Bush Library Coverage

[EastStang]

Okay, I couldn't help but weigh in. Nacho, how many Baptist sermons have you heard in your life? I've been a Baptist pretty much all my life, and I hear more about grace than about hell. I hear more about living a good life to please God, rather than so you don't go to hell. I've been to numerous Southern Baptist National conventions and about the only time hell is mentioned, it is mentioned as the place you go if you haven't accepted Christ as your savior. In fact one of the prime doctrines of Baptists is the concept of once saved always saved. That's it. I have only heard the live a bad life and go to hell sermon in guess what (irony of irony's) the Episcopal Church. And I've been in literally dozens of different kinds of baptist churches, conservative, moderate and liberal (even foot washing). Yeah Baptists believe in a literal bible, but most of the time they talk about what that bible means to help you make good choices in your life. Now, I've also been to a many Methodist sermons which persuaded me that the Methodist church was not my type of place. I'm glad you're happy with your choice of denomination. Its unfortunate that you had such a bad experience in your brush with Baptists.

[mrydel]

I skip the sermons on Hell. I've been married twice. To paraphrase the late, great Sam Kinneson, that qualifies me to be a guide.

[jtstang]

1) There were no dinosaurs on the ark.

2) myrdel's wife is nice and may yet save him.

[Nacho]

ES I am glad you are happy in your faith. My response was to someone who asked me why I thought the Bush Library was a better fit at Baylor. I gave my honest opinion based not only on my curent long-term membership in the Methodist church but my 20 year membership in the Baptist church. Discussing politics and religion are not my favorite topics but I was asked a question and gave my honest answer. I am indeed very sorry if I offended you or anyone else in the Baptist church. I respect all religions and have great respect for anyone of faith.

[EastStang]

Thanks, not upset at all, just trying to give the other side of the story. There is one interesting aspect to all of this. Baptist internal politics. Baylor is not on the good list of Southern Baptist conservatives who are close to President Bush. People like Judge Pressler of Houston and Richard Land are Bush cronies, and they have no love for Baylor. This is of course good news to SMU. Because despite our liberal faculty, the students, alumni and donors are by and large conservative and that will bode well for us in this competition. And of course the Laura - Cheney factor. Laura, if you want any the library goes to SMU. Cheney, George if you want a cookie, you have to put the library at SMU.

[PonyLove]

Laura trumps all.

[abezontar]

would you?

[expony18]

1) There were no dinosaurs on the ark.

we all know that dinasurs were killed by jell-o
http://www.frankwu.com/Jell-O.html

[PonySoprano]

Historians will flock to the library to find out what really happened in this White House.

East-
I agree with your overall assessment of the Library, it will be nothing but an asset to SMU. However, to say that historians will flock to SMU might be premature because of the Executive Order Preisdent George W. signed that allows him to restrict the release of documets after he is out of office. It used to be that Presidential records were released to the pubic 12 years after the sitting President was out of office. However GWB chnaged the rules, and those records could be sealed forever.

From the DMN:
In November 2001, a little more than a month after terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and two months before the 12-year clock would have run out for Reagan-era records, Mr. Bush changed the rules. Former chief executives, starting with President Reagan, could block release of any records for any reason and any length of time.

If a Presidental Library restricts access to records and documents, how many historians are really going to flock to the campus?

I want the libraryat SMU, but I want it to be more than a shrine to GWB.

article from the DMN I quoted above:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/020507dnnatbushsecrecy.1f9a953.html

[Stallion]

that rule will likely be reversed in the next election. Its questionable whether Bush had the power to do that since there is a statute which says the exact opposite. A lot of stupid rules will be reversed in the next election.

[jtstang]

1) There were no dinosaurs on the ark.

2) myrdel's wife is nice and may yet save him.

But there may have been chickens on the ark, which evolved from dinosaurs:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/04 ... index.html

And mrydel's wife, who obviously evolved from the better parts of the primordial ooze, is still nice.

[expony18]

i would much rather hunt a dinsoaur, instead of pheasent and quail

[EastStang]

To heck with dinosaurs. I'd chase Laura.

[PK]

To heck with dinosaurs. I'd chase Laura.

I'm almost afraid to even ask, but...which Laura?

[Stallion]

Bush Library Architect Selection Begins
June 25, 2007
by David Dillon

It’s getting to be legacy time for President George W. Bush and, among other things, that means building a presidential library—which, after months of official denials and equivocations, is headed for Southern Methodist University (SMU), in Dallas, the alma mater of first lady Laura Bush.

This location was confirmed in an RFQ issued on May 24 by 3D/I, a Houston-based firm hired by the Presidential Library Foundation to oversee the selection process. The document outlines a 145,000-square-foot library and 40,000-square-foot public policy institute on “property that SMU recently acquired.” The project must be compatible with “the distinct architectural character of SMU,” i.e., Georgian, and “commemorate and celebrate the accomplishments of President Bush.” Kevin Sloan and Alan Chimacoff, both then of Hillier Architecture and now in private practice, assembled the master plan. It proposed two sites, one near the center of SMU’s campus, the other on the southern edge facing downtown Dallas.

A dozen architecture firms received the RFQ. They include Cesar Pelli Associates, Robert A.M. Stern, HOK, and Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge, as well as Texas-based firms such as Lake/Flato, Overland Partners, HKS, and Beck Architecture. The designers have until July 25 to provide management plans. Firms that make the short list will be interviewed in Washington during the week of July 30, with the winner announced in early August.

The RFQ confirmed what most observers had suspected since SMU beat out Baylor, Texas Tech, and the University of Dallas in a high stakes competition last fall. But SMU’s coup was shadowed by lawsuits initiated last fall by property owners who contend that the university duped them into selling on the cheap, as well as by harsh criticism from many SMU professors who fear that Bush’s public policy institute will be a partisan think tank. Although SMU prevailed in these lawsuits, less clear is the amount of influence that professors will have over the independently staffed policy institute.

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Also unclear is an exact location on campus where the library will be constructed and a price tag for the project, though this is believed to be roughly $200 million. For now, at least, the RFQ does answer the question of which school will host the library.