Texas Secede! And Other Nonsense

The "I vote to SECEDE" baseball cap that I ordered weeks ago finally arrived on Saturday, in plenty of time for 4th of July Tea Parties. Click here to go to a website where you can get your own Texas Secession stuff, like t-shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, key rings and aprons.

The goofy governor of Texas, Rick Perry, caused a nice big brouhaha when he mentioned the Texas Secession option at a Tea Bag Party awhile back. This week's FW Weekly's cover article is a very amusing take on what Texas will be like after it gets out of the Union for the second time.

Apparently 31% of Texans believe Texas has the right to opt out of the United States, with 19% of Texans wanting secession to happen.

A few weeks ago I opined that this would be a bad thing because Five Flags Over Texas sounded wrong. I was wrong, the title for this week's FW Weekly cover article is "Seven Flags Over Texas." I'm real bad at math. I subtracted a flag when I should have been adding one. Seven Flags Over Texas does not sound as wrong as Five Flags Over Texas.

Click here to read a Texas Secede FAQ.

Sunny Sunday & No Earthquakes In Texas Today

We have had a return to a sunny blue sky and very pleasant temperatures here in the Fort Worth zone of North Texas.

It is only 73 out there right now at about 3 in the afternoon. Windows open, no need for A/C. A rare, perfect Texas Sunday.

As far as I know we have had no aftershocks from the earthquake that rattled us yesterday. I did feel the earth move today, but it was not an earthquake.

Yesterday, due to it being a Pacific Northwest in winter, slow dripping and wet day, I was housebound. Around noon I un-housebounded myself and went the the Village Creek Historical Natural Area to commune with nature via a walk.

I saw no wildlife today, except for an unusually large number of humans of great diversity, big, small, old, young, feeble and fast. The fast humans being a pair racing way over the park's 10 mph speed limit. I was walking along in the spot you see in the picture, lost in my thoughts, enjoying the tweetering of the birds, when the bikers came up behind me. It was the "on your left" that startled me, and then I turned to see 2 guys on rocket bikes heading right at me. I think I jumped, because the first guy said, "sorry."

I realize I contradicted myself in the above paragraph, first I say I saw no wildlife and then I mention birds. I saw a squirrel or two, too. I should have said I saw no interesting wildlife, like snakes, armadilloes, garfish or turtles.

Now I've gotta go change the logo and name of my new blog. I'll probably change my mind on this name too.

Durango's Old T-Shirts

Yesterday I blogged about my new blog, Durango World America, and the fact that I'm not liking that name all that much. I ended up with that name due to the process you go through when you create a new blog, with one name choice after another getting rejected due to the name already having been taken.

I got a couple suggestions for blog names.

Mr. Twister suggested "Durango's Old T-Shirts." Okay, I'm not really getting it, but I think it's funny.

Then the ubiquitous Anonymous had several suggestions, How 'bout "Durango Does America"? Or "Durango's Been There, Done That... And Lives to Tell About It"? "Durango Jones.."? "Durango's From SEE to Shining Sea"?

And then Chipper chipped in with, "I like the Durango World America name. Keep it."

Is Barnett Shale Drilling Causing Texas Earthquakes?

Yesterday I blogged about yesterday's earthquake here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone.

A couple people commented on the earthquake, one of whom experienced the quake. One of the comments speculated on whether the recent quakes are being caused by the Barnett Shale Gas Drilling. And then I got an email from Don Young on that very subject.

First I'll copy the comment from cd0103, who felt the quake, then the other comment, then the email from Don Young....

cd0103 has left a new comment on your post "North Texas Rocked By Minor Earthquake":

We lost power when it hit, it was very strange. Had a "thunderclap" that wasn't. I didn't think anything about it until a waitress downtown told me the same thing.

unclejerry.net (http://unclejerry.net/) has left a new comment on your post "North Texas Rocked By Minor Earthquake":

I didn't feel the earthquake we had today but saw it's effects. I had just made breakfast and had walked to the tv to turn it on and I heard this knocking noise on the wall coming from where my desk is. It had started rocking into the wall and my laptop screen was also rocking back and forth like I had bumped into it. It was really strange looking but only lasted a few seconds. I went ahead and finished breakfast and then got on twitter and noticed that a few local people had posted questions wondering if we had just had an earthquake.

This one was slightly bigger than the one we had in October but with the first one it seemed to make more noise and rattle the dishes, things I didn't notice with todays quake.

Oh well, I just hope we don't ever a "big one" as the houses and buildings in north Texas aren't designed to withstand quakes like they are along the west coast.

I've also heard some people make comments wondering if the recent quake activity could have anything do to with all the oil drilling that's been going on around the metroplex the last couple of years. Think that could have anything to do with?

And now Don Young answers the question regarding the role "all the oil drilling" may have to do with the quakes....

After today's (5/16/09) 3rd earthquake in the Barnett Shale region in less than eight months, I think my attached message from August, 2007 bears repeating.

While vacationing recently in Marfa, Texas, I stumbled into a bookstore seeking shade and ran across an interesting book titled, Texas Earthquakes.

I thought to myself, We don't have earthquakes in Texas! The concept seemed counterintuitive. The authors of the book know better. Opening the book at random to page 70, I read the following:

"Three human activities that commonly induce earthquake activity are:

1) Injecting high pressure fluids into rock formations beneath the earths surface.

2) Withdrawing large amounts of fluid or gas.

3) Construction of reservoirs and lakes."

Until very recently, the first 2 items have occurred only in remote parts of the state, away from densely populated areas. The Barnett-Shale play and subsequent fracing technology have changed all that.

According to the Texas Railroad Commission, in the year 2000, there were less than 10 gas wells in Tarrant County. Today, there are more than 1,000 with many more planned and thousands more in the immediate vicinity.

I'm not suggesting there is a serious risk from earthquakes in Tarrant County, there are far more serious risks from drilling, but, expanded gas drilling and injection wells in the north Texas region have moved us into uncharted territory.

To paraphrase Paul Harvey, "One fine day we may know, the rest of the story."

Click here for more info about Induced Earthquakes.

Durango World America Gradually Takes Flight

Okay. I started a new blog a few days ago. It is being sort of fun and a bit more bother to write this blog than my others. Mostly because it is not just spewing opinion, which is easy and takes little time, but it is about real places and real experiences and thus needs real facts.

Not that real facts are some sort of difficulty for me, there is no denying it takes more time to make sure you've got the info right.

So, with this blogging thing, the process comes in stages. First off, you make the blog, or website, or whatever content you are putting on the Internet.

And then the challenge becomes causing people to find your blog or website or whatever you've put on the Internet.

With the blogging thing it is sort of a video game trying to get Google and the other search engines to index the content. Since I started this new travel/tourist type blog I've been appalled at the goofy ads Google has been generating.

And then today, about 4 or 5 days into starting this blog, Google got the ads right and I'm all stoked that this new blog is going to be a fun, rewarding thing.

I'm thinking roadtrip, with camera and laptop. And wireless Internet connection.

In the meantime, I really need to do some re-thinking on this Durango World America blog name. I keep waiting for it to grow on me. But how long do I want to wait?

North Texas Rocked By Minor Earthquake

At 11:24 am we were rocked by a 3.3 on the Richter Scale earthquake here in North Texas, this wet Saturday, May 16th day.

The quake was centered about 4 miles south of Euless, about 9 miles northeast of my location in East Fort Worth and about 18 miles west of Dallas.

There were no reports of injuries or damage. Texans in Irving, Euless, Bedford and Hurst reported feeling the shaking.

At 11:24 this morning I was laying on the floor doing yoga exercises. I felt nothing but my muscles stretching. I have experienced many earthquakes, due to living the majority of my life in the Pacific Northwest. They can be scary. There's no warning like there is with a tornado. An earthquake can be very loud.

Where I lived in Washington, in East Mount Vernon, there was a period of time during the 1990s when we had multiple very minor earthquakes centered about 4 miles east of my location, by what is called Big Lake. These quakes were in the 3.3 zone. Which you would think would not feel like much. Well, if you are a short distance from the epicenter of a 3.3 quake, you definitely feel it. I remember one hitting while I was laying on my waterbed. It about tossed me off the bed. Another time I was watching TV when one hit. First there's a loud bang-like noise, with the windows all sort of popping in unison. One of the quakes cracked my kitchen's ceramic tile floor. I convinced myself it gave the floor character.

The strongest earthquake I ever experienced was a 6.5. I was over 70 miles from the epicenter. Even that far away, the motion was amazing. You could hardly walk. It lasted what seemed like a minute. The tall trees in the park across from where we lived swayed as if some invisible giant was shaking them.

So, that's been my day in Texas. An earthquake. And I forgot to mention. Someone ran into a nearby natural gas meter, knocking it over, nearly causing an explosion, shutting off gas to a lot of people. Hazmat teams arrived, foam sprayed all over. It is supposed to be fixed by tomorrow. In the meantime, I have no hot water.

Chesapeake Energy's Carter Avenue Eminent Domaiin Abuse

Earlier today I blogged about the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Jerry Jones in cahoots with the City of Arlington outrageous example of eminent domain abuse. That prompted a very good comment about the situation on Carter Avenue in Fort Worth, where a private company, Chesapeake Energy, in cahoots with the corrupt government of the City of Fort Worth, is forcing people to allow a big pipeline filled with odor-free natural gas to be pumped through their property.

I published the comment and then decided it needed it's own blog posting...

Eminent domain for private gain is the refrain that we keep hearing again and again (no rhyme intended; it could be a crime). Which is a worse (both are bad) form of eminent domain abuse: "buying" people's homes and then demolishing them OR, as seen in the Carter Ave. controversy, where a deep-pocketed, politically-connected, and profit-focused private corporation REFUSES TO EVEN CONSIDER "buying" people's homes. so that they can run their massive pipelines under people's front yards?

Chesapeake (CHK) claims that they only "need" the 20' deep (originally 30-40' deep, which would have pipelines running under and around the houses)easement/right of way, so they will only "pay" for that strip of easement right.

Note: it is NOT buying or leasing as most people presume; it's giving them "superior/dominant rights" to use the yard for their "necessity and convenience"? The first abuse at least gives people a chance to relocate and start over, but the second (and will be increasingly exercised) abuse essentially TRAPS people in their home so that CHK could make hundreds of million$$ off the pipelines while making "just compensation" (Fifth Amendment to U.S. Constitution and consistent with Texas laws/codes) ranging from $1,500 to almost $16,000 for about the same easement/lot size, with most 50' wide X 20'deep right of ways receiving around $4,000 (pre-tax and before increase/s in insurance/s).

Guess who got which: the new immigrant with little language and cultural skills with the 50' lot and the media-hungry retired white lady with the 100' lot. Just do the math and think of our currently used phrase "predatory practices".

The easement is "permanent" which means that it has to be disclosed to a potential buyer. Who in their right mind (or linguistic and cultural sophistication) would pay full market value for such a house with such a "burden" (real estate law term)?

Therefore if these people on Carter Ave. want to "make the choice" for their family's health and financial safety (they still pay the taxes, insurance, and upkeep, just like city sidewalk/street easements)they must decide to sell at a deep discount (losing their equity and likely selling for cash to landlords--FHA will not approve a loan that has an easement within 10' of the house)or even default on their mortgage in order to "move away and start over again" except they might return to being renters themselves.

CHK and their fancy lawyers claim that having these 16-24" pipelines (see the explosion last week in S.A. at www.woai.com--the homes and people on Carter Ave. would not make it if it were to happen here, and it will--just see recent explosions in nearby counties) "will have no effect on the rest of the property at all".

Shove something dangerous under their forehead/face and tell them "it will have no effect..."on the rest of their body and quality of life (like finding a mate or a job). In Texas and many other states, what Chesapeake Energy is doing would be considered "rustling"-not of livestock, but of the largest purchase and ownership of private property for most people.

Am I making a valid and fair comparison of abuses just now? If not, set me straight. If so, look out you might be next, especially if you happen to be the unfortunate people living on the other side of the street from "pipeline alley" (or nearby streets) who received nothing--not even a letter notifying them about the pipelines just a few yards away--but will likely suffer the same "damages" and loss as the people with easements.

Which raises a third (living nearby)and fourth(renters who tend to be poorer and immigrants in general--again in general) group of "victims" of abuse. So instead of asking who has it worse, it should be who has it the worst? There are other victims that I won't get into now.

A Rainy Gray Day In Fort Worth Not Fort Walton Florida

I woke up to a downpour this morning. This did not please me as in now I can not do my regularly Saturday Tandy Hills Hike. When one is a creature of habit disruptions like this are very unsettling.

For the past couple hours it has been a northwest in winter type rain, a constant sprinkling, but no downpouring. And I've heard none of the predicted thunder.

My favorite Blogging Co-Conspirator has escaped this grayness, for blue sky and a sandy beach, at Fort Walton in Florida. I've no idea where that is. I'll go see. Okay, it's on the eastern end of the Florida panhandle. I'll see how many miles from here. 773 miles. Microsoft's Streets & Trips program is such a slick little tool for plotting directions and finding places.

Fort Walton is near where Tootsie Tonasket's long lost sister was recently found. Tootsie and the long lost sister have not yet had a reunion.

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Eminent Domain Abuse Cases Still In Court

That's the termination anchor point of the northeast end of one of the 2 huge arches that holds up the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

That anchor point is right about where Evelyn Wray's house sat. She's is the one most in the news for fighting Arlington over what they wanted to pay her for her property. She ended up with a couple million bucks.

Several of the eminent domain cases are still in court. I have long said it seemed so criminally wrong, to me, to use eminent domain for private gain and then to force people out of their homes and start bulldozing, before they had their say in court.

A new lawsuit regarding Arlington's eminent domain abuse has popped up. The lawsuit is arguing something like the property owners where not paid the proper value for their property. Arguing that proper value is based on highest possible use and value of the property. Or something like that. As I understand it, the lawsuit claims that since a $1.1 Billion building now sits on their property, they were not paid the highest potential value.

Over and over again I've gotten comments telling me I just don't understand how much money this stadium is going to bring to Arlington and how much development is going to take place. These commenters apparently have never been to Texas Stadium and seen the lack of development around that stadium. Or asked themselves, why, if the stadium is so valuable, Irving so easily let it go?

I found interesting info about a previous abuse of eminent domain in Arlington. That time for the Ballpark in Arlington, with someone named George W. Bush steamrolling the eminent domain abuse. As with the Cowboy stadium people fought having their homes stolen. The Ranger ballpark has produced little of the economic boom its backers promised. It all sounds real deja vu.

I'll copy and paste 4 paragraphs about George W.'s foray into abusing eminent domain for private gain....

One of the most famous eminent domain cases involved the Cowboys' future home of Arlington, where baseball's Texas Rangers, at the time owned by George W. Bush, convinced local voters to approve a 1991 tax increase that helped build a new $191 million stadium. The city of Arlington used eminent domain to acquire the property from hundreds of private owners, claiming that the stadium was a "public use," just like highways, schools, or government buildings. Several property owners were lowballed, and court decisions increased their take. (The city, not the team, was responsible for the larger payments. The compensation for one 13-acre plot was increased from $877,000 to $5 million, for example.)

The stadium clearly benefited the Rangers' owners more than anyone else: Bush turned his initial $600,000 investment into $15 million when the team was sold in 1999. But it has produced little of the promised economic benefit to Arlington, and there has never been a real "public use" factor aside from baseball fans' paying their money to see games.

Opponents of stadium deals argue that teams and local governments are getting around the public use issue by placing the stadium or arena in the ownership of a "public sports authority." The property is then tax exempt, and the teams pay nominal rent that is often less than they would have owed in property taxes. The lease arrangements are often lopsided in favor of the teams; many, for instance, allow the franchises to move after a certain time if revenues do not hit projections. This threat to pull stakes and run gives teams strong leverage to renegotiate. If the sports facility were privately owned, there would be no lease to haggle over, and the team would be less willing (and able) to leave.

Without eminent domain, acquiring enough property for a stadium could become expensive. A handful of property owners could hold up an entire complicated deal. "If the court makes the ruling that this is not a valid use of eminent domain, there will be some problems," says Scott Powe, a law professor at the University of Texas. "Huge problems. No doubt, there will be lots of litigating."

A law is winding its way through the Texas Legislature that would greatly restrict the use of eminent domain for private gain in Texas. I'm guessing this law has a very slim chance of passing.

The Lonely Bench That's Not On The Loneliest Road In America

That's a Lonely Bench looking out at one of the ponds at Village Creek Natural Historical Area. I have never seen anyone sitting on this bench, including today when I took the picture of the Lonely Bench.

I have no idea why, but every time I see this bench I think to myself that's the Loneliest Bench in the World. There are a lot of lonely picnic tables in this park, too, that I've never seen used.

I saw several humans at Village Creek while I pedaled today, some biking, some walking, with one pair engaging in behavior best kept out of public view. I think they figured they were in an isolated spot and did not realize how quickly a biker could close in on their location. I politely averted my eyes, for the most part, and zoomed away.

Years ago on a very fun road trip, one part of the trip took the drive across Nevada that is called "The Loneliest Road in America." I think it was an article in Life magazine that dubbed it that. There is a giant sand dune that you drive by on the Loneliest Road. By that sand dune is a phone booth that has a sign that says "Loneliest Phone Booth on the Loneliest Road in America." I wonder if that phone booth is still there? I saw it early on in the era of cell phones and the demise of phone booths.

I think it was all the lonely stuff on the Loneliest Road that causes me to think that's the Loneliest Bench every time I see it. So, despite what I said above, I guess I do have an idea why I think that's the Loneliest Bench every time I see it.