the tindog coffeehouse

Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, generated quite the firestorm last week when he declared Mormonism to be a cult. Speaking at the Value Voters Summit, he said, “I think Mitt Romney’s a good, moral man, but those of us who are born again followers of Christ should prefer a competent Christian. Rick Perry’s a Christian. He’s an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.”

Naturally, the media jumped on his comments, happily characterizing him as some backwoods Bible-thumper. A lot of Christian churches backpedaled, not willing to condemn the LDS Church. And Rick Perry himself, whom Jeffress had endorsed, quickly distanced himself from the pastor. When asked if Mormonism was a cult, Perry said without hesitation, “No.”

But the fact of the matter is, Dr. Jeffress is exactly right.

Continue reading…

I hate Walmart. I detest it. I hate everything about it. I hate the parking lot. I hate that the medicine and toiletries section is on the complete opposite side of the store as everything else you need. I hate that even if you’re just running in for five things, you still have to get a full-size cart because you can never find a handbasket. I hate that they have 78 checkout lanes, but only two are open at any given time. And I hate that if you use the self-checkout lane, there’s a 99.9% chance something won’t work, and you’ll have to wait around for ten minutes for a worker to come by and enter a random code that you probably could’ve entered yourself.

And yet I still shop there.

Continue reading…

Could challenging the teaching of evolution in public schools be as simple as redefining the starting point? Possibly so, at least according to evolutionary biologist Stephen Sample, who recently submitted several science modules to the Texas State Board of Education for curriculum consideration.

According to Sample, it all depends on what the null hypothesis is. In science, a null hypothesis is “a hypothesis which the researcher tries to disprove, reject or nullify.” It’s the default position, or the commonly accepted hypothesis (H₀) that researchers must disprove (H₁). It’s similar to saying a person is presumed innocent (H₀) until proven guilty (H₁).

Continue reading…

If it seems like just a few years ago that the Texas economy was booming, you’d be right. In fact, in 2006 Texas had a budget surplus of over $8 billion. So how is it that just five years later, we’re facing down the barrel of a $27 billion deficit?

Fort Worth Weekly explains that there are a few reasons. First came major changes to the state’s franchise tax in 2006 along with other taxes that were supposed to save local school districts about $7 billion in maintenance and operations taxes. However, the franchise tax didn’t bring in the revenue legislators expected it to.

Continue reading…

A couple of years ago, I quoted an article from The Economist comparing California, with its high unemployment and oppressive government regulation, to Texas, which has a lower-than-average unemployment rate and business-friendlier environment. While Texas naturally came out ahead, the article did praise California’s “inventive” nature, to which I replied, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

I may have to rethink that.

Continue reading…

Students shouldn’t be allowed to debate. Students shouldn’t be allowed to draw their own conclusions. Students should never be taught that a controversial issue is in fact controversial and that not everyone agrees on it. Students should be taught one side and only one side of an argument, end of discussion.

At least that’s the position of political science professors Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer. According to surveys conducted by them, they found that a whopping 60 percent of biology teachers around the country allowed room for debate and doubt when teaching the subject of evolution. And that, they argue, is unacceptable.

Continue reading…