Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
Bedrock, TX?
Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are reflected in the political and religious preference of our respondents, who were asked four questions about biological history and God:
Fellowship Church and Pastor Ed Young Luxury Cover-Up?
Of course the private jet is extravagant, and in my view so is a $240,000 a year for a parsonage allowance, which is not part of what sources say is part of his $1 million pastoral salary. I’m thinking the salary thing should be easy to find out, as just about all churches make staff salaries available, but I wonder if that salary is addition to work he does outside of the church, like writing books and speaking engagements.
As I’ve written before, I’m often torn when it comes to the salary of pastors. Of course I don’t expect them to live in poverty, and I certainly want them to be compensated fairly, it’s just I don’t know how to define fairly. I remember once being asked if I thought a pastor that does the same amount of work as a CEO of a large corporation should get paid the same as that kind of CEO, since the work is about the same in terms of scope and managerial manpower. And I still don’t feel like they should, just as a generals and commanders in the military have similar roles as a CEO or a mayor and governor yet get paid well less, because they do it out of love for country.
I took at look at the church’s website and there is no official response, but Young did make an entry on his blog where he seems to be dismissive of the report he hasn’t even seen. Part of it is posted below:
A local reporter has spent what seems to be a great deal of time investigating me concerning my integrity as the leader of Fellowship Church. We have not seen the piece that was aired, nor will we give credence to it by watching. We do know that the report is scathing and creates the idea that I, along with my wife Lisa, have been dishonest in our business dealings and with our use of Fellowship Church as a means of obtaining personal wealth.
The reporter sent an email request for information, but refused to give us any details or information that he obtained from an anonymous source. He only said that he has spoken with former staff members about us. But we have no verification of who he has spoken with. We do not know his source(s) and it is irrelevant to us. What we do know is that this report was made based on fragments of information gathered out of context and anonymously, and that it disregarded documented information that the Board of Directors for Fellowship Church is privy to and that is known by legal counsel and accounting audits.
The piece insinuates that I keep secrets from the congregation of Fellowship Church and that I use Fellowship Church to create personal wealth. Let me say very clearly, Lisa and I have no secrets.
My life is lived in an aquarium, and I am not ashamed of that fact.
OMG – Storm Unleashes Tiger On Northeast Texas
A possible tornado in Van Zandt County Wednesday may have unleashed a different kind of threat on the community, a loose tiger.
The 400 pound tiger was housed in a barn in Sand Flat community between Van and Grand Saline. The barn was in the path of Wednesday evening’s storms, which damaged over 440 acres of land in Northeast Texas.
According to the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office, the damage to the barn allowed the tiger to escape into the heavily wooded area around the community.
The Sheriff’s office did not have more specific information on the tiger, but advised anyone who comes across it to call 911 and to not approach the animal.
My in-laws kinda live in that area . . . I won’t be visiting for a while.
Update: Possible tiger sighting
PolitiFact Texas
PolitiFact Texas is a partnership of the Austin American-Statesman and PolitiFact.com, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Web site of the St. Petersburg Times, to help you find the truth in politics.
Every day, reporters and researchers from the American-Statesman examine statements by Texas elected officials and candidates and anyone else who speaks up on matters of public importance. We research their statements and then rate the accuracy on our Truth-O-Meter – True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True and False. The most ridiculous falsehoods get our lowest rating, Pants on Fire.
History teaching standards tilt to right for Texas high schoolers
AUSTIN – Texas high school students will have to learn about leading conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s – but not about liberal or minority-rights groups – under U.S. history standards tentatively adopted by a politically divided State Board of Education on Friday.
Popular Mechanics – The World’s 18 Strangest Roadways
I’m only posting this list because the Dallas High Five comes in at #16:
Background: This five-level marvel of engineering can be found on the outskirts of Dallas, where Interstate 635 connects with U.S. 75. Construction crews, despite the project’s enormous scope, were able to complete the labyrinth of lanes in December 2005, a full year ahead of schedule.
How It’s Unique: As Mahmassani points out, building wider roads is just not feasible in most cities. The solution for Dallas? Go vertical. Certain points of the High Five are as tall as a 12-story building, and about 500,000 commuters pass through it daily. The project required 37 permanent bridges and six temporary bridges to be built. Additionally, 300,000 square feet of retaining wall and 74,000 square feet of drainage pipe run along the interchange. In 2006, the American Public Works Association selected the interchange as one of its “Public Works Projects of the Year.”
New custom Texas license plate offer lots of options
Great news — make that GR8 NUS — for Texans who want a better variety of customized license plates.
A new line of colorful plates will be offered beginning today. For $55 to $195 a year — on top of car owners’ usual state registration fees — residents can pick from several designs.
There are plates with hot pink, burnt orange and Old West themes. To check them out, go to www.myplates.com.
The plates are being sold by a joint venture including Pinnacle Technical Resources of Dallas and Etech Inc. of Nacogdoches. The state gets a cut of sales and is guaranteed $25 million over five years.
People Love Their Homecoming Mums in Texas
I think this is really just a Texas sorta thing, so if you aren’t a local reader, just know during homecoming football games boyfriends or parents buy their girls a mum to wear. The mums aren’t made out of flowers, but usually a bunch of ribbons and glitter and stuff. In my hometown small cowbells were actually attached which made the hallways between classes sound like a cattle calls.
They look something like this:
What’s crazy is that they get even bigger and more elaborate.
Anywho, on to the story . . .
The Southlake Journal may not be a big newspaper, but a recent article has caused some Texas-sized controversy.
It started with a Nov. 4 column from Dr. Cindy Ryan, a pastor and writer, who tackled the issue of oversized mums and the exorbitant amount of money people are paying for them.
Ryan suggested instead of paying massive sums for those massive mums, the school kids and their parents put the money toward programs that feed the hungry.
Ryan went on to point out, ”Each outrageous mum represented to me 33 hungry children who could be fed for a month.”
And as if she knew what was coming, Ryan tried to head off those florists and mum business owners by suggesting instead of sending an angry letter or e-mail they “get busy designing the cool ribbon or button everyone could wear instead which says, ‘I banned a mum and fed 33 children.’”
Well that very Christian idea lead to some not very Christian responses from readers printed in a Nov. 18 column.
Coming to Corpus Christi, Texas next year
Play depicting Jesus as gay packs church
SANTA ANA – A play depicting Jesus as a gay man played to an appreciative audience in a packed church sanctuary tonight while a handful of protesters outside called it blasphemous.
It was the second showing of “Corpus Christi” in Orange County in about two years. The show sparked protests and bomb threats at its 1998 opening at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.
The play depicts Jesus as a gay man living in 1950s Corpus Christi, Texas, playwright Terrence McNally’s hometown. The cast of 13 portray Jesus and the 12 Apostles.
Cowboys For Jesus
Cowboys For Jesus Christian Fellowship is a nondenominational church for country and cowboy folks who want to get out of “religion” and into Jesus. It is for people who want to get out of tradition and into a meaningful relationship with Jesus and other people who are not afraid of trusting each other. Our vision is to do exactly what Jesus told us to do: heal the sick, cast out demons, go into all the earth making disciples and baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We accept everyone, but we are not looking for people who regularly attend other churches. We are looking for the ones that do not go to church and do not have anyone to care about them.
Best places to work in Dallas-Fort Worth 2009
1. The Richards Group
2. Southwest Airlines
3. McCarthy Building Cos.
4. MultiView Inc.
5. Systemware Inc.
6 . St. Mark’s School of Texas
7. Improving Enterprises
8. Lane Gorman Trubitt LLP
9. Pariveda Solutions Inc.
10. Mustang Technology Group LP
Texas Teacher Claims Fingerprinting Is ‘Mark of the Beast’
A 22-year veteran kindergarten teacher in the Texas Bible Belt could lose her job for refusing, on religious grounds, to give fingerprints under a state law requiring them.
The evangelical Christian, Pam McLaurin, is fighting a looming suspension, claiming that fingerprinting amounts to the “Mark of the Beast,” and hence is a violation of her First Amendment right to practice her religion. Her case is similar to a lawsuit by a group of Michigan farmers, some of them Amish, challenging rules requiring the tagging of livestock with RFID chips, saying the devices are also the devil’s mark.
Two Award Winning Healthcare Sermons
The Rev. Kathryn Ransdell recently left the staff of First United Methodist Church of Dallas and moved to Canada. Her husband had found a new job there.
But before she left, Ransdell preached a sermon on health care, and it won first place in a new “health justice” sermon contest put on by Texas Impact.
View the text of the sermon here.
The Rev. Mary Spradlin of St. Stephen United Methodist Church in Arlington finished second (with an Austin pastor) in a “health justice” sermon contest put on by Texas Impact. She graciously provided a text of the sermon, which you’ll find here.
Houston’s 10-day murder-less streak appears over
For an astounding 10-day period, Houston recorded no murders, although that appears to have come to an end with the discovery of a woman’s body north of downtown this morning.
I Love U2
I’m wayyyy too tired to give a review right now, but here are some random thoughts and some pictures I took to hold you over.
- RedZone tickets are the bomb. I never had to wait in a line to enter the stadium and we had our own concession and restroom area just outside of our standing area. Worth. Every. Penny.
- Muse was the opening act, and they were OK.
- WifeGeeding was too sick to go, which made me very, very sad. And since all my in-town friends already had tickets, I was left scrambling trying to find someone that would appreciate this event.
- Bono gave a shout out to Tony Romo, Jason Witten, and George W. Bush. But I don’t think Dubya was in attendance. Heck, Bono even gave a shout out to a lot of the surrounding cities like Plano, but he never made it around to Lewisville or Mineral Wells.
- I saw an old college friend, the one that just happen to introduce me to U2 and their greatness.
- One dude was dragged away from the area, it took four men to pull him away.
- The special effects and use of technology was amazing.
- More to come later.
Click to enlarge.
America’s Smartest Cities
Which metropolis has the most intelligent residents? The Daily Beast crunched the data on the brainpower of America’s 55 largest cities, from first-to-worst.
- Raleigh-Durham
- San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
- Boston
- Minneapolis-St. Paul
- Denver
The highest Texas city on the list comes to no surprise – Austin at number 12.
Houston comes in at 46, Dallas-Fort Worth comes in at 48, and San Antonio is at 53.
Perry’s cousin killed by sheriff’s deputies
AUSTIN — The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting death of a cousin of Gov. Rick Perry in a mysterious exchange of gunfire with sheriff’s deputies.
An attorney for Larry Don Wheeler’s estate says the 74-year-old North Texas man was sitting on his backyard deck after dinner Saturday night at his home at a Montague County country club. David Gossom says that’s when sheriff’s deputies responded to a disturbance call.
Montague County District Attorney Jack McGaughey says Wheeler was holding a shotgun and an officer was shot in the hand. No other details have been released, and an autopsy is pending.
Perry’s office wouldn’t elaborate on his relationship with Wheeler, a retired social worker listed as a member of Perry’s 2006 re-election campaign steering committee.
