Random

✽ "I Know That You Want to Be Canadian" -- If it were not for the cold and/or cloudy winters it would be tempting. Are there really still mounted Mounties? ~ via

✽ The Micronesians have landed in California and they're apparently cold -- donning socks with flip-flops (or as they say, "slippers") because the temps are in the 70s. Indeed, it can be a bit of a shock to the system if you come from a place where it very rarely drops below 76° at night. You'll start to feel better once the tour makes its way through Arizona. ~ link

✽ Tullian Tchividjian's piece on renewing the world (adapted from his book Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different):

So, while Christians are to separate from the self-glorifying motives, God-ignoring goals, and subpar work standards of the world (our spiritual separation), we’re not to separate from the peoples, places, and things in the world (a spatial separation). We’re to be morally and spiritually distinct without being culturally segregated... ~ link

✽ LA Times: "What's really new about Arizona's new approach to illegal immigrants" -- pretty even-handed assessment. ~ link

✽ "'Palin Says 'We're All Arizonans Now' in Speech Defending State's Immigration Law." Ah, please spare us the political rhetoric. It doesn't help. If anything, Sarah Palin's public presence in Phoenix proves to those who want to boycott Arizona that we've all really gone off the deep-end and therefore, we need their vigilante-style solution. ~ link

✽ The University of California is doing some serious talking about offering online degrees. ~ link

✽ The Chinese government says that smoking will be banned in public starting next year. It is unclear how they're going to be able to enforce the ban in a culture in which tobacco is so thoroughly entrenched. ~ link