Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• This is wild. That Dallas firefighter on the left had that wall collapse on him this morning and it was caught on video. 
  
• With the Astros cheating scandal in the news, I saw this (admittedly unscientific) poll yesterday. How in the world does anyone vote "yes"? Then again, it's probably a safe bet that one out of every three people will cheat you if it benefits them. 
  
• There will come a day when people are transported by automated drones which avoid collisions and land you safely in a pre-designated spot.  And that generation will look back on how we got around today and will think it was just as insane as using a wagon to travel west in the 1800s. Just look at these simultaneous screen shots of northbound Central and westbound I-30 by Dallas this morning. 
  
  
  
  
• Someone told me about this book yesterday which is self-published by a Decatur resident. From the description, I think I could categorize it as historical fiction -- a genre which I've really come to like especially when it's about Texas.
  
• A former firefighter was given probation by a jury in Tarrant County yesterday after he pled guilty in an Intoxication Manslaughter case which killed a six month old. Probated sentences in those case are rare but they can happen. Here you had a firefighter with no criminal history. And he did one other key thing: He pled guilty before the jury.  (He'll have to serve 120 days in the county jail as a condition of the probation.)  He could have received 2 to 20 years in prison and would have had to have served at least half the time period of the actual sentence. If any of my buddies in Fort Worth can tell me what the plea bargain offer was that he turned down, I'd like to know. Whatever it was, his gamble paid off. And with a deceased six month old, it was a huge gamble.
  
• Dennis Prager making the news two days in a row.
  
• I don't know how right-wing political talk radio would exist without Relief Factor, the Franklin Mint, and My Pillow. 
• I referred to Sweetie Pies on the square the other day as "Matties." That earned me an Are-You-OK? look from the folks I was talking to. 
• Had to shake my heads at the boys on WBAP at this morning when Stubie Doak proclaimed the First Amendment only provides protection from the federal government and not local governmental entities. (6:14 a.m.) That could not be more incorrect. The entire crew sheepishly agreed with him because they amazingly didn't know any better. "I'm just trying to bring a little reality into this situation [we are discussing]," Doak's said. He might sometimes chime in with homophobic jokes on WBAP's morning show, but he decided to branch out into law this morning. Stay in your unfunny lane, bro. (Yep, I'm not a fan.)
  
• Kay Granger continues to be attacked by big bags of cash. Now the Super PAC Empower Texans (two rich guys out of West Texas) is throwing its weight around against her. The tweet below from this morning comes from the president of Empower Texans. But it also is very confusing because of his reference to bridges. Aren't their bridges everywhere that go over dry land? That just seems to be a strange way of attacking the Panther Island project.
  
• Narrator's voice: "He doesn't have that right." 
  
• I've teased and referenced a couple of times now that I had been contacted by NBC's Dateline about a Wise County criminal case they are interested in. You should get to find out what it is about, and why they would be interested in it, this weekend in the Star-Telegram. (I was certain the Wise County Messenger was going to cover it but I'm no longer sure.)
• I never understood the prosecution of this police officer . . .