Butch Renfroe Blog

The Hogs lost tonight and the Internet is melting down with cries of “Rehire Bobby Petrino” Some people will justify winning over anything else. Over character, over morals, and over simple right and wrong. I have to wonder about the character, morals and simple understanding of right and wrong those people possess who think that way. This kind of thinking is what got Penn State in the fix they are in today and got SMU the death penalty in the 80’s. A fact of life is that while we might get forgiveness for trespasses, we still have to face the…

I stand a good chance of stepping on the toes of many people who I consider friends. We live in a country that is vastly more politically polarized than it was twenty-years ago. Nowhere is this more evident than in the national media, especially on the various cable news outlets. Many of these national news and information outlets still carry a pretty good news product, but much of their airtime is filled with opinionated talk shows Maybe I am naïve, but I think viewers should be totally ignorant of the anchors and reporters political leanings. I think viewers should expect…

Back in the early days of my web development career, I went to a web conference in Little Rock. I don’t remember any other speakers that day except this one gentleman. This was 1997 and not a lot was understood about behavior of people using the Internet and World Wide Web. This is especially true of the people in the print media. This guy had his fool proof plan for making money on the web: Don’t put content online unless it is sponsored. This guy was a newspaper guy. Not a web guy. He didn’t get it. I asked him…

I recently turned another year older.  As I barrel headlong into being a grouchy, old curmudgeon, I want to point out something that bugs me to no end: YOU PEOPLE ARE WAY TOO GULLIBLE! And when I say YOU PEOPLE, I mean you people that will believe anything that is sent to your inbox or is posted on Facebook or Twitter. For example,you get sent an email that informs you about some restaurant chain that is not serving veterans and your first response is “Well how dare they!  I will boycott these dastardly, un-American pigs!” You then feel the need to share your righteous anger with the rest of…

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. Mark Twain- Letter to George Bainton, 10/15/1888 In 1998 I saw first hand how much of an uproar that the lack of one letter could stir up while working at the Log Cabin Democrat. The Log Cabin Democrat is a venerable old newspaper published in Conway, Arkansas. It has for a good many years been a trusted source of information for the good people of Conway and Faulkner County. But, even the best of news…

Great article on npr.com about how kids with autism spectrum disorders are particularly vulnerable to bullying. In other news, water is also wet. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/04/23/151037898/children-with-autism-are-often-targeted-by-bullies or Listen In the article, it points out that autism spectrum kids who are more outgoing are more likely to be targets for bullies than the more aloof children with autism. Debbie and I can testify to this.  Our two sons both have  autism spectrum disorders. Brad, our oldest has Asperger’s and Ryan, the youngest, has more of a ‘classic’ case of autism. Like many Asperger’s kids, Brad wanted very much to be a part of the crowd and accepted.  His lack of understanding…

C.S. Lewis basically puts it all in a nutshell with this quote from Mere Christianity: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is…

Why would anyone ever buy premium brand saltine crackers and not a store brand? Bootstrap may be my new choice for building a site. About .08% percent of you even know what that means. I hope I look as good as Steven Tyler does when I’ve been dead for two years. If I delivered babies I would so use the magic trick where you just keep pulling the scarf out.  My desk says that if there’s an opposite of O.C.D, I probably have that.

On a bright, sunny day in February a group of young adults met  together to eat pizza, laugh, talk and play video games.  While this is far from an uncommon sight, what made it special were the people involved. Community Connections in Conway sponsors the group for young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders. (ASD includes Autism, Aspergers and PDD.  Google if you want to know more). It was a few weeks before this day when I ran into Kelly Coffman at Kroger.  I had not seen Kelly in quite a long time, so we had to catch up a little bit.…

I was leaving McDonald’s this morning (Oatmeal and black coffee. I’m trying.) when I noticed the sign showing the closing of the UA Cinema Six in Conway. The place had to be over 35 years old. I suspected the old place might close down when the new theater in Conway opened. The new Cinemark with stadium seating, fat-boy chairs (yes!), digital projection, and floors that have not gotten sticky yet. I guess it was just a matter of time. Movie goers, me included, started going to Little Rock to see movies. The Rave and the Chenal IMAX were just a…