Arlington Texas Has Become Nazington

Apparently I am not the only inmate in the D/FW Metroplex who has noticed the Fascist/Nazi-like tendencies of some of the local governments that run roughshod over their citizen's basic American rights. Little things like being safe from harassment in your home. Or safe from having your home stolen from you.

I don't know if Hitler booted people from their homes when he needed a new stadium for the 1936 Olympics. I don't know if the Nazis utilized the eminent domain concept, like what was used in Arlington to boot thousands from their homes and apartments and businesses to build a football stadium.

Last week we learned that Arlington employs yet one more Nazi-like, Soviet-like intimidation method by having citizens act as Code Rangers, reporting petty violations to the city, which then sends out agents to issue tickets.

Now we know that at least 2 Texans have had enough of the City of Arlington and it's Totalitarian Government and are escaping the city before the city victimizes them.

A letter in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram verbalized one Arlington citizen's contempt for his soon to be ex-town, calling it "Nazington." I wish I'd thought of that.

Below is the "Nazington" letter....

Arlington has changed

I was very interested in Robert Reuland’s July 17 letter. (Regarding Code Rangers)

In the nearly 30 years I have lived in Arlington, I have suspected that it has gone from a nice, pleasant and fairly laid-back family environment to Nazington.

Reuland’s letter confirmed my fears and, like him, I cannot wait to leave.

— Jose Allen, Arlington

Breathing Flies & All Wet In Fort Worth

That is the rainy, Level Orange Air Pollution Alert view of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, from midway up Tandy Mountain, aka Broadcast Hill, a little past noon today.

Not long into my hiking, rain began to fall. It was not warm summer rain, instead it was rain that was likely a frozen pellet, a couple thousand feet before it melted and hit my bare skin like a little icy stinger.

I liked it. Though my cargo shorts got drenched, which made them heavier than normal, but, due to the cooling effect of all those icy stingers, I was able to move real fast without overheating.

At one point I was breathing a bit hard and a small fly saw an opportunity to seek refuge through my right nostril. Feeling the fly slowly die inside of me was a bit unsettling, but I quickly got over it.

The rain hitting the parched Texas prairie made for a very good fragrance, sort of an Au De Dry Dirt smell that was quite nice. I'd use it if it were in cologne form.

A couple times the rain went into downpour mode. The first time was soon after I started hiking. I could have chosen to turn around and head for dryness, but I trekked on. The second time a downpour poured I was about as far from my vehicle as I was going to get today. I had some concern that the downpour might go into flash flood mode, turning Tandy Falls into impassable Tandy Rapids. But, the downpour stopped, no flood flashed, I was able to cross the Tandy Falls escarpment without incident.

Today I was parked, again, off the Fort Worth Gestapo regulated roads, at the top of Mount Tandy, by the NBC broadcast building and towers. To get to that, safe from the Gestapo, location I drive by Martell Avenue. This may be the most scenic street I've seen in Texas. I want to move to a house on this street. The picture does not do justice to how cool this street looks with its tunnel of pecan trees arching overhead.

So, that been my miserable day, so far, in this tiresome hell I'm living, up late this morning, no swimming, drenched while hiking and now I'm off to the post office to mail something to one of Fort Worth's Gestapo Headquarters.

Environmentally Friendly Texas Popcorn

I had not thought of air popping popcorn by sticking some in a metal container and setting it outside, til Alma, the Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast, sent me this picture this morning.

I'd pop some outside right now, except it is only 82 and a bit cloudy. I'm thinking it needs to be over 100, with direct sunlight hitting the popcorn popper, to make it work.

I got up late today, which happens once every few years, so, I canceled my regular early morning swim, because it was no longer early morning by the time I got my usual tasks out of the way.

I did nothing aerobic yesterday, except for the early morning swim. And that really is not all that aerobic. I did not go on a walk or a hike yesterday. I'm am turning into a sedentary slob. I will try to end this slob trend today. Even though it is off to a bad start with that missing morning swim.

I watched all of the Obama news conference last night. I don't recollect the last time I made it all the way through such a thing. I thought he made a compelling, if somewhat vague, case for moving fast on health care reform.

Having seen the medical business up close and personal, about 25 years ago, I was shocked and appalled and disgusted with the business, way back then. The bills had so many mistakes, some outrageous. I was able to catch some of them. How many was I unable to catch? They mixed up my files and sent me in for something called a Gallium Scan, when I thought I was there for a CAT scan. Thinking I was someone else, they had me drink a foul liquid, prior to the test, that was not for me. After an hour of me fussing and asking why the tests had been changed, a couple doctors showed up and apologized for the mistake.

I'm off to take a virtual drive down Route 66 in Oklahoma now. Talk to you later.

It's Only A Matter Of Time Til They Come For You

Just when I think I can not possibly get more aggravated, something comes along and I manage to get even more aggravated. Here I was thinking that backwards Fascist Fort Worth had lost sight of the American Way where we all live in the Land of the Free, with little to impede our pursuit of happiness, and certainly with the government not impeding our pursuit of happiness. Or our livelihood.

So, just when I think I can't get any more disgusted and think any more strongly that I live in an insane world, I read an article in FOX News online. A disturbing article. A disturbing article detailing what happened to 2 perfectly good citizens, who did nothing wrong. Yet who ended up in Federal Prison. Due to sheer, utter, absurd idiocy. There is a slight glimmer of hope. Two congressmen are focused on the problem. What good that will do, I don't know, but I'm I'm not very optimistic. In the meantime, until this gets fixed, we are all potential Federal Criminals.

Read the below article. If what you read does not unsettle you, well, I'd go in for a check-up, if I were you.......

Federal law now criminalizes activities that the average person would never dream would land him in prison. Consequently, every year, thousands of upstanding, responsible Americans run afoul of some incomprehensible federal law and end up serving time in federal prison.

With all the attention that's been paid lately to long federal sentences for drug offenders, it's surprising that a far more troubling phenomenon has barely hit the media's radar screen. Every year, thousands of upstanding, responsible Americans run afoul of some incomprehensible federal law or regulation and end up serving time in federal prison.

What is especially disturbing is that it could happen to anyone at all -- and it has.

We should applaud Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), then, for holding a bipartisan hearing today to examine how federal law can make a criminal out of anyone, for even the most mundane conduct.

Federal law in particular now criminalizes entire categories of activities that the average person would never dream would land him in prison. This is an inevitable result of the fact that the criminal law is no longer restricted to punishing inherently wrongful conduct -- such as murder, rape, robbery, and the like.

Moreover, under these new laws, the government can often secure a conviction without having to prove that the person accused even intended to commit a bad act, historically a protection against wrongful conviction.

Laws like this are dangerous in the hands of social engineers and ambitious lawmakers -- not to mention overzealous prosecutors -- bent on using government's greatest civilian power to punish any activity they dislike. So many thousands of criminal offenses are now in federal law that a prominent federal appeals court judge titled his recent essay on this overcriminalization problem, "You're (Probably) a Federal Criminal."

Consider small-time inventor and entrepreneur Krister Evertson, who will testify at today's hearing. Krister never had so much as a traffic ticket before he was run off the road near his mother's home in Wasilla, Alaska, by SWAT-armored federal agents in large black SUVs training automatic weapons on him.

Evertson, who had been working on clean-energy fuel cells since he was in high school, had no idea what he'd done wrong. It turned out that when he legally sold some sodium (part of his fuel-cell materials) to raise cash, he forgot to put a federally mandated safety sticker on the UPS package he sent to the lawful purchaser.

Krister's lack of a criminal record did nothing to prevent federal agents from ransacking his mother's home in their search for evidence on this oh-so-dangerous criminal.

The good news is that a federal jury in Alaska acquitted Krister of all charges. The jurors saw through the charges and realized that Krister had done nothing wrong.

The bad news, however, is that the feds apparently had it in for Krister. Federal criminal law is so broad that it gave prosecutors a convenient vehicle to use to get their man.

Two years after arresting him, the feds brought an entirely new criminal prosecution against Krister on entirely new grounds. They used the fact that before Krister moved back to Wasilla to care for his 80-year-old mother, he had safely and securely stored all of his fuel-cell materials in Salmon, Idaho.

According to the government, when Krister was in jail in Alaska due to the first unjust charges, he had "abandoned" his fuel-cell materials in Idaho. Unfortunately for Krister, federal lawmakers had included in the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act a provision making it a crime to abandon "hazardous waste." According to the trial judge, the law didn't require prosecutors to prove that Krister had intended to abandon the materials (he hadn't) or that they were waste at all -- in reality, they were quite valuable and properly stored away for future use.

With such a broad law, the second jury didn't have much of a choice, and it convicted him. He spent almost two years locked up with real criminals in a federal prison. After he testifies today, he will have to return to his halfway house in Idaho and serve another week before he is released.

The other hardened criminal whose story members of Congress will hear today is retiree George Norris. A longtime resident of Spring, Texas, Norris made the mistake of not knowing and keeping track of all of the details of federal and international law on endangered species -- mostly paperwork requirements -- before he decided to turn his orchid hobby into a small business. What was Norris's goal? To earn a little investment income while his wife neared retirement.

The Lacey Act is an example of the dangerous overbreadth of federal criminal law. Incredibly, Congress has made it a federal crime to violate any fish or wildlife law or regulation of any nation on earth.

Facing 10 years in federal prison, Norris pled guilty and served almost two. His wife, Kathy, describes the pain of losing their life savings to pay for attorneys and trying to explain to grandchildren why for so long Poppa George couldn't see them.

Federal criminal law did not get so badly broken overnight, and it will take hard work to get it fixed. It is encouraging that members of Congress such as Reps. Scott and Gohmert are now paying attention to the toll overcriminalization takes on ordinary Americans. Congress needs to begin fixing the damage it has done by starting to restore a more reasonable, limited and just federal criminal law. Today's hearing is an excellent first step.

He's Not Speaking English, He's Speaking Texan

Texas provides fodder for a lot of Reality TV Shows. Texans are like some sort of Reality TV Staple. More often than not, in some way or the other, good and bad, the Texans deliver some good TV.

That is Van, the Token Texan on the new season of Hell's Kitchen, in the picture.

The most recent version of ABC's The Bachelorette had this guitar playing crooner from Austin, named Wes, universally reviled as a total slimeball. Wes was on a find a mate show, trouble was he had a girlfriend back home. Apparently a big no-no on a show where you are supposed to be looking for a wife.

Wes finally came clean when the wife wannabe sent him back to Austin. As Wes rode away, into the sunset, he bragged about his #1 hit in Chihuahua, Mexico, bragged about being the first guy ever to make it to #4 on this show, with a girl friend, then trashed the 3 guys remaining, saying he was heading back to Austin and gonna be having a lotta sex with his girlfriend.

Top quality TV, that was. Courtesy of a Texan.

And then, last night, on the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen, we had another Texan. Named Van. Apparently Van is a graduate of the Art Institute of Dallas, which apparently teaches the art of cooking. But not the art of behaving well, and keeping cool. Van cooks in an un-named, supposed "top" Dallas restaurant.

However, last night Van seemed to have some serious anger management issues, and shrimp management issues. Perhaps he'd be better suited to being a Fort Worth Policeman. The local Gestapo is always looking for new angry young men.

Van was assigned to tableside shrimp scampi cooking duty. Van had trouble with this duty. He was flipping pans into the air, with shrimp flying. At one point he was cooking shrimp for one of the other team's tables. Jean-Philippe, the mild-mannered Belgian Maitre'd, was mortified at the havoc Van was wreaking in the dining room. JP tried to reign Van in. But this made Van mad, well, actually furious. Van would not listen to JP, instead he threatened JP with his fists, putting on quite a show for the diners.

Eventually Chef Gordon Ramsay intervened and dragged the sparring pair off the dining floor, screaming at them, asking what is wrong with you two? Basically JP said it was Van's fault, that Van wouldn't listen. To which Ramsay told the pair they needed to communicate, that they both spoke English, what's the problem?

To which JP said, in a classic Reality TV moment, in his best snooty French-Belgian accent, "I can not understand him. I speak English. He speaks Texan."

For some reason I found this funny.

Were You At The Rainbow Lounge When The Fort Worth Gestapo Struck?

There is an interesting ad in this week's FW Weekly, next to the ad for the Rainbow Lounge.

You remember the Rainbow Lounge, I'm sure, it made international headlines, for Fort Worth, late last month. That does not happen to Fort Worth all that often.

The Rainbow Lounge is where, in the late hours of June 26 and the early hours of June 27, armed squads of Fort Worth Gestapo Agents, working with fellow thugs from the TABC, invaded the Rainbow Lounge, assaulted patrons, some seriously, handcuffed 20 or so, forcing them to lay, facedown on the parking lot pavement.

When news broke of this latest manifestation of Fort Worth Fascism, reaction was swift and strong. And grew stronger when the Gestapo account was greatly at odds with the accounts of first hand observers, including newspaper reporters and other respectable, credible sorts.

Soon, the police, and Fort Worth's Ruling Junta's propaganda purveying mouthpiece, known as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had to start backpedaling, as it slowly began to dawn that Fort Worth had just had just been delivered a public relations nightmare by the Fort Worth Gestapo.

Within a week, the pressure grew so strong that Fort Worth's usually slow to do anything right, or even remotely politically correct, mayor, Mike Moncrief, called for a federal investigation to get to the truth of why it was that Gestapo Agents were sent to terrorize innocent citizens. And who sent them.

I sort of digressed there, on the way to mentioning the ad in this week's FW Weekly, next to the Rainbow Lounge ad. It's a solicitation from a lawyer. The Law Office of Rob Wiley P.C. is investigating the arrests at the Rainbow Lounge and asking "Were you at the Rainbow Lounge?"

If you have any information regarding this matter you are asked to please call 214.528.6500. This law firm has successfully brought to justice similar suits seeking monetary damages.

So, this is where it gets interesting. The Rainbow Lounge Gestapo Raid could end up costing Fort Worth a fortune. And rightly so. But will it be the Gestapo Agents who conducted the raid who pay the small fortune? No. Hopefully they will be behind bars. But, that seems unlikely, unless the federal investigation somehow topples Fort Worth's Fascist Regime.

So, will it be whoever ordered the Fort Worth Gestapo Agents to make the raid on the Rainbow Lounge, paying out the fortune in restitution?

No. It will be the people of Fort Worth. It will be your tax money, in the end, that pays for the Gestapo Raid, done in your name, on the Rainbow Lounge. It is the citizens of Fort Worth who are ultimately responsible for the fact that they are allowing a Fascist Regime to run roughshod over their fellow citizen's rights.

Where did the money come from that paid the judgments rendered over the drowning of 4 in the Water Gardens? Thin air? Was anyone held accountable for that disaster? I remember the first time I saw that whirlpool and thinking that did not look safe, then thinking it must be made to look dangerous, there must be some sort of grate that catches you if you fall in. That only seemed common sensical. Sadly, common sense is an attribute that seems sometimes to be in short supply in these parts.

Has the Trinity River Vision given its official gone blind notice yet?

Choctaw Casino, Gateway Park & Trinity Falls

My virtual trip, this morning, up to the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, took longer than I thought it would, it always does.

I was back from Oklahoma and in a Fort Worth frame of mind by about 11 this morning. Due to the rather heavy rain this morning, I figured my hiking/walking noonday options were likely limited.

I had not been to Gateway Park in awhile. I figured I'd check out the river and see if the Trinity was in high water mode due to the rain, and then go to Town Talk, which is nearby, and get some good cheese, to which I am addicted, hence the horrendous, unsightly weight gain.

I was a bit non-plussed about what I saw, soon upon my arrival at Gateway Park. I've already blogged my umbrage about that. Once I got past my non-plussedness, which really did not take all that long, I am quite used to being disappointed and disgusted by things I see in Fort Worth, I headed towards the trail that leads to Trinity Falls.

The Gateway Park paved trail leaves the park to connect with the paved Trinity Trail that runs beside and on top of the Trinity River levee. And across dams. I have no idea how these trails would be affected by the, likely never to be built, Trinity Uptown Project, aka TRV.

You leave Gateway Park over a long pedestrian/bike bridge, with Trinity Falls framed by the bridge's sides. It is a borderline scenic spot. Today a guy was trying to fish below the falls. I don't know if he had any luck or if you are advised not to eat any fish you might catch.

I am almost 100% certain Trinity Falls is not a natural falls. I am not certain where the nearest natural falls might be. Turner Falls in Oklahoma, maybe?

One thing that was actually quite cool today, in two meanings of that word. The closer I got to the falls and the river the cooler the temperature got and the less humid it seemed. And the air was full of a good water smell, like negative ions were being shed by the falls, making the air sort of have that element you get when you are on a saltwater beach with big waves crashing. If you have not not been hit by a big saltwater wave in a longtime, I recommend a visit to Gateway Park and a walk to Trinity Falls. It's a pale substitute, but so what, you go with what you've got.

Another Fort Worth Park Puts Up Closed Signs

The CLOSED signs you see are in Gateway Park. There is a third CLOSED sign, that you do not see, to the left. The CLOSED signs are blocking you from entering the elaborate boardwalk walkway that takes you down to the Trinity River in a series of switchbacks.

There are 2 of these boardwalk, river access contraptions in Gateway Park. I assume the other one is CLOSED too.

I have previously made note of the fact that these boardwalks seemed to suffer from neglect, with no cleanup after a flood leaves a deposit of mud, resulting in the eventual decomposing of some of the woodwork.

Why was money spent to build these things, if there was no intent to maintain them? How much did they cost? Who built them? Who put up the CLOSED signs?

Today marks the second time I have been surprised to happen upon a CLOSED sign at a park in Fort Worth. The most bizarre CLOSED park discovery was when I found that one of Fort Worth's few truly unique locations, Heritage Park, it being a small park that celebrated where Fort Worth began, with a very well done system of catwalks, overlooks, water features and views, was also allowed to deteriorate to the point that cyclone fence now surrounds it.

The Heritage Park debacle is particularly bizarre to me, in the city that is the envy of other cities far and wide. Heritage Park is directly across from the Tarrant County Courthouse. The cyclone fence is in plain view of any passing motorist, and the few tourists, who drive north on Main. Any other town, with any sort of pretension to anything but mediocrity, would long ago have fixed this embarrassing eyesore.

Instead the Heritage Park eyesore festers. There are citizen groups trying to fix the park. I do not know how much headway they have made.

In the meantime, Gateway Park now has Fort Worth's latest embarrassing eyesore, that should never have happened.

Gateway Park has been sucked into that vortex of civic madness gone awry, known as the Trinity River Vision, a vision that of late seems destined to go blind.

The CLOSED signs at Gateway Park today may be some sort of omen of the impending demise of the Trinity River Vision. I mean, why don't we try to keep what has already been built here, up and running? And then move on to more grandiose projects. With voter approval, of course.

Swimming In The Warm Summer Rain With Texas Thunder

A year ago today was the first full day of my Tacoma Internment, with this day in Texas very much matching that day a year ago, in that it has been raining here and it's cold. Only 75 out there at a bit past 9.

When I went to the pool, before 7 this morning, it was raining with quite a bit of determination, a warm summer rain that felt like a shower. Very pleasant. Somehow the pool water had cooled overnight. Also very pleasant.

And in the distance I heard the continuous bangs of thunder. Also very pleasant.

The debilitating headache that struck me yesterday, like an over sized sledgehammer to the head, abated by about 7 in the evening. So far, today, no sign of the return of the sledgehammer. That also is very pleasant.

I think I'm heading a bit north and east today, virtually, heading to the Choctaw Casino Resort, just across the border in Durant, Oklahoma. That should be fun, but it'll likely seem more like tiresome work.

I can not access her blog anymore, due to it hangs up my Flock Browser, but one of my many snitches informed me that Queen Jammin, on her blog, referred to me as an elderly man with much too much time on his hands. I was appalled at the Queen's malicious slander. Since I do have a lot of time on my hands, I may have to engineer a coup and de-throne her.

In the meantime, the royal purges must wait while I go to Oklahoma.

Oakland Lake Park Doom Gloom Headaches In Fascist Fort Worth

As you can see it was a bit more gloomy at Oakland Lake Park than when I was there yesterday. By the end of my walking today the rain had started to get serious about getting anything in its path wet.

The clouds and rain have now lifted. You'd think that would put me in a better mood, but, sadly I am ailing. I rarely ail. It started sometime around 8 this morning.

Suddenly I got a headache. That never happens. I thought walking might get rid of it. It didn't. Then about 2 something happened that never happens. I laid down and fell asleep in nap mode. It's been years since that has happened. I am now up and a bit better, still being a bit of a sorehead.

Maybe I am suffering some sort of post-traumatic stress syndrome. It is a month to the day since I flew up to Tacoma for what may be the strangest, most disturbing, weirdest, most inexplicable month I've ever lived. It's been a year, starting today, and I still wonder what the hell that was. Minimized to its essence. Total craziness.

Due to ailing I have not been able to do much constructive today. I did manage to do a minor contribution to the Fort Worth Underground's Fort Worth Freedom Project, by writing a long-winded blogging about why Fort Worth is a Fascist State. But, other than that and a few other things, I've been nothing but a bitter pill today.

It's almost 5. A few more hours of this hell I am living and I can go to bed at a decent hour and hope to sleep, perchance to dream, maybe to wake up in the morning without a headache.