1.17.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts





It had only been a handful of weeks since the Sandy Hook shooting, but it was this week 10 years ago when I discovered the conspiracy kooks out there. This was a screenshot of videos I found on YouTube way back then. 

  • This is a mess up north: (1) There is a hearing today as to whether the Clay County Sheriff, who is under multiple indictments, should be suspended, (2) The hearing was prompted by the filing of a Petition by "Frank Douthitt, who is a prominent local attorney and former district judge, 97th District Attorney Casey Hall and Clay County Attorney Seth Slagle."

  • This one is kind of weird. They haven't found her yet, but there has already been an arrest.

  • Whatever happened to this?

  • News from the San Antonio airport. This is, uh, unusual. 

  • This isn't a job for CPS. They may legally figure out a way to justify an investigation, but their jurisdiction pretty much stops there. (WFAA report.)  

  • Yesterday I mentioned WBAP's Hal Jay being in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. Here's a picture posted by one of his colleagues.

  • Fox4Terry was working last night. This was a bad one and shut down I-30 in Mesquite this morning. 

  • And these murders seem a little unusual. It occurred in the very small town of Tow, Texas which sits along the Colorado River northwest of Austin.  It occurred in the middle of the night. Google street view of the location is here. 


  • I didn't know about this short stretch of roadway with funky street lights in Fort Worth. 

  • I don't know if it's more amazing that he Cowboys won their first playoff game in 30 years or if their kicker missed 4 extra points. It will be more than 30 years until you ever see the latter again.

    • I was trying to do the math of calculating the odds of missing four extra points in a row. Going in, he had a success rate of 94.3%.  So his chance of missing the first extra point was 5.7%.  So, if I remember my Statistics course, the chance of missing four in a row would by 5.7/100 * 5.7/100 * 5.7/100 * 5.7/100.   I think that ultimately gives me "1 in in 55,556" but I am way out of my area and have zero faith in may answer.
  • I encourage you to experiment with ChatGPT, the AI "search engine."  It's almost terrifying. Google how other people have used it, and then have it. It's a weird world that is coming. 


at 8:31 AM

1.16.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




I'm not sure what ever happened to this Wise County SO's RV.

  • In a world where everything is filmed, the plane was captured on video seconds before impact, and TMZ claims it has a video of a passenger live-streaming the whole thing.


  • A Wichita County Sheriff's Deputy and a bail bondsman allegedly came up with a plan for an inmate to pay to get out of jail with something other than money.

  • WBAP's Hal Jay is hospitalized at Baylor Scott and White "awaiting a heart transplant." He collapsed at home last Tuesday, but was able to call into the station from his hospital bed this morning for an update. He said, through a cracking voice, "The doctor told me heart is done." (The host of the morning show amazingly took a "break for traffic" in the middle of the call.)
  • Southlake ISD conspicuously fails to mention in MLK, Jr. when it announces the MLK Jr. holiday.


  • A new MLK related statue was unveiled in Boston over the weekend. Many mocked it because they didn't understand its source material.

  • A play in five Acts
    • Act I: Patriot Mobile becomes a weird right wing PAC. Kind of a MyPillow for cell phones.

    • Act II: Patriot Mobile helps a lot of right wingers get elected on local DFW school boards.


    • Act III: Last Friday, the Grapevine PD posts this and cozies up to Patriot Mobile. They get roasted in the comments including a Ticket host chiming in.

    • Act IV: Grapevine PD decides that wasn't a good idea.

    • Act V: Some people asked an obvious question that avoided us all

  • Wise County has added a holiday. Emancipation Day has been an official "state holiday" for decades and became a federal holiday in 2021, but I don't ever remember Wise County recognizing it before.  

  • I-30 and I-20 in Arlington yesterday.

  • "HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- One person was killed, and four people were hospitalized after more than 50 shots were fired at a club in northwest Harris County, according to deputies."  How would you like to been a guy who just decided to go get a nice foot massage next door  at "FootRelax" when all that happened?


  • It is a holiday, so let's see another play.
    • Act I: This was a horrible story which I completely missed last week.

    • Act II: The guy's obituary pretends it didn't happen, and even takes it a step further.

    • Act III: A GoFundMe on behalf of the family photoshops the murderer out of the picture and replaces him with a white Jesus.

  • Hey, I posted this picture and a note about that game just last week, and RG3 did the same thing yesterday as he supported Lamar Jackson's decision not to play on a gimp leg.

  • It occurred to me that the NFL was somehow able to turn news of a player almost dying on the field because of the violent nature of its business into a feel-good story. 

at 8:30 AM

1.13.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




A very then-conservative Drudge goes after the Obama Administration as the fallout from Sandy Hook continues. 

  • Lisa Marie has passed away at 54.  She did not look well at the Golden Globes on Tuesday. 

    • She was briefly married to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage, and famously had Elvis' plane named after her (which you can actually still go in at Graceland -- a fun fact I just learned.) 
    • Here's a clip of her and Michael Jackson at the beginning of the 1994 MTV Awards which included the most awkward kiss in the history of ever. 

  • There was a felony trial this week in the district court in Decatur, and we had a rare not guilty verdict. The Messenger has a front page story about it today, and it will probably lead the Update. Glynn Vrba out of Denton was the defense lawyer. 

  • An "inquest" was filed yesterday in Wise County under cause number JP1-23-IN-0004 on behalf of "Athena Presley Monroe Strand." An "inquest" isn't really an accurate description since they are routine filings in Wise County with no substantive proceeding. What it probably really means is that the autopsy report has been completed. 
  • HCA is on the verge of purchasing the hospital in Decatur, and then I look up at the TV yesterday and see an NBC New's investigation into HCA.


  • Biden's own Classified Documents Fiasco is night and day different from Trump's, but I think it guts any Donald Trump prosecution.  That would have been a political hot potato before Biden's issues, now it would be a fiasco.  Very dumb on the President's part. 

  • Sheesh.

    • The county judge of Waller County married them last October in the courthouse. 

    • Side note: Waller County is down by Houston. I'm not sure I've ever really noticed how weirdly shaped all the counties are in that part of Texas.

  • When I tell you the story below identifies the problematic software being "Odyssey" created by Tyler Technologies, it will mean nothing to 99% of you. But for every person in charge of court management and court documentation in Texas, they are nodding in empathetic agreement. Tyler makes crappy software but basically has a monopoly on Texas case management software. They are getting so rich.

  • Here's almost-Cowboy Odell Beckham Jr. getting kicked off a plane last November - video. I don't know what I think about it. I'm not exactly sure he should have been kicked off, don't know why the whole plane had to be emptied, and not sure why he had to berate the old guy in a red shirt. 

  • Let me tell you, I like this guy's chances of beating that charge despite the caption below. He absolutely landed that backflip. Video from NowThis. Full video on YouTube. The case is pending. 

  • TCU did win a big consolation prize in that they did not have to associated with Marjorie congratulating them on the House floor. 

  • Good little Twitter thread by an investigative reporter, past inmate, and author -- I've mentioned her book. And it the thread includes some pretty interesting photos taken from inside TDC. This guy, who was no prince, never really had a chance after being put in a cage at a young age.

  • 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: 3 years, 192 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:28 AM
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