5 Christian Charities In London That Need Your Support

By Sam Wright

Charity work and faith go hand in hand.The church has been a continuous source of support for those who need it for centuries. If you are a religious person and are keen to get involved in charity work, you may want to consider charity work related to your faith.

In London, there are hundreds of different charities that are crying out for support. In this blog we’ll highlight a few Christian charities that you may want to volunteer for.

USA: Housing In The Face Of White Privilege

The New Year is about to be upon us and the last thing anyone is thinking about is housing discrimination.  But once you start searching you can still see the result of our country’s long history with discrimination lingering in our housing market.  There is a giant income, life expectancy, and educational gap between African & Latino Americans and white folk.  

Santa Claus Now Officially Cleared For Entry Into The United States

Santa Claus was officially cleared for entry into the United States as federal agriculture officials waived stringent livestock checks on his nine reindeer.

The US Department of Agriculture announced in a light-hearted statement that a “Mr. S.Claus” of the North Pole was free to enter the United States with his reindeer from December 24 to December 25.

“During this season of giving, USDA wants to do everything in its power to help Santa,” said John R. Clifford, USDA’s Chief Veterinary Officer.

“We agreed to waive the normal application fees and entry inspection/overtime costs, provided he winks his eye and wishes port personnel a Merry Christmas at the time of crossing.”

Authorities also waived the normal health checks for Santa’s reindeer — provided they met certain alternative conditions.

“As a condition of entry, the reindeer must be certified by Santa Claus as never having been fed anything other than hay, sugar plums and gingerbread,” the statement said.

“The reindeer must also be individually identified with microchips or official eartag identification, and must respond to the names ‘Dasher’, ‘Dancer’, ‘Prancer’, ‘Vixen’, ‘Comet’, ‘Cupid’, ‘Donner,’ ‘Blitzen’ and ‘Rudolph’ when interacting with port personnel.

No more than one reindeer in the group may be visibly affected by ‘Rednose Syndrome’, and upon entry, port personnel will visually inspect the reindeer to ensure they are healthy and fit for continued travel.”

The reindeer would also be required to be “pulling a wooden sleigh that has jingling bells attached and is filled with brightly-wrapped gifts.”

“Port personnel will clean and disinfect the runners and underside of the sleigh at the time of entry,” the statement said.

The USDA’s festive statement was in keeping with agencies who acknowledge the existence of Santa Claus, albeit with tongue firmly in cheek.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which polices the skies above Canada and the United States, regularly tracks the progress of Santa Claus and his reindeer in realtime on its NORAD Santa Tracker (www.noradsanta.org)

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North Pole News: Fun Arctic Facts

We're in the midst of holidays filled with hope, magic and mythic joy, and as we spend time with family and friends, children pretend to sleep while waiting for the sound of hooves tapping on the roof and rustling around the tree in the living room. Someone has come from the North Pole just for them.

The North Pole carries such a sense of wonder for us. Even as adults we keep up the mystery of Santa's Village and flying reindeer in the back of our minds to hold on to a bit of that youth. But Santa's not the only real thing happening up there. Quite a bit happens at the North Pole year round that many of us never consider.

Oscars And Globes And SAGs, Oh My! Get Ready For Awards Season

Awards season is upon us, and whether you simply like movies or are enamored with celebrities, awards season can be a great time for you to have some fun while watching the Oscars, Globes and SAGs. There are plenty of ways that you can get ready for and even enjoy awards season, and the following are four tips to help you do just that.

Suitable Day Jobs For Superheroes [Infographic]

In the following infographic, the peeps from Secured.co.uk have a light-hearted look at the most suitable everyday jobs for their favorite superheroes in case, one day, the world has become crime and war free at last (as, obviously, those super-beings would find themselves with nothing to do and, like the rest of us, would need to get a day job). 

Just in case, you know...

Enjoy!

Loup Dargent

Book Tour: 'The Other Me' by Suzanne van Rooyen [Giveaway Included]

"Fifteen-year-old Treasa Prescott thinks she’s an alien. She doesn’t fit in with the preppy South African private school crowd and feels claustrophobic in her own skin. Treasa is worried she might spend life as a social pariah when she meets Gabriel du Preez. Gabriel plays the piano better than Beethoven, has a black belt in karate, and would look good wearing a garbage bag. Treasa thinks he’s perfect. It might even be love, as long as Gabriel doesn’t find out she’s a freak..."

In today's Book Tour post. we have not only three excerpts from 'The Other Me', but also an international Giveaway (good luck to all of you)... Enjoy!

The X Factor Final

The end of the year in Britain is now always celebrated with three homages to excess – Christmas, New Year’s Eve and the X Factor final. Whilst the more traditional festivities still seem to be going strong, the X Factor has been suffering from a deficit of viewers this year and I don’t think the final will have done anything to revive its fortunes.

That's For Christmas Dinner? [Infographic]

Aside from the gifts and decorations, one thing that every nation shares during Christmas is a large meal with friends and family members. While the meals are somewhat similar because they feature meat and vegetables, you might be surprised by the main courses and side dishes commonly found in other nations. 

Here are a few traditional Christmas meals in different nations.

Dark Day For Gay Rights

Dear friends,

Two Indian Supreme Court judges just decided that gay sex is illegal. ILLEGAL!! But if we act fast we can help reverse this crazy backwards ruling.

Men and women in India now face police harassment and life imprisonment. This hateful decision is being met with outrage, and if we now show India that outlawing love is making them an international embarrassment we can get the Indian Parliament to fast track passing a law that the judges have to respect.

Click here and sign now to help love conquer fear in India. When we reach 1 million we’ll get all our names written on hundreds of giant hearts ringing the Indian parliament, then place prominent ads showing that the world will no longer accept making love illegal. 

Anti-Apartheid Hero Nelson Mandela Dies Aged 95

Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela dies aged 95 (via AFP)

Nelson Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, has died aged 95. Mandela, who was elected South Africa's first black president after spending nearly three…

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Obamacare Continues to Reveal Flaws: Republicans Now Blamed

By Marc Miller

The Obamacare catastrophe continues as the Affordable Care Act has hit yet more difficulties in the path to implementation. Only this time, the president isn't apologizing for it, nor is he expressing confident optimism that it will be fixed sufficiently in the near future: he's blaming Republicans.

While speaking on Tuesday at the Wall Street Journal CEO Summit, President Obama opted to place blame on the Republicans for failure to resolve major issues in his signature health care plan, including the roll-out of the health care exchange website.

Obama declared, “One of the problems that we’ve had is that one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure and that makes the kind of iterative process of fixing glitches as they come up and fine-tuning the law more challenging.”

Yet, while the president and democratic strategists have focused on the website, more issues that have been lurking in the background, and are slowing being revealed: one of them has to do with the IRS and fraud. This concern came up on Tuesday, after the issuance of the inspector general’s report.