Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• What a week: Gay marriage is legal. Obamacare lives. The confederate flag comes down. I wonder what Sarah Palin thinks about her rant from five years ago:  "How's that hopey, changey thing working out for ya?' 
• I've dogged Tarrant County DA Sharen Wilson to no end, but I'll give her huge credit for not interfering with the county clerk immediately issuing marriage licenses to gay couples on Friday. In fact, she instructed the clerk to issue the licenses to all people who "qualified" shortly after the decision. 
• With that decision by the Supreme Court, the U.S. leads the way on gay marriage. That's true until you realize we are the 23rd county to do so and even that freedom loving Mexico beat us to it by one week. 
• What are the chances of some people flying their U.S. flag upside down on the Fourth of July in protest? I'd put the odds at strong to quite strong. 
• Ted Cruz has not taken this well. On Friday he said it was “some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history.” (Think about that for a second. 9/11. Pearl Harbor. Gay marriage?) But he went further: “I am proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would subject each and every justice of the United States Supreme Court to periodic judicial retention elections,"
• Do they still have debutante balls? (I actually dated a girl once who was "honored" at one when she was a teenager. I'm as confused by that concept now as I was then.)
• I saw that Dez Bryant played in a celebrity softball/baseball game and did a backflip in the outfield. Dude! Think about that ACL and Achilles tendon! Since Bryant hasn't signed off on the Cowboys' franchise tag yet, the team could have withdrawn it if he had ended up in an ambulance. Once he agrees, it's guaranteed. The guy is a great player but a dumb one.  
• For some reason I wondered this weekend what ever happened to Patty Duke. That's a truly random thought. Turns out she's alive and well and actually appeared on an episode of Glee a couple of years ago.
• Joel Osteen was heckled during a sermon this weekend by members of  The Church of Wells. That name rang a bell with me. Quick research revealed this bullet point of mine from March of last year: "Fascinating story in last month's Texas Monthly. Basically a couple of ex-Baylor students take the Bible very literally and form what may or may not be a cult in Wells, Texas. In fact, that's the subtitle: 'When is a church a cult?' It's a fine line.'"
• I'm now in the painting phase of the Backstop Project. Full testing has not yet occurred since the Pitcher In The House was in a softball tournament. 
• Bullet point for an audience of one who shares my enjoyment of Supreme Court oral arguments: Listen or read this one regarding "prolonged detention" during a traffic stop and the use of a drug dog during a traffic stop. The lawyer for the defendant is beyond inept. Scalia went after him but then simply gave up because it was too easy.  But the lawyer did win the case because, as it almost always true, the facts ruled.