Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Overheard during criminal jury selection in Wise County this week: "I don't think we need to have a trial so long as there is one witness."
• All Peter King does on Twitter is link to articles on his own SI website and calls them a "great read", "fascinating read", or the "the best thing I've ever read on . . . ." 
• Watched a little bit of Bill O'Reilly last night and was hit with a NRA commercial. Why are they spending money preaching to the choir?
• Donald Trump will announce his VP choice on Friday. My dream choice would be pastor Robert Jeffress. After all, Jeffress said he would vote for Trump over Jesus because "the Sermon on the Mount was not given as a governing principle for this nation."
• "Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions. We encourage states to continue to fight this public menace and pledge our commitment to children's safety and well-being." - 2016 Republican Platform. Whenever you see someone having to invoke "the children" to make their argument, there's normally some substantive deficiency. 
• UT has now finalized their handgun rules. You can bring them on campus if (1) it's concealed and not open carried, (2) you have a CHL, (3) you can have a bullet in the chamber to give you one extra round, (4) you can't take it in an office without his permission of the "occupant" unless there are more than one occupant using the office whereby all you need is one occupant say it is OK to bring the weapon in, and  (5) you can't take your concealed weapon in a dorm. Got it? Sounds easy to understand and easy to enforce. Oh, and those rules only apply to the Austin campus. Campuses in Arlington, San Antonio, El Paso, etc. might have different rules.
• Heard at the courthouse yesterday: "I've got an idea for a Random Thought girl. Have you seen those pictures of girls who are topless but cover up by holding in front of them a big fish they've caught?"
• I had forgotten that President Obama called out Donald Trump at the 2011 Correspondents' Dinner: “But all kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example — no, seriously, just recently, in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice — at the steakhouse, the men’s cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didn’t blame Lil Jon or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled.”
• Republican National Convention speakers: Tim Tebow in. Sarah Palin out.
• The Fort Worth Mounted Patrol unit is heading to Cleveland today to help with security for the Republican National Convention. The only horses are 1,200 miles away?
• The SMU cop who reportedly was swept away in Turtle Creek has still not been found. (Someone yesterday compared the event to the flood in Wimberley where two children are still missing after over a year. I suppose if you want to compare the Blanco River rising by 36' and sweeping houses off their foundations to Turtle Creek rising after a brief downpour in Highland Park, you have a valid point.)
• I'm worried about our county records. The Update says who the jail inmate who died in early May died from methamphetamine usage. The official web site of Wise County shows that he entered a plea of no contest to a charge of Public Intoxication after his death. 
  
• Tonight: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is heading to the White House to participate in a televised town hall discussion on race relations with President Barack Obama. This has disaster written all over it for Patrick.
• Underrated town name: Lacy Lakeview.