Random

YEAH! MONSOON SEASON has arrived. We've been getting afternoon cloud build-up  over the Phoenix area for the past few days. And it actually rained for two minutes yesterday in Mesa. More on the way -- I'm sure -- eventually. Actually this build-up is a pretty stock summer pattern -- even though we've been running about five degrees hotter than average.

NEUROLOGY? "City People Really are Wired Differently" ~ link

THE AMERICAN citrus season may be over (except for the Variegated Pink lemons) but we're starting to get all kinds of good fruit from Chile, South Africa, and Australia. We live in an interesting time. ~ link

FOLLOWER OF Harold Camping allegedly shoots co-worker who mocked Camping. Bizarre. Tragic. ~ CP

J LEE GRADY (whom I've come to respect over the years) talking about "the squirrelly world of independent charismatic churches, where accountability is sometimes a dirty word, some pastors think their ability to make people shout and swoon on Sunday mornings gives them a Get Out of Jail Free card whenever they commit a heinous sin"

The message: Anointing is what’s important. Character is secondary. If a guy can preach the paint off the walls and get everyone shouting, then relax—it really doesn’t matter how he runs his personal life. ~ link

TRANSPARENCY AND THE CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL -- Is this part of the problem? ~ CC

$4 TRILLION --

A new report out of Brown University estimates that the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan -- will, all told, cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and soldiers. ~ link

14 SOCIAL TRENDS that are shaping America. ~ The Atlantic