Headlines Friday 25th December 2009

Thousands of Christian pilgrims have gathered in the small town of Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus, to light candles and pray as they celebrate Christmas / Associated Press

Many still battling survival

WHILE the nation has avoided recession, many Australians are battling to survive, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell has reminded his followers.


AP
Blizzard warnings issued across Plains and Midwest while storms threaten Christmas travelers throughout the U.S.

GOP: We're Not Done Yet
Republicans vow to keep pressure on Dems after Senate passes health care bill in purely partisan vote

Iraqi Christians Driven Underground
Deadly Christmas Eve attacks, bombing outside Iraqi church send country's few Christians into hiding


A woman who jumped the barriers at the Vatican and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI at Christmas Eve Mass tried to attack him at the same time last year, sources claim

Homeward Bound ... At Long Last
N.J. man, 9-year-old son headed for U.S. after five-year international custody nightmare in Brazil

'Government knew of paedophile'

THE Government turned a blind eye to a senior servant being a paedophile, it's been alleged.

Workers' bonus is stale Christmas pudding
STAFF at a luxury food chain were told their out-of-date present was "still safe to eat" by management.

Teenager dies after caught in rip
AN 18-year-old and an 11-year-old have drowned in two separate incidents.

Sign 'stolen to fund terror attacks'
NAZIS who ordered the theft of the gate sign from Auschwitz planned to sell it to fund attacks against the Swedish Parliament.
=== Comments ===
Students exhibiting the Christmas spirit
Piers Akerman
AS the cash registers jingle their merry Christmas tunes, one small group of young Australians have earned admiration by truly contributing to the spirit of Christianity. - A gift I want to share with you. Merry Christmas. I sing on it, and compiled the images. The German Choral master Andreas Hermann made the music for me.
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Another Christmas piece I did more recently.- ed.
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Saving Christmas from the ACLU
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," December 23, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET!

MONICA CROWLEY, FOX NEWS GUEST HOST: In the "Factor Follow-up" segment tonight, can Christmas be saved at the Illinois state capitol?

Last week, "The Factor" reported that the war on holiday displays in the Springfield Rotunda had gotten completely out of control. In addition to a, quote, "holiday tree," and a Jewish menorah, there is an atheist sign saying religion is a myth and an ACLU sign saying the group defends freedom of religion.

And today, when the Republican candidate for comptroller tried to remove the offensive sign, he was taken into custody and then later released.

Bill spoke with Ann Coulter about the controversy.
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links provided by Tim .. party on, dude.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL
Tim Blair
Reader Smike provides this year’s card:

That’s Prince, a bounding snowbeast perfectly suited to our future climate. And from reader Fidens, another Christmas image featuring the well-adapted:
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GROUND KIND OF HELD
Tim Blair
From deep within his snowbound bunker, the leader of the free world delivers his verdict on Copenhagen:

At least we kind of held ground …

Barack Obama truly is the greatest speaker of his generation. Incidentally – according to everyone at Copenhagen – heat is bad, fossil fuel use is wrong, and western excesses must be curbed. Yet somehow the President didn’t get that message:

The First Family heads to Hawaii tomorrow for a well-deserved tropical Christmas.

As someone once said: That’s not leadership. Or maybe Obama is secretly on our side …
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ANTHRAX TRACKS
Tim Blair
Anthrax-laced heroin is being sold in Britain, prompting the world’s most optimistic health warning:

Syed Ahmed, consultant in public health medicine, said: “I urge all drug-injecting heroin users to be extremely alert …”

Good luck with that. Enjoy your heroin Christmas, junkies!
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FAKE TURKEY FAUX PAS
Tim Blair
Back in 2006, I predicted that a certain poultry myth “may outlive the Bush administration”. And it has, thanks to Associated Press food editor J.M. Hirsch:

It says something about our appetite for good food when the most-watched kitchen is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Following the ketchup-as-vegetable Reagan years, the no-broccoli-allowed Bush Sr. years, eight years of Bubba’s burger fixation, and finally the fake turkey faux pas of Bush Jr., America put a Foodie-in-Chief in the White House.

Mark Lawson’s whimsical creation has now survived for six years and 18 days – more than twice as long as Gough Whitlam’s government. Unlike Whitlam, the magical bird is completely immune to corrections.

UPDATE. In other turkey developments:

Tasmanian butchers say they are facing the nightmare of irate customers and financial losses thanks to over-sized turkeys.

The state’s turkey supplier Nichols says its Christmas birds are up to 2kg heavier than expected this year thanks mostly to a cooler growing season.

Home cooks who ordered a 3kg turkey for Christmas Day are likely to find themselves battling to get a bird that will fit in the oven.

These lumbering megaturkeys – by the way, who knew that Tasmania had a “state turkey supplier”? – have provoked turkey mayhem:

“It’s a nightmare,” said Shane Mundy of Hill Street Gourmet Meats …

“It’s caused mass panic and hysteria. People don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Call Sarah Palin. She knows how to cut turkeys down to size. But even Palin might struggle to halt the giant prawn invasion:

Prawn trawlers are astounded by the size of this year’s ocean schooling prawn catches …

“In my 20 years in seafood, these catches are by far the biggest ocean schooling prawns I have seen,” Shane Geary of the Coffs Harbour Fishermen’s Co-op said.

I blame global warming.
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FRIGHT CHRISTMAS
Tim Blair
The UN has just spent $30 million finding no solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Meanwhile:

Hundreds of British schoolgirls are facing the terrifying prospect of female genital mutilation (FGM) over the Christmas holidays as experts warn the practice continues to flourish across the country.

It isn’t unknown in Australia, either. Perhaps the Prime Minister can do something about it. Go on, Kevin. Don’t let little Gracie down.