2.13.2015

Random Friday Morning Thoughts






  •  A Texas Senate committee approved bills yesterday allowing concealed handgun license holders to carry guns on college campuses and to otherwise not require them to be concealed as required by existing law. How is this such a priority in this state? (But some testified in opposition: "[T]here were several survivors of the 1966 UT Tower shooting, including . . .  Claire Wilson, who began her testimony with a jarring declaration: 'I was the first one shot in the Whitman massacre.'” Although I'm not sure what a nutcase with a rifle has to do with the open carry of a handgun.)
  • The Fake Tarrant County DA Sharen Wilson twitter account has already disappeared. 
  • There's a home on the market north of Decatur on FM 730 for $5.2 million?
  • Lots of coverage of New York Times media critic David Carr's death in the newsroom yesterday.  I'll admit that as much as I love the media and coverage of the media, I'm really not that familiar with him. 
  • Mrs. LL reminded me last night that I use to send her Valentine's Day flowers at the office on the 10th or the 11th "so I could enjoy them all week".  I told her that I had forgotten that as Every Female In The House looked at me with crossed arms. (In retrospect, I think I was just trying to scoreboard the other husbands.) 
  • The American Sniper Trial might makes us realize how screwed up our criminal justice system is. We might see a person who was undisputedly mentally ill but, because a jury determines that he knew "right" from "wrong" (actual legal terms), will be sentenced to live the rest of his life in a cage without the possibility of parole.  Think about that. In 2015, in the land of the free, our only solution to this complicated issue is to lock up someone like Eddie Ray Routh.
  • That case will become bogged down when mental health experts begin to testify that Routh was insane or not. They'll use terminology and mental health lingo that will sound impressive. But all of that may be trumped by the fact that Kyle texted that Routh was "nuts" as they drove to the shooting range. We all understand "nuts". 
  • There's a new independent report which, in addition to giving you Tired Head, confirms that former UT President Bill Powers basically let unqualified applicants into UT Law School so long as they had influential/powerful parents.  I could only think about a recent case brought by a white UT Law applicant that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where she claimed she was denied admission due to affirmative action. Hey, now we know just the opposite was true. It was White Power, not Black Power, that kept you out. 
  • WBAP's Hal Jay actually referred to speaking Spanish as "speaking Mexican" this morning. And even his right wing co-workers distanced from him on the air. 
  • The more I've thought about it, I am absolutely stunned how anyone thinks "Mama Bear" was protecting her child (who, unbeknownst to her, was sprawled out on the concrete behind her) when she attacked the guy who ran into her.