12.31.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




    As 2012 began, there were stories everywhere that the Mayan Calendar predicted that the world 
would end that year. Update: It didn't.

  • It's New Year's Eve, the courthouse is closed, most businesses are shut down, the is no Update™, but the Hardest Working Man in Show Business™ is here to reproduce all the News That's Fit to Print™ because Democracy Dies in Darkness™. 
  • The fires near Boulder are wild in how fast they move in 100 mph winds.  One video I saw which gave you a great idea as to how people felt is this one where a crowd scrambled from inside a full Chuck E. Cheese. They could barely get the door open to leave (as I heard one guy in the background question whether is was a good idea to leave at all.)

  • If you need any more proof that Greg Abbott has seriously learned his lesson from the backlash from his COVID shutdowns, take note of how absolutely silent he is now. He's done with it.
    • You know, I had picked up on this conservative backlash from early on in 2021. I called it the "Rural Uprising" because I couldn't really put my finger on it. 
    • Anyway, the Texas numbers: 
      People in hospital

      New cases reported per day

  • Texas DPS might as well be a government funded PAC for Abbott's re-election campaign. All the agency's official Twitter account does is post accolades about Abbott. It's like they are both are part of a mob. "We will help you get re-elected so long as you keep making sure we are flooded with cash and gun boats.") Seriously, this is all very wrong. 

  • The Little Ball of Insurrection wasn't supposed to report to the hoosegow until January, but she went before Christmas. Speculation is that that, since she is writing a book, she'll now have a chapter about being in prison on Christmas Day.

  • Demolition has begun on the old Cullen Davis mansion in Fort Worth. Either you know the back story about it or you don't. 


  • Save this for later. 

    • By the way, it will be 64 degrees at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow when the cold front hits. It will then plummet to 21 degrees by Sunday morning. I'm serious. I don't do bits about the weather. (Put that on a throw pillow.)  
  • Kind of weird. 

  • I'll bet money this is a Russian Troll account. (I saw it because a Texas state rep tweeted it out asking if it was real). This is exactly how Russian disinformation works: The person isn't real, puts out a fake story about a hot button topic, and uses it to be politically divisive. And they are really, really good at it. 

    • And this was the dead giveaway for me:

  • Going into today, the S&P is up 27.2% for the year, and the Dow is up 22.1%. Those are staggering numbers. 

  • Since it is bowl season, I would like to remind you that the two greatest bowl comebacks of all time were by Big 12 teams: (1) TCU was trailing Oregon 31-0 at halftime in the 2016 Alamo Bowl but somehow came back to win it in overtime. (Oregon lost it's quarterback at the end of the second quarter.) (3) The other was by the Red Raiders. It was also a 31 point comeback, and it occurred in the 2006 Insight Bowl when Tech fell behind Minnesota by a score of 38–7 with under seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. They fought back, tied it with a last second field goal, and won it in overtime, 


  • The SEC is now 1-5 in bowl games. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 910 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:36 AM

12.30.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




I wish I had a 10 year update on the goats.  That is, assuming they are still alive. Google just gave me conflicting information on the lifespan of goats.



  • It's definitely back in Texas now:
    New cases

    Hospitalizations

  • So it wasn't that 14 year old that killed three people in the Garland convenience store, but a different 14 year old who is the alleged killer and is now on the run. And the dad of that 14 year old was the alleged getaway driver. This is wild. 


  • Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted yesterday, and it seems like every time I turn around I see a picture I hadn't seen before where she pops up in it. 

    • And I don't know how Fox News puts Alan Dershowitz on to talk about the case without disclosing he was Epstein's lawyer in Florida and has been to Epstein Island on Epstein's jet. 

    • The BBC forgot that disclosure yesterday and had to issue this: 

       
  • Two stories in the news got my attention, so I decided to do a Wise County Jail search:
    • Story 1: Guy was all over Twitter bragging about making a fortune trafficking in the 19 legal weed states. (Yep, it's a real story.)

    • Story 2: Rich guys are in the Dallas Morning News today bragging about making a fortune on legal hemp in Texas.

    • So I wondered if anyone was sitting in jail right now in Wise County because of having less than two ounces of weed? Yep. One girl has been there for 56 days.

  • So being a jerk on Christmas to the President qualifies you for public office these days? (Oh, and while he's checking in with God, he might want to ask Him what He thinks about that "Let's go Brandon" thing.)

  • I'm not an art guy, but this painting of "Wounded Knee Massacre" stopped me down yesterday, especially when I read some of the artists comments. "The design gives the impression of an open grave with a structure-like tombstone of soldiers", and "bodies like human red flame" and ". . . the curvilinear movements of Indian bodies below the ground level contrast to the static vertical movements of the white soldiers in a group above the ground level. . . ."

    • Wait. Did I just engage in "Critical Race Theory"? Is the blog now going to be banned or burned? 
  • Kind of a bizarre sight last night watching an OU receiver score without a helmet. They called the TD back because you are "out of play" once your helmet comes off. It didn't really matter: Sooners rolled 47-32.

  • Decatur PD has a sweet '54 Plymouth they were promoting a couple of days ago, but I'm a little curious about that contraption in the background. 

  • Oh, that photo . . . 

at 8:33 AM

12.29.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts





It was pretty wild in Williamson County. Michael Morton had just been exonerated when DNA of the real killer was found on a red bandana. So someone started pinning red bandana's to the incumbent DA's re-election signs. (He had fought the DNA testing)  He would go on to lose the election to challenger Jana Duty. But things kept getting darker.  Duty would be behind the false conviction of a high school kid which would be documented in Showtime's Outcry. Duty would later kill herself in a condo in Rockport in 2016.

  • Remember the 14 year old arrested for the triple murder of three teenagers at the Garland convenience store? Well, never mind. 

  • Juries are still deliberating in the  Ghislaine Maxwell and Elizabeth Holmes cases. 


  • Hot sports opinion: John Madden (R.I.P.) might have been entertaining to almost everyone (I think I might be the only guy in America who was beaten down by him to no end), but he broadcast in an era where everyone got a pass on obvious errors. Case in point: In 1995, Cowboy's coach Barry Switzer decided to famously go for it on 4th down late in the game against the Eagles. Emmitt Smith ran the ball and was stopped short, but the officials ruled that the two minute warning had hit before the snap of the ball so the play didn't count. All that was true. But Madden ranted to a national audience that because the officials did not blow their whistles before the ball was snapped that they couldn't stop the play even if the play began after the clock hit 2:00. (They had blown the whistle a split second after the ball was snapped but the players didn't hear it.) Madden was completely wrong, and he just made that rule up on the fly. Video is cued up here.  (And, yes, I know it didn't matter in the long run because the Cowboys insanely went for it again and were stopped again.)
    Ref sees clock hit 2:00 minute warning mark
    Ref running in and now blowing whistle.


  • Weather talk.

  • I know you're either vaccinated and are confident, or unvaccinated and willing to risk it, but be careful out there. It's back. 


  • The "lady" who slapped the 80 year old man on a flight for not wearing a mask had been on Baywatch and in Playboy. 

  • What if a parent objects to the Bible being in the library? "Under [Oklahoma] Senate Bill 1142, if just one parent objects to a book it must be removed within 30 days. If it is not, the librarian must be fired and cannot work for any public school for two years. Parents can also collect at least $10,000 per day from school districts if the book is not removed as requested."

  • Random Photo #1: The football equipment manager for Arizona State University in Las Vegas for the bowl game posted a picture of he and his very pregnant girlfriend getting married by Elvis last night. 

  • Random  Photo #2: The University of Houston's coach posted this after winning the Birmingham Bowl and arriving back home with the very crazy looking trophy.

  • Tech beat its old coach last night and sent the SEC to 0-4 in bowl games. (Tech impressed me to no end against Baylor in the last regular season game of the year.) Hot sports opinion: Bowl games are good. Let's have as many as we can. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold 

at 8:29 AM
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