I'm Not The Only Star-Telegram Basher

I am not the only Fort Worth Star-Telegram Basher. Our numbers are large and they are increasing at about the same rate as the Star-Telegram is diminishing. Below is a Letter to the Editor from today's edition. Yet one more reader cancelling his subscription. I continue to subscribe, eternal optimist that I am, hoping that somehow this paper can be fixed. I'm very naive, I admit it.

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As a subscriber for many years, I’ve watched the steady decline during the past couple of years as the Star-Telegram eliminated valued, usable content and began its descent into irrelevance.

After reading the series on JPS, however, I came to realize that the newspaper is no longer concerned with objective journalism, either.

Half-truths and subjective viewpoints were passed off as fact. Information more than 2 years old was passed off as current and, worse, still valid. Information that could have presented a balanced viewpoint was ignored. Successes were ignored.

Yes, JPS has problems, as does any hospital. But much of what was purported to be wrong with JPS had already been identified, addressed and resolved.

My main problem is that your series didn’t serve the public by providing an objective look at the situation. Instead, the focus seemed to be more on sensationalism, slanted to prey on our fears and mistrust and a need to create a “crisis in healthcare.” Give us the whole story, not just half.

The real crisis lies with the Star-Telegram. I’ve had enough. After I hit the send button, I’ll be calling to cancel my subscription.

— Brad Brown, Fort Worth

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal Video

I was in Arlington early yesterday morning. I had my video camera with me. I was near the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. I saw construction workers on the roof. It looked dangerous. I could not see how they were tethered to prevent a fall. I'm sure they were, but I could see no ropes attached to the workers.

A couple days ago I blogged about Jerry Jones' latest attempts to boot people out of their homes, for a parking lot, and that this time the City of Arlington is not going along as his co-conspirator in abusing the concept of eminent domain to attain private property for the public good.

I was able to find the location of the houses surrounded by Jerry Jones' new parking lot. I wanted to take a photo to illustrate those unlucky people's plight. But, that opportunity did not present itself. I think more newly acquired houses need to be bulldozed before the holdouts are in an Island of Parking Lots in the latest chapter of the worst abuse of eminent domain in American history.

The photo you see above is from the south side of the new stadium, with one of the few apartment complexes in the stadium zone still standing after Jerry Jones' Blitzkrieg of Bulldozers leveled all its neighbors.

Below is a video I made yesterday. In it you can see those workers on the roof I mentioned above. And you'll see some of what used to sit on the land the stadium now squats on.

Fort Worth's First Public Market

My dear 2 readers. Today is a whine about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram blogging day. I do this for my own enjoyment, not yours. So, read on if you must, but it won't hurt my feelings if you don't.

So, this morning's paper brought me a lotta fresh fodder. Right now I'll only mention one. In the Work & Money section in an article under the headline "List of endangered sites set to get longer."

Among the supposedly historic sites in Fort Worth that are in danger is the one you see in the photo. That being the Fort Worth Public Market Building.

The article describes the Fort Worth Public Market Building as having been built in 1930 to provide space for local farmers and vendors, closing in 1941.

So, what's the big deal? Well. Just a few short years ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had absolutely no awareness that Fort Worth had had a Public Market Building where farmers vended their wares.

In downtown Fort Worth a pathetic, obviously doomed to fail, badly designed, poorly executed, dishonestly promoted, small mall food court like thing opened to much Star-Telegram brouhaha. This sad, now shuttered, mistake, was called the Sante Fe Rail Market.

The Star-Telegram over and over and over and over again, even after being told, more than once, they were wrong, repeatedly claimed that the Santa Fe Rail Market was not only the first Public Market in Fort Worth, Fort Worth's disinformation purveyor claimed the Santa Fe Rail Market was the first Public Market in Texas!

The Star-Telegram also served up the ridiculous assertion, over and over and over again, that the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and Public Markets in Europe. Just 30 miles to the west, in Weatherford, there is a Public Market. And 30 miles to the east, in Dallas, there is a Public Market. Both of which, particularly the Dallas Market, actually do resemble Seattle's Pike Place Market, a market no Star-Telegram employee must have ever seen, as in how in clear conscience could they then have repeatedly repeated this absurd assertion?

Regarding the endangered Fort Worth Public Market, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram repeated the misinformation about the Santa Fe debacle being the first in Texas many many many times, even after it was pointed out to them that the first Public Market in Fort Worth was within walking distance of both the new soon to fail pseudo public market and the Star-Telegram's offices. I suggested they send one of their bloviated reporters out for a look. I also suggested they send a reporter to Seattle and have the reporter write an article making note of all the similarities between Pike Place and the Santa Fe Rail Market. If he could find any.

It is sort of sad that a transplant from the west coast, exiled in Fort Worth, has to point out the facts of their own town to the local newspaper. Something ain't right about that.

So, today it was interesting to read that these few years later the Star-Telegram is now not only acknowledging the existence of Fort Worth's first Public Market, they even put a large photo of it in the paper to illustrate the endangered structures.

Now if only they'd examine their part in the Santa Fe Rail Market's failure, due to the Star-Telegram helping create an erroneous expectation for visitors, particularly those who had been to Pike Place or some other successful public market, who were then disgusted to visit that sad Santa Fe operation and see what a lame thing it was and realize they'd been lied to once more by the local paper of record. The Star-Telegram should be ashamed for its part in that enterprise's demise.

With today's discovery of the actual first public market in Fort Worth how does the Star-Telegram reconcile their ridiculous inconsistencies? One can't help but wonder.

Tomorrow, unless something else comes, along I'll blog about the latest outrage from Fort Worth's ruling junta.

Dallas Doctor Warning

I don't have a lot of respect for many aspects of the Medical Business Industry. My limited contact with that business has always been not a pretty thing.

My worst experience being when I had to have a CAT SCAN. When I got to the hospital I was told that my doctor had ordered a different test due to some new test results. I was told I needed, I think it was called, a Gallium scan. It's been a lot of years and these are memories I want to fade.

I asked what is a Gallium scan for? You'll have to talk to your doctor I was told. I started getting a bit nervous. I was brought a large glass of a very vile fluid and told to drink it. It was gag material.

After about an hour a doctor showed up and I asked again what this Gallium scan was for and what has happened that has changed so that I'm not having a CAT SCAN? I was told a Gallium scan was to look for Hodgkin's Disease. I knew this was a cancer and that my grandpa I never met was killed by it.

Needless to say my blood pressure was going up. I was already in there for a fairly serious problem and now it got way amped up.

I started getting more insistent that I wanted an explanation. A nurse looked at some charts and seemed confused. She left. After awhile 2 doctors showed up. They asked my name. You're not Mr. Sloan? No, I am not. They told me there'd been a chart mix up.

And so, I was then led to another room, with my gut full of that vile liquid. There was some apologizing and then we proceeded on to the CAT SCAN.

When I got the medical bills, they were a Byzantine Ball of Confusion. My original operation required a, well, prothesis type of thing, made of silicone. The bill charged twice for it. I found many mistakes in the bill with my amateur eyes. I took the bill to my doctor and asked if he'd look for other mistakes. He said he wouldn't do that, ask a nurse. The nurse wouldn't do it either. I called the hospital and told them due to all the mistakes of various sorts I was not going to pay them. And I didn't.

Now, why am I telling this sad story right now? Well, I just read Gar the Texan's Blog about his bad experience recently with a bad Dallas doctor. A shrink named Neil Jacobson. Gar the Texan's daughter nearly died from this quack prescribing a pill after seeing her for 15 minutes. The hospital bill is quite large, Gar the Texan's lawyer told him it is not economically feasible to sue over such a small amount. I told Gar the Texan that is what small claims court is for.

And one of the things the Internet is good for is being able to spread the word about dangers like this Dallas doctor. 20 years ago our only source of such info would have been the conventional media, like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In other words, we live in an infinitely safer world now due to the Internet.

Dallas Cowboys Attacking Homes Again

Jerry Jones decided he needed more Arlington homes destroyed for added parking space for his new Dallas Cowboy stadium. So, Jerry Jones sent out someone to make offers to a number of homeowners. About a dozen, so far, have agreed to sell. Once the deals were made the deeds were transferred to a company run by Jerry Jones.

The city of Arlington, stung by their notorious new reputation for being co-conspirators in the worst abuse of the concept of eminent domain in American history, refused to use eminent domain this time.

Jerry Jones minions have been very aggressive, harassing the holdouts relentlessly. Jerry Jones has now acquired enough new parking lot space that the holdouts will end up being an island surrounded by concrete. And football fans.

Holdouts have had their homes invaded and have had to chase surveyors off their property.

Meanwhile, there are many cases still being litigated from the original land grab. Apparently there is some principle along the lines of you can't start bulldozing until due process has been followed. Or whatever the right legalese is. But Jerry Jones unleashed his Army of Bulldozers in a Hitlerian Blitzkrieg while homeowners were still trying to fight their destruction by using the American court system, well, the American court system as practiced in Texas.

If the cases can get to a court outside of Texas jurisdiction it would seem there'd be a good chance that justice might finally be found and maybe ultimate justice might be attained and someone finds himself charged, arraigned, tried, convicted and behind bars. And the NFL changes its mind about playing a Super Bowl in a stadium so shamefully built on what amounts to being a graveyard of people's unfairly altered lives.

I wonder how actively those holdout's home invasions have been investigated?

Six Flags Over Texas Roller Coasting

I've been to Six Flags Over Texas twice. Both times due to being given free passes. When I moved to Texas I thought it'd be fun living near what I assumed would be something like Disneyland. Sadly I was not out of the Six Flags parking lot before I realized Six Flags was no Disneyland.

Six Flags Over Texas is known for its roller coasters. I had not been on a roller coaster since I took my nephews to Vegas a couple months before I moved. In Vegas I rode the New York New York roller coaster. It is a bumpy ride but not bone jarring. In the photo that is me and my nephew Joey in the front seats on the NYNY coaster.

By the time I made my first visit to Six Flags I knew their Texas Giant wooden roller coaster was one of the world's tallest and that it had been named by some group of professional roller coaster riders as the Best Wooden Roller Coaster in the world.

I'd been on a wooden roller coaster before, at the PNE in Vancouver, Canada. The Canadian wooden roller coaster did not prepare me for the Texas Giant. It may be my age-related frailness, but by the time I got off the Texas Giant my bones were aching, my back felt like I'd been in a Nazi torture chamber, my neck was twisted. And my hair was a total mess.

And so I vowed to never get on another roller coaster. And I haven't.

You can ride the Texas Giant via the YouTube video below. And go to my Eyes on Texas website for more Six Flags coaster rides.

Scarlett Dumped Me For Ryan Reynolds

I'm shocked. After our long secret romance, Scarlett Johannson is suddenly marrying someone named Ryan Reynolds. How did this happen? Who is Ryan Reynolds? I don't even feel like I know Scarlett anymore. I don't feel like I ever really did.

Not having a clue as to who this was who stole Scarlett away from me I had to look it up. He's a Canadian. From Vancouver. How can she marry a Canadian? They say "eh" after almost every sentence, like they question every thing that comes out of their mouths. It is very very annoying after you hear dozens of "eh's".

That's Ryan Reynolds on the right. Eh? With the beard. Eh? Scarlett looks like she's lost weight. Eh?

Canadians also don't know how to properly pronounce other words. Like they can not say "about." It comes out as "aboot." Eh?

And Canadians leave off the word "the" when they speak of going to a hospital. They don't say, "They took him to the hospital." Canadians say, "They took him to hospital." Eh?

I worked for a short time for an ex-priest in Tacoma who married an ex-nun and who runs a rundown trinket store in Tacoma. He would say, "I will have to talk that over with staff." Not, "I will talk that over with the staff." Or, "my staff." That'd work too. I don't know why I find this annoying. Maybe, in the ex-priest's case, it's because his staff consisted of his ne-er-do-well son, the son's high school dropout wife, a dissipated elderly alcoholic, a blonde floozy and a yes girl who acted like Honey in the Doonesbury strip. It just seemed sort of pretentious to refer to that group as staff.

One time the ex-priest told me he considered me part of staff. Even though I'm in Texas. I was offput. I did not want to be part of staff. I no longer am part of staff. It was probably my bad attitude that got me removed from staff. Eh?

I also worked for the ex-priest's hugely obese sister. She sold chocolate and ate considerable volumes of the stuff. While being perpetually on the Atkin's Diet. She had all sorts of digestive and hygiene issues. Due to her size she fell down every once in awhile. I only saw one fall. It was like watching a large tree slowly crash to the ground. She never got hurt from the falls due to all that heft acting like a giant pillow. Or at least that's what I assumed. When I saw her fall I tried to help her get back up, but I can only lift 300 pounds tops.

Eventually I had enough and had to fire the ex-priest's hugely obese sister. She'd lied to and cheated one of my best friends one time too many. She was caught shorting her workers on pay. And then she made the mistake of shorting me. I never did learn the exact size of the fine that she had to pay to Labor & Industries. Except that I heard through the grapevine that it was substantial. The IRS caught up to her too. For not filing for 10 years.

I wonder who turned her in?

Turkmenistan Texas

I was reminded of Fort Worth's Bass family when I saw this photo of what I believe is the Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov Performance Hall in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Fort Worth's Bass Family, as I've noted previously, has an odd habit of naming Fort Worth buildings after themselves, like the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov was Turkmenistan's president for life til he died a couple years ago. He became quite famous during his reign for his megalomaniacal ways, one of which was a penchant for naming all sorts of things after himself on a level that leaves the Bass Family puny pikers.

Niyazov decided the old names for months and days would be much better if named after various people, such as himself and his mother and other Turkmenistan historical figures.

He even renamed bread after his mother. Both the month of April and bread became Gurbansoltan. April seems a much prettier name for both bread and a month. And a mother. Maybe Gurbansoltan sounds better in its native tongue than it reads in English. When I try to say Gurbansoltan it sounds like Gur Buns So Tan.

Niyazov banned car radios, lip-synching and all recorded music.

Because Niyazov thought dogs smelled bad they were banned from capital city Ashgabat.

Niyazov spent untold millions of dollars to build a lake. Which is yet one more thing Ashgabat and Fort Worth have in common, as in Fort Worth has a boondoggly plan to spend untold millions of dollars to build a lake, and just like in Turkmenistan, the good citizens of Fort Worth do not get to vote on the lake that may flood part of their town. Fort Worth's ruling junta makes those type decisions and then orders property owners off their property using the unique Texas variant of the concept of using eminent domain to acquire private property for the public good. Like building a lake.

President-for-Life Niyazoz liked seeing himself in sculpted form, so he ordered statues of himself erected all over Turkmenistan, including a 40 foot high gold statue that stood on top of a 20 story tower and rotated throughout the day to face the sun.

I used the past tense to describe the location of the above statue because it has gone bye-bye. The new Turkmenistan President-for-Life, Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, ordered the gold statue moved to another part of Ashgabat. I don't know if it still rotates.

The new President-for-Life is not seen as a powerful leader like his predecessor. Because he looks so much like the previous President-for-Like it is rumored throughout Turkmenistan that Berdymukhamedov is Niyazoz's illegitimate son.

Berdymukhamedov is sort of acting like his possible dad in that he is sort of making moves to start his own personality cult. He recently ordered that his likeness be put on newly minted coins. Can statues and a new calendar be far behind? Maybe he'll rename the country Absurdistan.

I bet there are members of the Bass Family who would love to have a statue or two in their honor, along with their likeness on a coin or two.

Hillary Clinton Physically Assaults Barack Obama

Yesterday I checked in on Fort Worth's best blogger and found myself amused by a YouTube video in which Hillary battles Barack with a light saber in a futile effort to get him to come over to the Dark Side. The Force continues to be with Barack, though, with a lot of support, including Abraham Lincoln.

Rattlesnake Phobia

When I began my exile in Texas back in 1999 I think the #1 thing that concerned me about Texas (at that point in time) was I knew rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins lived in Texas. Along with tarantulas.

On the west side of the mountains, in Washington, there are no poisonous snakes. Eastern Washington does have rattlesnakes, but I never saw one. I do remember a ranger at Sun Lakes State Park once warning my brother and me of a bunch of rattlers ahead in the canyon we were climbing around in.

When I was first in Texas, at my first abode, I had to walk out a long driveway to get my morning paper. It took me along time to quit worrying I'd encounter a snake.

I was swimming in Lake Grapevine in July of 2002. I knew there were water moccasins in the lake. Suddenly a reptilian head popped up in my face. I did not know I was able to swim as fast as I did. The temps were well over 100. Forgetting that, I ran out on the metal floating dock to see if I could see the snake. I was jumping up and down cuz the deck was so hot. After a minute or so of hot footing it a big turtle popped up instead of a snake. They can bite you too, it just isn't poisonous. I've not been back in Lake Grapevine.

And then in 2003 I went to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. Sweetwater is a town out in west Texas, about 200 miles from my current location. At the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup I saw hundreds of snakes. I heard many rattling. At first I was unsettled by all the up close and personal contact I was seeing with the snakes, but I got used to it.

I'd bought my first video camcorder the week before I went to Sweetwater. The YouTube video below is the first video I made. Hence the goofy bad titles at the start. But, even though this was my first video, and with it only being on YouTube for a few months, it is by far my most viewed video with almost 2000 viewings.

The rattlesnakes at Sweetwater were the first I'd seen in Texas. My snake fear had had some reinforcement via copperhead and water moccasin encounters at a Indian Village Park in Arlington. And I've had many non-poisonous snake encounters at River Legacy Park. You can go here and see a photo of a huge snake blocking my way at River Legacy.

So, one week after hearing all those rattles rattling at Sweetwater I was biking the Extreme Trail at Cedar Hills State Park's mountain bike trail in Dallas. I was nearing the top of Expletive Ridge when I let out an expletive, not due to the steep, punishing hill, but due to the no mistaking what it was loud sound of a rattlesnake rattle. I looked to my right and there it was, bigger than any I'd seen in Sweetwater, its rattle in fully erect position and shaking hard as the snake slithered away. I suspect it'd been napping on the sun warmed trail when the sound of me coming up the hill woke it up.

The rattlesnake encounter sent my adrenaline into overdrive. The section of trail after Expletive Ridge went through a marshy, tall grass area. Prime snake territory it seemed to me. I pedalled as fast as I could to get through it and was real happy when I reached a much broader section of trail.

I have not been back to Expletive Ridge since, because of the rattler encounter, plus the fact that the trail was destroyed by a 13 inch rain and has only recently re-opened with newly built trails.

It amazes me how my snake phobia has so greatly diminished over the years. It doesn't even cross my mind anymore, even when hiking in a real wild place like Tandy Hills Park. Of course, all it would take is one close snake encounter and my phobia will be back.