The Headless Shadow Of The Skinny Dipping Texas Thin Man Up Early The Third Saturday Of March Thinking About Getting Fat

It is 65 this 3rd Saturday of March at a little past 7. I have the ceiling fan spinning and the windows open. Birds are making an awful racket out there, announcing the arrival of the sun.

I intend to have myself a very long swim this morning.

This morning I learned that the people of Tarrant County are too fat. Shocking news.

In something called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Project, Tarrant County Public Health found that 66 percent of Tarrant County adults are overweight or obese.

I don't know why the county had to go to the bother of conducting some big surveillance project to figure out this is one fat county.

Just park yourself at any random Tarrant County Wal-Mart and count 100 people and you will likely come close to 66% (or more) appearing to be grossly overweight.

I remember the last time I drove myself back to the Northwest. July of 2001. I crossed the border into Oregon at Ontario. That is a town in Oregon, not the Canadian province. I went in the Ontario Wal-Mart. I was immediately struck by the way it appeared the people had had the air let out of them.

That same people appearing deflated phenomenon occurred again when I flew to Seattle in February of 2004. I had not been back to the Northwest since July of 2002. So, that was over 2 years of seeing a lot of fat Texas people.

I got picked up at Sea-Tac and then brought to the Pioneer Square zone of Seattle to go to a gallery. I was struck even more than the time in Ontario, that it appeared the people had had the air let out of them.

There are way way way too many balloon people in Tarrant County.

Change of subject.

I also learned today that Fort Worth city officials are recommending that one of the victim's of the Rainbow Lounge Gestapo Raid lawsuit case be settled out of court by offering the head injury victim $400,000. The man was injured when Fort Worth staged a bizarre Stormtrooper like raid on the Rainbow Lounge, it being a newly opened gay bar. This Gestapo Raid caused Fort Worth international embarrassment.

For, I think, the second. Or third. Time that year.

Change of subject again.

I've not heard from Elsie Hotpepper in awhile. And then this morning I get an email in which Elsie asks, "You have been quieter than usual, I am not the only one who thinks so...are you ok?"

Now, that is just bizarre. How have I been quiet? It is Elsie who has been quiet.

I tell you, sometimes some people just perplex me.

Which makes me want to go swimming. Right now.

The Shirtless Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man With Some Possible Good Paradise Center News

Yesterday I was under dressed and cold when I did me some hill hiking in the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Today, at noon, the temperature was in the mid 70s and, as you can clearly see, today it was the Shirtless Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man that went hiking.

It is now around 3 in the afternoon and 83. I think I'll open a window.

Thunderstorms were predicted to be arriving at this point in time. Currently I don't see that happening.

I stayed as long in the pool, this morning, as I did yesterday. But today this did not lead to a bad case of out of control shivering.

I've been told that the owners of the Rainbow Lounge have offered space to the good people at the Paradise Center, so they can re-open in a new location, after Tarrant County, in the form of something called MHMR, kicked them out of their home a couple weeks ago.

The Rainbow Lounge has also been the victim of Fort Worth government hooliganism in the form of a brutal Gestapo-like raid that left many injured and one or two hospitalized.

I don't know if anyone responsible for that bizarre raid on the Rainbow Lounge was ever brought to justice and punished. I also don't know if anyone responsible for that bizarre raid on the Paradise Center will ever be brought to justice and punished.

In America justice would be the eventual outcome. But, unfortunately, America is not where the Rainbow Lounge and Paradise Center are located.

Were You At The Rainbow Lounge When The Fort Worth Gestapo Struck?

There is an interesting ad in this week's FW Weekly, next to the ad for the Rainbow Lounge.

You remember the Rainbow Lounge, I'm sure, it made international headlines, for Fort Worth, late last month. That does not happen to Fort Worth all that often.

The Rainbow Lounge is where, in the late hours of June 26 and the early hours of June 27, armed squads of Fort Worth Gestapo Agents, working with fellow thugs from the TABC, invaded the Rainbow Lounge, assaulted patrons, some seriously, handcuffed 20 or so, forcing them to lay, facedown on the parking lot pavement.

When news broke of this latest manifestation of Fort Worth Fascism, reaction was swift and strong. And grew stronger when the Gestapo account was greatly at odds with the accounts of first hand observers, including newspaper reporters and other respectable, credible sorts.

Soon, the police, and Fort Worth's Ruling Junta's propaganda purveying mouthpiece, known as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had to start backpedaling, as it slowly began to dawn that Fort Worth had just had just been delivered a public relations nightmare by the Fort Worth Gestapo.

Within a week, the pressure grew so strong that Fort Worth's usually slow to do anything right, or even remotely politically correct, mayor, Mike Moncrief, called for a federal investigation to get to the truth of why it was that Gestapo Agents were sent to terrorize innocent citizens. And who sent them.

I sort of digressed there, on the way to mentioning the ad in this week's FW Weekly, next to the Rainbow Lounge ad. It's a solicitation from a lawyer. The Law Office of Rob Wiley P.C. is investigating the arrests at the Rainbow Lounge and asking "Were you at the Rainbow Lounge?"

If you have any information regarding this matter you are asked to please call 214.528.6500. This law firm has successfully brought to justice similar suits seeking monetary damages.

So, this is where it gets interesting. The Rainbow Lounge Gestapo Raid could end up costing Fort Worth a fortune. And rightly so. But will it be the Gestapo Agents who conducted the raid who pay the small fortune? No. Hopefully they will be behind bars. But, that seems unlikely, unless the federal investigation somehow topples Fort Worth's Fascist Regime.

So, will it be whoever ordered the Fort Worth Gestapo Agents to make the raid on the Rainbow Lounge, paying out the fortune in restitution?

No. It will be the people of Fort Worth. It will be your tax money, in the end, that pays for the Gestapo Raid, done in your name, on the Rainbow Lounge. It is the citizens of Fort Worth who are ultimately responsible for the fact that they are allowing a Fascist Regime to run roughshod over their fellow citizen's rights.

Where did the money come from that paid the judgments rendered over the drowning of 4 in the Water Gardens? Thin air? Was anyone held accountable for that disaster? I remember the first time I saw that whirlpool and thinking that did not look safe, then thinking it must be made to look dangerous, there must be some sort of grate that catches you if you fall in. That only seemed common sensical. Sadly, common sense is an attribute that seems sometimes to be in short supply in these parts.

Has the Trinity River Vision given its official gone blind notice yet?

Fort Worth Fascist Apologists

I've gotten a comment or two from supporters of Fort Worth's Ruling Junta's Fascist Rule, suggesting that it is totally unfair to use this term to describe Fort Worth.

I beg to differ. It is my contention that those who object to the suggestion that the way Fort Worth is ruled has Fascist attributes, do not know what Fascism is.

Fascism, at its heart, calls for the absolute political rule by its leaders, deploring the democratic ideal of the common people making important decisions.

Such as voting for massive public works projects, like the now, obviously, failing, Trinity River Vision.

Fascism makes use of controlled mass media. In Fort Worth, the Ruling Junta uses its mouthpiece, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, to disseminate misinformation. Currently there is a split in the Ruling Junta, as evidenced by the fact that in the past couple days the Star-Telegram has broken from the previous party line, regarding the Trinity River Vision, raising serious objections for the first time, thus signaling that the project is likely doomed.

Under Fascism corporate power is protected.

The city government of Fort Worth is deeply entwined with the Barnett Shale gas drilling industry, which is wreaking havoc all over Fort Worth, making citizens feel insecure and unsafe in their homes, with the Mayor of Fort Worth, Mike Moncrief, reaping revenue from all the drilling companies poking holes in his dictatorship.

Under Fascism the Supreme Leader is beyond reproach. Media is tightly controlled, with no one allowed to question the Supreme Leader. Fort Worth's Supreme Leader, Mike Moncrief, elected by 70% of 6% of Fort Worth's voters, refuses to answer questions from Fort Worth's actual real newspaper, that being the Fort Worth Weekly, which asks tough questions and does deep investigations into all that corrupts the Fascist City of Fort Worth. As best they can, without access to the dictatorship.

A Fascist State is obsessed with Crime & Punishment. In Fort Worth the Gestapo issues tickets to people caught not wearing their eyeglasses, even though they now wear contacts, and to people caught driving 10 mph while not wearing their seatbelts.

But worse than over policing extremely minor infractions, in a manner which makes the Fort Worth Gestapo appear like cartoon characters to the Free World, the Fort Worth Gestapo commits far worse crimes against humanity. Such as when a goon squad of Fort Worth Gestapo Police Thugs invaded the Rainbow Lounge, randomly handcuffing and beating perfectly innocent citizens, throwing them to the ground to lay face down on a parking lot, to the International Outrage of the Outside Free World.

The Rainbow Lounge crimes of the Fort Worth Gestapo have yet to be punished. Yet another hallmark of a Fascist State.

Under Fascism fraudulent elections take place. People in Fort Worth have been kowtowed, for so long, they seem to have lost any touch with the idea of living in a participatory democracy on the local level. So, in the civic election of a couple months ago, despite the widespread knowledge that Mike Moncrief is running a city rife with cronyism and corruption, he was re-elected, like I already said, by a 70% vote of 6% of the voters.

Speaking of cronyism and corruption, that is another sign of Fascism. The corruption in Fort Worth manifests itself on many levels. Just take the defunct Trinity River Vision. The first Fascist aspect is the citizens of Fort Worth were denied input or voting on this project. Another Fascist aspect is a corrupt politician engineered the installation of her son, J.D. Granger, as the puppet leader of the Trinity River Vision Project, with Granger being a man with zero experience running such a project. Another Fascist aspect, of the Trinity River Vision, is that even before anything substantial has gotten underway with the failing project, J.D. Granger and his cronies arranged to have a palace built for themselves to the tune of millions of dollars. So, the only thing completed of the Trinity River Vision is an ultra-expensive office building in a city with a lot of office space available for lease.

If bets were being taken by Vegas, I'd put my money on the chance that the Trinity River Vision Office will end up being the only thing ever completed of this Fascist project.

So, there you go. Now you know why, in my opinion, Fort Worth has way too many Fascist elements in play, at great odds with a representative democracy where freedom reigns supreme. I don't know if it will take outside intervention, in the form of federal investigations or some sort of internal reform, from some currently unimaginable source, but until the day comes that the vast majority of Fort Worth's people recognize that the way the Fort Worth Trinity Vision was shoved down their throats was wrong, and do something about it, Fort Worth's Fascist Reign will continue.

That is just sad.

Mysterious Fort Worth Rain & Rogue TABC Agents

Unbeknownst to me, it must have rained last night, because, as you can see, my pool is almost overflowing this morning. I was in it last night, about 9, and at that point it was no where near overflowing.

I've never seen it this full, even after a multi-inch downpour that turned my nearest street into a river with rapids.

I figured when I checked the weather reports I would learn it deluged here last night to the tune of many inches. But everywhere I looked I saw zero precipitation recorded.

I was out of here real early to get eggs. I saw a few, small puddles, but mostly everything looks dry. There sure are no signs anywhere else, but the flooded pool that we had a lot of rain last night.

I have not heard from the Haltom City Flood Monitor this morning. This could mean she was up real late monitoring her rising creek. I'm hoping she can solve the mystery of my flooding pool.

In the meantime, it is Saturday, this is a go on a hike day. Usually hiking the Tandy Hills. I don't know if I'm ready to make a foray deeper into the Nazi-controlled area and risk another confrontation with the Fort Worth Gestapo.

Speaking of which, when I was in the grocery store I saw the Dallas paper making mention of the pressure on Fort Worth to do something to address the problem with their rogue SS troops terrorizing innocent citizens. The guy who heads the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, aka TABC, now says his agents had no business invading the Rainbow Lounge in cahoots with a squad of Fort Worth Gestapo Agents, that there had been no complaints, that there was absolutely no reason for the armed assault on innocent citizens.

Star-Telegraph: One Of Fort Worth's Best Watchdogs

By this morning Fort Worth bloggers were blogging about last night's Fort Worth city council which was packed, for once, with angry Fort Worth citizens, demanding action regarding the Rainbow Lounge Scandal, where a group of Fort Worth police, acting like Gestapo thugs, beat up bar patrons, handcuffed over 20, forcing them to lay, facedown on a parking lot, while one was so severely beaten he had to be hospitalized.

When the police version was released there were howls of protests from citizens who were actually there, including newspaper reporters and others of good reputation, who quickly let it be known that the police version was a BIG LIE. Soon large protests and world wide condemnation of the Fascist State of Fort Worth, led Fort Worth's morally bankrupt, ethically challenged mayor, Mike Moncrief, after a week, to call for a Federal investigation of the crimes that took place here in Fort Worth.

One very astute Fort Worth blogger, the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph, managed to see the connection between the Rainbow Lounge incident of police judgement gone awry and my incident yesterday, where a Fort Worth policeman, legitimately and responsibly doing his job, stopped me to ask why I was driving so slow. A valid reason to stop someone, I suppose, guarding the neighborhood against something that looks suspicious.

Where it goes awry is, rather than simply ascertaining that I was no threat to the neighborhood, the cop had seen I was not wearing my seatbelt. The explanation of why I was not wearing my seatbelt was of no import to this cop. The fact that I was driving slow while not wearing the seatbelt was of no import, made no difference. As in, I was not violating the spirit of the law, that being to click it when you are driving at as speed and among traffic where a wreck could cause injury.

Might I add that in my long driving career, that surely covers hundreds of thousands of miles, I have not had a single incident where the seat belt was of any use to me. As in, I have never had a wreck. Knock on wood.

So, just like with the Rainbow Lounge, only on a minor scale, I had an incident where the officer could have earned my respect, in that he was diligently doing his duty to look out for the neighborhood he was patrolling. He could have simply said, okay, I get why you were driving slow. And I understand why you didn't want to put your belt on, but you need to. So, get out of here, sorry for stopping you, have a good day.

That cop behavior would have had a totally different outcome. Instead he managed to annoy one of the citizens he is supposed to serve and protect, causing the citizen to besmirch the character of Fort Worth's possibly serious corrupt police department, in a venue that reaches far outside of Fort Worth, adding, just like the Rainbow Lounge incident, but in a more minor way, to the growing image being projected to the outside world, that Fort Worth is not a place you want to visit. You may find yourself getting beaten up by Fort Worth police in a bar. Or get a ticket for driving 15 mph in a residential neighborhood without wearing your seatbelt because you were sweating like a fat pig and didn't want the added discomfort of a seatbelt til you cooled down.

Yup. That is my advice to those not currently in the Fascist State of Fort Worth. Stay away til we have a revolution here and establish a respectable law enforcement agency and city government.

Rainbow Lounge Police Brutality In Fort Worth

There have been a few times since I quit getting a daily local paper when I have found I missed an item of local news. Usually I learn this when someone makes mention of something with me having no clue what they are talking about.

The latest instance of me being in the dark is in regards to an incident in Fort Worth that has turned into a national story that has Fort Worth not looking so good, with me learning about it via the New York Times.

A few weeks ago a new gay bar called the Rainbow Lounge opened in Fort Worth. On June 28, about an hour after midnight, the bar was raided by Fort Worth Police and agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

June 28 was the 40th anniversary of the infamous Stonewall riot in New York City that sparked the gay rights movement.

The Fort Worth raid turned violent, leaving one man in a hospital with a serious head injury. The man with the head injury is Chad Gibson, 26, from Euless. He has a concussion, a fracture to his skull and internal bleeding. Another man had his ribs broken and another had his thumb broken.

The police entered the bar without saying who they were or why they were there. Witnesses described the police as acting "hyped up." More than 20 men were rounded up and taken outside where they were handcuffed and forced to lie face down on the parking lot.

The police continued their harassment for about a half hour. When Gibson was attacked he was sitting on steps at the back of the bar, holding a bottle of water. The cop tapped him on his shoulder, Gibson then turned and asked, "Why?" The cop then twisted Gibson's right arm behind his back, grabbed him by the neck, swung him off the steps and slammed his head into a wall. Then the cop threw Gibson to the floor.

One witness, Lindsey Thompson, said she saw the cop slam Gibson's head onto the floor after his hands were cuffed.

Reaction to the police brutality was swift. Within hours 100s were protesting at the Tarrant County Courthouse. When the police report came out it drastically did not match what observers say actually happened. This further inflamed the protesters. After a week of bad publicity, making Fort Worth look worse than usual, Mayor Mike Moncrief called for a Federal Investigation.