Introducing Matthew

This introduction to the gospel of Matthew, as told from the perspective of a refugee, is brilliant. The video was produced by InterVarsity for the Urbana '15 gathering in December 2015.

Immigrants to the rescue

Immigrants shouldn't just be tolerated -- but welcomed with open arms. We need them as much as they need us.

Why immigrants are so important to the US

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via

Changing the 14th has negative impact

The 14th Amendment guarantees that anyone born within the boundaries of the US is a native born citizen. There are some who believe that allowing this encourages illegal immigration -- people sneaking into the US to birth children, who then as new-born citizens sponsor their parents to enter the US legally. That is, they get to unfairly jump to the front of the line for their entry tickets.

There are three basic pragmatic reasons to oppose the bills associated with the reinterpretation of the 14th.

The first reason is that the bills are based on a faulty assumption. That assumption is that huge numbers of people are entering the country illegally to have babies that would “anchor” them to the US. It certainly must happen that way on occasion but it is not a significant trend. Those who sneak into the US tend to be desperate people looking for immediate work so they can send money back to their families.

A naturally born citizen has to come of age (21 years) before he or she can sponsor family members into the US. People who sneak into the US are not thinking 21 years ahead. (Relatively affluent people have the luxury of planning that far in advance and it might be an incentive for affluent people but not for the poor.) The 14th Amendment is not a significant incentive for people to sneak across the border. By changing the law we will not slow the flow.

The second reason that reinterpreting the 14th Amendment and barring the children of people lacking legal status from claiming US citizenship is that there will be an unintended consequences -- that is, a disenfranchised under-class of people born here, culturally American, raised in our system, tax-paying, fully contributing to society -- who are prohibited from full participation in our process. We need what they have to offer, not their resentment and destabilizing voices. The net contribution of immigrants (legal and illegal combined) is positive. It could become negative and destabilizing if we disenfranchise people who have lived and grown up here all their lives.

The third reason is that by passing (or even considering) the bills intended to shut down the 14th we are sending a message to the world that we are a closed society. Whether that message is true or not is moot. What is important is what is perceived. It comes across in the rest of the world that we are a nation of racists only interested in dealing with well to do immigrants who are like us. As the world grows smaller we cannot afford to position ourselves with that kind of an image.

Random

> Yes, very random -- via Beth Bilynskyj and Wendy Lawton on FB

> Habitat for Humanity has figured out that buying foreclosed homes is often cheaper than building new ones. ~ CP

> "The McVictim syndrome could kill us -- Americans want to blame others for the obesity epidemic. The truth? It's our own fault." ~ LA Times

> Latif’s restaurant is celebrating 50 years at the same location in Turlock. I do miss that place and those people. ~ link

> The National Geographic editors pick: "Ten Weirdest New Animals of 2010" My favorite is the Pink Handfish that walks along the ocean floor near Australia. Of course, the purple octopus from off the Canadian coast is pretty cute, too. ~ link

> Another Mexican friend (a US citizen) has moved to California -- weary of getting hassled in Arizona. Thank you Governor Brewer, Sheriff Joe, and 1070 supporters.

Sometimes it is not so much what we say but how we say it that creates the problem. Even though 1070 itself hangs in court-limbo right now, it has effectively communicated to a group of people that they are not welcome here. And certain police agencies are more aggressive at hassling Mexicans than others. They interpret the community support of 1070 as a mandate from the people to step-up the hassling -- even though the law itself is unenforceable.

For those who ask, how come everyone is so worked up over this? Isn't this 1070 law just a state-based mirror of the federal immigration rules -- rules that the feds aren't enforcing?

In 1070 undocumented immigration is a crime and is dealt with through the courts. But according to the US federal system, immigration violations are not crimes but civil offenses dealt with through an administrative procedure.

1070, if it ever goes into effect, would create even more chaos in the already over-loaded Arizona judicial and prison systems. In other words, if you are a Mexican, even with legal standing, but you get caught up in the sweeps, you could end up in trouble with the law -- and in jail -- before you're able to prove your legality.  If I were a Mexican and the opportunity to go to another state arose -- I'd be very tempted to take it, too.

Random

> Seth Godin on organizational architects ~ link

> How is it that the Kindle editions of Seth Godin's books are significantly more expensive than the printed editions on Amazon? What are the economics behind that?

>  Faith differences:

Several years ago, a Muslim man said to me, "I have read the entire Qur'an and can find no guidance in it on how Muslims should live as a minority in a society. I have read the entire New Testament and can find no guidance in it on how Christians should live as a majority." He put his finger on a central difference between the two faiths. Muslim societies tend to unify religion, culture, law, and politics. Whereas U.S. courts debate the legality of nonsectarian prayers at football games and public monuments to the Ten Commandments, in the Middle East even the airlines broadcast the call to prayer five times a day. And in countries with a variety of religions, like Nigeria, as the Muslim population increases, they seek to impose the religious Shari'ah law on all citizens. ~ Philip Yancey

> "People spend 'half their waking hours daydreaming" -- And is that such a bad thing? I'd suggest that the benefits of daydreaming in terms of creativity and emotional recharging during difficult tasks far outweigh any negatives. And it's not like you could fix the daydreaming "problem" anyway. it is the way that we are wired as people. ~ BBC

> "Cruise passengers endured stench, cold food" -- The ordeal of those stranded on the Carnival Splendor was unfortunate. But to put things in perspective, there are millions of people living in situations where the stench is overwhelming and they'd be elated to get some cold pop-tarts and Spam. But they can't escape after three days from their impoverished cruise ships in the slums of developing countries. It sounds like the passengers did a good job of making lemonade out of lemons. They seem to be fairly understanding and that is a positive sign. ~ AP

> "Russian becomes most popular foreign language in China" -- It's good for business. ~ Pravda

> "Study: 100,000 Hispanics left Arizona after SB1070" -- And we're wondering why the economic recovery has been so slow here compared to other places. 100,000 consumers is a big hit. Of course, it is not fair to completely tie the exodus to SB1070. Many Hispanics worked in the construction industry and there just are not that many jobs in that sector right now. ~ KTAR

> SBL Greek New Testament now available for free online. ~ link (via)

> Starbucks is trying to get more control over the cost of product. They're starting their own coffee plantation in the Yunnan province of China. ~ WSJ

> If you're on Guam you may want to catch the Thai festival at Chamorro Village this Sunday. I know that many of our PIU students have a heart for Thailand. ~ link

> Amazon is hiring thousands of temp workers in Phoenix and Goodyear ~ Phoenix Business Journal

> Colombia has the highest number of displaced people in the world. -- 3.7 million. ~ Pravda

> Facebook buys fb.com and appears to be preparing to give Gmail a run for their money. ~ link

Random

> Beginning next month, whenever a customer purchases the Airwalk Hope shoe, Payless Shoes will give a free pair of kids' shoes to a child in Central America through World Vision. ~ CP

> "Where two or more languages are spoken regularly, there is likely to be a delay in the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms by more than four years. This was found by researchers from several universities in Canada and published in the November 9, 2010 edition of Neurology." ~ länk

> Alienating the 2% --

If you have fans or followers or customers, no matter what you do, you'll annoy or disappoint two percent of them. And you'll probably hear a lot more from the unhappy 2% than from the delighted 98. 

It seems as though there are only two ways to deal with this: Stop innovating, just stagnate. Or go ahead and delight the vast majority. 

Sure, you can try to minimize the cost of change, and you might even get the number to 1%. But if you try to delight everyone, all the time, you'll just make yourself crazy. Or become boring. ~ Seth Godin

> We had a fascinating lecture on algae production and how it's changing global agriculture last night at the Arizona Rare Fruit Growers meeting. I thought that Mark Edwards was some kind of science prof at Arizona State but when I got home I looked him up and discovered that he is a professor of "Strategic Marketing and Sustainability" in the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU. Check out some of the stuff in the pipeline (so to speak) at the Algae Alliance site or the Algae Competition site. It all seems to make incredible sense. A few tidbits to share:

• Algae grows four times its mass per day.
• It grows faster than predators can eat it.
• Crude oil is fossilized algae. Because living algae is not fossilized it doesn't produce waste particles when it is burned. Thus it is a desirable biofuel.
• There are 10 million species of highly localized algae.
• Algae itself has a sweet smell. The fowl odor we associate with it is a byproduct of bacteria that attack algae.

> The Mormons have thrown their weight behind an immigration reform measure called the Utah Compact on Immigration. Kudos to them for applying their theology of family to this issue. I certainly don't agree with the particulars of their theological approach but I think that you can get to their position from several theological paths. At least THEY are trying to think theologically about the issue. ~ link

> You mean that Obamacare was developed around a 1994 Republican proposed structure? I heard that it originated with the Communists -- or maybe even the devil himself. ~ link

Random

✽ China adds 5 million new mobile phones a month. ~ WSJ

✽ A family in Mesa has converted their swimming pool into a garden/fish farm/chicken coop.  ~ ABC

✽ Capt Dale Goetz of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado., was among five soldiers killed by an improvised bomb in Afghanistan on Monday. He is the first Army chaplain to be "killed in action" since the Vietnam War. ~ ABC

✽ "A federal appeals court in San Francisco has tossed out the conviction of an Arizona man who left water jugs in the desert for migrants passing through." ~ AZ Central

✽ The US Department of Justice has filed suit against Sheriff Joe, again. In spite of the letter sent by the sheriff's office last week to the DOJ saying "it would not cooperate in full with the investigation," the sheriff says, that he is surprised. "We thought we were getting along fine." ~ link

✽ In a separate matter, "Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is appealing a ruling that his political fliers attacking attorney general candidate Rick Romley were a violation of election laws." He does provide a lot of work for poor starving attorneys. ~ EV Trib

✽ Mike Sunnucks:

The Obama administration has something in common with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Arizona’s conservative immigration hawks despite their ocean of ideology differences. 

Both the Obama folks in Washington and Arizona conservatives such as Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas like to take credit for the drop in illegal immigrants coming into the state or country from Mexico. The reality is the sour economy, especially in Arizona and Nevada, is a major driver for fewer undocumented immigrants coming into and staying in the Southwest. ~ Phoenix Business Journal

✽ Gmail just dumped some spam into my new "Priority Inbox." I think it will require a little training.

✽ Jerry Falwell and Glenn Beck have uncorked Sue Gillespie. She is quite insightful. ~ link

✽ In the never ending fight against Brown Tree snakes on Guam, 200 acetaminophen-laced dead mice have been dropped onto the jungle canopy from a helicopter. The snakes die when they ingest even small doses of the acetaminophen (ingredient in Tylenol) ~ Stars and Stripes

✽ Stephen Hawking now says that there is not room for a creator. Is he really saying anything new? ~ The World

My solution to the border problem

Ask Mexico if they'd like to sell off Baja and Sonora. Arizona might get a coast out of the deal. Those living in the Mexican border states with a history of migration back and forth across the border would have free access into the US states. Mexico would get an infusion of cash. And the US would get control of the zone.

Okay, I realize that it might not be an easy sell. And perhaps it's not exactly what needs to happen. But we do need some out of the box thinking to deal with these issues in a humane and fair way.

Random

✽ Russell Moore on the confusion in American evangelicalism --

Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah... 

It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not pessimistic. Jesus will build his church, and he will build it on the gospel. He doesn’t need American Christianity to do it. Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish. 

And there will be a new generation, in America and elsewhere, who will be ready for a gospel that is more than just Fox News at prayer. ~ link

✽ Jordon Cooper's powerful post "Losing My Religion" is worth a read. ~ link

✽ Sign of the times -- spotted on a clothing label at Walmart -- Hecho en India

✽ I want to continue plugging my new Sweeplee.com blog -- a kind of clearinghouse for online promotions and games that are fun to play. There are thousands of online drawings and sweepstakes but only a few of them have anything to them beyond filling out a form. These promotions exhibit creativity above and beyond. There is some fun involved beyond winning stuff.

✽ The Facebook advertising people tell us that there are 1.4 million adults living within 10 miles of Laveen. It's not exactly rural here anymore. Still it doesn't feel THAT crowded.

✽ The lingering memory of Japanese colonization and oppression of Korea -- 100 years later. ~ Global Post

✽ If we really want to change North Korea we'll need to come up with some radical acts of kindness that don't jeopardize face. ~ The latest floundering reported by the BBC

✽ Perhaps something like this? ~ BBC

✽ I'm liking being able to make free phone calls right out of Google Chat.

✽ I'm thinking that I'm going to be liking Gmail's new Priority Inbox ~ Lifehacker

✽ I received a freebie copy of the Common English Bible New Testament in the mail today. When I first heard about it I thought that it was going to be in "common English" -- that is, in the simple English that is commonly spoken throughout the world -- transcending American and British idioms -- and default lingua for English as Second Language speakers. However, that's not what it is. It is, though, a fine and readable dynamic equivalence translation. The CEB is sponsored by several of the American mainline denominations and the translators represent several traditions.

✽ Dear John Huppenthal: I know that you have to contact a lot of people in a short period of time if you're going to get elected. But I think that you should know that I do not vote for anyone who uses a phone machine to call my cell phone. It's nothing personal. I just think that candidates who use phone machines lack the common sense necessary to hold elected office.

✽ And the award for the best headline of 2010 will probably go to Fast Company -- "The Road to HAL Is Paved With Good Intentions: The Future of Google?" ~ link

✽ The worst place on earth to be a woman? -- DRC, says Lynne Hybels ~ link

✽ The extreme edge of electronic culture -- Japanese resort atttracts men with virtual girlfriends. ~ link

✽ Southern Baptist voice:

I don't want to come back here 15 years from now and apologize to Hispanics. It's a kingdom issue. 

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, on his support for giving illegal immigrants "a compassionate, just pathway to earning citizenship or legal status. ~ AJC (via)

Random

✽ The line between the internet and telephony continues to blur. ~ link

✽ "I think a key task in discipleship these days is leading people out of the bad habit of going to church..." Good post by David Fitch ~ link

✽ There is a new approach to being a multi-cultural society. "New Life in America No Longer Means a New Name" ~ NY Times

✽ A different approach to Christian higher education -- " A school can make Christianity a robust possibility, but not a mandate." ~ Jason Byassee

✽ Welcome, Mei! The latest edition of BrushStrokes is now online. (Xuefen Mei, who is our fall intern at MasterPiece Church and Daisy Ho -- and Daisy's dogs) ~ link

✽ Someone on the Facbook side of things noted a passing reference to Open Theism and was looking for a definition. I came across the OpenTheism.info website. While it is a bit on the technical side it does a pretty decent job of explaining that line of thinking.

✽ "The paradox is that by the time you get to be senior, the decisions that matter the most are the ones that would be best made made by people who are junior..." ~ Seth Godin

✽ Ichiro Ozawa (kingpin of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.): "I like Americans, but they tend to be simple-minded...” He's perhaps correct in his assessment. But it would take a monocellular national leader to state so publicly.

✽ Multi-sensory worship for people with Alzheimer’s Disease ~ link

✽ Not something I would have thought of -- caffeinated marshmallows. ~ link

✽ This could have been avoided if the politicians had been more thoughtful in the first place. We are our own worst enemies and no PR firm can fix that. But Arizona is going to throw a chunk of change at the problem anyway. "The Arizona Governor’s Task Force on Tourism and Economic Vitality hired HMA Public Relations to come up with a campaign to help tackle any negative backlash caused by Senate Bill 1070." ~ ABC15

Random

✽ China has a massive 100km long traffic jam into Beijing. ~ BBC

✽ China may drop the death penalty for "economic crimes." They currently hand out death sentences to people found guilty of 68 specified crimes. ~ BBC

✽ Why smuggling Bibles into China reflects an outdated mode of thinking ~ CT

✽ Swedish women have lower risks of heart failure than their US counterparts because Swedish chocolate is better, according to a new Harvard study. We all knew that it would ultiomately come down to this -- chocolate. ~ The Local

✽ "Medieval-Studies Group Divided Over Whether to Hold Meeting in Arizona" ~ CHE

✽ The US State Department has taken a lesson from the non-profit sector and is raising money online to help with the Pakistan relief. ~ link

✽ The Guam Youth Congress (which can actually introduce bills into the real Guam Senate) is learning the political ways of the islands early. They: 1) want to change their name, 2) double their stipends, 3) increase their tax-payer funded budget by 2,000%, 4) reduce the number of representatives, 5) secure a guaranteed line in the territorial budget. ~ PDN

✽ Guam Rev and Tax sent us a letter asking for clarification about something in our 2008 tax return. They're already processing 2008 returns? Growing efficiency.

✽ Swiss Army knife 2010 ~ link

✽ "Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license" ~ Examiner

✽ Thieves break in and steal the whole ATM ~ EV Trib

✽ "A majority of states have more jobs today than they did a year ago, but Arizona is not one of them." Hmmm? Could it be that our political leaders have gotten their priorities screwed up? We've shifted from building business and homes to building a wall. ~ Phoenix Business Journal

✽ We've got a major boxelder outbreak in central Arizona! ~ link

✽ Pew Research: "...there is widespread agreement that politicians should be religious..." But is that the way we vote?

✽ "People don't like unselfish people because it pressures them to be unselfish." ~ Mike Elgan

Random

✽ It's been awhile since I've been hooked by a television show. But this is the one I'm having trouble getting enough of. I'm still watching the early episodes so I don't know how the more recent shows have gone -- although the YouTube clip above is from this year.

✽ The numbers are up. Now 20% of Americans believe that President Obama is a Muslim. We're so gullible. We could probably make up a story about how the president is an illegal alien from Mexico, with ties to the drug cartels, and 10% of the people would buy it. After all he is soft on immigration. That's a fact! I know because I heard it straight from our governor and our senator. And they're both straight shooters -- shooting straight from the hips. ~ Washington Post

✽ France's unending conflict with Romas. It's not just Arizona which creates goofy knee-jerk policies to deal with immigrants. ~ Fox News

✽ There are only three operational ambulances for the civilian sector of Guam these days (the military has their own ambulance service to cover their people and bases). The island has a popluation of about 170,000. ~ PNC

✽ The Mexican Board of Tourism isn't going to like this article. You can understand why people are fleeing. ~ WSJ

Random

✽ Impressive moves ~ via

✽ Bees prefer cities ~ BBC

✽ Seth Godin's "Foundation elements for modern businesses" are worth bookmarking. ~ link

✽ JetBlue's PR genius ~ Fast Company

✽ New technology detects lung, breast, bowel and prostate cancer with a simple breath test. Tricorders can't be too far off. ~ KABC

✽ Rumor has it that the start of the semester at PUST has been pushed back a week -- which frees Kent up to come to the States for a visit. We're hoping to see him before the end of the week! Yipee!

✽ YouTube celebrity Steven "Pisseth Against the Wall" Anderson has been cleared by a jury in his Border Patrol confrontation. ~ ABC15

✽ My experiment of trying to boot Kent's old laptop with Ubuntu from a thumb drive has hit a wall. The machine is so old that the BIOS doesn't allow for a USB drive in the boot sequence. Suggestions? There is no hard-drive. I can boot from the CD but it is slow and limited.

✽ Great worship + hospitality go together. Check out Carolyn Arends upcoming free webinar. ~ link

✽ Good stuff from Olivia Mitchell, with implications for those of us who preach and teach -- "Are you ready for the third era in presenting?" ~ link

✽ More from Olivia -- "Why most attempts at audience participation fail and what to do about it" ~ link

✽ As we work to maintain a positive outlook during our 112° days it is helpful to realize that Brazil and Argentina have both been struggling with extreme cold and excesive snowfall. There are over "1 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles, dolphins and other river wildlife are floating dead in numerous Bolivian rivers" -- frozen to death. I'd much rather deal with the heat. ~ link | link

✽ Meh ~ link

✽ STOP THE PRESSES! President Obama has gone swimming in the Gulf with his daughter. ~ CNN

✽ Who really redefined marriage? ~ USA Today

✽ Anchor baby terrorists? Or just another politician feeding the fear during an election year? ~ CNN

✽ In-N-Out burgers reverse engineered. ~ link

Random

✽ Ray Stevens is helping feed the irrational fear and suspicion. Is an impoverish Mexican man sneaking across the border looking for a job as a bus boy the same as the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor? Do the USS Arizona survivors agree with this kind of association and logic? Whatever happened to Everything is Beautiful?

✽ Jay Phelan says it well:

The presence of Muslims or Hindus or any other religious tradition in a given area is no threat to the churches of Jesus Christ. These varied traditions can bring out the best in the church by forcing it to identify differences and challenges and pursue new ways of witness and welcome. I would suggest that the fact that most Muslim countries marginalize the Christian Church it or keep it out entirely is a sign that Muslims fear Christian witness and lack confidence in their own tradition and own people. Does the Christian Church in the United States really want to follow the same path? I think not. We have nothing to fear from the “competition” of Muslims. Rather than protesting the mosques, we should welcome them with open arms, with the compassion and generosity of Christ, and with genuine love. I find anti-Mulsim sentiments among Christians extraordinarily repugnant and terribly sad. ~ link

✽ Seth Godin on the impact of slow -- "Smoking killed far more people than terrorists ever did. It's just not as dramatic." ~ link

✽ "China accounts for 40% of the debris in orbit around the earth, followed by the U.S. and Russia, who contributed roughly a quarter each, according to the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos." ~ WSJ

✽ "The Cool Church"? -- Apparently, they didn't come up with the name themselves -- but ran with what people in the community were saying. I'm not sure that's something I'd run with but I don't know because no one has ever accused me of being cool. ~ link

✽ Some churches just don't get it. But some churches get it well.

✽ Glad to see Jim and Cathy Stanley-Erickson so warmly welcomed into their new community. ~ link

Random

✽ Some restaurants and coffee shops are attempting to niche themselves as places of refuge from electronic interaction. ~ NY Times

✽ Why male spiders are so much smaller than female spiders. ~ BBC

✽ The US is using Manga as propaganda to persuade Okinawans of the value of the US-Japan military alliance. ~ BBC.

✽ "As African governments try to facilitate a Green Revolution in Africa, Brazil is uniquely positioned to help." ~ GlobalPost

✽ Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu: "...our own government has become our enemy." Ah... Mr Sheriff, you are the government and your job is to figure out how to cooperate and work with the other sections of the government. ~ KTAR

✽ "Robert Driscoll, a Washington lawyer representing (Maricopa County Sheriff Joe) Arpaio, said Justice Department lawyers 'have picked the man and the department and are trying to find a violation, rather than find a violation and then seeking to vindicate someone's rights.'" Hmmm? If this is accurate (and I'm not sure that it is) it's not good. It's too much like the way the sheriff does his "crime sweeps." The deputies go out fishing -- looking for small violations that they can use to stop people, which then gives them cause to delve further into the suspect's immigration status. It is an intimidation tactic. Right or wrong -- what goes around, comes around. ~ AP

✽ "The Obama administration is deporting more illegal immigrants than even before, undermining blasts by Republicans, including Gov Jan Brewer, that it is failing in its duty to deal with the problem...." More illegal immigrants have been deported during the Obama administration than during the prior years under President Bush. The longer this circus goes on, the clearer it becomes that the magnitude of the immigration crisis is contrived to benefit certain politicians who are looking for an issue to turn people against the president. The Republicans, who are really in a position of weakness right now, are trying to stir things up so they can regain control in upcoming elections. It's a strategic power play. By way of disclosure, I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I'm mostly just annoyed at the way both parties seek to manipulate voters -- yanking our chains. ~ EV Tribune

✽ Why is the FBI yanking on Wikipedia's chain? They've apparently run out of things to do in DC. ~ FastCompany

✽ "Cancer cells slurp up fructose." That's counter intuitive. ~ Reuters

✽ ASU has been named one of the nation's greenest universities. I would say that it is also one of the brownest. We probably have more desert landscaping than another school in the US. ~ link

✽ Smart meters have inherent security issues. ~ link

✽ Creative public initiative --

Random

✽ It was 60 years ago yesterday that the administration of the territory of Guam was transfered from the US Navy to the US Deptartment of Interior. Isn't it time for self-determination? ~ link

✽ The Artemis North Atlantic Rowing Challenge crew set off from New York on 17 June to break a transatlantic record that had stood for 114 years. They made it in 43 days, 21 hours and 26 minutes. The previous record set in 1896 was 55 days and 13 hours. ~ BBC

✽ "Amid immigration conflict, Arizona's image takes a beating." It seems clear from where I'm sitting that 1070 has created more problems for Arizona than it has solved -- except for the politicians who are actually scoring points with voters through their jousting matches with the state's arch nemesis -- the evil empire headed by Darth Obama. ~ AZ Central

✽ How Arizona made the shift from tolerant and welcoming to paranoid. This is such a different place than the last time I lived here. Hey, it could happen to your state, too. ~ LA Times

Random

✽ "Welcome to Bread.Butter.Cheese., a covert grilled cheese dealership operating out of an apartment and making drops in the tiny East Village park on First and First, starting today." ~ link

✽ Arizona's immigration law mirrors that of Italy. ~ TheWorld

✽ Speaking of aliens, Lady Gaga is in town. Dig the shoes. ~ KTAR

✽ "Americans are broke and depressed—and also swilling $3 lattes and waiting in line for iPhones. Welcome to the schizophrenic economy." ~ Businessweek

✽ "Sales of big SUVs surging faster than small cars." The fact is, small is not always practical. ~ USA Today

✽ Who would have predicted? "Twenty-one years ago, Li Lu was a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests. Now a hedge-fund manager, he is in line to become a successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway Inc." ~ WSJ

✽ Zimbabwe: 'Operation Shut Your Mouth' ~ allAfrica

✽ London has a new rent a bike system. It looks to me like maintenance is going to be a major issue. ~ BBC

✽ "If I want to win a Muslim to Christ, I surely won't do it by burning the Qur'an in public and provoking them to hate us more... The greatest weapon a Christian has is godly love." ~ Angel Nuñez

✽ Canada is recovering well. Of course, they didn't screw things up as royally as their southern cousins. "Canada has regained almost all the jobs it lost since the 2008 downturn." ~ GlobalPost

✽ The North Korean government has publicly humiliated their soccer team over world cup loss. At least no one has been executed -- yet. Sad. ~ Telegraph

Random

✽ Bugs Bunny turns 70 ~ Neatorama

✽ Doctors without Borders is using inflatable tent structures as fully functioning hospitals. Given the constant level of remodeling that goes on in hospitals, is there a compelling reason why we shouldn't consider using temporary structures on a more permanent basis? That is, if we can get the job done in a pleasant environment, why not make a lot more use of inflatables as clinics, church gathering points, schools, government offices, etc. in lieu of stick or block construction? ~ Fast Company

✽ A NY judge says that while saggy pants may be foolish, they are not illegal. Isn't there some kind of public safety law? These guys can barely walk in them. I suppose that puts them in the same category as high heels -- which should probably be banned, too. ~ ABC 15

✽ Americans tend to be partial to white and black clothing. ~ WSJ

✽ Mexico, which itself has an extremely poor record when it comes to the humane treatment of immigrants, is rejoicing at the Arizona judge's temporary injunction against SB 1070. ~ link

✽ Hector Tobar:

...Most Americans back the notion that we should give most illegal immigrants a path to citizenship — a whopping 81% of Americans, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.

And yet, the same poll shows a majority of Americans — 55%— backed the Arizona immigration law.

It seems to me that Americans are of two minds about the immigration question. They like the immigrants they know personally and are willing to extend this generosity of spirit to many of those who've entered the country illegally. At the same time, they believe the United States is a country of laws and want a system where those laws are respected.

But I'm certain it's only a small minority of Americans that truly believes, as one reader put it to me, that illegal immigrants are an "invading criminal army" bent on destroying America. Unfortunately, that minority put its stamp on SB 1070 — even though stats show crime is actually down in Arizona in recent years and numerous studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the native-born.... ~ LA TIMES

✽ Our latest MasterPiece Church Brushstrokes e-letter is now online.

✽ Zondervan is offering a "free one-year subscription to The City," their church software. "All we ask is a nominal $349 setup fee..." Wow, that may be a bargin for what you get. But in my understanding of the word, $349 more than cancels out the word "free." ~ link

✽ Yes, I agree. A liberal arts college education makes very good sense. ~ link

✽ Amish population boom -- "A new Amish settlement is being created at a rate of once every three weeks." ~ Neatorama

✽ Bizarre fraud -- "Tokyo's 'oldest man' had been dead for 30 years" ~ BBC

Random

✽ Are they saying that the more education you have the better you're able to cover-up your dementia? ~ BBC News

✽ My father's extended family is from the hills in Tennessee. I'm trying to figure out if we might possibly be related to Basil Marceaux, "The Next Governor of Tennessee." Even though our stock is Scots-Irish, not French, he just comes across as one of us! ~ YouTube

✽ NIMBY -- 4K+ homeless on Oahu -- many living on the beaches. (I wonder how many are Micronesians.) Some people want to buy them all air tickets for the mainland. Funny, many kind mainlanders have had similar ideas, except they were thinking of buying tickets for all our homeless neighbors to send them off on a nice vacation in Hawaii. Get real. ~ KOLD

✽ The Jordan River has become too polluted for baptisms. ~ AFP

✽ Scholars are using computers to translate the "world's 'lost' languages after program deciphers ancient text." ~ Daily Mail

✽ Ten good great ideas from contemporary hymn writer Keith Getty ~ link

✽ The "Right to Information" law is giving hope to impoverished Indians. But it hasn't yet changed the system. ~ NY Times

✽ The Feds could shut down SB 1070 even without a lawsuit. Information is power. ~ AZ Central

✽ Fantasy coffins, made in Ghana -- colorful. Definitely a niche that hasn't yet been explored in the US. ~ BBC News