Creeping...

Because of the partial government shutdown, figures on home sales for November and December have not been released.

Sales were also down a steep 19 percent annually in November, according to JBRC's analysts. 

New homes sales took a hit as mortgage rates rose sharply at the start of last fall, putting further stress on a market where prices had been overheating for the past two years.

The nation's largest public builders reported in quarterly earnings reports that the housing market softened dramatically.

New home sales fell hardest in California, where prices are highest, according to JBRC. Sales dropped 40 percent annually in northern California and 49 percent in southern California. Sales were just 5 percent lower in the Midwest, where homes are far less expensive.

Suri...

When Turkey, Iran and Russia meet to talk about the end of the war in Syria, they do so without the United States.

Since the end of the Cold War, the Middle East has remained perpetually near the top of the American foreign policy agenda, kept there by the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Arab Spring and the battle against the Islamic State.

American leaders have offered a range reasons for the great investment of American blood and treasure in the region.

But the concrete benefits of all that engagement pale in comparison to the size of the American efforts. In addition,  the Middle East primarily siphoned resources from other American priorities.   

The  step back was driven by a feeling that American military investment often make matters worse.  

American protection is no longer necessary to ensure the free flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. 

Comment : I could have told you that five years ago for Free.  Just a thought.

Soap...

There's no official protocol for how often to shower, but folks around the world bathe about once a day.

Truth is, we probably don't have to shower that much. Soap is built to pull dirt and oil off the skin and wash it away. 

The science of this sudsy magic is based on a two-part formula: a combination of either fat or oil plus an alkaline substance that dissolves in water (like salt or baking soda). 

The two ends of the soap molecule work together to pull grease and oil off of skin and into the water.

Shampoo also strips essential oil (called sebum) out of the hair, which is why most hair experts agree you should clean your mane at most once every two to three days.

When the loss of natural oil is combined with harsh scrubbing and scalding water, a long, hot, soapy shower can become a recipe for dry skin. This is especially true in the winter, when air is drier both indoors and out. 

Asylum...

Image is not related

A Saudi woman who fled her family and became stranded at Bangkok's main airport is flying to Canada after being granted asylum status.

Rahaf, 18, had been trying to reach Australia via Bangkok, but was initially told to return to Kuwait, where her family were waiting.

She refused to fly back and barricaded herself into her airport hotel room, attracting international attention.

The UN's refugee agency has said it considers her to be a legitimate refugee.

Earlier,there, below a small pier at 68th Street, lay the bodies of two young women, bound together by duct tape at their waists. Their bodies bore no obvious signs of trauma.

The women were sisters from Saudi Arabia who lived in Fairfax, Va. They had a history of going missing, and they had recently requested asylum in the United States.

Sense...

Grandiosity refers to an unrealistic sense of superiority, a sustained view of oneself as better than others that causes the narcissist to view others with disdain or as inferior, as well as to a sense of uniqueness: the belief that few others have anything in common with oneself and that one can only be understood by a few or very special people.

The Narcissistic person exaggerates talents, capacity and achievements in an unrealistic way. Doesn't  recognize his/her limitations,and behaves in a boastful or pretentious way.

Regards oneself as unique or special when compared to others, generally superior to other people.

With grand fantasies, the person over examines and downgrades other people, projects, statements, or dreams in an unrealistic manner. Behaves self-centeredly and/or self-referentially.

Narcissistic individuals are less susceptible than peers to the chronic emotional consequences of threats to entitled expectations (e.g., distress, lowered self-esteem, interpersonal fearfulness).

So if you are up there, good luck. Just a thought.

Privacy...

Apple took a high-profile swipe at Google, Amazon and Facebook at this year's Computer Electronics Show, with a full-building ad touting "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone." CEO Tim Cook has criticized competitors for their privacy.

However, privacy as a differentiator may be a risky business move.

Apple is just one iCloud breach away from an embarrassing incident. Major celebrities who have had nude photographs stolen from their iCloud archives have been dangerously close.

Third-party applications are also a potential sticking point. From a security point of view, Apple's app store has stringent safeguards in place that make it more resilient to security issues like application spoofing than competitors like Google's Play store.

But independent iPhone apps still have the capacity to misuse data. The company routinely removes applications from the store for providing user information to unauthorized third parties.

So Apple may also be one data-tracking scandal away from significantly denting the idea that data necessarily "stays on your iPhone."

Later...

A rapist who attacked two women in the 1980s was caught more than 30 years later through DNA evidence because he urinated in a neighbor’s plant pot.

Eric McKenna, 60, was jailed for 23 years after being found guilty of raping women in Gateshead and Newcastle in separate street attacks.

He selected his victims when they were walking alone and on each occasion he grabbed them from behind and threatened to use a knife.

His crimes went undetected until 2016 when he was arrested following a dispute with a neighbor which led to DNA swabs being taken which eventually matched him to the unsolved attacks.

However, in 2016 Northumbria police neighborhood officers arrested him for urinating in a neighbor’s plant pot following a dispute and he was cautioned for harassment. His DNA was processed and exact matches were made for the two historic rapes.  [The Guardian]

Left...

The American left’s issue for now is “We hate Trump.”  

Many Americans hate Mr. Trump’s vulgarity, his unwillingness to walk away from a fight, his bluntness, his certainty that America is exceptional, his mistrust of intellectuals, his love of simple ideas that work, and his refusal to believe that men and women are interchangeable.

Worst of all, he has no ideology except getting the job done. His goals are to do the task before him, not be pushed around, and otherwise to enjoy life. In short, he is a typical American except exaggerated, because he has no constraints to cramp his style except the ones he himself invents.

Mr. Trump lacks constraints because he is filthy rich and always has been and, unlike other rich men, he revels in wealth and feels no need to apologize ever.

He never learned to keep his real opinions to himself because he never had to. He never learned to be embarrassed that he is male, with ordinary male proclivities. Sometimes he has treated women disgracefully, for which Americans, left and right, are ashamed of him—as they are of JFK and Bill Clinton. 

Sawdust...

A Texas pastor who praised a deadly shooting at a gay nightclub has resigned. 

Donnie Romero, former pastor of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, apologized in a YouTube video.  " I'm sorry......I've lied to many of the people at our church."  "I went to Jacksonville and I went to a casino and I was drinking. And there were girls there that were prostitutes and I committed adultery on my wife multiple times. I drank and gambled multiple times. ... I even smoked weed."

Romero voiced support for the gunman behind the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando in which 49 people were slaughtered.   "These 50 sodomites are all perverts and pedophiles, they're the scum of the Earth and the Earth is a better place." Romero said. 

Sorry to say that Romero didn't follow the Bible, in support of murderer or for doing the wrong thing. 

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Just a thought.

Triangle...

Four years ago when Christopher Tur’s lifeless body was found floating in the water near the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, speculation quickly surfaced.

The former commander of the naval base turned himself in to face charges related to Tur’s death. Navy Capt. John Nettleton was charged with obstructing justice, lying to investigators, and falsifying records related to the January 2015 death of Tur, who was 42, according to a federal indictment.

Nettleton is accused of trying to hide that he was having an affair with Tur’s wife, that he had fought twice with Tur the night the victim disappeared, gave misleading information about Tur’s last whereabouts, and that he would not let Coast Guard helicopters search for Tur after he was reported missing.  

At the time of his death, Tur worked as a civilian for the Navy Exchange Service Command, which runs retail stores serving bases worldwide. His wife, also a civilian, worked as director of the base’s Fleet and Family Services Center, which provides counseling and support to Navy families.
Now one is dead, one ruined, and a wife that may have lost double of everything.
 Just a thought.