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This made national news. He actually did get permanently kicked off the squad, but the Texas school denied it was for kissing a guy. However, they didn't state their reason.
- Thoughts on the Blue Origin "space" journey yesterday.
- I almost think it's cheating to call this "space travel." Someone accurately said yesterday that the flight's length of travel was the equivalent of going the distance of the width of two dimes held up against a typical school room globe.
- Then again, I wouldn't get in that rocket for a krillion dollars.
- Another analogy was that the Earth's atmosphere is no bigger than the skin around an apple. That makes it feel very fragile. William Shatner certainly felt that way.
- But one thing I'm absolutely in awe of is how the rocket comes back to Earth and lands straight up. I can't believe that is possible.
- I've always loved Shatner and am genuinely happy for the guy. The night before yesterday's trip, he was poking fun of his fantastic performance of Rocket Man in 1978 .
- The Big Lie has taken a strange twist. Not voting in order to own the Libs?
- This is wild out of Waco. The defendant was convicted of capital murder for a 2011 offense and sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the case in 2017. With a retrial scheduled for this month, the D.A.'s office filed a Motion for Continuance because, according to them, a key witness had recanted. The judge denied the request. The State then simply gave up and dismissed the case. The defendant walked out of jail yesterday after being locked up for over 10 years. (If you want to know how much the D.A.'s office trying to do damage control, their Motion for Dismissal was five pages long. It normally would be a one page pre-printed form.)
- Katie Couric has a new book. This revelation in it doesn't make her look good. And it puts the late RBG in a different light as well.
- The Wall Street Journal went after Baylor. The story is behind a paywall so I can't read it, but the lede reads, "Parents at Baylor University had the worst repayment rate for a type of federal loan called Parent Plus among private schools with at least a $1 billion endowment . . . ."
- This guy holds the position of "Political Director" for the Texas Republican Party.
- Cuban is making the news again as he ignores Gov. Abbott's edict. (Side note: Why in the world did ESPN's GameDay decide to use that guy as the "guest picker" for Texas/OU?)
- This slow embrace of the far right of the January 6th Insurrection should scare you to death. It is eerily becoming akin to the attempted coup of the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Germany on November 9, 1923. And that's not hyperbole.
- Oh, I don't know. Pay more?
- I love the Traces of Texas twitter account which posts old Texas photos. Yesterday, I learned this is what he looks like. (That's what I intend to look like when I retire and flee to the jungles of Costa Rica.)
- I've installed smart switches and have used smart outlets (with the simple plug-in adapter). Love them both. But yesterday I bought a package four smart bulbs. Holy cow. Easy to use and fantastic. I really don't have a need to change them to different colors or change the degree of brightness (and sure don't need it pulsating to music), but you can do it all on your phone. It's the timer option on all these devices that I love.
- Redistricting is the most important thing that happens in Austin, but I've learned no one really cares about it.
