Greetings from Plano
Originally uploaded by tdouthat.

Howdy. I’m in Plano for two weeks of training for work. Click on the picture to go to flickr to look at the rest of the pictures that I’ve taken.

 

Here’s dad eating birthday cake at Aunt Faye’s 84th birthday party.

I’m not a big fan of celebrity journalism but I’ve been thinking about Tom Cruise and his Scientology bullshit. He got into a debate with Matt Lauer on the Today show Friday about psychiatry and scientology, and Matt Lauer tried to get on him about it, but wasn’t prepared enough to be able to make Cruise look truly stupid.
Which makes me think of Judge Roy Moore. I read a biography of him that said he was a graduate of West Point and the University of Alabama School of Law and was a Vietnam Veteran. He was somehow smart enough to be able to become the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, but he is stupid enough to think that putting a 10 Commandments monument in the rotunda of a government building is a good idea.
There are a lot of fundamentalist Christians who would seem to have all the bona fides of a smart person, but are fundy nutbags anyway. Is being a true believer really a matter of intelligence? If it were, then rational debate ought to have an effect on these people as they learn the arguments for and against their beliefs and come to the realization that their beliefs are irrational. But these otherwise smart people just don’t budge when confronted with facts and reason. Are they brainwashed? How did they get brainwashed and how do you correct that mistake? I’ve heard of de-programmers kidnapping Hare Krishnas and fixing their brainwashing, but you can’t do that to a whole churchful of Pentecostals. So what do you do?  

 

We had another good night of baseball at the fields up by Fort Osage High School where Albert Pujols played as a teenager. Jacob’s team (the Gorillas) beat the Queen City Outlaws 19-4. Their record is now 8-3.Jake is the kid standing on the bench at the far end of the dugout.  

 

Jill has been forcing the cat to ride with us since he was a kitten when I take her to school. Uncharacteristically for a cat, Riley now seems to enjoy the ride. The only part he has trouble with is sliding off the dashboard when I take a turn.

Here’s Michelle at Funhouse Pizza ordering one of my favorites: Mexican pizza. This culinary delight features diced tomatoes, jalapenos, and chorizo sausage. Tastes great but the heartburn is already killing me.