Just offer shelter and a dry place for those who need you and want to know you care. .@JoelOsteen those who can't get here still need you! pic.twitter.com/MdHAHWGprR— Sean Salisbury (@SeanUnfiltered) August 28, 2017
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
"Journalist goes to Joel Olsteen's church..."
"....to prove it is not flooded and could be opened to help flood victims" via Reddit
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Had to Google Joel Osteen because I had never heard of him before. Saw videos that the church produced that showed flooding inside. Not sure of the guy in the video that was posted, but maybe some sour grapes. Sure, looking through the glass looked dry, but what if there were no functioning bathrooms, or water to drink, then what?
Allen, Osteen is a successful megachurch preacher who has many people who resent him. I've watched him and think he's an asshole. I think there is a campaign by Catholics to discredit him for his being a preacher only for the wealthy. I have a family member who used to go to his church.
Olsteen's church was the former Houston Summit, which was the home of the Rockets. I don't recall it ever flooding. But the parking structure does flood, so Joel's response to all this has a little merit.
I don't know if reddit mentions it, but here's the thing; a local furniture salesman, Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, opened all his stores up as shelters. He even is allowing pets. And some of his stores are like resort hotels with indoor fountains, bowling alleys, of course theater rooms. He's supposed to be the capitalist only interested in making a buck. But Jim is a true conservative, and he believes that individuals helping others is better than the government being the solution. He put his business where his mouth is.
To be completely open about it, Mack's stores are a bit more of a temporary location with people later being shuttled to other shelters set up in schools and large gyms. But that's mostly a logistics issue. Those other locations are receiving food and water and have facilities for hygiene. As the tweet mentions, people only need a dry place for a bit. And yeah, Mack's getting the publicity, but this isn't his first time to do something like this.
I will say Joel's dad, John Osteen, did open up his old church near Lockwood during times like this. It was a bit more of a necessity for the part of town, but it doesn't really matter. He opened up the church and gave people comfort when they needed it. Joel is living off his father's legacy. The Summit is just a central location, but I suspect Joel still owns other structures in Houston and could open them up. Most of the mega churches in the Houston area (and we have more than our fair share) have a central campus and then several regional buildings that simulcast. So its more than just one "church" as a building.
Did the Houston Astros open their stadium?
Lem, The Astros were forced to move their home series against the Rangers to Tampa Bays stadium.
Leland, Thanks for being our Jimmy Olsen, cub reporter, from Houston.
Like others here I have close relatives in Houston and have learned a lot from Leland's comments.
We are very fortunate to have our own in-house field reporter. The context provided has been very enlightening. Thanks, Leland.
I think this Osteen character'scareer might be over, or at least much reduced. That was quite a betrayal. He's gonna need a smaller church.
Osteen is a successful megachurch preacher who has many people who resent him
That was my point. All kinds of successful people have others that resent them.
It's his property, or at least he has control of it, and he can do what he likes with it. Not saying it won't cost him, but that is a price he is willing to bear, I suppose.
No problem guys, not much else to do. I can telework, but I was supposed to have a day of training today.
I did have tickets to the ballgame tonight...
I just made a trip to the hospital where my wife works. We dropped off a bunch of hygiene products and extra scrubs. The hospital has stuff to keep you clean, but not stuff to make you smell good and feel better. Just picked up a lot of groceries to make another trip.
I'm also spending a lot of time on Facebook keeping my neighbors from panicking. Also entirely grateful we never lost power.
I figured your power would be one of the first things to go. Around here it is not unusual for power to be out for 3 days after a hurricane. Or an ice storm.
One finds out pretty darned quick just how dependent we are on electricity.
The closest grocery store just lost power 15 minutes ago. Quite frankly; I'm stunned we haven't lost power at all. Many are not so lucky: http://gis.centerpointenergy.com/outagetracker/
The theological issue with Rev. Osteen is that his Gospel doesn't have any Cross in it. He is one of those who teaches that God wants you to be successful and prosperous in this life. Sometime back someone created a video matching some of Osteen's quotes with quotes or episodes from the lives of martyrs. It was pretty funny and apt.
As far as this issue? I don't have enough information. As someone else said: sure, parts of the facility may indeed be dry, but if you have thousands of people, or even hundreds, you're going to need working bathrooms.
I really couldn't stand his grandfather Claude Osteen. What a lousy junkball picther!
I'm no Osteen fan but that's a hit job.
Then there's this:
http://newstalk1130.iheart.com/featured/common-sense-central/content/2017-08-29-the-truth-about-joel-osteens-church/
I was getting to the point of dropping Drudge, because the headlines are becoming so sensationalized. Looking at his page today suggests a situation a bit more out of control than it is.
Is their looting? Yes there is, and it's happening a neighborhood south, but its 2 thugs in masks, and I expect them to be shot soon, because neighbors are stalking them now.
Is their health hazards in the water? Of course, but no one is planning to stay in it.
Price gouging? Yes, we heard about it last Thursday, but the vast majority of stores are not price gouging. The gas stations near my house, as they were running out of gas, actually dropped prices. I think many of the places were truly outrageous prices were actually trying to get customers to leave so they could close and send employees home.
Dams under pressure? Yes, but not in threat of failure. They at being overtopped, but the concern is uncontrolled release rather than failure.
Peak days away? That was actually true 24 hours ago, but the storm has tracked more east than originally predicted. The rain has stopped early. And now most streams in the Houston area have already crested and are going down. Only the San Jacinto river has yet to fully crest, and Lake Houston may not crest until tomorrow. Those actually affect me the most, but I'm not worried, because it looks like Lake Houston won't reach its 1994 peak, and that means the <a href="http://www.harriscountyfemt.org/>flood control map</a> is good.
BTW, Mayor fired back at reporters today trying to ratchet up the nonsense about evacuating the entire city. He's right, you don't evacuate 6 million people in 2 days notice, especially when you don't know where to send them. The storm was predicted to make landfall where it did, travel up closer to Dallas, move east above Houston, and then come back south. It never made it as far north as Houston and went under Houston, which actually caused more problems. If you went east to Louisiana, you are now in danger. Turner wasn't my preferred choice. Neither was Trump. But when Turner took office and Anise Parker went out; it was like when W took over from Bill Clinton. Mayor Turner is far better than Nagin.
It is good to hear that peak water has been reached. That is always a relief. Stay safe.
Joel Olsten creeps me out on sight.
Apparently that face-aching mandible-stretching full dental array exposing beatific smile etched permanently upon his visage and his permanently squinting eyes are the result of angelic contact. As if. Imagine all the bugs that hit that grill. Worse than staring at an eclipse. Those higher celestial intelligences blow away us people of the soil on Earth, dust people. Mud people. Thick heavy slowed down people, in our physical universe, our energy down keyed dimension. No matter how snazzily we dress ourselves up, we're still mud. Their space is not our space, their space is more energetic, and contact with them at the points where our universes overlap will freeze our faces into unnatural contortions like Joel Olsten's. Like, say, any painting depicting Saul Road to Damascus. That's what he reminds me of. A classical painting of someone who spoke directly to God. A person trying to convince us such contact has affected him thus. And that's why we should listen to him. While my own inner light turns my attention away.
Or maybe that obviously false face is the result of a slipped contact lens. Hard to tell the difference.
I have listened to him. With open mind and heart. Because he was foisted upon me at the time and my remote wasn't handy. And opened that way my own inner voice leapt up to reveal to me that Joel Olsten and his type are no teacher for me. They cannot be. Not any more than I can be to them. This person cannot insert himself between me and the universes of spiritual realities. Can't happen.
Oh man, I just now had the most amazingly sexed up dream. No really, this was awesome. In the morning. One of those beta brain wave things that is so palpable you can actually feel things with your fingertips. Wanna hear it? Of course not! It is w-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-y too perverse. Holy crap the nefarious activitytahs I get up to sometimes by means of those beta brain wave dream episodes. They're unacceptable back here on Earth. Would Joel Olsten care to hear them? Oh, hail no, he would not.
So our aversions for each other run both ways. Plus I sense he's more interested in having whatever cash he can shake out of me.
This is awful. I must now talk about something different instead to overwrite it.
This morning a young black dude called first then appeared at my door. Deena set him up by my request. We took down my aquarium and brought up a new one from my truck. They young man was so sweet. So helpful. So able. Nicely dressed. Well mannered. Well spoken. A boy to make a mother proud. Through my interrogation I learned he doesn't watch any t.v. so all that conversation is closed. He's a student. He never heard of Kindersurprise chocolates so I gave him a few. I told him it's odd how Europeans demean all things American including our cultural choice of preferring milk chocolate while their own childhood Kindersurprise is held with high degree of fondness. And the chocolate is just dreadful. Waxy. Then I gave him a couple of my own dark chocolate wafers and bars, the ones that I temper and pour. They're Egyptian hieroglyphs wrapped as dinner mints inside a hieroglyphic box and bars in the shape of Han Solo in Carbonite. He freaked the f out at recognizing Han Solo. That tripped him right out.
I paid him for helping me move the aquariums then asked him, "Did Deena mention $25.00?"
He said, "No. Deena didn't say anything. She just gave me your number."
I'm all, "What?" I couldn't believe he'd agree to a task without knowing in advance the terms. But $25.00 was perfectly fine with him. So I gave him $30 and that was fine too. He was in no hurry to leave. We had a delightful time together, two strangers, doing something odd together. It was fun.
Thanks Sixty. Next step is to get the wife home. Then we will take in a few people, because several of her coworkers lost their home.
HOLY COW, national news just started; if this is what people are hearing from Houston; I'd be scared too. It's bad, it's really bad, but we aren't freaking out like Lester Holt.
BTW, I don't know where the 51" was. We are going to come in shy of 40". I know Pasadena and down to NASA is around 45". You can see for yourself: https://www.harriscountyfws.org/
Having been a professional seeker of the truth for decades I have come to appreciate the Wilde quote, "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
Some of the attacks on the Catholic Church rape of boys scandal were not pure. They cared little about the victims and much about harming the Church. Among this group were atheists and leaders and followers of rival religions. Now, some may take issue w/ my use of "rival" but I like to cut through bullshit. The intramural competition for seats in the pews is a FIERCE rivalry, played out almost entirely under the radar. These less than pure attacks are not what propels the Catholic rape scandal. What has propelled this horrible, systemic, scandal are victims and people who care for them, seeking justice.
Although I have no proof, I look in the MSM and social media at the people attacking Osteen and I see people not as concerned w/ the victims of this disaster but w/ hurting Osteen. As stated previously, Osteen is an asshole and a phony. As Padre Fox stated, Osteen preaches this "religion" of achieving wealth which is antithetical to what I was taught by the good sisters and padres in Catholic high school and college. I would hear that horseshit from a family member who attended the church. All that said, I think much of this Osteen controversy is not pure and it appears what led Osteen to not open his church[he now has] was legit.
What I think is happening are lessons learned from Rita. Evacuation really is a fool hardy endeavor. It shouldn't be, but unfortunately people don't know understand flood maps. People who live in floodplains won't leave their homes. People who live on the highest point for miles will load up to car and drive into water. Shelters were slow to open, but when they did open, they open were they were needed. Supplies quickly spilled into those Shelters. In my area yesterday, there was maybe one shelter. Tonight I've given up counting. All are well stocked now, but what would have been the use in stocking them earlier?
Why say all this? Because about 7 churches, including the Woodland's mega church, have become shelters on what was my small island. The island is growing. Not to the north or east, because those... well I wish I could share some of those stunning photos (in one case, a large section of jersey barrier is washed off the highway!). But now these places are open. And had they opened a day ago, no one would be there, because few needed to go there and wouldn't have the means to get there.
You guys are hearing the numbers in terms of water. It really is phenomenal. Can any of you imagine that much water in such a short time, and a death toll where it currently stands? No doubt it will unfortunately rise, as clean up starts to occur, but this is the most amazingly orderly chaos I've personally witnessed.
Hey, they don't call it the Protestant Work Ethic for nothin', just sayin'.
Wife was able to come home last night. We had one of her coworkers over too that last his home and is still unable to get to his family on the other side of the river that crested over night. Her hospital also handled its first drowning victim, a 38yr old woman not rescued in time.
We are on the recovery side. Stories of heroism will now start to change to stories of blame games. Whatever story you here, you can probably dial down the hysteria 20% to get closer to reality. For example, local meteorologists all question the 50+" rain total, as none of the calibrated rain gauges showed more than 45" over the last 7 days. It is a minor, almost insignificant note; but what I'm seeing on the national news seems foreign to what I'm hearing on the ground. Lake Houston crested at its 1994 record, which was the mark for 500 yr storm. Of course, that's twice in 25 years.
Leland, I worked a summer in Wilkes-Barre, PA. cleaning up after Hurricane Agnes. A slow moving, incredible rain total storm. What I remember as I went from house to house on cleanup crews was no matter how hard you scrubbed you couldn't get rid of the mud or the smell. But, the smell is what stuck w/ me. The olfactory part of the brain is adjacent to the memory cells. My prayers for you, your family, and all there.
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