I feel in need of encouragement this morning, and ran across this video that Sharon uncovered a few months ago.  May it encourage you, as it does me:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Syria’s Bashir al-Assad was questioned about “opposition” in his country by Charlie Rose for a 60 minutes interview.   Assad’s response was very direct.   Assad replied: “Opposition?  What  did you call the people who flew the airplanes into your World Trade Center twin towers”… “did you call them ‘the opposition'”? 

(UK Telegraph) Nearly half the rebel fighters in Syria are now aligned to jihadist or hardline Islamist groups according to a new analysis of factions in the country’s civil war.
Opposition forces battling Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria now number around 100,000 fighters, but after more than two years of fighting they are fragmented into as many as 1,000 bands.
The new study by IHS Jane’s, a defence consultancy, estimates there are around 10,000 jihadists – who would include foreign fighters – fighting for powerful factions linked to al-Qaeda..
Another 30,000 to 35,000 are hardline Islamists who share much of the outlook of the jihadists, but are focused purely on the Syrian war rather than a wider international struggle. (more…)

Tonight on CBS they put together a really good presentation about Syria.   The construct of the broadcast was to put the Syrian issues to the viewer with three interviews.

The first interview with Bashir Assad, Syria’s President.   The Second segment/interview with U.S. President Barack Obama.   The last segment with recently retired CIA #2, and White House advisor, Mike Morell.
If you want a great construct, which was actually quite free of bias in presentation, I think you will enjoy it.    Good, honest and factual airing of the surrounding issues.   If you are not too familiar with the issues, the format will assist an understanding.   If you are really familiar with the story, and up on current events – you’ll like the Morell interview.

CLICK HERE

Well done CBS.
After you watch please share your thoughts on current Syrian affairs.

My father’s fifth grade report card (1909), dated two years after his arrival on the Montana prairie from the Nebraska plains, records his grades in reading, penmanship, arithmetic, spelling, grammar, geography, and history. The family home was two miles south of the one room school house. I expect he and his two brothers had the use of a single horse to make their way to and from.
These children spoke Danish at home but their parents pushed for them to do well in English. In the early years, the churches did still have Danish worship services once a month or so but they didn’t see clinging to the language from their childhoods as being a virtuous thing. (more…)

Willing, and arguably desperate to get out from under his own inept Syrian bus, Dear Leader proclaims victory and moves along.   Next Up – Asia
The White House on Saturday released a statement from President Obama after it was announced that Secretary of State John Kerry had helped broker a deal with Russia for the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons.

Here’s the full statement:

“I welcome the progress made between the United States and Russia through our talks in Geneva, which represents an important, concrete step toward the goal of moving Syria’s chemical weapons under international control so that they may ultimately be destroyed. This framework provides the opportunity for the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons in a transparent, expeditious, and verifiable manner, which could end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but to the region and the world. The international community expects the Assad regime to live up to its public commitments. (more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

….. and people ask me why I have such disdain for Democrats.    It’s freedom *OF* religion, not freedom *FROM* religion.

(FLORIDA)  A Florida ministry that feeds the poor said a state agriculture department official told them they would not be allowed to receive USDA food unless they removed portraits of Christ, the Ten Commandments, a banner that read “Jesus is Lord” and stopping giving Bibles to the needy.

“They told us they could no longer allow us to have any religious information where the USDA food is going to be,” said Kay Daly, executive director of the Christian Service Center.
So why did the government have an issue with the religious group’s religious decorations? A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Agriculture told me they were following the guidelines written by the USDA. (more…)

…Police say nothing was taken from him [victim] even though they say Jackson had cased the parking lot looking for a victim.
Police say the gunman rode up to Pilotos’s car on a bicycle and pulled out his weapon and shot him. It happened in the parking lot of the supermarket…

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – An Opa-Locka teenager is being held without bond after a court hearing and after Miami-Dade Police arrested him for shooting and killing a 71-year-old man.
As first reported first reported by the blog Random Pixels, Miami-Dade Police have identified the suspect who fatally shot Miguel Pilotos as 17-year-old Jamal Jackson.  The chilling crime was captured on surveillance tape at 4 p.m. on August 21^st outside the Top Value Supermarket in Opa-Locka.
Miami-Dade Police spokesman Javier Baez told CBS4’s Peter D’Oench that the arrest of Jackson on Thursday afternoon followed a tip to Miami-Dade Crimestoppers.  (continue reading)