Jonathan's blog

From a USA Today article of the same title by Haya El Nasser:

Suburban counties, once the bastion of white America, are becoming multiethnic tapestries, and white populations are inching up in some urban areas after big losses in the 1990s, according to new Census estimates out Friday. "Suburbs and especially fast-growing outer suburbs are not just attracting whites anymore," says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. "All minority groups are coming. They're a magnet for blacks as well as Hispanics and Asians." The changes are dramatic in the South. About 74% of the growth in the U.S. black population happened there from 2000 to 2005. The region also generated about 71% of the national growth in whites, 42% of the Hispanic growth and 27% of the Asian growth.

Via This American Life episode 184 (from March 2001), from an article titled "Love Your Neighbor is suing one, instead" by Dawson Bell of The Detroit Free Press:

In a dispute that appears to pit the golden rule against the rule of lawyering, a tiny, Florida-based charity called Love Thy Neighbor is being sued for trademark infringement by a Detroit entrepreneur whose enterprise goes by the name Love Your Neighbor. Catherine Sims and Love Your Neighbor claim that the charity has confused potential customers and resulted in "lost sales and profits." Love Your Neighbor sells jewelry and trinkets. Sims wants monetary damages from the charity, in addition to an end to the use of the phrase. The Florida charity, which aids the homeless, is violating the law by identifying itself in a "confusingly similar" way, according to Sims lawyer Julie Greenberg of Birmingham. Arnold Abbott, who founded Love Thy Neighbor in 1992 in memory of his deceased wife, said the lawsuit, filed in March in federal court in Detroit, is the latest in a string of actions taken against him by Sims since 1998.

In Sims' defense, US trademark law requires you to defend your trademark against any infringement or lose it...

From an article of the same by Sandra Sutton of the Midland Daily News:

Area Hindus joined Hindus around the world last weekend to celebrate the importance of knowledge by honoring the god of knowledge, Ganesh. Sunday was Ganesh's birthday, but Midland Hindus gathered Saturday in the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library auditorium to celebrate. Ganesh is one of thousands of Hindu gods. Siddhesh Shevade said special attention was paid to involve children in the festivities. Little ones with American accents were guided by parents with Indian accents through each step of the "puja," or prayer ceremony... Before the puja, images of Ganesh, who has a human body and an elephant head, were explained. For instance, Ganesh has large ears, which symbolize listening well, and a large belly, which shows the importance of digesting all that is good and bad in life.

Large ears and a large belly...I don't want to hear any jokes about what Ganesh and I have in common. The little boy in the picture is our friend Sid and the barely-visible face in the upper right corner is our friend Madan (Sid's dad). Though it didn't make the paper, I whipped Madan on the golf course Saturday afternoon.

From an article of the same title by Ted Wendling on beliefnet:

A national coalition of Christian ministers threw down the gauntlet Monday (Aug. 28), endorsing GOP candidate Ken Blackwell for governor and challenging an IRS crackdown on political activities by churches. Implored by the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster to "show your heart," the 28 ministers calling themselves Clergy for Blackwell said they had a legal right and moral responsibility to endorse the Republican secretary of state over Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland. The group noted the candidates' contrasting positions on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and placement of the Ten Commandments in public buildings... Asked about the endorsements, IRS spokesman Chris Kerns declined to comment. Donald Tobin, who teaches courses on tax-exempt organizations at Ohio State University, said he saw nothing improper. He said the event was not held on church property and didn't employ church resources and the pastors emphasized they were speaking as individuals.

From an article of the same title by Amy Sullivan on Slate.com:

When Democratic Party leaders "found God in the 2004 exit polls," as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. likes to say, no one expected instant results. Many of the party's early efforts to attract religious voters, after all, were scattershot and not a little awkward. No one knew quite what the "faith staffer"-a new breed of legislative aide-was supposed to do, and random-seeming insertions of Bible verses into floor speeches came off as Tourette's syndrome for Democrats. In the longer run, though, the new focus on forming relationships with religious communities and voters has been the right move for a party that had essentially limited its religious outreach to black churches. Democratic campaign trainings now smartly include tips for communicating with Catholic voters. Candidates are starting to appear on religious radio outlets. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has even stopped saying things to intentionally antagonize evangelicals. Which is why it is startling that in the two years since this Democratic revival began, the party's faith-friendly image has dimmed rather than improved. The Pew Research Center's annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is "friendly" to religion. That's down from 40 percent in the summer of 2004 and 42 percent the year before that-in other words, a 16-point plunge over three years. The decline is especially troubling because it cuts across the political and religious spectra, encompassing liberals and conservatives, white and black evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. The Republican Party also experienced a drop in the percentage of Americans who say it is friendly to religion-eight points over the past year. But that decrease occurred mostly among white evangelicals and Catholics and the reasons for it seem obvious: Two years of broken promises by the GOP. In contrast, the Democrats' crumbling credibility on religion wasn't caused by one thing. And that may be the problem. All at once, the party needs to counter conservative attacks, change the conventional wisdom that Democrats just aren't religious, and expand the party's reach to moderate religious voters. To do that, the party will need a little more faith and a whole lot more work.