10.29.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughs



  • A Denton police officer was shot during a "routine" traffic stop on University Drive in the parking lot of a Taco Bell shortly after midnight. He's in critical condition. It was the first shooting of a Denton officer since the 1997. 
  • Ukraine:
    • The noose tightens: The first witness who was actually listening to the Trump call with the Ukranian president will testify today before the Impeachment Inquiry. (Opening statement transcript here.) Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council and Iraqi vet, was so disturbed by it that he reported to his superiors what he heard. Twice. How are the they going to attack him? Is he just a “faceless unelected bureaucrat”?
    • Oh,  Fox News is going with the double agent theory. Good lord. 
    • And the Republicans demanded a formal vote of the Impeachment Inquiry? Nancy Pelosi said they'll get one on Thursday.
  • Dirk Nowitzki just bought an 11,394-square-foot mansion in Preston Hollow. I don't know why, but that kind of surprises me. 
  • Texas trivia: What percentage of the vote did Abraham Lincoln get in Texas? (Answer below.)
  • I support the Star-Telegram but for the millionth time: Your website is an abomination. We don't want videos we didn't ask for. We don't want those videos mucking up the loading of a page we want to read. And we don't want those videos automatically playing.  We want text. Sweet, clean text. Your pages never stop loading. It feels like 1997 with a slow telephone connection.
  • An offensive lineman for TCU announced he would have season ending hip surgery and thanked coaches, teammates, and others for all of their support. Coach Gary Patterson got mad at him for disclosing it because he didn't want their next opponent to know until Saturday. 
  • More Wise County history I saw at the Paradise Museum. This is a land map of the county in 1878.  I know it's hard to read, but the largest tracks are designated to out-of-county schools. Why? How did that work? Also, a lot of the tracts have a "ptd" abbreviation next to a number under them. What is that? A quick Google search suggests it might stand for "property title dispute." There are a lot of numbers on the tracts, too, but they don't seem to be acreage or leagues.

    Matagorda County School Land? Van Zandt County?
  • And I think this timeline is fascinating. Paradise was booming in 1914.  The mode of transportation was via horse and buggy, but more importantly a relatively new train was making a stop a literal stone's throw away.  By the 1930s, cars were exploding even in the South and travel by rail was beginning to decline. And Paradise slowed down, too.


    1914 (obviously). Although I'm guessing some big event was going on. 
    1926
    1933
  • And if you don't think the technology of the automobile exploded, look at 5th Avenue in Manhattan from 1902 with all horses and buggies compared to 1913 with all the cars. My Bridgeport math tells me that's just eleven years. (I first saw this in some youtube video of a presentation on how certain inventions take off like a rocket - cars, cell phones, flat screens -- but I can't find it for the life of me.)
  • I can't get this picture of Jane Fonda being arrested at a climate change protest rally out of my head. 
  • Of all the crazy Big 12 games last weekend with OU, Texas, and Iowa State being upset, none were crazier than the ending of Tech/Kansas. I don't think it's getting the publicity it deservedly should receive. (Texas Tech blocked a Kansas game winning field goal attempt, a Tech guy tried to run with it and then made the very poor decision to lateral, and Kansas fell on it with one second left. Kansas then lined up and immediately kicked again and won the game. Watch it.)
  • Answer: Zero percent. There was no way to cast a vote for him. 

at 8:32 AM

10.28.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • There was a shooting at an off campus party at Texas A&M - Commerce over the weekend where two were killed. Things got weird and weirder last night when gunshots were fired at the vigil for one of the victims in Pleasant Grove. Some vehicles were hit. One news crew captured the sounds of the gun being fired. There's something weird going on with this case.

    Not sure why WFAA decided to go with this photo of the victim.
  • Trump learned that going out in public is not the same as going to one of his rallies when he decided to go to the World Series game last night. 
    • He was booed with chants of "Lock him up!"
    • And this:
    • And this: 
    • Side note: How in the world does he not take Barron to the game? But he did, I suppose, bring the next best thing.
  • I went by the Paradise Historical Museum on Saturday, and I'll be posting a couple of things throughout the week. Here's a couple of them. (Shout out to Ms. Gay Read for showing us around.)
    • 1924: A girl in some kind of parade by the courthouse, and no one knows who she is. 
    • This isn't that old, but a beloved teacher had to sign a standard "I am not a Communist" declaration in 1958:
  • A former U.S. Attorney and professor at the University of Alabama might have said one of the dumbest thing a prosecutor has ever said: 
  • There's nothing like killing a terrorist but then posing for a picture. There's no way that's a "real time" photo although there still isn't conclusive proof he staged this. 
  • As a Baylor fan, let me say it was a good weekend to have an open date. 
  • In Pittsburgh this morning: 
  • I finally watched Ex_Machina - a sci-fi film on artificial intelligence. Not bad, but I like stuff like that. And I did love this line from the protagonist (who is basically the founder of Google but also a mad scientist obsessed with creating the perfect AI robot): "My competitors were fixated on sucking [the Internet] up, and trying to monetize via shopping and social media. They thought engines were a map of what people were thinking. But actually, they were a map of  how people were thinking. Impulse, response. Fluid, imperfect. Patterned, chaotic." And he used the "how" to create A.I.
  • This guy has a weird gig. He's a criminal defense lawyer (and sometimes gives guest commentary to local media), but he also is the spokesperson for the Duncanville Desoto PD. He'll just pull on a Duncanville Desoto PD shirt and go down to a crime scene to give a statement. 
  • A few months ago I said I never see this type of playground equipment any more. Then BagOfNothing goes and rides one this weekend. (Video)
  • Radio news: I never listen to them, but "Ben and Skin" are out at The Fan 105.3. And that relationship ended abruptly.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM

10.25.2019

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







at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • There didn't seem to be a big crowd yesterday at the funeral of Atatiana Jefferson, the woman who was shot and killed in her own home by a Fort Worth Police officer. I was curious how the media would handle that. The Dallas Morning News went with the very clever word of "dozens" and said this: "Dozens of Jefferson’s family and friends, as well as elected officials from around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, paid their respects . . . ." 
  • A line I heard which has really stuck with me: "Eventually all of our graves will go unattended." 
  • I think stuff like this happens more than what we hear about. Carnival says this one looks like a suicide. 
  • Well this has started off a little dark for a Friday, hasn't it?
  • With the news of the Confederate Umpire yesterday, this guy asks a great questions since analytics are now such a big part of baseball:
  • Some have been wondering where Kellyanne Conway has been, but she reappeared in the news yesterday after the ultra-conservative Washington Examiner released a recording of phone call of her berating a reporter. Spoiler which shouldn't be a spoiler: She considers herself a "powerful woman" whose husband "gets his power through me." 
  • Callback from earlier this week: See, I'm not the only one who thinks this. 

  • He's actually talking about a process which is required by law immediately after an arrest but is completely ignored. (It's not actually an "arraignment" but is informally called a "magistration") When a judge sets bond in a case where the arrest was made without a warrant, he is supposed to review a sworn affidavit prepared by the arresting officer and determine whether there is probable cause to believe the person arrested committed a crime. If he doesn't make that finding, the defendant is to be immediately released. In real life, probable cause is found 99.99% of the time and the vast majority of judges never even look at the affidavit. 
  • This will interest only a few, but look at this old Cowboys versus the Rams clips for two reasons: (1) Cliff Harris throwing his hands up in exasperation after being burned and then taking a huge tumble after tripping over Charlie Waters, and (2) the craziest play you've ever seen that results in an incompletion. (Both plays are back to back in the clip and can be viewed in less than a minute.)
  • Also worth a watch: The look on Mitch McConnell's face when a guy shakes everyone's hand except his at Elijah Cummings' service yesterday. (It gets better after this.)
  • For all the Republicans who are mad at the Impeachment Inquiry "process", welcome to the world of a grand jury which is essentially what is going on. Side note: Here's my award winning post from 2014 where I explained the Texas grand jury process. It's still accurate but for the grand jury commission part which has been changed. 
  • I may have mentioned this, but one of my guilty pleasures is the Twitter account which posts screen shots of the old Batman TV series and points out the great signs in them. That show was ridiculously clever. 
  • He might not care about the slaughter of the Kurds, but protecting the oil with troops is a different matter. Hey, "reconstituted"? I thought he defeated ISIS personally?
  • Update: He's talking crazy this morning. The soldiers aren't coming home (he just said that.) ISIS is not secured (he just said that, too.) And the U.S. is not "getting" Syrian oil. Sheesh.  
  • OK, who forgot to sweep the forests again?

at 8:33 AM

10.24.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • A group of  Republicans in the House stormed into the Impeachment Inquiry room because, they said, the process was being conducted "in secret."  The trouble is, it's not. Of the members of the House, there are 55 Democrats and 48 Republicans who have a right to be there and ask questions of witnesses due to their position on three select committees.
    Moments before the "The Running of the Confused White Men"
     
  • Girl, you are all of us. 
  • But, wait, there's more. That protest consisted of 41 Republicans. More than a quarter of them, 13 in fact, were part of the  aforementioned 48 Republicans who already had privileges to watch the proceedings. They were protesting for a right they already possessed. 
  • A message from the President of the United States. If you are a Republican and you don't approve of him personally, you are "human scum." 
  • This is a legitimate story. Big thumbs up. And to make it even better, normally the runner's name would have been printed on his bib, but he decided to do a bit by entering under "Jesus Saves."
  • I'm not a music fan but this morning I was listening to an acoustic song on KXT which seemed incredibly familiar. The DJ finally told me it was Overkill by Colin Hay, the lead singer of Men at Work.  He calls his acoustic redos of the group's songs, Man at Work. You know, I thought it was Sting for a moment but his voice was possibly better. Here's a live version. 
  • Oh, my. 

  • It took me two years to figure out that the a lightning cord for an iPhone could be inserted without regard to which side was up or down. 
  • I think they are burying the lede. He spelled it "Cival War." 
  • Trump misspoke yesterday while in Pittsburgh and said the U.S. was building The Wall in Colorado. ("And were building a wall on the border of New Mexico. And we're building a in Colorado. ")  Everyone later jumped on him, but I was willing to give him a break. It was just an innocent mistake. Then later he came out with a confusing explanation that he was just kidding. He was not kidding. And did I mention he was in Pittsburgh? His DNA has programmed him to lie. And you trust him to explain his conversation with the Ukraine president? 
  • I really haven't followed the James Younger case, but I did come across these factual findings by a judge when the marriage was first annulled in 2017. They don't put daddy in the best of light. I suspect his background played a role in the jury's decision. But I really have no idea what's going on. 
  • College football quick hits: (1) Four teams which are 7-0 (Baylor, SMU, Oklahoma, and Minnesota) are all on I-35.  I was on the Minnesota campus last year and was very confused when I noticed it's a stones throw from I-35 and the Mississippi River. I had to pull out a map, such as. (2) A key receiver for the Evil Empire may not make the trip to TCU. (3) Being an equipment manager for TCU and having to do this to every new helmet this week would be a beating. 
  • The 39 people turned out to be from China . . . 


at 8:31 AM
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