Today It Is Chuck Norris Who Wants Me To Help Greg Abbott Save Texas

Yesterday when I returned to my computer after voting for Wendy Davis I found email from the Republican opponent of Wendy Davis, Greg Abbott, trying to enlist my help in his efforts to stop the federal government from stealing private property in Texas.

The stealing of private property in Texas is a serious problem which happens all too frequently, but I'm only aware of Republican-related private property stealing, such as that which was done in Arlington to build the Dallas Cowboys a new stadium, and that which is being done in Fort Worth to facilitate a boondoggle known as the Trinity River Vision.

I digress.

So, yesterday, for reasons unknown to me, I got email from Greg Abbott, with his fervent plea for my help. Today I got email from a Greg Abbott lackey named Chuck Norris, with the email's subject line being "Because I Said So".

Chuck Norris is an actor, I think.

In the email, screencapped above, with a video of Chuck Norris removed because it caused the screencapping to malfunction, Chuck Norris says "It's been said that guns have two enemies...rust and politicians."

I have never heard that said, til Chuck said it. Personally, I think the worst enemy of guns are morons who use guns to wreak havoc on innocent people.

Apparently among the gun enemies, according to Chuck, is President Obama and his allies, who Chuck thinks are anti-gun politicians.

Additionally Chuck feels Greg Abbott needs my help in his fight to protect our Second Amendment rights, and other rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution.

If rights are guaranteed by the Constitution why do Chuck and Greg feel we are in danger of losing them? Are there proposed Constitutional Amendments of which I am unaware?

Chuck also opines that there are some liberals in Texas who want to impose gun control in Texas with outrageous ideas like tampering with concealed carry laws and banning gun shows within a city's limits.

Chuck thinks those progressive sorts who think we need some additional gun controls are just backwards.

I am drawing a blank right now as to what the psychological term is for people who project on to others what they are unable to face in themselves. You know, like calling someones thinking backwards when it is your thinking which thinks in the wrong direction.

Chuck also lets us know that if Greg Abbott gets elected he will make sure that the next four years in Texas don't look like the last six years under Barack Obama.

Yeah, I agree, that really makes no sense at all.

I thought Texas was doing just peachy under the enlightened leadership of Rick Perry, leadership which has thwarted much of what Obama policies have done for the rest of America.

Things like expanding Medicare.

Perry blocked expanding Medicare so we in Texas were not faced with the spectacle of seeing who knows how many millions of poor Texans able to afford medical insurance for the first time in their lives.

Why am I getting these embarrassing emails from the embarrassing Greg Abbott and his equally embarrassing lackeys?

Not that I mind, too much.....

A Fixed Flat Had Me Rolling My Handlebars Around My Neighborhood Today

Today, weather-wise, is just about as perfect as perfect can get at my current location on the planet.

One in the afternoon with the outer world warmed to 70 degrees, clear blue sky, little wind.

Perfect.

For a bike ride.

On Monday I aborted a bike ride when I discovered my rear tire had completely flattened. I got around to fixing the flat this morning, hence today's bike ride tour of my neighborhood.

Golfers were golfing in droves at my neighborhood golf course today. Which indicates to me that golfers like perfect weather conditions too.

This morning's early morning swim was quite pleasant as well, with the water being warmer than the air's somewhat chilly 55 degrees.

For quite some time I have been reading, on Facebook, the running exploits of a young runner named John. John runs wherever he goes, with most of his running taking place in the D/FW zone. But, John seems to be constantly flying to various locations, where he still does his running. A couple weeks ago it was the Burke Gilman trail in Seattle. I recollect reading of a John run along the Hudson River in New York City. Runs in Chicago. Runs in San Francisco. Other runs I am not remembering right now.

So, yesterday, inspired by John, I decided to go jogging. Back in the last century jogging was my main exercise. I could run for miles. Well, yesterday I was about 5 minutes into jogging when I decided I'd stick with the biking, hiking, swimming and long walks. Jogging was too jarring on my elderly bones....

Betty Jo Bouvier's Sedro-Woolley Big Brown Bear Brouhaha

Last night in my email inbox there was an email from the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier.

Among the things Betty Jo mentioned in the email was the fact that a Big Brown Bear had moved in to town, with that town being Sedro Woolley in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley.

The Big Brown Bear had taken up residence in a tree a couple blocks from Betty Jo's house.

Now, you reading this in Texas, particularly in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, likely think this is probably not all that unusual, particularly if you are aware that the Cascade mountains are a bear habitat, with lots of bears living there.

However, though Sedro Woolley is somewhat close to the mountains, it is located in the river zone of the Skagit Valley, as in the Skagit River flows by the town.

For a Big Brown Bear to get a couple blocks from Betty Jo Bouvier the bear would have had to cross multiple roads, gotten around multiple fenced off farms and residences. Plus Betty Jo pretty much lives in the center of town. Was the bear not seen by anyone as it walked the streets of Sedro Woolley before climbing up a tree?

All my years living in the Skagit Valley I do not recollect a bear showing up in any of the Skagit Valley towns. I do recollect, decades ago, a big moose creating a sensation by wandering around the valley. I recollect seeing that moose whilst driving on Interstate 5.

To be clear, that was me driving on Interstate 5, not the moose.

Years ago, I think the year was 1996, I floated the Lady of the Lake from Chelan to Stehekin in North Cascades National Park. Soon upon checking in at the National Park Lodge we saw a small brown bear climbing a nearby tree. That was to be the first of dozens of bear sightings.

Soon thereafter we were riding our bikes through an abandoned apple orchard to find a herd of bears having themselves a mighty fine time gorging on delicious apples.

On our last day in Stehekin a small brown bear, it may have been the one we saw upon arrival, was having fun playing on the second floor of the lodge. A crowd gathered, rangers showed up. The rangers captured the bear and mortified the crowd by informing us the bear had to be destroyed due to the fact that it had lost its fear of humans. This news did not go over well with the crowd.

I made three webpages of that visit to Stehekin, on one of those pages you can see a photo of the soon to be executed bear.

As for Betty Jo's Big Brown Bear.

Another email from Betty Jo arrived this morning. That email included the picture you see above of the Woolley Big Brown Bear, plus the news that in attempt to get the bear out of the tree it had been shot with a tranquilizer, which caused the bear to fall out of the tree, rendered dead from the fall.

What did the shooters think was going to happen? Shooting a bear in a tree with a tranquilizer? Did they think the tranquilizer would just calm the bear down with the bear calmly climbing out of the tree?

Bigger question is what would cause a Big Brown Bear to leave the safety of the mountains? Is this the start of a trend?

To Get His Vote Stenotrophomonas Wants An Abbott Rant About Taking Private Citizens' Rights

Earlier today I blogged about Greg Abbott's overstepping of Texas boundaries.

In that blogging I sort of indicated that I am a bit appalled at the idea that Texas may be electing yet another Republican as governor of their mighty fine state.

The rest of America should be concerned.

Both of the previous Texas Republican governors made a run at the U.S. presidency, with one of them winning.

Twice.

A mistake from which America is still recovering.

This latest possible Texas Republican governor seems to be the worst of the trio, to me.

After I blogged about Greg Abbott and his overstepping issues, Mr. Stenotrophomonas made a comment which pointed me to a project about which I was not familiar and which seems to do a good job at explaining why Greg Abbott should not be the next governor of Texas.

Stenotrophomonas has left a new comment on your post "Greg Abbott Wants To Hear My Ideas About Overstepping Texas Boundaries & So I Obliged Him":

I'll vote for Abbott if, within the next six days, he puts out a rant about Rule 37 exceptions and how they enable drilling companies to swoop in and take private citizens' unleased mineral rights.

Probably won't happen. F'ing crook.

Lone Star Project

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Texas has a terribly low voter turnout. I do not understand why this is the case. Voting in Texas is relatively easy, even with the controversial I.D. requirement. The poll workers make the experience quite pleasant. If a voter is confused by the video game machine one uses to early vote, the poll workers kindly explain how to work the gadget.

Are some Texans for some reason intimidated about voting? Is that why they've never voted? It really is inexcusable, in my opinion, for someone over the age of 18, not to vote.

With so many regular Texans not voting you get bad results, such as someone like Greg Abbott, or Rick Perry, being your governor.

The low voter turnout really is appalling. The results are often proof that voting does matter. As in, by voting you can either end up with someone like Greg Abbott as your governor.

Or Wendy Davis.

I don't see how any decent minded Texan would not conclude Wendy Davis is the better choice.

Both for Texas.

And America.....

Greg Abbott Wants To Hear My Ideas About Overstepping Texas Boundaries & So I Obliged Him

Why am I getting email from Greg Abbott?

Yesterday I voted for Wendy Davis to be the next governor of Texas.

I did not vote for any of the oodles of Republicans on the ballot.

Now, apparently, Greg Abbott wants to hear my ideas for stopping the federal government from overstepping its boundaries.

Huh?

What does that even mean?

What boundaries does this right wing nut job think the federal government is overstepping?

The boundary between Mexico and the United States? The boundary between Canada and the United States? The boundary between Texas and Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Colorado?

The email from Greg Abbott starts off with him telling me that he is opposed to the Bureau of Land Management's claims that a 90,000 acre piece of land along Texas' Red River now belongs to the federal government.

Is that the boundary Abbott thinks the federal government is stepping over?

Three sentences into the email Greg Abbott is telling me that we can't let the federal government swoop into Texas and take land belonging to private citizens.

Did I already mention this guy is a nut job?

Greg Abbott is worrying about the federal government doing some Texas land swooping? Where is his concern regarding the taking of land belonging to private citizens by the antics of fellow Republican Kay Granger and the abuse of eminent domain by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

I guess the federal government did, sort of, enable some Texas land swooping with the TRV Boondoggle, due to Kay Granger securing some pork barrel funding, prior to that practice being halted.

With Kay Granger's pork no longer flowing into Fort Worth hasn't the reason for the TRV Boondoggle hiring professional party planner, J.D. Granger, gone bye bye?

Maybe if J.D. Granger were replaced with a qualified project engineer the TRV Boondoggle might develop some sort of project timeline, with a completion date, while speeding up the current four year time frame to build three simple bridges over dry land.

I seem to have digressed from the Greg Abbott for Governor of Texas subject.

I don't understand why Texans would elect yet one more Republican to be their governor. Four years of George W. Bush, followed by 14 years of Rick Perry.

Did the Texans who used to elect people like Lyndon Baines Johnson, Sam Rayburn, Barbara Jordan, Anne Richards,  Lloyd Bentsen leave the state?

When Rome started going nuts it was later learned it was due to lead leaching into the water supply.

Texas has some serious water contamination issues, mostly due to oil and gas drilling. Is it something in the water which has dumbed down the formerly Great State of Texas?

Very perplexing.

This Afternoon I Learned What Obsesses My Subconscious

Usually I don't click on those Facebook link bait things where you answer a series of questions to find out stuff like which Beverly Hillbilly are you? Or what color are you? Or what famous person from the past are you? Or how many more years do you have before you kick the bucket?

Today I made an exception to my usual don't click rule when I saw Queen V had Facebooked a "What Is Your Subconscious Obsessed With? version of one of these ubiquitous things.

I thought some of the comments that Queen V got were amusing and so I took the test to find out what my subconscious is obsessed with to learn I  am obsessed with Nature. I was hoping it would be something more interesting than Nature.

Below are some of the Queen V Facebook comments on this serious issue. I found the final comment by Queen V to be particularly amusing.

Below is the final analysis I got from this scientific survey into my troubled subconscious...

Your subconscious is obsessed with nature! 

The pictures you have chosen paint the picture (get it?) that you are obsessed with nature. From a very early age you've felt a strong connection with animals and nature. You've always loved camping, traveling, hiking and just exploring the beautiful world that surrounds us. For you, nature is this beautiful, magical place where everything makes sense. There are simple rules and adventure is always waiting for you just around the river-bend. 

Your subconscious makes you think about traveling while doing grocery shopping, cooking, walking down the street and especially while working. And if you could, you would leave everything and go to travel around the world. 

Spooky. It is absolutely true that if I could I would leave everything and go to travel around the world.

I Am Not Feeling Stupid Today

I saw that which you see on the left this morning on Facebook, via Queen V.

When I read this the person who quickly came to mind, whose stupidity was difficult to deal with, is an ex-acquaintance of both myself and Queen V.

I have a relative, or two, who also come to mind. And maybe one or two others.

It really is true that when a person is stupid they are usually too stupid to know they are stupid. This renders the stupid person difficult to deal with because they have no clue how stupid they are.

Stupid people have a tendency to lose their tempers when their stupidity causes some difficulty, because the stupid person lacks the ability to accurately assess the situation their stupidity has created.

I am now done with my stupid rant for the day....

This Morning I Voted NO On Three Convoluted Fort Worth Propositions While Voting For Quanah Parker & Sam Houston

 I voted this morning and after I was done the nice poll working lady slapped the I Voted sticker on me you see here.

Every time I do the early voting I managed to forget how to work the dial that enters the numbers of the code you are given for your ballot.

One would think I would remember how to operate this voting video game, but I don't.

The nice poll working lady told me a lot of old folks have trouble with the voting video game.

I don't remember what race he was running in, but I voted for someone I did not think I would ever vote for.

Quanah Parker.

I also voted for Sam Houston, which is another Texan I never thought I would get to vote for.

And who could resist voting for someone with a cool name like Leticia Van de Putte?

The controversial Three Propositions related to the building of a new multipurpose arena in Fort Worth were odd, with the oddness being that the proposition contained verbiage I'd not seen in any of the propaganda that has been urging voters to vote for these propositions.

The actual wording on the ballot makes it sounds as if voting for these Three Propositions is an actual vote authoring the building of the arena.

I found a sample ballot, online, which for some odd reason had the words "Sample Ballot", graffitied across it.

I screencapped the ballot and cropped out the Proposition No. 2 part.

Proposition No. 2 in its entirety says...

"Authorizing the City of Fort Worth, Texas to provide for the planning, acquisition, establishment, development, construction and renovation of a multipurpose arena at the intersection of Harley Avenue and Gandy Street and other adjacent support facilities as a venue project, and to impose a livestock facility use tax on each stall or pen used or occupied by livestock during an event held on one or more consecutive days in which the venue project is used,not to exceed twenty dollars ($20.00) in the aggregate per stall or pen rental for any event, for the purpose of financing the venue project."

To me this sounds as if one votes NO one is voting to not authorize the City of Fort Worth to build this arena. Why has this not been made clear in any of the advertising about these Three Propositions?

Did the Forward Fort Worth Partnership PAC figure if they let voters know that voting no meant NO to the arena that the voters would have a greater tendency to vote NO? But that if the propaganda verbiage simplified it, that the voters would have a greater tendency to vote yes?

For Proposition #2 the Forward Fort Worth Partnership PAC's propaganda describes that proposition as simply "A user fee (tax) on livestock stalls and pens of $1 to $2 per day, not to exceed $20 per event."

How come on the actual ballot there is no mention of the $1 to $2 per day user fee? While the Forward Fort Worth Partnership PAC's propaganda makes voters think that is what they are voting for?

Very, very perplexing.

Does the concept of "voter fraud" extend to this type thing?

Plutocrats Against Democracy Also Known As The Fort Worth Way

A time or two or three I have been asked why I say things like "you living in democratic parts of America" or "if Fort Worth was a functioning democracy", stuff like that.

This is a difficult question to answer, due to the fact that if the person asking has to ask, how are they going to understand my explanation?

To understand one has to understand the concept of a Plutocratic Oligarchy running a town, as opposed to democratic majority rule by the actual citizens of a town.

Someone named Anonymous made a comment on a blogging from a week or so ago, which addresses the Plutocratic Oligarchy issue...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "An Anonymous Comment Regarding Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price's Empathy For The Plight Of The Poor": 

Plutocrats Against Democracy

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Read Paul Krugman's Plutocrats Against Democracy opinion piece from the New York Times and see if anything strikes a Fort Worth chord.

You see, in an area subscribing to the democratic method of running a local government you would not have a local congresswoman's son appointed to a job for which he is not qualified. That is known as nepotism. Nepotism is frowned upon, usually, in a democracy.

In a plutocratic oligarchy public works projects are usually not voted on by the public. The oligarchy makes the decision, with little pubic input. The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is an example of that. So is the current plan to build a multipurpose arena in the Fort Worth Stock Show zone.

The decision to build this arena was made behind doors closed to the public. However, the plutocrats are tossing the people a bone by allowing them to vote on whether or not to charge a $1 or $2 user fee livestock stalls in the new arena......

Spencer Jack In Uniform Getting Schooled

A couple minutes ago incoming email included one from my Favorite Nephew Jason, aka FNJ.

The subject line in the email was blank. The only thing in the body of the email was a link to a website.

http://icrsweb.org/

The link looked like a spam type thing to me, but I Googled the URL and quickly realized it was a legit link because it went to Spencer Jack's school's website.

I clicked the link and soon saw the photo you see above. That would be Spencer Jack, in uniform, on the left.

Spencer Jack's school's name is Immaculate Conception Regional School. It is a Catholic school.

I have not had it explained to me how or why it came to be that Spencer Jack is attending a Catholic private school.

Spencer Jack's dad and his dad's mom, that being Spencer Jack's grandma, have long been associated with the Burlington Lutheran Church. It was in that church that Spencer Jack's mom and dad got married, way back in April of 2006.

I remember that wedding day as if it were yesterday. But, it was over 8 years ago. It was a traumatic event for me. Not due to anything to do with the wedding, the trauma came from a relative annoyance of epic, peculiar proportions, whose addled behavior wore on my last nerve. In the intervening years I have seen that relative annoyance only once, not by choice, and for very short duration....