11.19.2016

If You Voted For Him, You Own Him

What was said at Hamilton. Good, lord, what is wrong with this?:

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The Most Epic Game In Decatur High School History

Decatur loses 82-73.  (Even made the Ticket's Ticker this morning.)

Sidenote: "Along with the win, Gerber [Levelland's quarterback] broke the Texas High School single-season passing touchdown record of 71 previously held by Shelton Eppler of Navasota, which he set in the state title game in 2014. It took Eppler 16 games to set his record, while Gerber — now at 73 total — surpassed the mark in 12 games.



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11.18.2016

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.




 I didn't mean get out of here that fast.
 "Dear Barry, You are so funny on Liberally Lean"
Sorry, Scarlett, the feeling isn't universally shared.
 Wise County Hillary supporters this week.
 It's the roof. The roof. It's the roof that's on fire.
 Democrats hearing about the Jeff Sessions appointment.
Closing time.
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From Bridgeport

Story.

Edit later in the day: On the issue of tolerance for someone different than you, whether it be on race or religion, we all got what we expected in the comments. sheesh. Remind me to do a poll asking whether the Comment Section actually reflects the views held by Wise Countians.


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Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • There has been a problem with the comments since for the first time in a long time some have been going to my Spam folder.  Lately I've needed a "Dumber Than Dirt" folder.
  • One of the clubs in question is Dakota's Dixie Rose Cabaret in Abilene which, if I were to take a wild guess, no reasonable guy would believe the girls worked there:
  • Some sent me a link to an article on the tweeting Texas Supreme Court judge who I've dogged before and called it "Barry bait." That's funny. And I took it. My gripe with him is not about his intellect, it's that I think he runs a constant political campaign when he should be working. And does the government pay for his phone and/or his phone bill?
  • And that article was fantastic as it analyzed his judicial philosophy. He might really be an activist judge but a right wing activist judge hiding behind a series of dad jokes and an "aw shucks" persona.
  • I was right about the general location of the most conservative Trump county in Texas by percentage. But Wise County was right on its heels: 
  • And the video has some great interviews but none greater than the guy pictured. He thought Trump had been "talking out of his ass" but still voted for him.  Once again, his voters didn't take him literally, they took him seriously. 
  • Right now, UT's Charlie Strong has the worst winning percentage in Longhorn history (22nd out of 22 coaches). And if he splits the last two games, which is said will save his job, he will still be in last place. 
  • Rev. Robert Jeffress is in the headlines again. This time for calling someone else, in Christian love no doubt, "nothing but a thug." 
  • Trump having Mitt Romney up to the Trump Tower is really confusing. If I were Romney, who berated Trump to no end during the election, I would be fearful that I'm being called in to to get ambushed with a  chewing out and then told to see the door.
  • A legal bomb that only appellate lawyers will appreciate happened yesterday at the Supreme Court. The Court had agreed to hear an antitrust case brought to the court by Visa. Briefs had been submitted and it was set for oral arguments in a couple of weeks. The court yesterday summarily dismissed it without warning for what amounted to a "bait and switch" trick by the lawyers and the court didn't seem too happy about it. I'd hate to make that phone call to Visa. (And the lawyer ultimately responsible has one heck of a resume -- even appearing on The Colbert Report and in House of Cards playing himself.)
  • The subject of my post a couple of days ago about the accidental invitation by a grandma to a guy for Thanksgiving dinner made  NBC Nightly News last night. They are actually getting together for Thanksgiving. 
  • The radio station The Edge is no more. It had become nothing but a shadow of what it used to be when it hit the scene in the late 1980s  playing alternative rock that none of us had ever heard. And it was fantastic. Here's a playlist from 1992. 
  • The punch of the woman by the cop in Flagstaff is beyond shocking. He, as he should be, will be gone. It was a perfect example that force needed to be used but only reasonable force. Slugging a gal who is being restrained ain't it.  
  • Did Halloween somehow bring to an end all of the clown sightings?
  • There were at least two commentators on here yesterday who believe Trump won the popular vote. Think about that.

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11.17.2016

What Was Going On Here?



I can't find any backstory so maybe it's just as simple as a teacher being mean. But teachers aren't generally mean, and they certainly aren't mean in front of a room of parents.

The kid before the last one said, "Thank you for coming." Was that the end of the play and the last kid didn't have a line at all and just wanted to speak into the mic? Still a power move by the teacher.
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The Only Mannequin Challenge I've Enjoyed




That is one well trained dog.
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Deer vs. Runner: Who Ya Got?


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Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




  • On Friday night, there will be 132 Texas high school playoff games. (And that doesn't include six man football.)
  • A couple of years back I went to the Death Star to watch some high school playoff games and saw my first six man game. It was the greatest open field tackling ever. It has to be.
  • Has there ever been a six man player become a well known college player in Texas?
  • A guy who fell into hot spring in Yellowstone last June and died actually "dissolved"? That looks like fake news but appears to be real. 
  • There was the equivalent of a Fog Bowl college game on ESPN2 last night.  That's a close up of fans on the other side of the field.
  • Twitter is banning some alt-right accounts. They are not pleased. Hey, I thought you boys loved the free market?
  • Mark Davis on Twitter last night: "Someone tell Megyn [Kelly] that a book release is not good time to say silly things that dent her already waning likability." Should she lie to sell books?
  • I wonder if Wise County's "Freedom Texas" group, which promotes seceding, will now disband because of the Trump Election. 
  • Rick Perry is now being considered for head of the Department of Agriculture.  That's the department he could not remember and wanted to eliminated during his Oops Moment.
  • Also in the news was Trump's possible proposal of a Muslim Registry. Why stop there? How about Hispanics? Koreans? And those French haven't been real friendly over the years. Let's add them. Sheesh. So how did a spokesman for a Trump SuperPAC justify it on Megyn Kelly's show last night?: "We've done it based on race, we've done it based on religion, we've done it based on region," he said. "We've done it with Iran back — back a while ago. We did it during World War II with Japanese."
  • I exchanged direct messages with Kevin Von Erich on Twitter last night. I was almost giddy. He told me his senior year in high school that his team, Lake Dallas, beat Bridgeport 14-12.
  • This morning: Jobless claims fall to 43 year low and housing starts reach a 9 year high. Think back eight years ago.
  • Finally, FBC of Dallas' Robert Jeffress is being called on the carpet for all his crazy non-Christian comments over the years.  The Ticket's Corby Davidson even casually referred to him as a "lunatic" the other day and caught no blowback.
  • If in fact 20 billion barrels of oil was just discovered in West Texas, won't that drive oil prices down even if it's in the ground? Or does a supply not yet tapped have no impact at all?

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11.16.2016

Grandma Gets Wrong Guy In Text Group





I'm going to assume this is true because we all need a little racial harmony.
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Iowa Woman Livestreams Her Rant At Police Officers

Link.

That lady is crazy.
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Above The Fold


Readable full page.
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Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • Abilene Christian University expelled a student for putting on a "black face" with red lipstick in a Snapchat video. It's a private university so no one can have an issue with kicking the gal out.
  • For years on here I've been ridiculed for allowing racist comments for the purpose of exposing that racism still exists. I would be told, "Racism is dead" 
  • Of course the majority of Trump voters aren't racist. But there is no question that his election has emboldened those who are. And there are far more of them than we want to admit to.
  • I went on the Texas Secretary of State's office to see how close to the top Wise County's 86% vote for Trump was to leading the state. There was not easy graphic to find out but Jack County beat us with 89%. I'm guessing there are at least two counties between here and Amarillo that are 90% or more. 
  • I think he kept it too close to his ear . . .
  • I mentioned the other day that Trump will have huge (pronounced "yuuuge") conflicts of interest and cited the new Trump hotel in D.C. as an example. I learned yesterday that (1) The federal government actually owns the hotel's building so the federal government, which he will be in charge of, makes him his own landlord, and (2) There are no financial conflict of interest laws that apply to the President. Good lord.
  • "Fake news" was in the real news yesterday. I love that a guy who comments on here regularly cites InfoWars.com and Alex Jones to prove me wrong.  We might have a serious problem in this country with a generation raised on the Internet has no no meaningful skills to discern the truth. 
  • The Secret Service has the obligation to keep Trump Tower in New York safe just as any other president's residential home. Man, what a daunting task. There are shops in there. (Cue the orchestra music: I went in it one time in the 1990s.) And that obligation to protect won't end in four years -- they will have to protect it for the rest of his life. 
  • Horrible incident at Oklahoma City's airport where a Southwest Airlines employee was killed. He was the punter on OU's 1985 championship team. He also had one son in pro football and two daughters who play sports at Oklahoma. 
  • You guys realize there are actually people out there who think Trump will build a wall (he promised), deport every illegal alien (he promised), wipe out ISIS (he promised) and will implement a Muslim ban (he promised), right? And those people were enough to tip the election to him. And he knew it. The old phrase of "crazy like a fox" describes him to no end. 
  • The college football selection committee is doing a bit until its final selection when they will get it right. 
  • Bill O'Reilly got all pissy yesterday on CBS saying Megyn Kelly is making Fox News "look bad" by talking about the sexual aggressiveness of Roger Ailes. That is the definition of tone deaf. 
  • Is HBO paying the Ticket to talk about Westworld all the time?
  • I repeat from time to time that when I die I want to be cremated with my ashes, mixed with glitter and confetti, shot out of a cannon from the Wise County Courthouse bell tower. It is a running fun bit in Green Manor,  and I've almost convinced them I'm serious. (For clarification: I am.)
  • Criminal Justice dream: We require juries of 24 people who must be unanimous. Why would anyone object to this?
  • I've heard everything said about Tony Romo's press conference, and I agree. But I'll add two things: (1) It was really, really weird -- at least weird for him. (2) It was a PR genius move. 
  • The Grand Prairie teacher who was fired once it was learned he had said online he was "capable" of a "Sandy Hook like" shooting was found guilty yesterday by a criminal court and fined $500.  What he said is disturbing and should keep him from being a teacher, but there is no way that the First Amendment allows the government to criminally punish him for what he said. It was not an imminent threat. It was only disturbing and offensive. And the government can't criminalize speech that is only disturbing or offensive. 

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11.15.2016

Maybe We Should All Calm Down And Watch A Dog


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Have We Secretly Gone Back In Time?




I hope there's more to this.


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Let's Check In On The Temperature Of The Country


That was one violent hit.

(Was the crowd chanting "Shame!" like in Game of Thrones at the end?)

Story from Ohio State University student newspaper.
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Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • There was lots of discussion yesterday about "fake news" stories (or at least their headlines) which were rapidly passed around Facebook and Twitter and even published by Google News over the last few months.  They were both on the left and the right. And I've even seen some people even regurgitate the false reports in the comments here. The frightening thing is that the fake news is so easy to spot. 
  • What happened to the big sign at Grace Baptist in Decatur? It looks like it was destroyed and cleaned up (right around the same time as street construction was going on all around it.) 
  • Lakewood's Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas has basically split from the governing Baptist organizations by voting yesterday to grant full membership to LGBT. Here's a question: What happens if an openly gay guy professes Christ as his savior and asks for membership in a Wise County Baptist Church which is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention?
  • I should have known about the possibility of Trump's victory when I talked to a client who lives in New Jersey two weeks ago and he told me, "I can't believe she might win."  Did I mention he was from New Jersey?
  • Mark Davis said on his radio show that he had to stop himself four or five times over the weekend to remind himself that Trump won.  I have finally reached common ground with the man. 
  • Trump weighs in this morning on the "you didn't win the popular vote" narrative.
  • Side note: Did he mean Texas instead of Florida?
  • Hypnotized?
  • John Battaglia is back in court to determine if he is mentally competent to be executed. (Writing that feels really weird.)  It was a horrific crime that occurred near Deep Ellum -- and right along the path of the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. And death row has aged him: 

  • One of my many ex-wives was fascinated with that case.
  • With the Texas Legislature about to fire back up, it's time to remember that Bedford Rep. Jonathon Stickland is crazy. 
  • I wonder what BagOfBaylorHate BagOfNothing thinks about the recent "success" of private Baylor University. 
  • Rudy Giuliani is the rumored first pick for Secretary of State? Sid Miller for Agricultural Secretary?  Now that should be fake news.
  • Executive Decision (much like Die Hard) is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. It was on this week, and I recalled that one of the stars was Marla Maples -- ex-wife of Donald Trump.
  • Shout out to the guy who chewed me out yesterday for not giving a "spoiler alert" before I "ruined" the ending of twenty six year old Presumed Innocent. Quality comedy.

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11.14.2016

RIP Reporter Guy


Dick Oliver (right) was part of one of the greatest viral videos in history when he got into it with an anchor. He has passed away.

P.S. How long before Fox 4's Steve Eagar starts acting like the guy on the left?


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"Uh, I Thought You Paid The Bill"


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Watch A Police Chief Speed



"And you won't believe what happens next!"  Well, not exactly.

In dashboard camera video taken Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, Brinkley Police Chief Ed Randle, is seen being stopped by an Arkansas State Police trooper after reportedly traveling at speeds that approached 100 mph. He was not issued a speeding citation.
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Frankie The Amatuer Weatherman Predicted New Zealand's Earthquake


Published October 21st:




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Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • My head is spinning after seeing Trump on 60 Minutes. I keep hearing the words "softening his stance" this morning. Folks, we have no idea what we have gotten. 
  • And someone needs to take away his Twitter account:
  • If there is no directive, may a person be cremated after death? Who decides?  
  • I told you it was not out of the question that OU makes the final four. They crept closer this weekend.
  • Nothing stops me down as much as when I hear someone use the phrase "speaks volumes."
  • Buried in the Messenger this week was a story about Wise County taking over maintenance of what is the equivalent of the long driveway going out to NRS on 287. One of the justifications was that it needed to be done before TxDOT would ever build a bridge over 287 at that location. You kidding me? There is no way there will be a bridge there nor is there any need for it. We've got a death trap along 287 at 1810 and there is no bridge there.
  • Who is leaving the Fort Worth Court of Appeals? That has to be the age reference. 
  • Presumed Innocent, after all these years, is still really great if you are in the criminal justice business. It starts with a prosecutor saying if you don't have the courage to point at a defendant then how can you expect a jury to have the courage to convict. And the judge at one point tells the jury just because the State says it is so doesn't make it so (my favorite moment). It ends with the judge entering a verdict of not guilty because no "reasonable juror" would be able to do so -- the correct legal standard.
  • In a little watched college game, the coach of the university of Hawaii had the benches removed from his sideline during halftime. He didn't think his players even earned the right to sit down.
  • I hate the Mannequin Challenge. 
  • If someone condescendingly says, "We live in a Republic, not a Democracy!" I'm guessing that's about the only thing they know about government. 
  • I haven't ranted about Dennis Prager in a while but on Friday during his very odd "Happiness Hour" he told his listeners to never be as high as a 10 because you'll get as low as a 0. Instead, we should never go higher than a 7 or lower than a 3. He's a simpleton. 
  • This actually makes sense. That "pastor" has lost his way.
  • There was a crazy Saturday Night Live skit in 2015 which actually involved the real Donald Trump and his proposals (complete with a fake Mexican president handing him a check for The Wall.) It's almost like he didn't believe he would ever win. And I'm not sure he did at the time. I'm still not sure he completely believes it now.
  • Shout out to the former Decatur resident and former member of the Baylor Board of Regents. Decatur High has a very, very good kicker with a great academic standing. Baylor will need a kicker. (Assuming we will able to get close enough to try a field goal.) You still have connections?
  • A story which was well covered but not talked about enough was the JV football player from Joshua who died after a "hard hit." Man, I'd be scared to have sons who play football.

  •                            
  • Some say that the Clinton photo from Friday of her just happening to run into someone in the woods was staged. I bet it was. 

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