4.05.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts






The County Commissioners in Anderson County had allowed for the Confederate Flag to be flown on the courthouse lawn for all of April, 2011, when it also declared, on a 3-2 vote, that it was "Confederate History and Heritage Month." The Palestine mayor was none to happy and called for an emergency meeting asking his city council to pass a resolution to tell the commissioners to reverse their decision. They didn't have to. Moments before the vote, the Commissioners announced the flag was being voluntarily being taken down by the Sons of the Confederacy -- the same group which had asked to fly in it the first place. 

Here's a line from the story: "A crowd of roughly 20 persons sang 'Dixie' after the flag was removed from the courthouse." Sheesh.

  • The number of attempted kidnapping of women in Denton County kept changing over the weekend, so I got my Liberally Lean Research and Graphics Development Department on it. How bizarre this all is. The current count seems to be four (although some reports put it at three.) The map below is my painstaking attempt to put a red "x" at all the locations referenced in the news although one of them is sometimes referred to as an attempt to "lure" someone towards him instead of an attempted kidnapping. Cops finally stopped what they believe to be the car involved in the incidents and arrested the guy for DWI yesterday afternoon. But they haven't come out and said it is the same guy involved in the four incidents yet. 


  • Edit: Moments before my press deadline, a very Faithful Reader sent me this. The Denton County Jail is now showing charges of Aggravated Kidnapping have been placed on the guy. (I don't think the Dirty Liberal Lamestream Media has reported this yet.) His DL shows him to be a Lake Dallas resident. My source also says that he probably was released from a State Jail in October after a felony conviction out of Gregg County. 

  • This would seem to be a huge problem in the Derek Chauvin trial: "Special Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell told jurors last Monday that while Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker ruled Floyd's cause of death cardiac arrest, prosecutors would prove he died of asphyxia, or, lack of oxygen, while Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes." Keep an eye on this aspect of the case. 

  • Major League Baseball will move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta after Georgia made it harder to vote. If that makes you mad, you still have to go to baseball games and watch it on TV because you are also against, and can't be part of, the Cancel Culture. 

  • Fox News on-air broadcast will hardly touch the Matt Gaetz scandal, but its website doesn't shy away from it -- at least with the headlines. 

  • The Trump campaign added a pre-checked box last Fall to its donation form causing a second automatic draft to occur. It ended having to refund $122 million once people complained. 




  • I used an electric chainsaw for a couple of hours on Saturday and was having so much fun that I was afraid I turn into Leatherface by the evening. 
  • Jordan Speith drives me nuts because he and his caddy talk forever before he hits the the shot. He first got on my Irritation Radar in 2017 when he took a whole 20 minutes to decide where to take a drop at the British Open. Yesterday, he was almost as bad. For example, he and his caddy went back and forth for a few minutes about whether to lay up on 18 with a two shot lead. You don't need to think about that. And then Speith took out an eight iron and hooked it left anyway. 

  • Ticket fans only: Former Ticket Ticker guy T.C. Fleming often mentioned how his parents shipped him off to "Excel" as a teenager for smoking weed (!!!).  Well now the Dallas Observer has a story about a project T.C. has about the experience. It's not so funny anymore. 

  • Anyone want to tell him that neither team wanted his support?

  • The Liberally Lean standings are here. My quick review reveals that only "Unemployed Random Thought Girl", in tenth place, has chosen Baylor tonight and, even if he's right, the points he'll gain (30) would only be enough to get him to fifth place. My tricked up scoring system has bitten him.  



  • Speaking of Baylor, how did the Waco paper celebrate on Sunday the team making the finals the night before? By printing one of the most boring headlines ever. And the story even played second fiddle to something Chip and Joanna are doing. 


at 8:33 AM

4.02.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




This one is a little weird in that I was referring to Friday, April 1, 2011, when no one was injured. But a few years later, on April 17, 2018 to be exact, "Jennifer Riordan, a 43-year-old Albuquerque bank executive, died after shrapnel from an engine failure blew out a window on Southwest Flight 1380 and she was pulled halfway outside the plane."   

  • American Airlines and Dell issued statements yesterday either specifically condemning the Texas Legislature for making it harder to vote. Southwest Airlines and AT&T followed suit with a slightly less curt press release. Good for all of them 

  • More news on Matt Gaetz. But here's a prediction: I bet he will be able to ride this out. The voting public shockingly no longer cares about stuff like this.  


  • Fun Fact: Matt Gaetz was a Senior at Niceville High School in Florida in the year 2000. On September 29, 2000, Niceville actually played Bridgeport in a football game at the now-imploded Texas Stadium. 
  • Update on a Texas Sheriff:

  • This part of the Rangers' box score yesterday is why I lost interest in baseball years ago. And there are 161 more games to go.  

  • The Evil Empire raided Texas Tech yesterday and stole their basketball coach. If I'm a Red Raider I wouldn't feel that bad. The last time UT did that to them was David McWilliams and that that didn't work out to well. 

  • New this morning: We continue to pull out of it. 

  • My favorite Trump Insurrectionist post-arrest photo. “I Was There, Washington D.C., January 6, 2021”:


  • New Gallop poll shows Americans are turning into a bunch of heathens. 

  • The father of the Official Liberally Lean Girl has asked the court to pay him $16,000 a month for his "job" as his conservator and wants Britney to pay for his legal fees when she tries to fight him. One lawyer he hired charged $1,090 an hour for an alleged 220 hours of work.  "Free Britney!' indeed. 

  • Calmest bus driver and calmest kid in the history of ever. Video.

  • Heard on the radio this morning that basketball teams (even Houston during it's most famous Final Four appearance) used to wear odd numbers on the road and even numbers at home.  Maybe my brain is malfunctioning, but I kind of remember doing that when I was in high school. But I don't trust my memory on that at all. 
  • 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: 637 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold 

at 8:33 AM

4.01.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




I have no memory of a viral "talking twins" video. But the link I used back then is still up. The two kids involved in it are kind of cute, but I suppose that could get old in a hurry.  

  • New York officially legalized marijuana yesterday. In New Mexico, recreational weed becomes legal once the governor signs the bill on his desk. 

  • Speaking of, the lead anchor of OAN had a warning for you kids yesterday about about marijuana: 

  • Gender reveal party in Cancun goes wrong and kills two. Video. 

  • Long time readers know I've been on a decades long campaign railing against medical examiners opining about a causes of death completely unrelated to their medical expertise. (I.e. calling a death a "homicide" or a "suicide" instead of simply saying someone died due to a gunshot wound to the head.)   In any event, now we are learning the #2 ME in Tarrant County, who has been on the job for 40 years, might not have been very good at any of it.


  • Video.

  • This got a Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD teacher suspended.

  • Mrs. LL, much to my bewilderment, has always complained about Michael Strahan's gap between his front teeth. But two days ago I got to announce that her long nightmare was over since he announced he had gotten it fixed.  But, now, there's a chance this might have been an April Fools Bit. (Just like "Voltzwagen" just pulled.)

  • Did you know that yoga has been outlawed in public schools in Alabama since 1997? An attempt yesterday by the state legislature to reverse this ban failed after a bill was left pending in committee.  But even if it passed, the bill would have strictly limit how yoga was conducted:

  • Hot sports opinion: They don't "know" the cause at all. 

  • That's not the way it works. 

  • I'm not up to speed very much on the NCAA case argued before the Supreme Court yesterday regarding compensation of student athletes, but this got everyone's attention: 

  • I saw this sports bet yesterday. Assuming the bet involves practice and not a game situation, I'm taking Verlander, and I don't think it is even close.

  • Legal nerd stuff: Over the last thirty years, how the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has interpreted the term "deadly weapon" has been legendary. (It's important because a deadly weapon finding requires the defendant to serve at least  1/2 of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.) Almost anything, they have said, can qualify (hammers, rocks, pipes, bricks, and the defendant’s own hands). But yesterday the court did the first about face in years and held that holding an electric drill during a robbery, without more, was not a deadly weapon. But what is also really interesting is that the the court linked to the video of the robbery in their written opinion.  

  • The Ranger's ballpark will be the only MLB stadium to have 100% capacity on its opening day. I'm really interested to see how many tickets they sell -- they haven't announced a sellout yet. 



at 8:34 AM

3.31.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




It was on March 28, 2011, that 54 year old Smith County Deputy Robert Britton passed away. "Britton had responded to a report of a stray cow struck by a vehicle and was directing traffic on Farm Road 344 when the cow charged him. Bullard Police Chief Gary Lewis tells KLTV in Tyler that few noticed the cow started to stand until it was too late." The Texas legislature honored him two years later with a resolution. 

  • Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is in trouble. The New York Times has reported, and The Wall Street Journal has confirmed, that the Justice Department is looking into conduct which is, uh, inconsistent with family values.


    • This all started last year during an investigation by the Trump Administration's Justice Department when they were focusing on a guy named Joel Greenberg, a simple county tax collector in Florida, for sex trafficking. Greenberg was subsequently arrested.
    • During the investigation, it came to light that Gaetz may have had a 17 year old girlfriend he had sex with and, here's the tricky part, paid for a plane ticket to cross state lines.  That's what makes it a potential federal crime. (There would also be a state crime problem because the age of consent in Florida is 18.)
    • Here's a picture that Greenberg posted on Twitter of himself and Gaetz. 

    • Here's a another great picture that Greenberg posted of himself, Roger Stone, and Gaetz. (The fact that Roger Stone gets thrown in is an added bonus.) 

    • Gaetz reaction yesterday was pretty bizarre. After denying he has dated underaged girls, he added this piece of gold in an interview with Axios:

    • He then went on Tucker Carlson and got oddly specific by saying he never "traveled" with a 17 year old girl. "That is verifiably false. You can look at my travel records," Gaetz said.  
    • Then it got weirder. Gaetz told Carlson that "You and I went to dinner about two years ago, your wife was there. I brought a friend of mine,... You'll remember her." Gaetz then said this person was "pressured" by the FBI to say he was involved in a "pay for play" scheme.  That was all we got because Tucker ran away from the comment immediately by replying, "I don't remember the woman or the context at all, honestly." (Video.)  

    • Carlson might as well have screamed, "Hey, don't drag me into this!" He later told his audience that the interview with Gaetz was "one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted." (Video.)

    • Gaetz is also saying he was recently subject to an  "extortion" attempt for $25 million by a "former" Justice Department employee. No one knows what he is talking about. 
    • This may all end up being nothing. There ain't no Republican going down for having sex with a 17 year old. 
    • Gaetz raised eyebrows last summer when "he announced that he had a son, Nestor Galban, 19, though Mr. Gaetz said he was not Mr. Galban’s biological father, nor had he adopted him. Mr. Galban had been 12 when they met and had come to the United States from Cuba; Mr. Gaetz was at the time dating Mr. Galban’s sister."

  • Back to normal Random Thoughts . . . 
  • I'm not following the Derek Chauvin trial in the case of George Floyd all that closely, but I have no idea why the defense lawyers keeps letting the prosecutor get away with asking witnesses how it made them "feel" when they were watching the the incident. That's irrelevant. They are there to only tell what they saw. 


  • Second Chauvin trial thought: The prosecutors better be careful. The witnesses seem to all have a pro-prosecution agenda instead of just being disinterested fact witnesses. And they seem coached. All this could backfire. 
  • An official in the Gonzaga/USC game last night dropped like a rock, but he will be OK. That was scary looking especially when he hit his head. Video.

  • I'm not saying that there is a COVID resurgence, but there are some rumblings out there.

     

  • There were indictments yesterday of two Williamson County deputies involved a case which was filmed by Live PD and which the Sheriff tried to cover up. But for the dogged work of the The Austin American Statesman and the local ABC affiliate in Austin, these indictments would not have occurred.


  • Random Letter to the Editor in the Messenger this week by a decades long critic of the town:

  • Despite my tricked up scoring system, the leader in the Liberally Lean tourney is a guy who picked three of the Final Four. He would have gone four for four if Michigan hadn't been upset last night. Full leaderboard here.

  • The former football coach of SMU and the University of Arkansas just took the head coaching job at . . .  Allen High School.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:31 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)