7.01.2016

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • "Over the past 18 months, more than 40 percent of the 450 participants in DPS' grueling six-month trooper academies identified themselves as Hispanic." 
  • CBS 11 did a spot on the Aurora alien. It's about time we have some evidence of the alien kingdom coming back to get the body. Someone get on that. We need some new life in that story. (And there was a hot opinion given in the piece by a resident indicating that some local folks in our Bible Nelt didn't like the legend because it couldn't be explained.)
  • Nancy Grace is out at CNN's Headline News. No one deserves to be unemployed more than her. She is the poster child of how a prosecutor could wrongfully convict someone. (And I miss the days when Headline News was headline news.)
  • The bribery case in the Dallas DA's office now is focused on the dismissal signed by a prosecutor. But even if the prosecutor was corrupt (no one has said that yet), any investigation will probably go no where. The case that was dismissed was Failure to Register as a Sex Offender. No area of criminal law is more screwed up than that area. Residency. Intent. Travel. Grace Periods. Registerable Offense. I could see how a run of the mill prosecutor would accept the case and how a run of the mill grand jury attorney would get it indicted only for another run of the mill prosecutor, rightly or wrongly, believe the facts didn't support a prosecution at all. (The irony is that some defendant paid $50,000 to make a charge "go away" when it might not have been guilty in the first place.)
  • I'll be dang. You can get behind the Dallas Morning News paywall by opening up the page in Chrome's incognito mode. And it works on the Star-Telegram website as well. (I don't know if I feel like a trespasser or going in a secret entrance that they know exists.)
  • As I was fishing in my kayak yesterday (slaying them like Jimmy Houston, by the way), a guy comes by in a boat and says, "Hey, Barry. How you doing?" Second time that has happened in as many weeks. 
  • And a faithful reader sent me this link: "‘Alarming’ number of kayak-related deaths reported in Texas."
  • Walked out this morning and discovered I had a low tire. One of my best investments ever was the the electric/cigarette lighter powered air pump. When you need it you need it. 
  • Matthew McConaughey will teach a class at UT. You know, I bet he might be able to teach you something. I'd rather listen to him than some spare marketing professor who has never had a job marketing anything. 
  • Fox 4's Clarice Tinsley the other night said she had "always liked Pat Summitt's last name" because she reached the summit. [Groan.] I'd bet money Clarice didn't know who Pat Summitt was before she read the teleprompter that night. 
  • For some reason I picked one random recent oral argument at the Fort Worth Court of Appeals to listen to since it involved a State appeal. The defense lawyer didn't have a grasp of the central issue: If a cop makes an arrest for DWI but didn't have probable cause to arrest, is the arrest still justified if there was another objective reason to arrest him (for example, expired tags.) And even the assistant DA didn't jump on that theory until one of the judge's asked a question to tip her off.
  • Donald Trump is considering Chris Christie as VP. Good lord. What a bombastic combo. I hope it happens.
  • Me on the couch is more exciting than Mav's free agency. And more productive.