The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea

Usually, if I blog about something in this venue, in some way it is some how some thing to do with Texas. But in this particular blogging the only connection to Texas is it's a book I read in Texas.

By James Brady. Not the James Brady of Reagan Press Secretary Assassination attempt infamy. No, this book was written by the James Brady of Parade Magazine interview fame. Among other things.

I've read more books about wars than I can remember. The Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Iraq Wars I & II, the Cold War, the War of 1812, the Revolutionary War. I'm likely forgetting a war or two.

I've read war related memoirs before, like Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diaries. But something about this book by James Brady was striking a chord with me that I didn't quite figure out til the end.

The thing that made this book especially interesting was that unlike other books about wars, that I've read, this one was written by a guy describing the war as he experienced it. And James Brady writes very well and spares no detail, some of which was a bit eyepopping. Details of the likes you don't see in movies.

I don't know why the Korean War is now referred to as the "Forgotten War." I hadn't forgotten about it. I was led to reading the James Brady book after watching a very well done documentary about the Korean War on The Military Channel.

After reading a lot of books about wars, and particularly after reading books about the current Iraq War I've decided all wars have a lot of very stupid things happen, bad decisions, bad leaders, some worse than others.

After watching The Military Channel and after reading articles online about the Korean War I've decided General Douglas MacArthur was a terribly irresponsible general who's good reputation, at the time, was pretty much a function of the way the press covered him, and a whole lot of ignorance. MacArthur was an Only Child with classic Only Child Syndrome symptoms. He should never been put in command over the lives of men.

Anyway, it's off to the library in a bit to find something to read. I think maybe a biography of Douglas MacArthur might be interesting.

The 2009 Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

It is only 18 days until the Annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. Plenty of time to make plans to head west if you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, or whatever direction you need to head from your location to reach the eastern fringes of West Texas where the town of Sweetwater is located.

The weekend will officially kick off on Thursday, March 12, 2009 with the Rattlesnake Review Parade through downtown Sweetwater. That evening, you can attend the Miss Snake Charmer Pageant held in the Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium at 7:00pm.

The doors will open at 8:00am Friday March 13, 2009 for the 51st Annual Sweetwater Jaycees World's Largest Rattlesnake Round-Up, with snakes being weighed in at 7:00am that morning at the Nolan County Coliseum. Catch one of the snake handling demonstrations and be sure to try some deep-fried Western Diamondback Rattlesnake meat.

Now, I have not, myself, sampled deep-fried Western Diamondback Rattlesnake meat, or any snake meat, for that matter. The idea sort of disgusts me. When I saw the deep-fried Rattlesnake, the big sharp bones really sealed the deal in making it unappetizing. I don't care how much it supposedly tastes like chicken.

There are a lot of people who think rounding up rattlesnakes is a wrong thing to do. What amazes me is that there are so many of the slithery reptiles that each year there seems to be a fresh supply waiting to be rounded up.

Attention All Dallas Cowboy Fans

I get some really goofy comments to this blog and to my YouTube videos. Or to my Eyes on Texas website. Sometimes I can not quite tell where the comment or feedback is coming from.

On this blog, somewhere, it says "I am not a Cowboy or a Cowboy Fan."

Yet, this morning I got a comment from a very ardent, albeit it slightly grammatically challenged Super Dallas Cowboy fan, posting the comment to a YouTube video I'd made which rather pointedly shared my disgust over what had been done in Arlington to get Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys a new stadium.

Since the ardent Dallas Cowboy fan is asking any and all to copy and paste his message on every Cowboy's video, I'm going to paste it below. And below that the YouTube video from which he commented.

"ATTENTION all DALLAS fans!!!**!!! WITH THIS NEW STADIUM NEEDS TO COME NEW FANS!!!!! WE HAVE TO BE LOUDER, ALL WEAR THE SAME COLOR AND START CHANTS LIKE NO NFL STADIUMS HAVE EVER DONE... WE NEED A CRAZY FIGHT SONG THAT WE ALL SING AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS, WE NEED TO HAVE TOWELS AND FLAGS AND BANNERS..... WE NEED TO BE MORE LIKE COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS AND HARDCORE EURO SOCCER FANS......if you are truly a fan of the ALMIGHTY COWBOYS OF DALLAS copypaste this on every COWBOYS video spread the word."

What's Fort Worth Smokin'?: Part 2: Dr. Aremendariz Speaks

Interesting incoming from that tireless Dynamo Don Young regarding the air that we breathe here in Fort Worth, air with added goodies, thanks to all the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers. When the Carter Avenue fracking took place and I blogged and YouTubed it, I got a dismissive comment from a Chesapeake shill telling me it was perfectly harmless and I was an alarmist.

We are all Guinea Pigs.

Below is Sunday's Don Young message....

Remember this?

Frack-job near Carter Ave. in east Fort Worth, TX, Jan. 2009.

Back on January 11, I posed the question, "What's that you're smokin'?", in reference to the plume of smoke/vapor/fumes/??? that escapes from a drill-site during the fracking phase. What is in that, "cloud of stuff", that we all breathe every day?

I put the question to SMU Professor, Dr. Al Aremendariz, whose research of air quality in the Barnett Shale has, in my view, cast a dark shadow over the "clean burning" myth.

His response and "final revised" report follows:

Sorry for the long delay in reply. I’d been working furiously to try and get the final revised version of the emissions inventory I was working on completing for EDF. In case you haven’t yet received a copy, I’ve attached one to this email.

After drilling the main well bore, engines, water, sand, chemicals, and pumps are brought to the site to frac the well. Towards the end of the frac process and for a small number of days afterwards, the gas companies will let the well go through a “completion” process. During this time, the well is often let to vent to the atmosphere. During the venting, large amounts of natural gas, water, sand, oils, etc., will rise to the surface.

If you are seeing a “smoke” or some other cloud during the venting process, its possible that in the visible cloud droplets and in the invisible gases around the droplets are mixtures of any of the following: water droplets, water vapor, hydrocarbon liquids, hydrocarbon gases, chemicals used during the fracturing process, small bits of sand, and ?.

I would be surprised if anyone has actually gone out and sampled the cloud of stuff. So, until there is a better understanding of what might be in it, it’s probably best to avoid getting directly downwind of a well venting process.

In a follow-up email to me, Dr. Armendariz pointed out that, whatever is in the plume "will dilute over space and time." He continued, "With these relatively unstudied emissions, its pretty hard to know exactly what the potential dangers are, and how the emissions compare to any nearby roads, highways, etc."

Good luck,
Al

There you have it. Without legitimate studies of "frack fumes", north Texans will continue to be guinea pigs while Fort Worth fat cats and a dirty industry rake in billions of dollars a year. Remember that next time you see a frack-job on your planet.

New question: Whose going to do the studies and when?

DY

A Mountain View From Fort Worth?

I really don't get enough aerobic exercise, so I went running around the Tandy Hills again today. When I was done with that I headed east on Meadowbrook, towards my favorite Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. You may not have one of these in your neighborhood yet. They are small versions of a Wal-Mart, sort of like a regular grocery store.

Looking east on Meadowbrook, at the stop light for the exit off I-820, there seems to be what looks like a mountain in the distance. In the northwest that is sort of what Mount Rainier can look like on the horizon.

But, it isn't a mountain. What it is is the nearly completed new Dallas Cowboy Stadium, clearly visible, as you can see in the picture, from Fort Worth.

I've wondered before, in this very venue, if the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium is visible from any vantage point in Dallas. Maybe from the lookout at the top of Reunion Tower. Or one of the other downtown Dallas skyscrapers.

I know the new stadium is not visible from the highest of the Tandy Hills. I was there today and there was no stadium to be seen.

I did see a lot less litter. I've been slowly removing the deluge of litter that clogged up one of the creek beds during our last heavy rain. It's a daunting task. I think the litter in that location has been reduced by half.

Today Is Sunday In Texas

Another blue sky Sunday here in North Texas. Things green seem to be springing to life. Soon Texas will turn colorful for a month or two with the sprouting of wildflowers. And then it'll turn brown, for the most part.

Tonight is Academy Awards night. Last year I think I lasted less than a half hour before turning off the TV. I've not gone to a movie in a theater in this century.

The Academy Awards used to seem sort of like living history with all sorts of famous movie stars from as far back as the 1920s, alive and on display in their elderly form.

Only a few of the Hollywood Stars of Old are still alive. Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, I can think of no others. I'm sure there must be some.

You know you're getting old when Warren Beatty and Clint Eastwood get Lifetime Achievement Awards.

And tonight they are giving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis. I read this morning that those humorless, clueless French still think Jerry Lewis is a comedic genius. That's troubling.

Speaking of Humanitarian Awards, this morning I got an interesting, empathetic email from someone in Tacoma who, apparently, has been reading my blog ever since I was up in Tacoma and who has been, and is, appalled by the childish rantings of a fellow Tacomaite and amused by my ongoing attempts to make sense of what I've come to understand was/is very difficult to understand behavior. I had no idea, til this person told me, that the party in question, previously, had me up on a pedestal and referred to me as her second husband. Just typing that sent a chilling shudder down my spine.

I've not read any of the ranting in awhile, the last instance was pretty funny and so embarrassingly self-revealing, making clear, for any and all to see, what I meant by toxic madness.

The funniest part of that particular ranting was a line, something like, the party in question "had been warned that it would end badly if she allowed me back into her life." Now, I long ago understood that this particular person creates her own alternative reality, that bears little relationship to truth. I love the idea that she lets people into or out of "her life," as if it is some sort of Theme Park one gains admission to.

The reality is, it has always been her behavior that causes things to "end badly." The time previous to the final instance was way back in the 1990s, at Sunriver, when I'd had enough of her lack of impulse control causing multiple temper tantrums. By the time I moved to Texas we were on friendly terms again. I remember returning in 2000 and being confused as to why there had been a move to Tacoma, but I didn't ask and didn't learn why til a couple years later.

By 2003, or so, this person had pretty much faded from my consciousness. Then I got a call from my brother. A friend of his, who knew I knew the party in question, had been unable to reach her. I called the number, I had, to find it'd been disconnected. I contacted a mutual friend, in Bellingham, who told me there had been some trouble, that I'd have to find out the details elsewhere. But, she gave me a phone number.

So, I called and told the person, who was warned "not to let me back in her life because it would end badly," that Miss X was trying to get in contact with her. The person who runs her life like a Theme Park and I exchanged pleasantries. And then I got off the phone. I did not realize, at the time, that my calling had given her my cell phone number.

So, with that cell number, the calls began. Soon the calls came daily. I have no idea at what point in time I was granted admission to this person's Fabulous Life. I do know I flew up there in February of 2004 and this was the first time in years I'd physically been in this person's Fabulous Life. I was back again, for a month, in August of 2004. That time I really was deep into that Fabulous Life, staying the month in her apartment building. That was actually fun.

I returned again in November of 2004, 3 flights up to Seattle in one year. I did not like that. I was up there again in, I think, October of 2005 and then again in April of 2006. On that visit I house sat for the person who now villifies me, while she and her first husband went to Mexico.

My next return was July 20 this past summer, for an entire hellish month that ended August 20. The person who now says she has divorced me (again, shudder) had convinced herself that I was moving back to Washington, at least part time, to do flea markets with her. The concept had been discussed, but not seriously, by me. The person who now villifies me, in stereotypical Only Child Syndrome fashion, did not take it well when I said I was returning to Texas and that no, I did not think I was interested in a flea market career. Though it had been sort of fun helping out with several of those, 3 times at the Fremont Sunday Market, once at Art in the Park and one really boring one in Lacey, called the Saturday Market.

Of course, me good-naturedly doing these flea markets, drivng all over, making magnets and even washing dishes and cleaning a filthy kitchen floor is totally forgotten when some minor thing upsets the Only Child, causing a fit to be pitched with a temper tantrum. Which, with the perspective of time and space, makes it all seem pretty funny, with such a high level of groundless acrimony on display. It was I who had valid reason to be righteously offended and upset.

The biggest irony is it was actually I who let this person back into my life. And I actually did have someone remind me of how difficult she was. But, I've always found her very amusing and I figured she was older, maybe the hormonal rages no longer happened. I knew she'd been in therapy and was taking mood altering medications, all of which made me think the temper tantrums were a thing of the past.

I was wrong.

Everything had gotten worse. I don't think I was ever able to get my balance back from the shock of my second day in Tacoma last summer, when seeing the party in question, for the first time in over 2 years, to see that she'd at least doubled in size. I don't know if I was able to keep an unshocked looking expression on my face. I do remember that upon seeing me she told me I looked sickly and gaunt! I probably did. I felt like throwing up.

The New Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opening Soon

I have not been shy about verbalizing my disgust regarding how the City of Arlington and Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys committed the most outrageous abuse in American history of the perfectly legal practice of using eminent domain to seize private property for the public good.

To build a sports stadium.

But, now that the stadium is almost finished, I have to admit, it is one cool-looking structure.

That looks totally out of place in its location. It would have been such a good thing to have built this at Fair Park in Dallas, particularly now with the DART train having a new line going to Fair Park.

Arlington has no mass transit of any type.

It's pretty easy to predict what the reaction will be when the stadium opens for football, particularly the Super Bowl. For the Super Bowl, one team will be staying in Fort Worth. About 20 miles from the stadium. People will come to the stadium and marvel at the neighborhood of, well, let's call them "older" houses. And a rather, well, eclectic blend of businesses. People will arrive at D/FW airport, take a taxi to their motel, and then be appalled at how far they are from the stadium, and that they have to take another taxi to get to it.

Now, when Arlington was conned into voting to build this stadium they were told it would spur all sorts of development, new hotels, restaurants, retail. For awhile a big development called Glory Park was dangled before the locals as an enticement to approve being taxed for the stadium.

Sadly, the voters of Arlington have very short memory retentions. Way back in the early 1990s, a similar con was run on them to get approval for the Ballpark in Arlington. That's where the Texas Rangers play baseball. Voters were told the Ballpark would spur all sorts of development, including a San Antonio-like Riverwalk. Well, there is a little lake and you can walk around it. But nothing else.

And now, today, there is surprise that nothing new is being built around the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. All the people of Arlington had to do was visit the current Dallas Cowboy stadium in Irving and make note of the vast wasteland that surrounds the stadium. It's been there for decades without spawning anything of the sort Arlington voter's thought was going to happen around their new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

Now that the stadium is almost finished, does anyone in Dallas have any regrets that it is not in Dallas? Dallas has over a million people, the tax burden would have been far less than that which Arlington's 332,000 have burdened themselves with.

And what an incredible addition to Fair Park that stadium would have been. Instead it is now sitting in an industrial wasteland. And I think it is too big to move.

Tandy Hills Brush Bash: Day One

I had the best of intentions, today, to help move brush and stuff alien to the natural nature of the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

But, a sprained thumb rendered me worthless for such an endeavor. However, feeling guilty for not doing my part, I did send in a proxy to help and report back to me.

As it turned out, a small army, complete with heavy equipment was on duty today. And a lot more than invasive vegetation was dispatched.

Dozens of abandoned tires were removed. Dozens of bags of litter were collected. I've never seen a tire at the Tandy Hills. I have seen litter, a lot of it in the creek beds, but I don't think that was where today's litter was collected.

I believe it is going to take many more Saturdays to get this job done. I'm thinking dragging a solar-powered wood chipper deep into the park would be a much more efficient means to remove wood debris, than hauling it all the way to where trucks can reach it.

Sweet Tomatoes & A New Computer

I've had me a day of diving deeper into Computer World than I usually like to go. The day started off with me thinking I liked the idea of having the World's Lightest Laptop, a little itty bitty Sony thing that seemed way too little when I saw it in the flesh, so to speak.

Then my eyes fell upon another one, it was also slim, but had a much bigger screen, 3 gigs of memory, a huge hard drive and one of those duo core processors that I know nothing about, except that they must be fast.

The new laptop is a Toshiba. Don't they make cars?

On the way back here a feeding was needed. Fry's Electronics is on the south side of I-20 at Matlock. Sweet Tomatoes is on the north side of I-20 at Matlock. So, it was to Sweet Tomatoes I went after computer shopping made me hungry.

I forgot to mention, I also got that Dragon Speak program that converts the spoken word, via a microphone, to text. This should help me finally be more prolific with this typing words thing I do.

When I got back here, the getting a new computer working thing went way easier than the last time, which was about 5 years ago. I may be remembering wrong, but I think there was some user error involved that time.

I've got this place being a hardwired network connecting a few computers together. Ever since I got rid of Charter Communications and replaced that bankrupt, poorly run company with AT & T U-Verse, I've suspected that that huge modem/router thing they installed was a wireless modem.

I've long noticed when I turn on the wireless connection, on my other laptop, I see several possible connections, with one being at full strength. I suspected that was my own wireless connection. But I did not have a WEP key.

One of the available networks was 2WIRE063. I Googled for info about a U-verse wireless connection. I found out I could use a browser to connect to and control my modem. Doing that I found all sorts of info, including the fact that my broadband connection's wireless connection is named 2WIRE063, thus confirming I have a wireless system here.

But, what is the Network Key? Well, clicking "I forgot my Pass Code" brought up "Hint: Look on the Label." Label? I thought, maybe on the modem? Sure enough. There was a label on the modem and on that label was a number. And that number turned out to be the Network Key!

I feel like a detective who solved a very complicated problem. That should give you some indication of how low the level of technical proficiency operating here is, if I could have a wireless system, unbeknownst to me, that has to be figured out via Googling for help. Pathetic.

The next technical hurdle was getting the network to recognize the new computer. That turned out to be not too baffling. Files are being transferred even as I type.

I am going to try and watch last night's Survivor tonight. I hope I don't pass out again, like last night, but it's been a long day, and my poor little brain has really been overtaxed today. I may pass out at any time.

See you all tomorrow at the Tandy Hills, hauling brush to the street! I can't wait!

Friday's Fry's Day Sony Vaio Laptop

Who wants to go laptop shopping at Fry's Electronics with me today?

Today Fry's has the world's lightest laptop on sale, that being a Sony Vaio P Series that only weighs 1.4 pounds. Its battery lasts up to 4 hours. 2GB of Ram. With a built in camera and GPS navigation system, which I can not imagine using because I never get lost. Maybe it could be used on a plane to make sure the pilot is heading in the right direction.

I think I overdid the running around Tandy Hills yesterday. Sometime after 8 last night I started to watch yesterday's DVRed latest episode of Survivor, but I passed out on the couch before we got to the first challenge. This never happens to me, well, hasn't happened to me in a long long time. Of recent times my problem has been insomnia, not passing out in front of the TV.

Apparently I go from one extreme to another.

Like I can go from saying I'm not returning to the Northwest for another 10 years, after last summer's miserable month of, well, misery, to seeing a picture of tulips on a laptop screen and thinking it'd be fun to be in the Northwest this spring to see the Skagit Valley tulips for the first time in a decade.

This year's Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is a month long, as in the entire month of April. When I lived in the Skagit Valley I don't recollect the Tulip Festival lasting an entire month. If I remember right, last year's late Spring made everything bloom late, everything from tulips to blackberries, the blackberries being something I'd looked forward to last summer, but who's late ripening disappointed me, just like pretty much everything else had.

Maybe the Tulip Festival is being stretched longer to make sure there are some blooming flowers when the hordes, and I do mean hordes, of tourists arrive.

The same month as the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, the Tandy Hills Prairie Fest happens. The Prairie Fest will get about 3000 visitors. The Tulip Festival will get somewhere around a million visitors. This creates epic traffic jams on country roads, requiring a lot of traffic cop direction and surveillance by helicopters. It's a spectacle.