9.03.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




It's opening weekend of college football. Allow me to reminisce. It turned out OK:



  • Down 105.  Still more of a plateau than a trending decrease. (Somewhat locally, JPS went from 120 to 130 in a single day yesterday.)

  • The news/realization of the Texas Bounty Hunter Abortion Bill has really gone nationwide. It is such a crazy law that people can't believe it is real.  But it is. The government has authorized and incentivized private spies to seek out those who engage in conduct which is still constitutionally protected. It just has such a scary feel to it. 

  • I was curious as to who came up with this idea of having a law enforced by a private mob with $10,000 as a carrot.   A Washington Post article says it was the brainchild of some guy named Jonathon Mitchell who was expressly credited by the author of the bill, Sen. Bryan Hughes. Mitchell wrote a 94 page law review article for the University of Virginia in 2018 and the idea was buried in there (which I found.) 




    • That law review article, oddly enough, is available in pdf format on the official website of the United States Supreme Court of all places at www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2017/16-476/16-476-3.pdf . It's there because the article, The Writ-of-Erasure Fallacy, has been cited, according to my top-notch legal research skills, by the Court two times before. That may be a bad sign:

  • Here is Dale Hansen's big sign off from last night if you missed it. 

  • A spare Garland guy who was in debt opened up a half-arse HVAC school after figuring out you could dupe the government into paying for student tuitions from the GI Bill. He was able to con the government out of $72,480,225.03 (!!!) which he is now supposed to somehow pay back after he finishes his to-be-determined prison sentence. But he does have some assets which the government is taking right now. Thieves are historically the dumbest criminals there are. He wasn't exactly keeping his new found wealth on the down-low: 

  • The NFL is siding with the Dirty Libs again this season. 



  • I talked to someone at the Wise County Courthouse yesterday who actually visited the life-size replica of Noah's Arc in  Williamstown, Kentucky. You know which "animals" are the most featured in the re-creation of the inside of the arc? Dinosaurs. "Lots and lots of dinosaurs," I was told. 

  • This is in today's Messenger. That's Chewbacca!

  • Trouble underneath I-30 in Rockwall last night.  I've always thought the way they move those things was a little wild: Just slap some wheels on the back of a beam and hit the road. 
  • If not having a cover charge is "free", I suppose going to Del Frisco's is "free" as well.

     
  • Random Sports Illustrated cover I came across from August 30, 1970.  Les Shy? Who was running back Les Shy? I looked him up and learned he was cut two weeks later. 


  • 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: 793 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:35 AM

9.02.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




A stray dog we found 10 years ago stayed with us almost a month before we found it a home. The new owners took it to groomer and sent us the resulting photo. Oh, my.  (That has to be Mrs. LL's caption under the first photo.)

  • Another increase but only by 17 people.

    • Someone suggested to me that the hospitalizations might have leveled off at this point because hospitals are close to capacity and their guidelines as to who they admit has become more stringent. There might be some truth to that.
    • My belief that we might have plateaued has nothing to do with my views on the current state of the virus. It's as bad as ever. It's as dangerous as ever. 

  • Last night, the Supreme Court finally weighed in on the Texas Abortion Bounty Law and let it stand in a 5-4 ruling. But the majority made it clear that it wasn't ruling on the constitutionality of the new Texas law. And, frankly, any challenges to the law before it took effect were probably premature. 
    • Here's the money quote.

    • One of the dissents was not having it. It may be a procedural issue for now, but handling it this way lets an obviously unconstitutional law go into effect. 
    • The whole matter can quickly make its way back to them by having someone actually sue someone else for the $10,000 vigilante fee authorized by the statute. That's already being planned (even by those who oppose the law so they can have a legal vehicle to utilize.)
    • The Supreme Court will basically rule on the merits next June when it decides a pending Mississippi case. A new Texas case might join it and get consolidated with it this fall. 
    • Do I think the court will overrule Roe v. Wade? Probably. As amazing it as it sounds, Donald Trump is completely responsible for this. 


  • I told you I wouldn't be surprised by this result. This was a major screw-up by the officer. Either she made a fireable mistake if she thought she smelled alcohol or she made an arrest believing medication or drugs were involved when she was absolutely not qualified to make that determination. 

    • I heard Dallas union chief Mike Mata defend the officer on WBAP yesterday afternoon. He's a horrible advocate. 

      • He said the case wasn't "about guilt or innocence" but about "procedure". Tell that to anyone who has been wrongfully arrested.
      • He said the officer had "reasonable suspicion" to arrest her. Yep, he actually said that. A high school student knows the standard is probable cause.
      • He also said, "And remember there was a child in the car. If the officer thought it was possible she was intoxicated, she can't let her drive down the road and then get in the accident." Once again, "possible" isn't the standard. It's probable cause. 
    • Angela West's lawyer writes like Trump used to tweet. Lots of CAPS. Lots of exclamation points!!!

  • In one hour last night, Hurricane Ida dumped three inches of rain on Central Park in New York. The National Weather Service, for the first time ever, issued a flash flood warning for the area.

  • From the Washington Post. This crap happens all the time. It's legalized theft by the government. 

  • A few weeks ago, I had a note about a shooting in Sundance Square in Fort Worth which I thought go almost no publicity. Well, The Ticket had the victim on yesterday and he described what happened.  (Funny guy by the way.) His recovery is slow. An original Facebook post from a friend described what happened but it contains one error: He was shot eight times and not five. 


  • The Aggies gave their football coach a contract extension. In 1982, everyone went absolutely nuts when they made new head coach Jackie Sherrill the highest paid coach in America with a salary of $280,000 a year. 

  • Earlier this week I mentioned that a Colleyville principal was suspended for "promoting" Critical Race Theory (as the hoopleheads define it.)  Well I had forgotten that the man got in "trouble" before. The district asked him remove a photo that he had posted on Facebook showing him and his wife after someone complained. The photo is below. This is 2021, isn't it? 

  • Ohio State plays at Minnesota tonight and it's on prime time Fox. 

at 8:35 AM

9.01.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




It is kind of wild to think about what all would have been documented if cell phone video was as common then as it is now.   

  • A slight increase yesterday but you still can't rule out that we are possibly plateauing. 


  • No, the Taliban did not execute a man from a helicopter. Ted Cruz deleted his false tweet. Dan Crenshaw left his up. 

  • No, we did not leave service dogs behind in Afghanistan. Junior has always been a lying propaganda machine. 


  • Now do you still blame the kid from Southlake who skipped his Senior year at Southlake Carroll? 

  • Texas new Draconian abortion law went into effect last night at midnight when the Supreme Court failed to stop it. It's just as crazy as you have heard. Today, if you give emotional support or  encouragement to a woman before she has an abortion at seven weeks, anyone can sue you for $10,000 and attorney's fees. And they will win.  (And subsection three is weird. So I can be sued if I intend to encourage her but didn't get around to it?)


    • The phrase "aid or abets" is not defined in the statute, so let your imagination run wild. That's the real weapon of this law. That and the fact that anyone can sue you. 
    • It just dawned on me that any vigilante and bounty-seeking plaintiff could file their lawsuit in any Justice of the Peace court where almost all judges aren't lawyers. Those courts have jurisdiction up to $20,000.
    • Extremely legal nerd stuff: The legislature is actually trying to avoid Roe v. Wade completely by setting up the statute where its enforcement is not by the government making a violation of it a crime but by private citizens bringing a civil lawsuit. Thus, they will argue, if there is no "state action" then any constitutional Wade-based right to privacy doesn't apply. But that won't work. Think about the oft-ignored, albeit brief, state action discussion in New York Times vs. Sullivan as to why in some situations constitutional protections apply when a private person sues someone in state court. 
  • From the People-Are-COVID-Crazy Department, watch this lady tell a school board in Lee County, Florida that “You are all demonic entities. All of us Christians are sticking together to take you all out . . . .  These doctors that were sneering at us like we’re scumbags, they need to go back to [effing] med school.” She claims to be a registered nurse of 13 years.

  • A paywall? Nooo! But I think I'll pay it. I use Wirecutter all the time. It's fantastic. You need to make a purchase? Enter the generic name of what you want to buy and they'll give you suggestions based upon their testing.  

  • I've never seen Ted Lasso but those that do are convinced this character is CGI generated.

  • Someone posted a pre-game pick of the small crowd at the Rangers game yesterday (which really isn't fair to do it pre-game), but I can tell you why I would stay away.


  • I still can't get over the offensive performance of both teams in the Kennedale and Decatur game. But try to explain how Kennedale won with -1 passing yards and averaging 1.13 yards per rush? 

  • You want a PDF of all the college football games on TV this weekend? This is great. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:33 AM
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