1.22.2016

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • I learned yesterday, via email, that one of the deaths noted in the Update was a classmate of mine (actually one year behind me. I didn't recognize her name because they used her married name.) As I wrote in my email reply, it made me sick and made me sad.
  • "The FBI took over a child porn site with 23,000 illicit images, left them online for two weeks to track the users." So the FBI is trafficking in child porn? Do they have any idea the number of times those images were copied and distributed and are now out there forever?
  • I look forward to the snow photos today from the Northeast.
  • I had one of those "I can't find my keys" mornings. That drives me nuts because you know they are there somewhere. I had to use the backup set. 
  • Stay with me here. A guy was sentenced to less than two years in federal prison for "scheming" to steal oil from Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. This is a sentence from the press release of the U.S. Attorney's office bragging about the investigation. My comments are in brackets: "The case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation [How many agents and at what cost?], the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation [The IRS? How many agents and at what cost?"], the Texas Attorney General’s Special Investigations Unit [The AG's office has a "special" investigation unit. Once again, how many investigators and at what cost?], the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office [good lord], the Texas Department of Public Safety [How much did DPS spend on this and don't we have enough people involved already?], the Texas Rangers [OK, now this is overkill], the Dimmit County Sheriff’s Office [You kidding me?] and the Texas Railroad Commission [I'm insane now]. Prosecutors are assistant U.S. attorneys Bryan Nathan Reeve and Timothy Adam Duree [Let's end the press release with the names of prosecutors in your office --  who must demand by going by all three names]".  What do I always say? Too many cops. Too many prosecutors. And I'm dead right.
  • The Liberally Lean blessing/curse continues. A few years back I named struggling Chris Davis and former Texas Ranger the official Liberally Lean Major League Baseball player. Yesterday: "BALTIMORE -- The Orioles announced the signing of Chris Davis to a club-record seven-year, $161 million contract on Thursday." All guaranteed.