COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Below find a list of the major department stores across the country and where they stand on using Christmas in their holiday advertising and other promotions....

JCPenney
"Christmas" mentioned in print ads & other advertising...

FAO Schwarz
Using "Holiday" this year in advertising materials
Employees are free to use any holiday greeting that they feel is appropriate...

KB Toys
Using "Happy Holidays" this year in advertising materials
Employees are free to use any holiday greeting that they feel is appropriate (no official policy)

Costco
No advertising, but company leans towards "Happy Holidays" for in-store promos...

--blog post at billoreilly.com, 11/28/05

Having declared the beard-keeping by male Afghan citizens as a religious compulsion, the Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has now introduced a unique instrument to ensure minimum length of the beard prescribed by the Islamic laws.

Taliban's religious police carry around with it a Lantern glass to ensure minimum size of citizens' beard under Shariat enforced in their controlled areas, a refugees who recently arrived from Kabul said....

Members of Taliban's Ministry for "Amar bil maroof wa nahee aanelmunkar" (Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) force the people to put their beard inside the cavity of the glass and punish those, who have beard of the length smaller than prescribed by Sharia. Normally Shariah prescribes a beard, which could be grasped perfectly by person's own hand. This comes comes to be approximately 8 centimeters....

--news item posted at the Web site of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), 11/3/98