8.28.2015

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • President Obama going to New Orleans on the 10th anniversary of Katrina has to be a none too subtle jab at President Bush's "fly over" ten years ago. 
  • I'm not sure I understand why "Sheriff Clark" always appears on Hannity (although I have a pretty good idea why), but I have no idea what this comment from him last night means: "I am done asking people in my community to outsource their personal safety to the government." Are we just on our own? 
  • I almost had a heart attack yesterday when I discovered what might be the most shocking criminal injustice ever to occur in Wise County -- at least in a particular stage of a criminal proceeding. I will disclose it, but I've got to calm down first. To their credit, everyone over at the courthouse immediately scrambled to make it right the moment the issue was discovered. 
  • Fox 4 News has appeared to have fixed its updated website. Looks good.
  • How long before drones hover around every school for security purposes? 
  • I saw an elderly lady gingerly taking a walk in my neighborhood after sunset last night but was walking in the street instead of using the sidewalk She began to drift further into the center of the road, it was dark, and we have idiot drivers coming down the road all the time. When I saw headlights in the distance, I took off sprinting to get to her and to get the driver's attention. Speaking of heart attacks, I almost gave her one. (She seemed Ok mentally, but could only explain that she didn't use the sidewalk because she didn't like "narrow places". I warned her about crazy drivers, she seemed thankful, and then I watched her to make sure she made it safely home. She still used the street but stayed off to the side.) 
  • I kept seeing this headline everywhere yesterday: "Fatal shot in San Francisco pier shooting was ricochet." That shooting by an undocumented immigrant created a firestorm within the immigration debate. But if you read any story about this news,  the ricochet is the defense's contention which the police dispute. 
  • Texas AG Paxton was scheduled for a simple arraignment yesterday in Tarrant County but, at the proceeding which was blanketed by the media, lawyer Joe Kendall presented a Motion to Withdraw. You kidding me? I don't blame any lawyer and client deciding  to go their separate ways if the relationship has broken down to the equivalent of War Of The Roses, but why withdraw then and there?  You wait a couple of weeks, make sure there is another lawyer ready to take over that the client has chosen and approved, get with the prosecutor and tell him/her what is going on, you both walk over to the judge and tell him that you will file a Motion to Withdraw and that the prosecutor will not oppose it, you file the Motion and the judge signs an order. In a high profile case, the withdrawal may never even get noticed. But by presenting the Motion at that highly publicized routine hearing caused The Dallas Morning News to fire off a blog post within hours entitled, "Ken Paxton’s rough day in court shows his legal, political teams aren’t ready for fight ahead."
  • WBAP's Brian Estridge, after a report that the vast, vast majority of the female profiles on AshleyMadison.com were fake, said that meant the guys on the site hadn't had affairs but just were having a "fantasy." Is that the right word? If you sit at your desk and dream of an affair, that's a "fantasy". If you have the affair, that's "adultery". But what if you have that fantasy and engaged in an act in furtherance of completing that fantasy. Isn't there a word other than "fantasy" that best describes that person's mindset? 
  • Warning. Ad Rant: I would say that all this coverage of Blue Bell coming back, at least what I saw on Fox News last night -- which mentioned flavors by name, is an ad. But Blue Bell wouldn't have the money for that, right?  They have to be financially devastated  Wait. What was that story from last month? Oh, yeah: Fort Worth's Sid Bass agreeing to lend Blue Bell up to $125 million in exchange for the right to own up to 33% of the company. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.