NYT Christmas editorial; Emerson and happiness

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NYT Editorial Offends Christians

Bruce Tomaso, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, tells us about The New York Times Christmas Day editorial that fails to mention Jesus. Instead, it focuses on de-emphasizing consumerism and reducing the carbon footprint of the holiday. Predictably, knee-jerk conservatives criticized the editorial. Reader "joe bailey hyden" called it an "absurdity" and says "the ny times is the epitome of sophisticated religious bigotry against observant christians."

The reaction to the NYT editorial is evidence of a shift in conservative Christian attitudes regarding Christmas. The editorial calls on Americans to leave the material Christmas behind. In years gone by, you might think conservative Christians would cheer the development. In the past, they had a two-step program for restoring the religious holiday. First, de-emphasize the commercial nature of Christmas, the advertising, the shopping, the gift-buying. Second, put Christ back in Christmas.

Lately, however, conservatives have dropped their opposition to consumerism. They don't object to department stores' lavish displays and extended hours and sales, sales, sales. What they object to is sales clerks wishing shoppers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Conservative Christians want to tighten the link between consumerism and Christmas.

So, the NYT committed two sins. First, they criticized consumerism. Second, they didn't pay proper respect to the reason for the consumerism, Jesus Christ. Irony abounds in this season of joy.

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The Source of Happiness

The day after Christmas, Bruce Tomaso chose for the quote of the day on The Dallas Morning News Religion blog this wisdom from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Nothing can bring you happiness but yourself."

Reader "Dale," the Bible-quoting, self-identified true Christian, dismisses Emerson with, "Emerson would have fit in well with today's modern society. Its all about me and my happiness".

Reader "Asinus Gravis" finds the reaction ironic.

"Even more odd, not to say self-contradictory, is to be lectured about avoiding thinking 'its all about me' by someone who stresses how supremely important it is that I should seek and secure MY OWN salvation while I have the chance in this life, so I can avoid receiving MY just punishment in the hereafter."

Jesus is usually thought of as stressing selflessness, giving up one's worldly goods, putting the last first, doing unto the least of one's brethren. Yet, the followers of Jesus have somehow subverted this message into putting foremost and almost exclusively the notion that securing one's own eternal salvation is what it's all about. Doing good works won't do it. Having a large carbon footprint won't deny it. In fact, conservative Christians imply that you can have it all, material possessions and eternal salvation, too. Saying "Merry Christmas" with Jesus in your heart is all it takes.

Somehow, I believe that Jesus and Emerson would both suggest that material possessions are not only insufficient for salvation or happiness, but the pursuit of material possessions is a distraction, a barrier, to what brings true fulfillment. It's Christians like "Dale" who have lost the true message of Jesus and fail to understand Emerson at all.

Obama and Rick Warren

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All Hands on Deck for Inaugural

William McKenzie, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, chooses as the topic of the day the controversy over Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation prayer at the Inauguration. Warren is controversial because of his stand against gay marriage, especially his support for California's Proposition 8. McKenzie thinks the choice was a masterstroke by Obama, reaching out to a leader of a group, evangelical Christians, that voted against him in the election.

Look. The economy is in crisis. We're fighting two wars. Nuclear proliferation is accelerating. And, if that's not enough, the planet is in peril environmentally. Gay rights is important, but it's not the country's, nor Obama's, priority one, or two, or three, or even four. Obama's choice of Rick Warren signals that Obama wants all hands on deck for these priorities, no matter what side they take on the gay rights issue.

Farmers Branch

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Farmers Branch is a Warning to Texas

William McKenzie, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, notices that Farmers Branch is becoming poorer, elderly, and ironically, Hispanic. Farmers Branch, in an attempt to arrest civic decline, passed some of the most anti-immigrant measures in the country recently. What the good citizens don't realize is that their efforts are counter-productive.

McKenzie gazes into his crystal ball for a glimpse of Texas Future, telling us it looks a lot like Texas Past, way past. He says that demographically, the future Texas is going to look more like the Texas of 1824 than the Texas of 1954. That is, it will be a majority Latino state, due to birth rates alone, even if immigration were shut down entirely, which is unlikely. Aging Baby Boomers will make Texas more elderly. Hispanics and the elderly are both lower income demographics, making Texas Future poorer as well.

Doctor McKenzie's prescription for Texas is different than the doomed approach taken by Farmers Branch. Instead of trying to hold back the demographic tide, McKenzie recognizes that "the way to prosper [is] to link the Anglo and Mexican societies." Redouble efforts to improve education and health care. Increase outreach efforts to involve Spanish-speaking parents and students into our schools and communities. Address the problem of financing Medicaid before it soaks up the state budget. In other words, deal with the changing demographics, don't deny the change or futilely try to reverse the change. The doctor is offering good advice. The chances the patient will listen are doubtful.

Dallas smoking ban; Oil prices

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Right Against Right

There have been lots of letters to the editor of The Dallas Morning News regarding the recent decision by the city of Dallas to ban smoking in bars and pool halls. The most agitated writers are the smokers. A typical sentiment: "If you don't like the smoke in an establishment THEN DON'T GO IN!!!!!!"

One could as easily say, "If you want to smoke, THEN DON'T GO IN!!!!!!" In the end, it comes down to the fact that the right to smoke clashes with the right to breathe clean air. The right of proprietors to establish the rules on their property clashes with the right of workers to a safe and healthy workplace. As Lord Peel famously said in a much different context, this is a case of right against right. Such cases are particularly difficult to resolve peacefully. Personally, I just hope that in this case, the peace is broken only by ANGRY SMOKERS USING ALL CAPS IN THEIR INTERNET BLOG POSTINGS.

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Trey Garrison's Own Black-and-White Vision

Trey Garrison's Thursday Roundup focuses on red-light cameras (Garrison tells us they are bad), on how to stop home invasions (does Trey Garrison even need to say?), and on the falling price of oil (Garrison tells us some good things about falling oil prices - d'oh).

So far, so familiar. Ho hum. Another chapter of the Libertarian gospel according to Trey. Still, Garrison manages to say something deserving of recognition. My nominee for today's award for unintended irony: "A good tell that a news agency has little understanding of the basics of business and economics is in how they cast business stories in single-perspective black-and-white, focusing on a single negative."

This from Trey Garrison, who has made a career of doing black-and-white. Nuance? Not at all.

Madoff and Ponzi schemes

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Why Social Security Is Not A Ponzi Scheme

Last Friday, Jim Mitchell blogged about the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme on The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog. Today, Nicole Stockdale blogged on the same subject. In both cases, readers quickly responded, asking how Social Security differs from Madoff's illegal Ponzi scheme.

The readers' questions really weren't intended to solicit answers as much as they were intended as indictments of Social Security, but here goes anyway. Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes have an unsustainable progression driving their growth. This caused the original Ponzi scheme to collapse in 200 days. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system that has been operating for over 70 years, and with future adjustments to account for demographically-driven variability (e.g., the Baby Boom, enhanced life expectancy), Social Security can theoretically go on forever. It's the resistance to these periodic, necessary adjustments that threatens Social Security's viability, not its nature as a pay-as-you-go system.

Terrorism in Mexico; Lottery

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Mexico Is Not the Holy Land

Tod Robberson, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, draws a contrast between the millions of dollars and years of effort the US government spent prosecuting the Holy Land case here in Dallas and the largely tolerated drug violence happening on our US/Mexican border. He says the Holy Land defendants were accused of funding terrorism in the Palestinian territories whereas the drug cartels are carrying out worse terrorist activities right in our own backyard. Robberson asks why the government shouldn't treat drug violence the same as any other terrorism prosecution.

Before answering his question, let me say that I think the drug violence along our border is a serious problem that ought to be receiving more attention and resources than it has.

But the difference in the two cases, and why Middle East terrorism is treated more seriously, is that Middle East terrorism is an existential threat to America. Only lack of means, not lack of desire, keeps al Qaeda from using weapons of mass destruction in America - nuclear, chemical or biological. The drug traffickers, on the other hand, are driven by the profit motive. As unacceptable as extortion, rape and murder are, they are not existential threats to America as a whole. Killing their market would be counter-productive to drug traffickers. That's no comfort to their victims, but it is a cold fact of life that those responsible for our national security need to factor into their prioritization of our planning and response to terrorist activities.

By the way, if The Dallas Morning News is serious about calling more attention to the dangers posed by drug trafficking, how about naming the drug trafficker this year's Texan of the Year? ;-)

Perhaps a better parallel between drug trafficking and terrorism is what's happening, not in Palestine with Hamas, but in Afghanistan. 90% of the world's opium is produced in Afghanistan. Much of the violence in that country is no longer about religion. It's about money. It's not the Taliban. It's age-old tribal rivalries for control of territory and the opium business. That the US is doing so poorly controlling drug trafficking on our southern border is a very bad omen about our prospects of successfully fighting terrorism half a world away in the border mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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Jacquielynn Floyd's Irrational Lottery Advice

Jacquielynn Floyd, in The Dallas Morning News Metro blog, offers this bit of irrational lottery advice.

"I don't buy lottery tickets either, but I was tempted last week - the Lewisville convenience store that sold a $13 million winner the other day is about half-a-mile from my house. The impulse was to run over there and buy a fistful of tickets, quick. Then came the sobering thought that if the odds of hitting are remote, the odds of the same Finamart selling two big winners in a row are pretty much nonexistent."

Luckily for her, she's paid for her language skills, not her math skills. Now that that Finamart has hit it big once, the odds of it hitting it big for a second time in a row are exactly the same as every other Finamart's odds of hitting it big in the next drawing. So, go ahead and buy your ticket at that Finamart. Sure, you are most likely throwing your money away, but so would you be if you used that dollar to buy the kind of advice you get from Jacquielynn Floyd in The Dallas Morning News.

Nigerian violence

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Clashes Between Muslims and Christians

Nigeria's population is about equally divided between Muslim and Christian, with Muslims dominating the north and Christians the south. The city of Jos is located in between and recently saw violent clashes between the two communities that left 500 dead. Time magazine's coverage of the violence reports:

"In every household, church and mosque, people blamed followers of the other religion with planning and executing the attacks with a vitriol that does not bode well for the future of the city or the region."

Tom McGregor, in Dallas Blog, confirms the vicious violence on both sides, saying that 400 of the dead were Muslim and 100 were Christian. Yet how does Dallas Blog headline this tragedy? "Nigerian Muslims Destroy Christian Churches."

I guess a conservative Christian blog in Dallas, Texas, is not going to have much influence on what happens in Nigeria. Thank God, because the bias and slant of the coverage would only exacerbate the religious divisions behind the tragedies. Dallas Blog's influence on attitudes of conservative Christians in Texas is another matter.

Auto bailout

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GOP to Detroit: Drop Dead

Lots and lots of chatter about the failure of the auto bailout in the Senate yesterday. Michael Landauer, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, blames the unions. "Thanks, UAW, for today's stock market" he titles his blog post. He continues to pedal the story that the UAW refuses to compromise and accept lower wages and benefits. According to calculations by Time, next year workers at Ford plants will earn an average of $53 an hour with benefits, close to the $49 an hour that workers at foreign-owned car manufacturers in the US average and far below the old UAW wage of $71 with benefits. Reportedly, the UAW agreed to reach parity in the next union contract in 2011. The GOP wants cuts immediately. Expect Landauer and the union-busters to continue to push the line that the union is the obstinate barrier to the success of the US car makers.

Wayne Slater, in The Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog, shows us the politics behind the union-busting strategy. He tells us that Gov. Rick Perry of Texas says the collapse of the US automakers will be good news for Texas and other right-to-work states. He refuses to compromise until those "onerous union contracts" are broken. He also is keeping a close eye on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is expected to challenge him for the governorship in 2010. He has already criticized her for voting for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. He would like nothing more than to hang her for saving Detroit, too.

Back on the Opinion blog, Jim Mitchell points out another drama unfolding at GMAC, the financing arm of GM. Unless GMAC can restructure its debt, it might default, taking down much of GM's car dealer network even if GM itself limps along. Reader Chuck Bloom points out something most hardliners ignore as they cheer for the Big Three automakers to fall into bankruptcy. Because of the banking crisis, there is likely no "bank/lending institution to serve as a guarantor of debts in Chapter 11 for General Motors. Without it, reorganization cannot happen. Then it's Chapter 7 - liquidation and bye, bye hundreds of thousands of jobs." It's been reported that no less than Vice President Dick Cheney, no union-loving liberal socialist, told Senate Republicans behind closed doors that unless there's a bailout of the auto industry, it's "Herbert Hoover time." The GOP Senators apparently did not see that as something to be avoided.

President Bush did his best to drive a hard bargain with Democrats in Congress, but he failed to bring Republicans on board. But Bush realizes that failure is not an option. An uncontrolled bankruptcy of the auto industry while the economy is as weak as now would be disastrous for the national interest. Ironically, screwing Detroit won't do Republicans any good politically, either. It further shrinks their already dwindling base. Writing off Michigan and Ohio in order to rally the right-to-work Southerners might help Rick Perry keep his governor's job in Texas, but it's no way for the party to regain power nationally.

Steve Blow; Madonna; Nature of science

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Self Parody

I admit I didn't get past the headline. Steve Blow columns have a way of doing that. He descends further into self parody with a The Dallas Morning News column today titled, "Lost Dog's Tale Has A Happy Ending."

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Madonna Not Welcome by Church in Chile

In another story where the headline says all you need to know, Bruce Tomaso tells us on the The Dallas Morning News Religion blog that "Catholic cardinal says Madonna provokes 'lustful thoughts'".

Busted. Madonna should quit trying to be subtle about it. The cardinal is on to her.

I suppose it would be out of line for me to suggest that the cardinal's musical tastes probably lean to boy bands. OK, so I won't.

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Science in a Nutshell

The Dallas Morning News Religion blog has a habit of posting a daily quote first thing in the morning. I've always suspected it's the lazy journalist's means to pushing copy without having to, you know, write anything. But sometimes you get get pure gems, like today.

"We know life only by its symptoms."

Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893 - 1986), the Hungarian physiologist and Nobel Prize winner who discovered Vitamin C

Only seven words, but they capture in a nutshell the nature of science (and science of nature). Science focuses on behavior, reactions, responses. In other words, the symptoms. "What happens to this if I do that?" is a scientific question. Science can't answer "Why do we exist?" It does't even have a good answer to the seemingly simple question "What is life?" But it's very good at describing the aggregate of responses that living organisms have to external stimuli. What it all means is left to philosophy or religion.

Bush's new house

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Setting the Record Straight about Preston Hollow

Sometimes, you come across a story backwards, from the comments about it first. Sometimes, you have a hard time recognizing the story when you finally get to it. That's the case in today's news.

James Ragland, in The Dallas Morning News, sets the record straight about the Preston Hollow neighborhood that George and Laura Bush will soon call home. Tim Rogers, in Frontburner, links to it and says he's still trying to figure out the point. Rogers and Frontburner readers who already know all about Preston Hollow don't see what's newsworthy about telling other readers that Preston Hollow is rich, exclusive, and has a history of segregation and ethnic discrimination (like many other areas). Several say they can't figure out his point, either. One says he's got his "finger up his butt." One calls the column "incoherent" and denies Ragland knows anything about "the city."

All that whets this reader's appetite to read the original column and see what all the fuss is about. But when I do, I see it's pretty much as Ragland himself describes it. He's correcting some mischaracterizations originating in national media. No more. No less. In the end, the whole affair reinforces Frontburner's self-description as a "snarky celebration of ignorance." Only there's not much to celebrate today. The most telling reader comment was the question, "What’s going to happen to this blog when you don’t have DMN to link to?" What, indeed?

Bailout money; DMN finances

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How Much Bailout Money Can Dallas Get?

Tod Robberson, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, asks, "as long as the federal government is talking about handing out money, why shouldn't Dallas put in a pitch for some financial aid?" Mayor Tom Leppert would like some money for the Calatrava bridges and for the Convention Center hotel. Robberson himself would like some money for Fair Park and for job creation in southern Dallas. But Robberson also asks if "it's appropriate for our city (or any other) to be asking for additional federal help at this time, whether it provides an economic stimulus or not?"

That's a loaded question. It implies that the bridges and hotel and Fair Park won't provide an economic stimulus. Or it implies that Dallas is doing so well economically that it can't benefit from additional stimulus. Or it implies that there will be cities who will have a hand out who won't need the federal money or who won't use it productively if they get it.

Barack Obama's plan is to make "$25 billion immediately available in a Jobs and Growth Fund to help ensure that in-progress and fast-tracked infrastructure projects are not sidelined, and to ensure that schools can meet their energy costs and undertake key repairs starting this fall."

The key part of this plan is its focus on "in-progress and fast-tracked" infrastructure projects, not pie-in-the-sky wish-list items that have no chance of securing popular support for the necessary funding even in flush times. The immediate need is not to think up new and wonderful ways to spend money, but to ensure that already approved projects don't get delayed or cancelled because of tough economic times. In Dallas, the bridges and hotel seem to meet the criteria. Projects that don't meet the criteria include some undefined Fair Park or southern Dallas redevelopment project.

Some readers complain that the federal government has no place funding any of these projects. Economic development in cities is not the federal government's responsibility. Fair enough. But the federal government has monetary powers local government doesn't. Left to the cities and states, budgetary pressures would lead to a downward spiral of economic collapse. The federal government can and should use its powers to arrest that vicious cycle. Focus on the right projects. Keep the dirt flying. Keep the workers on the job. Hire more. Turn this economy around.

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Closing the DMN as a Loss-Avoidance Strategy

Recently, Wick Allison had a look at A.H. Belo's financials and speculated that the publisher of The Dallas Morning News is running out of cash. Today, Frontburner's Tim Rogers reinforces that conclusion with a story from no less than The Wall Street Journal:

"Fitch analyst Mike Simonton said more worrisome than the number of newspaper publishers in default is the fact that some, including A.H. Belo Corp. and Sun-Times Media Group, are unprofitable on a cash-flow basis, and aren’t in a position to service debt.

'That should raise red flags,' Mr. Simonton said, adding that newspapers can no longer offset revenue declines with cost cuts. 'Closing some of them down as a loss-avoidance strategy may make more sense.'"

Rogers concludes: "So what will Dallas look like without the Dallas Morning News? It now seems a fair question."

To me, Dallas will look a little more dark, sound a little more quiet, feel a little more lonely. Not that I'll miss the print edition. I gave that up months ago in frustration of seeing yet another writer let go or section cut or reduced. But I still rely on the online version of the News, mainly for its blogs. All the breaking news gets published in the blogs first, and the commentary explaining what's behind the news gets published there only. Frontburner, Unfair Park, and Pegasus News just don't have the breadth and depth that The Dallas Morning News still commands, even after all the cutting and trimming.

Science study on dogs

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Dogs Have a Sense of Fairness

Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, reports what he calls a 'duh' science study. Experiments with dogs indicate that if master doesn't reward all dogs equally for doing tricks, then the dog that is treated unfairly is less likely to repeat the same trick. Weiss says this is obvious to anyone who owns more than one dog. Weiss still tells the story because he finds it interesting that "fair play seems hardwired into the brains of critters down the evolutionary chain from us."

We shouldn't mock studies that confirm conventional wisdom. Lots of common knowledge turns out to be false when looked at in a rigorous manner. Lots of common knowledge is confirmed. We don't know for sure which is which until we do the study.

One reason to test hypotheses we think we already know the answers to is to create the foundation for further studies. Rigorously understanding fair play in dogs might lead to better understanding of fair play in humans. Dogs can be made subjects of experiments that ethics would prevent running on humans.

That a sense of fair play is "hardwired" into the brains of dogs probably tells us something about ourselves. Will we discover that a sense of fair play is "hardwired" into human brains as well, whether from genes or from training? Don't be at all surprised to learn that if there's an evolutionary advantage for having a sense of fair play, that natural selection will select for it. That's hardwiring.

Dogs aren't "down the evolutionary chain from us." Dogs are just as highly evolved as humans are. Antelope are just as highly evolved as lions. Where one stands on the food chain does not imply anything about the inferiority or superiority of one's genes. All living things on Earth have about the same 4 billion years of evolution behind them, tailoring their genetic makeup for survival in their own environmental niches. It's been said that cockroaches have been around since the age of dinosaurs and will be around long after humans have destroyed themselves in nuclear or environmental disaster. If you're going to bestow rank in the "evolutionary chain", cockroaches would be at the head of the honor roll. Just in case you were feeling a little superior.

P.S. Coincidentally, another story was in the news today, headlined, "Homeless dog tries to save dog hit by car in Chile."

Cynthia Dunbar; Planned Parenthood; Hutchison for Governor

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Throwing Our Children Into the Enemy's Flames

In Cynthia Dunbar, the state of Texas has a witch-burning, rack-stretching seventeenth-century religious extremist sitting on its State Board of Education. Unfair Park reports that Dunbar has just published a book, "One Nation Under God: How the Left is Trying to Erase What Made Us Great." According to the Texas Freedom Network, in the book Dunbar calls public education a "tool of perversion." She says we are throwing our children "into the enemy's flames." She claims public schools are unconstitutional and a violation of Scripture. She wants to require any person desiring to govern to have a sincere appreciation for the Word of God.

Yikes!

Texas voters elected Dunbar to the State Board of Education. Charitably, let's hope that Texas voters didn't know what they were getting when they elected her in 2006. It's only a hope and maybe Texas voters are as extreme as Dunbar, but it's too depressing not to hold out hope. So, let's assume that she got elected because of voter apathy and ignorance. That a small percentage of dedicated religious extremists carried the day while most voters didn't know the State Board of Education or Cynthia Dunbar from Adam's off ox. Well, Cynthia Dunbar is making a name for herself now. Will it be enough to get her and her anti-American ideas tossed out in the next election in 2010? Let's hope so, for our children's sake.

P.S. Thanks to the Texas Freedom Network for their continuing effort to bring such travesties to the public's attention.

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Give the Gift of Health for Christmas

Both the The Dallas Morning News Religion blog and the Opinion blog covered the story of Planned Parenthood of Indiana offering gift certificates for the holidays. Bruce Tomaso of the Religion blog posted the reaction of conservative agitator Michael Medved, but to Tomaso's credit, he later posted a second blog item with reader responses pointing out that Planned Parenthood offers physicals and other health services. That gift certificate could turn out to be the most valuable gift under the Christmas tree for some lucky recipient who has put off that checkup for far too long.

Michael Landauer, in the Opinion blog, showed his own attitude towards Planned Parenthood by calling the gift certificates "a deliberate and provocative attack on Christians." Newsflash to Landauer: it's not always about you. I Googled "health clinic gift certificates" and found numerous other examples of health clinics featuring gift certificates, including one that offered the sound advice that "good health is the greatest gift."

Paraphrasing a reader on the Religion blog, I offered this gift suggestion to Michael Landauer's friends: make a donation to Planned Parenthood in his name.

Landauer censored my comment, removing it from the blog. I guess I can scratch him off my Christmas list. Was I out of line? OK, I made him the butt of a joke, but what makes it a joke? It's that he's offended by Planned Parenthood and pap smears and pregnancy tests and contraception. Rather than seeing everyday health services as something people ought to be encouraged to utilize, he sees them as something offensive, or worse, sinful. That Landauer is so out of touch with the market Planned Parenthood serves is what is so funny and so sad at the same time. I guess it's the likes of Michael Landauer wielding his censor's pen that keeps me blogging here, beyond the reach of the easily offended.

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Hutchison Is Running For Governor

It looks like Kay Bailey Hutchison's run for governor of Texas in 2010 is all but official. Rick Perry says, "Bring it on." Hutchison may or may not offer much in the way of real policy change. The Texas Republican Party platform has been leaning farther and farther right each time the party meets in state convention. I see Hutchison playing to those extremists to get the nomination rather than leading the charge to bring change to the GOP. But saying goodbye to Rick Perry would be cause for jubilation, so let's just say I remain cautiously optimistic about the coming battle royale in the Texas GOP.

On the other hand, the battle may turn out to be a flop. Wick Allison, in Frontburner, is reporting that GOP sources are telling him that Hutchison is already sewing up the big GOP donors and that Perry will drop out of the race after the upcoming legislative session.

Assuming then it's Kay, what's in store for Texas? Wayne Slater, in The Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog, reports that Hutchison says her priorities are:

"low taxes, quality schools and universities, access to health care for our families, communities safe from crime and drugs, protection of private property rights, safe transportation and a government that listens and responds to them."

Having education high on the list is good, but listing low taxes number one conflicts with most of the other priorities. Agreed, throwing money at problems is no guarantee of solving them, but taking money away isn't either. If one or the other has to give, I'd rather the low taxes pledge be sacrificed rather than education or health care or even improved regional public transportation. Hutchison will talk a good game on the campaign trail, but I expect I'll be disappointed with her performance in office.

Anglicans and Mormons

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May I Have a Word? Christian

Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, is wearing his wordsmith hat when he wonders if the dissident Fort Worth Episcopalians who left the church in a dispute over gay priests are still properly called Anglicans? Jeffrey Weiss says no, that the term Anglican is reserved for those who follow certain rules and standards and are approved by the Anglican Communication led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

So far, so good, but then Weiss uses an jarring analogy to make his point. He says, "As the word [Christian] is understood by everyone else, I suggest that Mormons are not Christian."

Whoa. I'm one of "everyone else" and I consider Christian to simply mean "follower of Jesus," and not necessarily a member of any specific organization, or any organization at all, for that matter. By that non-theological definition, Mormons are most definitely Christian.

"Christian" is a descriptive, generic term, not a prescriptive, trademarked brand name. There is no organization that sets universal standards for who can and cannot claim to be Christian, unlike the Anglican Communion or Roman Catholicism.

Now, Mormons might believe a few eyebrow-raising claims about Jesus that other Christians are skeptical about, but Jesus is the same fellow in both cases. Evangelical Christians hold a few eyebrow-raising beliefs themselves. As do Catholics. As do... If Mormons claim to be Christians, I see no reason for Jeffrey Weiss to excommunicate them.

Atheist lawsuit

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God Save Kentucky

Bruce Tomaso, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, reports on a lawsuit in Kentucky brought by atheists who object to language in a state statute that stresses "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth." Tomaso's take?

"Personally, I'm not sure which is sillier: Passing a law that calls on God to do his part to help with homeland security; or taking up the court's time with a suit that claims the law has nonbelievers tossing and turning all night."

My own take? They are both silly. Passing the law trivializes God. Filing the lawsuit maybe stops the slippery slope from carrying us into more consequential territory of state established religion, but slippery slope arguments are hard to defend.

In any case, I figure if the silly people on both sides of this argument are consumed arguing with each other, they'll leave the rest of us alone. And that's a good thing. So, here's to years of litigation over this silly issue.

A.H. Belo vs Huffington Post

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Another Sign That Newspapers Are Dying

A few days ago, Wick Allison at Frontburner did some back-of-the-envelope calculations and concluded that A.H. Belo, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, was at risk of running out of cash. Today, Tim Rogers highlights the growing difficulties at Dallas' only daily by comparing the company with the Huffington Post. AdvertisingAge says that the online newspaper recently took a $25 million investment at a $100 million valuation, compared to a $35 million market cap for publicly traded Belo. Ouch. Worse, Huffington Post employs 46 people compared to 3,700 employees at Belo. Double ouch. Worse still, the Huffington Post plans to use the cash infusion to branch out into local editions, setting itself up for direct competition with print dinosaurs like The Dallas Morning News. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. While companies like Belo dithered, reluctant to cannibalize their print product and treating their online product like a sideshow, companies like the Huffington Post are moving in and taking over.

Mumbai terrorism; Backup tapes; BCS

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Muslim Condemnation of Terrorism

Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, points out again that, contrary to widespread opinion, Muslims do speak out against terrorism. He publishes in condemnations of the Mumbai terrorist attacks released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, two networks of Indian-American Muslims, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. All are welcome responses to this violence. The condemnations show that blaming violence on religion is too simplistic an explanation. All people of goodwill condemn the attacks. Unfortunately, some want to go farther and condemn the terrorists' religion as well. This furthers the divide among people of goodwill in different religions and is counterproductive.

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Computer Tape Drives Still Going Strong

Trey Garrison, on his personal blog, opposes Dallas County's proposal to delete their email backups after 90 days. He ridicules Dallas County's IT department: "They store email records on 'tape.' What is this, 1962? ... Tapes??? Really? WTF?"

Trey Garrison reveals his lack of knowledge of IT (that's Information Technology, Trey). Magnetic tape continues to be a viable medium for computer backup, with over 500,000 tape drives installed worldwide for just Sony's AIT technology alone. Tape is a medium that allows for the cheapest storage of the largest amounts of data. In fact, it's the very existence of cheap, plentiful, tape backup technology that undercuts Dallas County's argument that it needs to delete emails after 90 days because of the high cost of retention. With tapes, the county could keep archives for years.

Even though tape is a great medium for off-site backup storage, it's a poor medium for quick access and searches. For that, hard disk storage is superior. The Dallas Morning News story reports that by next summer Dallas County will get a new email archiving system that will allow for fast and easy keyword searches. Let's just hope they keep emails around long enough for there to be something to search.

After ridiculing Dallas County for what Garrison sees as 1962 technology, on another topic Garrison reveals his own fondness for 1962 technology: paper phone books over online directories. He says it might be because he's "burned out on surfing." It looks like phone books won't die ... at least until Trey Garrison and my grandmother do.

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BCS: Whining About a Broken System

It's the first week of December and that means it's time for the annual whining about the broken system known as the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), the NCAA's method of choosing its national champion for its top division of football. The focus of this year's whining is the decision to rank Oklahoma over Texas, despite Texas' victory over OU in October, giving OU the inside track on reaching the BCS championship game in Miami. Michael Landauer, on The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, seems to take the position that any complaints are simply whining with the way things turned out this year. He argues

"There is no fix. There is no perfect system. But allowing two national polls and a complex computer ranking system to break a three-way tie isn't a bad way to go. It sure beats sending a team to the Big 12 championship that is ranked below another."

Landauer is wrong. There are two things wrong with the BCS system. First, and most obvious, is that the system needs to allow more than two teams to play for the national championship in the field. The NCAA itself recognizes this, organizing a playoff for what it calls the Football Championship Division, but not for what it calls the Bowl Championship Series. Any resistance on the part of the NCAA is due only to financial reasons, not competitive reasons.

Second, and less recognized, is that the system allows for human subjectivity. Most people complain about the computer rankings that are used as part of the BCS rankings, but it's the human polls that have to be kicked out of the system. The computer rankings are just objective tie-breaking rules. The NCAA should choose an algorithm and go with it. All teams know going in to the season what the algorithm is and what kind of schedule and record they will need to make the field for the playoffs, after which results on the field will dictate who gets crowned national champion. Allowing humans to decide who is ranked above whom is folly. This year, it's the Oklahoma vs Texas debate that gets most of the attention, but there's an Ohio State vs Boise State decision that the NCAA also must decide. And that one is most likely to be settled, not based on which team is judged the better football team, but which school is most likely to pack the stands with fans and gather the largest television audience. As long as any subjective human criteria are used to determine which teams get into the prestigious BCS bowls and the ultimate national championship game, expect the annual whining to continue, justifiably so.