Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Subway built more than a decade long ad campaign around Jared.  The news this morning is now blowing up after a report that the feds raided his house in a child porn investigation.  If it is true, it's awful. If he's not guilty, this is the way reputations are destroyed.
• The love interest in Can't Buy Me Love has died at the age of 43.  That movie was released in 1987. 
• A Boyd man has been convicted of murder in Pennsylvania in connection with "a steel company worker’s 1968 death."
• The illegal immigration warriors have themselves a poster boy in the guy who shot the young lady in San Francisco. Multiple felonies. Multiple deportations. In liberal San Francisco. Random murder. Tourist location. (I was going to write "Is this a Fox News False Flag?" but I'm afraid some of you nutcases would think I was serious.) 
• The Rescued Dog In The House has crazy panic attacks at the sounds of fireworks. No barking, but the panting becomes crazy and she shakes violently. I finally tried wrapping her up in a blanket next to me and that seemed to help. There are some crazy "thunder jackets" out there for pets that do the same thing, and I've actually heard some good things about them. 
• I can't help but watch Joel Olsteen when he's on because I love waiting for the equivalent of, "Maybe your marriage is in trouble or your job seems shaky or a dead end. Maybe you have a teenager that you fear is headed down the wrong path.  Maybe a good friend has wronged you recently."  He does it every time. And the camera will invariably cut to an audience member nodding his/her head as if to say, "He's talking to me." Heck, if you can't related to any of that I want to know your secret. 
• Just watched the Florida State quarterback punching the girl in the bar. Oh, my. Will post in a second. 

Not A Scene From New Terminator Movie

Let's Check In On Race Relations

When you wave your confederate flag on the 4th of July #Merica pic.twitter.com/2pyi9wPYvp

— Tyler (@telford_tyler) July 4, 2015

Language warning (I assume).

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• There are  about ten ducks that had been hanging out in the same place in a creek not far from my house for the past month. I got up early yesterday and took some bread to see if I could feed them. Sadly, there was only just one there. Happily, it walked about 30 yards right up to me. I'm guessing I'm not the first one to feed him.
• Now there's news that the Denton County DA's office also keeps a list of police officers of questionable credibility.  Here's a question: What if there isn't a list but a prosecutor knows an officer involved in a case has lied before under oath? He has the same obligation to disclose that, right? There is no reason why that doesn't have to be disclosed simply because it hasn't been written down on paper.
• Hot Opinion: Fireworks are the most overrated thing in the history of ever.
• Whatever happened to Wimbledon always ending on the 4th of July? Or am I just dreaming that? It's still going on. 
• Think about everyone you know who is a government employee. And if you live in the metroplex and they are employed by the county or the city, you can find out how much they make with this new database.  (Tarrant County has an assistant DA who makes $190,870.42?) If you are looking for Wise County data, we have been shunned.
• A same-sex couple of 27 years who happen to be cowboys are suing  Hood County clerk Katie Lang for refusing to issue marriage license. Great picture of the confrontation.
• Hypothetically, I had a Faithful Reader place a $100 bet to win $140 for me in Vegas this weekend on the total number of wins by TCU. The line is 10. I took the under.  They play 12. (Hey, they don't include bowl games do they? Probably should have thought of that.)
• I'm not sure what the Soon To Be Seventh Grader In The House is doing with "service bell" (she says it has something to do with band), but all I could think about was how I'm going to use it to turn into Breaking Bad's Hector "Tio" Salamanca
• You get that excited over women's soccer?: . . .

"All I want to do is race, daddy."

This is from last night (or so I've heard.)

Video.

Sports: C.J. Wilson On The Mound Tonight Against The Rangers

Flashback:



All of this is audio from The Ticket. If you want a treasure trove of more, go here.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

62 hot dogs down. Matt Stonie upsets Joey Chestnut in the Hot Dog Eating Contest! Chestnut's streak comes to an end pic.twitter.com/m4U3mzoYVk

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 4, 2015

4th Of July

Random Wimbledon Post

Impressive 'do'. Not something I would ever have myself. But it is inventive. It's quite a large hair cut #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/NCdbpqsnV3

— josh (@j_vine95) July 2, 2015

Just got sucked into Serena Williams vs. "Watson GBR" where Williams is in trouble. Just like the South hasn't given up the Civil War, the British crowd acts like it wants a 1776 do-over.

Anyway, a Wimbledon search brought up this photo. Unrelated. Equally entertaining.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• What? There's no Update today? They're closed!! And you know what that makes me?:
• 
• (I thought that was a clever "hardest working man" joke until I realized how I've set myself up.) 
• You know who is quiet? Sen. John Cornyn. You hardly ever hear from him pandering to the masses, but why should he? His current term ends in 2020. 
• In the mist of Amidst the news coverage of authorities who were searching for a missing kayaker in the Trinity River in Fort Worth, this tidbit got very little coverage: Before he was found, they found a different body who remains unidentified.  We have just random bodies in the Trinity? I'm guessing that won't be part of the Rockin' The River at Panther Island promotional materials. 
• Flipping around the morning shows this morning, I saw where Flo Rida was performing on Today and Lee Greenwood was on Fox and Friends. 
• It's Bush then Trump then Huckabee at the top of the GOP polls. At this point, Trump will get to take part at the first debate on August 3rd.  Delicious.
• You could have seen Ted Cruz at a book signing yesterday at . . . a Costco in Arlington. 
• A Wylie woman fell to her death at the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado. I wasn't familiar with that landmark but here's a series of pictures of it from Google Images under the category of "looking down".  I then remembered that I had seen it before from Real Sports on HBO where they had footage of base jumper Dwain Weston crashing into while "flying" in one of those crazy wingsuits. 
• A tweet from Sheriff Joe yesterday: "Because of #SCOTUS ruling on #GayMarriage, decided to review policy on inmate marriages, examining options on marriage in my jails." OK, maybe we are nearing the end of times. 
• We haven't seen a confrontation like Old White Religious Freedom Activists vs. Gay Rights Activists since West Side Story.

It's Quiet In Most Criminal Courts But Houston Is Abuzz Today

There was once a high profile murder case in Houston involving a football coach and a fiery prosecutor. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

But it recently led to this hearing regarding the potential withholding of evidence:

However, she said determining whether evidence was Brady information [evidence that the defendant is not guilty that must be turned over] often fell into a "gray area." She said she did not turn over evidence of every "rabbit trail" and "kooky lead."

One of those "kooky leads" was a neighbor's wife who called police to tell them her husband had killed Belinda Temple. Siegler said detectives investigated the story and decided it was not true and that she did not turn it over to the defense.

"When the defense is to just throw mud at the wall and see what sticks," Siegler said. "Brady is an impossible burden."

And now, today, has led to this:

I thought I remembered something about that prosecutor from the past. Oh yeah, a bed. In a courtroom. On top of a guy.

Or going from prosecutor to TV star.

I'm Confused

"I do declare, after this perhaps we can have some 

mint juleps on the veranda."

Some group called Texas Values will hold a "religious freedom rally"  for Hood County Clerk Katie Lang who briefly refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

As Bud Kennedy's column pointed out yesterday, she said in emails (before she caved) that “We are not issuing them because I am instilling my religious liberty in this office.”

Nothing celebrates freedom more than a government employee forcing personal religious beliefs on others.

Edit:

Did Bass Pro Shops Steal A Logo From A Dallas Strip Club?

Source.

This Is Intense

Two videos. (Graphic. Meaning: A guy gets shot dead.)

Did that guy have a death wish? A petty theft and pulls a fake gun and runs. Once he turns back, it's over.

(Thanks Keith.)

Random Tweet Observation

Former #Auschwitz guard asks God for forgiveness at trial http://t.co/ydOkJ7pTax pic.twitter.com/jgYWu4axjQ

— Star-Telegram (@startelegram) July 2, 2015

I immediately thought:

• Man, Nazis live a long time.
• He asks God for forgiveness now? And at his trial? I think I would have gone with the, "Dude, I was scared of that Hitler guy" defense. 
• That's either photoshopped or the darkest courtroom in the history of ever. 

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• "Dallas County Jail population drops to all-time low" says the Dallas Morning News. I was really interested in that until I read the article and found it wasn't true. First, I don't know where the "all-time low" line comes from. Basically, the current jail population is 10% lower than it was two years ago. And take a look at that graph in the story. When the base line is 5,000 instead of 0, that's misleading. 
• The Dalai Lama was at SMU yesterday. Since 1981, I have never heard his name without thinking of Bill Murray. Every. Single. Time. 
• I'm not sure what to think about the investigation by the feds of possible airline collusion.  I keep seeing references to evidence that all flights are packed these days which certainly is true. Back in the 1990s, you could take a flight on a half empty plane which I thought was bizarre. Shouldn't every flight be full?
• I do not have a clue about Greece's financial crisis, and I think I heard something this morning about the government needing to post additional collateral.  Come on. Put a lien on the Parthenon and problem solved. 
• A Navy yard in D.C. was locked down this morning, the news went crazy, reports were that shots were fired, and . . . it was nothing. 
• New this morning: Unemployment has fallen to 5.3%. (Doing this to Wordkyle might get me prosecuted for harassment.) But I will say this from a practical standpoint: Anyone else getting the feeling from friends and neighbors that things are a little slow out there?
• After an investigation by the Texas Rangers, who are paid by you, two special prosecutors out of Houston, who are paid by you, are going to try and indict the Texas Attorney General, who is paid by you, because of alleged "securities fraud" in Collin County. 
• A robot killed a worker at a German plant and the news was reported by Sarah O’Connor (an employment correspondent at the Financial Times.)  She had never seen Terminator and, thus, was very confused by the responses.
• It is 2015 and Texas law still requires a Justice of the Peace to be called to the scene of an accident to pronounce a death?  (It happened in Wise County last night).
• Baylor has deleted it's policy which specifically bans homosexual acts along with adultery, fornication, incest, sexual abuse, harassment and assault. They will now go with "Baylor will be guided by the biblical understanding that human sexuality is a gift from God and that physical sexual intimacy is to be expressed in the context of marital fidelity.” 

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• You want internal emails from the City of McKinney regarding The Pool Party That Cost A Cop His Job? They will bill you $79,229.09 for information which is your right to see.
• Hood County Clerk Katie Lang stood by her religious convictions to not issue marriage license to same sex couples for ..... a few hours. She now says she won't personally issue them but that her clerks will. Has she caved? She says "no" and blames those who "have misreported and misconstrued my prior statements".  Riiiiight. As I said yesterday, she had no idea the media storm that was about to descend upon her. She does now. 
• Wise County has announced it will issue same sex marriage licenses. (Pause. How much would you have bet five years ago that you would ever read that sentence?) Anyway, what's the over/under on the number of days before a couple actually applies? Since you don't have to be a county resident to get one, that complicates the odds.
• And if you consider yourself (1) smart, (2) a Christian, and (3) a conservative, listen to this quick interview that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had with Mark Davis yesterday where Davis rightfully took issue with a government employee refusing to do her job. Davis is as right wing as they come and a devoted member of Grapevine's Fellowship church.  It almost felt like he began to think, "Sheesh, maybe these Texas leaders are nuts" in the middle of it. (He wrote about it in this morning's Dallas Morning News.)
• Very bizarre: Here's the soundtrack to the original Spee-Lunker's cave ride at Six Flags. It was created by Barry Green -- not me, however. (Thanks BagofNothing)
• Power Down: Mavs free agent talk. You have hope of them signing someone? It never happens. But Shark Tank is doing great.
• Here's a pre-emptive complaint: With all the advances we have seen, how have fireworks not progressed in 50 years? 
• This girl in the story below is living in Rhome but that's about the only Wise County connection.  I'm still trying to figure out where they came from and their path of travel. The story references it as a "Fort Worth pool hall" but they were seen by a cop southbound on Business 287 (the Saginaw cutoff) and Bonds Ranch Road. There's definitely a pool hall near there.  They ultimately crashed at a dead end on west Heritage Trace Parkway.  I love maps but that path of travel is pretty odd.

And Now A Time For Reconciliation And Unity

What a crazy week. The Supreme Court has caused a lot of us to get riled up and say some things which we may not have meant. Well, today their session has ended. It's time to relax, set our differences aside, and contemplate about the important things in life. You know, hug it out.

It's not like any state court will make any news.

Wait.

Huh?

The Oklahoma Supreme Court just said what?

Never mind. Carry on.