Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• We've got a rare exploding vape pen death in Fort Worth. I've heard that malfunctions occur when someone tries to modify/trick up the pen and/or battery, but we don't know what happened here. Something doesn't sound right for one of the millions of those things out there just to "explode." Sad deal, though.

                                                       

• Hey, Phil, you might want to separate the two issues next time:
  
  
• Super Bowl halftime pic vs. Guy doing a bit. 
  
• Junior was at the stock show in Fort Worth with this girlfriend and former Fox News host. (No word on whether any of his five kids were with him.) And get off the phone!
  
• The New York Times had a glowing article on the Permian Basin yesterday with not even a hint that oil production will slow down. 
  
• Super Bowl Expert Analysis: Since when does an inept offense automatically mean it was a great defensive performance? The Rams offense, #1 for the season, was horrible. And the Pats offense, #4 for the season, was also horrible. The Patriots were simply less horrible than the Rams. 
• Who could have been surprised by the Axios story that Trump spends 60% of his time in "Executive Time" which basically means watching cable news? We all knew that.
  
• Dear Morning News and Star-Telegram: Why does it take forever for any page to load, and why does it never seem to stop downloading crap even when the text finally shows up?
• Houston, Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee claims that he chased a burglar out of his home with a gun (which "misfired") around 6:00 a.m. Monday morning. "The thief made off with valuables worth millions of dollars, including art and jewelry, according to police." That's odd. Buzbee is also running for the mayor of Houston, claims a girlfriend destroyed $300,000 of art last year (including a painting by Andy Warhol), once parked a World War II tank outside of house and, as a regent for aTm, fired off a lengthy Facebook post after a football game which was the beginning of the end for coach Kevin Sumlin.
• Troy Aikman said this morning that he wasn't in the NFL 100 commercial because he didn't "want to stay in Los Angeles" for another 48 hours to film his part. Sheesh.  But at least he now regrets turning it down. (Side note: Scroll down this article to see a list of everyone in the commercial and how it came together.)
• This is from Queens, New York. That graffiti is so white that I'm offended as a white person. 
  
• How's the investigation going on the "voter fraud" list in Wise County? We have full time employees in the voter office so we should have an answer soon. And if a person does not respond to the letter sent, that's not enough to "confirm" they are an illegal alien who ended up on the voter list. That's accusing a person of a crime, and you'll need more than that. That should simply go down as "not confirmed."  (And it would be interesting to know the last time a person who did not respond voted. That's readily available information which is public.)
• "If I could ask Nancy Pelosi one thing it would be: 'If you die, do you believe you will go to Heaven?'" - Hal Jay on WBAP, and out of the blue, this morning.
• Trump is going to have some kid in the audience at the State of the Union has been bullied by schoolmates because he has the last name of "Trump".  If I'm that kid's parent, there is no way I would subject him to that. 
• I hadn't heard anything about this attack on the cover of the newspaper below, but it brought back to mind a story I had completely forgotten about: A girl who attended college in Waxahachie and moved to New York became a nationally known when she was the victim of a similar but much worse attack in 1986. Wikipedia entry and Texas Monthly story (from 1993.)