Bag of Randomness for Thursday, March 29, 2018

  • Many people know that William Howard Taft as a one-term president and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But here’s an interesting fact, during his one term, he appointed six justices to the Supreme Court. Taft also started the sports tradition of being the first president to throw out the baseball at a season opener (Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1910). Taft was also the first president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and his wife, Helen Herron Taft, was the first first lady interred in the cemetery.
  • Male or female, I always critique the wardrobe, makeup, and hair of news reporters and anchors.
  • I’m no expert when it comes to North Korea, but I have a theory on why their leader visited China. China is the only country which buys North Korean exports and their only ally. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, whose government removed term limits for, basically forced or demanded Kim Jong Un for a come to Jesus meeting. China’s patience with North Korea is growing thin. China really gets nothing out of their relationship, and as unpredictable as Trump can be, China wants to make sure Un stays behaved.
  • I made a post yesterday about Frank S. Page, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee, resigning due to a ‘morally inappropriate’ relationship. He received the Master of Divinity degree and earned his Ph.D. in Christian ethics from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. To my surprise, there has been very little coverage about this in the news.
  • John Krasinski thinks The Office should come back for a Christmas special
  • Flordia news – Jury botches form, clerk mistakenly announces death sentence
  • North Carolina ends shackling of inmates during childbirth – A new policy will remove wrist restraints once an inmate is in labor and the use of leg or waist restraints will now also be prevented
  • BBC – A man in the UK has caught the world’s “worst-ever” case of super-gonorrhoea
  • I really enjoyed the season premiere of ‘The Americans’ last night. WifeGeeding likes to refer to the show as ‘The Russians’.
  • The Yankees serve beer with players’ faces designed in the beer foam.
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Frank S. Page, top Southern Baptist leader, resigns due to ‘morally inappropriate’ relationship

This guy served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2006-08. As of Tuesday, he stepped down from as president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee and retired from active ministry.

I used to be such a proud Southern Baptist, and I understand all churches have their shortcomings and faults, but with leaders like him, Jack Graham, Franklin Graham, Mike Huckabee, and Robert Jeffress, as well as initially declining to consider a statement of its opposition to the alt-right last year until public pressure, I’m convinced one of the best decisions of my life was walking away from the SBC.

NASHVILLE — Frank S. Page, a prominent Southern Baptist leader, has resigned from his top role in the largest Protestant denomination in America because of a “morally inappropriate” relationship.

Page, the president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee, stepped down Tuesday from the leadership role and retired from active ministry, according to the Baptist Press, an official publication of the Nashville-based denomination.

Earlier in the day, Page, 65, had announced he was retiring, but acknowledged later that he needed to be more forthright on why he was leaving the post.

“As a result of a personal failing, I have embarrassed my family, my Lord, myself, and the Kingdom,” Page said in a statement released through the Baptist Press.

Full Article

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, March 28, 2018

  • My phone is dead. I’m disconnected from the “world” until the new one arrives in the mail. I’m going through withdrawals now, but certain it will feel liberating in a little bit. And then, I’ll get the new phone and feel the “anxiety” of learning all the bell and whistles and wanting to customize it just right. Heck, 40-minutes alone will be trying to figure out what ringer I want to live with and what I’d like to hear when I get a text.
  • I see George Carlin quotes all the time on Reddit and Twitter and think they are great, insightful, and funny. But to this day I’ve never listened to any of his acts.
  • How dare this strong conservative former Governor of Texas eat a hippy left-coast burger and smile about it.
  • Taking money away from the military doesn’t sound like something the leader of the GOP would do, it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul and trying to get Pedro to pay for it – Trump privately presses for military to pay for border wall
  • ‘Religious’ burglar blesses himself before throwing brick through store window
    • Before doing so, he was caught on video tracing the symbol of the cross over his chest, a motion of blessing himself.
      • I guess the reporter never heard of the word genuflect or thought his or her audience was religiously ignorant.
  • Professional Clown Runs For Congress In South Carolina
  • It’s like the old days of TV – Google sponsorship will cut ad time on Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ – CBS will replace one of the usual ad breaks with a “More Show presented by Google’s Nest Hello video doorbell.”
  • It’s a ticky-tacky thing, but I don’t like the way this headline is worded, I would have preferred “Police” over “Cops” – Cops in Tempe, Arizona, now have AR-15s strapped to the back of their motorcycles
  • One of my enemies is mustard. It knows why. I never forget. The same goes for you pickle juice. You know what you did.
  •  Chalkboards
    • Most of my classes in Mineral Wells had them, but they started to be phased out in high school. I graduated in 1994.
    • Being somewhat anal retentive, I was easily annoyed and distracted when the teacher would erase the board but you could still see what was written. I wanted so badly to get out of my seat and to thoroughly erase what was on the board, it needed to be completely blank.
    • I was always uncomfortable with the texture, the feel, and smell of chalk.
    • In middle school, sometimes the teacher would ask us to take the eraser cleaning machine outside and clean her erasers. It looked like a deli meat slicer but instead of a blade there was a brush you’d glide the erase against and it would blow the dust out in the opposite direction. It was something that had to be done outside, so it was a great excuse to just get out of the classroom for a bit. An added bonus was that students from other classes would see you from their classrooms looking out through windows. The added attention was an ego boost.
    • Most were green, only a few were black. In case you ever wondered the difference between green and black chalkboards, Reader’s Digest states the following:
      • The color change came in the 1960s, when companies sold steel plates coated with green porcelain-based enamel instead of the traditional dark slate. The new material was lighter and less fragile than the first blackboards, so they were cheaper to ship and more likely to survive the journey. Teachers weren’t complaining either. After all, the new “greenboards” made the chalk powder easier to erase fully. Plus, the enamel left less of a glare and the color was nicer to look at.
Posted in Personal | 3 Comments