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.

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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.

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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.

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If Peanuts’ Lucy Van Pelt is a liberal wacko nutjob, then Charlie Brown’s little sis Sally must be a Sean-Hannity-listening, government-bashing, ultra-paranoid (and probably gun-toting) member of the Tea Party movement:

Previously:
Lucy Van Pelt, Liberal

Dallas Morning News columnist Jacuielynn Floyd framed the Texas State Board of Education’s incessant tussling over social studies standards perfectly:

But it glaringly underscores that this entire exercise, which I once naively believed to be part of an effort to produce intelligent, intellectually responsible citizens, is not about academics at all.

No, there’s nothing to see here but the same old blowhard talking points that currently pass for political discourse.

Religious conservatives who dominate the board don’t even bother trying to pretend otherwise. They’ve made it clear that they believe their mission is to even the score with what they see as snotty leftist academics who have poisoned public education.

It’s not about kids grasping history and learning to draw independent conclusions – it’s about who gets to run the indoctrination camp. …

Paradoxically, the saddest thing about all this is also the only consolation I can find.

It’s this: Ideological fist-pumping over such meddlesome trivia as substituting “free enterprise” for “capitalism” or “constitutional republic” for “democracy” won’t make much difference to teenagers who graduate without being able to punctuate, add simple fractions or find Panama on a map.

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I’ll be honest, I debated for months over whom I’d vote for in the Texas gubernatorial race and even whether I’d vote at all. I knew I wouldn’t be voting for any of the Democratic candidates, so the choice came down to 10-year-incumbent Rick Perry, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, or ultra-right-wing newcomer Debra Medina.

In the end, I voted for Hutchison.

Now, if you’ve read my previous posts about Hutchison, you know I haven’t exactly gushed over her. Frankly, her campaign has been a mess, and I’m not exactly confident that could do any better job than Perry. Furthermore, for someone who has served in the Senate since 1993 (after pledging to serve only two terms), she has little to show for it other than a bunch of pork barrel spending she’s accumulated for her home state.

So why vote for her? I suppose it was a process of elimination.

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