Montrose – Miss Mabel Shaw witnessed the great motion picture drama, “The Birth of a Nation,” in Binghamton. In the evening she attended the concert of the Ithaca Trio in Brooklyn. Her niece, Miss Evelyn Jones, is a soloist in the trio. Also Ice of excellent quality, fourteen inches thick, is being harvested on Post’s pond. Many dairymen are already filling their ice houses. The work of cutting ice on Lake Montrose will probably start next week. An interesting letter from the State department of health, regarding sanitary precautions to be taken in cutting ice will be of interest to those engaged in ice cutting or who are consumers of the product.

Kingsley – The teachers of Harford gave a banquet to the directors at Aqua Inn. Twenty-seven plates were laid. All had a very enjoyable time.

Hallstead – Fireman Andrew Carigg, of this place, had both legs severed by a pusher engine when he slipped on the ice, falling under the wheels, on Thursday night of last week. Drs. A. F. Merrell and A. S. Blair attended him and he was taken to the Binghamton hospital on a special engine. The limbs were amputated below the knees. Mr. Carigg was one of the best known railroaders between Scranton and Binghamton, having been employed on the Lackawanna for over thirty years.

Gelatt – While returning from school on Friday last, Oliver Potter, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Potter, was coasting down what is known as Sawmill hill and lost control of his sled. It ran into the fender of the bridge and broke one of his legs.

Gibson – On Friday last, our community was greatly shocked when the word came that our genial stage driver, O. B. Harding, had died suddenly in Harford. He had gone out to care for his horse and a little later was found dead. He was apparently in usual health. Mr. Harding was a highly respected friend and neighbor and for the last thirty years had been a resident of this place. He will be greatly missed. Besides his wife, he leaves three sons to mourn his loss. The funeral was largely attended at the M. E. church, Monday afternoon. Interment in Gibson cemetery, E. J. Whitney, of Harford, funeral director.

Friendsville – The members of St. Francis’ choir and their friends enjoyed a banquet at the Friendsville hotel on Wednesday evening, Dec. 29th. Those present were Mr. and Mrs. John F. Moran, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Murphy, Misses Anna Foran, Kathryn Ryan, Margaret Gillen and Elizabeth O’Connell and Messrs. J. D. Ryan, J. J. Matthews, Joseph Mullen and Hugh Foran.

Powell, Bradford Co. – Joseph Camp, proprietor of a hotel at Powell, killed a monster wildcat after a battle, during which the beast nearly killed Camp’s dog. With two broken legs, the cat continued to fight and held man and dog at bay until a bullet pierced its heart. The wildcat weighed nearly fifty pounds and was the largest ever killed in that county.

Auburn Township – Susquehanna county will soon be in the throes of another murder trial. This was made certain by the finding of the grand jury this week, when a true bill was returned to the court, charging Albert Hughes with the murder of his wife, at his home in this place, a few weeks ago. The fact that two lawyers have been appointed by the court to defend the prisoner insures a big legal battle to save the prisoner from the electric chair.

Fairdale – The young people of the Epworth League will hold a social in the Grange Hall on Friday evening, January 16. It is particularly requested that it be noted that this is not an ordinary shadow social, but a leap year shadow social. This is to be a chance for down trodden womanhood. The men are to be the shadows.

Dimock – Miss Isa Mills, librarian of the Dimock Free Library, is at the City hospital, Wilkes-Barre, where she is recovering from a serious operation. Mr. and Mrs. Dean Tiffany have charge of the library while Miss Mills is away.

New Milford – Scranton newspapers are the authority for the statement that it is practically assured that the D. L. & W. Railroad Co. will turn over their old, abandoned roadbed between Clark’s Summit and New Milford, out of which will be constructed a modern concrete road by the State Highway Department. No word has come from official sources of the railroad to indicate what is in the mind of the company, but several railroad men say that it would be a lasting tribute to the railroad to give that strip of land to the state for highway purposes. [Now Route 11]

Harford – E. M. Tingley has the sale of Edison Pulverized Limestone, which has given splendid satisfaction to farmers in different parts of the county. Also a nice large load of wood was brought to some people in this locality, last Friday, and I think the giver must indeed be a very kind man; and I consider this “act of kindness” worthy of mention.

Lynn, Springville Twp. – The wheeling is fine in this vicinity these days, although a little icy in places. They [roads] are smooth and if a horse is sharp shod one can skim over the roads in good shape. Our local blacksmiths are reaping great benefits these days, sharpening horses from early morn until after dark many days.

Glenwood – The Marcy brothers are getting the acetylene lights installed in their house and barn. You hardly know this old town for many are getting up-to-date.

Brookdale – The young people are enjoying the fine skating on the pond near the Iron Bridge.

South Ararat – Again death has entered the home of Mr. and Mrs. Emeret Burman and claimed their little 8 month’s old son. This is the fourth time the Reaper has come and taken for his own three boys and one girl. Surely they have the deepest sympathy of this place. Rev. Webster spoke comforting words to the family. Mrs. Sparks and Mrs. Harding sang the selections. W. W. Pope, of Gelatt, was in charge. The little one was laid to rest in the Ararat cemetery, Sunday afternoon. Also the hard snow storms and wind blows have nearly put our mail service out of commission. Sometimes it would be two or three days before we could get mail and those sending items and other mail matters were obliged to just wait and not complain.

The Telephone by Sister Ann: If our grandmothers had been told sixty years ago that to-day we could sit in our easy chairs by the fire side and talk with our friends and relatives in distant towns they would have scarcely believed it. A story is told that considerable trouble was complained of on a certain telephone line and upon investigation it was found that one of the ladies on the telephone line was using her telephone receiver for a stocking darner. How is that for a short cut? Yes, the local telephone has many advantages besides saving trips over cold, stormy roads. It keeps one posted on the most important events of the day in the surrounding neighborhood. Many a farmers’ wife can sit all the long, dreamy afternoon taking in their neighbors’ secrets. Of course the men folks never listen and only talk business over the telephone.

*Please be aware that we do not have a copy of the Forest City News for 1916. However, we will try to include news from Forest City that is included in other newspapers.

It was a Friday. The date: 23 October 1086. The warriors were working the day shift. The Battle of Sagrajas, a.k.a. Zallaqa, in Andalusia (present-day Spain) raged. The contesting armies were Christian and Muslim. The hallowed ground later came to be known, in Arabic, as “az-Zallaqah” (English translation: “slippery ground”) because the soldiers were literally slipping all over the ground due to the tremendous amount of blood shed that day. The Muslim commander, ever faithful to the prophet Muhammad, had previously sent a messenger to offer Christian King Alfonso VI three alternatives: convert to Islam; submit to the protection of Islam; or decide their differences on the field of battle. (Note to movie aficionados, recall the 1961 movie, “El Cid.”)

Fast forward to Wednesday, 2 December 2015. County social service employees were working the day shift. They took time out for a Christmas party. One of their own, Muslim Syed Rizwan Farook, left the party early . . . but soon returned, with his wife in tow. Result: 14 dead and 22 wounded, all non-Muslims. In the aftermath, authorities tracked down the two alleged perpetrators, both killed hours later in a shoot-out with police. Strangely enough, when the identity of Farook’s partner (and partner in crime) was revealed, she had something in common with the Moroccan King who had won a great a victory over Christians in 1086, though this connection was never reported in national news stories.

Author, activist, and Palestinian Christian blogger Walid Shoebat, a native Arabic speaker, immediately reported (on his website) the connection of Farook’s wife, ‘“Tashfeen Malik” (King) is a “nom de guerre” for a Muslim Jihadist from the annals of Muslim history.” Historically, Yusef ibn Tashfin is known to Muslims as Tashfeen Malif Al-Muahideen; in English: Tashfeen King of the Unitarians (Muslims) and “the conqueror of the west.” The Moroccan king’s aid to Muslims in Spain eventually achieved victory in their cause and led to their continued stay until 1492. The Battle of Zallaqa has ever since been symbolic of Muslim victory over Christianity.

The tip-off for me that something was wrong was when I immediately noticed authorities were identifying Farook’s wife with a male name; it made no sense. Even more than a month after the event, news stories still remark how little is known about “Tashfeen Malik.” A recent Reuters story reports, “. . . visa interview in Pakistan shows it was conducted without any obvious irregularities and triggered no significant suspicions, according to a source familiar with the official State Department file. The apparent lack of anything untoward in Malik’s interview in Pakistan for a K-1 fiancée visa that she was subsequently granted underscores the difficulty facing President Barack Obama’s administration as it seeks ways to improve security vetting of visa applicants. Current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the visa vetting process said that even if the interview and security checks had been more stringent, it is unlikely they would have turned up any red flags on Malik.”

Wow! A visa applicant assumes the alias of a famous Jihadist revered in Islamic history, and our State Department officials don’t recognize that as a red flag. Hello! Is anyone home? But wait, it actually gets worse than that; much worse. The U.S. Government currently claims “Tashfeen Malik” was a citizen of Pakistan, yet our State Department declined to carry out extensive, let alone cursory, verification checks with the Pakistani government to confirm even basic details of her life. (It is a well known fact that Pakistani passports are easily counterfeited, and there is no indication our government ever verified the authenticity of the Pakistani passport of “Tashfeen Malik.”)

Pakistanis must be laughing themselves silly at our government. Tashfeen Malik would have been a readily recognizable name in Pakistani popular culture. For example, Yusef ibn Tashfin appears as protagonist in Nasim Hijazi’s Urdu (“Urdu” is the native language of Pakistan.) novel, “Yusef bin Tashfeen.” Similarly, Yusef ibn Tashfin appears as the hero in the Drama Serial “Pukaar,” presented by Pakistan Television Corp. in 1995. Remember that Yusef ibn Tashfin IS widely known as “Tashfeen Malik (“King”), as he was a king in his own right. Might we have a clue where “Tashfeen Malik” got the idea for her “nom de guerre.”

Besides the oddity of a woman who goes unchallenged while assuming the “nom de guerre” of an Islamic Jihadist, our State Department grant of a visa to a woman who claims to have met her husband-to-be in an online sight--in a Sharia-observant country--seems beyond the pale. Such behavior would be regarded not merely as unusual, but immoral, and certainly, therefore, worthy of detailed investigation, if for no other reason. That’s a red flag!

But let’s now take the opposite point of view. Suppose we give our government the benefit of the doubt and assume that every State Department official acted diligently and vigilantly, and nothing that could have been done would have detected the criminal intent of “Tashfeen Malik.” Does that not present an even more alarming prospect?

F.B.I. Director James Comey has already testified before Congress that his agency has absolutely no way to vet Syrian refugees, yet President Obama insists we resettle hundreds of thousands of Muslim Syrian refugees here in America. The dilemma of vetting Muslims from Pakistan and many other Islamic states is no less daunting. American bureaucrats are ill-suited to ferret out cleaver terrorists bent on infiltrating our legal immigration system. And just as demoralizing (from our standpoint), our government prioritizes the processing of visa requests (quantity) at the expense of quality. Even if only two percent of Muslims admitted for entry to the United States were terrorists, that is still thousands each year. If the safety of the American people was our government’s top priority the vast importation of foreigners, particularly Muslims, would slow to a trickle.

The Obama Administration has never publicized the “fatwa” issued by ISIS in September 2014. That manifesto was a call to arms for Muslims around the world to kill Americans, Canadians, and Europeans. Content of that “fatwa” translated by Walid Shoebat reveals that Saudi theologian Nasr Al-Fahd has called for the complete annihilation of the United States. From the perspective of ISIS, it is an act of mercy to kill Americans; the act of killing the infidel is an act of mercy in which the unbeliever is treated like a sacrificial offering to Allah. Included in the 26-page “fatwa” is a specific call to kill 10 million Americans [through the use of weapons of mass destruction].

What we have is a federal government that is “just calling it in,” or worse, actually working against the national security of the American people. While President Obama seeks to further disarm gun-owners--even those on “no-fly” lists who have never been afforded due process protections--our borders remain unsecured, illegal aliens break our laws with impunity, and Americans cringe while viewing the horror show (mass rape) playing out in Europe. “Tashfeen Malik” is a metaphor for America’s penchant for acceptance of blatant deception and corruption, at the cost of our well-being and ultimately our very existence. Want to wake up more? Go to www.shoebat.com for in-depth reports on how Islam threatens America and on the genocide of Christianity in the Middle East.