Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I got jumped by the neo-cons on here on Monday for saying, in a tongue in cheek fashion, that "I missed Saddam".  (I kind of long for the days when Iraq was stable and people weren't being blown to bits on a weekly basis.)  Last night Donald Trump one upped me by praising Saddam for torturing and murdering people who he considered, by his definition, to be terrorists.
• Snoop Dogg will headline the Democratic National Convention. If the Republicans are thinking Lee Greenwood, Charlie Daniels, Toby Keith, or any one of the thousand of Bro Country bands (singing about trucks, beer, creeks, fence posts, etc.), this race is over. 
• Get ready: Baton Rouge police executed a black man while he was restrained on the ground. Video. Protests have begun.
• I posted the other day about Walter Lynn, the former KLIF talk show host, who had essentially become homeless after plummeting into alcoholism. He's been located and now staying with his brother. But I'm not sure what I think about the "Go Fund Me" page for him which has appeared. Interestingly, yesterday the goal was $25,000 but now it is $5,000. This morning, $961 has been raised.
• Someone called Wordkyle out yesterday by saying that every criminal case has an element of intent. That is 100% wrong. Criminally negligent homicide has no element of intent. DWI has no culpable mental state at all. 
• I want to travel with just a backpack.
• There's a 17 year old Plano baseball star who had signed with Oklahoma State who now sits in jail after allegedly sexually assaulting two young kids. One of the children, age five, said she recalled being assaulted all the way back to age three. That should send off warning signs to the investigators. (And since he's 17, he's an adult for criminal purposes so everyone knows his name -- guilty or not. Maybe if he clears his name he can buy a beer in over three years.)
• I don't fly that often but I'm not changing planes to get to a destination.
• The Austin American Statesman has released its Pre-Season college football poll. It begins (1) Ohio State, (2) TCU, (3) Alabama, (4) Baylor.  Is everyone drunk in Austin? Baylor is the biggest wildcard I've ever seen, and TCU probably isn't in the top fifteen.
• A North Carolina couple is charged with assaulting each other with pizza rolls. It may be no big deal (and maybe not even true) but at least the book-in photo looks like two people charged with such a heinous crime.
• Should I see a psychiatrist if I want to kill that annoying Progressive Insurance gal?
• I'm probably wrong, but I get this weird vibe about the SMU cop who is missing after his car was found in Turtle Creek.  There is grainy video footage showing him exiting his car before it went into the creek although it is presumed that he was swept away. But the media reports use weird phrases like he "reportedly" was drowned, his body hasn't been found, his identity has not been released, he "calmly" reported rising water after he called 311 instead of 911, and it wasn't even the lead story last night. Like I said, I'm probably wrong about having the weird vibe. (That, my friends, is covering all basis.)