5.17.2019

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • Another Wise County law enforcement tidbit: There has not been a single case filed this year in any Justice of the Peace court for speeding 5 mph or less over the speed limit. (But that doesn't mean you won't be stopped for that as a pretext to try and search your car and just given a warning.)
  • News this morning that the one time Internet sensation "Grump Cat", 7, is dead. I had to research if I ever referenced him back in the day, and I did so in January of 2013. Someone had compared Tommy Lee Jones at the Golden Globes to the cat, and it made me laugh. 
  • Dear Alabama: If this crazy girl says you screwed up, you really screwed up. (And here's a hot legal prediction about the Alabama abortion law: A federal district court will have to strike the abortion law down, the Fifth Circuit will even have to agree to hold it unconstitutional, and then the Supreme Court will simply refuse to hear it. Why? The Supreme Court won't want to be used as an obvious political pawn in this charade but will pick another case to reconsider Roe v. Wade in the future.)
  • The Texas High School track meet was last week and one of my greatest memories was going to it while in high school (as a spectator, obviously). On Saturday, they would have the high school finals during the day and the finals for the Southwest Conference at night. There was nothing cooler than seeing a relay and watching the colorful jerseys of  UT, Aggie, Baylor, TCU, SMU, etc. round the corner. The most famous athlete I remember seeing: aTm's Curtis Dickey -- a sprinter as well as the Aggie starting tailback.
  • Remember former Judge Roy Moore from Alabama? He had to be removed as a judge once he refused to follow a federal court order to remove the 10 Commandments from an Alabama state house. He also was defeated in his Senate bid even though endorsed by Trump after allegations that he hit on teenagers at the mall and may have molested a 14 year old when he was a 32 year old assistant district attorney. Oh, and remember he sued Sacha Baron Cohen for defamation once Moore was dumb enough to appear on Cohen's Showtime show where Cohen put him through a pedophile detector test? Well, Moore lost a hearing in that lawsuit, and was not happy. So he filed a pleading this week telling the judge he should reconsider the ruling because at the hearing the judge appeared to "disrespect and disparage" him. Sheesh. Alabama has had a heck of the week. 
    From Who Is America?
    The ol' You Hurt My Feelings legal doctrine. 
  • It's still way too early, but this is the latest poll from State TV.
  • Interesting (?) fact about Biden: He’s older than each of the last five Democratic nominees for president is now (Bill Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Hillary Clinton).
  • The Messenger had an unintentionally awkward picture of the Bridgeport mayor and members of the Texas Denton Heathens motorcycle club. (And I like the name "heathens.")
  • An F-16 crashes into a warehouse in California but doesn't catch fire. Let the conspiracy theories begin.

  • The legislature isn't doing anything about bail reform for the poor, allowing police to arrest you for a traffic violation (i.e. Sandra Bland), will continue allow incarceration for a plant (weed), as well as allow you to be buried in surcharges even after you've paid your ticket, but they will protect Chick-Fil-A. Are we living in a cartoon?
  • Answer: Yes. Yes, we are living in a cartoon.
  • After mass dismissals, the new DA in Waco has reduced the misdemeanor backlog from over 9,000 to 4,600 cases.   A large number of dismissals, frankly, is something that needs to be done when any new prosecutor takes office.  Filing cabinets are always filled with junk cases -- more so if the prior prosecutor was scared of the police and wouldn't kill bad cases.
  • Trump's on a roll this morning. 
  • There's nothing more painful than former Dallas Morning News media writers Ed Bark and Barry Horn engage in humor on Twitter.
  • Looks like the storm will hit at 8:35 a.m. tomorrow. Plan accordingly.