5.02.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts






Saw this at the county courthouse back in the day. I never did find out who it was, although I didn't particularly have any desire whatsoever to meet him. 


  •  The tornado in Kansas on Friday evening, which remarkably killed no one, is the most amazing visual depiction of a twister I've ever seen. These are four videos I marked:  Here (18 seconds), here (11 seconds) here (1:18) , and here (the one which is being about the most.)

  • This contest I made up on a lark is getting kid of fun. With a huge win on Friday, 173-132, Decatur now only trails Bridgeport in early voting by a total of 704 to 694.  Only two more early voting days left. 

  • I find it mindboggling anyone would donate a cent to this publicity stunt. 

  • Troopers which are called to the border average extra overtime pay of $41,000. But some are really cashing in. A "36-year-old captain stationed in the border city of Del Rio earned roughly $164,000 in overtime" and "two other lieutenants . . .   each netted nearly $150,000 working extra hours."   Remember that the next time you have to stand in line for hours, due to being understaffed, when you have to get your license renewed. 

  • Bad Texas Sheriff. Bad Chief Deputy. "According to the Van Zandt County District Attorney's Office, Sheriff Steve Hendrix, Chief Dep. Jerry Wood and Sgt. Blake Snell were found to have witnessed ex-chief deputy Craig Shelton's use of excessive force against an inmate, identified as Nicholas Crouch, and lied to a Texas Ranger when interviewed prior in Dec 2021, according to the indictment handed up by a local grand jury." After calling the charges "baseless", the Sheriff announced his resignation. 

  • Hardly anyone is coming out and expressly saying it, but everyone is assuming the death of Naomi Judd was due to a suicide.  (The daughters said in a statement that "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness."). They were actually on hand in Nashville last night, one day after announcing her death, to accept The Judds induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

  • This is pretty wild. The sheriff's office detention officer said she was going to drop off the inmate, who is doing 75 years on a murder conviction, at the courthouse for a mental evaluation, and then she was going to see her own doctor because she wasn't feeling well.    There was no mental evaluation scheduled at the courthouse, and she never showed up at her doctor's office. The guy would be hard to miss: He's 6' 9" tall. 

  • I'll admit I'd go nuts if the Trump Administration created a "Disinformation Governance Board.

  • I promise you that right out of law school when I was working for a big Dallas law firm that I joined a gym in Uptown (before it was Uptown but it was still pretty high tone), and one day I looked over and saw Boris Becker right beside me with two trainers on a bench press machine.  He didn't seem to be particularly interested in working out. 

  • So the complaining witness testified to the alleged assault for prosecutors and then just got up and left the courtroom before cross-examination? Hey, I'm no constitutional expert, but that Confrontation Clause in the 6th Amendment would seem to come into play here. And the judge trying to solve that problem by telling jurors they should “strike [her testimony] from your minds as if it never happened” shouldn't be able to magically cure the problem.  

  • I've thought about this for over a week: In the April 24th Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News, respected financial columnist Scott Burns had a step by step program on how he helped a friend retire at 62. So . . . 

    • . . . after going through several paragraphs regarding the best use of retirement plans, social security, and healthcare, it was time to talk about finding his buddy a place to retire to in Florida.  "This is exciting," I thought. How were they going to pull this off? Then came the payoff . . .  

  • It was only the second time in history that UT didn't have a player drafted by the NFL.

  • I keep hearing every one busting on Jerry Jones for drafting "another" player out of his alma mater, Arkansas, when he took John Ridgeway in the 5th round this year. But this was only the second time ever he has drafted a Razorback. The first time was Felix Jones in 2008.