6.29.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




A lot going on here. (1) Rick Perry was governor ten years ago, (2) the law would eventually be passed in Texas in 2017, (3) I can't believe I was in favor of his veto back then, and (4) two months later he announced that he would run for President.

  • Get out your taxpaying checkbook? The superintendent makes around $180,000 a year and may have a couple of years left on his contract.  "Tax and spend" has a whole new meaning in this county lately. 

  • Random Bridgeport billboard:

  • In even more Bridgeport news, it looks like they are getting a Starbucks
  • I don't want to hear from a pool contractor or the president of the HOA who might have seen some aesthetically unpleasing deterioration.  I want to hear from a competent engineer. 


  • Dumb and insensitive question: Could you just walk along that public beach to look at the damage if you wanted to? You could certainly get a boat really close. 

  • I talked to a Wise County man who was at that Fort Worth gun show last weekend where a woman was shot. She'll be fine, by the way.  He said that when the gut went off, I hand full of people moved to the exits, a couple of people pulled out guns, but almost everyone else just stood around and looked. 


  • It's not quite as good as the "Archie Bunker moment" from yesterday, but an angry caller got through in this Rhome Zoom meeting. Cued up here. Side note: The councilman in the lower left hand corner isn't asleep -- his screen just froze for a while. 

  • Since 2007, the Texas legislature has allowed for police to write a "citation" in a very few misdemeanor offenses where cops had traditionally arrested you.  These offenses included possession of small amounts of weed, graffiti and misdemeanor theft.  That change in 2007 only meant one thing: Instead of being arrested and having to spend money to bond out and then go to court, you were just given a piece of paper to simply show up in that very same court. Yep, it was the same court with the same potential penalty (which included jail time). If you didn't show up, an arrest warrant could be issued (just like you hadn't shown up after bonding out.) The change in the law simply got rid of the hassle of the initial arrest and bond.
    • Fort Worth PD just announced they will implement that policy (even though they've been doing it in pot cases for years.) 

    • Local talk show host Mark Davis doesn't understand any of this. He's a moron. And he tipped his hand to this the moment he wrote "thick."

  • These kind of stories are disturbing. They had only been married since 2019.


  • Random Class C criminal case filed in Wise County yesterday that got my attention. 

  • The most frustrating thing about Supreme Court decisions is that they've grown so fact specific that they are almost worthless. The Vulgar Cheerleader case really doesn't give us any fast and hard rule. Compare cases like Miranda (1966) which didn't have any qualms about laying down a bright line.
    • Another example of this was a little publicized case released that week which said cops can't pursue a fleeing suspect into their home if that person is wanted only on a misdemeanor. But the case didn't really say that at all. It all depends on what the misdemeanor is (which doesn't help at all for future cases since there are thousands of different kinds misdemeanor offenses.) And spending 45 pages discussing it doesn't help.

  • I'm not sure if I'm the editor of a paper in Washington state where the temperature his 115 degrees, that I'd put a photo with the story showing a guy acting like it's fun experience.