Barack Obama the Terrorist

In a this could only happen in Texas type thing a member of the Texas State Board of Education, Cynthia Dunbar, in a column published in something called the Christian Worldview Network, said that Barack Obama, likely to be our next President by the end of today, is plotting with terrorists to attack the United States.

Ms. Dunbar has been asked to retract her bizarre assertions. She says "I don't have anything in there that would be retractable. Those are my personal opinions and I don't think the language is questionable."

In her column Dunbar said that there will be a terrorist attack on America during the first 6 months of Obama's administration. And that this attack "will be a planned effort by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is a threat to tyranny."

Dunbar also asserts that Obama will use the terrorist attack as an excuse to declare martial law.

In response to those who are appalled and disgusted by this woman's idiocy Dunbar said, "Right now, we're still in America and we still have freedom of speech. And unless that's changed I'm not aware of it."

That freedom of speech thing includes the freedom to suggest that whoever has firing power over people on the State of Texas Board of Education should immediately remove this idiotic woman from a position where she has any say regarding the education of Texas children. Then maybe there needs to be an investigation as to how such an idiot could have been placed in such a position.

Obama's Obscene Gesture Towards John McCain

I heard it first this morning while I was doing Yoga while listening to Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh has really been wearing on my nerves the last few weeks. Gone is most of the humor, replaced by a ranting blowhard. He's taken a huge credibility hit with me.

And then today, between ranting about Obama not helping his Aunt Zeituni, who is in the country illegally, lives in a slum and who managed to send Obama a $260 contribution, which Obama sent back, without adding a penny to help his poor aunt and Obama's brother living in a hut in Africa, Rush managed to mention that Barack had given John the finger today.

I found this hard to believe. But then I remembered the reports of him doing the same thing to Hillary. I figured it was just an accident in the Hillary case. So, it turns out that Obama did appear to do what Limbaugh said he did. It looked quite calculated to me.

To late for me to change my vote.

You can watch the YouTube video of Barack's obscene gesture below. But hurry, YouTube seems to be pulling these videos soon after they appear....

Veterans Park & Veterans Day

Yes, I realize you want my daily swimming report. Yes, I went swimming this morning about 7am, swam for about an hour. The water was warmer than yesterday.

I had to go visit Washington Mutual today. I decided to go to the one by Veterans Park in Arlington, due to thinking I'd like to take a nice hike there. And so I did.

The Veterans Memorial at Veterans Park isn't finished yet. As you can see in the first photo it was being feverishly worked on today by a large group. I suspect they may be getting it ready for some sort of dedication ceremony next Tuesday, that being Veterans Day.

Fall has fallen hard at Veterans Park, just like it has everywhere. But, flowers are still blooming. One of the cool parts of Veterans Park is a Wildscape garden called a Xeriscape. Or a Xeriscape garden called a Wildscape, I forget which way it goes. It's all plants native to Texas, hardy plants that don't need much water. It's a show garden to give people an example of what they could do in their own gardens. The Xeriscape/Wildscape is designed to survive on only 2 waterings a year during a drought.

This put me in mind of last summer in drippy, cold Tacoma where I was chastised several times for not watering enough. I knew from my own successful plant growing that my sister's plants were being drowned. Poor, sickly tomato. Made my heart ache to see the drowning torture those plants were put through.
So, all these photos except for the first one and the last three are of the Texas Xeriscape. I pray my little sister reads this and stops with the watering madness. It's profoundly disturbing. Particularly where it rains a lot.

In the distance, in the photo above with a lot of trees, you can see the flags you saw in the first photo.

The next photo is of the wildside of Veterans Park. Very steep hills. It can be treacherous due to the need to watch out for flying frisbees tossed by the disc golfers. Bizarre sport. Looks funner than normal golf though.

The last photo was part of an area of chalk art scrawled on the paved trail. The one in the photo appears to be the Empire State Building with the message saying "I Love NY."

That's it for today's look at Mother Nature in Texas.

Crying Wolf For Chesapeake Energy

I've mentioned previously that I get a lot of comments from what I suspected, though the suspect denied it, was a Chesapeake Shill, using a slightly less obvious propaganda technique than their previous more ham-handed approach which used embarrassingly stupid boilerplate comments that us who received them exposed them for what they were.

The suspected Chesapeake Energy Shill in question calls himself wolfcry44.

So, my crack team of Internet Fraud Investigators has uncovered evidence that wolfcry44 is, in fact, associated in some way with Chesapeake Energy. Whether this makes him a shill or not, I'll let you decide.

And now that that is out of the way, it is time for lunch. Homemade Pea Soup with Grilled Cheese on Whole Wheat. No natural gas was used in the grilling of that cheese.

Durango Texas: The Documentary

Last week a Director / Producer / Film Maker / Documentarian / Reality TV Maker contacted me to see if I'd be willing to be interviewed for a documentary about the Barnett Shale drilling.

Apparently it is what I've written about Chesapeake Energy and Aubrey McClendon that I would be interviewed about.

Trouble is, I don't know that I'm interview-worthy. It's one thing to be a blowhard spewing words in this venue. It's an entirely different thing to answer questions about a subject that I'm really not all that deep about, except for having my simple opinions.

There are people way more involved than I in objecting to all the urban drilling that is going on in the D/FW zone.

I think I'm afraid I'd be tongue-tied and stuttering, my mind gone blank like when I couldn't remember the code to turn off a security alarm a couple weeks ago.

And on an entirely different yet somehow related note. About once a week I get a comment from someone who sounds like a Chesapeake Energy shill, but claims he's not. This person calls himself 'wolfcry44'. I usually don't publish his comments because, well, they don't make a lot of sense.

Like this morning's. Mr. Wolfcry commented on my blogging yesterday about hiking in the Tandy Hills, getting gas and calling my mom. The comment was this, "why dont you post views different than yours."

I'll ignore the grammatically challenged parts of the comment and simply comment that it seems this person only reads the stuff that in some way references Chesapeake, totally unaware that the majority of my blog is not about that. Secondly, why would I post views other than my own on my blog? Why would I do that? And why is this person reading my blog in search of opinions other than mine?

Tandy Hills Hike And A Gas Call To Mom

Yet one more very pleasant Sunday in Texas this fine second day of November. It's in the 80s out there. 60 when I went swimming at 7am. I'm liking the time change.

Today I was talked into driving someone to an appointment near the Tandy Hills Natural Area. I thought, fine, I'll go hiking and maybe take some new video, perhaps of the Chesapeake Energy drilling operation that is taking the natural out of the natural area.

After I dropped the aforementioned at the aforementioned's appointment I saw I needed gas. The gas station nearest the Tandy Hills is the cheapest around my zone. As in today it was $2.06 a gallon. Practically giving it away these days.

Of course, as my long time reader may remember, whenever I get gas I call my mom in Phoenix. I'd gotten an email from my dad yesterday telling me my Mom was concerned because I'd not made a gas call in a long time. Mom answered on the first ring. She claims it's been 2 months since I've called. She may be right.

I told my Ma about my recent memory problems and that that might explain forgetting to make gas calls.

When I was talking to Mom I got a call from Tootsie Tonasket. I kept talking to Mom. But when that conversation finally ended I called Tootsie Tonasket. Soon into that my cell phone started making the dying battery noise. I knew I needed the phone working so the aforementioned could call me when the aforementioned's appointment was over.

So, I temporarily terminated my Tandy visit and came back here to charge my phone. And made rice pudding while I waited. And worked on a website. Then I headed back to Tandy and took the photos you see in this particular blogging.

The photo at the top is me looking towards the Chesapeake Energy desecration zone. The other photo is a look at the fall colors covering the Tandy Hills.

Texas Early Voting Breaks Record By Huge Margin

Texans early voted in record numbers. Early voting ended Friday. Millions of Texans have already done their voting duty. Other states with early voting have also had record breaking numbers.

Tuesday will be an interesting day. I'll have to remember to go to my polling place, the library, to see how busy it is. I need a new book to read, anyway.

Barack Obama is going to spend election night in Chicago at an event with thousands of others who managed to get tickets. Up to a million more people are expected to be on the streets of Chicago. Those people riot over all sorts of things, winning or losing a sports game, political conventions.

John McCain will be slumming it election night at the Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix. No word on if a million people are expected on the streets in Phoenix.

Meanwhile, over in Africa, should John McCain's opponent win, celebrations are expected to be huge all over the continent. I expect that might happen in other areas of the globe as well.

Say what you want about America's supposed fallen standing in the world, what other nation's election can cause people all over the world to want to celebrate?

Durango TV Blog

Sometimes I enjoy writing about something I've watched on TV. Usually I enjoy writing about it because in some way it has appalled or disgusted me. It's a good thing to vent.

But, except for the fact that I watched the TV show while in Texas it has nothing else to do with my life in Texas, which was what I thought the theme of my Durango Texas blog was going to be.

Sometimes I stifle myself from writing about something I've watched on TV due to it seeming somehow out of place. Well, dense boy that I am, the solution was obvious, but came to me slowly.

As in I've started a new blog, all about TV. Durango TV. I think I'm going to have fun with this one.

If you haven't heard Sarah Palin getting punked by a pair of Canucks from Montreal pretending to be French President Sarkozy, go to my new blog and listen to it. It is pretty funny. My favorite part is when Sarah gets asked if Joe the Plumber is her husband.

Seattle Pike Place Market YouTube Video Debacle

I'd wondered why the number of viewings of a short YouTube video I'd made of my August 7 walk through of Pike Place Market last summer seemed perpetually stuck on 24 views. Today I found out why.

YouTube had made several of my videos "No Longer Available For Viewing" for apparently no good reason. Including the Pike Place Market one.

I had not intended to spend more than the time it took to eat breakfast making and uploading a video of this morning's swim. And now this YouTube debacle has wasted most of the day. And made me cranky. Lord knows it is hard to make me cranky.

I did manage to escape YouTube and go hiking at Tandy Hills today. It was hot. Some like it hot. I didn't use to. But I do these days. If you don't like it hot you shouldn't live in Texas.

November 1 Swimming in North Texas

Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour tonight. I hate hearing that reminder over and over again. And what tragedy would occur if, God forbid, you forgot?

Today is the 1st of November, a couple days til the election, a few more weeks til Thanksgiving, then a few more weeks til Christmas, then one week til the New Year.

Unless it is freezing I intend to go swimming New Year's Day morning. I've pretty much figured out if the average temperature for any given day is in the 50 to 60 degree range, the water is okay to get in. As in this morning. at midnight it was 65, by morning it was 60. This made the pool the most pleasant temperature it's been in a week.

So, I stayed in it a long time. And my videographer documented my first day of November swim. (The video was uploaded to YouTube the morning of November 1. The upload seemed to be successful but YouTube is saying the video is no longer available. Why I don't know. More Google incompetence maybe?) I'll try again with the video...Okay, finally got the thing to work. What a waste of time.