An Early Morning Hot Tub Hail Shower With More Scheduled Tomorrow For North Texas

I quickly retreated to the hot tub after a short pool dip this morning to look up at a rather threatening sky.

A few minutes after looking up at a rather threatening sky all hail broke loose in the form of little pellets of frozen water pummeling earth, and me, from the rather threatening sky.

The hail falling did not last very long.

I enjoyed the ice shower while it lasted, due to the frozen water pellets creating an odd sensation when pummeling when one is mostly immersed in tub of very hot water.

I heard on the radio this morning that the weather predictors are predicting some heavy duty storming tomorrow. Apparently a line of storms is advancing from the west, which should hit the western end of the D/FW Metroplex about the time the sun arrives.

Straight line winds up to 60 mph and hail is predicting by the predictors. And rain. And maybe some lightning. With a chance of a tornado thrown into the mix.

My appointment with the hot tub should be very interesting tomorrow morning.

Gazing Into Lake Tandy Thinking About Moving Back To Washington Where Voters Get To Vote

In the picture that is me and my shadow standing today on the Tandy Escarpment, above Dry Tandy Falls, looking down at the crystal clear water of Lake Tandy.

Looking at Dry Tandy Falls and Lake Tandy had me thinking about Dry Falls and crystal clear Sun Lakes in the state from whence I came, Washington.

I've blogged about Dry Falls and Sun Lakes a couple times on my Durango Washington blog in bloggings titled Sun Lakes State Park & Dry Falls and Dry Falls, Sun Lakes, Wind, Riots & Streakers.

I've been thinking about Washington a lot lately. It has been almost 5 years since I've visited the Pacific Northwest.

When I renewed my Texas driver's license, last summer, was the first I realized I'd been in Texas for over 12 years. I was a bit mortified when I realized how quickly 12 years had passed, and how old I will be after the passage of another 12 years.

If I still had a house in Washington I think I'd be moving back. But, my house in Mount Vernon was sold in 2002. There was a house waiting for me when I made the move to Texas, which made moving easy.

When I moved to Texas I knew I was moving to a much more conservative, much less progressive state than  Washington. In the years since I moved to Texas, Washington has become even more progressive and even more liberal. While Texas has sort of regressed.

The depressing, non-progressive, regressive state of being in the state of Texas was brought again to mind a couple minutes ago when I got a blog comment from Dannyboy in response to a blogging I blogged yesterday morning.

Dannyboy has left a new comment on your post "The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit": 

Durango:

You are a bit wrong about Tarrant County mass transit. When it was proposed some decades ago, every city in Tarrant County had the vote to join in. Most did not, including Arlington. So it wasn't that there was "no effort" made to include the whole county, it's just that most of the county said "no" and continues to do so. It is a fact of life in North Texas. Mass transit is considered something that poor people use, and consequently, the funding and improvement of such transportation plans are not seen as important in any way. So it is a conundrum that has no simple fix. People don't use mass transit unless they have to because it is crappy in FW, but they don't want to spend anything to make it better because it is for the crappy poor people. Get it? It will never happen in FW until those attitudes change and I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

If I am understanding Dannyboy correctly, at some point in time individual towns in Tarrant County voted for or against funding mass transit. With only Fort Worth, apparently, voting yes.

Why would this not be a county wide vote, rather than having each town vote regarding its mass transit participation?

The lack of cohesive mass transit in Tarrant County affects the entire county. Why let Arlington vote no and thus make it impossible for Fort Worth residents to take mass transit to Six Flags? Or to watch the Rangers play baseball at The Ballpark in Arlington?

I remember being very perplexed when the Dallas Cowboys were demanding a new football stadium, with how, when it came time to fund the building of a new stadium, the Cowboys ceased being America's Team, the Cowboys were not North Texas' team, not the D/FW Metroplex's team, not the Dallas County team, not the Dallas team, but instead somehow it was the voter's in little Arlington, in Tarrant County, upon whom it fell to help fund a new stadium and proudly engage in one of the worst acts of eminent domain abuse in American history.

By the 1990s congestion had grown into gridlock territory on Washington's Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge. That  infamous bridge connects Tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula. I remember shortly before I moved to Texas, in 1998, voters in the Washington counties affected by the congestion voted on whether or not to support building a second suspension bridge. The voters voted yes and have been driving over the new bridge since 2007.

If I remember correctly the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge cost around $1 billion, about the same cost of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, with key differences being that voters voted on the bridge.

Construction began in 2002, completed 5 years later.

Meanwhile, voters have not voted on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and well over a decade since this incredibly important Fort Worth flood control project was begun, very little can been seen of the vision. And what can be seen ain't at all pretty, visions like the Cowtown Wakeboard Park, the world's pre-eminent urban wake boarding facility.

So, why is it in Texas the voters in a county can not vote on a county-wide project? Why can't all the voters in all the counties that make up the D/FW Metroplex vote in a project that benefits everyone?

Like mass transit for poor people.....

Paw Prints With Incoming Spaceships On The Tandy Hills Bemoaning Power Failures

I'd not been on the Tandy Hills for well over a week, not since rain fell on the prairie.

I do not recollect doing hill hiking with a wind blowing with as high a velocity as what was buffeting me today, particularly on the summit of Mount Tandy, which is the location where the picture of the Tandy Hills' latest art installation was taken.

I am absolutely worthless at interpreting abstract art.

Having admitted that I am absolutely worthless at interpreting abstract art I think my take on this latest Tandy Hills art installation is it represents our meager earthbound defenses against incoming spaceships.

Even though that high velocity wind had some wind chilling factoring into the temperature I soon found myself overheating, which had me doffing all but one major piece of outer wear.

On the hike down Mount Tandy I saw countless paw prints embedded in what had been mud.

And then I came to new directional signposts, with a new trail symbol, that being a paw print which looked just like the paw prints I'd been seeing in the dried mud.

Was Olive the Prairie Dog and Official Mascot of the Tandy Hills the model for the new paw print signposts?

Today may be the last day for awhile where I get my aerobic stimulation on the Tandy Hills. Rain is predicted to precipitate later today and later on this week.

Changing the subject to something else.

I don't think I remembered to mention that last week, Thursday evening at 7:00 o'clock, to be precise, the power went out in my neighborhood. And stayed out for almost 2 hours. Losing power after dark is not pleasant. I have some strategically placed flashlights, which I use to find my Coleman lantern.

Speaking of my Coleman lantern. I bought it way back in 1994, to take along the first time I went houseboating on Lake Powell. That lantern went on the second Lake Powell houseboating trip in 1997 and has made the move to Texas. And in all those years this Coleman lantern has not had its mantel replaced. It has lasted for almost 20 years.

Now, what reminded me of last week's power outage? Well, I was enjoying lunch, watching TV, when the power went out again. This outage only lasted about 10 minutes.

I don't ever remember getting traumatized by the power going out at my house in Washington. All utilities were underground at that location. I'm sure at some point in time something must have caused the power to go out, but I am not remembering any instances of being traumatized by suddenly being totally in the dark.

The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit

A couple months ago Steve A commented on a blog post where I said something about riding a bus, or public transit, the specifics of which I don't remember, but I remember the comment was about Steve A being able to ride a public transit bus from his vacation spot of Ocean Shores, on the Washington Pacific Coast, to Olympia.

Ocean Shores is in Grays Harbor County. Olympia is in Thurston County, about 70 miles from Ocean Shores.

When Steve A told me he could take a public transit bus from Ocean Shores to Olympia I realized I could take public transit from my old home zone in the Skagit Valley, all the way to Ocean Shores, because of the Washington public transit system of Inter-county connectors.

This got me thinking about the extremely sad state of mass public transit in Texas.

One would think that the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone of around 6 million people would be all connected by mass transit, but one would be wrong to think that.

The Washington county I lived in, Skagit County is served by public transit, called Skagit Transit, known as SKAT. SKAT has a Skagit Transit website, is on Twitter and there is a Wikipedia article about SKAT.

Skagit County covers 1,731 square miles. Tarrant County covers 897 square miles. Skagit County's population is 118,109. Tarrant County's population is 1,849,815.

Skagit County is about twice as big as Tarrant County, with Tarrant County having a population about 15 times bigger than Skagit County.

So, how is it that Skagit County has public transit, while Tarrant County does not? When Fort Worth decided to have a public bus system called  The T, why was no effort made to make this a county-wide public transit system?

From the SKAT website, their mission statement...

Our goal is to provide high quality public transportation that meets the needs of the citizens of Skagit County at the least cost to the taxpayer and the user and in the process contribute to the county's economy and quality of life. To do this, we provide traditional Fixed Route bus transportation to most shopping, medical, employment, recreational, and governmental locations. Buses operate Monday through Sunday except on certain holidays.

What is it that stops Tarrant County from having a similar lofty goal?

Tarrant County can not plead being poor as its excuse. The per capita income in Tarrant County is $39,380. Skagit County's per capita income is $37,904. The cost of living is higher in Skagit County than it is in Tarrant County.

The Seattle/Tacoma/Everett Metropolitan zone is served by mass public transit in various forms, including rail, bus and ferries. The Dallas/Arlington/Fort Worth Metropolitan zone is not served by a cohesive mass public transit system.

The Seattle/Tacoma/Everett Metropolitan zone covers 5,894 square miles with a population of 3,500,026. The Dallas/Arlington/Fort Worth Metropolitan zone covers 8,991 square miles with a population of 6,526,548.

So, the Dallas/Arlington/Fort Worth Metroplex is more densely populated than the Seattle/Tacoma/Everett Metroplex, but does not have a public mass transit system serving the population.

One would think that some sort of effort would be made to bring mass public transit to D/FW International Airport.

One would think that some sort of effort would be made to bring mass public transit to Arlington's Entertainment District, that being the location of Six Flags Over Texas, Hurricane Harbor, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

I have been told by more than one Texan that Texans don't ride buses because buses are for poor people.

I guess Washington has way more poor people than Texas does. Watch the video below and eventually you will see a lot of poor people on buses in the transit tunnel that runs under downtown Seattle.

Walking With The Turtles On The Newly Discovered Pioneer Trail In The Village Creek Natural Area

I am not certain, but I think that may be a leafless pecan tree you are looking at in the photo. This big tree is one of many in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

I suspect these big trees are quite old and may have been alive back when this particular area was home to a lot of Indians, before incoming Texans used a primitive form of eminent domain abuse to evict them.

As you can see in the picture, the tree has no leaves and the sky has no clouds.

The temperature was over 60 when I went for a walk today with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek zone.

The temperature was not over 60 this morning when I went for a very quick pool dip followed quickly by a jump into the hot tub.

The perfect weather conditions of this 3rd Sunday of the 2nd month of 2013 had a lot of people out enjoying  nature in the natural area.

The perfect weather conditions also had the Village Creek turtles basking in the sun. Usually the Village Creek turtles are very skittish. But today they politely posed while I took their picture. Not a single turtle jumped into the water.

Today I had the fact that I really am not a very observant person made clear to me, once again, when I noticed something I'd not noticed before, even though I've walked by it dozens upon dozens of times.

The thing I'd never noticed before was the plaque that is stuck to the brick structure that you see in the above photo. On top of the brick structure there is historical information signage that tells the story of the Indians who used to call this location home.

The plaque on the side of the brick structure says "PIONEER TRAIL."

I had no idea, til today, that the Village Creek trail has a name.

It seems to me the name of this trail should be more Indian-centric, rather than named, sort of, after those who evicted the Indians.

THE SKY IS PINK by Josh Fox and the GASLAND Team

An emergency short film from Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated director of GASLAND addressing the urgent crisis of drilling and fracking in New York state.

Go to www.NYAgainstfracking.org for more info and to get involved.

PINK LINKS: Selected Compiled Research

The Sky Is Pink- Annotated industry documents featured in the film:
http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/theskyispink_annotdoc-gasl4final.pdf

Affirming GASLAND- Our responses to industry charges against GASLAND
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking/affirming-gasland
http://1trickpony.cachefly.net/gas/pdf/Affirming_Gasland_Sept_2010.pdf

Flaming Faucets
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509857,00.html
http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/flaming-water/
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-4879509.html
http://planetsave.com/2009/03/20/flammable-water-pours-from-faucets-in-colorado-home/
http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking
http://ecopolitology.org/2009/03/19/leaking-gas-well-causes-flammable-water-to-pour-from-faucets-in-colorado-home-video/

Well Failures/Gas Leaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjaRwh4xRiM&feature=player_embedded
http://gasdrillinginbalcombe.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/44-of-wells-leaking-at-australian-gas-field/
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/03/us/abandoned-oil-and-gas-wells-become-pollution-portals.html?src=pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-17656307
http://frack-off.org.uk/gas-wells-leaking/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9168645/Total-admits-it-could-take-six-months-to-stop-gas-leak.html

Well Construction/Integrity
http://www.slb.com/~/media/Files/resources/oilfield_review/ors03/aut03/p62_76.ashx
http://www.boemre.gov/tarprojects/008/008DE.pdf
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/well_integrity_failure_presentation.pdf
http://www.ptil.no/news/new-report-well-integrity-challenges-on-the-norwegian-shelf-article2762-79.html
http://www.spe.org/ejournals/jsp/journalapp.jsp?pageType=Preview&jid=EDC&mid=SPE-106817-PA

Climate Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXyTpY0NCp0

Breast Cancer
http://www.texassharon.com/2011/09/02/big-gas-mafia-irony-burnsta-tas/
http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/special-projects/gas-well-drilling-headlines/20110831-breast-cancer-rate-climbs-up.ece
http://www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/2011/09/breast-cancer-rates-jump-in-the-barnett-shale/
http://dallasdrilling.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/breast-cancer-rates-jump-in-the-barnett-shale/
http://abcalliance.org/?p=1725 http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/85259117.html

Pittsburgh Fracking Ban
http://www.groundswell.gs/2011/10/28/city-councilman-doug-shields-on-the-success-of-pittsburghs-rights-based-fracking-ban/

Water Contamination
http://www.propublica.org/article/colorado-study-links-methane-in-water-drilling-422
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/gas-fracking-chemicals-detected-in-wyoming-aquifer-epa-says.html
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/04/19/gas-drilling-industry-makes-stunning-admission/
http://static.ewg.org/reports/2011/fracking/cracks_in_the_facade.pdf
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/05/02/1100682108.full.pdf+html?sid=bde16321-e169-437d-a59c-798e7f65c479
http://grist.org/article/2011-02-28-pittsburgh-drinking-water-radioactive-fracking-natural-gas-times/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?_r=1&ref=drillingdown
http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/story/2011-12-01/salts-drilling-drinking-water-danger-still-showing-rivers-9616
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20100813/VALLEYNEWS/100819931

Profiles/Contacts
http://www.cee.cornell.edu/people/profile.cfm?netid=ari1
http://history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/oreskes-naomi.html

‘Drilling Down’
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html

PR/Hill and Knowlton
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2009/11/8680/hill-knowltons-carbon-two-step
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hill_%26_Knowlton
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
http://www.prwatch.org/search/node/knowlton
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=939
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0906/p25s02-cogn.html

State Government Documents
http://mines.industry.qld.gov.au/assets/petroleum-pdf/tara_leaking_well_investigation_report.pdf
http://cogcc.state.co.us/Library/WQCC_WQCD_AnnualReports/WQCC09_10RPT.pdf

‘Reality Tour’ Marcellus Shale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPM64kseP30

Merchants of Doubt
http://www.bloomsburypress.com/books/catalog/merchants_of_doubt_hc_104

Colbert Report
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/politics/blogs/stephen-colbert-and-tom-ridge-get-awkward-over-fracking
http://www.desmogblog.com/tom-ridge-claimed-i-m-not-lobbyist-colbert-report-facts-prove-otherwise
http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2011/06/tom-ridge-shills-for-fracking-on-colbert-report/

Gas Industry Conference:
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=970

A Saturday Monitor Malfunction With A Water Free Fort Worth Picnic & No Samosas

Dead Calm Fosdick Lake

Today Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park was hosting the biggest flotilla of floating ducks I have ever heard quacking at this location.

This 3rd Saturday of the 2nd month of 2013 has been a dead calm, clear blue sky, perfect middle of winter type day in Texas.

This 3rd Saturday of the 2nd month of 2013 began not too auspiciously.

I woke up my computer before the sun arrived this morning. All was fine for a minute or two. And then my second monitor went into malfunction mode, with a pop and a hiss. The monitor was toasted.

But, I had a replacement monitor ready to replace the dead one. So, by the time the sun arrived all was back functioning again in my computer world.

Way back in the early 1990s I bought a computer from Gateway. A now very antique 386 era computer. I was real happy when the new computer arrived, excited was I to set it up. And then, when powered up for the first time, the Gateway monitor did not turn on. Instead it started spewing smoke.

Switching the subject from bad monitors back to Oakland Lake Park.

Today there was a large group having a picnic in the Fosdick Pavilion. Meat products I was unable to identify were being barbecued.

When I see this type thing happening at this park it bothers me.

Because there is no running water available at the Fosdick Pavilion, or anywhere else in Oakland Lake Park. The park's restroom facility is one outhouse. An outhouse with no place to wash ones hands.

Well, there is the lake water, if one was feeling brave and willing to ignore the bad water warnings.

Big Bird Out Of Water

Does my old home state have some sort of law mandating modern facilities at parks with picnic facilities?

Is that why I don't remember seeing such an uncivilized thing til I moved to Texas?

In addition to the picnic without water, I saw a big bird out of the water. I don't think this big bird was a duck. He or she did not seem to mind me getting sort of close.

Changing the subject from Big Birds to Town Talk.

Since this is Saturday naturally I went to Town Talk after my daily dose of endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

Prior to leaving my abode today I cooked up some rice, flavored with curry, ginger and jalapenos to go well with Indian food, because I'd planned to get a box of Chicken Samosas at Town Talk. Well, the boxes of Chicken Samosas were no where to be found at Town Talk.

The only thing I got in a box at Town Talk today was a case of Siggis Icelandic Grapefruit Yogurt. I also got a big bag of Texas Grapefruit. Among other things.

Village Creek Natural Historical Area Trail Tree Blockage

I last walked with the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Indian Ghosts last Sunday. At that point in time Village Creek was moving a lot of water.

Today Village Creek was back in trickle mode.

About a quarter mile from the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Dottie Lynn Parkway parking lot I came to the trail blockage you see in the picture.

I assumed this trail blockage was caused by wind.

Upon closer examination I saw that my initial assumption was incorrect. Me making an incorrect assumption does not happen all that often. Usually no more than once or twice a day do I find I've made an erroneous assumption.

What knocked down this tree was not the wind, but the hand of man, with that hand of man using a chain saw, sawing the tree off about 4 feet from the ground.

Was this vandalism? If it was the Arlington park people who cut down the tree I doubt they would leave it on the ground, blocking the paved trail.

But, why would someone haul a chainsaw to this location to do some random tree vandalizing? That also seems unlikely.

I suspect I will never know the answer to this perplexing mystery.

Watergate's Hidden History Led Me To Margaret Chase Smith's Republican FIBS

On the left you are looking at the cover of a book I am currently reading, that being WATERGATE THE HIDDEN HISTORY.

The subtitle of "Nixon, the Mafia and the CIA" was a bit off-putting to me. I figured this would likely not be a very historically accurate accounting of Nixon's allegedly bad behavior.

Well.

So far, this book is being very interesting. It was published in 2012, 40 years after the botched break-in at the Watergate became the start of what became the most notorious Presidential scandal in American history.

I think I have previously mentioned my favorite genres, reading-wise, are Native American History, True Crime books, the Civil War and World War II.

I don't think I have mentioned that Watergate is also a subject about which I seem to have a continuing interest. I have read all of Richard Nixon's books, post-resignation. Haldeman's Diaries was very surprising. I ended up really liking H.R. Haldeman. I've read Woodward and Bernstein's All the President's Men and Final Days and all the subsequent books Bob Woodward has written on other subjects, like all the books about the perversity of the George W. Bush presidency, except for one sitting on my desk right now, The War Within, which I've not gotten to yet.

In our modern times there are some people who think the Republicans have become the Stupid Party. Apparently there are a lot of Republicans who think and say things that a lot of people think are stupid. I have noticed some of this stupidity myself.

The Republicans have a long history of thinking stupid stuff. Watergate The Hidden History is reminding me of some of it. Like the McCarthy stupidity of the 1950s.

I also have learned from Watergate The Hidden History that back in the 1950s and 1960s, in addition to stupid Republicans, there were also Republican voices of reason.

Republican voices of reason like Margaret Chase Smith.

Margaret Chase Smith was a U.S. Representative from 1940 til 1949, then a U.S. Senator from Maine from 1949 til 1973.

In 1964 Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to be a candidate for the presidency at a major party's national convention.

Margaret Chase Smith rose to fame as an American voice of reason way back well over a half century ago, delivering, on June 1, 1950, a 15 minute speech that became known as the "Declaration of Conscience."

The "Declaration of Conscience" was directed at the bad behavior of fellow Republican Senator, Joe McCarthy, denouncing "the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled from this side of the aisle."

Senator Smith charged that McCarthyism had debased the Senate to "the level of a forum of hate and character assassination."

In the "Declaration of Conscience" Senator Smith defended every American's "right to criticize...right to hold unpopular beliefs...right to protest; the right of independent thought."

In the "Declaration of Conscience" Senator Smith acknowledged her desire for Republican political success, tempering that desire by adding that, "I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horseman of calumny -- fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear."

Margaret Chase Smith's four horseman of calumny became known as "FIBS." Which became shorthand, for many, for the Republican Party, the party of FIBS.

I am sure glad that Margaret Chase Smith types are now in the majority in the Republican Party and no one would ever think that the modern day Republican Party is still the party of FIBS....

Did The Waco Star-Telegram Claim The Waco Cabela's Will Be The #1 Tourist Attraction In Texas?

I was a little surprised on Facebook today to see Bud Kennedy, he being a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, telling Fort Worth that "we're suckers."

Suckers? Why, you ask?

Mr. Kennedy says the people of Fort Worth are suckers because they gave the sporting goods store called Cabela's $40 million in tax breaks on the promise to bring 2.5 million visitors a year to Fort Worth.

I really do not know where to start.

First off it was not the people of Fort Worth who gave Cabela's tax breaks. That was done by the naive, incompetent, common senseless Fort Worth City Government, cheered on by the City of Fort Worth's propaganda purveyor known as the Star-Telegram.

The Star-Telegram repeated, over and over and over again, that the Fort Worth Cabela's would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas.

Depending on who was writing the propaganda the number of tourists ranged from 4 million to 8 million.

I would read this propaganda and be absolutely appalled and sort of embarrassed that people whose job it was to report news and apply some common sense to what they were reporting, did not intuitively realize that if a sporting goods store could be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas that this clearly indicated the Texas Tourist Industry had a very serious problem with having a lack of decent Tourist Attractions.

And how can someone (Bud Kennedy made this claim) not automatically realize that 8 million visitors to a sporting goods store in one year is not even remotely feasible?

I was so appalled that I emailed Bud Kennedy about his 8 million visitors claim, along with the #1 Tourist Attraction claim.

Bud Kennedy replied to me by saying that I must be against business. I replied something like, "no, I am not against business, what I am against is a newspaper making ridiculous claims about something like a sporting goods store becoming the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas, drawing up to 8 million visitors."

Bud Kennedy replied again, sort of granting me my points, but I forget how he articulated that.

Reading Bud Kennedy today in Facebook had me wondering if he has forgotten his initial assertions regarding the Fort Worth Cabela's. Bud Kennedy is amazingly prolific, so it would not shock me if he does not remember something he wrote in the Star-Telegram years ago.

After Bud Kennedy trivialized my comments about the Star-Telegram Cabela's propaganda, by saying I must be against business, I sort of had myself an instant dislike for the guy. That has since greatly abated, to the point I now actually like Bud Kennedy and think he's about the best thing that comes out of the Star-Telegram. With some periodic lapses.

Cablela's came up today, with Bud Kennedy, due to the announcement that Cabela's is now opening a store in Waco. It was not long after the Cabela's opened in Fort Worth that a Cabela's was opened in Buda, by Austin. Then another Cabela's opened in the D/FW Metroplex, in Allen.

Bud Kennedy's reference to Fort Worth getting suckered is the closest I have seen to reading anyone associated with the Star-Telegram admitting that the Star-Telegram got suckered into being propaganda tools for Cabela's #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas scam.

I have blogged about the City of Fort Worth and the Star-Telegram getting suckered by these out of state Cabela's slicksters a few times from 2008 to 2011...

THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008
Fort Worth and Cabela's

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010
The Top 15 Texas Tourist Attractions With #1 Not Being Cabela's Sporting Goods Store

SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2011
A Second Cabela's Opens In Allen In The Dallas Metroplex