Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

From the Messenger's 1/15/13 issue. The home was just west of Decatur.

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• Still no results in the election for the Mayor of Crazytown.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump had no impact in getting him elected, so another man is coming to the rescue before dawn.
  
  
  
• This Speaker's election is turning everything upside down. Last night Hannity went after Boebert, and MSNBC invited her on.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The hosts on Fox and Friends are mad at the "20 rebels" this morning. 
  
  
  
• Reading between the lines of the Messenger's most recent lead story, the hospital in Decatur will most certainly be sold to HCA - "a massive healthcare provider based out of Nashville with 182 hospitals." On possibly a related note, is this report from the American Hospital Association.
  
  
  
• The alleged killer of the four students in Idaho was brought back to the state last night. Although no new facts were released, Nance Grace was on TV this morning to convict him.  (Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to post this screenshot.) 
  
  
  
• Missed this one yesterday out of Granbury.
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I want that woman's press agent. The Decatur High grad who gave birth to twins in different years made it all the way to Good Morning America. 
  
  
  
• Does anything matter anymore?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Montague County news.
  
  
  
• On the morning of December 30th (last Friday), there was a ridiculously long line wrapped around Spec's liquor at Walnut and Central Expressway in Dallas. Some thought it was because of all liquor stores being closed on the following Sunday and Monday, but that wouldn't make sense for a Friday. Turns out, it had something to do with a release of a bourbon. It all makes no sense to me.
  
  
  
• It was a 20 year contract over in Denton, but there was a strange "opt out" provision. Apogee has now opted out of UNT naming rights.
  
  
  
• Random passing rates for the State Bar exam.
  
  
  
• Buc-ee’s by the Speedway is adding a $6 million car wash. 

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

At least one of those shows still appears on TV with regularity. 

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• The House of Representatives has grinded to a halt after the Republican majority can't decide on who they want to be Speaker. After three votes, they are still out of luck.  And with each vote, Kevin McCarthy got less votes. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• More accurately, about 20 crazy Republicans have hijacked the party which is pretty much how the Republican Party operates these days. Texas has 3 of the 20: Chip Roy, Michael Cloud, and the newly elected Keith Self out of Plano (who, I just remembered, only won because of the crazy Van Taylor affair story.)
  
  
  
• The Republicans have such a slim majority that it was actually the Democrat nominee, Hakeem Jeffries, who garnered the most votes after all three votes. But you need 218 to win. It will be a Republican, we just don't know who. They are back in session at 11:00 CST.
  
  
   
• Breaking: The Pope of The Republican Party has issued an edict the morning: Vote for Kevin McCarthy because he will "do a good job, and maybe even a great job." This just got even more entertaining. 
  
  
  
• One weird thing about this is that no Congressman can get sworn in for this new 118th Congress until there is a speaker chosen. Yet every member of this new Congress is voting on the Speaker before being sworn in.  Not sure how that works

• Nothing like a fender bender turning into two guys drawing down and opening firing one one another,  with one killing the other, in front of Dick's Sporting Goods in Alliance Town Center at high noon. 

• Details emerge about the again indictments against the Clay County Sheriff.

• Related: A citizen journalist trying to cover the Sheriff's arrest had her phone ripped from her and thrown on a building. A "local Henrietta businessman", who is no stranger to Clay County politics, was arrested by a constable as a result. Clay County is wild. 
  
• "Buster" of Dave & Buster's has died, apparently due to suicide. Police were called to his Lakewood Home two days ago.  “Buster Corley had a stroke four months ago that caused severe damage to the communication and personality part of his brain,” Corley’s daughter Kate Corley told WFAA.

• Tucker Carlson decided to use a life threatening injury to spread COVID vaccine misinformation and doubt last night.  He's not alone. These people are all around you. Amazing. 

• The Texas Comptroller just casually dropped on Twitter yesterday than the budget surplus in Texas will be over $27 billion.  How does everyone not understand that this is proof positive we are being over-taxed?

• A faithful reader pointed out to me yesterday that my bullet point about the Denton couple who had twins born in different years actually involved a mother, Kali Jo Scott, who went or graduated from Decatur High School.

• Fun fact: Almost everyone in the country is closer to a National Park than Wise County.

• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

I'm not sure how I got mentioned in this Letter to the Editor ten years ago, but it's sobering to realize he's still in a federal prison. 

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• An NFL player is fighting for his life this morning after a hit on the field caused his heart to stop.
  
  
  
• He just fell over backwards after the collision after initially getting to his feet. 
  
  
  
• I don't recall a game ever being suspended due to an injury.  And the NFL is denying that it initially issued an edict to give the teams "five minutes to stretch" and then to resume play. In all fairness, on the broadcast Joe Buck did say there would be a five minute delay, but he didn't say anything about that coming from the NFL office. This is what the NFL issued after about an hour last night:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We probably should all be ashamed that we watch and support football. From CTE to destroyed and crippled knees to a player on the verge of dying. They are simply now too big and too fast. I saw someone posted this last night and it fits perfectly:
  
  
  
• I used to harp on this all the time. This is from Random Thoughts on July 29, 2014:
  
  
  
• But, admittedly, it has happened before. 
  
  
  
• This is your reminder that the owners have a arbitrary and self-imposed "salary cap" in place. Hamlin was drafted in the sixth round in last years draft, given the option of playing for only the Bills, and was offered a basically non-negotiated contract that pays him $825,000 this year. 
• For Troy Aikman to make $18 million a year to speak on TV, he basically sat moot last night as all of this was going down. Joe Buck, on the other hand, was great.  (Here is the first 4:00 minutes from the broadcast, post-injury, with the commercials edited out.) 
• Man, Clay County, and especially its Sheriff, is a mess.  "Clay County Sheriff Jeff Lyde was arrested on three new charges of official oppression at about 7 p.m. Monday, according to online information from the Clay County Jail. Lyde was indicted on the new charges, and Texas Rangers had been seeking to arrest him " As of last night, the indictments were still "sealed" so we don't know what the specific allegations are. 
  
  
  
• Sounds like what I speculated about might be true. 
  
  
  
• The Republicans are a mess as they try to elect a House Speaker.  Rep. Kevin McCarthy has wanted the job for years, but he doesn't have enough votes -- a vote which happens today. If he doesn't get it on the first ballot, they keep voting. I keep seeing that "multiple votes hasn't happened in over 100 years."
  
  
  
• Four defecting Republicans will sink him. Five are firm no's, and even the following nine are in the "unlikely" camp: 
  
  
  
• Fun fact from over in Denton. 
  
  
  
• TCU is a 13.5 underdog to Georgia. That seems about right, but there's no way I'd bet against them.