9.07.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




It's been 10 years, and I still haven't heard to it referred to as a "Mansfield bar."   

  • Yesterday was -218. 

  • But, on a dark note, some of the plateauing over the last week is based upon the number of hospital deaths. 

  • The federal government's announcement yesterday that it would "protect" those who seek constitutionally protected abortions doesn't mean much. The law the Justice Department cited, the "FACE Act", does nothing to prevent those from taking action via attempting to collect a $10,000 bounty.  


  • With no hint of irony, the voter bill will be signed in Deep East Texas today. (Side note. So Sen. Bryan Hughes was behind the voter bill and the Abortion Bounty bill?)

  • "Hey, Bob, you got any ideas for a theme to use at one of our government run county parks?" Bob: "Uh, yeah. Let's have people pretend they've been falsely convicted and sentenced to life in prison."

  • A six year old girl died on an amusement ride in Colorado on Sunday night. "The Haunted Mine Drop, which opened in July 2017, is billed as the first drop ride to go underground, plunging riders 110 feet inside of Iron Mountain."  A video of the ride is here. I'm not sure how that accident could happen.

     
  • Update from yesterday's weird case in South Carolina. 


  • Wall Street Journal: The number of women vs. men in college is getting way out of whack. 

  • Michael K. Williams, Omar from The Wire, was found dead in his New York City apartment yesterday.  He gave us one of the all-time great courtroom scenes. "I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase."

  • Random sports #1: This is real from Saturday.

  • Random Sports # 2: I watched the fourth quarter of the 1987 Texas/Arkansas game on the Longhorn Network yesterday and it was wildly entertaining Here is the end of it. Wikipedia says it was "the first time in Longhorn history that a game was won on the last play of the game." The two teams play this week. 

  • Uh, you might want to get on that.

  • Random High School football note:  Allen High School lost on Friday to Atascocita High (near Houston) by a score of 41-20. Get this: That loss snapped Allen's 84 game winning streak and was the first loss ever in their $60 million stadium.  They are now 122-1 at home.  



at 8:35 AM

9.06.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Even I was taken aback when I re-read a Random Thoughts post dedicated exclusively to my first softball game ever as a head coach.
  • The hardest working man in show business supports the working man in general but isn't taken the day off to celebrate the working man. 
  • The chart I normally use is taking the day off, so I had to order one from my graphics department.  We stand at 13,732. The high during this surge was on 8/24 at 13,982, but since then it has been a roller coaster with slight changes up and down. 

  • I guess they didn't mind getting their photos taken. (Sound like momma did it.)

     

  • Horrible Covid reporting by the Rolling Stone over the weekend. 
    • Their story.

    • Their retraction.

  • Baylor says this isn't about political correctness but to just be more in line with what they call their other female sports teams. The only female identifiable names in the Big 12 are now the Texas Tech Lady Raiders and the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. 

  • Saw this image related to the new Texas Abortion Bounty Law and it stuck with me.

  • A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll shows a wild swing of Texans believing that Texas is now headed in the "wrong direction." And this was before the new Bounty Law took effect. 

  • "A man was found dead late Saturday at a downtown Dallas hotel after he accidentally shot himself while he was cleaning a gun, a witness told police." Tap the brakes on that. 

  • UT unveiled its new end zone seating over the weekend, but some have noticed the structure isn't quite centered. 


    • What exactly is that seating supposed to be used for because the occupancy rate seemed a bit small?

  • Fox showed the entire "Jump Around" tradition at Wisconsin this Saturday, and it was glorious. Video. (Although the first part appears to show everyone watching a dot race.) Runner-up: ESPN showing all of "Enter Sandman" and UVA on Friday. 

  • Fun sports nugget of the weekend: Remember the Arkansas high school coach who "never punts" and last year got a new gig at a small college in South Carolina? He had his first game on Saturday, won 84-43, his quarterback set a record throwing 10 TD passes, and . . . the team never punted. Yes, they went 4 of 5 on fourth down. But here's the really crazy stat: They attempted nine onside kicks. 

  • This was already a wild story which just got wilder. Here's the new story where the high tone South Carolina was "air-lifted" despite it being a "superficial" wound. Here's the original story where his son and wife were murdered in their home. His son had been facing felony charges for in the death of a 19 year old in a boating "accident." 


     
  • If I read the story correctly, the guy didn't have COVID and the officer never got sick. He was charged with Terroristic Threat which is a felony. He got two years probation.

    • Legal nerdy stuff. You have to really stretch the facts to make it fit in the Terroristic Threat statute. It's only a felony if it is a threat of "violence" and fits into 4, 5 or 6 below.  But that's how prosecutors work. They charge as high as as they can, even when it's a reach, and then when you call them on it, they say, "Feel free to take your chances with a jury if you think you're right . . . or take two years probation right now." 


  • Flashback to what constituted entertainment on TV when I was a kid: Cher performing with the Osmond Brothers. This video is fantastic and should be put in a time capsule. 

  • I just finished this book which I'll give another thumbs up. African Americans were voting and winning in North Carolina in the 1890s so whites used violence, then voter intimidation at the polls, and then changed the voting laws altogether to make sure it wouldn't happen again.  

  • If your paper (if you have a paper)  is part of the "USA Today network", there's a good chance your front page looks like the one below. Several in Texas have the identical layout this morning. I think that's a Gannett Co., Inc. property. 

at 8:28 AM

9.03.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




It's opening weekend of college football. Allow me to reminisce. It turned out OK:



  • Down 105.  Still more of a plateau than a trending decrease. (Somewhat locally, JPS went from 120 to 130 in a single day yesterday.)

  • The news/realization of the Texas Bounty Hunter Abortion Bill has really gone nationwide. It is such a crazy law that people can't believe it is real.  But it is. The government has authorized and incentivized private spies to seek out those who engage in conduct which is still constitutionally protected. It just has such a scary feel to it. 

  • I was curious as to who came up with this idea of having a law enforced by a private mob with $10,000 as a carrot.   A Washington Post article says it was the brainchild of some guy named Jonathon Mitchell who was expressly credited by the author of the bill, Sen. Bryan Hughes. Mitchell wrote a 94 page law review article for the University of Virginia in 2018 and the idea was buried in there (which I found.) 




    • That law review article, oddly enough, is available in pdf format on the official website of the United States Supreme Court of all places at www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2017/16-476/16-476-3.pdf . It's there because the article, The Writ-of-Erasure Fallacy, has been cited, according to my top-notch legal research skills, by the Court two times before. That may be a bad sign:

  • Here is Dale Hansen's big sign off from last night if you missed it. 

  • A spare Garland guy who was in debt opened up a half-arse HVAC school after figuring out you could dupe the government into paying for student tuitions from the GI Bill. He was able to con the government out of $72,480,225.03 (!!!) which he is now supposed to somehow pay back after he finishes his to-be-determined prison sentence. But he does have some assets which the government is taking right now. Thieves are historically the dumbest criminals there are. He wasn't exactly keeping his new found wealth on the down-low: 

  • The NFL is siding with the Dirty Libs again this season. 



  • I talked to someone at the Wise County Courthouse yesterday who actually visited the life-size replica of Noah's Arc in  Williamstown, Kentucky. You know which "animals" are the most featured in the re-creation of the inside of the arc? Dinosaurs. "Lots and lots of dinosaurs," I was told. 

  • This is in today's Messenger. That's Chewbacca!

  • Trouble underneath I-30 in Rockwall last night.  I've always thought the way they move those things was a little wild: Just slap some wheels on the back of a beam and hit the road. 
  • If not having a cover charge is "free", I suppose going to Del Frisco's is "free" as well.

     
  • Random Sports Illustrated cover I came across from August 30, 1970.  Les Shy? Who was running back Les Shy? I looked him up and learned he was cut two weeks later. 


  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 793 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:35 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)