Random

✽ Now every homeowner will be wanting their own cell tower. ~ ars technica

✽ It would be to my liking if all college graduations went a bit faster -- perhaps trying to keep up with Fuller Seminary. ~ link

✽ But, what's with that cord thingy hanging from the side of Cisco's new Android office tablet -- Cius? ~ ars technica

✽ The external thermometer in the car this afternoon said 115°. Yesterday it was 118°. The hotter it gets outside the more tire blow-outs there are. ~ ABC15

✽ Governor Brewer is spinning yet another yarn about illegal immigrants. This time she is claiming that they are being beheaded in the desert. None of the medical examiners are aware of such a crime. But it is an election year and the gov is appealing to the Fox News crowd, which tends to get pumped up by sensationalized stories. ~ AZ Central

✽ University of Arizona study: border fence interferes with wildlife migration. ~ link

✽ We're catching up to the Europeans. 41% of the US births in 2008 were to unmarried mothers. ~ Pew Research

✽ The Swedish Furniture Name Generator is one of those apps which makes the internet so valuable. ~ link (via)

✽ Are we back at the brink of depression? Well, we all know whose fault it is. ~ Global Post

✽ "Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband a legal right for every citizen." ~ BBC News

✽ "Chinese Companies Rent White Foreigners." A few weeks ago I asked my 20-something nephew about his new business position in Shanghai. His response, "I am pretty sure being white is the primary job skill I will be utilizing in my new job." ~ Slashdot

✽ "According to Gunnar Samuelsson of Gothenburg University, the story of Jesus' execution is based on Christian traditions and artistic illustrations, not antique texts, according to a recently published doctoral thesis entitled 'Crucifixion in Antiquity - An Inquiry into the Background of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion'". He claims that Jesus may not have have been crucified because there is "no evidence to indicate that the Romans crucified prisoners 2,000 years ago." The Local

✽ You have to be pretty talented to pull this off (I do love German humor!):

What's in a name?

Random

✽ There are elements of every culture worth preserving. There are other elements which should be allowed to die. Case in point: Surströmming -- Sweden's putrid smelling fermented herring. ~ The Local

✽ A counter-intuitive finding: more interaction in online courses decreases completion rates ~ link

✽ The Afghan women jailed for "moral crimes" ~ BBC World

✽ The Moonies are suing Michael Jackson's mother for $13M. ~ link

✽ "Daoism, the smallest and only native Chinese religion, is fading." ~ WSJ

✽ "Man loses finger at McDonald's drive-thru" -- and if he were sober he would have probably felt more pain. ~ The Local

✽ Cross-cultural trainer Richard Lewis reviews David Platt's book Radical. Lewis, someone who actually understands the complexities of cross-cultural ministry, puts things in perspective -- and keeps us from being swallowed by well-intentioned but half-baked romanticism. ~ link

Random

✽ Peter Cha, one of my favorite Covenant preachers, delivered the ordination sermon yesterday.

✽ Dr Jay Kennedy, a science historian at The University of Manchester, has reportedly cracked “The Plato Code” and can decipher the secret messages embedded in the 4th century BC philosopher’s writings. Apparently, his ideas would have been considered heretical and would have doomed him to the same fate as his teacher and voice -- Socrates. ~ link

✽ US Customs have arrested a 17-year-old who was attempting to smuggle ammunition into Mexico. ~ AZ Daily Star

✽ Only Idaho and Utah spend less per student for education than Arizona. The sad part is that we Arizonans believe that we are spending way too much -- that educational costs are way out of control -- and that the tax-payer is getting ripped off. We're victims. Like many things here, the facts don't seem to support the overwhelming public opinion. ~ Phoenix Business Journal

✽ More boycotting Arizona ~ AZ Central

✽ We're still waiting for Governor Brewer to substantiate her claim that most illegal immigrants are also drug smugglers. So far, no facts -- just fear mongering in an election year.

✽ The hourly wage in Phoenix is 4% below the national average. ~ Phoenix Business Journal

✽ The church in India is developing soap operas to strengthen marriages. ~ link

✽ Four Timothy Johnsons in one Covenant place. I know them all -- and a few more as well! ~ link

✽ North Park Theological Seminary classes are now being offered in Santa Barbara, California. Here is the fall brochure.

✽ My sermon from yesterday is online. ~ link

More -- "We're With Ryan"

"We're With Ryan"

"We're with Ryan" singing at a church benefit on Guam. Watch the kid on the left, Ryan Imamura, Guam's uke prodigy. I think the voice is Jeff Borja (JB), owner of JB's Ukulele Hut. The acoustic guitar player is Ryan's father, Troy. (Here is a clip of Ryan jamming with Jake a few years back.)

Bull on the run

Welcome to Arizona -- still home of the wild west. Apparently the bull evaded capture, too, and was last seen in the South Mountain Park up behind this Awatukee neighborhood. Where is Tex Earnhardt when you need him? ~ ABC15

Random

✽ Phoenix is the 23rd manliest city in the US -- whatever that means. ~ link

✽ Tropical Depression ONE ~ NHC

✽ Governor Brewer says that most illegal immigrants are also drug smugglers. That seems really really unlikely. I wonder where she got her information. I wonder why she would say such a thing. I suspect that she does not personally know any illegal aliens. ~ AP

✽ Pakistani authorities are diligently monitoring the web for material offensive to Muslims. ~ BBC

✽ The sheriff is suing the county Board of Supervisors -- again. These guys seem to spend more time in court than they do at their jobs. Attornies have great job security in Maricopa County. ~ EV Trib

Let's dance

Random

✽ It's been storming in Chicago -- amazing Chicago Tribune picture of double lightening strike. There is also a photo of the same strike from another angle, shot by a different Trib photographer.

✽ I'm watching the Evangelical Covenant Church's 125th annual meeting opening worship service live webcast from St Paul -- lookin' good.

✽ Sightings --

Cheap and marketable: these terms may describe both Touchdown Jesus and Saint Sarah. But one suspects that human will, and not an act of God, will be required to dispel the cult of Palin. ~ Jeremy Biles

✽ New proof that the Asian carp, "a voracious, nonnative fish, might be moving perilously close to the Great Lakes..." ~ NY Times

✽ New minimum wage rules making it harder for teens to get work? ~ WSJ

✽ "Beyond Camelot: Britain’s Un-American Austerity Program" -- The Brits approach to economic recovery by LaVonne Neff

✽ "Freesale" demonstrates God's love and catches people off-guard. ~ link

✽ Organic farming leads to global warming?

"We’ve known for decades that high-yield farming was our greatest humanitarian achievement, preventing at least a billion famine deaths. High-yield farms have also supported the shift to cities, where people take up less land per capita and have smaller families. That’s why the human population is now set to decline modestly after 2050.

Moreover, the high-yield farming saves this carbon at a very low cost — about $7 per ton. Emission cuts through other strategies typically cost $20 per ton, and far more for such expensive strategies as wind turbines, solar panels, and corn ethanol. ~ Dennis Avery

Voices of Micronesia Concert

Random

✽ What do you do if a wildfire evacuation messes up your wedding? Great story from Flagstaff. ~ AZ Daily Sun

✽ Mexicans are riding and enjoying the solidarity wave. ~ CSM

✽ Have you seen Sin Nombre, the dramatic movie which depicts the struggles of Latin American immigrants trying to make their way through Mexico to the US? (Mexico is not an immigrant friendly place.) It's a little rough and bloody. I borrowed it from the public library.

✽ We're getting some drones to help secure the border. Maybe we won't have to build McCain's dang fence. ~ KOLD

✽ Re-purposing redundant oil platforms ~ Chron.com

✽ Australia's first woman prime minister ~ CNN

✽ In pictures: Madagascar's troubled environment ~ BBC News

✽ Are we on the cusp of a retro-branding wave? ~ Fast Company

✽ I just realized that I was ordained 25 years ago last Sunday, June 20th, at the 100th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church. The 125th Annual Meeting starts tomorrow in St Paul, Minnesota. But I won't be going this year. Somebody has to hold-down the fort. I will be speaking at the 9 and 10:45 a.m. services at Hope Covenant Church in Chandler this Sunday. And then we have a MasterPiece Church gathering in the evening at our house.

Random

✽ "The earliest known icons of the Apostles Peter and Paul have been discovered in a catacomb under an eight-story modern office building in a working-class neighborhood of Rome, Vatican officials said Tuesday." ~ MSNBC

✽ "Wealthy people who have a modest consumption life style tend to be generous in giving to noble causes..." ~ Australian case study

✽ "James Patton and Craig Moritz of UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology surveyed 28 species of mammals living at sites from the San Joaquin Valley across Yosemite to Mono Lake and found that as average annual temperatures warmed by 5 degrees Fahrenheit during the past 90 years, more than half the species had shifted their ranges upward by as much as 1,600 feet... " ~ San Francisco Chronicle

✽ Four Christians were arrested for "disorderly conduct" last Friday after having open and civil discussions about their faith with Muslims at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn, Michigan. ~ Mission Network News

✽ Unfinished Orlando area mansion on the market 'as is' for $75M. What do you think the chances are that they'll get anything near the asking price? ~ AP

✽ "Phoenix grew 1.5% from July 2008 to July 2009, the slowest pace of the decade. The city gained 24,000 people between 2008 and 2009 compared to a gain of nearly 41,000 between 2005 and 2006." ~ WSJ

✽ The Arizona Department of Transportation is reopening five of the 13 rest areas closed last fall. And another four will reopen in the fall. ~ EV Trib

✽ South Africa beats out the US to become #1 destination for asylum seekers ~ http://goo.gl/hpfc

✽ Mexico's Foreign Ministry is on record stating that Arizona's SB 1070:

"violates inalienable human rights." Democrats in Congress applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderón's criticisms of the law in a speech he gave on Capitol Hill last week.

Yet Mexico's Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists. ~ USA Today

Since the 1070 approach hasn't worked so well in Mexico, why are we trying to imitate them?

✽ This might be a great time to be flying between the Gold Coast in Australia and Guam or Palau. (promo fares) ~ link

Random

✽ I slept through the summer solstice, which occurred at 4:28 a.m., Arizona time, this morning. We're supposed to be back up to 110° by Thursday. And happy summer to you, too.

✽ "More preachers hold down day jobs" -- Bob Smietana writes on the growing number of bivocational Southern Baptist ministers ~ The Tennessean

✽ California, the state in which I have cumulatively resided longer than any other, wants to study digital license plates that would produce revenue for the state by showing ads.

The device would mimic a standard license plate when the vehicle is in motion but would switch to digital ads or other messages when it is stopped for more than four seconds, whether in traffic or at a red light. The license plate number would remain visible at all times in some section of the screen. ~ MSNBC (via)

We need to give them some credit for trying AND two bonus points for coloring outside the lines. But I'm pretty sure that once the numbers are crunched (to say nothing of the all the bumpers) California would raise more money if they held state sponsored fruitcake sales.

✽ Sheriff Joe plans to launch his own Web-based TV show. He wants to do an end-run around the established media, which he believes is biased -- and out to get him. My sense, from watching video footage of his speeches and his animated responses to reporters, is that he believes that anyone who questions his perspective or decisions is biased and out to get him. ~ ABC15

✽ Sweden is struggling through a midsummer strawberry crisis. ~ The Local

Random

✽ We watched Invictus tonight -- great movie with superb acting. I really expected a much heavier movie with more guilt and shame. But the tension of post-Apartheid South Africa is worked out through the rugby story. The sports competition starts out as a sub-story but eventually becomes the primary focus. This allows the viewer to process the racial issues with a little more distance -- and at times lightheartedness -- but not by glossing over them or minimizing the hate. Clint Eastwood seems to be focusing a lot on racial reconciliation issues these days. Gran Torin was the movie he made just before Invictus.

✽ The rise of the slow reading movement -- "It's not just about students reading as slowly as possible... To me, slow reading is about bringing more of the person to bear on the book." -- John Miedema, author of Slow Reading ~ link

✽ What were they thinking? The Marlins gave out 15,000 Vuvuzelas at their game against the Rays yesterday. It's not likely that the horns will be banned from the World Cup games this time around, but I suspect that after that stunt in Florida, MLB is going to nip the annoyance in the bud. ~ link

✽ It looks like Covenant Publications is experimenting with online publishing using Scribd. Gary Walter's column, Compass Bearings: March 2010 | April 2010 | May 2010

Random

✽ Vuvuzela Concerto in B Flat via Maestro Eric Bangeman and currently available everywhere on the web where people still have a sense of humor. (No one seems to know who wrote it, so I suppose it will just end up attributed to the prolific composer "Anonymous.")

✽ Tolleson Mayor Adolfo Gámez and the city council there explain why they are joining the lawsuit to stop implementation of SB 1070. They've added a few concerns to the list that I hadn't considered. Even after giving the legislators the benefit of the doubt in terms of motives, the law itself is ill-conceived and not well written. ~ AZ Central

✽ Congratulations to the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development, which has received DETC accreditation -- a major accomplishment. ~ link

Random

✽ Steven "Pisseth Against the Wall" Anderson is back in the news. ~ Yuma Sun

✽ "Nine Problems That Hinder Partnerships in Africa" in the Chronicle of Higher Education outlines the classic challenges of working cross-culturally. ~ CHE

✽ The poster for the Voices of Micronesia concert, July 13th @ Hope Covenant in Chandler, Arizona, is now available for download ~ link (.pdf)

Random

✽ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer has been released. I can't wait!

✽ We're upset over the Gulf oil spill. Nigeria has been experiencing huge spills of similar magnitude annually, many from American-based companies, for 50 years. We live such insular lives. ~ New York Times

✽ "Getting Your PhD Online: What You Need to Know" ~ DistanceEducation.org

✽ Arizona State University has a new engineering program that is supposed to go "above and beyond -- cultivating ‘Renaissance engineers’ to tackle the world’s most critical challenges." But isn't that supposed to be the whole point of putting ALL education, even for technical fields such as engineering, in the context of a liberal arts university? We're not just trying to train people to be more productive or marketable technicians. We are developing breadth so that we encourage integration of learning across the various disciplines. It sure wouldn't hurt to have more engineers with MFA or MSW degrees.

✽ Arizona's unemployment rate jumped to 9.6% despite a net gain of 3,400 jobs. This recession is like a lingering cold. You get better for a few days but then it's back, you get better for a few more days, then you feel yucky again. Eventually, though, we seem to get over it. ~ Phoenix Business News

✽ Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church has a new logo. I like it -- clean and green. ~ link

✽ Quotable:

Animals have the "rights" to be treated kindly by human beings, who have a divine mandate, from the creation account in Genesis, to be caretakers of the non-human creation. This certainly means no abusive treatment, measures to prevent unnecessary animal suffering, as well as a positive concern for the overall environmental well-being of which we are all--humans and animals--a part. But Christians need also to be resistant to the metaphysics of "species egalitarianism." Talk of "Brother Sun and Sister Moon" has a nice ring to it, but it gets theologically weird when we start thinking "Brother Horse and Sister Chicken"! ~ Richard Mouw, Washington Post

✽ The latest Brushstrokes, my e-letter for MasterPiece Church is now online. ~ link

✽ Washington Post-ABC poll: "Most Americans support the new, controversial Arizona law that gives police there the power to check the residency status of suspected illegal immigrants. But most also still back a program giving those here illegally the right to earn legal documentation..." ~ link

✽ Why I am still opposed to Arizona's immigration law ~ link

✽ Tropical Storm Blas has been born in the Pacific, south of Baja, Mexico. But it is moving away from land. ~ Yahoo News

✽Tinyiko Maluleke: "I see the vuvuzela as a symbol -- as a symbol of Africa's cry for acknowledgement." Personally, I see the vuvuzela as an unfortunate sign that major global sporting events of the future will think twice about scheduling in Africa. ☹ The question is, as always, are we more interested in making grand statements or in implementing the kinds of change that will actually help people? ~ CT

Random

✽ Differences between German and Chinese cultures. Guess which of these two groups Americans are most like -- in the overall big picture of the world -- extremely A LOT ALIKE. BTW, the artist has a website.

✽ YouTube has a new cloud-based video editor. ~ FastCompany

✽ Phoenix is among the 20 metro US areas with the least amount of economic recovery.

Two and a half years after the Great Recession began, the nation’s economic recovery remains jobless and seems more fragile than ever. Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a moderate 3.0 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2010, down from a 5.6 percent annual growth rate in the last quarter of 2009. Housing markets weakened, and the expiration in April of federal homebuyer tax credits could lead to further weakness later this year. ~ Brookings

✽ The Obama administration's proposal to tighten oversight of the for-profit colleges suggests that they don't really understand the nature of the change that has taken place. They want these schools to disclose their job-placement rates to prospective students. My sense is that most of the students in these schools ALREADY have jobs and that their employers are paying for a good portion of their education. How else does someone afford to go to the University of Phoenix? ~ Washington Post

✽ The president of Hartwick College explains and defends their three-year bachelors degree program. Well, actually it is still a "four-year" program. They've got it set up so that students can complete four years worth of work in three years. I did one of those flex undergrad programs, too. I completed four years worth of work in six years. ~ Washington Post

✽ In an effort to discourage student indebtedness some colleges have removed student loan options from their financial aid packages. ~ DistanceEducation.org

✽ "Spin-off Churches" -- another way of talking about "parenting"? ~ link

✽ The Phoenix Rescue Mission distributes water to our homeless neighbors as a part of the City of Phoenix Heat Relief Network. They are accepting donations. ~ link

✽ Every time another city announces that they are boycotting Arizona it only causes the SB 1070 supporters to dig their heels in deeper. It's kind of like slamming the door on the Jehovah's Witnesses. It just reinforces in their minds that they're the worthy minority doing the Lord's work. You need a more indirect strategy if you want to do more than make a statement or create an impression.

✽ How about organizing a carrot mob instead of a boycott? ~ PhilCooke.com

✽ "At Barnes & Noble I asked where the Self Help section was. The salesman said if he told me it would defeat the purpose." ~ Phil Cooke

✽ David Fitch on how flat leadership works in the church ~ link

✽ Forget about 2012. Solar flares could make 2013 the rough ride according to NASA. ~ link

✽ Interactive map: "Where Americans Are Moving." Fascinating people movements. ~ Forbes

Random

✽ And the #1 reason to skip the World Cup games this time around -- vuvuzelas ~ NY Times

✽ This afternoon we got the schedule set -- now to start getting the word out. The Pacific Islands University summer touring group, Voices of Micronesia, will do a concert at 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 13th. Hope Covenant Church in Chandler has graciously agreed to host the event. I'm guessing that this is probably the last concert in the US tour.

✽ Chuck Warnock: "For those who think we have too much government." ~ ChuckWarnock.com

I agree, we're such ungrateful whiners. Frankly, we get a lot of bang for our tax-dollar buck -- especially when you look at the conditions of much of the world. Certainly there is a limit to what an economy can sustain but I for one don't mind paying my taxes. This insipid whining about how victimized we are by our own government (which is us!) feels a bit disingenuous.

✽ Tropical Storm Watch:

It looks like we could have our first tropical depression of the 2010 season, and perhaps our first named storm - Alex in the next 12 to 24 hours. The only other time we've had a storm this early so far out in the ocean was Tropical Storm Ana back in 1979. Climatology tells us that any storm that forms this far out so early in the season shouldn't survive, but the sea surface temperatures are off the charts right now, and over the next day or so upper level winds will be pretty light, so chances are good we'll see Alex show up, and the Lesser Antilles will need to keep an eye on this for at the very least heavy rain and strong winds by weeks end. ~ Janice Dean

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do...?

Lights, cameras, action!

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he plans to launch his 16th crime and immigration sweep on July 30, the day after Arizona's new immigration law is set to take effect.

The sheriff's office hasn't revealed where it will conduct the sweep.

During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city -- in some cases heavily Latino areas -- to seek out traffic violators and arrest other alleged lawbreakers. ~ AP

"In some cases"? Do they EVER do "crime sweeps" in lightly Latino areas? Just asking.

Random

✽ "World's only solar powered light bulb" -- s-l-o-w-l-y but surely, the solar revolution is taking off. The real challenge will be to make it affordable for the developing world -- the people who most need it. ~ Nokero (via)

✽ The fail whale seems to be really busy on Twitter tonight.

✽ Free wi-fi at all US Starbucks starting July 1st. A-N-D while there, customers will have free access to several paid sites such as WSJ.com. ~ link | WSJ.com

✽ Oh, great, this is really going to simplify things. "US finds minerals in Afghanistan worth billions" Well, actually, mineral experts have been aware of this for years. ~ CNN | Wired

✽ "Biblical community is more about choice than affinity." ~ John Scheepers

✽ And once they're done with the World Cup South Africa will get to host the inaugural global citrus conference. ~ link

The Radical Disciple

John Stott has been one of the most influential evangelical leaders of the last 60 years -- and one of the men I most admire. His new book The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling is best seen as the concluding statement of his life-long sermon (think of Moses' wrap-up at the end of Deuteronomy).

This is a wonderful little book that brings the wisdom of his 90 years to bear on the present. The writing is crisp and relevant. The content is compelling.

He deals concisely and practically with eight discipleship themes.

1. Nonconformity
2. Christlikeness
3. Maturity
4. Creation Care
5. Simplicity
6. Balance
7. Dependence
8. Death

Sample quote:

By no means are all beleaguered Christians repeatedly rescued from death as Paul was. Christians are promised neither immunity nor deliverance. Instead, even in the midst of death we can experience life.

...This extraordinary statement (2 Corinthians 4:10-11) declares that we can experience both the death and life of Jesus simultaneously. Notice that the noun body and the adverb always are repeated in verses 10 and 11. We are always sharing in our body in the death and life of Jesus. Even while we are being afflicted and made aware of our mortality, we can draw on the spiritual vitality of Jesus. Even before the resurrection takes place we experience the resurrection life of Jesus. Thus, "dying, and yet we live on" (2 Corinthians 6:9).

The Radical Disciple is a book that you could hand to a new believer. And it might just be the kind of radical jolt that some of us more seasoned Christians need.

It's Flag Day in the US

On this day in 1777 the Second Continental Congress of the newly formed United States of America adopted a flag design.

Random

✽ Australian researchers: Crocodiles move between islands by surfing ~ National Geographic (photo)

✽ Monsoon season in Arizona officially starts on Tuesday (15th). But the clouds, thunderstorm cells, wind, and very very slight drizzle yesterday are apparently unrelated to the monsoon. The current weather comes out of a low pressure system rather than a monsoon pattern. Even though the season starts Tuesday we don't typically get monsoon storms until we're well into July. But it can happen in June. ~ NWS

✽ All those extra planes overhead on the westside of Phoenix are there because of Sky Train rail line construction at Sky Harbor Airport. The planes will be taking off toward the west for a few months. ~ EV Tribune

✽ At first glance I thought that this headline was hyperbole. But it is intended to be taken literally. "Official: Oil spill hasn't reached Great Salt Lake" ~ KOLD

✽ "US Navy of 1915" -- 11 minutes of fascinating silent film ~ link

✽ Light Wear Christian Stores & Gifts has opened at 51st Ave & Southern, a few blocks from where we live in Phoenix. This isn't a Christian gift store masquerading as a bookstore. It is, without apology, a gift and craft store with a few Christian books (new and used), DVDs, and CDs. The owner, Jeanine Brown, says that a lot of the gifts are locally made -- including the bling -- lots and lots of bling. They have craft classes and seminars. It's really an interesting concept that is a bit out of the box. ~ link

✽ We Americans eat a lot of meat (probably way more than what is good for us) but not as much as the Danes. I would actually like to see some more up-to-date figures. The info in the report is eight years old. Still , how do the Danes do it? ~ link

Random

✽ The end of an era -- the Mesa Citrus Growers Association is closing the Valley's last citrus processing plant. With the housing bust and all the related chaos, maybe restarting the citrus industry would be a good idea. Portions of Detroit are being reclaimed for agriculture. It could happen in Phoenix, too. ~ link

✽ I was experimenting with Word 2010 (beta) because I was having trouble editing a work related form, created in Word, in any other word processor. Today I discovered that Open Office 3.2 actually handles that quirky Word form better than Word. I just saved a chunk of change I would have had to shell out when the beta expires.

✽ Seth on Lula's logic ~ link

✽ I'm not suggesting that it is alright to be in the United States illegally or that it is acceptable to use forged immigration papers. But you do have to wonder about the wisdom of the sheriff (whose primary mandate has nothing to do with enforcing federal immigration law) spending so much time, money, and energy busting bus boys when there are drug cartels and kidnappers to track down. Today the deputies raided two Sizzler Steakhouses and arrested nine people, following a year-long investigation. ~ AZCentral

✽ Of course it is pretty easy to yank biblical passages from their context. But this one, which came up as a part of the Moravian Daily Text today, reflects God's general disposition and passion when it comes to aliens and outsiders. "When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don't take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God." ~ Leviticus 190:34-35 (The Message)

Random.edu

✽ Do you know of someone who is looking for a totally cross-cultural out-the-box college experience? Suggest a semester or a year at Pacific Islands University on Guam.

If you're coming from mainland US it's a great tuition/housing value, too -- compared to what you'd pay stateside. Round trip airfare is about $1,400 -- maybe cheaper. Of course, you may decide to not use your return ticket.

✽ Sober College is another out-of-the-box educational experience. Yes, the name says it all. ~ USA Today

Why I am opposed to SB 1070

It has become a common question. People are asking why I am opposed to Arizona's immigration bill. Here is a still-in-process summary of my thinking on the issue:

1. The unilateralness and tone of the bill creates FEAR and MISUNDERSTANDING. A third of our people in Arizona are Hispanic -- most of them are here legally. The bill makes them feel like they are being targeted for harassment. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant. Communities are built on perceptions.
   
   Undoubtedly, Hispanics are the people that the police will most often ask to produce proof of legal status. Nice white people will never be asked to prove their status but if you are brown skinned your chance of being asked for documentation increases significantly. (If this is true with the current federal enforcement procedures -- and they make lots of mistakes -- how much more so will it be if we have a lot of lesser-trained local police trying to figure out who is legally here and who is not.) I can understand how that would make brown skin people feel like second class citizens. Ultimately this will create resentment and erode community.
   
   
2. Local laws designed to control people movements and immigration will lead to irregular standards and enforcement across the country. Not only is this unfair to the people involved, it will (does) also affect relations with other countries. What Arizona does will affect how Mexico relates to the whole of the United States. Immigration enforcement should be in the hands of the federal government -- exclusively.
   
   
3. A patchwork of local immigration rules adds another layer of complexity to the process of the real immigration reform that needs to occur in the US. We are not making things clearer -- only stirring the waters.
   
   
4. While there are significant problems related to immigration the issue is overblown. The large city violent crime rates in the border states are actually lower than those in the rest of the country. Crime rates in border towns are very low. Studies have consistently shown that the economic impact of illegal immigration is either neutral or positive. There are segments of the economy that it stresses (e.g. health care, education) but the overall impact is probably positive. The problem of illegal immigration is an issue that has been over-stated and massaged to create fear and misunderstanding. People running for political office are the main beneficiaries. It is no accident that this bill was passed and signed during an election year -- an election year during which voters are feeling stressed out over the economy and housing crisis. SB 1070 is a classic tail wagging the dog.
   
   
5. The immigration law is not only a distraction but will become a law enforcement hindrance. If a third of the population (those who are Hispanic) are actively trying to avoid engagement with the local police because they fear that they are going to be subject to harassment (whether that is true or not is irrelevant -- people make decisions based on perception), they will be less likely to call 911 when they spot suspicious activity like burglaries or drug deals. Law enforcement is built on community trust. This bill undercuts trust -- an unintentioned consequence.
   
   
6. The real focus should be on comprehensive national immigration reform. We have brought a lot of this problem on ourselves through our irregular immigration practices of the past. We have informally told people (especially those from Mexico) that they need to have papers to come to the US (wink, wink) but that if they come here and settle in, stay out of jail, become model neighbors, and contribute to the economy we will look the other way (and thank them for paying into social security without ever drawing from it).
   
   So the people moved north in greater and greater numbers. Then there were promises of reform that would make it possible for them to get legal standing. So they settled in, sunk down roots and produced children here (all of whom are US citizens), and patiently waited, living under the radar. But the promised reforms haven't happened. We have failed to follow through on what we said we would do.
   
   
7. This approach will encourage law enforcement to go after the low-hanging fruit rather than the hard to get to rotten apples at the top of the trees. That is, to prove that they are in compliance with the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" the posses will be looking for opportunities to round up as many people as possible. In other words, they will be processing a lot more bus boys and hotel workers than drug dealers, human smugglers, and gang members. We've already seen how this works here in Maricopa County where the sheriff likes to stage a lot of high profile raids to capture minimum wage workers.

On May 1st the Arizona Republic had a great editorial that sums it all up well.