12.01.2023

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



As if the Mavs weren't given a fair warning. 

  • Israel has resumed bombing of Gaza. The pause is over. 


    • The New York Times has a front page story today revealing that Israel knew for a year exactly how Hamas was going to execute its attack on October 7th but didn't believe that Hamas had the guts to do it. 


  • I'm not saying we have another pandemic brewing, but you might want to keep your eye on this:

  • Ken Paxton has sued Pfizer over the COVID vaccine. Sheesh. He embarrasses us almost as much as Ronny Jackson.  And the anti-vaxxer/COVID vaccine conspiracy nutcases make me want to pull my hair out. 

  • Bad Sheriff:

  • Speaking of, I bet we get a new Wise County Sheriff's candidate today.
  • Now that is quite the headline - especially when you learn that the wife is part of the menage.  Ron DeSantis, who is not involved in threesome, has called for Ziegler's resignation.   


  • Give this headline writer the day off. 

  • Former NFL great Von Miller was arrested in Dallas but . . . 

    • . . . that case is going nowhere.

  • Elon Musk officially unveiled the Cybertruck yesterday and you have got to see the guy he had on stage to "throw" a baseball at it. Video  I can't say "throw like a girl" anymore, right? 

  • Wait a second. Wichita Falls police currently do not have bodycams?

  • Cowboy random notes:
    • Brad Sham, the Cowboys radio play-by-play game, got sick on the way to the stadium and missed the game. (Side note: That radio broadcast is awful. Sham forgets that his audience can't see what's going on.)

    • Fun fact about there being no punt in the game last night. 

  • The Business Second™:

  • Very, very nerdy legal stuff: A case out of Jack County was affirmed yesterday. It's weird. Stay with me here. 
    • The jury gave him 55 years on aggravated robbery, and he appealed saying the evidence was insufficient. 
    • The victim then suddenly died. The State, who still wanted to prosecute a co-defendant,  wanted to cut a new deal with this convicted guy because they wanted his testimony and cooperation. The new deal would change the conviction to simple "robbery" which would get him out of prison years earlier than "aggravated robbery" because of different parole laws. The appeal was abated to try to get the deal cut. 
    • The deal happened and was approved over in Jacksboro.
    • His lawyer then dismissed his appeal.
    • The defendant then said he didn't know the new deal meant his appeal (which would result in an outright acquittal if he had won) would be dismissed so he got another lawyer to ask another higher court to reinstate that appeal.
    • But that court went further and said "Yeah, we'll let you continue that appeal because that new deal you cut was not authorized under the law. We are putting that original jury verdict for aggravated robbery back in place. So go knock yourself out with that appeal." (Paraphrasing, as you probably guessed.)
    • Now, several months later, he loses that reinstated appeal and ends up with the original jury sentence of aggravated robbery which carries the stricter parole law.  
    • The news story after the jury verdict happened is here.

    • I don't know what happened to the co-defendant. I'll try to find out. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 4 years and 148 days.

at 8:32 AM

11.30.2023

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




I liked the early days when Fox 4 leaned heavily into publicizing input they got by social media and emails.  (The "Jenny" referred to was the then recently hired Jenny Anchondo.)

  • Man, everyone had a lot of hot sports opinions about Kissinger on social media once his death was announced last night. He's never really been on my radar. He's never been on my radar, pro or con. 

    • The Rolling Stone sure went hard:

  • Once again, I don't know anything about the Young Thug trial going on in Atlanta, but there was a bit of a problem yesterday when the TV cameras inadvertently broadcast the faces of some jurors.

  • One more day of the cease fire. I'm guessing this is the last one and then Israel will let loose on Gaza again. 
    3-year-old Yahel Shoham was released this week

  • I've been notified that the annual Wise County Toy Run scheduled for December 3rd is in dire need of donations after a named sponsor may, or may have not, reneged on a title sponsorship.  Information here and here if you want to help. 
  • After advertisers left Twitter because of Elon Musk's anti-Jewish posts, he had a message for them yesterday while on stage. He even called out the head of Disney by name. Video.  It's mind-boggling to think that he paid $44 billion for a company he hell-bent on running into the ground. 


  • Home and auto insurance rates in Texas skyrocketed last year, and now I see this from Fox 4 News weatherman: 

  • I bet they actually kick him out tomorrow.


  • Not that it matters much any longer, but Sports Illustrated just announced its "Sportsman of the Year": Deion Sanders. I said it when he was first hired by Colorado, the decision to hire him will turn into an unmitigated disaster. And it is well on its way. 

  • Fans of the Evil Empire will want to study the various odds and possibilities of this week's conference championship games. I think that unless Florida State loses, UT will be left out. But the 4.6% scenario below is what I'm hoping for. Absolute chaos for the committee if that happens as they would have to chose the final slot to go to either one-loss Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, or Georgia:

  • The next hearing date for the Tanner Horner capital murder case of Athena Strand in Wise County is set for February 15, 2024.  No trial date has been set yet.  
  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

11.29.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Now make that thirty years and twenty-five years. "The days are long but the years are short."

  •  He won't be "running the basketball operations" for long. And this is the first smart business decision he's made since buying the team.  

  • I can't believe I forgot to post this. A few days ago we had this guy on the courthouse square in Decatur with a very odd protest of Israel's bombing of Gaza. (Thanks to faithful reader Jenny who stopped him and had him pose for a photo.) 

  • Breaking moments ago: A crashed military helicopter in the sea off of Japan.  There are conflicting reports as to whether six or eight men were on board. I'll say it again. The military has more unforced aircraft crashes than any group in the world. 

  • A good hostage graphic in the Gaza/Israel war:

  • I've been seeing headlines about this for a few days. It's awful.  You never know what the Butterfly Effect will deal you. A car just suddenly crossed over the double yellow stripe and hit them head on near Johnson City. It looks like he was their heir apparent to this big construction company in Fort Worth which was founded by his dad.



  • Elon Musk is 100% nuts. For some reason he went full QAnon yesterday and decided to support  Pizzagate - a delusional conspiracy theory which almost got people killed back in the day. Musk deleted the tweet after six hours. What a moron. (Even the confusing and silly meme is based on a falsehood.)




  • Trump will shut down a free press who criticizes him if given the chance.  But don't compare him to Hitler, right? MSNBC = Shut it down. Fox News = State approved. And this is in no way, shape, or form a "conservative" position: 

  • Rosalyn Carter's funeral yesterday was really, really good. But I did a double-take when Garth Brooks showed up with a full head of hair. 

  • Texas politics is strange. Abbott apparently doesn't care at all about the failed Paxton impeachment/removal proceedings. The guy below stood up in the Senate and gave an impassioned closing argument for the conviction of Paxton. Despite that, yesterday Abbott endorsed him. Editor's note: I can't stand this guy:

  • Criminal legal news that got my attention:
    • Retired Montague district judge Jack McGaughey, filling in as a misdemeanor court judge in Wichita County, dismissed the cases on a statute of limitations claim. The judge probably did the prosecutors a favor in this case since they were probably looking at some not guilty verdicts -- I hope they realize it. 


    • I find this case out of Waco interesting. The prosecutors must have feared he would testify and the jury would believe his self-defense claim. He'll get seven years deferred adjudication unless the judge, who oddly wants a pre-sentence investigation, rejects it. (Story with the underlying facts.)

  • Random Sports Note: Bobby Petrino is leaving Aggieland to become offensive coordinator at Arkansas.  He was last there as a head coach but had to resign after lying about a motorcycle wreck with a young woman on the back. 


  • Mavs coach Jason Kidd with an angry cussing rant at reporters last night. Video.
  • You can tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to flip a coin for you. 

at 8:31 AM
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