Monthly Archives: May 2012

(Community Matters) LISTEN: Maryland Pastor ‘Kind Of Likes’ The Idea Of Killing Gays  –  this headline is so wrong – it misleads most readers who will never read the entire article. The full quote is:

“Kill them all. Right? I will be very honest with you. My flesh kind of likes that idea…but it grieves the Holy Spirit. It violates Scripture. It is wrong.”

– both sides do this. We should hold each other accountable against such slanted journalism. I’m ashamed the Huffington Post went to such an extreme to generate fear and stoke hate

(Community Matters) Josh is off and running

(Community Matters) of course it’s unconstitutional – discrimination based on sexual orientation, please!  new york times

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court Thursday declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples, a groundbreaking ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Two of the three judges who decided the case Thursday were Republican appointees, while the other was a Democratic appointee.”

(Community Matters)  Super trip to Midland-Odessa this week. Even before our official launch of the Founders Circle (happening at Lorraine & Ray Perryman’s on June 21st) we already have influential members and lead foundations supporting the radio station.

KXWT is broadcasting at full strength – mostly super signal though we are having intermittent trouble with the internet signal. Probably have to change providers or secure a dedicated T1.

Met the legendary Jim Henry this week – the oil man who brought the new iteration of fracking to West Texas. Jim explained that they’ve used fracking technology in the Permian Basin since the 1940s only on sand & salt stone. However, in  the late 90s he recruited an engineer who’d further developed the technology to be used in shale & limestone, in the Wolfcamp Shale formations.

According to Jim, the old technology of fracking used 100k gallons of water and lots of sand. The new technology uses 2mm gallons of water and a lot less sand proportionally. A quick google read suggests water usage ranges from 50k to 4mm gallons depending on the rock to be fractured. And, 2010 estimated water usage in 2010 is 13 billion gallons.

I don’t think the rest of the country hears enough about oil & gas exploration and production from the folks who do oil & gas production and exploration and the folks who live in the Permian Basin. KXWT will be produce and distribute energy information – we’re gonna be the voice for energy, nonprofits and the arts in the Permian Basin.

Also, interesting discussions about drinnking water for Midland & Odessa. They are significantly increasing their capacity through pipelines as their populations soar and Odessa is seriously considering a desalination plant to access its abundant brackish water reservoirs. Since 2007 El Paso has relied on its desalination plant, the largest desalination plant in the US, for 27mm gallons of its drinking water each day.

Texas Monthly story about Permian Basin and fracking

(Community Matters) Damn, yes of course I should have waited until this week to buy

(Community Matters) Pastor preaches that gays should be rounded up & held in concentration camps, detained and left to die; his congregation gives him a standing ovation in response to citizen protests and we wonder why a group of high school seniors brutally attack a young gay man

(Community Matters) It’s not a big deal . . . (well, of course it is but it isn’t)

Eight months after the repeal, midshipmen both gay and straight describe a quiet but significant transformation at the Naval Academy.. . Gay cadets at the U.S. Military Academy and the Coast Guard Academy are forming clubs. Gay alumni at the Air Force Academy hosted their first football tailgate last fall, and gay alumni at the Air Force Academy and West Point held their annual dinners on campus for the first time.. .

Across the military, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said recently, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — once highly controversial — is “going very well.”

“It’s not impacting on morale,” he told reporters after receiving a report on the subject this month. “It’s not impacting on unit cohesion. It’s not impacting on readiness.”

Baltimore Sun story

Hat Tip: Towelroad

(Community Matters) terrific article, terrific couple, dear friends – Gary & Richard in AAS’s June 2012 Real

(Community Matters) Paul Krugman – a populist

(Community Matters)  At Harvard University, Fareed Zakaria’s commencement speech:

We are living in the most peaceful times in human history…The United Nations estimates that poverty has been reduced more in the past 50 years than in the previous 500 years…This country has its problems, but I would rather have America’s problems than most any other place in the world.

Fareed Zakaria: editor of Newsweek International whose column appears in Newsweek, Newsweek International and The Washington Post.

Hat Tip: Lynn Meredith

(Community Matters) I concur with this opinion – not so sad speculators didn’t eat up the usual IPO margin.

updated for link

(Community Matters) Sorry to be missing your first birthday party

Happy Birthday, Clara

I want to eat cake like that too