Links of the Day, January 11

It’s Human Trafficking Awareness Day! Tell someone who doesn’t know about the 27 million people trapped in modern slavery. And then do something about it!

Check out these awesome pics to start out your week/day:

And then enjoy this cover from Cathy Nguyen and Andrew Garcia:

News

• Whistler’s homeless are being relocated ahead of the Winter Olympics.
• The oldest known Hebrew script has been deciphered. Find out what it says here.
• Colt McCoy shows grace and faith in the face of defeat:

Human trafficking

• China claims to have freed over 10,000 victims of human trafficking in the last year.

Immigration

• A new report comes out: immigration reform will ease economic decline.

Miscellaneous

• NBC’s Bryan Williams: why Jon Stewart is good for the news.
• GOOD covers the H&M saga.
• For the Angelenos, the fake freeway sign that became a real public service.
• Oh, the places you’ll go … The NY Times lists 31 places to go in 2010.
• As a fantasy geek myself, I can appreciate this from what’s fast becoming one of my favorite blogs, YOMYOMF ("You offend me, you offend my family"): "Fantasy gone wrong."
• Some fascinating facts about sneezing.
• Some secrets about London!

Links of the Day, January 4

Welcome to 2010! (Here’s Jon Stewart’s review of 2009.)

Since there was ZERO net job creation in the US over the last decade, let’s hope the next ten years go a little better, shall we?

News

• France joins the US and the UK in shutting its Yemen embassy.
• The NY Times offers a fascinating look inside Barack’s war on terrorism. And WaPo defends the President against critics who say he’s "soft on terror."
• Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, NJ, is fast becoming one of my favorite people. Check out this awesome story.
• Avatar breaks $1 billion, worldwide.

Health care

• From Foolocracy: "Rush Limbaugh praised the American health care system while in a Hawaiian hospital for a couple of days during the last week. What he did not mention is that Hawaii has the most socialized system of any of the 50 states and, with its near universal healthcare, resembles the Obama health care plan."

Immigration

• The Nation investigates the ICE’s detention facilities.

Miscellaneous

• Read Jim Wallis’s op-ed in WaPo yesterday: "A religious response to the financial crisis."
• Rich Mouw considers a poetic revision of "In Christ Alone." I think I agree with him (and Tom Wright).
• If you haven’t already subscribed to xkcd, I think you should:
  

Some personal thoughts on Rep. Gutierrez’s immigration bill

The following is cross-posted from God’s Politics and Faith and Immigration.

The room was hot and stifling and overcrowded, but the excitement was palpable as people gathered to witness the introduction of a new comprehensive immigration reform bill. I barely managed to squeeze in, edging through the throng of people who spilled into the hallways. And just in time.

A few moments later, a parade of Members of Congress filed in to cheers of “Yes, we can!” and “Sí, se puede!” from the immigrant families and members of clergy gathered behind the podium. And a few minutes later, flanked by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Black Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Progressive Caucus, Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009.

In my involvement with Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, I’ve heard many stories of the fallout of a broken immigration system: families separated, seemingly endless waiting periods for legal immigration, undocumented immigrants afraid to report a crime for fear of being detained and deported. This is not what it looks like to love our neighbors or to care for the strangers among us.

As the son of naturalized American citizens, I’ve benefited from the rights and freedoms that my parents earned for me with years of their lives. I played no part in the process of their naturalization, but I’ve been able to appreciate and enjoy the blessings. And so I feel the added weight of responsibility that comes with privilege: knowing that any blessing that is bestowed is for the purpose that others may be blessed, and remembering that God will hold us accountable for what we do with what we have received (Luke 12:48).

In response to the introduction of CIR ASAP, CCIR issued a press release, including statements of support from national and local Christian leaders for the principles guiding the bill. While there remain many hurdles before comprehensive immigration reform is finally passed, for me this bill marks one more encouraging step in the journey toward fulfilling our biblical mandates to love our neighbors as ourselves and to care for the stranger among us.

Let’s hope we see the destination in 2010.

To love God is to love our immigrant neighbors

Check out this blog I co-wrote with Britt Fuller over at Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform: “To Love God is to Love Our Immigrant Neighbors.”

Thanksgiving Immigration Update

On Immigration (courtesy of Immigration Impact):

• Lou Dobbs, fresh off the heels of his CNN departure and perhaps looking to prime an important constituency, tries to soften his anti-immigrant tone to curry favor with the Hispanic population, and is confronted by Telemundo’s María Celeste.
  
  Honestly, I find it a little hard to believe that he’s “Latinos’ greatest friend,” when only a few years ago he falsely accused undocumented immigrants of bringing leprosy to the U.S.
• Republican Senators try to frame the immigration debate their own way … by making stuff up–sorry, is that too harsh?

New Momentum for Immigration Reform

Cross-posted from God’s Politics.

Last week, Janet Napolitano delivered her first speech on immigration reform in her capacity as the Secretary of Homeland Security. While she denied that it marked the official beginning of the Obama Administration’s push for immigration reform — “it actually began months ago” — it is significant that up until this point, there had been a noticeable (and perhaps understandable, given the prominence of the health-care debate) dearth of comment from the White House.

Comprehensive immigration reform has, in the words of Secretary Napolitano, “been punted from year to year, from Congress to Congress, from administration to administration,” and the need for reform has not diminished in the slightest: immigrant families continue to be adversely affected by a dysfunctional immigration system, and employers willing to flout the law in order to hire cheap workers continue to undercut the labor market.

There are signs of hope: leaders in the law enforcement, business, and labor communities all recognize that comprehensive immigration reform is desperately needed in America; and people of faith on both sides of the political spectrum have stood up in support of humane immigration laws. But as we saw with the health-care debate, even a concerted recognition of the need for reform does not guarantee the necessary change.

As in the health-care debate, we are pushing not only for an end to unproductive and divisive rhetoric that exaggerates and distorts the facts, but also for real and comprehensive reform that emphasizes the value of every person — immigrant or otherwise – as made in the image of God and worthy of respect.

Tomorrow evening, we get to see another encouraging sign of the growing movement for comprehensive immigration reform: Rep. Luis Gutiérrez — who is spearheading the effort for reform on Capitol Hill — will be hosting a conference call, and will have a special message for people of faith who are engaged in this issue. Join with us in that conversation.

Links of the Day, October 15

News

• The UN’s annual report on global food security confirms that more than one billion people–a sixth of the world’s population–are undernourished.
• Rep. John Boehner, the House GOP Leader, opposes hate crimes protections for gays. His reasoning is … let’s just say, stupid.
• The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in as little as 10 years.

Immigration

• Thousands rally for pro-immigrant immigration reform.
• Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, thumbs his nose at the federal government.