8.03.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




The days of the Wise County Tea Party as they were preparing to go to Houston for 
Gov. Perry's "Day of Prayer."   But, although they are long gone, the  the Tea Party basically 
became the Texas Republican Party.

  •  6,853 is the new August 1 number not yet reflected. This is about the number last summer when Abbott imposed a mask mandate statewide. Politics won't let him do that this time. 

  • Wise County's vaccination rate is 30.4%. Denton is 50.4%. Collin County is 55.4%. Jack County is 27.9%  and Montague County is 26.2%.   I see a pattern. (Just to be clear, that is a percentage of the entire population, including children which can't be vaccinated.)

  • Admittedly, not a good look. 

  • Wait a second. ZZ Top played a show on Friday after Dusty Hill died last Tuesday? Too soon?

  • State representatives took pointed shots at the President of UT yesterday for the school's decision to go to the SEC. But it was all for show. Here's TCU's attack. Here's Baylor's attack. But the Big 12 Commissioner in the background is how all of those left behind feel.

  • This is the senior from Southlake Carroll who thinks he can earn big money in NIL endorsements over the next year if he enrolls at Ohio State and skips his final season as the Dragons' quarterback. He's probably right. (For those interested, Luke 17:21 says, "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." KJV).

  • I've lauded the great book Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers before, and look what arrived in the mail yesterday! The author sent me a copy of his previous book. 

  • Wise County has open jail space and it looks like the Sheriff has imported some inmates from  from overcrowded Smith County to earn a buck.
  • The Fox News Twitter feed adopted my old Random Thought Girl bit yesterday.


  • I thought we didn't call them "ozone action days" any longer? As I always say, all that means is that it will be hot today but with little to no wind. Wind is the key.

  • The main part of Decatur's rain deluge on Sunday was down 380 towards Denton. 

  • DPS just added 145 new troopers -- the largest class ever. 

  • The con worked like this: People would fall for the Nigerian email scheme and ultimately reveal their login information for their teacher's retirement account. The account was then changed by the scammer to route retirement payments away from the employee's bank account and into a debit card held by the crook. 

  • People often ask how someone could fall for a Nigerian email because it is so obviously fake. Did you know that the scammers intentionally make the email poorly worded in order to suck in only the most gullible? They don't want to waste time having to weed out those who will likely eventually figure out the fraud. After all, if you send out millions of scam emails, it's too much work to try and pull off the con if you have a 50% response rate.   You'd rather have a tiny response rate of those absolutely ready to be conned. (Microsoft even had a statistician with a big brain research this who produced this work.)
  • They just keep coming. I swear I see a headline like this every couple of months. (By the way, in 1990 Celina's population was 1,893.)

  • Simone Biles won a bronze model in the balance beam this morning. 



at 8:32 AM

8.02.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts







Pictures from Cowboys' training camp in San Antonio in 2011.   Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan (top photo -- obviously) arrived in camp in a beat up van and carrying his clothes in a trash sack. 

  • Four inches?

  • COVID quick hits:
    • If I understand it all (good luck), no Texas government entity, including schools, can require masks in its facilities. One exception is the judiciary and the Dallas courts just imposed one.  If there are masks required, there's no way you can have meaningful jury selection or a trial. 

    • Announced Texas hospitalization numbers are running way behind -- why? -- but they are skyrocketing. We might actually be close to 7,000 right now.  

    • Oh, my.

    • Good thing no one else could possibly be affected.

    • If you think all of that crowd of Lollapalooza in Chicago were "checked" to see if they were vaccinated as promoters say, well . . .  you know. That crowd was insane. 
  • From Friday: Heck of a fire at a 10,349-square-foot home in Southlake (formerly owned by the late Pat Summerall of NFL fame.)
  • Street racing in Dallas left three dead on Friday night and this image really got me. The story says the car slammed into the building. 

  • I'm not familiar with the Texas band named Vandoliers, but I'm interested in one of their songs. (A Faithful Reader from Houston sent me this after it was spotted online.)

    •  
  • This would be one of the greatest scandals in history, but it was committed by Trump so no one seems surprised. "Don’t expect you to do that, just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R[epublican]. Congressmen.” The note was made by former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen’s deputy, Richard Donoghue, when all three were on a conference call on Dec. 27.


    • Remember my "10 years ago" post I made last week about the Texas Tech student struck by a car in Runaway Bay as he rode back from Lubbock? I at least found out his name: Paul Edwards.
    • Poor guy.


    • Really good long read in this month's Texas Monthly.


    • Simone Biles said this morning she will compete in the balance beam competition.  (I'm so proud of it, I'll reissue this: You can only have a hot sports opinion about her if you are able to do a cartwheel.)

    at 8:31 AM

    7.30.2021

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

    at 2:30 PM

    Random Friday Morning Thoughts





    That's a little blurry, but that's the first part of a Messenger story showing total county property values had declined. Remember those days?  The total valuation in 2011 was $7.1 billion. To update the story, the valuation for 2021 is $8.7 billion. 

    • The Messenger today publishes the contents the text messages between Decatur School Board President Thomas Houchin and former Superintendent Joseph Coburn.  There's no bombshell yet, but they are still pretty juicy. Most of the gold, however, is being withheld by the school district because of what their lawyers call "highly embarrassing information."  They have sought an Attorney General's request for permission to forever withhold the information.  This is an excerpt from the School District's request to what the embarrassing information is about: 

      • Kudos to the Messenger for holding the school board accountable. That's what journalism, and not Facebook, can do. And good job on printing the actual district's AG request letter as well as the newspaper's reply letter.  Go buy a paper. 
    • COVID in Texas update:
      • The headline:

      • Governor Abbott's statement:

      • The data on "mastered" (and note that the July 28th number just came in at 5,662 and we've probably cracked 6,000 as of this morning):

    • This never works, does it?

    • Uh oh, The QAnon MyPillow guy and Fox News are fighting. 

    • I don't know the story behind this picture, but I love it. 

    • Prediction: No one gets indicted in the Fort Worth "stoning" case. 

    • Very legal nerd stuff: If you are interested in browsing appellate documents in a $6 million verdict case out of Wise County which was just affirmed on appeal, here you go. 
    • In looking at the criminal cases filed in the JP courts in Wise County yesterday, it looks like we've got a crime spree. 

    • A Trump appointee to the Fifth Circuit proved yesterday he watches Fox News. 

    • I still remember Mark Cuban telling The Ticket that acquiring players from other teams is difficult because "you guys don't understand the collective bargaining agreement." 

    • 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: 756 days.
    • Messenger: Above the Fold

    It wasn't their intention, but this cover 
    is advocating vaccines much more than their "no mask" battle cry.


    at 8:31 AM

    7.29.2021

    Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




    Someone alert Freezing Cold Takes. 

    •  That's a pretty big brawl in broad daylight, and I'd like to know what happened between the cop and the guy before the cop delivered the beat down. 


    • Holy cow.  This kid from Southlake is an impressive prospect (I once featured him in a bullet point after his sophomore year), but if this turns out to be true, the new NIL rule by the NCAA has changed the landscape of football far more than we realized.


    • This guy pled guilty and went to the judge instead of a jury for punishment. The probated sentence seems fair -- he was stupid in his actions but no drugs or alcohol were involved and there was no criminal history. But my question is: During the sentencing hearing (once again, without a jury), who was it that positioned that photo of the victim right there? Someone in the courtroom knew it would be captured from by the News photographer and placed it where the judge would be caught in the background. I'm guessing it was a prosecutor trying to pressure a judge into a harsh sentence -- although the judge might have been oblivious to the fact the photo had even been placed there. 


    • From yesterday, I present to you a U.S. Senator:


    • I present to you a U.S. Representative:

    • It may not even make the news, but overnight the Alaskan coast had an 8.2 magnitude earthquake. It was in a remote area, but it is noteworthy because 8.2 is massive. 
    • The Big 12 accused ESPN of tampering with its contracts by trying to get another conference to poach one of its remaining teams, yet everyone can only talk about the commissioner's signature.

    • After the death of Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, I checked out how much the band were touring these days.  Answer: A ton. Here's the schedule. They might be (have been) the hardest working men in show business. 

    • Random news anniversary about an event I can't remember hearing about. 

    • The Texas Rangers have chosen not to sign fan favorite Joey Gallo and have traded him to the Yankees instead. Here are the bottom payrolls for MLB teams for the 2021 season:

    • And, seriously, Saturday night is Joey Gallo bobble-head night at the Rangers' ballpark. 



    at 8:31 AM
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