1.09.2015

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • I didn't know there was a Texas Music Office which is an actual government entity in Austin.  Any way, it has had one director for the last 25 years. Then Gov. Abbott fired him yesterday.  (I wonder if Abbott will hire Lawrence Welk IV or someone like that?)
  • The other day I meant to say Bill O'Reilly didn't really write Killing Kennedy but only slapped his name on it for publicity. I called him a "ghostwriter". Wordkyle pointed out that word means the exact opposite of what I intended. He was exactly right. 
  • The most "diverse" new congress in our nation's history is 80% white, 80% male, and 92% Christian.
  • The Sixth Grader in the House was doing the "drop an egg from nine feet" without breaking it experiment last night. I think she went through a lot of eggs. 
  • Newsweek had a cover story on the accuracy of the Bible a couple of weeks ago. Stuff like that really interests me but the subject is sure a lightning rod. Last time I checked there were over 2,500 comments.
  • Elvis Presley played what is now the Fort Worth Cowtown Coliseum in Northside four times while age 20/21.
  • Ted Cruz reported for jury duty this morning. If he ends up on a criminal jury panel, the defense lawyer should automatically be given an extra strike. 
  • Economic news this morning: Unemployment down to 5.6%. 
  • Things are getting confusing in France this morning. They've got the two remaining terrorists cornered but now we've learned they have a hostage.  And now there's a second hostage situation which involves the guy who shot a police officer the day after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
  • I read some of the background on the Leroy Burch/John Yarbrough scandal yesterday after I linked to a federal appellate opinion. There was definitely some bad stuff going on, but the U.S. Attorney's really had to shoehorn it through some vague federal statutes to make it a federal case. (Basically every federal crime has to impact interstate commerce for the feds to have jurisdiction.) 
  • Jimmy Johnson is one of the 15 finalists for the the NFL Hall of Fame but most think his career was too short.  But hasn't the NFL allowed "other contributions" to count? I mean, he's been a fixture on Fox pre-game for over a decade. 
  • The NFL sanctioned "independent investigation" found that the NFL never had possession of the Ray Rice elevator video. I wonder if the authors wrote their conclusions their first day on the job. What a charade.  
  • Guy saves drone from going in water. Kinda funny. But look closely in the background at 1:24. What is that creature going under the bridge? Alligator? Snake? Loch Ness Monster? That sucker is big. 
  • Kind of odd that the Morning News and Star-Telegram both went with the same old picture today and the same "Frozen in Time" headline: