Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Two days ago I was jogging and got dive bombed by a big black bird. I never it saw it coming as it smashed into my back (but it didn't use its beak or claws.) Scared me to death. As I returned to running, I looked around for the expected visual: Yep, a different injured bird about ten yards ahead. 
• The Dallas Morning News did a preview of the quarterback competition this Fall at TCU and didn't mention Decatur's Grayson Muehlstein despite mentioning two other incoming freshmen. 
• "Tour buses for Styx and Foreigner go up in flames". Tragedy or blessing?
• The lead item in the Update is about a guy who agreed to a 45 year sentence in a plea bargain. He'll have to serve half of that before even becoming eligible for parole. For a non-murder case, that's about as long of an agreed sentence as I've ever seen in Wise County. I can't think of a longer one. 
• As my last trial as Wise County DA was about to begin in 2000, my assistant walked up to me and said, "His attorney just told me he'd agree to 30." I remember looking at her somewhat stunned and saying, "Don't tell me you want to turn that down."   She didn't. Deal done. 
• I said earlier this week that John Wiley Price should tell the Feds who wanted to meet with him to take a flying leap. Yesterday, he did just that. 
• We've have two little girls from Mrs. LL side of the family stay with us all week. Tranquility, now! Edit: We now have proof that Seinfeld was on a long time ago and that I'm getting senile. Yes, it was "Serenity, now!"
• The folks that turned away that bus of immigrants being transferred to California should be ashamed of themselves. Such hatred. 
• Target doesn't want people carrying guns, concealed or not, in their stores. If you think Hobby Lobby has the right not to be compelled to offer certain kinds of contraception, you should have no problem with Target not wanting deadly weapons on its private property. 
• Mavericks: It was comical that Cuban even thinks he can entice a top tier free agent to come to Dallas (he hosted Carmelo Anthony last night.) Cuban inherited one of the top 10 scorers in NBA history. Of those ten guys, only one was not able to win an NBA title. And Cuban was only able to get one out of Dirk due to lack of support. 
• Hurricane Arthur is getting way too much press for such a wimpy hurricane. 
• Maybe the reason for the influx of children from Central America: They learned we have a lot of air-conditioning. I'd swim the Rio Grande for that.
• A 36 year old Denton High choir director received 10 years probation by a plea bargain in Denton yesterday after pleading guilty to an "improper relationship" with a 17 year old student. That's probably fair. He's been embarrassed to the Nth degree and the case will follow him forever via Google. (And it probably didn't help the criminal case that the parents of the girl sued the school in an attempt to get rich.)
• I ordered this print of LBJ and Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas for my office. I'm intrigued by it because I've listened to some of LBJ presidential phone calls and the man would just strong arm folks to death. And I didn't know near enough about Fortas until I did a little research. He was the lead lawyer in the "right to counsel" case, Gideon v. Wainwright, at the Supreme Court before later joining the court. He resigned after four years due to an ethics scandal involving a prior contract he had signed which paid him $20,000 a year for life for unspecified advice. 
• Late edit: Hey, Wordkyle, the unemployment rate was just announced at 6.1% and the DOW just cracked 17,000.