Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I can't believe I missed it, but more than one person told me there were three people carrying AR-15 looking weapons around the courthouse square in Decatur on Monday while shopping. It's perfectly legal, but it got everyone's attention. 
• Tarrant County DA Sharen Wilson told an ultra-conservative crowd that there was no "mass-incarceration" problem in Texas. That prompted a leading expert on criminal justice in Texas to call that opinion "uninformed" and bordering on "ludicrous." 
• Whoa! Jerry and Dez together last night.
  
• Earlier this year, Fox 4's Jenny Anchondo left the news station and joined CW33's "Morning Dose". The program has been killed.  Her twitter feed would indicate no one has told her yet.
• The family member of the officer involved in the Dallas Wrong Apartment Shooting is denying he was flashing a white power hand sign in this photo.
  
• Yesterday I mentioned there was a race problem in America as evidenced by a political cartoon of Serena Williams. I was wrong. Not about a race problem but implying that the cartoon was American based. It was from an Australian paper. 
  
• The guy who caused the death of a woman in a car crash in the stockyards has been charged with murder. How can that be when murder requires the "intent to kill"? There is a a weird aspect of Texas criminal law called "Felony Murder" that says if, while in the course of committing a felony (in this case Evading With a Vehicle) a person commits an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual." (The stories by the Morning News, Channel 11, Channel 5, and Channel 8 didn't explain this. I couldn't find the story at all on Fox 4 or the Star-Telegram) 
• Headline Facts vs. Paragraph Facts. I guess 1% is arguably "cooling off."
  
  
• Ken Starr on NPR, claiming the Clintons are inherently dishonest, said he had written his new book partly because he was "freed" of his duties at Baylor.  Freed? That's one way to put it when you lose your job due to turning a blind eye to a sexual scandal.
• And I've always said Starr was clueless. He just casually admitted this morning on Fox and Friends that, based upon the evidence, he had a doubt about Clinton's guilt and that doubt was reasonable to him. 
  
• I didn't understand how North Carolina State opened as a 3.5 favorite over West Virginia (who has been playing fantastic).  Others were confused as well as the line made a dramatic shift to making WVU a 3 point favorite. But it doesn't matter because the game was cancelled yesterday due to the hurricane. 
• Yesterday after tweeting this with a weird exclamation mark . . .
  
• He arrived at the Pennsylvania memorial and did this . . .
  
• And then later he talked about Hurricane Florence and said this: "They haven't seen anything like what's coming at us in 25, 30 years, maybe ever. It's tremendously big and tremendously wet."
• Advice from the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association below. Better advice: Know your case and your judge before waiving a jury trial.
  
• This is making the rounds this morning. I can only think of Sharon Stone's very cunning character in Basic Instinct saying, "I'd have to be pretty stupid to write a book about killing and then kill him the way I described in my book. I'd be announcing myself as the killer. I'm not stupid."
  
• "The Rev. Mack Morris took a hold of an old Nike headband and a wristband, held them both up before a packed church, and cut them. 'I ain't using that no more,' said Morris, the senior pastor at Woodridge Baptist Church . . . during his weekly Sunday sermon . . . " in . . . wait for it . . . Alabama.
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold (We had three Wise County agencies, including two SWAT teams, raid a home in Bridgeport only to find less than a gram of meth?)

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• America loves to watch an incoming hurricane.
• Sports: "If you can touch it, you can catch it" is 100% not true.
• Most of the cost is due to rentals by Secret Service agents. It's amazing it never occurred to Trump to just simply comp the rentals since they are all at his resorts.
  
• Here's a hot legal opinion in the Wrong Apartment Dallas Police Shooting case: She will not be convicted of murder or manslaughter, and she might not be convicted of anything. This may very well be an incredibly tragic accident but no crime. 
• But the Dallas DA seems hell bent on pursing the case. She's already thrown the Texas Rangers under the bus for arresting the off duty officer "only" for manslaughter and implied she'll get the grand jury to indict her for murder. Here's why she might technically be correct on how to charge the case, but will still lose . . . .
• Murder is the intentional killing of another. True, that's what the off duty officer did. But there are defenses to murder and she has a fantastic one of defense of "mistake of fact" that she thought she was in her apartment and feared for her life. It might be a horrible mistake, but a true and reasonable mistake on her part (all those apartment hallways look alike and she was simply on the wrong floor after 15 hours of work.) Here's the kicker: The State will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt she didn't think she was in the wrong apartment or was not reasonable in thinking that.  Good luck with that.
• If her 911 call even remotely backs up her "mistake" defense, she's home free.
• One final thought about Manslaughter - that is, reckless killing. It seems to make sense as an appropriate charge at first blush, but it really doesn't. It applies to an unintentional killing which was caused by someone doing something incredibly stupid which he knew could kill someone. (Traveling 80 mph through a school zone at 8:00 a.m. and ignoring the risk.) That's an example of a reckless act. What are the reckless acts in the Dallas case? Going in the wrong apartment? Nope. Going through / opening the door didn't kill the guy. No, she intentionally killed him. It's a difficult distinction to wrap your head around but a critical one. That's why this case is such a mess. 
• The bottom line is this: Why would she kill him other than it was a horrible mistake? Does anyone believe she wasn't mistaken?
• The arrest warrant affidavit is public record. Here it is.
• Racism is alive and well in America. (The cartoon even depicts Naomi Osaka as a blonde who is not blonde): 
  
• I've been following former Baylor receiver K.D. Cannon who went undrafted last year and then cut from three different NFL teams before the start of the season. This year, the Cowboys signed him but cut him a couple of weeks ago. Cannon was a superstar in high school and star at Baylor. It's hard to make the NFL.
• When you print out hurricane projections for the sole purpose of a staged photo op:
  
• Texas is a 3.5 point favorite over USC? Yet as crazy as that team is, the Longhorns might win.
• Remember when I told you that I had noticed his sales pitch always seem to include a "secret"?
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• Flashback 2013:
  
• I had forgotten the six time elected DA of Rockwall County was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2008. He got out in 2010.
• Today, the BagOfNothing guy says he heard the term "navel gazing" for the first time ever last night on Better Call Saul. I wrote on 11/11/16 that I had never heard the term until recently.
• Lots going on with this lede: "Victor Carrillo, once Texas’ top oil and gas regulator, is out as chief executive of Zion Oil and Gas, a Dallas-based firm that looks to the Bible for clues about where to drill for oil in Israel." But the story wraps up in a funny way in reference to the company's struggles: "But so far, the Promised Land has been richer in milk and honey than in oil."
• Messenger: Above The Fold. (I forgot yesterday.)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• When a Sports Genius like myself tells you to take the Las Vegas under for total season wins by the Cowboys, you take the under.
• An NFL owner who routinely gets drunk on Johnny Walker Blue may have a player who will be banned for life for smoking weed. Makes perfect sense. 
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• The case involving the shooting by the man in his own apartment by the Dallas police officer is off to a ridiculous start. It happened late Thursday night but by Friday morning the Dallas PD announced a warrant for Manslaughter was coming and that the case had been handed over to the Texas Rangers. First, that was moving way too fast. And second, if you are turning over the investigation, it is that agency that makes the call on the arrest. (They ultimately did.)  And even that agency, if it has any brains at all, better include the DA in the decision to make any charging decisions at all. 
  
• The arrest is for Manslaughter. I've preached and preached that proving "recklessness", the key element of Manslaughter, is an incredibly high burden that most prosecutors and law enforcement do no understand. This will be a very hard case to prove (assuming the Grand Jury even indicts it.) 
• And let me rant against the Medical Examiner's office for the millionth time. It has ruled the shooting a "homicide." First, that includes everything from murder to criminally negligent homicide, so everyone calm down. Secondly, the ME has no business in classifying killings in that way since it requires reaching a conclusion about the mindset of the shooter which you can't deduce by examining a dead body. The only thing the ME should say was that the persons death was caused by a bullet causing certain damage to another's organs which caused that person to die. 
• Ann Coulter brought along her conservative values to the conversation: 
  
• The Aggie/Clemson game looked like a great scene and turned out to live up to its billing. And the Aggie Cops weren't messing around with crowd control: 
  
• That Aggie fumble near the end of the game through the end zone gives me Tired Head when it comes to Pylon Rules. If a receiver catches a ball in the front corner of the end zone with both feet in bounds but the ball gets to his hands by traveling outside of the pylon, it's a touchdown, right? What if a runner goes right down the sideline untouched and on his feet but for some reason showboats and extends the ball straight out to his side where the ball hovers out of bounds and outside the pylon as he crosses the goal line untouched? Touchdown? If not, why isn't the ball marked down when he first held it out over the out of bounds line?
• You know what cures Tired Head? Taco dog!
  
• This weekend I went to a sporting even which had mobile ticketing only (paperless ticket.) First, it worked like a charm although it felt like I was using black magic. Second, that sure will kill the scalping business at the venue. 
• A federal judge came out swinging in a voter suppression case out of Florida: 
  
• In case you missed it, we now have the hero we've all been waiting for. (Trump's campaign actually went up on stage and kicked him out and replaced him with a Fake Fan.)
  
• I needed new tennis shoes in a very bad way, and I had to factor in the brand in my purchasing decision. 
• Ted Cruz said that Democrats want to turn Texas into ‘tofu, silicon, dyed-hair’ California. He doesn't spend much time in Texas, does he?
• And she takes offense to that remark:
  
• Since I got sick last Spring, my physical comfort level has changed by three degrees. I mean, what used to be a perfect temperature per the thermostat has now changed where I like it three degrees higher than before.

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.

 Fake clues: (1) Over-acting kids, (2) Since when is closing your eyes to blow out candles a thing?

 (4) Mom having zero reaction of, "What happened!?" (5) Mom not getting mad.

 Upon review, the call stands. Gun fumbled by robber recovered by home team. Incomplete crime.  

(Nice, yet unnecessary, door kick on the way out.)

 I do no support the fat shaming this group engaged in. Really. Seriously.

Ok, maybe a little funny.

 I do support dumb shaming. 

 Get me this dog!

"Have a couple of kids," they said. "It'll be fun," they said.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• What an incredible screw up. You are reading this headline correctly: 
  
• Ticket fans of Wise County: On the football "pick 'em" segment this morning, the Musers picked against a guy named Derrick, a coach, from Bridgeport. Sounded like a funny guy.
• A police chase through the stockyards during the middle of the day yesterday left an innocent woman dead after a seven car wreck. It was right in the heart of the area at Main and Exchange.
• Bridgeport's Colin Jones will be a captain for the Carolina Panthers this year. They open with Dallas on Sunday.
  
• Huh?
  
• "JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil (Reuters) - The leading candidate in Brazil’s presidential election is in serious but stable condition after being stabbed by an assailant at a campaign rally on Thursday." There is video of it, but I'll let you find it. 
• No radio commercial should ever include a siren or a car horn. No TV commercial should ever include a door bell ringing. 
• I was trying to explain "competitive video gaming" to my dad, and I did a horrible job because I think the concept of thousands of people coming to watch others play a video game is incomprehensible. Now Mark Cuban has opened a 20,000 square foot gaming complex in Deep Ellum. (This comes on the heels of Arlington announcing it will create a 100,000 square foot esports "stadium".)
• For the Press Secretary to issue this, using words like "gutless" and "failing", and printing the phone number which was done only for harassment purposes, is a new low.  Sarah Sanders wouldn't have sniffed a job under any former Republican President. Where have you gone (the late) Tony Snow or Dana Perino? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. 
  
  
  

Just do it.

• The death of Burt Reynolds was jolting. My favs: Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, and Boogie Nights. Here is a fantastic clip of him from the WFAA archives when he was at the Cotton Bowl promoting Semi-Tough.   And that voice is that of Bill O'Reilly when he worked for Channel 8.
  
• The University of Texas almost had a disaster on its hands:

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• I just learned there is a Denton Braswell High School.
• There was an issue brewing in the Kavanugh hearing as to whether he had spoken to a lawyer in a particular firm about the investigation of Trump by Mueller. The managing partner of the firm issued the following statement. Dude, you have over 350 lawyers in your firm spread out over nine locations across the country. 
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• Trump trying to say "anonymous" at one of his therapy sessions rallies last night was funny.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• After yesterday, we should just go ahead and make "Crazy Train" our national anthem. 
• An Emirates plane had to be briefly quarantined because of a flu outbreak and Vanilla Ice was on board. (A sentence I never expected to write.)
  
• Regardless of what you believe about the incident, this photo taken immediately after Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh was asked to shake the hand of the Parkland father, is golden. (Credit: European Pressphoto Agency's Michael Reynolds.)
  
• Speaking of the hearing, this was a heck of a moment yesterday. Either she knows something or she bluffed Kavanaugh into thinking she knows something. Worth a couple of minutes of your time. 
  
• On a lighter note, trust me, you'll love this Congressman and former auctioneer going into character to shut down a protester in a different ongoing hearing. That's quality comedy. 
• Trump went ballistic yesterday afternoon over an anonymous New York Times Op-Ed by an insider in the White House. And he actually think its treasonous for someone to question his fitness to run the country. Now he's on a Snitchhunt and wants the person to be "turned over to the government." 
  
  
• Then again, he probably does want to kill the author. "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death . . . . "18 U.S.C. § 2381.
• The greatest conspiracy theory of who wrote the Times piece is based upon the word "lodestar" which appears in it. The person who has used it multiple times in speeches in the past: VP Mike Pence. Others suggested looking at the writing style of the author who often starts a sentence with a conjunction and uses the em dash. That would make me a suspect.
  
• This is the leaflet that the guy had with him when he crashed into the Fox 4 studio yesterday. That guy is bonkers.
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• There was a story back in July about a Decatur man being arrested for Impersonating a Peace Officer. I'm late to this, but WFAA found the search warrant affidavit issued in Denton County for a somewhat related investigation of the guy. The subject of the search was this tricked up car located in Wise County.
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• Random Picture: The current probation department building in Decatur or "The Old Rogers Building."
  
• I've been going into the Wise County Courthouse for decades, and I've never noticed this engraving of the date of construction. (I didn't take the pic and have no idea where on the courthouse it is. And the date looks a bit cock-eyed.)
  
• Decatur Eagles, 1965. I spy a County Court at Law judge.
  
• The last three photos were stolen from a Decatur Facebook page here. 
• And he took that plane? I'm sure the Beaumont common man can relate.
  
• UCLA is a 30 point underdog against Oklahoma on Saturday. A weekly guest picker for the Messenger, who is a local car dealership rep, picked the Bruins to win outright.