Random

✽ Rich Mouw on "What Constantine had Right." There is something about living in that place of tension. ~ link

✽ I picked up Alice in Wonderland at the Redbox. It's a little on the dark side but the video and storytelling are engaging.

✽ "Jesus in Arizona" makes Fr Thomas Reese's point fairly well. But he gets it wrong. If you're in the city of Phoenix you're not going to have a problem. However, if you're in the unincorporated areas of Maricopa County policed by the sheriff -- that might become a problem. ~ Washington Post

✽ And people are so worried about texting while driving. ~ link

✽ So much for the flat-earth myth --

...The truth is that it’s almost impossible to find an educated person after Aristotle (d. 322 B.C.) who doubts that the earth is a sphere. In the Middle Ages, you couldn’t emerge from any kind of education, cathedral school or university, without being perfectly clear about the earth’s sphericity and even its approximate circumference.... ~ David Lindberg

✽ There are 400+ American Samoa workers ready to go to Guam to help with the military build-up. ~ Radio New Zealand

✽ Mangilao, the village where we lived on Guam, is about ready to launch a Thursday night market. ~ PNC

✽ A 9-year-old boy was killed when he fell out of the back of the pick-up truck in which he was riding and was then run over by the vehicle traveling behind him.

There are three reasons that people ride in the back of pick-ups on Guam. First, it is an inexpensive way to move people around and people just don't have much money. Second, the habit started when speed limits were a lot lower and on other islands where the less developed roads meant that no one was going fast anyway. Third, the authorities avoid addressing the issue. ~ KUAM

✽ Since there seems to be a lot of Guam news today, I'll mention that you can either say "in Guam" or "on Guam." "In" refers to the territory of Guam. (Guam is an unincorporated organized territory of the US -- using the word "organized" in a legal sense.) "On" refers to the actual rock island of Guam. They're identical in space but very generally speaking when people say something about what is happening "in Guam" they seem to be talking politics. Most often, though, locals talk about being "on Guam." The island itself is a point of great pride -- rightfully so.

✽ We left Guam on June 9th last year. We do like living in Arizona and the people here -- but likewise we do miss Guam and the people there.