If you need inspiration, this should do it.

Matthew 18:12-14 New International Version (NIV)

12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 11:28-30New International Version (NIV)

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Homeless teens are twice likely to die than their peers.

The Duke of Cambridge and his lovely wife paid a visit yesterday to "Centrepoint," (click here) a shelter for homeless young people from ages 16 - 25. 

It is estimated there are approximately 15,000 teens facing homelessness this winter in Great Britain. I was surprised when I read that. I can only guess how many teens are homeless in the USA this winter.

It was noted in an article on "E" when the Duke and Duchess were joking about each other's hair or lack of it.

"Hair for an Heir" (click here). 

This is an article in the Washington Post a year ago.

December 20, 2014
By Bernardine

It’s the holiday season.  Most of us are going to parties,  buying and wrapping  presents and planning warm, cozy gatherings with family and friends. But for homeless  youth,  those under the age of 18 who lack parental, foster or institutional care, the holiday season can be a nightmare....

...However, in its most recent report about this population,  the  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that there are 1.6 million homeless and runaway youth in this country. Most are  between the ages of 15-17 years old . They are equally divided between males and females.  About a third are black and studies show that almost half identify as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender (LGBT).  LBGT youth are at particular risk of homelessness because they are so often rejected by their families, schools and communities....

DoSomething.org (click here)
19 West 21st St, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10010
(212) 254-2390

DoSomething.org makes the world suck less.One of the largest orgs for young people and social change, our 3.2 million members tackle campaigns that impact every cause, from poverty to violence to the environment to literally everything else. Any cause, anytime, anywhere. *mic drop

11 Facts about Homeless Teens (click here)

DoSomething.org wants volunteers to place posters in town so the homeless teens will find resources for help.

Sign up for facts on youth homelessness and a ready-to-print flyer. You'll also receive tips on where to post flyers around your town.

From Wikileaks

December 19, 2014
By Philip Dorling

...According to a leaked document (click here) by the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, "high value targeting" (HVT) involving air strikes and special forces operations against insurgent leaders can be effective, but can also havenegative effects including increasing violence and greater popular support for extremist groups.

The leaked document is classified secret and "NoForn" (meaning not to be distributed to non-US nationals) and reviews attacks by the United States and other countries engaged in counter-insurgency operations over the past 50 years.

The CIA assessment is the first leaked secret intelligence document published by WikiLeaks since 2011. Led by Australian publisher Julian Assange, the anti-secrecy group says the CIA assessment is the first in what will be a new series of leaked documents relating to the US agency.

The 2009 CIA study lends support to critics of US drone strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen by warning that such operations "may increase support for the insurgents, particularly if these strikes enhance insurgent leaders' lore, if non-combatants are killed in the attacks, if legitimate or semi-legitimate politicians aligned with the insurgents are targeted, or if the government is already seen as overly repressive or violent"....

This is typical of the stenographic journalism that existed throughout the Bush White House.

"My Pet Goat"





The American Press is already surrendering to yet another Bush before he actually announces any candidacy. "Please, please I need my press pass."

...And what was (click here) the urgency in Card’s voice? I can tell you this: If you work for a public official and need him or her to immediately drop everything and come with you for an emergency briefing, no matter what the assembled media might report, then you would just tell the official that. You wouldn't whisper a lengthy explanation in their ear in front of a dozen news cameras. It was absurd to think that Card urged the president to leave the event and that the president just ignored him. It seemed far more likely that the president was told: It’s bad, but we’re on top of it, and we’ll be ready to brief you in a few minutes, so sit tight. Bush would have concluded that his highly competent military and intelligence advisers were forming a game plan. Rather than make a sudden exit from a public event, one that would trigger unhelpful speculation about an emerging crisis, he wrapped the event up quickly but casually. I had a hard time saying that was unreasonable....

The American Press is all about the direction of the public movie theaters because of a so called comedy where people are asked to end the life of the North Korea dictator, but, when it comes to the fact Bush was informed of the first attack on the trade towers before he went into the Florida classroom; that is okay. Nothing to worry about there. 

As if that wasn't enough, September 11, 2001 was 36 days after the CIA warned of attacks within the USA. Why is that always forgotten like it never happened? Why is that?

Kindly remember that number 36 days...

So 36 days after the PDB alerting the President of the United States of America, Bush is riding in his motorcade when he receives news that one of the World Trade Towers was hit by a large commercial airliner and there are definitely causalities.

Bush disregarded the news of the attack by entering a Florida classroom to read "My Pet Goat" to a room full of 1st Graders, I think it was. Could their teacher had been told she would have to carry on without the visit because of an urgent matter in the country? They could have told the teacher the President would reschedule. Is that what happened? No, Bush liked his PR far better than his job in the White House. 

And what is that mess, "We got this one." Cheney? Cheney is the man of the hour that stated to Senator Feinstein, "We won't get to it (the PDB) for another six months?" Then she was more insistent and stated, "But, Dick the PDB states within 3 months." Cheney disregarded a US Senator focused on the alert by the CIA and simply got on with his day. THAT CHENEY?

President George Walker Bush was the worst president the USA has ever had and now the American Press is ready to kiss the ring of his brother. 

OMG, here we go again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kindly recall as well the FACT that Norad never scrambled to stop the attacks soon enough during the Bush White House. Okay? I think that is a really good fact to remember, too.

One might ask, "Why does Cuba have a better human rights rating than the USA in anything?"

The reason is because the so called brutal dictatorship of the Castro Brothers has been moving to minimize and/or eradicate human rights abuses. Cuba is like any other country on Earth in that they value the rights of people according to the measurements of international standards.

So, while the USA's right wing plays politics with the Castro government in Cuba, the country itself has been striving to improve it's international image. 

Is Cuba ready for a more open relationship with the USA? The real question is, "Is the USA ready for a more open relationship with Cuba." It might one of the few countries in the world that actually might point out the USA's infractions in human rights and it's burgeoning Tea Party that believes in human rights to enhance the wealth community.

Before yesterday the USA strategy was to wait in anticipation of democracy after the Castro brothers are dead.

That is about the worst strategy I've ever heard. I take it there are liberators waiting in the wings to fill in the power vacuum, right?

There isn't any one else waiting to take over as dictator turned liberator in Cuba.

...Díaz-Canel (click here) was elected to become first vice president of the Council of State, the No. 2 position, and Raúl Castro explicitly said appointing him to the position, normally held by Castro loyalists as old or older than the brothers, is a moment of "historic transcendence" that "represents a definitive step in the configuration of the future leadership of the nation." Any number of things could derail Díaz-Canel before 2018 — he could fall out of favor with Castro, or be sidelined by another politician from his generation — but assuming he takes control in the gradual transition Raúl Castro laid out Sunday, what exactly can we expect of the relatively unknown politician, and of his post-Castro Cuba?...

The future successor to the Castro brothers is already decided. Diaz-Canel is already a reformer, but, in a slowly unveiling in the potential for independent enterprise to work in Cuba. The idea 'waiting for the Castro brothers to die' is a valid trajectory for any change in Cuba is a hideous and cruel to the people. There is no reason why the USA and Cuba can't begin the change Diaz-Canel seeks before he comes into the leadership of the country.

The old world strategy isn't a strategy at all and typical of Republicans that prefer war over peace.

...But as important as Díaz-Canel will be to the post-Castro Cuba, Raúl Castro still "seemed intent on changing how his successors will rule," says the Times' Cave. "In an announcement more surprising than his retirement plan, Mr. Castro said he hoped to establish term limits and age caps for political offices, including the presidency," and get those changes enshrined in the constitution before he leaves office, possibly through a referendum. So while tapping a 52-year-old is a momentous generational passing of the baton, Raúl Castro will apparently ensure that Cuba won't have any more Castros, literally or figuratively.

There are already plans for a better economy that opens up the idea of a greater freedom for the people within Cuba. The idea Cuba has to wait until a younger successor takes leadership is about the most hideous paradigm I have ever heard from the USA. Basically, Republicans ADMIT they are a do nothing regime and even more so than the Castro brothers.

December 17, 2014
By Ina Piava Cordle, Mimi Whitefield, Martha Branigan, Hannah Sampson and Nancy Dahlberg

As the United States takes steps (click here) to normalize relations with Cuba, South Florida businesses centered on banking, shipping, trade,telecommunications and travel are positioned to reap benefits — over time.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article4583668.html#storylink=cpy

“The immediate implications aren’t anything other than just hopeful watching towards an environment that ultimately becomes a democratic transition,” said Adolfo Henriques, chairman and chief executive of Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, based in Coral Gables. “It’s going to take awhile before the actual requirements, opportunities and so on develop and materialize. It’s not anything that will develop overnight.”...

South Florida is ready to launch new and profitable relations with Cuba. Evidently, they already knew what the change in Cuba would be. This is ridiculous. There is no reason for Cubans anywhere to continue to be hostage to the right wing political dogma in the USA. 

The facts please, just the facts.

In the year 2000, public sector employment was 76% and private sector employment was 23% compared to the 1981 ratio of 91% to 8%.^[2] Capital investment is restricted and requires approval by the government. The Cuban government sets most prices and rations goods to citizens. In 2009, Cuba ranked 51st out of 182 with an HDI (Human Development Index) of 0.863; remarkably high considering its GDP per capita only places it 95th. Cuba also significantly outperforms the rest of Latin America in terms of infant and child mortality, morbidity, educational attainment and an array of other social and health indicators.

The infant mortality as of 2013 in Cuba per 1000 live births is 4.76. The USA on the other hand in 2013 had an infant mortality rate per 1000 live births is 5.2 while the Gaza Strip suffers without good medical accessibility is 16 infants per 1000 live births.

Cuba is not only ready to open relations with other nations in trade and tourism, it has a good track record on preparing it's citizens for the change to come. Basically, Cuba has long been ready with infrastructure to open it's borders to opportunity.

The change in status between the USA and Cuba has nothing to do with the USA presence at Gitmo.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article4583668.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article4583668.html#storylink=cpy

McCrory never disclosed he had a relationship with the company on their Board of Directors. That is very unethical. Not just a little unethical, but, VERY unethical.

I don't know what kind of truth McCrory and Pope expect to tell North Carolinians; either it appeared on the disclosure form or it didn't. And it didn't. That is actually more than an ethics violation.

December 17, 2014
By Craig Jarvis

The day after (click here) a wire service reported that North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory received a six-figure stock payout from an online mortgage broker that is regulated by the state, the governor’s emphatic reaction to the story nearly eclipsed the news itself.

McCrory spent Wednesday denouncing the article, which documented his receipt of early vested restricted stock from Tree.com when he left the company’s board of directors soon after taking office in early 2013. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that McCrory didn’t disclose on state ethics reports the full extent of payments from the company, the Charlotte-based corporate parent of the website LendingTree.

Paul Colford, director of media relations for The Associated Press, said the wire service stands by its reporting....

Is there any chance the AP was paid to run this story so McCrory can ask for funds to 'get the real truth' to North Carolinians. There is nothing like a besieged politician after all.

...Even as Democrats were quick to pick up on the story, spreading the AP story on social networks, McCrory’s re-election campaign kicked into action. The campaign emailed supporters asking for donations “to help Governor McCrory fight back and ensure that the citizens of North Carolina know the real story.”

In response to the story, North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Claude E. Pope Jr. issued a statement calling it a “smear campaign.”...

In case the name "Tree.com" doesn't ring a bell this might help you out. (click here)

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/12/17/4411636_mccrory-launches-assault-on-associated.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

The place Governor McCrory is going to run into trouble is signing legislation that benefits "Tree.com," like this one:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED (click here)

2 An act to modify the maximum interest rate allowed and to make 

3 various amendments to the North Carolina Consumer Finance 

4 Act to ensure continued access to credit

...SECTION 2. G.S. 53-172(a) reads as rewritten:
16 "(a) No licensee shall conduct the business of making loans under this Article within any

17 office, suite, room, or place of business in which any other business is solicited or transacted....

It is called conflict of interest. And this bill was new in March of 2013 after McCrory took office. OMG. 30% on loans exceeding $7500. You've got to be joking. Is this in conflict with Dodd-Frank? I am fairly certain if this passed in the NC legislature it violates the Consumer Protection provided in Dodd-Frank.

...interest in connection therewith which shall not exceed the following actuarial rates:

(1) With respect to a loan not exceeding seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500), thirtyThirty percent (30%) per annum on that part of the unpaid principal balance not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) and eighteen percent (18%) per annum on the remainder of the unpaid principal balance.

Interest shall be contracted for and collected at the single simple interest rate applied to the outstanding balance that would earn the same amount of interest as the above rates for payment according to schedule.five thousand dollars ($5,000).
(2) With respect to a loan exceeding seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500), eighteen percent (18%) per annum on the outstanding principal balance.Twenty-four percent (24%) per annum on that part of the unpaid principal balance exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) but not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
(3) Eighteen percent (18%) per annum on that part of the remainder of the unpaid principal balance.

A lender can decide at any time within the loan to collect the collateral that might be furnished to secure the loan beginning with the first missed payment.

(c) Limitation on Default Provisions. – An agreement between a licensee and a borrower pursuant to a loan under this Article with respect to default by the borrower is enforceable only to the extent that (i) the borrower fails to make a payment as required by the agreement,agreement or fails to maintain contractually required insurance coverage or (ii) the prospect of payment, performance, or realization of collateral is significantly endangered or impaired, the burden of establishing the prospect of a significant endangerment or impairment being on the licensee.

See indeed, Mr. McCrory, the 'sharpie' blogger is after the truth while there are campaign financing to supporters. Someone has to bring the truth to the people and it sure isn't you or Pope.