Carter Avenue & The New London School Explosion

No, that picture is not the aftermath of a natural gas explosion on Carter Avenue in Fort Worth. The picture shows what remains of the New London School in the town of New London in East Texas.

By March 18, 1937, un-odorized natural gas had accumulated, unbeknownst to anyone, under the school. The gas ignited, with a big explosion, killing over 300 children and teachers, to the horror of the world, including Adolf Hitler, who sent his condolences.

It was this explosion that brought about the mandate that added a strong, detectable odor to natural gas.

However, Texas is back again allowing natural gas to be piped under children without an odor added to it. The natural gas is known to be corrosive to pipelines. It seems fairly sensible and logical that a homeowner would not want non-odorized natural gas piped underneath their home. Or the yard their kids play on.

This issue is what has the people who live on Carter Avenue upset. They don't want Chesapeake Energy piping odor-free gas under them.

Several of the Fort Worth Bloggers have been blogging about Carter Avenue, including the Fort Worth Star Telegraph. A few days ago the Star Telegraph blogged about Carter Avenue, in a blogging titled "Why YOU Should Care."

"Why YOU Should Care" generated several comments. Several of which were of the brain-dead, moronic sort that I often get when I complain about the eminent domain abuse that occurred in Arlington in order for Jerry Jones to build a football stadium. Comments from people with no understanding of what eminent domain is and who actually believe that Jerry Jones could not take people's homes without their consent.

So, the Star-Telegraph empathized with the plight of the Carter Avenue Dwellers. This brought comments from Barnett Shale natural gas drilling shills. They have been known to comment to my blog when I mentioned something scandalous about Chesapeake Energy. Within a short time of posting I'd see the FeedJit stats light up with hits from Oklahoma City (Chesapeake Energy Headquarters). And then the boilerplate comments would come. Soon the Texas bloggers getting the comments figured it out, made fun of the shills, using them for blogging fodder, sort of causing a they-are-shooting-themselves-in the-foot type effect.

And now the shills have found a new target for their shilling. I had intended to copy and paste the best examples of shilling comments that "Why YOU Should Care" generated, and then comment on the comments. But I've pretty much already done that. So, go to the Fort Worth Star Telegraph and read "Why YOU Should Care" and read the comments.

And also read my Texas Natural Gas Explosion blogging about the New London School Explosion and Chesapeake Energy, with videos.

Texas Natural Gas Explosion

UPDATE: The powers that be in Texas are still allowing un-odorized natural gas to be piped under children. So, I am re-posting this because I think it is relevant to the Carter Avenue Scandal in Fort Worth.

One of Chesapeake Energy's propaganda techniques, when someone objects to the location of one of their drilling operations, is to paint the objector as an out of touch iconoclast stuck back in time.

I don't mind being an iconoclast. Below, I'll be showing you two videos of Texas natural gas explosions. The first occurred on March 18, 1937, two months before the Hindenburg blimp blew up in New Jersey. The Hindenburg disaster is etched in America's memory, well those American's who remember such things. Sadly our numbers are dwindling. Few Americans know of the New London School Disaster.

In 1937, out in East London in East Texas, natural gas pipelines running under the New London School, unbeknownst to anyone, because no odor was detected, because, at that time, no odor was added to natural gas, leaked. The gas was trapped under the school and began leaking from the trap into enclosed crawlspace that ran the 253 foot length of the school.

Students had been complaining of headaches for some time, but no one investigated as to why their heads were hurting.

And then sometime after 3:05, that fateful day, an instructor, Lemmie R. Butler, turned on an electric sander. It is believed that a spark from that sander ignited the explosion that destroyed the school, killing over 300 students and teachers, in the worst school disaster in American history.

Adolf Hitler sent his condolences. Walter Cronkite was sent to New London on one of his first assignments and throughout his career he continued to say this was the worst thing he ever covered.

As a result of what happened in New London, Texas, it was mandated an odor be added to natural gas, that being the sulfur smell we are all familiar with.

Chesapeake Energy's Propagandists will claim that modern technology has solved all the technical problems that might have made drilling for natural gas and transporting it in urban pipelines, safe, like those pipelines now being run all over, under Fort Worth and Tarrant County. Pipelines under homeowner's yards, under their streets, pipelines through which natural gas flows that HAS NOT YET HAD THE SULPHUR ODOR ADDED.

Below is a newsreel type video of the New London School Disaster. Below that a more recent Texas natural gas explosion.



The Chesapeake Energy Propaganda Purveyors claim their industry is safe, that modern technology has solved all those little problems that existed in the last century, that we are living in the age of I-Phones, Flat Panel TVs, the Internet and Space Shuttles, that we don't live in an age where things blow up. Oh, scratch that last one on the list. Accidents happen, but not in the Chesapeake Energy world.

Below is video of a natural gas explosion that occurred in Texas on April 29, 2007. I guess Chesapeake Energy has made tremendous advances since that date and this type thing is no longer possible.

Meanwhile, I've got Chesapeake Energy back drilling across the street, again. So, do not be fooled by thinking that once they are gone, that they don't show up again.

Dallas Texas Police Issue Dozens Of Tickets For Not Speaking English

This morning I read in the Dallas Morning News that a rookie Dallas cop, Gary Bromley, had ticketed a Mexican national, Ernestina Mondragon, who had a driver's license, for not being able to speak English.

I am not making this up.

And now, late in the afternoon, Levi Johnston, who is now one of my regular news sources, via Twitter, tweeted the news that by this afternoon the story had changed.

Now, we learn it was not just one isolated rookie incident, instead, dozens of tickets have been issued, in Dallas, for not being able to speak English.

My great-great grandpa came to America, from Holland, unable to speak English, and never learned the language. But his descendants are all quite fluent with the language.

Sarah Palin really should have worked harder at keeping Levi in her realm. He seems to be quite a wise guy at only 19 years old.

Below is Levi's Twitter Tweet about the Dallas Cops Non-English Speaking Ticket Scandal...

"39 tickets issued to Mexican workers 4 not being able to speak English in DaLLAS TEXAS WTF? TEXAS IS ONE CRAZY STATE."

WordPress THESIS: AVOID

Well, this Texas boy had himself a very aggravating morning this second to last Friday of October. A couple days ago someone dangled money in front of me to get me to figure out a WordPress blog theme thing called THESIS.

I was about 2 minutes in when I decided THESIS was a piece of outdated junk that belongs back in 1999.

But, for reasons unfathomable to me, there are blogging gurus who swear THESIS is the best blogging thing in the world. And I know simple saps who listen, without critical questioning, to blogging gurus, and then buy in to what they are selling. So, THESIS gets bought.

I'll tell you how bad this piece of junk is. The BIG problem was the THESIS user could not figure out how to upload their logo to their THESIS blog. This is a rather elemental part of any publishing software I've ever used, be it blogging or print. The ability to easily insert an image where you want it.

But not with THESIS. Logo uploading is among the many missing features. To upload a logo in THESIS I had to search for a solution. The THESIS style sheet had to be altered with code injected.

No big deal. Been there, done that before. So, I'm logged into THESIS. I open the custom.css file. I copy the code. I save the file.

However, THESIS, upon saving, changed a key part of the code from 880 pixels to 8800 pixels. Trust me, that creates problems. So, I delete the extra 0 and save again. Nope. Still there. I delete all the code and save again. Nope. Still there.

I've been down this type road enough times that I know to backup a copy before altering. So, I went through several steps and used FTP to overwrite the file that the idiotic THESIS thing would not save correctly.

By that time it was 10 in the morning. I'd missed my morning swim. I'd been up fiddling with this stupid thing since 5am.

And now I was mad. Which means I was gonna keep at it til I got the stupid logo to work.

It all had to be done outside the criminally bad THESIS mess, using Windows Notepad and FTP. By 11am I had the logo uploaded and on the blog.

Six hours to do something that would take me all of 20 seconds using the blogger system I'm using to write this blog.

If I've not been clear enough, let me be clearer.

THESIS SUCKS!

Men's & Women's Toilet At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Yesterday when I picked up Miss Puerto Rico at Terminal D at D/FW Airport, due to being stuck in the airport way too long due to a stuck piece of luggage I noticed something that I don't believe was there to be noticed on previous visits to D/FW.

As in the signs for and pointing to the entities formerly named "Restrooms" have been changed to "Men's Toilets" and "Women's Toilets."

I don't know for sure why, but something about this struck me as being really tacky.

While standing in the airport, waiting for the luggage to get unstuck, I asked a few others what they thought of the signage. Strange, different and never seen that before was the general opinion.

The signs are not accurate. Yes, there are toilets in the former restrooms, but there are also sinks, diaper changing tables and for the men, urinals. It could be very confusing for someone desperately searching for a sink to wash their hands.

High Water Rapids On The Trinity River In Fort Worth

That is the Trinity River in east Fort Worth in flood mode Thursday around noon. The river had come down from its highwater mark, but was still roaring over the Gateway Park/Trinity Trails Dam Trail Bridge.

This was the location I showed you a few weeks ago, near Beach Street, where gas drillers were sucking water out of the Trinity River. The gas pump was busy pumping yesterday, but I could barely hear it over the roar of the water.

The river had dropped about 10 feet by the time I saw it. You can easily tell the highwater mark by the line of litter left behind.

It is back being clear here in North Texas again with a beautiful blue sky. But it is cold. Mid 40s when my usual going to the pool time came. I decided I didn't need to go swimming.

Stuck Bag American Airlines Drama At D/FW Airport

Miss Puerto Rico's return to Texas was a bit bumpy. In San Juan, American Airlines insisted she check in the bag that she had carried on in Dallas.

Miss Puerto Rico had resolved to never check in a bag with American Airlines again after they lost a bag filled with all sorts of goodies and despite multiple filings of claims for restitution, American Airlines did not make good on their mistake.

I knew Miss PR's plane was late. When she landed she called me. I was barely on my way and was surprised she was on the ground. She told me, no problem, we are stuck on the tarmac til a gate opens.

The traffic jamming was terrible on the way to the airport. I was sure I'd be late, even though Miss PR was stuck on the tarmac,

I arrived at the terminal. D. The new International Terminal. I called. Miss PR was off the plane and waiting at Baggage Claim D16. This is when I learned she had been forced to check in a bag with the notoriously incompetent American Airlines baggage handlers.

I got to Baggage Claim D16 to see the bizarre sight of a guy standing on the moving baggage carousel, yanking on what looked like a briefcase stuck in the baggage conveyor belt.

Multiple attempts were made to get the Emergency Shut Off button to turn off the conveyor belt. But it would not stop.

Eventually someone somewhere was able to stop the thing.

Various people tried to pull the stuck bag loose. To no avail.

After about a half an hour the woman you see in the picture, above, took off her stiletto heels and climbed up on the carousel to try and extract the stuck bag. She was on the phone at the time. She had some connection to American Airlines and was making all sorts of phone calls to all sorts of people to get someone to come fix this.

Eventually a guy showed up with tools. There was a lot of secret agent type communication between the guy with tools and someone in control of the conveyor belt about reversing the motor to reverse the conveyor belt and free the briefcase.

After what seemed like a really long time the conveyor belt reversed, to no avail. It's resistance detection shutdown feature worked.

So, then the guy with the tools used a jackknife, which none of the fliers had, due to those, you know, flight safety rules to combat terrorism, to free the briefcase.

Then he told the guy on the other end of his secret agent communicator to put the conveyor belt back in forward mode.

Soon the baggage moving sound was heard, lights flashed and the conveyor belt and carousel were moving again. There was some cheering and applause

Miss Puerto Rico's unwillingly checked in piece of luggage was 3rd to arrive.

A happy ending to a very weird visit to D/FW Airport.

Now, to be clear, I do not believe this bizarre incident was an American Airlines problem. It was a D/FW Airport problem.

Why did the Emergency Shut-off not work? Why was the design of the conveyor belt such that something could slip through and jam up the conveyor belt? Why was the conveyor belt not designed in a way that if something did get stuck that it could easily be released, by, I don't know, maybe pulling a lever and creating a gap between the belt and the chunk of metal that the briefcase got stuck in.

Anyway, yet one more Airport Adventure courtesy of Miss Puerto Rico. And due to all this aggravation it cost 2 bucks instead of 1 to escape the airport, due to being detained through no fault of our own. Outrageous. I want my dollar back.

Texas Wind Chime Noise Pollution

UPDATE: I've been scrolling through old bloggings, looking at the ones that have accumulated a lot of comments and re-posting if I think the comments are funny or good or both funny and good. The comments about Wind Chime Pollution are funny and good...

I hate wind chimes. I think they are a public nuisance. I think anyone who would hang a wind chime outside their abode is a public nuisance. I am not alone. If you Google "wind chime complaints" you will see that wind chimes annoy people all over the world.

Some towns have ordinances to control how wind chimes can be used, how loud, how many and how close to a neighbor.

Humans have different tolerance levels for annoying noise. Some people are not bothered by noise, others are. I happen to be one who is. I think someone else's right to a noise stops at the point I have to hear it.

One of my siblings has a low tolerance for repetitive noises. And the soothing sound of a waterfall. I have the soothing sound of a waterfall outside my bedroom window. I like it. I've got the window open right now, listening to it. And the wind. I can hear wind chimes in the distance.

When you have low tolerance for annoying noises you can be driven to extreme measures. I've seen my sibling with the low tolerance for repetitive noises come unglued at a dear elderly lady who was trying to locate some photos to show on her digital camera. Each time she pushed the button there was a beep. Sometime after 10 beeps my sibling started to lose her composure.

Little camera and phone beeps don't bug me. But those gas-powered leaf blowers do. They should be banned.

Yesterday as I sat in the Wal-Mart Neighorhood Market parking lot trying to talk to my sister, an idiot pulled up with rap-like type music blaring so loud I had to get out of the vehicle and walk away from the noise so I could continue to talk to my sister.

With the wind chimes I have been driven to extreme measures, as in some time ago one of my neighbors had the wind chimes from hell. Three of them. They actually were more like wind gongs. I called 911 to complain that my hearing was being damaged. In Texas I got no help from the authorities to help with my serious case of being victimized by noise pollution.

So, I had to take matters into my own hands and launch a guerrilla operation. Under cover of darkness, I put on my camo wear, put on a ski mask and slithered my way to the location of the wind gongs. I figured I had about a minute, tops, if I was heard, before the noise polluters could make it outside. So, I moved fast, grabbed the gongs and ran fast. I disposed of them discreetly the next day.

That's my personal solution for dealing with wind chimes that disturb my peace. I don't recommend it for everyone.

Miss Puerto Rico Is In Miami Heading To Cold Flooding Texas

That's the Thursday 10am in the morning, balcony view, in what is likely the last in the current "View From Miss Puerto Rico's" series.

As you can see a layer of gray is blocking our usual view of a Texas blue sky. We have had a big delivery of rain in the past 24 hours. The Trinity River is above flood stage in some locations. A weather alert just informed me that the West Fork of the Trinity River will be flooding parts of Grand Prairie until sometime Friday.

The majority of you reading this are not Texans. So, I'll explain that Grand Prairie is east of Arlington, west of Dallas. Arlington is where the Dallas Cowboys play football. The Dallas Cowboys do not play football in Dallas.

Near as I can tell Dallas thinks the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone is all Dallas with the 50 or 60 Metroplex towns, like Fort Worth, Arlington, Frisco, Grapevine and all the rest, being Dallas neighborhoods.

So, now you know why it makes perfectly good sense for the Dallas Cowboys to build a $1.2 billion new stadium in the Dallas neighborhood of Arlington and still call themselves the Dallas Cowboys.

The aforementioned Miss Puerto Rico called a few minutes ago. She is now in Miami. She was not pleased when I told her what the weather is like here. When I went in the pool this morning, at 7, it was raining and 61. Now, 3.5 hours later it is not raining, but it is windy and the temperature has dropped 10 degrees.

So, I picked up a coat for her when I was over at Miss PR's taking my daily balcony picture and feeding the cat. I told Miss PR to stay inside the terminal til I got the coat to her.

Driving Too Slow Without A Seatbelt In Fort Worth

Update: It is a couple months since I was ticketed for not wearing a seat belt while driving 10mph in Fort Worth. I complied with the ticket and indicated I wanted a jury trial to plead my case that I had not violated the spirit of the law. I have not heard back from Fort Worth. Case Closed. End of Update: On to Original Post....

Like I said in the previous blogging, I had myself a run-in with Fort Worth's version of the law today, soon after I was done hiking the Tandy Hills.

I got in my vehicle, started it up, turned on the A/C and started to drive. Big Ed put on his seatbelt. I was too sweaty to want to put on my seatbelt and did not see the need, til I reached Beach Street, since I was driving, slowly, on residential streets.

I drove til View Street hit Barron, took a right. Soon thereafter I saw flashing lights in my rear view mirror. What fresh hell is this, in this hell I'm living, I wondered.

The cop walked up. My window was already down, due to trying to cool off. "What's wrong, officer?" I asked.

"I need to see your license and insurance." I gave them to him.

"Why were you driving so slow?" the cop asked.

"We'd just finished hiking the Tandy Hills and were overheated, I wasn't thinking about driving too slow."

The cop then pointed to Big Ed and said, "He just put on his seatbelt when he saw the flashing lights, didn't he?"

I think this clucklehead cop was thinking he had himself a major bust.

"No," I said, "he put his on before I started moving. I said to him, why do you want that on, it's too hot?"

"I pulled you over because you were driving so slow I could see you weren't wearing your belt," the cop said.

I said, "I saw no need, since, like you said, I was driving slow, I was going to put it on when we got to Beach Street."

This seemed to be one of those cops, like that one who caused a scandal in Dallas, with a lack of an ability to correctly read a situation and make a good call. Instead this cop reinforced the dumb cop cliche, being yet one more example of why law enforcement is held, by so many, in such low esteem.

So, the cop disappeared to his Forth Worth Police Car. After 15 minutes he came back, had me sign something that said "CUSTOMER COPY" at the top. He said something about having 11 days to make an appearance. "That it was all detailed on the citation."

Okay, let's not even talk about the obvious, as in, I'm a grown up. If I choose not to put my seatbelt on when I'm all hot and sweaty and know that I'm going to be driving slow on some residential streets, that is my business, only my business and it certainly is not the business of the Fascists who run Fort Worth like a bunch of crazed Neo-Nazis, over-running bars, beating patrons, throwing innocent people face down on parking lots.

The citation tells me I can go to www.fortworthgov.org for more information about my ticket. So, I go there. There is no information about anyone's specific ticket. You can download a fine schedule, which was another bizarre thing. On that fine schedule there is no mention of what the fine is for driving slowly through a residential neighborhood, while sweating profusely without your seatbelt on.

Til today, I had not gotten a traffic ticket, of any sort, in years. Back in modern civilization, when I lived in Washington, a ticket clearly spelled out the fine, your options for paying the fine, or disputing the fine. This idiotic Customer Copy I got in this Third World type municipality has south of the border shakedown written all over it. You can barely read the print. It is small and faded. I'm sure a large number of people can not make sense of what they are expected to do.

Parts of America have really gone off the track. There are reasons we have a higher % of people behind bars than any other nation on earth, us, who are brainwashed to believe we live in the Land of the Free. If you lived in the Land of the Free you could not be stopped by the Gestapo because you were driving slowly through a residential neighborhood, sweating profusely, while not wearing your seatbelt.

Thomas Jefferson was right. For a Democracy to stay free you need a fresh revolution every 20 years or so. I feel like revolting.

I was able to decipher, among my options, that I can have my "case" heard in front of a jury. I believe that will be the option I take.

From what I've heard of other's experiences, the way this works in Fort Worth, is nothing you say to the judge will change anything. I don't even believe they are real judges in the way we think of them in the more advanced parts of the country. The idea that you have to go before a judge, because you didn't have your seatbelt on, explain the extenuating circumstances, with the judge under no obligation to take those into consideration, before imposing what amounts to being institutionalized theft.

I tell you, you people of Fort Worth, this is the corrupt system you get when only 6% of you turn out to vote for your city government. This town needs a revolution and a cleaning up of a very corrupt house.

As you can see, Fort Worth may try to stifle my right to choose to temporarily leave my seatbelt off, but there is not a thing they can do to stifle me from using my right to say whatever I want, to whoever I want, whenever I want. With all do respect to the Fort Worth Court and Police System. All do respect. Which is they are due none.