5.28.2021

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




And it turned out just to be as bizarre as it sounded.  He was shot "26 times with an AR-15 assault rifle" at an intersection by a guy who had been drinking beer and had "taken anti-depressants." No illegal drugs involved. The shooter, Mark Anthony Gonzales, was tried and sentenced to death in 2016. "In his opening statement, prosecutor Bill Pennington said Gonzales, who had been drinking all day and taking Xanax, had bragged to friends about his rifle, which had a halo scope and a high-capacity magazine." In his closing argument, "He also reminded [the jury] that the firing pin on the alleged weapon had been altered." I wonder if that was a bump stock like in the Las Vegas mass shooting.

  • A Southwest Airlines flight attendant had two teeth knocked out by an idiot passenger this week. We now have video.

  • It's 40 miles from Waco. What could go wrong?


  • If you haven't seen one of the dumbest plays in baseball history, you must. I bet I watched the video 10 times trying to justify the first baseman's action. Was he trying to bait the runner coming from third to try and pull off a double play? Then I realized there were already two outs which made the whole thing stupid.  But the underrated part of it is the batter signaling "safe" before realizing that no one was covering first, and then taking off towards it. So much going on here.

  • Greg Abbott made what was nothing more than a campaign appearance in Fort Worth to continue the age old fear-mongering cry on "The War on Drugs." Considering the taxpayer funded salaries of everyone in the photo, what did this cost you? 

  • DPS's publicity wing is always over the top. Are they trying to say they prevented the Holocaust x 3? 

  • Speaking of Abbott, he had another strange photo op this week. Yep, that's real.

  • Speaking of the War on Drugs, there's a brief article in the Wichita Falls Times Record News that got my attention about a drug raid yesterday afternoon.  Observations: (1) Look at that militarized vehicle, (2) 43 cop cars showed up for the raid, (3) one person was "detained" because of it all, and (4) there was no mention in the story of any drugs being found. 

  • The case is still weird. For some reason the cops just won't come out and charge the guy with murder (technically a capital murder charge since the child is under six.)  

    • And Channel 11 tracked down an arrest warrant affidavit of another incident involving Brown where he picked up a two year old in the course of a burglary. 

  • A Decatur lawyer has sued a travel company over a dispute regarding a vacation package to the Olympics in Tokyo. 
  • A ruling was expected today, but is now delayed until next month. Uh, Baylor fired Art Briles in 2016. Who is still there to punish?  

  • Stay with me here for this ridiculous bullet point. A faithful reader was elated to tell me at the courthouse yesterday that he had watched Leprechaun In The Hood because he knew I'd get a kick out of it. After I disputed the existence of such a movie  -- there's no way, right? --  I later confirmed via Wikipedia that, yes, it does indeed exist. But get this: The plot is described as "An evil leprechaun, who searches for his magic flute that three hoodlums stole, kills anyone who gets in his way."   A flute? Wait a second! Does this explain the guy in the famous St. Patrick's Day viral video about the Alabama leprechaun "up in that tree" who held up the scaffolding coupling and described it as "a special leprechaun flute which has been passed down for thousands of years"?

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 693 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold