Six Israeli riders to cross US from north to south on horseback, in bid to raise awareness to Israel's 60th anniversary and 'show the Americans we have cowboys too'
Itamar Eichner
A group of six Israeli cowboys will soon depart on a unique journey across the United States aimed at marking Israel's 60th anniversary and raising awareness to the historic date in the American media. 
The six travelers will be riding on Israeli born-and-raised horses and carry Israeli flags with them. They plan to cross the country from north to south, possibly taking the Continental Divide National Trail, leading from the Canadian border to the Mexican one through the Rocky Mountains.
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Hoteliers report increase of 20% in number of reservations made in October compared to previous year; fear shortage in hotel rooms in coming years
The Tourism Ministry reported Tuesday that during October 2007, over 2 million rooms were occupied in hotels throughout the country. This marks a 20% increase compared to last year, and a 21% compared to October 2005.
Some 45% of rooms (about 900,000) were booked by tourists – 80% more than in October 2006, and the rest by Israelis. The average occupancy rate during October was 73%, 23% higher than last year.
Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said that he expected a new record will be set by the end of the year both in terms of incoming tourism and hotels' occupancy rates.
Minister Aharonovitch further noted that "these figures require us to start preparing immediately for the expected flow of tourists. We have been warning that within three years there will be a significant 
shortage in available hotel rooms. Such a shortage will cost the tourism industry and the Israeli economy millions of dollars in damages."
According to Tourism Ministry's data, the shortage will be felt as early as 2012 with a predicted influx of 5 million ...   more »

New smartcard helps visitors save on Jerusalem Museums and Attractions
Beginning December 2007, tourists to the Old City of Jerusalem can enjoy discounted access to local attractions and museums.
Thanks to the HolyPass smartcard, visitors to Jerusalem destinations can save on admission to ancient Jerusalem attractions, as well as receiving various benefits and discounts at area restaurants and shops.
With HolyPass, families and groups save up to 25% on admission to Old City attractions. Discounted access is available at a choice of five attractions, two ‘major’ sites and three additional ones.
Major sites include: City of David National Park, Jerusalem Archaeological Park-Davidson Center, Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem, Burnt House of Kathros, Temple Institute and Generations Center.
Jerusalem in all its glory. Photo: Ron Peled
Additional sites are: Four Sephardi Synagogues, Ariel Center for Jerusalem in the First Temple Period, Emek Tsurim Archaeological Experience, Roman Plaza, Ramparts Walk, Herodian Quarter – Wohl Museum of Archaeology, Old Yishuv Court Museum, Zedekiah’s Cave, “Alone on the Ramparts” Exhibition.
Additional HolyPass Discounts and Privileges include:
 Night time Western Wall Tunnel tour for individual pass holders with just two days advance reservation (compared to weeks without HolyPass)
 Discount on Jerusalem ...   more »

By Cal Thomas 
During his recent trip to Israel, President Bush visited several places that re-affirmed his faith, including Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee. Then exhibiting far greater faith than believing Jesus could walk on water, he asserted that "peace" could be had between Israel, the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors. One exhibition of faith has some historic roots and witnesses; the other is rooted in fantasy.
Since 1937, there have been 18 formal attempts by commissions, conferences, resolutions, summits and other gatherings to persuade the Jewish lamb to lie down with the Arab lion. All have failed. This latest attempt by President Bush, like those of presidents before him, will also fail, no matter the level of rhetoric or pressure on Israel to "do more." As Hillel Halkin writes in the January issue of Commentary magazine, "When time after time a problem cannot be resolved, it is reasonable to suspect that it may be unresolvable, at least in the manner in which it is conceived."
That manner of false conception is that the Palestinian side, in conjunction with Arab and Muslim states, will stop trying to destroy Israel if a new state is created in the region. From ...   more »

'Spirit Of God' Director: 'I Know America Is Up To No Good'
  A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the "common ground" between Muslims and Christians.
Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, "Jesus, the Spirit of God," as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which he praised as admirable but quite simply "wrong".
"Gibson's film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong -- it was not like that," he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.
Talebzadeh said he even went to Gibson's mansion in Malibu, California, to show him his film. "But it was Sunday and the security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it," though the Iranian never heard back.
Even in Iran, "Jesus, The Spirit of God" had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran ...   more »

A deadly strain of the superbug MRSA which can lead to a flesh-eating form of pneumonia has emerged.
Research suggests it may be more prevalent among the gay community - the gay San Francisco district of Castro appears to have been hardest hit.
So far only two cases of the new form of the USA300 strain of the bug have been recorded in the UK.
It is not usually contracted in hospitals, but in the community - often by casual contact.
 We do know that the USA300 strain is extremely good at spreading between people through skin-to-skin contact
Professor Mark Enright
Imperial College 
The new strain is resistant to treatment by many front-line antibiotics.
It causes large boils on the skin, and in severe cases can lead to fatal blood poisoning or necrotising pneumonia, which eats away at the lungs.
Researchers say the bug has so far been 13 times more prevalent in gay men in San Francisco than in other people.
In the Castro district - where more gay people live than anywhere else in the US - about one in 588 people are carrying the bug.
In the general San Francisco community the figure was around one in ...   more »

George Washington, father of our country, was a vestryman of the Episcopal Church.
What on earth would he think of what is currently going on in his Diocese of Virginia?
That diocese's publication The Virginia Episcopalian, reports the authorization of the treasurer of the diocese to open a $1 million line of credit to cover anticipated legal expenses for the near term. That line of credit has been increased to $2 million, and about $1 million has been accessed.
That means that this diocese – in which George Washington was once a parochial lay leader – has already spent $1 million and has decided to borrow another 1 million to pay for the cost of suing a dozen local churches.
Two of these dozen, Truro in Fairfax and The Falls Church (in the community named for it) were in existence prior to the Revolutionary War and were part of the Church of England.
An overwhelming majority of the members of these two historic parishes recently voted against continuing their membership in the Episcopal Church. They did so because their faith is the same as existed at the time of George Washington: that the practice of sodomy, which is so frequently ...   more »

Dancing Spychief Wants to Tap Into Cyberspace
Siobhan Gorman reports on the U.S. spychief. 
McConnell
Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”
At issue, McConnell acknowledges, is that in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse. Congressional aides tell The Journal that they, too, are also anticipating a fight over civil liberties that will rival the battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Part of the lawmakers’ ire, they have said, is the paltry information the administration has provided. The cyberspace security initiative was first reported in September by The Baltimore Sun, and some congressional aides say that lawmakers have still learned more from the media than they did from the few Top Secret ...   more »

Hospitals tagging babies with electronic chips
Privacy advocates protest as half of Ohio birthing centers turn to tracking technology
By Jerome R. Corsi
Over half the birthing facilities in Ohio are being equipped with an RFID infant protection system placed on infants at birth to prevent them from being abducted from the hospital or from being given to the wrong mother.
"Standard protocol in the hospitals using the VeriChip system is that the baby receives an RFID anklet at birth and the mother receives a matching wristband," VeriChip spokeswoman Allison Tomek told WND. "The mothers are not asked."
VeriChip Corp., a publicly listed company headquartered in Delray Beach, Fla., is marketing though its wholly-owned subsidiary, Xmark, a HUGS brand tag-and-bracelet infant security system. The RFID tag is attached to an infant at birth by an ankle bracelet that is detected by monitors positioned throughout the hospital.
Critics charge the VeriChip system is an intrusive technology solution to a problem that is rare.
"The VeriChip infant security system is a technology looking for a solution," said therine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN, Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.
"Baby snatching from hospital facilities is a diaper full of nonsense," ...   more »

By ANGELA K. BROWN,
In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.
Several dozen people — including a pilot, county constable and business owners — insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.
"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."
While federal officials insist there's a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.
Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a ...   more »

Government argues gun restrictions 'permitted by the 2nd Amendment'
Paul Clement
Since "unrestricted" private ownership of guns clearly threatens the public safety, the 2nd Amendment can be interpreted to allow a variety of gun restrictions, according to the Bush administration.
The argument was delivered by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the ongoing arguments over the legality of a District of Columbia ban on handguns in homes, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
Clement suggested that gun rights are limited and subject to "reasonable regulation" and said all federal limits on guns should be upheld.
"Given the unquestionable threat to public safety that unrestricted private firearm possession would entail, various categories of firearm-related regulation are permitted by the 2nd Amendment," he wrote in the brief, the Times reported.
He noted especially the federal ban on machine guns and those many other "particularly dangerous types of firearms," and endorsed restrictions on gun ownership by felons, those subject to restraining orders, drug users and "mental defectives."
His arguments came in the closely watched Washington, D.C., ban that would prevent residents from keeping handguns in their homes for self-defense.
(Story ...   more »