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gsoda3

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Posts posted by gsoda3

  1. 28 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

    About school finance, you always have to remember that there are two buckets of money.  One bucket, maintenance and operations or M&O, is subject to recapture and goes towards daily expenses like school supplies and paying teachers.  The other one, interest and sinking or I&S, goes towards paying off debt created by bonds.  Bonds are issued to build stuff like school buildings and football stadiums and I&S money pays them off, like a mortgage.

    So any time you talk about a vote or a tax rate change, you need to understand which bucket you are talking about to understand recapture.

    Last year, Austin ISD held a tax rate election so that they could add "copper pennies" to the tax rate.  This was for the M&O bucket.  This was NOT a bond.  Nothing will be built using the money.  Since it was subject to recapture, 75% of the copper penny money was going to go to the state.  This was not a surprise to anyone.  The district taxed you $170 million per year so that they could raise $40 million per year, but that gave them $40 million to spend per year.  They spent about half on teacher raises and about half on other stuff.  $130 million per year went to recapture, which went to the state, which went to the general fund, which is not required to be spent on education.

    Austin ISD is maxed out on their M&O tax rate, their "golden pennies" (money they get to keep without recapture) and their "copper pennies" (money they get to keep after recapture).  They have a $110 million budget deficit and they are going to run out of money in about 15 months if they do not reduce spending.

    In 2017 and 2022, Austin ISD held a bond election so that they could renovate and replace buildings throughout the district. These WERE bond elections.  The money was not subject to recapture.  About 13 cents of your tax rate goes towards paying off these projects.  The bulk of the 2022 projects are in the 'eastern crescent' of Austin, which includes many of the schools that now have an "F" rating ... and could be closed in the next few years.

    I used to know this but can't remember anymore.  Is there a limit to the amount you can raise via bonds? Are you limited by the amount of money in I&S? 

  2. 1 hour ago, ztejas said:

    Knecht would get eaten alive out there. I'm pretty sure Jaden McDaniels' grandfather was a saltwater crocodile.

    But to your point - feels like they need to try something for a few mins to give those guys a breather. 

    No one blames JJ for not giving him 10 minutes a game.  But if he gets 4 minutes next game that would double his cumulative minutes from the entire series. 

  3. 4 hours ago, Jatrain said:

    Nah.  For most, there isn’t some God given epiphany where Christians (or any other religion) are touched and come to their faith.  Most Christians are Christian because of where they are born.  Most Muslims are Muslim because of where they are born.  Most Hindu are Hindu because of where they are born.  Rinse and repeat. 

    The rate of conversion is consistent across religions.  That would be true if one was God favored over others. 
     

     

     

    The very first "Christians" were born Jewish and preached Jesus to the peril of their physical lives.

    The next generation of Christians, one degree removed from Christ Himself, were born worshippers of Zeus, Jupiter, an Unknown God, and multitudes of tribal gods and goddesses.  This generation converted in the face of overwhelming persecution and continued in the faith, somehow winning converts. 

    In the past 50 years, China is the country with the largest number of Christian converts - the overwhelming majority of them coming from a Buddhist family.  

    Since 2000, Iran is in the top three countries (if not number one) of new Christian converts despite it being illegal to convert Muslims or to own a Bible at the pain of death.  

     

     

  4. 22 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Most government officials have some form of immunity from suit in their personal capacity.

    The AG is sued in official capacity probably every damn day.

    Is there any entity able to bring criminal charges against the AG?

  5. 42 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

     

    Fair enough. Even less if you run the AC I'm sure. 

    But still less than a commute. Plug it in when you get home, ready to go the next day. Could fully charge it on a 110 V plug in 6 or 8 hours probably. 

     

    You're not getting more than 5 miles per hour on a 110v.  Closer to 3.  It'd take you a a full day to trickle charge that from 50% to 100% capacity.  

  6. 4 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

    Don't mean to be obtuse, but I don't know what this means in regard to what I posted.

     

    21 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

    Quoting the Bible to justify anything while speaking to a non-Christian relies on circular reasoning. That's unpersuasive. To an outsider, it's kind of embarrassing.

     

    I was disagreeing with the bolded part.  There was a point in every Christian's life where they hadn't yet submitted their life to Jesus.  Many of us were changed by what we read or what someone told to us from the Bible. 

    I believe scripture is living and powerful and convicts as Hebrews states. If one's heart isn't in a place to accept the message, he won't.  To borrow the quantum physics metaphor, God controls the heart but every person makes the decision. 

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  7. 6 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    Ok, fine - BUT if the church can and in fact does acknowledge that those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience may achieve salvation, SURELY those who think of themselves as Christians can acknowledge the same thing about other Christians, or at least spend more time consider the great beam in their own eye. 

     

    My reading comprehension's not great even on my best day but I don't think we're talking about the same thing.  I don't think anyone in here is calling other people hypocrites - I'm certainly not trying to imply that.  My point is that good works, no matter how many one performs, are never enough to satisfy the standard of perfection that we fall short of.  And, that someone who professes faith in the Lord without the proof of good works fails the litmus test given to us by Jesus. 

     

    3 minutes ago, Nivek said:

    And to those who lived before Jesus, off to Dante's Purgatory?

    I didn't envision this turning into an AME but here's what Paul has to say about that in Romans 4.

     

    Quote

    Abraham Justified by Faith

    What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[a]

    Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

    “Blessed are those
        whose transgressions are forgiven,
        whose sins are covered.
    Blessed is the one
        whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”[b]

    Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

    13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

    16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

    18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[d] 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

     

  8. 4 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    And that’s something to meditate on, not a division bell.

    Christ Himself defined the division line of true faith vs unrepentance and commissioned His believers to spread the good news of salvation.  Part of that commission is preaching what is saving faith, which fortunately Scripture provides many examples for and against. 

     

     

  9. 5 hours ago, Hermanator said:

    Only being a 2 seater makes this a problem for me and most people. 

    Find a way to make it a reliable 5 person SUV or truck for $20k and I'd get one. But I'm in the probably very small minority that doesn't care about vehicles for anything but utility. 

    I'd consider this for a 16 year old if it had AC and another 100 miles on the battery at this price point.    

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  10. 1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    Again, this is academic and strikes me as the sort of thing that Jesus scolded the Pharisees and lawyers for obsessing over. I’m not saying it’s unimportant, but it’s a koan more than it is workable doctrine.

    This is what I mean about Christians screwing this up. Buddhists think about the question of one hand clapping and try to arrive at inner clarity. Christians take the question of faith vs works and burn cities to the ground. 

    Oh but throughout the Bible (and Jesus Himself) the point is made over and over again that not only is faith without the proof of work dead, but that works without faith is also death. Jesus doesn't treat it as academic.  It's foundational to salvation.  

    Since the garden it's always been a matter of the heart. 

  11. 27 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    Ok, but so what? Mercy, love, being the neighbor are non-negotiable moral obligations. 

    Yes. Christians who profess they have repented and follow Jesus will show those attributes.  But mercy, love, and being a good neighbor without repentance and a desire to live with Jesus as King does not make one a Christian. 

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