The Evolution of Unintelligent Design

I finished Molly Ivin's Shrub this morning. The late Molly Ivin's was a Texan who saw Texas the way most non-Texans do. As in confoundingly ridiculous a lot of the time.

Apparently the Texas education system has improved, somewhat, from the bad shape it was in a couple decade's ago. Back then Texans were fond of saying they were thankful for Mississippi, because without Mississippi, Texas would be dead last, rather than the 49th worst state in the education area. And several other areas.

Molly Ivin's details how the RWCF (Right-Wing Christian Fruitcakes) took over the Republican party during the 1990s. And then they took over the Texas school boards. The RWCF would like to have what they call Intelligent Design taught alongside Evolution.

Prior to cancelling my subscription to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram there had been a series of letters to the editor on both sides of the teaching Evolution issue. You'd have informed voices of reason and then the RWCF spouting their ill-informed, ignorant nonsense. Which they totally believe to be true.

Which is to me yet one more example of what happens when your state has the 49th worst education system in the nation.

I'm still reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Letters to the Editor via the paper's online edition. This morning's had a particularly amusing example of one of the RWCF's letters on the all-important Intelligent Design Evolution issue....

Why is Genesis account feared?

I continue to be amazed that many people assume that “science” pertains to facts, while “faith” relates to myth, or fables, or unsubstantiated beliefs. They seem to imagine that facts of science support evolution, over billions of years, from a supposed “big bang” explosion at the beginning of time. Then they further suppose that Biblical or Christian beliefs rest on unscientific ideas, fanciful dogmas, that even contradict the basics of science.

Harold Jacobs’ Dec. 1 letter is filled with this sort of erroneous thinking. Jacobs says that some believe that the six days of creation may be millions or billions of years. This cannot be, since evolutionists say that the heavenly bodies were formed in the beginning and vegetation came ages later.

But in the Bible, vegetation was created on the third day and the sun and stars were not created until the fourth day. If the day was a billion years long, the vegetation could not have existed without sunlight that long.

The basic fallacy in Jacobs’ reasoning, however, is that he assumes that science supports vast ages of time, that every living thing came from nonliving chemicals and that matter is either eternal or was self-created (since he doesn’t believe God created it).

Those who believe in intelligent design rightly point out the utter impossibility of explaining creation without reference to an intelligent designer — a Creator. Creationists would go beyond this, offering scientific evidences for creation in the relatively recent past, and strongly affirm that all life forms arose from earlier life forms, not from nonlife.

All living things—animals, birds, fish, insects—were created according to certain “kinds” and there has been evolution from “primitive” forms to more “advanced” forms of life. The blasphemy of Greg McKinney in the same issue is not worth refuting. His referring to “the Flying Spaghetti Monster” as Creator is an offense against all believers in God.

Why do McKinney and the two Jacobs refuse to allow students to see the evidence of science? Is this really true science? Why are they afraid of the evidences of creation?

Do they fear that acknowledging creation will mean that they must acknowledge the Creator?

— Richard Hollerman, Fort Worth

A Hazy Day Today In Dirty Ol' Town

I guess today is Texas Air Pollution Day on the Durango Texas Blog. Don Young started Texas Air Pollution Day with new info about bad pollutants in the Texas air. Don Young's nickname for Fort Worth is "Dirty Ol' Town."

Ironically, the day in "Dirty Ol' Town" started with nice clear blue sky. If I remember right. It was 67 at midnight. 55 when I went swimming at 7:30am. The water had warmed up so much I stayed in it for quite a long time and got back in again after a hot tub break warmed me up.

By the time I got to the Tandy Hills, about noon, the temperature had dropped, blustery gusts made walking interesting. And a smoggy haze had settled in. In the photo that is the smoggy view of Downtown Fort Worth's stunning skyline, looking west from one of the Tandy Hills.

It is now 4 hours later and the temperature has continued to drop. It is now 36.

Regarding all this air pollution and smog. Here goes my second "ironically" in this blogging. As in, ironically, I am reading Molly Ivin's Shrub. I'm at the chapter where she looks at George W.'s environmental record. Or lack of.

At the end of George's time as the Texas governor, as he was in the midst of campaigning to do to the rest of the nation what he'd spent 8 years doing to Texas, Texas was, according to the Tri-National North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, set up by NAFTA, polluting more than any other American state or Canadian province. Texas had achieved the #1 position in both water and air pollution.

According to records kept by the Environmental Defense Fund, Texas is also Number One in overall toxic releases, recognized carcinogens in the air, suspected carcinogens in the air, developmental toxins in the air (affecting brain and nervous-system development in children) and cancer risk.

So, we've got that info earlier today, from Don Young, about kids being affected by toxic pollution and the amount of air pollution caused by the gas drillers. We add that to yesterday's info about what's in the fracking water that's being injected underground all over North Texas and mix in today's smoggy view of Downtown Fort Worth's skyline and I'm suddenly feeling like I moved to a Third World Country.

Which is, again, ironic, because when I first moved to Texas and would get asked why, I would say, "I wanted the experience of living in a Third World country without having to get a passport." At that point in time I thought I was just making a bad joke and in my mind the origin of that bad joke was the astonishing amount of litter I saw all over Texas. Little did I know, then, that the litter problem was the least troublesome Texas environmental issue.

Is Gas Drilling Killing Texas School Children?

If you'd asked me yesterday if the gas drilling in the Barnett Shale was killing school children I would have said that seems unlikely.

And then this morning I got email from Don Young about schools in Texas exposed to cancer-causing toxins, along with high rates of kids getting cancers.

Read on for today's Don Young Report....

USA Today reported Monday that, exposure to cancer-causing toxins for students near industrial areas is much worse than expected. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, elementary schools in Midlothian, Texas "rate worst in the USA for exposure to caner-causing toxins. The city has three cement plants."

The USA Today study is based on data collected before gas drilling became widespread in the Barnett Shale. Read the entire USA Today article here.

Read more on this subject in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Now, consider this: There are nearly 10,000 producing gas wells in the Barnett Shale and thousands more have been permitted by the Texas Railroad Commission. In Fort Worth alone, over 1,000 natural gas wells have been drilled inside the city limits within the past three years, dramatically increasing air pollution by at least three-fold, according to a peer-reviewed study by Dr. Al Armendariz, of Southern Methodist University.

As he pointed out in a recent lecture, Barnett Shale drilling activities are the largest source of smog (NOx and VOC), greenhouse gases and air toxic compounds in North Central Texas.

How large?

>>>Substantially greater than all area airports, including, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
>>>Substantially greater than all the motorized vehicles in a nine county region.
>>>Greater than three cement kilns???

Good question.

Read Dr. Armendariz' complete report here. (In a hurry? Read Executive Summary on p.1 and scroll to the Conclusions on p. 34:):

Question #1:
If three cement kilns are putting kids in N.C. Texas at unusually high risk of cancer, asthma and other health concerns what will 15,000 new gas wells do to them?

Question #2:
Why are Fort Worth elected officials and the Texas Railroad Commissioners still issuing drilling permits?

Question #3:
Why aren't they enacting a moratorium on ALL drilling until the men and women who own and operate this dirty and dangerous industry clean up their act?

Oakland Lake Park's Birds & Trees

I stubbed a toe getting out of the hot tub this morning. It is now the same color as the tree you see on the left. The tree is at Oakland Lake Park. I went there to see if I could walk off the pain in my foot. I think walking made it worse.

My one reader may remember that it was at Oakland Lake Park, last week, that I was chased by a pack of wild dogs. That night a nightmare morphed those wild dogs into 6 UGLY FAT WOMEN running after me, looking for dinner. This turned into a 3 day bout of insomnia.

I saw no dogs today except for a hyper dachshund that ran towards me, barking. I don't think I'll have a nightmare about that attack. I hope.

I saw the mutant Goose/Turkey aka Gurkey today. It was still being shunned by the other birds who all flock together. The other birds are very fidgety when you try to get close for a photo, but not the Gurkey. It acts like it hopes you'll let it join your flock.

Among all the extremely colorful trees was one very odd one. My photo skills and crummy camera do not do it justice. The tree has all these deep red berries attached to equally red little limbs stuck to bigger limbs that are not red. It looked artificial, like a big red plastic tree.

Right now it is very windy and in the 70s. The next couple days it is supposed to get below freezing. The colorful trees are likely coming to an end. Could my early morning swimming be coming to an end as well? I doubt it.

What Is In The Barnett Shale Fracking Water?

Interesting natural gas drilling information about the chemicals used in the fracking process is coming out of Pennsylvania.

The upper Delaware region has a natural gas drilling operation underway, drilling into what is called the Marcellus Shale. Here in Fort Worth we call ours the Barnett Shale.

I don't know if Chesapeake Energy is drilling in the upper Delaware region, along with their patented over the top propaganda operation.

While the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection acknowledges that gas drillers may keep their fracking formulas secret, the individual ingredients are public record in Pennsylvania .

So, the Pennsylvania agency supplied a New York newspaper, The River Reporter, with a list of the chemicals used in the fracking process.

The River Reporter asked researchers at The Endocrine Disruption Exchange to analyze the chemicals for their effects on humans and animals.

The results are startling. There are 54 different chemicals used in the fracking process. The researchers broke it all down into charts and graphs representing the degree of health effects.

You can view that information here.

Marcellus Shale drillers claim the fracking process is safe in the Marcellus Shale because the fracking takes place below the water table.

Others say the lined wells have failed in the past, contaminating drinking water.

Here in the Barnett Shale zone, just recently, there were reports of a nursery in Parker County seeing its plants die due to their water being contaminated by a nearby drilling operation. Before that there were reports of a farm family, somewhere west of Fort Worth, the exact location of which I can't remember, having their water supply turn undrinkable, soon after a Barnett Shale natural gas drilling operation's fracking process took place.

I fear there is an environmental disaster of historical proportions in the future for those living above the Barnett and Marcellus and other Shales being drilled and fracked with dangerous chemicals.

Only Child Syndrome & Evil Women

An Anonymous person commented on a Blog I wrote some time back about Only Child Syndrome. He too has been victim of the syndrome.

Anonymous said...

My boss, my boss's boss and one of the assistant's in my team are all only children. They are nice people and I certainly do like them, but they are quite difficult to get on with sometimes in a work context. They get so defensive and possessive! Trouble is, the boss doesn't see that he is messing things up... it is like he can't accept that he has made any mistakes - it is ALWAYS someone else's fault. It is exhausting *sigh*

I came upon a website that listed the "Top 10 Most Evil Women." I don't know how many of the Evil Women were Only Child Syndrome textbook-type cases, but I do know at least one was, she being Mary I of England, the only child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. When Mary became the Queen of England she was able to give full reign to her Only Child Syndrome tendencies. She became known as "Bloody Mary" due to all the Protestants she sent to the gallows, because Mary, the Only Child, believed everyone should be a Catholic like she was. "Bloody Mary's" Reign of Terror did not last long.

It is a good thing that most Only Children do not get into power positions with execution privileges. I've only known one Only Child in Texas. She was a mess. The Only Children I've known in Washington have all fit the stereotype to varying degrees, with the worst being a mental case, with a sense of entitlement, so elevated, she constantly wreaks havoc in her wake and does not even let legal interventions, like jail time, cause her to question and change her beliefs and behaviors.

The first shrink, Alfred Adler, to identify the condition, believed Only Child Syndrome to be a mental disease in need of treatment. Maybe it should be illegal to have only one kid. That'd probably be a hard law to enforce. Or get made into law. Maybe mandatory therapy is the answer to this pressing problem.

Urgent: It Will Be Windy Today In Texas

When I woke up my computer this morning I was greeted by a flashing WeatherBug telling me that an urgent message had been issued by the National Weather Service out of Fort Worth advising that it will be windy today.

Here's the dire warning....

Urgent - Weather Message National Weather Service Fort Worth TX 400 AM CST Mon Dec 8 2008

... Wind Advisory In Effect Today From 8 AM To 8 PM CST...

.A Deepening Low Pressure System In The Texas Panhandle Will Tighten The Pressure Gradient Across North Texas Today. In Addition... Stronger Winds Aloft Will Mix Down To The Surface. This Will Result In Southerly Winds Increasing To 20 To 30 Mph With Gusts To 35 Mph. The Advisory Area Is Generally West Of A Paris..To Canton... To Hearne Line.

I would hazard to guess that today the windmills at the windfarms out in West Texas will be spinning hard and putting a lot of power into the grid.

Speaking of weather, it has not been below 50 here since sometime before noon, yesterday. This should make the pool a bit warmer. I'll know for sure in about a half hour. I hope it isn't windy. The windchill factor is even more chilly when you are in chilly water.

Gas Hits New Low In Fort Worth So I Went Shopping

I've had me a Sunday and it's barely 2:06pm. I got up early, went swimming for a short duration at 8 this morning.

At 11:30 or thereabouts I was in the Tandy Hills zone and saw that gas at the Tandy Hills Gas Station had fallen to $1.44.

Phone call. I've gotta go. Will be back in a bit and continue with this fascinating missive.

Okay, I'm back. It's about a half hour after I had to attend to an "emergency." Like I was saying, gas was $1.44. So I got myself some. And then, as my one reader may remember, when I get gas I call my Mom in Phoenix. No one answered, so I left a message, which was, "$1.44, got to freezing last night, went swimming anyway, talk to you later..."

After I got gas and called my Mom I headed north to Southlake to go to Sprouts Farmers Market. It was the busiest I've ever seen Sprouts. I keep looking for signs of the 2nd Great Depression, but I can find none. I must look harder. I got all sorts of goodies at Sprouts, black grapes, ground buffalo, white cheddar, I forget what all, but it was more than one trip to haul it all in here.

On the way back here I stopped at the North Richland Hills Wal-Mart Supercenter on Davis Boulevard. It's a nice Wal-Mart. Not like my not so nice local Wal-Mart Supercenter. Wal-Mart was super busy. Wal-Mart may be Great Depression proof.

So, that's my Sunday so far, coming up on 3pm. Miss Puerto Rico called a bit ago. She wants me to come over for a libation. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.

Nice temps have returned so I've temporarily returned to wearing shorts. I like it when that happens.

The First Saturday of December at Fort Worth's Botanic Gardens

Fall colors are being spectacular this year in Texas, due to several factors, like low humidity, a drought and no hard freezes. Last week I read that one of the best places to see a wide variety of colorful leaves was Fort Worth's Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden is located in what Fort Worth calls its Cultural District.

I'd not been to the Botanic Garden since October of 2001, if I remember correctly. So, on Saturday I thought it'd be fun to walk around Fort Worth's best gardens.

There's been a huge new thing added to the Botanic Gardens that is very impressive. It's called the Texas Native Forest Boardwalk. Which describes it well. It's in Texas, it's a boardwalk and it's surrounded by native forest.

The purpose of the Texas Native Forest Boardwalk is to educate kids. In a fun way. It's also designed to be fun and educational for grownups. I'm grown up and I found it fun. There is education and fun off the boardwalk, that is also part of the Texas Native Forest exhibits.

You can walk balance beams, crawl through hollowed out trees and visit a log hotel. On the Boardwalk there are several listening tubes where you can whisper to someone at another section of the Boardwalk.

For me, the coolest thing on the Boardwalk, other than how cool the elevated Boardwalk itself was, was the "Name That Tune" exhibit. There were 10 buttons to push that when pushed a bird would warble. You guess what type bird it was and then lift the flap to see if you are right. The only 2 I had a clue about were the turkey and the owl. The cool part was how realistic the chirping was. It sounded like it was coming out of the trees, in stereo. Very well done.

A slightly weird, yet somehow amusing thing on the Boardwalk was one of the questions posed. As you walk the Boardwalk you come to signs that pose questions. You lift a board to reveal the answer. The slightly weird, yet somehow amusing question was "Do Trees Poop?"

You can see me revealing the answer to the "Do Trees Poop?" question on the right.

The Fort Worth Botanic Gardens has several totally landscaped, not natural, formal type gardens that are very well done. The formal or demonstration gardens are the Japanese, Rose, Perennial, Fuller, Trial, Four Season, Water Conservation and Cactus Gardens.

In addition to the landscaped gardens and the Boardwalk, there are several totally natural, unpaved, for the most part, trails, like the Pecan Promenade Nature Trail and the Sugarberry Nature Trail. One of the 'nature trails' was paved with flagstones, but still managed to be very natural. The flagstoned trail is called the Rock Springs Trail. It's the location of the biggest pecan tree in the Botanical Garden.

So, if you live somewhere within driving distance of Fort Worth and want to take the kids and Grandma to a fun outdoors experience that manages to be good exercise for both the body and the brain, you should haul yourselves to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.

The Botanic Garden is very easy to find. They are about 1.5 miles west of downtown Fort Worth. You can just follow the signs to the "Cultural District." Or get off Interstate 30 at University and head north on University Drive. You'll soon come to the first entrance to the Botanic Garden. Take the second entrance and it will lead you to the Garden Center where the Conservatory is located.

The Conservatory is like a greenhouse on steroids that contains a tropical garden. The only entry fees charged in the Botanic Garden are for the Conservatory and the Japanese Garden.

Don Young's December Tandy Hills Prairie Notes

REMINDER: Prairie Fest is April 25, 2009. Applications for Exhibitor space are now being accepted. Brave Combo is already lined up as our musical headliner.

Most of you have probably noticed the rather late and colorful autumn tree foliage in north central Texas. Ideal weather conditions are, apparently, responsible for this phenomenon.

One doesn't usually associate vibrant fall color and trees with tall grass prairies, but Tandy Hills Natural Area (THNA) is Unique with a capital "U". Experts have noted that, the range of elevations, soil types and other factors have conspired to make THNA an ecological rarity. They point out that THNA has more botanical diversity in the smallest amount of space than anywhere else in the state of Texas.

Right now, the Oaks, Cottonwoods, Elms and other trees that inhabit the drainages and lower elevations of THNA are at peak Fall color. (The photos were taken just before the recent frost.) The native but invasive Ash trees, now leafless, allow panoramic views of the towering bottomland hardwoods.

December is also a good time of year to appreciate the "Hill" part of Tandy Hills. Over the years, I have attempted, unsuccessfully, to express in words or capture in photographs the essential profundity of the hills. Their soft, grass-covered contours and (mostly) gentle slopes are elemental to THNA. I view them as the essence of the place even more so than the 500+ plant species they nurture. The most reverent sense of the timeworn phrase, "Mother Earth", comes to mind.

These hills are or have been home to a surprising variety of wildlife, considering the proximity to I-30 and downtown. I have personally seen Red Fox, Wild Turkey, Coyote, Wolf, Bobcat, Cottontail Rabbit, Great Horned Owl, Screech Owl, Coopers Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Turkey Buzzard, Roadrunner and many other bird species.

This past October, when Chesapeake Energy completely removed one of the nearby hills, it affected many of us like the death of a loved one. The thought that they also own 50 unblemished acres of the Tandy Hills greenbelt is especially difficult to accept. I'm keeping a wary eye on that hill.

I have a treasured memory from the late '70's of a Red Fox, its long tail fully fluffed, the setting sun catching the red highlights as he scampered up the same, lovely hill that Chesapeake recently obliterated. It is observations and memories such as these that can inspire one to activism.

Come to the meadow - FAST - and catch autumn's fading color wheel and see with your own eyes where the Red Fox once ran free and what words and photos cannot capture: the irreplaceable essence of Tandy "Hills" Natural Area.

DY

"Be as I am a reluctant enthusiast...a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here."
~Ed Abbey