Tony Stark is an eccentric billionaire seemingly pulled from the latest headlines; Captain America is a well-intentioned hero that gets appropriated for wartime propaganda. The characters are all just one step away from our own world… and then there’s Thor.

Between his mythological underpinnings and almost magical powers, it’s no surprise that the Asgardian prince feels slightly out of step with the rest of the big-screen Avengers. There’s an inescapable comic book feel baked into him at the conceptual level, and while that has the potential to turn off new fans it also makes Thor a sort of bellwether character: if audiences can get behind Chris Hemsworth and a flying hammer, Marvel’s formula is right on target. In that regard Thor: The Dark World is a direct hit, an exercise in diligent execution that delivers exactly what fans of the first film will be looking for — though not much more....






Things pick up some time after the events in The Avengers, with Thor methodically restoring order to the Nine Realms at the behest of his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins, showing some restraint in a role that seems designed for scene-chewing). His brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) sits in the dungeons of Asgard for that whole trying-to-destroy-the-Earth thing, and while Thor should be in good spirits he’s restless, hung up on Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster.

It’s not until Jane just coincidentally happens to be infected by a long-lost weapon called the Aether that Thor returns to Earth to help. Soon after he discovers that the ancient enemies of Asgard, the Dark Elves, aren’t extinct as once thought, and Thor finds himself teaming up with Loki to prevent the Elves from — yes, you guessed it — destroying the entire universe.

On the heels of Apple's new, lighter iPad, Amazon has come out with a full-size tablet that weighs even less yet sports a sharper display and a lower price tag. Although Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 hasn't received as much attention as the iPad Air, it is emerging as the strongest challenger yet to Apple's device.

The new Kindle shares many of the features found in a smaller version that came out Oct. 18.

A row of tabs at the top of the screen gives you quick access to Amazon services such as e-books, music, video and shopping. Recently used apps and content appear in the middle so you can return to them quickly. The bottom row has icons for frequently used apps such as email and the camera.

Need help? Just hit the "Mayday" button. You'll be connected within seconds to a live customer-service representative, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You see the representatives in a video box, but they can only hear you and see what's on your screen. They can also help guide you by placing orange markers on your screen or taking control of your device completely.

I found all the reps to be patient as they walked me through attempts to locate a missing book, play a podcast and download items from the Dropbox storage service. In one case, the representative called my cellphone as promised an hour later to follow up. We never found a solution on Dropbox, though -- but more on that later.

The best part of the new Kindle is its price. Amazon.com Inc. begins shipping it Thursday, starting at $379. That's cheaper than the new $399 iPad Mini, which has a display that measures 7.9 inches diagonally. The full-size Kindle Fire HDX has an 8.9-inch screen, just short of the iPad Air's 9.7 inches. Even cheaper is the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, which costs $229.

If you can afford a $499 tablet and aren't a heavy user of Amazon services, you might still consider the iPad Air.

Yes, the Kindle is lighter, at about 0.83 pound, or 17 percent less than the Air. But I couldn't really tell the difference holding the two side by side.

And yes, the Kindle has a sharper screen, with a resolution of 339 pixels per inch compared with the iPad's 264 pixels per inch. But I couldn't really tell the difference watching the Pixar cartoon "Monsters University" side by side.

Where the Air shines is in the build. I find the Air more pleasant to hold because of its curved edges. The Kindle has a soft, rubber-like back, but it doesn't make up for the boxy edges. The Kindle promises more battery life -- at 12 hours, compared with 10 hours for the Air. But I found the two devices drained battery at roughly the same rate when watching Hulu streaming video.

In addition, the Air has access to a wide variety of apps available through Apple's app store. The Kindle uses a modified version of Android and can run a variety of Android apps -- but not all of them. In fact, the new Kindle doesn't run all the Android apps that are supposed to work with Kindles, including the app for Dropbox. Many of these apps need to be updated every time a new Kindle device comes out, whereas they simply work when new Android devices are out, just as iPad apps work on new iPads.

If you are drawn by the Kindle's price and don't mind the limited selection, though, the Kindle is a wonderful option. That's especially so if you're a frequent Amazon customer. The Kindle is tied to your Amazon account, making it easy to buy everything from audiobooks to vacuum cleaners with a click or two. You also get Amazon's recommendations for more things to buy, based on physical and digital purchases you've made on Amazon in the past.

With a $79-a-year Amazon Prime membership, you also get quick access to thousands of free movies and television episodes and the ability to borrow one e-book a month from a select list. You can download the free Prime video to watch wherever you are. On older Kindle Fires and other devices, you're limited to streaming, which requires a constant Internet connection.

Another exclusive Kindle feature is called X-Ray. When you're reading a book, you get information about characters and places from Wikipedia and other sources. When you're listening to music, you see lyrics for selected songs. When you're watching a movie or TV show, you get information on actors, character summaries and trivia. While watching "Monsters University," I particularly liked the callout to a pizza truck that appears in most Pixar movies. A little note pops up in the lower left corner.

I'll forgive the fact that it actually shows up during the wrong scene. I didn't get any supplemental material at all with the iPad.

Another thing I didn't get with the iPad is live help. I had trouble playing "Monsters University" on the iPad initially because I hadn't finished downloading it yet. I had to figure out on my own that I had to switch to a different app to do that. Both the iPad and the Kindle let you start watching as the download continues.

The new full-size Kindle is a great deal at $379. It might even make a nice gift for your tech-challenged friends and relatives, as they can call Mayday rather than you. The Kindle isn't as good as the iPad Air, but it's an excellent choice for its price.

    The Muslim Brotherhood, a hardline Egyptian Islamic group, is in a constant political battle with the military-backed government over control of Egypt.

It’s unclear what the future holds for the group, and the U.S.  is concerned about the organization’s ties to radical Islam.

The Muslim Brotherhood is challenging the Egyptian government over a new law designed to regulate the number of protests. Muslim Brotherhood leaders see the law as a further crackdown directed mainly at them.

Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland asked author Tawfik Hamid about the Muslim Brotherhood’s radical ties.

Hamid is the senior fellow and chair of the study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He was also a former member of a terrorist Islamic organization Jemaah Islamiya with Ayman Al-Zawaherri, who became later second in command of Al Qaeda.

Hamid says the U.S. should not be fooled into thinking the organization is a moderate group.

“The Muslim Brotherhood works in four stages … preaching … share in power with ours … consolidate power … use violence to enforce Sharia [religious law of Islam],” said Hamid.  “As long as they [Muslim Brotherhood] have not reached stage four many people, especially in the West, couldn’t recognize their threat … because [before then] they see them as a peaceful group.”

Hamid warned, “If you waited more for them [to spread their operations] you will start to see the reality.”

Hamid believes the Muslim Brotherhood is secretly supporting jihadist movements. “They don’t do the dirty work themselves … they can release the jihadists … they do not get engaged themselves in the terrorist acts.”

He cited Islamists in the African country of Mali, who were gaining strength in 2012, as an example of Morsi taking the side of the radicals.

“Morsi objected to the French intervention in Mali against the Jihadists … you can see that they give us a lot of lip service of how peaceful they are and they deceived many of us,” said Hamid.

Hamid, author of “Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam,” believes the Muslim Brotherhood was too confident when Morsi was elected. They thought their party would remain in power permanently going forward.

“This over confidence lead many of their leaders started to relax and start to talk to some of the people like Ayman Al-Zawaherri and others,” said Hamid. “When they [Muslim Brotherhood] got to power, the first election after Morsi came to power it was a referendum of the Constitution … you cannot imagine the level of deception, the abuse that happened  to the ordinary people in order to change the results of the referendum for their benefit.”

Hamid says that Egyptian General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the country’s military were right in removing Morsi from power.  “If he didn’t do so, Egypt would have … become another Taliban [haven] in this part of the world.”









The Associated Press reports:

The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that U.S. national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.


Israel employs highly sophisticated, professional spy services that rival American agencies in technical capability and recruiting human sources. Unlike Iran or Syria, for example, Israel as a steadfast U.S. ally enjoys access to the highest levels of the U.S. government in military and intelligence circles.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the sensitive intelligence and diplomatic issues between the two countries.

The AP continues to say that, contrary to political rhetoric, Israel is by no means America’s closest ally:

Israel is not America’s closest ally, at least when it comes to whom Washington trusts with the most sensitive national security information. That distinction belongs to a group of nations known informally as the “Five Eyes.” Under that umbrella, the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand agree to share intelligence and not to spy on one another. Often, U.S. intelligence officers work directly alongside counterparts from these countries to handle highly classified information not shared with anyone else.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has called the Associated Press article a “false report,” and the spokesman of Israel’s ambassador in Washington reportedly said: “[U.S. intelligence agencies] are our partners in confronting many mutual challenges. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless and contrary to the spirit and practice of the security cooperation between our two countries.”