A Comic Natural Gas Water Well Explosion

Incoming Barnett Shale natural gas drilling ruining the water supply humor from Don Young....

State Fair of Texas Comments and Questions

I keep getting a lot of questions about the State Fair of Texas, many of which I don't know the answer to. Some of which I do.

General Admission is $14. Kids under 48" get in for $10. If you are 60 or older it is also $10. Kids 2 and under are free. 60 and over is free every Thursday.

You can buy your Fair tickets at Kroger at a discount. Both General Admission and Season Passes.

The Fair opens at 10 am and closes at 10 pm on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays the Fair closes at 9 pm.

Official Fair parking is $10.

On Saturday and Sunday you can take the DART train to the Pearl Street Station where the State Fair provides shuttles to the Fair. The rest of the week DART isn't such a good option.

You can bring backpacks and food to the Fair. You go through a light security check at entry. It's not as bad as airport security.

I don't know if there are viewing screens outside the Cotton Bowl for fairgoers who just can't miss that Red River Shootout football game between Texas and Oklahoma. RV parking passes are available online. The only overnight RV parking is the night of the infamous football game. Why you would want to drag your RV to the Fair, but not to stay overnight, I do not know.

RV Parking with no hookups is $200. With electrical hook-up it's $275. If you are dragging a vehicle behind your RV it's another $75.

The Chevrolet Main Stage is free. You can see Jessica Simpson and Kellie Pickler there, among others who aren't familiar to me, like Michelle Branch, Jordan Pruitt, Kevin Fowler, Rodney Atkins, Bell Biv DeVoe and others.

The Midway operates on a slightly different time frame than the rest of the Fair and can shut down during bad weather.

I got a comment this morning on the YouTube video I made of last year's visit to the State Fair of Texas. I think it was from a little girl, judging by the syntax and the Internet nickname of diannadidi....

"i like state fair its awesome i like going on the log ride,going to aquaium,and going to see big tex!"

Chesapeake Energy's Destruction of Scott Avenue

Chesapeake Energy has begun its invasion of the Tandy Hills Park Natural Area Zone.

After Hiking a little bit on the Tandy Hills today I drove a couple blocks to look at Scott Avenue. That's the street that Chesapeake Energy wants to run a pipeline under homeowner's front yards. And use as the access point to the drill site.

There were multiples of the sign you see in the photo all along Scott Avenue. This particular one in the photo was in front of a house that also had a homemade sign to the left that says "NO GAS WELL ON SCOTT AVE."

Too late, the gas well appears to be on its way. There were several of what looked like abandoned homes on Scott Avenue. Many of the houses are quite large and of interesting design.

Scott Avenue already looks pretty messed up. I can see why those who live there are not feeling the love from the Barnett Shale that they are told to feel when they see Fort Worth buses. The worst hasn't even started. They have the drilling noise to look forward to. Then all those trucks breaking up the road and spewing a lot of dust. And after all that fun a pipeline will be run under their yards to carry non-odorized natural gas.

Back at Tandy Hills Park something odd has been constructed. It is near some playground type stuff, like swings. It appears to be a fence. But what does it fence in? Nothing. It is not perpendicular to the road, but at an angle. Why would the strapped for cash city of Fort Worth build this thing?

The only thing I can think of is it going to be a sign. I suspect Chesapeake Energy has paid the city of Fort Worth and are installing a sign telling the locals about the virtues of the nearby destruction of Scott Avenue. That should go over well...

Sarah Palin Saved From Witches By African

Well. Another surprise from Sarah Palin that I thought couldn't be true when I first heard it. But then, in my defense, my skepticism was heightened by the way the person telling me this worded it.

As in "Sarah Palin had some African cast a spell on her to keep her safe from witches."

The real story isn't quite that ridiculous sounding. Quite.

Three 3 years ago, Sarah Palin was in her Wasilla church where a visiting Kenyan pastor prayed for her protection from "witchcraft" in her run for office.

A video of this is on Sarah Palin's church website. Of course, the video is now going viral on the Internet in various forms, one of which you can watch below. The video shows Ms. Palin standing in front of Bishop Thomas Muthee in the Wasilla Assembly of God church. She holds her hands open as the preacher asks Jesus Christ to keep her safe from "every form of witchcraft."

"Come on, talk to God about this woman. We declare, save her from Satan," Muthee prays as two other guys place their hands on her shoulders. "Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus. Use her to turn this nation the other way around."

The anti-witchcraft ceremony took place October 16, 2005. Sarah Palin formally announced her bid for governor 2 days later.

The Assembly of God is a Pentacostal church. I need to look that up. Seems like I remember nutty and Pentacostal going together before.

Sarah Palin Charged Victims For Rape Exam Kits

This morning I was talking to a New York Times reader about the Sarah Palin ongoing in-over-her-head meltdown. I was told that the New York Times had an article about Sarah Palin's town of Wasilla charging rape victims for the exam kit that police use to gather evidence.

I thought this was ridiculous. That it couldn't be true. But it was in the New York Times. That's not like some tabloid or the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The NY Times is a respected, by many, real newspaper.

Googling quickly provided proof that this bizarre story is true.

After Sarah Palin became mayor of Wasilla, Alaska she did some budget slashing. It was decided to pass the costs of rape exams off to the victims. The exam kits cost ranges from $500 to $1200.

Sarah Palin also believes that an abortion should not be allowed for a rape victim.

Meanwhile, this charging the victims for rape exam kits became such an embarrassment to the rest of Alaska that the state legislature passed a law to stop it.

I thought, Wasilla is a little itty bitty town, how many rapes can there be in that little town? Well, apparently quite a few. Alaska's sex assault rate is America's worst, 2 and 1/2 times the rate for the other 49 states.

The Huffington Post has a good article about this Sarah Palin embarrassment.

Texas: Love It Or Leave It

Except for the last paragraph I could have written this letter to the editor that was in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It's the Mike Moncrief addition in that last paragraph that vexed me. Fort Worth's corrupt mayor is part of what makes Fort Worth delightful and the fact of him being in Fort Worth is proof that it ain't all bad? That's perplexing. But all that came before that in this letter made sense.....

I was warned but am still surprised

I guess the reason I find the discourse in the Star-Telegram so incredible is that I am a relative newcomer to Fort Worth and to Texas.

I had been told (actually warned) about the “love it or leave it’ and “my country right or wrong” attitudes, the purposeful intermingling of church and state to achieve the religious right’s ends, the pervasive waste of resources here (i.e., pick-up/SUV heaven) and the general disdain for the less fortunate (just look at Texas’ ranking on any measure of commitment to social or educational services).

Whether the natives know it or not, Texas has, and continues to embellish, a well-deserved reputation as the most insular, regressive and politically inane state in the union.

What put me over the top was an article in the Sept. 22 paper about abstinence-only sex education, which said that, although Texas receives more federal money than any other state, it shares the highest teen birth rate in the land with New Mexico. Forget that every objective study indicates abstinence-only sex education is blatantly ineffective; this thinly veiled effort by the religious right to ignore both science and truth (while, incidentally, spending $20 million tax dollars) is a sham and a shame.

If we’re serious about making any headway against teen pregnancy and STDs, abstinence must be taught in conjunction with contraception.

To end on a happier note, Fort Worth is a delightful place to live, and any town that can claim Bob Schieffer, Dan Jenkins, Mike Moncrief and the Carter and Bass families can’t be all bad!

— Rufus Schriber, Fort Worth

Eating Like An Armadillo

I've been seeing a lot of armadillos at Village Creek Natural Historical Area. Yesterday while walking and today on my bike. They are sort of cute. Tootsie Tonasket thinks she wants to bring one home from here as a pet. Yesterday Mr. Ed picked one up and put it down on its back. The armadillo then rolled over and let out a squeaky bark noise and ran off. They can move pretty fast.

This morning I wore long pants for the first time in Texas since last winter. I went to Wal-Mart early, after swimming, even earlier.

The long pants are these Wranglers I bought up in Washington at the Shelton Wal-Mart the summer before I moved here. I thought I'd gotten the right size but when I got home I could barely get them on. They were not wearable. Then I thought I'd make these my fat pants. I knew I wanted to be skinnier so as to suffer the heat of Texas more bearably.

My goal was to be able to wear these Wrangler pants by the time I moved to Texas.

Well, that did not quite work out. Yes, by the time I moved I was able to wear them. But it was not comfortable.

Now. 10 years later, this morning, I found out that I can't wear my Wrangler Fat Pants anymore without a belt, lest I have yet one more Droopy Pants incident. And they are very comfortable. As in I could wear these on a plane.

So, this morning I found I'd lost more weight. I am in danger of dropping into the 150s. Why is this happening? It ain't like I'm trying to cause this. I think what's happened is I've been doing the early morning swimming in cold water. For quite a long swim. That must burn oodles of calories. Then later I'll go do something else physical. Obviously I'm burning up more calories than I'm eating.

Today I decided to change that. For breakfast I had 3 scrambled eggs with 6 pieces of bacon and two pieces of whole wheat bread smeared with butter. I just got done with lunch. I made homemade mac n' cheese with whole wheat noodles, a half pound of extra sharp cheese, lots of Parmesan and melted butter with onion sauteed in it. Plus deep-fried battered fish. And broccoli. And lemon-limeade made with real sugar.

I'm thinking this new program should stop or at least slow up this chronic weight loss. I tell you, it's a living hell being me.....

Taking The Trinity Rail Express Train To Dallas

This coming Friday I am going to do something eco-friendly. And new.

I'm taking the Trinity Railway Express, aka TRE, to Dallas. I need to go to a meeting in downtown Dallas. Taking the train seems like a sensible thing to do. It only cost 5 bucks. That's roundtrip. And once I'm in Dallas I can ride anything on the Dallas transit system with my TRE ticket.

The TRE runs from Fort Worth to Dallas. I'm in east Fort Worth, so my closest train station is in Richland Hills, about 2 miles north of here. Unlike anywhere in Seattle, it's free to park in the TRE parking lot.

Dallas has many many miles of light rail called Dallas Area Rapid Transit. DART for short. I've ridden DART before. It is a good thing.

I'm not quite certain how one gets from the Dallas terminus of the TRE train to downtown and if getting on DART is involved. I'm sure all will be revealed on Friday.

I have actually ridden a TRE train before. Last year the State Fair of Texas used a TRE train as one of its ways to shuttle fairgoers from remote parking lots to entry gates. It worked slick.

If I muck something up and get stuck in Dallas I've got a backup plan already worked out. It doesn't involve hitchhiking.

Sarah Palin, Katie Couric Interview & Russia

I'd been hearing comments regarding the 3 interviews Sarah Palin has given. I'd only seen a bit of one of them, that being the one with Charlie Gibson.

The Charlie Gibson bit, I saw, was the part of the interview where he asks Ms. Palin about the Bush Doctrine. She got a deer in the headlights look and stumbled for an answer.

Well, this did not bother me too much, because I could not have answered that question til a few weeks ago when I read Bob Woodward's State of Denial. I'm guessing the vast majority of Americans did not know there was something called the Bush Doctrine. It's not like there are an awful lot of us who would take any Doctrine of Bush as a serious thing.

And then this morning, I read a columnist who had gone from hoping Sarah Palin was up to the challenge to being totally sure she was in way over her head. The columnist said she'd lost count of the cringe-inducing moments and suggested Sarah Palin bow out now, before it gets worse.

I have now seen the cringe-inducing Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric. It was way way way more cringe-inducing than I thought it could be.

I think Sarah Palin is a nice lady, very smart, but, she is not ready to be president. I like the lady. I felt sorry for her watching her make a fool of herself with no awareness she was doing so. She just is not ready for this.

The debate on Thursday should likely be the end of it. Already her polls numbers are dropping.

I think there may be some sort of twisted reverse sexism going on here. If a man picked for VP had sounded this stupid there would be an uproar. Remember Dan Quayle? He never came close to this level of ineptness. Remember the grief he got? I think come Thursday night the majority of us are going to be on the this ain't right bandwagon.

Below are two videos. When I read the print version of how Sarah Palin explained that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience, I thought it was just artful editing to make her sound stupid. But no, what actually came out of Ms. Palin's mouth might be the most astonishingly dumb thing I've ever heard a politician say. And that covers a lot of ground.

The second video covers more of the interview and displays woeful ignorance in other areas. Watching Ms. Palin try to come up with examples of John McCain taking the lead on economic issues was very cringe-worthy.....

Point Defiance Park and Exiles in Texas

When I was up in Tacoma I had myself a good time hiking all over Point Defiance Park. It's one of the biggest city parks in America. I YouTubed a video I made while hiking Point Defiance. This morning a nurse with the YouTube nickname of "flatsignedbooks" made a comment about the Point Defiance video. The Texas connection is what made it interesting. Apparently both me and "flatsignedbooks" are exiles in Texas from the Pacific Northwest.

Here's the comment and below that, the video.....

Hey man! Thanks for posting this. I am in Texas and these were my stomping grounds as a kid. I sure do miss the Pac N.W!