Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• What's up with these Jerusalem travel commercials showing clubs and pools? I'm kept waiting for the line of, "Come party in the Holy Land where Jesus walked!"
• You've got to read this "wrong person" theory presented by Ed Whelan on how the Kavanaugh accuser probably ID'd the wrong person -- a person who he identifies by name and posts his current photo. Whelan is going to get sued for defamation. (He's the President of the conservative "think tank" called the Ethics and Public Policy Center.) And, buddy, you don't avoid a lawsuit by defaming someone and then throwing this out: 
  
  
• Edit: He took it down this morning an apologized. "I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment." You can reconstruct what he said here.
• I mentioned once that my extended family was almost scammed by a call of "[name] is in jail in California and you need to send money to bond him out".  Scammers ramped up their game with an elaborate hoax on others by representing a family member had been kidnapped and ransom money was needed immediately. (I remember one happening in Southlake.)  Well, they actually caught one lady guilty of the crime near Houston and she got 88 months in federal prison yesterday.
  
• I asked yesterday if iPhones were the cause of the increase in teen suicides (a trend which began in 2007.) Someone had more insight: 
  
• You want far right wing conservative judges like Kavanaugh? The Fifth Circuit has ruled that prosecutors don't have to turn over evidence indicating a defendant is not guilty if the case results in a plea instead of a trial. You kidding me? (I've written about the case before where the guy is indisputably innocent.) The Fifth Circuit's ruling has no bearing on Texas state prosecutors, however, because of a Texas statute enacted after Williamson County destroyed Michael Morton's life. Texas prosecutors have to turn over that information up front.
  
• Not a bad idea: 
  
• Florida has one-upped Wise County's (late) Speedo Man found in the blog's header (If you don't watch the video in the link, a highlight was a female neighbor in support of him referring to the family "As the nicest people who would give you their clothes [she pauses to giggle] if he had any on.")(Credit for tip: Bridgeport Trump supporting emailer.)
  
• On "the first play from scrimmage" makes no sense. Research it. I thought it meant "on the first play since practice", but I don't believe that any longer. I also believe no one knows what that phrase means. 
• You hear about murder-for-hire cases that never get pulled off, but a successful one I had never heard of went down in Rowlett three years ago. Well, I guess it would have been successful but for the conviction:
  
• I believe this. He'll get crazier if the Democrats don't take the House. He will feel completely empowered.
  
• Ricki Lake turns 50 today. Heck, she was just a kid when she had her talk show in the 1990s. (Random brain trigger: What happened to fellow talk show host Jenny Jones?)
• In a horrifying video, Abilene redneck neighbors confront one another with guns and one ends up dead. Here it is edited for language -- it is more than tense.                                                                                                      

• Well, he just did it. He called her a liar.
  
• $487,000: The bonus that Ohio State assistant coach Ryan Day received for taking over the head coaching job during Urban Meyers three game suspension.