This Morning The Republicans & ISIS Have Me Searching For A Desert Isle Hermit Refuge

This morning I suddenly found myself deciding that I think it may be a good idea to live out what years I have remaining on this planet in utter sublime isolation.

Googling for desert isle refuges or ghost town hideaways brought me no useful information.

I am not sure what the tipping point was which pushed me over the brink into thinking being a hermit was a really good idea.

It may have been reading yesterday that the demented criminal barbarians who call themselves ISIS had taken a group of 13 Iraqi boys who had been watching an Iraqi soccer match on TV, to a public square where they were executed by machine gun fire after an announcement to the watching  crowd informing those watching that the boys were being executed for their serious violation of Sharia Law of watching soccer on TV.

Did this actually happen?

If this did actually happen did I miss that emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, called to finally do something serious about this latest Islamic aberration, which calls itself ISIS?

Back when Hitler was doing his dirty deeds, murdering millions of Jews, and others, in Death Camps, there was no United Nations, there was no mass world-wide communication via television and the Internet. Most of humanity had  no idea, til the war was over, just how evil Hitler and his Nazi minions were.

Had the world known, would more have been done to stop the slaughter of innocents in gas chambers? I would have hoped so.

But, judging by the world's reaction to the ongoing ISIS atrocities, murdering innocent boys, beheading innocent men, terrorizing a wide swath of Iraq and Syria, with there really being no meaningful world reaction that I've made note of, well, I don't know if the Internet and world-wide mass communication would have been of any use against the Nazi evil either.

And then there was last night's POTUS SOTU speech. I thought this was the best State of the Union speech of Obama's reign. If only he had a Democrat majority in Congress to give the world some hope that some of which he proposed might actually to pass.

But, somehow Americans voted last November to give the Republicans a majority in both Houses.

This morning the thing that seems to have bugged those Republicans the most of what Obama said last night was when he reminded the Republicans that he had twice won election to the presidency, with that remark coming after derisive Republican applause when Obama said he'd run his last campaign.

Out of all that was said last night by the President, this retort by the President is something Republicans want to focus on? With all that is going on in the world worthy of focus, this is something to complain about?

I just grow tired of it all. Whether it is the world issues, like the ISIS barbarians, or the national issues, like the Republican barbarians, or the local to Texas issues, with even more barbarians. With not much of anything being done to thwart the barbarians.

With so many barbarians storming the gates I really just want to pull the plug and make it all go away.

In the meantime, it is time for lunch....

Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Congratulatory Arena Propaganda

Looking at the screencap you see here, you see that Fort Worth is being congratulated for doing it.

What did Fort Worth do, you who are not privy to what Fort Worth does, may be wondering?

Well, last November a few Fort Worth voters voted on Three Propositions whose passage was alleged to have approved of the building of a new Multi-Purpose Arena which will accommodate around 14,000 event attendees, thus, also allegedly, filling a supposed Fort Worth entertainment gap that caused big name acts to avoid Fort Worth because the only performance venue available in town was the puny Fort Worth Convention Center Multi-Purpose Arena which held only around 12,000 attendees.

Yeah, I know, you reading this where your drinking water and air does not make you somewhat insane, that really does not make a lot of sense. But, apparently those who are in charge of Fort Worth's Dunce Confederacy think those extra couple thousand seats are just what are needed to get some big events to come to Fort Worth.

As for those Three Propositions, those have perplexed me ever since I first learned of them. Basically they are three voter approved taxes, as in fees on renting livestock stalls,  parking and event tickets.

Why these Three Propositions could not simply have been One Proposition is a mystery to me. To create the illusion of having more to vote on?

I have never gotten an answer to the question if one or all of those Three Propositions failed would that mean no arena would be built?

Which leads me to what is bugging me today.

A few days ago I blogged a blogging titled Why Does Fort Worth's New Multi-Purpose Arena Cost So Much And Do So Little Compared To Phoenix Arenas? in which we learned about two Phoenix area arenas built this century, those being University of Phoenix Stadium, where the Super Bowl is played this year, and the next door Gila River Arena. Both hold way more attendees than Fort Worth's newly approved arena. The Super Bowl stadium cost about as much as Fort Worth's arena and holds about six times more people. The Gila River Arena cost about half what Fort Worth's arena will allegedly cost, and holds around 6,000 more people.

Both Phoenix area arenas had a project timeline, a begin construction date, with a proposed opening date.

This morning I Googled looking for project timeline info for Fort Worth's recently approved arena. I could find no such info, but the first website which came up in the search is that which I screencapped above, that being the Fort Worth Arena website.

Go to the Fort Worth Arena website and you will find no project information about the new Fort Worth Arena, Instead you find typical Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy propaganda about the alleged wonders this new arena will bring to Fort Worth.

During the recent election no project funding data was provided by those pushing for the arena, explaining how it was that the money raised by those three fees was going to pay for half the cost of the arena.

How could such a revenue projection be possible? What with it not possible to know if there are any big acts willing to book themselves in this relatively puny arena.

How many days of the years are those livestock stalls going to be providing rental fees?

This is all so bizarre to me. Why is it Fort Worth seems to have such a habit of having pseudo public works projects, such as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and now this arena, with no project timelines?

How can that extremely vital economic development and flood control project, the TRV Boondoggle, be built on an extremely slow motion time schedule if it is so essential and if it provides such a great benefit to Fort Worth?

And now this Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena. Will it be open for next year's Stock Show? How about the year after that? Will it be open by the time the TRV Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are able to be driven over, to nothing?

Who knows?

Like I said, bizarre.

Martin Luther King Day In Texas Hoping One Day We Shall Overcome

This morning, on Facebook, via one of my oldest and dearest friends, Miss Linda, currently residing in my old hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington, I saw my first Martin Luther King Day memorial of the day.

A reminder to remember lest we ever forget.

We shall overcome, we shall overcome.

We shall overcome some day.

Deep in my heart I do believe We shall overcome some day.

Who knows when that day will come when we overcome all the hate that roils the world, overcoming that hate with peace and compassion.

The current Catholic Pope, Francis, seems to be the current world's best version of the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.

Methinks we need several dozen more world leaders of the Pope Francis, Martin Luther King sort, with at least a dozen of that quality of leader leading those in the Muslim world to a more modern way of looking at the rest of humanity with whom they share the planet....

Watching The Super Bowl Bound Seattle Seahawks Win Again From The Imaginary Football Capital Of The World

What an entertaining Sunday afternoon of football, from my vantage point, here in the Imaginary Football Capital of the World, Tarrant County, where no football was played today, watching a rather amazing Seattle Seahawk's overtime comeback win over the Green Bay Packers, which sends the Seahawks to Arizona for the Super Bowl.

I "watched" the Seahawks win today via live blogging with Scott up in Seattle.

This was a much more enjoyable means of watching a football game than enduring a television broadcast with its endless yammering and commercials.

The live blogging provided plenty of visuals, including visuals likely not seen on the TV broadcast, such as Richter Scale readings when the fans would get quaking way too much.

I did not envy any of those live on the scene 12th Man fans watching that game in person on what looked to be a rather miserable stereotypically rainy Pacific Northwest winter day today.

But, I suspect the record breaking crowd, though wet, in the end, except for the Packer fans in attendance, thought it was well worth it, watching those beloved Seahawks win again.

And now the two weeks of pre-Super Bowl hoopla begins for parts of America.

I suspect the hoopla will be a bit muted in the Football Capital of the World....

Macie Is The Seattle Seahawks Latest 12th Man Fan Not From Texas

I saw that which you see here, this morning, on Facebook, via Macie Knappson's mom.

Macie is a Snicker Doodle, combo Schnauzer/Poodle, who found her forever home this week in Kent, Washington, where she will now live in Only Child Syndrome splendor.

In other words Macie is getting a lot of attention, hopefully not enough to turn the little cutey into a spoiled brat.

Macie already has had herself fitted with a Seattle Seahawks green and blue sweater with the #12 on it.

The past couple weeks the #12 has sprouted up all over the Pacific Northwest on all sorts of things.

Including the Seattle Space Needle, as you can see above.

A few years ago some obscure Texas school got itself all twisted due to thinking Seattle had somehow stolen this 12th Man concept from them. That Texas school went so far as to sue someone over this supposed 12th Man theft. I recollect more than once reading about more than one Seattle Seahawk 12th Man fan having no clue that some obscure Texas school also deemed its fans its team's 12th Man.

Due to very few people in the Pacific Northwest knowing that some obscure Texas school shared this 12th Man thing the case never progressed to the point of being tried in court.

I don't know if that obscure Texas school still clings to this 12th Man thing, what with the Seattle Seahawks having sort of brought the concept to national awareness.

I doubt I will watch today's pre-Super Bowl game between the Seahawks and Green Bay Packers. Last year I watched, for the most  part, the games which led to Seattle being in the Super Bowl.

This year it all has a sort of been there, done that, seen it before feel to it. I suspect if Seattle wins today I will be watching the Super Bowl in two weeks. I usually do that anyway, for the commercials, which have been a bit lame the past few Super Bowls....

For $70 TRWD Kingpin Jim Oliver Will Make Texas Water Issues Clear For You

A couple days ago a perplexing invitation from the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce showed up in my emailbox.

The invitation was to an event titled Leaders in Government with Jim Oliver, General Manager, Tarrant Regional Water District.

First the details of this event, copied from the email and then my perplexed wonderment about this event...


EVENT DESCRIPTION:
With Texas’ and especially Tarrant County’s growing population -- coupled with ongoing drought conditions -- our water sourcing, delivery, conservation and reuse is a top business priority for the Chamber.

You’re invited to hear about opportunities for solutions when we welcome Jim Oliver, general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District at our next Leaders in Government luncheon February 12. Led by a publicly elected five-member board, the Water District owns and operates four major reservoirs including Lake Bridgeport, Eagle Mountain Lake and the Cedar Creek and Richland Chambers Reservoirs.

Oliver will discuss water quality and supply; the Integrated Pipeline, a joint project with TRWD and the City of Dallas to move existing water from Cedar Creek Reservoir, Richland Chambers Reservoir and Lake Palestine; recreation sponsored by TRWD; and the Trinity River Vision.

EVENT DETAILS:
Date/Time Details:
Thursday, February 12, 2015
11:30 a.m. - Registration & Networking; Noon - Lunch; 12:30 p.m. - Program
Location:
City Club - Ballroom
301 Commerce Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
Fees/Admission:
$35.00 - Upper Tier Members
$40.00 - Standard Members
$500 - Member Corporate Table of 8
$70.00 - Non-Member

____________________________________________________

Now, I admit that I continue to be woefully ignorant as to how public operations operate in an oligarchy, in comparison to how public operations operate in a democracy, in other words, what is known as the Fort Worth Way continues to perplex me.

Isn't Jim Oliver sort of a public employee, being the Kingpin, also known as the Keykeeper, of the Tarrant Regional Water District?

Yet, for the public to get to hear the TRWD Kingpin Oliver share his insight about solutions to issues regarding supply of water and its quality, and the controversial Integrated (with Dallas) Pipeline, with which the TRWD plans to suck water from and flood land in East Texas, the public must pay an expensive fee to gain access to hear the TRWD Kingpin's words of wisdom.

$500 for a Corporate Table of 8?

$70 for non-members?

What is a corporation buying with that $500? Who is being paid the $500? The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce?

Is the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce a for profit agency?

Is the TRWD Kingpin, Jim Oliver, being paid a fee for making this "public" appearance?

I guess I will have to fork over  $70 to attend  this major event and maybe get a chance to ask a question or two....

My First Endorphin Inducing Bike Ride In Texas Of The New Year Has Me Feeling Good

I did not realize, until this 3rd Saturday of the New Year, how much I have been missing the blue sky of Texas, when the sun which that blue sky lets shine, heats the air to a temperature allowing outer wear of the t-shirt and shorts variety.

In other words, the temperature currently is halfway between 60 and 70 which made it possible to go on my first bike ride of the new year along with getting my first good strong dose of endorphins of the new year.

If I remember right the last time my handlebars parked at the location you see here, looking at my neighborhood golf course, the grass of the golf course was still green.

How come Western Washington grass in winter remains green, while Texas grass in winter turns brown, for the most part? One would think it'd be the opposite, what with Western Washington getting way less sunshine in winter than what usually brightens Texas.

I did not realize til getting today's strong endorphin fix how much I had had been suffering from the rigors of endorphin withdrawal.

Prior to getting an endorphin fix I had no energy or desire to take myself to downtown Fort Worth to watch the 2015 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Parade.

That parade is now over, but if I felt before it started, like I do now, I think I would have made one of my rare visits to America's Imaginary #1 Top Downtown to do some parade viewing.

The Stock Show Parade is one of the best, if not the best, parade I have ever witnessed.

Seems like in years past my regular Saturday habit was to go to Town Talk. I don't think I have been to Town Talk yet this year. I guess I am no longer a creature of habit....

The Deep Moat Search For The Tarrant Regional Water District Crime Syndicate's Smoking Gun

I think I may have mentioned a time or two that we in the Anti-Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Syndicate have ourselves a mole inside the TRV Boondoggle who has provided us information over the past few years which has gone a long ways to reinforcing the widespread belief that something is not right with The Boondoggle, not right to the extent that some, recently, have referred to The Boondoggle's overseer as the TRWD Crime Syndicate.

The Anti-TRV Boondoggle Syndicate's TRV mole calls him or herself Deep Moat.

From Deep Moat we have learned many things. Things such as details of the junkets J.D. Granger would take his TRV co-horts on, to various American and Canadian towns, ostensibly to research how those towns accomplished that which J.D Granger and his Boondoggle hoped to accomplish for Fort Worth.

Ironically, it has been years now, and there is ZERO to be seen of anything The Boondoggle has accomplished which at all mirrors anything they saw on any of those junkets.

Well, there are those Three Bridges Over Nothing being constructed with an incredible four year construction timeline of longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge.

We had not heard from Deep Moat for over a year til this week. Deep Moat sent an email with some information and one question....

"Did the Breitbart guy ever find what he was looking for? "

The Breitbart guy to whom Deep Moat refers is Lawrence Meyers, investigative journalist for Breitbart.

Lawrence Meyers and Breitbart have published multiple articles detailing their ongoing investigations into the Tarrant Regional Water District and Trinity River Vision corruption.

The Anti-TRV Boondoggle Syndicate's Information Officer, Elsie Hotpepper, relayed Deep Moat's question to Mr. Meyers, who then replied with...

Tell her "No. He knows there are many smoking guns, but everyone is too afraid to hand them to him. They need to stop being so afraid. Someone will get indicted and when that happens, people who know stuff and didn't come forward are going to be in the crosshairs".

One can not help but wonder, if one wonders about such things, when it is that there is going to be any sort of Grand Jury investigation into the TRWD and TRV shenanigans?

And what will the smoking gun be?

Will it be the communications between TRWD board members which led to the bizarre hiring of J.D. Granger to run a pseudo public works project for which he had zero qualifications?

Will it be how it was that shady land purchase deals came to be approved?

Will it be a follow the money type scenario which leads to the wrongdoing?

Will it be finding the details of sweetheart deals awarding no-bid TRWD contracts?

What does it take to get a Grand Jury investigation under way in a jurisdiction rife with corruption?

There must be a way......

Why Does Fort Worth's New Multi-Purpose Arena Cost So Much And Do So Little Compared To Phoenix Arenas?

It seems as if it has been weeks, maybe months, since I've made note of a bridge built somewhere in the world in less than four years, compared to the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing, those being three small, simple bridges scheduled to take four years to build.

Well, it's a construction project of a different sort than bridge building which has me puzzled today.

In this past November's election Fort Worth's voters were asked to vote on three bizarre propositions regarding a proposed multi-purpose arena to be built in the Fort Worth Stock Show zone, to replace the antique Will Rogers Rodeo Coliseum.

Fort Worth voters were asked to approve three fees, such as a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall in the new arena.

No, you reading this in the democratic part of America, I am not making this up.

The actual funding mechanism of this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena was not much discussed. Such as, how was it determined that these three fees voted on by the voters would be enough to pay for half the cost of the almost half billion dollar arena?

What is freshly perplexing me is the cost and capacity of this small Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena. The Dunce Confederacy propaganda regarding this arena claimed it was needed so as to attract acts to Fort Worth which were not attracted to the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena which could hold only around 12,000 ticket buyers.

However, this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena will hold only a couple thousand more ticket buyers. So, are we to believe those extra couple thousand tickets sold is the tipping point to get Beyonce or One Direction to do their thing in Fort Worth?

I think not. Not when the Dallas Cowboy Stadium and other venues are in the D/FW neighborhood.

Now to what is bugging me, that being the almost half billion dollar cost of this new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena.

On February 1 the Super Bowl will take place in what is called University of Phoenix Stadium, so-called due to the online school which plays no inter-collegiate sports buying the naming rights for the stadium in which the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL play.

Construction on this stadium began on April 12, 2003, with the stadium opening less than four years later, on August 1, 2006.

This stadium costs $455 million, which amounts to $532 million in 2015 dollars.

At its peak seating configuration this stadium can accommodate in the neighborhood of 78,000 ticket buyers.

This stadium is a multi-purpose arena which can be configured for all sorts of events, and features the world's first fully retractable natural grass surface, which is able to be slid out of the stadium so an event can take place on the stadium floor without damaging the turf.

In other words, this is a much more complex arena, which holds a lot more people, than Fort Worth's relatively puny arena. And which costs only slightly more than Fort Worth's arena.

Adjacent to University of Phoenix Stadium you will find the Gila River Arena.

Construction began on this arena on April 3, 2002, with the arena open for business on December 26,  2003.

The Gila River Arena cost $220 million, which amounts to $282 million in 2015 dollars.

The Gila River Arena can hold 19,000 ticket buyers, significantly more than Fort Worth's relatively puny Multi-Purpose Arena.

At a fraction of the cost.

So, what is going on here?

Why does the new Fort Worth arena cost so much more than the Phoenix area arenas, relative to the number of ticket buyers the Fort Worth arena can accommodate?

How can Fort Worth spend almost a half a billion dollars on a multi-purpose arena which can only hold around 14,000, while the Phoenix area can manage to build a multi-purpose arena for around a half a billion dollars which is big enough to hold an enormous rodeo?

And a Super Bowl.

With the Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena proposal not vetted in the way such things are examined in democratic parts of America, one can only wonder what type shenanigans are taking place with this project.

Unlike the Dunce Confederacy's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle I've not heard about any local politician's son being hired to oversee the arena building project, so we are not looking at, as far as I know, the price being inflated due to paying the beneficiaries of nepotism an inordinate amount of money over an inordinate amount of time for a project which should have been completed in a reasonable amount of time.

This is all very perplexing...

Many Ohio & Oregon Fans Frustrated By Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Lack Of Public Transportation

This morning I am being a bit discombobulated, with that condition having me bouncing from one thing to the next, subject-wise, in my discombobulated thinking.

So, let's start with this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram's article titled Long taxi lines leave many fans frustrated at AT&T Stadium.

First off, why is the Star-Telegram letting me  read an article this morning without the usual blocking and insistence I become an online subscriber?

Second off, why do various media entities go along with the naming of stadiums? It's Cowboy Stadium. Why call it something else just because some corporate entity paid to have their name slobbered on the building. And slobbered is an understatement. Have you seen the garish AT&T logo on Cowboy Stadium. To my mind, that alone should be what they get for naming rights, with those naming rights not including everyone else, as in those who have not been paid to do so, going along with the "new" name.

I remember the first time I flew into Seattle after the Seahawks new stadium was built. The roof said something like "Seattle Seahawk Stadium". The next time I flew in the roof said something like "QWest Field". The last time I flew in to Seattle the Seahawk stadium roof said "CenturyLink Field."

What is a Qwest or a CenturyLink? I have never bothered to try and find out.

Back to the most recent event to take place at Cowboys Stadium, that being the National Championship College Football game which Ohio State won by soundly beating Oregon.

After the game mini-riot conditions erupted. I read somewhere that an Ohio State cheerleader was trampled in one of the post game melees.

This morning's Star-Telegram article about the transportation woes following the game brought to my mind something I have wondered about before, which I started wondering about after the Super Bowl debacle at Cowboys Stadium.

As in, what is causing those who book a national event decide staging that event at Cowboys Stadium is a good idea?  What with there being so many other venues in America which would seem to work much better.

Cowboys Stadium seems to work great for Texas-centric events, where the locals drive and park on the world's largest acreage of parking lots. But, when people fly in from other parts of the country, in the most recent case, from Ohio and Oregon, well, I am sure many of those people arrive thinking they are arriving in a modern American city with modern transportation, to be perplexed to find that is not the case.

Do those who book Cowboys Stadium for a national event realize there is no modern public transportation connecting the stadium area to the airport? Do those who book Cowboys Stadium for a national event not realize there is a very limited number of hotels in the area near the stadium? Do those who book Cowboys Stadium not realize that about half of the stadium is surrounded by urban blight?

Why is there not some local impetus to extend the Dallas DART train from Dallas to Arlington's Entertainment District? I would think such a line would be very popular. What if the new DART line which connects to the airport was extended to Arlington's Entertainment District? Would that not be a good idea?

As for those hapless souls from Ohio and Oregon who found themselves staying in one of downtown Fort Worth's hotels, was there public transit other than taxis to take those people east to Arlington? Did the Fort Worth T buses run a circuit back and forth between Arlington and downtown Fort Worth?

I suspect not. If not, why not?

What is the next national event scheduled for Cowboys Stadium? Methinks the transportation problems need to be addressed or there will soon come a day when  no national events are scheduled at Cowboys Stadium....