The Lone Star Telegraph: A New Blog In Town

One of the Tarrant County Underground's highly principled members, dedicated, among many dedications, to overthrowing the Good Ol' Boy Network and Ruling Junta that keeps Fort Worth and Tarrant County from having a truly representative democracy, has started a Blog.

The goal for this new Blog is to hopefully be a venue by which Tarrant County voices might be heard which the powers that be refuse to listen to.

Or if you have been frustrated by the way the Ruling Junta's mouthpiece, i.e. the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has distorted a letter to the editor that you have submitted, or refused to listen to you tell your situation, that you had hoped the paper would act as an advocate for, doing its duty to shine a light on a dark situation, well, maybe this new Blog can be your mouthpiece.

So, if you have any Tarrant County issues that are bugging you and you have been frustrated in your attempts to get help or be listened to, visit the Star Telegraph. The Star Telegraph wants to help fix things that need fixing.

Celestial Sighting in the Tandy Hills?

I'm happy to report that the hazy, smelly wildfire sky has cleared up and Texas is back smelling good and looking purty as the wildflowers brighten the landscape, except in those unfortunate zones where they got toasted black by a raging wildfire.

It was a bit breezy at noon at the Tandy Hills. That strong breeze had blown yesterday's dark haze somewhere other than here.

When I was last at the Tandy Hills I reported on my frustrating inability to find one of the supposedly ubiquitous celestial wildflowers.

Today, I think I may have found one. It sort of looks like the wildflower that Don Young identified as a celestial. I await confirmation.

Perfect Manhood & How to Attain it in Texas

A couple weeks ago I read a book by Harold Schechter titled The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century.

This was the first OJ type trial of the new century, that being 1900, that riveted the entire nation. Back in what were known as the Gay 90s, when the word 'gay' had a different meaning than it did during the Gay 1990s, America was booming, after recovering from the Panic of 1893. Good times would continue til the next Panic, which I think was in 1907. Both these Panics were in many ways worse than our current Panic. America always seems to recover from her Panics.

Anyway, during the Gay 90s there was no such thing as the FDA. No one regulated food production or drugs or medicines. The type murder people feared, during this period, was being poisoned. There was one sensational poisoning after another.

And then William Randolph Hearst bought a New York City newspaper and set out to take on Joseph Pulitzer by out yellow journalisming him. Hearst needed a sensational poisoning story. And then Roland Molineux obliged. The son of a revered Civil War general, Roland was accused of some nasty poisoning murders. Two trials later he was set free.

Now, that story was very interesting, but what I want to share with you now is part of the book that dealt with the thriving industry of curative elixirs. Roland bought a lot of these elixirs, attempting to cure some of his "manhood" issues.

What struck me as bizarre is way back then there was already an industry that I thought was born only in our modern era, that being the industry that produces those annoying spams that are directed to fixing some of our current, supposed, "manhood" issues.

A Dr. Vincent G. Hamill, president of the Marston Remedy Company had a thriving business selling his curatives. Below is the info on one of his widely distributed advertising circulars...

PERFECT MANHOOD
AND HOW TO ATTAIN IT

A BOOK FOR MEN MARRIED AND SINGLE

A full explanation of a wonderful method for the quick restoration of
PERFECT MANHOOD, in all that term implies.

A method that overcome EVERY EVIL CONDITION of the sexual system. Gives to the weakest organs and parts their
NATURAL VIGOR AND TONE.
And to those shrunken and stunted their
NORMAL AND PROPER SIZE.

IT EXPLAINS how to build up all sexual vigor.
IT EXPLAINS how to avoid all the physical evils of married life.
IT EXPLAINS how to cure sexual weakness in any stage for all time.
IT EXPLAINS how to cure unnatural losses from dreams, in urine, etc.
IT EXPLAINS how to cure nervousness, trepidation, lack of self-confidence.
IT EXPLAINS how the entire sexual system of the male may be brought to that condition so essential to general good health and peace of mind.
IT EXPLAINS how to develop, strengthen, enlarge all weak, stunted, undeveloped, feeble organs and parts of the body which have lost or never attained a proper an natural condition, whether through early errors, ill-health, or other causes.
IT EXPLAINS how to be free from degrading thought,
superior to debasing conditions, to feel

A VERY KING AMONG MEN!

Good Friday: Jesus Died Today, Revived on Sunday

Today is Good Friday. Celebrated, well, not exactly celebrated, but noted, as the day Jesus was murdered by the Romans.

I have always had trouble with the concept that Someone so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that those who believe in Him can have everlasting life.

For one thing, just a couple days after the Father gave up the Son, the Son supposedly rose from the dead and went to heaven to be with his Father. And if you believe that, then that too can happen for you when you die.

And then there is that God in 3 Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost thing. Which would seem to mean that Jesus is God, God is Jesus and both are the Holy Ghost. So, Jesus isn't actually God's Son, instead he is God in human form? So, again, where is the great sacrifice if God in human form is murdered, yet isn't really dead, going from the murder, and being dead, to heavenly rewards and back alive a couple days later?

A few days ago someone sent me a very earnest email about this subject, detailing in gruesome detail what Jesus suffered on the cross.

The email ended with...

Jesus had to pass all this experience, so that you can have free access to God. So that your sins could be 'washed' away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this situation. HE DIED FOR YOU! For you, who now read this e-mail. Do not believe that He only died for others (those who go to the church or for pastors, bishops, etc).

He died for you! Accept the reality, the truth that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.

Jesus went through all this human misery so that your sins could be washed away? But only if you believe He went through this misery for you. And was then back alive a couple days later. "He died for you." But he didn't die? He was dead for a couple days. Apparently. And then wasn't.

I also have trouble with how people take this stuff all as gospel, I guess that is some sort of pun. I mean, it's all words, written by men, long after the events supposedly took place. If God wanted to send his "Son" to earth in order to somehow get the earthlings to behave in a Godly fashion, would it not have been a better plan to wait a couple thousand years, to the point in history where the Earthlings had used their God given talents to build systems of mass communication, so the news of the arrival of the Son of God could be mass communicated? He could perform a few miracles, have us all in awe and ready to follow Him and there'd be no need for a ridiculously gruesome Crucifixion to cement the deal.

It all really just seems like really bad planing on God's part, if you ask me. Which you didn't. Okay, I am ready to be struck down for blatant blasphemy.

Killer Texas Wildfires Smelly Smoke

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I took off to River Legacy Park to ride the mountain bike trail. As soon as I hit the road I was appalled by what the air looked like, as in very very hazy/smoggy with very diminished visibility.

I didn't know what was going on. We were supposed to be getting thunderstorms and the sky looked very strange, I thought this might be some HUGE storm starting up.

Turns out the thick haze was the result of wildfires that sprouted up all over North Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, some of which continue burning today. The air this morning has the acrid smell of burnt grass. It is not a pleasant smell. I have not left my abode yet today, but from my current vantage point the sky looks blue, I'm not seeing a lot of haze.

It was so bad yesterday that flights had to be delayed at D/FW Airport. Fires burned in more than a dozen Texas counties. Thousands of acres burned in the D/FW zone, including forced evacuations west of Fort Worth. Two people near Montague, that's about 80 miles northwest of Dallas, died and their son was injured when a wildfire consumed their home.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned that people sensitive to smoke or with respiratory woes should stay indoors. I have neither of those woes, as far as I know. But I do have my windows open and I'm not really liking that burnt grass smell that is wafting through here. But I like the breeze. It's a conundrum.

Naturally Fun at Village Creek Natural Historic Area

Against doctor's orders and ahead of predicted afternoon Thunderstorms, that have yet to materialize, I went to Village Creek Natural Historic Area around noon. I saw only one wildflower in the park today. You can see that fragile beauty below.

A sign had been stuck in the ground since my last visit to this park. The sign told me to get my Passport Arlington today, along with a cryptic message, "Trail verification code A."

What did that mean I could not help but wonder. At the bottom of the sign I was told if I wanted more information on the Passport Arlington program I could visit www.naturallyfun.org.

I did as directed, like I always do, and went to the Naturally Fun website to find some of that information that the sign mentioned. However, the naturallyfun.org domain redirected to the City of Arlington Parks & Recreation website.

I looked and looked but I could not find how to get my Passport Arlington. So, I gave up. I'm easily discouraged.

But on the website I did see something interesting. A YouTube video of a proposed park using the long mothballed Caleum Moor Stonehenge-like sculptures. I've no idea where this proposed park is located or if the Caleum Moor sculptures are proposed to be placed in an existing park, like River Legacy.

The Caleum Moor installation disappeared prior to my exile in Texas. I remember they were in a book of things to see in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, but when I went to find them they were no more. I later learned that the land upon which Caleum Moor sat was turned into office space. And the sculptures went into hiding due to some Buckle of the Bible Belt Thumpers being convinced that Caleum Moor was some sort of pagan blasphemy endangering the purity of the locals.

Apparently, now, wiser heads are prevailing. Below is the Caleum Moor YouTube video of the proposed new installation of the sculptures.

River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail

Yesterday I learned if I don't get around to blogging within a reasonable amount of time some people start wondering what's happened to me. Well, I've recovered completely from yesterday's viral assualt. I think the Chicken Tortilla Soup and grapefruit fixed me.

I got a comment to that blogging about ailing from Mister Twister. Mister Twister commented...

Yup, I was wondering what was wrong, too. By the way I finally made it out to River Legacy Park and took a little spin. On one the trails I was on it spilled me out onto the concrete walking path. A few minutes on, I saw a sign warning about being fined while on the concrete path. The sign was right by a dirt path so I went back out. One question and one observation. What do the two red dots painted on the trees mean? Also River Legacy is a more enjoyable ride than Sansom Park, although it's not near as challenging as Sansom Park. River Legacy is much prettier, being that it is river bottoms, dirt trails and meadow like conditions, while Sansom is rocky and scree. Now there's definitely some challenging loop do loops at River Legacy but overall it is much more enjoyable and pretty too.

Well, I was planning on biking River Legacy today, but rain has intervened and disrupted that plan. To answer Twister's questions, I have no idea what the red dots on trees mean. I've seen them too and wondered. I don't think it means those trees are going to be cut down, they don't cut down trees in that park.

I think Twister misunderstood the bike warning sign. It is perfectly okay to bike on the paved trails. The warning signs are put wherever a dirt trail takes off of the paved trail. You aren't supposed to bike those dirt trails. The only dirt trails you are supposed to bike is the Mountain Bike Trail. I think the park is being real wrong-headed with those warning signs. The bike riders have turned the mountain bike trail into the best non-paved trails in the park, with hikers feeling safe walking on them. Biking the other dirt trails would do no harm, in my opinion, it would instead make the trails be in better shape.

I can understand how Twister may have gotten off on a wrong trail and ended up at the paved trail. The Mountain Bike Trail is quite a maze of intersections. Most are well marked, but there are a couple key junctions that are not marked with directional arrows with the result of going the wrong way possibly being on the pavement.

The Mountain Bike Trail is a one-way trail, though every once in awhile you'll run into someone, literally, going the wrong way. To get it right, follow the directions on the map above. Get to the mountain bike parking lot, you'll see a sign at the west end of the lot (that's it in the picture on the left), with a map of the trail, though this map does not show all the new loops, like Fun Town and the Prairie Loop and others.

To the left of the sign is where the trail begins. Follow the arrows. You barely enter the trail when you take a right turn and go on a minor roller coaster for a bit, just keep following the arrows and you shouldn't see any pavement.

Brown Fat Keeps Me Skinny In Hot Texas

I found out this morning why I stay so skinny while eating so much. I spend a lot of time cold, like this morning, despite Dr. Layla's no swim orders, I was back in the pool for a long time.

The water in the pool is maybe 60 degrees, give or take a degree or two. By the time I'm out I am chilled to my core. It's an hour later and I'm still sort of in shiver mode.

Well, today the results of 3 groups of researchers are appearing in The New England Journal of Medicine. And what were they researching you are wondering? Brown fat.

For 3 decades scientists have been studying brown fat, due to the brown fat cells acting like a calorie consuming furnace, with the furnace triggered by cold temperatures.

It was previously thought that human babies had brown fat because during infancy babies are unable to shiver their muscles to stay warm. The operating assumption had been that human babies lost the brown fat when their muscles developed sufficiently to trigger the shiver response.

Now, the researchers have discovered that humans continue to have brown fat cells past infancy. Skinny people have more brown fat cells than fat people, the younger you are the more brown fat cells you have. Women have more than men.

The brown fat cells are brown because they are filled with mitochondria, with mitochondria containing iron, thus causing the brownish color.

This new info explains a lot of things. Like why on average people in the South are way fatter than people up north. Up north you shiver way more than you do here in the warm South. Remember last summer when I spent a winter shivering in icy Tacoma and was surprised I did not gain any weight, especially with all the extra feedings I was forced to consume? Well, now it makes sense to me. I had very few breaks from shivering when I was up there. My poor long-suffering brown fat cells were working overtime.

Just like they are right now as I type and shiver. I suppose I could put a shirt on and try to put a stop to this out of control calorie burning I've got happening right now.

Any of you tubbies reading this, you might not have as many brown fat cells as I do, due to that tubby thing you've got going on. But, you might want to try getting real cold for a period of time, every day, and see if you can melt off some of that lard. It's worth a try. Then again, I don't know if the cold pool option would work for an obese person due to all that insulating adipose tissue keeping the cold from being able to reach whatever brown fat cells you might have.

Red Flag Warning: Don't Get Sick In Texas

Apparently if I don't blog at my usual pace, the lack causes concern. As in I got an email from my one reader asking me if I'm all right, due to me not blogging this morning.

Well. I may not look as ill as the guy in the drawing, but that's pretty much how I felt this morning. By yesterday afternoon I sort of had an inkling I might have a virus inside me wanting to get out. I'd been around an extremely germy person a few days prior.

So, late yesterday afternoon I went to Wal-Mart and got a chicken and all the stuff to make Chicken Tortilla Soup. Tortilla Soup always makes me feel better. So, this morning I made the soup and several bowls later I'm feeling way better.

Due to this under the weather problem I have unintentionally followed my physical therapist, Dr. Layla's, "slow down" advice. As in, even though it was quite warm this morning and I'm sure the pool was way warmer than yesterday, I did not go swimming. Today has seen no bike riding or hiking.

But I did make my weekly trek to Sprouts Farmers Market to stock up on good stuff.

Due to these high (in the 80s) temperatures, along with low humidity and wind, the National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning, due to high wildfire danger.

Here's the warning....

Urgent - Fire Weather Message National Weather Service Fort Worth TX 253 PM CDT Wed Apr 8 2009

A Red Flag Warning Is In Effect Thursday Afternoon For The Northwest Two Thirds Of North Texas Due To Gusty Southwest Winds, Very Low Humidities, And Very Warm Temperatures.

A Deep Surface Low Pressure System Will Move East Across Oklahoma On Thursday And Result In The Passage Of A Dryline Across North Texas During The Afternoon. Very Warm, Windy, And Dry Conditions Will Occur Behind The Dryline Resulting In Critical Fire Conditions Through Sunset Thursday Evening.

Turtle & Duck Togetherness at Oakland Lake Park

My physical therapist, Dr. Layla, keeps confusing me. Now she is telling me I need to slow down, that I operate at an unhealthy level of physical activity. I wish she'd make up her mind. I'm am almost inclined to seek a second opinion.

Anyway, to keep the doctor happy, I cut my morning swim by a few minutes. That may have been partly due to the fact that it froze last night. But that unnatural unseasonable cold did not seem to chill the pool water all that much, near as I could tell.

Around noon I went to the Post Office and then Oakland Lake Park. There are no steep hills in this park, it'd be really hard to over-do it there.

One thing I have made note of lately is there are way way way more Texans out and about walking, biking, hiking and rollerblading. Has anyone else noticed this? I am thinking collectively we may be able to get Dallas and Fort Worth off those Top 20 Most Obese City type lists. Wouldn't that be nice?

There were a lot of turtles out basking in the sun today in Oakland Lake. I like turtles except for when they chase me when I swim in a Texas lake. In Oakland Lake Park the turtles and the ducks peacefully co-exist, even to the point of peacefully co-habiting the same submerged log, as you can see in the picture at the top. The turtles can act skittish when a human gets close, but ducks are of no concern.