Dream Awakener

St. Francis of Assisi (Series) - An Example for Our Day

We have taken a little time to look at the life of St. Francis of Assisi, to see how his life might inform our life. Here is and overview and the links to the complete series in one post.

An Intriguing Life - Part I
In a time where people are skeptical of truth and power, we need to learn how to genuinely embody the good news, which is why we need to study the St. Francis way of life. This entry helps us see why St. Francis can give us some help. 

A Simple Biography - Part II
This post is a quick overview of the life of St. Francis.  We learn about his life as a youth and some fascinating things that happen to him close to this death, and a few things in-between.

The St. Francis Way of Life (His Influences) - Part III
In this post we learn about some of what influenced St. Francis to take the fascinating journey he took during his life.  We find out some interesting experiences that St. Francis had and steps of faith that he took.

The St. Francis Way of Life (Those He Influenced and How He Influenced) - Part IV
In this post, you will learn a bit about why St. Francis has had an amazing influence in our world.  You might get some insight on his often quoted saying, "Preach always; if necessary, use words."

The St. Francis Way of Life (Those He Influenced and How He Influenced) - Part V
In this post, we continue to learn about how St. Francis influenced others.  We learn about his peacemaking, and some reasons why writers, artists, scientists and kings desired to follow his way of life.

What We Can Learn From St. Francis: Lesson One - Part VI
There are many insights that we can take away as we look at this man's life.   In this post, you will discover lesson one, where I focus on how to live a more Christo-centric life.

What We Can Learn From St. Francis: Lesson Two - Part VII
In this post, you will learn a second lesson from the life of St. Francis.  You will discover the importance of a personal rule of life and a communal rule of life.

What We Can Learn From St. Francis: Lesson Three - Part VIII
In this last post, you will discover the key to the life of St. Francis, that was revealed by G.K. Chesterton.  This one is a must read.

 

St. Francis of Assisi - An Example for Our Times Part VI

What We Can Learn From St. Francis
There are many insights from St. Francis’s way of life that can benefit me, the ministry I serve, as well as any human being.  I will focus on just three: Christo-centric living, developing a communal rule of life and falling freshly in love with our Maker.

Christo-Centric Living
We live in times similar to St. Francis, where people love Jesus, but hate the church.  Many have the sentiment that Gandhi expressed, “I love your Christ, but I don’t like your Christians, because they are so unlike your Christ.”  St. Francis’s life calls me to not just study the life of Christ, but to imitate him more fully.  Living in a land of plenty and a consumeristic culture, St. Francis encourages me to consider how to live more simply and to be a better caretaker of my environment.  Living in times where Christians are often fighting Muslims in the name of their nation-state, St. Francis encourages me to consider how to follow the Prince of Peace, realizing all are made in the image of God.  Living in a time where over 30,000 kids die daily due to malnutrition or other preventable diseases, St. Francis encourages me to consider how Jesus blessed and befriended the poor and marginalized.  St. Francis causes me to follow his example and follow in the footsteps of Jesus even closer.

In the next post, I give you my second lesson from the life of St. Francis.

St. Francis of Assisi - An Example for Our Time Part I

INTRODUCTION
In a post-Christendom era, where people are skeptical of power and truth, we need to learn how to genuinely embody the good news, which is why we need to study the St. Francis way of life.  With the gospels as his rule of life, he sought to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as a peacemaker who traveled light, welcomed strangers, loved the outcasts, the environment and living in communitas. St. Francis has been heralded as the “hippie saint” and “in 1980 was named the patron saint of ecology by the Catholic church” (Talbot 1997:5).  As we learn about his way of life, we will be encouraged and challenged to consider how to better embody the gospel in our day.   

AN INTRIGUING LIFE
What happened in this man’s life that, even eight hundreds years after his death, he is memorialized by the three religious orders he inspired, which include at least a million members today, both catholic and protestant?  What was it about this man that causes four million people to visit his tomb each year?  What was it about this man and has generated many gracious words, like these from Marina Warner, who says, “The Franciscan spirit continues to be considered by agnostics and atheists, as well as believers, as the most genuine expression of Christ’s teaching ever approved by the Vatican” (House 2000:9).

In the next post, I will share a short biography of St. Francis' life.

America's Greenest States

  ♫ YO Yo yo, there's no place like a green penthouse... so i told the genie i wanted to be well hung. ^o^ ♫ nah... wildlife from singapore♫ 
  Originally uploaded by bocavermelha-l.b.

Forbes Magazine just came out with their "first-ever list of America's Greenest States.  They ranked states according to the following criteria: "We ranked each state in six equally weighted categories: carbon footprint, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management, policy initiatives and energy consumption."  Your can read the whole article.

TOP 15 GREENEST STATES



BOTTOM FIVE STATES


If your state is not in the top fifteen or the bottom five, then check out the entire list to find out where they ranked.  HT: Jonathan at Creation Project.

All About LA

People on mission ought to always be "reading their city" and keeping up  with what is happening, in order to best  contextualize and embody the good news.  This one one of the reasons why I post entries about Los Angeles. I enjoyed reading the article in the LA Times about a famous city planner - Jamie Lerner who recently dropped by city hall to give a few pointers for LA.

Here is a clip from the article:

Lerner is also known in planning circles as a guru of "sustainability" -- as someone who took a growing city and helped it build a new transit system and new parks. His message, in short, is that cities can be environment-friendly, pleasant places to live and work and walk. . . .

If what?

If everyone can get on the same page. Here are a few excerpts from his hourlong speech in council chambers:

On turning cities around: "Is it possible to make a city better and improve its quality of life? Every city in the world can make it better in less than three years. All you need is a shared dream."

On the automobile: "He is the kind of person you invite to a party and he never leaves. . . . He's very demanding. . . . The car is like our mother-in-law. We have to have a good relationship, but we can't let it ruin our lives."

On his commandments of sustainability: "Provide a good transport system within a decade that allows most people to use mass transit to get where they're going on a routine day. . . . Improve downtown so that it's not empty half the time -- it should be the city's heartbeat."

But isn't that just the same ol' feel-good, "Let's make it happen" stuff we often hear from local politicians?

Yes, but Lerner said it better than most.

Any other intriguing ideas from him?

Yes, there was one we really liked: At one point, Lerner talked about something he called "urban acupuncture."

The idea is that a city can tremendously improve its appearance by installing a few exceptionally well-designed buildings or street-scape-type features that either make everything else around it look good or, at the least, distract from how bad everything else looks.

Among the examples he pointed to were the stylish entrances to the Paris and Bilbao, Spain, subways. Anything, he said, would do the trick -- even sleek newsstands.

If you have an interest, feel free to read the rest of the article.

Interesting News

Photo by Pensiero

NBC to Offer Downloads of Its Popular Shows - New York Times
Here are a few clips from the NYT article.  It seems that NBC and Apple couldn't quite work things out.  "NBC Universal said yesterday that it would soon permit consumers to download many of NBC’s most popular programs free to personal computers and other devices for one week immediately after their broadcasts." 

Later they say, "Jeff Gaspin, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group, said, “The shift from programmer to consumer controlling program choices is the biggest change in the media business in the past 25 or 30 years.”

NBC makes many of its popular shows available online in streaming media, which means that fans can watch episodes on their computers. Under the new NBC service, called NBC Direct, consumers will be able to download, for no fee, NBC programs like “Heroes,” “The Office” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on the night that they are broadcast and keep them for seven days. They would also be able to subscribe to shows, guaranteeing delivery each week.

But the files, which would be downloaded overnight to home computers, would contain commercials that viewers would not be able to skip through. And the file would not be transferable to a disk or to another computer.

The files would degrade after the seven-day period and be unwatchable. “Kind of like ‘Mission: Impossible,’ only I don’t think there would be any explosion and smoke,” Mr. Gaspin said."

California State Assembly Passes 962 New Bills - LA Times
The article begins this way: "SACRAMENTO -- Before adjourning Wednesday, the Legislature passed 962 bills and sent them to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has acted on some and has until Oct. 21 to sign or veto the rest.

Lawmakers rejected hundreds of other measures, although many of them could be revived next year.In this recent article, you can look at a list of interesting bills that just passed. Here are a couple of interesting ones:

Cloned food
Would require food containing any product from a cloned animal or its progeny to be labeled as cloned. SB 63 by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco)

Celebrities
Would allow celebrities to retain the right to control use of their names, voices and images as dictated in their wills, regardless of when they died. SB 771 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica)

College
Would allow illegal immigrants to get state college financial aid under certain conditions. SB 1 by Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles)

Cord blood
Would create a statewide public system to collect and store umbilical cord blood, which can be used to treat leukemia and some genetic disorders. AB 34 by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge)

Financial data
Would set standards for how businesses handle customer credit and debit card information, including a ban on storage of sensitive information. AB 779 by Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento)

Fuels
Would require state air regulators to reduce the carbon content of gasoline refined and sold in California by 2020. SB 210 by Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego)

Gay marriage
Would legalize marriage for couples of the same sex. AB 43 by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco)

Gift cards
Would require retailers to redeem unused or partly used gift cards for cash if the amount is less than $10. SB 250 by Corbett

Hemp
Would allow farmers to grow hemp for industrial uses in some counties under a five-year pilot program. AB 684 by Leno

Lightbulbs
Would require the state to set standards on efficiency and mercury and lead content for lightbulbs. AB 1109 by Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael)

Menus
Would require restaurant chains to list on their menus the calorie, fat and sodium content of each food item. SB 120 by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima)

There are a lot of interesting ones to check out.  So go ahead and work your way through the 7 page article, especially if you are living in California. 

Become More Eco-Friendly Through GreenDimes

Have you heard about GreenDimes?

My roommate and I just signed up for this.  Not only is it great for the environment, but how great will it be to cut out most of your junk mail?  Here is how they put it:

"GreenDimes is a company that decided to stop junk mail. For good.  Over 100 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water will be lost this year alone for the junk mail that comes to US residents.  In their first ten months alone they have stopped over 1 million pounds of junk mail and planted over 250,000 trees.

The GreenDimes Do-Not-Mail Petition will take less than 1 minute to complete. Also, the GreenDimes Junk Mail Reduction Kit can reduce up to 90% of the junk mail you get at your home."

CALIFORNIA - A Country Masquerading as a State

  the shadow and the car 
  Originally uploaded by Kris Kros

The title of this entry came from a quote from Jack Kyser, the chief economists for LA County.  According to this article in the LA Times today, the State Department of Finance projects that over the next half-century, California's population "will explode by nearly 75%."  In other words, the predictions are that there will be 60 million Californians by 2050.  This is a significant increase from the 34.1 million California residents in 2000, according to the census.   

That is pretty crazy to think about.  If these projections hold out, what will this mean for California, and how will California support such a population?  Where will the population increase the most?

There is debate whether California will continue to sprawl or go for more skyscrapers.  With technology it is safer to build higher in the level four earthquake zones.  But regardless of whether California goes high or wider, there will need to be many public improvements in the areas of transportation and other services for California to hold this kind of population well.

Southern California's population will grow close to what the entire state population is now, to over 30 million people and Riverside County will become the 2nd largest county in the state, with a population of 4.7, growing from 1.6 million.  It will only be surpassed by Los Angeles County, which will go from 10 million to 13.5 million.  The demographics will also be changing.  In 2000 the white population was 47% of California residents, but by 2050 the Latino population will be the clear majority amounting to 52% of the population.  Both Asian and Latino populations will grow, while the percentage of  the white and black population will decrease.

Part of what this means is that as the people of God who reside in California,  we should be a part of helping California prepare for this population growth, by taking seriously our cultural mandate to steward the earth well.  It is also an additional motivation to learn Spanish, if we want to plant missional churches in this state.

If you want to find out other statistical predictions, then check out the entire article from the LA Times.

The Other Journal - Pop Revolutions

If you are unfamiliar with The Other Journal, you really need to check it out.  It is an insightful and challenging on-line journal which explores the intersection of Theology and Culture.  Here are the different categories which the journal explores:

Articles:  This section has connection to the latest articles, this issues topic being Pop Revolutions featuring people like Miroslav Volf and Shane Claiborne.  This section also has links to the most viewed articles like:  All Sexed Up: Is There a Way Out of Chasity, Marriage, and the Christian Sex Cult by Dan Rhoades.  Or Reconciling Sufjan Stevens: Religious Hipsters and The Inevitable Queerness of Christian Music by John Totten.

Examination: Theological glances into relevant historical movements, current events and cultural trends.

Creation: An art gallery that invites you to experience the diverse work of unique artists.

Imagination: A hub of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Creative writing that boldly gazes into the human condition.

Perspective: Articles that interact with film, music, and literature.  Taking a deeper look into the lives and work of current artists.

Social Justice: Articles exploring how to be proactive in affecting the world around us, discussing the problems and solutions facing us.

You may have read a number of journals, but you haven't read enough journals until you have encountered The Other Journal.  I think you will like it.

Heinz 57 Spirituality Series

This series is designed to understand the type of spirituality that will enable us to become more like Jesus.  We will discover the various ways in which culture influences us, but also how to develop counter-cultural communities that bring a sense of joy, justice and peace.

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part I
The goal of spiritual transformation is to become more like Jesus

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part II
A look on how spiritual transformation happens

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part III
Understanding the power of culture and counter-culture

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part IV
An introduction to the five seven matrix

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part V
Understanding Heinz 57 Spirituality through different tables

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part VI
Living Out our Calling - Sabbath

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part VII
Walking with God - Fasting

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part VIII
Incarnating the Good News - Hospitality

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part IX
Pursuing Wholeness in Community - Confession

Heinz 57 Spirituality Part X
Shaped by the Sacred Text - Worship
Plus Summary

Mayor Seeks to Make LA Greener

  freeway city 
  Originally uploaded by dream awakener.

I just got back from NYC where there has been various conferences going on about sustainability issues and the environment.  While I was in NYC for other purposes, I did meet up with my friend Sander who was doing research for the Free University in Amsterdam on partnerships relating to some of these issues.

The LA Times reports that "Joining the ranks of political leaders who are seizing the issue of climate change, Mayor Antoni Villaraigosa will release his own proposal today to curtail greenhouse gases in Los Angeles over the next two decades." 

They go on to say, "The plan, obtained by The Times, relies on greatly expanding renewable energy sources and providing alternatives to driving in a city well-known for its love affair with the automobile, once of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the region.  Villaraigosa will declare his intention to reduce the city's carbon dioxide emissions 35% below the 1990 level by 2030, even as the city's population of 4 million is expected to keep growing."

"Villaraigosa says,  'We can't wait for Washington to act.  As city leaders, we have a responsibility to confront the gathering climate crises.'"

The article reports that in 2005, 77% of Southland commuters drove to work alone.  Villaraigosa is a proponent for more development around mass transit lines among many other things. 

A while back I did a blog entry on Sustainable Living:  Where Does Your City Rank?  In that entry I talk about a cool website called Sustain Lane, that I came across.  A site concerned about the environment and the sustainability of a city, as well as helpful information from a nationwide study that measures the fifty largest cities in the United States when it comes to fifteen different categories including Energy, Green Economy, Waste Diversion, Affordability, Public Transit and other helpful things.

If you look at this study, LA ranks 25 out of 50, which isn't bad considering we are tied for the worst in air quality and near the bottom on affordability.  But the study reports we do well in a number of areas.  Check out where you city ranks, if you live in one of the big cities in the U.S.

While I look forward to reading Antonio's plan and it's critiques I am glad the plan includes 35 new parks for LA, the planting of one million trees as well as securing 35% of the utilities energies from renewable sources by 2020.  I sense that mayor that is concerned about the environment.  LA's concern for the environment has improved since what is known at the brown days of the 60's and 70's.  I don't think you have to convince many in LA that the environment is an issue, because we have seen the results of what happens when you don't care.

I ran across this interesting site the other day, entitled the Planet Green Game.  It is put out by Starbucks in collaboration with Global Green USA.  You might learn some interesting things by playing the game.

Pictures from my Backyard: Hollywood in Flames

This past week my new roommate Daichi moved in, so it was a good time to do a full cleaning of my apartment.  I literally threw away a dozen bags of stuff that had accumulated over the last five years.  It feels so good to get rid of so much uneccesary items and have  an environment free of piles of needless things.  In fact, I was so immersed in my cleaning today, I didn't have a clue about what was happening right in my back yard.  I had no idea that the Hollywood Hills had caught on fire.  This picture is the view see every time that I go to my rooftop (minus the fire and smoke).

This other picture is taken looking at the Hollywood Hills. The funny thing about all of this is that probably most of the world knew about this fire that was threatening to burn down the icon Hollywood sign, before I did.  From the BBC news 
to news in Romania, from New Zealand to France, people heard about the fire before I did.  If it hadn't been for the guy who lived across the hall from me, I probably woudn't heard about it. 

Eschatology and Missiology

  Apocalypse 
  Originally uploaded by Z0rk.

So the question posed by the On Faith crew at Newsweek and the Washington Post is:  Do you believe the world will come to an end?  If so, where, when and what will it look like?

What do you think of this question and how pertinent is it?  I would like to say that the more I have studied the scripture, and the life and teachings of Jesus, the more I see the significance of how our eschatology (what we think about our final destiny) effects our missiology (how we understand and accomplish our mission.)

In fact, a potential thesis that I am developing for one of my next papers for a Missiology class at Fuller may look something like this:  I intend to demonstrate that a malnourished eschatology is prone to a deficient missiology; while a rich eschatology is likely to lead to a robust missiology.

What do you think about this thesis? (By they way, after the first helpful comment by Adam, by way of clarification, I have given some of my presuppositions to this thesis in the comment section below.  A quick summary: Missio Dei grounded in the narrative of scripture would be an orienting thought prior to this thesis which of course lends itself to focus on Christology, Pneumenology and the heart of the Father.  The other presupposition would be the audience to this paper are Christ-followers.  See comments for more clarifying thoughts.)

I find some of the latest debate in evangelical circles is very much shaped by our varied understanding of eschatology.  This article from the Washington Posts - Christians Who Won't Toe the Line points out  how James Dobson and some of his gang attacked Rich Cizik, the National Association of Evangelical's vice president for governmental affairs, because in addition to abortion he cares about the environment, the poor and human dignity.  The apparent fear Dobson and Gang have is that somehow a concern for these things are shifting the emphasis away "from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children."

Recently in the LA Times had an article where Jim Wallis challenged James Dobson to a debate on evangelical priorities - saying, "Are the only really 'great moral issues' those concerning abortion, gay marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence? ... How about the reality of 3 billion of God's children living on less than $2 per day?.. What about pandemics like HIV/AIDS... [and] disastrous wars like Iraq?"

So the question that some are debating quite publicly are questions regarding mission and priority.  In my paper, which I will post when it is complete - not until June, I will propose a future shaped church, with the understanding that when the church looks forward to God's future and anticipates it in the present, that community becomes a sign and foretaste of the coming kingdom.

With that said, I think you might find it interesting how the thirteen different people responded to the question about the end of the world.  Here are a few interesting responses I thought I would highlight:

Read the Book: You'll Know How it Ends - N.T. Wright
The idea that to get salvation you need to go to heaven - rather than that salvation is a gift which comes from heaven to embrace earth - results in misreadings of key texts.

At World's End, Restoration and Judgment - Chuck Colson
Not to believe that there will be a time for the reckoning of all accounts, for the consummation of history as we know it, is not to believe in a just God. 

"The World" Means What? - John Dominic Crossan
The idea that "the end of the world" is the consummation of a divine plan for the earth is due to a bad translation in the KJV of the Bible.

Not Even "The Angels" Know - Michael Otterson
The idea that we are living in the latter period of the world's history is a repeated theme in Mormon doctrine.

The End is a-Comin' - Pamela K. Taylor
It has always given me comfort that the Qur'an acknowledges that Judgment Day is hard for humanity to accept.

World Without End, Amen - Cal Thomas
The "world" will not end.  It will be transformed, even re-created.

So if you took the time to read these variety of responses which one(s) do you most closely align with and how does it effect your missiology?

A Profound Prayer

  The prayers 
  Originally uploaded by cuellar.

David Bole at Emerging in Ludlow posted this inspiring prayer that was published in Facing the Storm by Eddie Askew.

Lord, I don't know how it is,
but we've turned
the beauty of the world you made
into a desert.
Cut down the forests of your love
with sharpened blades of hate.
Polluted the rivers of your grace
with selfishness.
We've brought division,
built barriers
marked boundaries.
And from the steps and platforms
of our dogmas,
shouted war.
We've found it easy to destroy,
by indifference as much as evil.
We're learning now
how hard it is
to build and re-create

And yet you love us.
Can love be so elastic
that it stretches out and out
to take in all we've done
and still forgive?
You tell us so.
And show it in torn hands,
marked hard by crucifixion.

Lord stand with us at the barricades.
And help us not to fight,
but to dismantle them.
Help us to open up
the road to reconciliation.
To plant and water seeds of trust.
To reach out hands of love,
take partners,
dance forgiveness.

Red Letter Christians

  But among you it will be different 
  Originally uploaded by wiseacre photo.

In my surfing around beliefnet, I found an interesting article that was written last year by Tony Campolo.  It is basically an article that recognizes that Jesus is neither a Democrate nor a Rebulican.  In light of that, Tony and others are asking:  What does it look like for Christ-followers who take Jesus's words [red letter is some bibles] seriously to be involved in the political issues of our day?  Here are some excerpts from the article.  The first one here is describing the name and how it came about:

ORIGINS OF NAME
"Who first suggested the label? A secular Jewish Country-and-Western disc jockey in Nashville, Tennessee. During a radio interview he was conducting with Jim Wallis, he happened to say, “So, you’re one of those Red-Letter Christians--you know--who’s really into those verses in the New Testament that are in red letters!”

Jim answered, “That’s right!” And with that answer, he spoke for all of us. By calling ourselves Red-Letter Christians, we are alluding to the fact that in several versions of the New Testament, the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting this name, we are saying that we are committed to living out the things that He said. Of course, the message in those red-lettered verses is radical, to say the least. If you don’t believe me, read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

In those red letters, He calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary American consciousness. He calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications for how we think about capital punishment. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he probably means we shouldn’t kill them. Most important, if we take Jesus seriously, we will realize that meeting the needs of the poor is a primary responsibility for His followers.

Figuring out just how to relate those radical red letters in the Bible to the complex issues in the modern world will be difficult, but that’s what we’ll try to do. "

Another part of the article talks about the concern many have of how evangelical Christians are alligned too strongly to the Republican party [83% of Evangelicals voted Bush in the last election] and gathered together to jump-start a religious movement that they hope transcends partisan politics.  This part of the article says:

POLITICS BEYOND PARTY LINES
"Believing that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, we want to unite Christians who are concerned about what is happening in America. We are evangelicals who are troubled by what is happening to poor people in America; who are disturbed over environmental policies that are contributing to global warming; who are dismayed over the increasing arrogance of power shown in our country’s militarism; who are outraged because government funding is being reduced for schools where students, often from impoverished and dysfunctional homes, are testing poorly; who are upset with the fact that of the 22 industrialized nations America is next to last in the proportion of its national budget (less than two-tenths of 1 percent) that is designated to help the poor of third-world countries; and who are broken-hearted over discrimination against women, people of color, and those who suffer because of their sexual orientation.

Choice Blog Entries

  .cristaleira. 
  Originally uploaded by !markmark.

Ten Propositions on Karl Barth
Kim Fabricius has another entry at Ben Myers Site.  If you wanted to learn a bit more about Karl Barth, this would be one way to do it.

Communities of Resistance
Mark in this blog shares about a book he is writing.  Some of the chapters are The Consumption of Faith and the Faith of Consumption, Rugged Individuals Need a Hug, and Why Pragmaticism Does Not Work.  It looks like an interesting idea for a book.

Earth
Todd Watkins at being free talk shares about the new Colors magazine that deals with some environmental issues ike Green Shopping and Green TV.  You should check it out.