I’ll Be on Fox 4 Tonight at 9 p.m.
Not doing a perp walk or being ambushed by a reporter. I’ll be discussing a gun rights bill currently under debate in Austin.
Check it out if you can. It’s going to be sometime in the 9 p.m. broadcast.
(Question: Bow tie or no? I wear a bow tie now. Bow ties are cool.)
Concealed Carry and College Campuses
My column about why the Second Amendment and the rights of CHL holders shouldn’t be considered void on college campuses is up at Guns.com.
Guns.com is a new site I’m writing for and there are a few bugs as with any new publication. So forgive a few editing errors that pop up.
Here’s a taste.
“I was shot through the left thigh, both hips and right shoulder and I survived by playing dead,” said Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 who is now a student at the University of Texas in Austin.
He told his emotional story to try to sway Texas lawmakers to reject a coming bill in the 2011 legislative session that will add one more place that concealed handgun license holders are allowed while armed – college campuses.
“I was there that day. That was the craziest day of my life with one person with two guns. I can’t imagine what it would have been like with multiple students with multiple guns,” he said.
I can imagine it. And it’s not some Pollyanna scenario. It’s based on the facts on the ground at Virginia Tech in 2007
and in Texas in 1991 and 1966.
But before I get into that, I have to tell you this isn’t new territory for me. Nor is it for Texas. Texans have been fighting an incremental fight to expand gun rights that started with the massacre at a Luby’s in Killeen, Texas.
The massacre and its aftermath should be required reading for all sides in the gun debate.
You Wanna Meet the Real Me Now?
Tomorrow begins a new era on this mighty blog.
Lemme ’splain.
"You wanna meet the real me now?"
When I haven’t neglected my blog I’ve posted with one hand tied behind my back. For some reason I had in my mind I should tone it down for the sake of respectability. Like a good writer should worry about being reputable.
I have no idea what I was thinking. By offering watered-down, gelded and respectable posts here, I wasn’t doing you any favors. Or me.
And I’m at an age where I really don’t give a crap about people who don’t want to take me as I am, or who need the world made Nerf.
So, starting tomorrow this blog gets its man back on. You get to meet the real me, uncensored and not giving a shit. I don’t care if I offend you, entertain you or make you cry. It’s my name on this shack. You don’t like it, go be a crybaby someplace else.
It’s going to rude, immature, mean and frankly funny as hell. If you like rude, immature and mean humor. Come on back or stay the hell of my lawn, kids.
Star Children’s Charity Responds To My Article in D Magazine
My boss man over at D Magazine has posted a response we got from Star Children’s Charity to my story in the January issue of D.
As Tim notes, the money graph in my story is this.
A look at Star’s most recent IRS Form 990 provides insight. It shows that in 2008 Star brought in $979,081 in donations and grants. It spent $522,554 on administrative costs and fundraising events. So the organization spent 53 cents for every dollar it raised, quite a high figure. The national average is about 20 cents. That year, Star doled out just $367,764 to its partner charities. 2009 was worse. Star doled out only $294,000, and it spent $1.57 for every dollar it raised.
Here’s what they sent both Tim and me.
Your recent article negatively portraying Star Children’s Charity is a disappointment to our Board of Directors, members, sponsors, beneficiaries and so many others in Collin County whose goal it is to make life better for the children of our community.
The accusation that Star is one of the reasons that Crossroads Family Services was folded into Boys and Girls Club is one of several egregious misstatements. The article also infers that Star has not distributed funds to Crossroads. The fact is that we have distributed a total of $661,000 to our beneficiaries including Crossroads.
Star is a well-run volunteer organization led by business owners and leaders, corporate executives and community philanthropists. The cumulative Management and General Expense for our organization is 10% compared to an acceptable industry average of 12% to 20%. Star also compares favorably to the national non-profit benchmarks for the cost to raise a dollar with our expenses for fundraisers between 5 cents to 57 cents for each dollar raised.
But the most disrespectful part of your article was in demeaning the beneficiary agencies. These institutions are known for their stewardship and their integrity and we are grateful to be a part of their important missions for children. We invite your readers to visit our website, starchildrens.com to see for themselves that we are a well managed organization dedicated to providing funding and leadership to important community organizations.
Sincerely,
Michelle Brennan Hall, Chairman, Board of Directors
Michael Urtso, Treasurer, Board of Directors
Ronelle Ianace, Executive Director
Submitted and mirrored from here without comment. You decide.
In Print: Collin County Partied at Kids’ Expense
My investigative piece on the mismanagement of Star Children’s Charity in Collin County is online and in your mailboxes.
It was the kind of cool November evening in Frisco that allowed gentlemen to wear tuxedos without perspiring, while the ladies could still go bare shouldered in their Carmen Marc Valvo. As premium brands flowed from the open bar, guests in the Embassy Suites’ Grand Ballroom pored over four- and five-figure silent auction items like diamond rings and a $10,000 Super Bowl ticket package. Dinner, a live auction, a magic show, and casino games would follow.
From all outward appearances, Star Children’s Charity’s annual Winter Ball was a huge success. Guests, who paid a minimum of $250 per ticket, must have assumed that tens of thousands of dollars were raised by Star, which funnels money to other Collin County nonprofits that serve children. But it’s not at all clear whether Star made money that night (expenses ran north of $200,000). And, if it did make money, Star will have to use those funds to dig itself out of a deep red hole created by making pledges in past years to charities that it couldn’t fulfill. Take a look at Star’s books, ask around in Collin County nonprofit circles, and a picture of profound mismanagement begins to emerge.
“Besides hiding their liabilities and not fulfilling their commitments, they are telling people, ‘You don’t need to support this agency. You can support Star, and we will get the money to them,’ ” says a member of one nonprofit that has worked with Star. The source, like several who spoke to D Magazine, asked not to be named. “Star is just getting in the way and eating up donor dollars with their high overhead.
My Book Is Being Shopped Around
My first full-length novel, The Merchant Princes: A Far Ranger Adventure, is being shopped around. I’m closer to getting it published.
It’s a very different 1928. The North American continent is comprised of several rival nations, the Nazis came to power in Germany a decade sooner, and science and the supernatural co-exist.
The Nazis have hatched a plot to raise a legion of undead soldiers. An anti-Nazi faction within
the Third Reich recruits a young Prussian doctor, Dr. Kurt von Deitel, to find help in the West to stop this devious plan.
Enter Sean Fox Rucker and Jesus D’Anconia Lago, two Great War veterans and freelance pilots who are reluctantly pulled into the quest. They are joined by a brash Greek merchant, a brilliant Jewish cowboy, and the woman who once broke Rucker’s heart.
The heroes race against Nazi clockwork assassins, a charismatic commando, a telekinetic sadist, and transgenic man-beasts known as wehr-wolves.
The quest takes them around the world, with settings both familiar and exotic: Colombia, Austin, 
the capital of the Union States in New York City, a floating city over the Caribbean, Rome, and Poenari Castle in Transylvania. Along the way, they encounter well-known historical figures and uncover the shocking truth about the real Spear of Destiny.
The Merchant Princes recaptures the unapologetic adventure, excitement and suspense of the classic pulp fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, along with a healthy dose of steampunk, historical fiction and humor.
Yet it also alludes to philosophical and moral issues relevant to our world today: the trade-off between security and liberty, the morality of pre-emptive war, and what fundamentally separates good from evil.
It’s got Nazis, zombies, cowboys, robots and airships. Isn’t that everything you want in a book?
Me Out There, or I Didn’t Know AOL Was Still Around
Yes, they are still around, and I’m occasionally writing for them. Simple stuff like “Best Places for a Man Date” or “Best Hot Dogs.” (articles unrelated) Basically, it’s stuff like this here.
Anyway, it’s on CitysBest and if you have any ideas for best of lists in the Dallas area — Best Rainy Saturday Options, Best Yoga Studios, Best Cheap Eats, Best Whatever The Hell — please drop me an email and I’ll pitch it to my editor there.
In Print This Month: A Look at Bill McNutt
On your news stand or in your mailbox, the June issue of D Magazine with my feature on Bill McNutt, the alumnus arrested and now under the spotlight.
Here’s a teaser. Follow the link for the full story.
———–
The details of Bill McNutt’s February arrest—at least the details that have been made public—don’t add up. The prominent SMU alumnus had been banned from campus since November 2008. A university official would later tell the Dallas Morning News that SMU had “heard reports of alleged questionable behavior that caused concern among some students.” McNutt had dinner parties at his house, and he invited students to them. Alcohol was available. So was a masseuse. Several people told the News that the dinners were “creepy,” and girls felt pressured to undress for a private massage in a mirrored back room.
But even if true, none of that was illegal. So why would the university ban a donor and the founding president of the Young Alumni Association from campus? And why, if he was banned, did McNutt continue to receive personal invitations to on-campus functions from members of the administration? The administration was saying one thing; SMU Police Chief Rick Shafer was saying another. He warned McNutt that he was “not welcome on the SMU campus for any reason whatsoever.”
In Print This Month — C’est Moi
My column on the hunt for a new top cop for Dallas is up on the web now.
Also, I get some kind words from Rudy Bush at City Hall.