10.15.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



It was a murder in a gated community in Keller where the wife first said it was an intruder who killed her husband and then changed her story to say it was suicide.  (And, yes, "messier" is a word.)  This is how it all turned out:


  • What was she thinking? That there were good people on both sides?  And after this news broke yesterday afternoon, the superintendent was scrambling last night and issuing an apology. But he better be careful. That PAC running the show over there might slap him down.

    • The real story here is that the secretly recorded audiotape demonstrates how teachers are scared to death to simply teach. They fear their political overlords will come crashing down on them for saying something that doesn't fit into a certain narrative mandated by the banning of "Critical Race Theory."   That term means what their rulers want it to mean. 
  • Bill Clinton has been in the hospital, including ICU, since Tuesday because of a urinary tract infection which evolved into sepsis.  That ain't good, but apparently he's on the mend. 

  • I've got the cold front moving through Decatur at 10:45 a.m. 
  • The pilot who was indicted is from Keller. 

    • One thing that is odd is that the company had already settled any criminal charges against it in January with a "Deferred Prosecution Agreement" (DPA).

    • And there's always perceived seediness somewhere. Here's an update after the DPA:
       
  • Local attorney Paul Belew has very gently chastised me for seemingly ignoring his campaign for governor. He noted that he even has billboards in a few places across the state including one on I-35 in West, Texas around the kolache joints. 

  • The Denton County Sheriff told the Rotary Club that he has a shortage of 100 detention officers for the jail.  I'm not sure this is the way to go about getting applicants:

  • This is nutty. A reporter in Missouri right clicked on a state web page, chose "View page source", and noticed that the school had hard coded the social security number of some teachers into the HTML for everyone to see.  The reporter then notified the State. What's the response? The Governor called him a hacker and is trying to get him prosecuted.

    • Yes, this really happened, and it's as crazy as it sounds. There is no such thing as "decoded the HTML source code." 

  • USA Today has released its database of college football coaches' salaries. TCU's Gary Patterson is in the top ten? 

  • Everyone is yelling about gas prices hitting $3.00 a gallon like this is new territory, but does no one recall 2008 or especially that long span between 2011-2014?

  • Sign me up! This is still one of the greatest moments in American politics. 
  • Coldplay is coming to the Cotton Bowl in May of next year. Is it OK to like Coldplay? 
  • 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: 835 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

10.14.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




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. 

at 8:32 AM

10.13.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




I don't remember the school funding lawsuits back then, and I'm not sure whatever happened to them. I also don't remember that movie which I used a graphic that was was completely unrelated to the story.    
  • If there is anything we've learned over the years is that accepting a cause of death from a Medical Examiner is a dicey proposition. Here the death is ruled a "manual strangulation" instead of a "ligature strangulation." That's pretty specific. And this finding was made even though the ME also believes she had been dead "three to four weeks" when found.  Be cautious.

    • Someone asked me this the other day, and I still don't have an answer for it: How exactly did Gabby Petitio's case gain national traction? I mean, it was in the news even before she was found dead and even before the bodycam video of her and her boyfriend being stopped in Utah became public.  Why? What caused her case to become national news when hundreds (thousands?) of young women go missing every year?

    • Side note: We might want to leave the father alone. Moments ago: 

  • American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, among others, have decided to ignore Gov. Abbott's Vaccine Mandate Ban and will follow the federal directive.

  • I suppose Abbott will want these to go away:

  • The President's press secretary took a shot at Ted Cruz yesterday, and The Dallas Morning News piles on this morning by including this photo with the story. 

  • In the middle of the night, the Texas House approved a new map for state house representatives. Wise County is still moving to District 64 with incumbent Rep. Lynn Stuckey, but the revised map changes the lines in Denton County to include Robson Ranch and little more Republican area. That helps Denton County Republican voting power over Wise County Republican voting power.  
    New map gets Robison Ranch area.

    First version of the map was limited to 
    "inner city" Denton. 

  • Yet another death at Fort Hood.  The army might consider invading and occupying that place to figure out why that keeps happening. 

  • I don't know why it would be otherwise, but the public access to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner information always seems a bit odd to me. 


  • Is that a Starbucks or a Whataburger going in on Highway 380 in Bridgeport? 

  • I know I'm getting old when a social security story causes my radar to go off. 

  • Big, if true. 

  • Random attorney job out there. When I first started reading it, I was thinking, "That sounds like a gawd-awful job." Then it got worse. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM
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