Early Voting in Texas

Early voting began today here in Texas. I guess I'll go vote.

Voting is way different here in Texas than I was used to up in Washington. One difference is, up north, I had a permanent absentee ballot. This was much more convenient than driving to a polling place.

The biggest difference between voting in Texas and Washington is in Washington there'd always be way more on the ballot that I had a motivation to vote on.

Like Initiatives and Referendums and Propositions. I don't think Texas has a state-wide Initiative and Referendum system.

Texas towns do put Propositions on the ballot. Like for this coming election Fort Worth has 2 Propositions. Fort Worth's Proposition #1 is about whether or not to allow the sale of beer and wine for off-premises consumption. Fort Worth's Propostion #2 is also booze-related, as in whether or not to allow the sale of mixed beverages in restaurants by food and beverage certificate holders.

That's it for Fort Worth. The good citizens of Fort Worth don't get to vote on things like the destruction of the confluence of 2 forks of the Trinity River to build a little lake and some canals. Or how about a Proposition for a bond issue to raise money to fix up the Fort Worth Stockyards? Or how about voting on whether or not to provide funding to keep the Fort Worth Public Libary system fully operating?

Usually, up in Washington, on any given voting day there are several Initiatives and Referendum and Propositions to vote on. It can be things like the entire state will vote on whether or not to blow up a Kingdome and build a new football stadium. Or King County will vote on whether or not to build a light rail system. Or vote 5 times on a proposal to build a new monorail. Or several affected counties will vote on whether or not to spend $1 billion to build a new suspension bridge.

In Washington citizens can put something on the ballot via getting enough signatures on a petition. That's called an Initiative. The state legislature can pass a law that can also end up on the ballot due to citizen action. That's called a Referendum.

In Washington it'd never fall to one town to vote on and build something that the entire region benefits from, like a professional football stadium. In Washington no one would dream of using eminent domain to take citizen's homes to build a football stadium. Mostly because you'd be an idiot up there to think you could do that and successfully win a public vote to finance a stadium. In Texas you can be an idiot and successfully get people to vote to tax themselves to build you a stadium and to evict your neighbors from their homes, with nary a peep of protest.

In other words, in many ways other parts of America are more of a participatory democracy than Texas.

So I guess I'll go vote. The only thing I have any interest in is the Presidential vote. The rest are mostly meaningless names to me. Oh, there are those very important Fort Worth booze-related Propositions. I'll be sure and vote no on those.

Oil and Gas Accountability Project in Fort Worth Tonight

GAS DRILLING ISSUES PUBLIC MEETING FORT WORTH LEAGUE OF NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS AND LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF TARRANT COUNTY PRESENT

5th Gas Drilling Public Information Meeting

Monday, October 20, 2008 7:00 p.m.

An Evening with the Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP)

Environmental, Public Health and Community Issues Associated with Gas Development

University Christian Church
2720 South University Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76109

Forum Speakers:

Gwen Lachelt, Director, OGAP Oil & Gas Development in the U.S.---Community Issues and Organizing for ReformCo-founder of OGAP, Gwen Lachelt's mission is to protect homeowners and the environment from the impacts of oil and gas development. She has dedicated her career to reforming oil and gas policies and practices and has led precedent-setting campaigns to protect landowner rights, public health and the environment from oil and gas development throughout the U.S.

Jennifer Goldman, Public Health & Toxics Campaign Director, OGAP---Public Health Issues Associated with Oil and Gas DevelopmentJennifer Goldman works with communities across the U. S. and Canada on oil and gas reform efforts that address the environmental, social and public health impacts of dirty energy.

Wilma Subra, Subra Company Oil and Gas Field Chemicals and Monitoring Founder of the Subra Company and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship "Genius" Award, Wilma Subra provides technical research and evaluation assistance to communities in paving the way for policy changes impacting environmental and human health issues at the state and federal level.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Pantego Bible Church Blocks Traffic

Here in Texas, in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, there are a lot of churches. Many of them are Mega-Churches, these huge complexes that might have their own football field, gymnasium, airport, school and a humongous space to hold church services.

There is a Mini-Mega Church in my neighborhood. It is called Pantego Bible Church. If Pantego Bible Church were up in my old home state of Washington the locals would think it was a Mega-Church, but here in Texas they grow churches way bigger than Pantego Bible Church.

Pantego Bible Church is on the way to my neighborhood Super Wal-Mart. I made the mistake of heading that way just as Pantego Bible Church was done for the day.

So, as I headed east towards Wal-Mart a Fort Worth Policeman stopped traffic, as in me, to let Pantego Bible Church people slowly meander out onto the public highway. A few cars lined up behind me. After a few minutes the Fort Worth Policeman let us continue, because there were no more cars coming out of the Pantego Bible Church at that time.

20 minutes later I was done with Wal-Mart and back on the same public highway, heading west. The Fort Worth Policeman was still stopping people on the public highway so Pantego Bible Church people could easily leave their Mini-Mega-Church. As I passed by the Fort Worth Policeman he had at least 15 vehicles backed up while the Pantego Bible Church people continued their slow-paced evacuation from the Pantego Bible Church grounds.

I know this type thing is not a Texas-only deal. My sister in Phoenix complained about experiencing the same thing. I don't see how the Pantego Bible Church can use a Fort Worth Policeman to make it more convenient for the Pantego Bible Church goers at the inconvenience of drivers using the public highway.

There is not a lot of traffic on the road in question. The Pantego Bible Church goers could easily simply stop and go when there is no oncoming traffic. It would seem the Pantego Bible Churchgoers might exit a bit less leisurely if they were not being afforded the luxury of a Fort Worth Policeman blocking traffic for them.

That's my Sunday Sermon for this week.

Bone Daddy's House of Smoke

Who wants to go up to Grapevine for lunch today at Bone Daddy's House of Smoke? I've driven past Bone Daddy's twice in the past month. Judging just by the outside, Bone Daddy's looks to be an interesting restaurant. I like the theme-parkish look of Bone Daddy's.

Obviously Bone Daddy's is a BBQ joint. Ironically, I think I've only been in one BBQ joint since I've been in Texas, that being multiple times to Riscky's BBQ, both in the Fort Worth Stockyards and downtown. Oh, I forgot Up 'n Smoke in Keller. I guess it wasn't very memorable.

I have had BBQ up in Oklahoma, but that's not Texas BBQ. The OK one was called World Famous Bob's Barbecue. I don't know what made Bob's World Famous. It was in the little Okie town of Ada. All I remember about Bob's was the fries were cold.

Bone Daddy's House of Smoke has a good website. I've learned you can't judge a restaurant by its website, though a good website is a pretty good indicator of the quality of the restaurant. Zorro's Buffet has a real bad website, but Zorro's Buffet is real good.

I see if you Google for "zorros buffet fort worth" my bloggings about it now come in #1, several places ahead of Zorro's Buffet's website, which should tell Zorro's they need someone to fix their website. I'm available. I'd fix it for them for no money. Just give me an anytime pass to Zorro's and I'll make their website Google ahead of my blog.

In the meantime, I'll see you around noon at Bone Daddy's.

Did Michelle Obama Gorge on Lobster? Or Not?

Yesterday, the story about Michelle Obama being at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Wednesday while her husband was at a meeting during which she supposedly had room service bring her a platter of lobster hors d'oeuvres, 2 whole steamed lobsters, Iranian caviar and champagne was all over the Internet, Cable TV News and talk radio.

I first heard it on Rush Limbaugh.

And now today I get a comment to yesterday's blog about Michelle Obama's good taste in seafood.

Someone calling him or herself dynosaurusrex had this to say......

"Michelle Obama held a rally in Fort Wayne Indiana at 1pm on Wednesday....she wasn't even at the Waldorf when she was "ordering" lobster etc."

I Googled to see if the above was true. I could find nothing. All I found was more info about Michelle and the lobsters. Okay, I looked again with a better search string, that being "Michelle Obama Fort Wayne Indiana." Turns out she was in Indiana on Wednesday, campaigning for her husband.

So, who was this impersonator in New York City ordering all that lobster in Michelle Obama's name? It's all very perplexing. I think Rush Limbaugh started this rumor.

Hiking Lake Grapevine & Costco

It's just half past 3 and I've already had myself a good day. I think starting the day with an icy swim makes the rest of the day much more pleasant than it would be otherwise.

Due to the temps being in the low 80s there weren't a lot of people out braving the cold at Lake Grapevine. So, parking was easily had.

I went to Costco before I went to Rockledge Park at Lake Grapevine. I needed printer ink. It'd been awhile since I bought printer ink. It was over $50. My printer cost less than $50. I also got a pizza. You can get a pretty good lunch wandering around Costco getting samples.

Almost all the sample giving people seemed to be old and German. And then when I went back to the food court to get my pizza there was a lady standing by the pizza window and I asked if she was waiting for a pizza. She also had a thick German accent as she said "I am #97, you are #96. Your pizza is ready, he just called your number."

I asked how she knew my pizza number. She said she was standing behind me when I ordered mine.

I wonder why there are so many old Germans in Southlake at Costco? Is Gar the Texan's latest wife moving a lot of her relatives over?

I hiked along the beach at Lake Grapevine. I like doing that. It's very relaxing. I only saw two odd things today. One was a rogue out of nowhere wave way out in the lake. The other was this guy on some sort of strange waterski that was sort of like a hydroplane. He'd hit the wake and do a total flip. I must have seen him flip a dozen times. Only on two of the times did the flip not work.

I saw gas for $2.57 at several locations in Grapevine. I didn't need any so I got none.

I got lots of good stuff at Sprouts Farmers Market, including a bag of something called Texas Sweet Oranges. My mom sent me home with a backpack stuffed with something called Arizona Sweet Oranges that were the best oranges I've ever had. I'm hoping these Texas ones are like that. I'm prepared to be disappointed.

An October Saturday in Texas

I did my regular early morning swim. The temperature got down to 51 overnight. Coldest yet. And yet I swam for almost a half hour.

This morning I see Gar the Texan rudely blogged about me rudely blogging about my obsession over the obesity epidemic. He used an amusing video to illustrate whatever point he thought he was making.

I'm going to be at Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine by noon or so today. If you want to go hiking with me, that's where I'll be. I may take my video camcorder along, so you can be in a movie if you show up. The last time I took my camcorder to Rockledge I messed up most of what I thought I was videoing, due to getting the off and on buttons reversed. So, I ended up with an awful lot of video of jerky images of the ground I was walking over.

Before going to Rockledge I'm going to Costco to have free samples for lunch and to buy a pizza to picnic with after hiking.

After I'm done with Rockledge I'm going to my favorite grocery store, Sprouts Farmers Market to get some fruits, vegetables and grain products. Sprouts always has good coffee to sample. Among other things.

Below is the previous video I made of Rockledge Park on Lake Grapevine....

McDonald's in Iraq

I don't remember where I read it, maybe it was in the Bob Woodward "State of Denial" book, maybe not. But somewhere I read that when we hear that a McDonald's has opened in Iraq we'll know we've won the war. Or something like that.

So, I was curious if a McDonald's has opened in that forsaken country, thinking that maybe in the peaceful, prosperous Kurd zone the Golden Arches may have sprouted.

Well, I haven't been able to find out if Iraqis can get Big Macs yet, but I did find something interesting.

In the eastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan there is a city named Sulaimanya. In that city are 2 restaurants that purposefully copy McDonald's, both in appearance and menu. One of the restaurants is called MaDonal's. The other is Matbax.

That's MaDonal's in the photo on the right.

On the MaDonal's menu you'll find "Big Macks." The owner of MaDonal's, Suleiman Qassab, fought in the Kurdish resistance back in the 1970s. After that he escaped to Austria where he was a cook at a Vienna McDonald's. In the 1990s Suleiman applied for a McDonald's franchise in Iraq, but McDonald's turned him down.

So, he opened MaDonal's. Suleiman gives free food to U.S. troops, has been threatened by suicide bombers and has become a Kurdish celebrity. He hopes one day to turn MaDonal's into a real McDonald's.

There have now been multiple requests from various Iraqis hoping to open a McDonald's. So far McDonald's has not agreed to open in Iraq.

Michelle Obama Really Likes Lobster

I'd not listened to Rush Limbaugh in quite some time. But today I did whilst roller blading.

Speaking of roller blading. I ran over a snake today. It was a little one, slithering fast out onto the warm cement and under my blades before I could avoid him. I looked back to see the snake sort of jerking around. I expected to find it deceased on my way back. But there was no snake corpse to be seen. So it must have survived its run-in with me.

So, back to Rush Limbaugh. He seems to be harping on Obama being an elitist. Somehow Joe the Plumber got mixed in. I'm not getting the Joe the Plumber thing.

Somehow John and Elizabeth Edwards going out on their anniversary to a Wendy's with John Kerry and his wife got churned into the ranting. Something about Teresa Heinz looking at a picture of a bowl of chili, asking what it was and then asking if she could have a bowl. While John Kerry marvelled over a chocolate Frosty. According to Limbaugh, after a half hour of photo-opping the Edward's and Kerry's got on a bus where they ate a real meal from some country club.

I somehow thought this Wendy's thing had just happened, but no, this was way back during the last election. This story was somehow supposed to illustrate how elitist and phony liberals are. Or something like that.

Limbaugh's other example of democrat liberal elitism did just happen. As in on Wednesday October 15 the Obama's were in New York City. While Mr. Obama had a meeting somewhere in the Waldorf-Astoria, at 4 pm Mrs. Obama called up room service and ordered a platter of lobster hors d'oeuvres, 2 whole steamed lobsters, Iranian caviar. And champagne.

Did she eat all this herself? Isn't 4 in the afternoon in the middle of the week a tad bit early to get into ones cups? Iranian caviar? That stuff is expensive. I'm thinking Mrs. O is gonna make a very interesting First Lady.

John McCain on the Letterman Show