Random

✽ Prior to WWII Americans would use "the Bellamy Salute" when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. You can probably figure out why that was changed. ~ link

✽ China quake toll rises to 1,144 ~ link ☹

✽ "$3 hand-powered suction device quickly heals wounds" ~ link

✽ From the AZ Republic's level-headed editorial on the proposed immigration legislation:

...the state will not benefit from a law that is more about rage and rhetoric than real solutions...

This bill creates an atmosphere of fear and division. In some neighborhoods where a lot of migrants live, crimes will go unreported because people won't want to subject themselves or their neighbors to police scrutiny. It will mean Latino Arizonans have to wonder what kind of identification to carry when they walk the dog...

There's something else this law does that Arizona doesn't need: It furthers a growing perception of this state as a kind of hayseed, backward place where extremism is considered a virtue.

That will not help our state attract high-paying, high-tech jobs. It will not help our state increase trade and commerce with Mexico.

And they list several more good reasons to nix this bill.

✽ The USSR collapsed under the weight of its own paranoia.

✽ I do have serious doubts about the judgment of our current politicos and their ability to make sound decisions. Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill today allowing Arizonans to carry concealed firearms without a permit.

I was at the Interfaith Golden Rule banquet (a guest of a local LDS bishop!) last night and with my own two eyes saw the very same governor presented with an award for her efforts at making Arizona a "Golden Rule state." The irony is glaring. ~ link

Somehow the wild west has crept back into Arizona since I lived here 30 years ago. This is definitely a mission field.

✽ Dan, en route to Sweden, is stuck in Iceland. ~ link

✽ "How many PhD students does it take to screw in a light bulb? One, but it takes 9.3 years." ~ link

✽ It's a long haul for the people in the humanities. Our daughter Betsy graduates from UC Berkeley with her bachelor's next month and will move across the Bay to UC San Franciso to begin her PhD work in genomics. That is a five year program. (Parental bragging alert: UCSF was her top choice. She was also accepted at Stanford, Harvard, MIT, CalTech, and the University of Washington. I married into a smart gene pool.)