3.14.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




  • It's hard to be the hardest working man in show business when you are without power in a house which is missing part of a roof and it sounds like a rain forest inside. 
  • Shout out to Cannon Roofing in Decatur who immediately got out there and put a tarp on the thing in post storm winds still pushing 40 mph.
  • The worst home hit was the one next door which completely lost its roof. Horrible. But it led to the craziest part of the storm: Inside that house were a couple of old school ceiling fans that weighed about 50 pounds (really). One went flying about 100 yards, went through the garage roof of another house, and crashed into a big empty dog kennel leaving a basketball size dent in it. 
    After it was moved.

    No dog was inside at the time. 
  • From the official Twitter account of the Fort Bend County Constable Pct. 3.  That's a full assault in the War on Drugs that they are mighty proud of. (And they've been crucified with in thousands of comments so far.)
  • Regarding Gov. Abbott's harsh criticism of DPS for the way they handled the fake voter fraud scandal, DPS director Steve McCraw, always the lapdog, took responsibility for the screw-up. Then he turned around and fired an underling named Skylor Hearn (who made a whopping  $211,620.)
  • A Bridgeport man has allegedly committed a fish foul.
  • Yes, I planned on mentioning this yesterday. The man doesn't  even understand how an umbrella works. (And, man, he is worked up about something. Since yesterday morning he has fired of 40 tweets or retweets.):
  • Robert Jeffress is in the Holy Land for his annual stint making money as a sponsor and tour director. He posted photos.
    "I said on Fox and Friends that the Democrats are godless and it looks like one of them is amongst us!"
    "I thought the brochure said open bar."
  • This guy normally doesn't say stupid stuff, but this is simplistic nonsense.
  • This whole college admissions scandal has my head spinning.  Everyone knew it was going on and now the Justice Department is acting like they have broken up the mob. And Felicity Huffman is arrested at gunpoint, and Lori Loughlin has a $1 million bond? It's all just weird.
  • And this really got my attention from the press conference by the U.S. Attorney: "We are not talking about donating a building so that a school is more likely to take your son or daughter." Translated: "We're not talking about bribing college officials in a socially acceptable way." 
  • I mentioned that a guy has been convicted in Austin for killing an attorney there. After his conviction, but before the sentencing phase, prosecutors obtained a call that he made that night where he said the following. The sentencing jury heard it. What do you think they gave him? (Answer below.) 
  • He is blatantly lying. They are just begging for a pardon via the media. And it's a brilliant strategy because Trump will bite on it. 
  • I just picture the dog walking away down a suburban street. Stopping and looking back longingly. Dak, with tears rolling down his cheeks and a cracking voice, saying, "Go on, boy. You go on and get outta here." The dog lowering his head and turning to slowly walk towards Plano.
  • Answer: They they gave him 40. He got lucky. 


at 8:30 AM

3.13.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoghts

Significantly delayed due to storm issues.
at 8:30 AM

3.12.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • This was said to be on I-30 headed out of Fort Worth yesterday afternoon during rush hour (but it looks like the service road). Either way, that's serious blockage. 
  • A lawyer was murdered in Austin a couple of years back and the trial has been ongoing. There was a guilty verdict yesterday but not before a slight problem with a juror.
  • Mrs. LL was roaming around Wizard Wells yesterday and came across this. I have questions. Lots of questions. 
  • Ron Corning is leaving the WFAA morning show.  The exit sounds odd since he says he doesn't have another job yet turned down a contract extension. He describes other opportunities and, at his age, it's "now or never" to move on. Side note: Fox 4's morning show doubles them in the ratings for the "all important" 25-to-54-year-old demographic.
  • This is incredible. A telephone poll falls on a soccer field injuring two in Arkansas. Video caught it happening. It comes down fast.
  • He's moved on. Really. 
  • If we don't get that dang ol' wall built soon, stuff like this will continue to happen:
  • Random Wise County history note: I was researching historical markers in Wise County (I'm livin' large) and found one for the "Battle of Knobs" near Decatur. Then I learned there is another and almost identical marker near Archer City claiming the same Indian battle occurred there. That kind of makes you question the accuracy of historical markers in general. 
  • Fox News' Tucker Carlson's defense is right out of the Trump playbook: "Never apologize. Never admit mistakes. Attack your attackers."  I'm not sure why every person involved in a scandal doesn't do the same thing from now on because, in America, it works. 
  • There was a big story of a guy who killed three guys because of a wreck on 635 in Dallas and fled the scene leaving his teenage son in his vehicle in the middle of the night. Then I look up and see this related, yet unrelated, headline today:
  • Neighbor Cooke County's state rep has filed a bill to eliminate the County Attorney's office and have the DA handle all prosecutions (like Tarrant County.) That normally means it is a done deal. 
  • Trump unveiled his budget yesterday -- the largest in our nation's history. Yet it had cuts of over $1 trillion (with a "T") to Medicare and Medicaid. Let's have a flashback from Candidate Trump keeping in mind his current rally cries of "Promises Made. Promises Kept."
  • Nick Foles is going to get a four-year deal worth $88 million from the Jaguars with $50 million guaranteed? Dak Prescott may be an average quarterback, but an average free agent QB in the NFL will get rich. (Here's a reminder that he made $725,848 last year.)


at 8:30 AM

3.11.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez got engaged. Let's check in on the always stable Jose Canseco for a reaction. 


  • The Morning News had a Letter to the Editor on Saturday from a DPS employee based in the Garland "Super Center". Although she was defending the agency, I liked her description of what troopers do when they are taken off the road and sent to the border.
  • Trump visited the Alabama tornado zone on Friday and signed, uh, Bibles. (They can forever compare the signatures on his checks to pay off his affair with Stormy Daniels to prove authenticity.)
  • We learned that the owner of the massage spa chain -- a chain which was allegedly involved with human trafficking that Robert Kraft got caught up in -- has had her picture taken with every conservative Republican known to man.  
  •  Decatur blew a 16 point lead and then lost the game on a last second shot to Liberty Hill. (Video). Liberty Hill then lost on a last second shot in the championship game. (Video).   And Slidell got more press than they've received in maybe ever with their win. 
    Liberty Hill: Joy can be temporary.
  • Legend Vince Young got fired by UT from his $100,000 a year part-time job. Do you know how much he would have to blow that job off in order to get fired by the Evil Empire?
    Vince Young: Joy can sometimes temporarily last a decade.
  • The Junior in College was back in the house this week and decided on Saturday that we would Marie Kondo our kitchen. Many hours later, a ton of "Spark Joy" jokes, and multiple trash bags, we had quite the organized kitchen. 
  • Fox News' Tucker Carlson is in trouble after an old interview was discovered with "Bubba The Love Sponge." He refused to apologize and just said he was caught saying something "naughty." His fleeing advertisers may have a different opinion. 
  • I learned my great grandfather is buried in Paradise. He was gone before I was born, but I'm embarrassed I didn't know that. (That led me to the amazing resource that is the cemetery records link found on wisecounty.com)
  • Wise County criminal justice: Whichever JP set bonds over the weekend needs to throttle it back a little.  
  • Trump said over the weekend that he didn't say "Tim Apple" but instead said “Tim Cook, Apple.” This comes on top of the White House fudging the transcript of his remarks by adding a dash (but with no reference to "Cook". He 100% said "Tim Apple".  It's Orwellian, once again. 
    Official transcript.
  • Messenger: Above The Fold.

at 8:30 AM

3.08.2019

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







at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • Bad Wisconsin prosecutor. (And there's more -- including the disciplinary result and a photo of the 65 year old.)
  • Yesterday it was announced there had been a $50 million donation to the Antonin Scalia Law School which comes on the heels of a $43 million to the Heritage Foundation. All from the estate of a California state judge. After you get past the "where'd all that money come from?," aren't there about a million more causes which are actually in need?
  • The UT quarterback thinks college athletes should be paid. I agree. But there's something weird about a current college star saying it because it can have an odd feel of, "Hey, it would be unfair if I hadn't been paid." 
  • Author Dan Jenkins has died. I'll admit that I never "got" him, but I've got a buddy who swears by his books. 
  • David Irving went out in a blaze of glory last night.  (It went on for 20 minutes and here's a part of it.) He had a pretty good point, though: How many NBA players, how many MLB players, how many UFC fighters, how many coaches, and how many actors do you see getting in trouble for weed?
  • Speaking of weed.
  • The current unstable marijuana laws from state to state are insane. And if the proposed Texas law that mentioned I yesterday were in effect, the superintendent would not have committed a crime at all and couldn't have been arrested. 
  • And I heard a rumor that some law enforcement officer warned a Wise County business not to sell CBD oil and confiscated it off the shelf. You kidding me? Cue Reno 911. CBD oil contains an infinitesimal  amount of THC which makes it both technically illegal but also impossible to get high off of. No law enforcement agency or prosecutor's office in their right mind wants to waste their time on that stuff. (Seriously, it would be the equivalent of arresting a convenience store clerk for selling hand sanitizer without a liquor license.)
  • This happened in Bridgeport yesterday. I tried to figure out who it was but there was only one person booked into the Wise County Jail yesterday from Bridgeport for an "ounce" of a Penalty Group 1 drug, and it was for a female off a warrant issued by the district court with a pre-set bond. That normally means it was an arrest based on a past alleged crime in a sealed indictment. 
    And what's this fluid the cops were moving?
  • There was another warrant executed by the feds yesterday for someone out of Chico (part of an odd string of multiple arrests for federal charges which I know have occurred in Wise County over the last three weeks. There's not been a single public announcement about this rare federal intervention in the county.)
  • The radio reminded me of a breakfast cereal this morning that I had not heard about in decades: King Vitaman. I could have sworn this "multi-vitamin" cereal tasted like pure sugar as a kid.
  • This is the second time this week he's tweeted the exact same paranoid thing:
  • That came moments after spending "Executive Time" watching you know who. (Have I mentioned they are State TV?)
  • Maybe he's bent out of shape about more bad news this morning: 
  • We had a Bridgeport kid take part in a Spelling Bee at TCU yesterday. You can find him below in the publication which had a spelling error.
  • There was a time-waste of a House resolution yesterday condemning hatred of any type. But one of those, to their credit, was "Islamaphobia."  WBAP's Hal Jay, and I am not making this up, said this morning, "Shouldn't that be Radical Islamaphobia and not Islamaphobia?" I'm serious. It should be Radical Islamaphobia." Obviously incredibly confused on multiple levels, he meant: We shouldn't be condemning Islam but Radical Islam. No one in the room corrected him.
  • Slidell won yesterday after a last minute desperation shot was off the mark. Decatur is on deck today after selling 628 tickets.



at 8:28 AM

3.07.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • We've got another not guilty verdict in a Capital Murder case in Tarrant County. That's two in two months! (Star-Telegram story here.)
  • We had a child drowning death in Decatur. It sounds like a horrible accident. There is a GoFundMe page with more info (and a photo). The GoFundMe page has a "goal" of $30,000.
  • One of my rants over the last few years is how people are increasingly being prosecuted for accidents. This month's Texas Monthly has an article on it (which I admittedly haven't read yet.) 

  • The newest Far Side cartoon painting by Jon McNaughton has been unveiled. "Figures from left to right: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Iihan Omar, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, President Trump [looking longingly at an abandoned doll with hands in prayerful position.]"
  • There is a massive movement in Austin right now to move possession of marijuana under an ounce to a "civil offense" punishable by a fine up to $200. Practically speaking, it moves simple weed possession from the county courts (where you'd normally get a fine and a reporting probation -- a probation which couldn't be expunged) to municipal and JP courts. Not only would it just be a small fine, it wouldn't count as a "criminal" prosecution. The measure might just pass. I found attorney David Sloane's testimony before the Criminal Justice Committee this week -- he's the guy with the weed billboards every where. (It should be here around the 1:42 mark.) He got applause from the audience, and admitted his support of the measure would impact his pocketbook but "it's the right thing to do."
  • The current pulse in Texas from the Texas Tribune: 
  • Trump called Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” as he sat right beside him yesterday. 
    "As Ivanka Nepotism looks on . . ."
  • Lawyers only: I can't say that I completely understand it, but a lawsuit has just been filed which appears to have some merit challenging the State Bar of Texas forcing us to pay bar dues. It is based on a compelled membership case out of the Supreme Court last year.
  • We are killing ourselves at a rate unlike any other in our history in order to escape the realities of life.
  • There's a rule that you can't wear jeans on the floor of the Texas Senate or House. It was ignored yesterday by Matthew McConaughey. (And, no, he wasn't there to support smoking weed in your underwear while playing the bongos.)
  • Speaking of pants, ever wonder what Dale Hansen wears under the sports desk?
  • Random thought while on my Texas history kick: Texas and Tennessee should have a college football rivalry. (The volunteers arguably either almost screwed up the Texas revolution or it couldn't have been won without them. Probably the latter. Either way, the states share an incredible history as well as state teams wearing shades of orange playing in massive stadiums. And I used to sometimes initially mistake the "T" for a longhorn on TV when I was a kid.)
  • Wow. Look who is on the cover of the Dallas Morning News! (Here's a pdf for a better look.)



at 8:29 AM
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