10.29.2021

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

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts




I actually watched that moment from Game Six from the balcony shown in the picture I took below.  I was in Las Vegas, and a show I had purchased tickets for months in advance was starting precisely at that very second. (Game Six was supposed to be played the night before but had been rained out.)

  
  • There aren't many details on this story, but it's even more newsworthy because she posted a video of her finding what she thought was a "tracking device" on her car a few days before. 


  • Probably a smart move by the judge. 

  • Oklahoma resumed the use of its death penalty yesterday afternoon.

  • It actual is pretty rare to see a death sentence handed out by a jury in Texas these days, but we had one yesterday. It as a bizarre case out of Smith County where a nurse injected four patients with air causing their deaths. 

  • There's a civil case going on in Virginia against the white supremist organizers of the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville. You know, the one where there "were very fine people, on both sides." A guy in the courtroom was live-tweeting the trial and fired this off when one of the defendants, who is representing himself, made his opening statement: 



  • Facebook, Inc. changing its name to Meta is not what people think.  Facebook, the site and the app, will remain named as "Facebook." This is just like Google Inc. changing its name to Alphabet but keeping the name of the search engine as Google -- something that most people don't even remember happening in 2015.

  • Because all the Wise County JPs were in some sort of training yesterday, Judge J.D. Clark ran out to the jail yesterday and set bonds for those newly arrested.  Fun fact: Did you know that any mayor has that authority as well?
  • A faithful reader sent me this link to a recent podcast of NPR's Planet Money as to why prescription drugs are advertised on TV. 
  • Here is a cool old pic of the old Rangers ballpark.  That's Six Flags in the background and, I think, a water park named Seven Seas just to the ballpark's upper left. (That's a lot of parking, but how do you get to the lots once you go through the those ticket booths?) 
  • I'm beaten down by all the references to Ted Lasso because I've never seen it. Do that many people have Apple TV?  The last announced number of subscribers is "under 20 million." Netflix, by comparison, has 74 million. (US and Canada numbers.)  Anyway, Mitt Romney was screwing around yesterday posting re-creations, I guess, from the show. 

  • Have I ever mentioned they DPS has enough money to waste on gun boats?

  • Lot of people perked up to my reference to the Candace Montgomery case yesterday. Here is the UPI story announcing the verdict in the case. 
  • Two Trump Insurrectionist wanted their sentencing to be done via Zoom instead of in person. The federal judge did a quick order via a docket entry yesterday evening: 

  • What are the chances for failure on this? It's too small for a music hall (only 1,000 capacity), they had to change the original name because of a "trademark issue", its opening was delayed by three months, and the first two acts cancelled. It's off I-35 in the Design District.

  • In 1933, directories were available which would tell you where Supreme Court justices lived. 

  • Another discovery using genetic genealogy DNA.

  • 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: 849 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

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10.28.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




Ten years ago yesterday, Fox 4 news had a misfire near the end of game six. 

  • Wise County actually hosted a "governor debate" last night between Don Huffines, Allen West, and Chad Prather with Shelley Luther doing the moderating. You can watch everyone try to out-conservative themselves here. They claim they invited Greg Abbott who they said declined. That's probably true. 


  • BagOfNothing is back up. I knew what was going on but certainly wasn't going to say anything. That's a beating for anyone who has been through it. 
  • So we learned it was a live round that killed the cinematographer on the set with Alec Baldwin. (Again, he's home free on this deal.)  But I've got serious questions about Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza. If he thinks he can just gather up 500 rounds of ammo from the "crime scene" and send them to Quantico for "analysis", he's in for a rude awakening.  Those boys will laugh at him for such a generic request (and from his press conference, he was exactly that generic sounding.)


  • In this five second video of a tornado in Orange, Texas yesterday, you can see an ATV go flying through the air. 

  • I didn't have Ted Cruz defending the Nazi Salute on my Bingo card, but he did it yesterday. (I know the point he was trying to make, but that was a dumb move which was guaranteed to become a soundbite. It's the same kind of judgment that led him to take a trip to Cancun.)

  • Texas book ban update: State Rep. Matt Krause's book crusade included a letter providing "a 16-page list of about 850 book titles and asks the districts if they have these books, how many copies they have and how much money they spent on the books."  They included:
    • Life, Death and Sacrifice: Women and Family in the Holocaust 
    • We the Students: Supreme Court Cases For and About Students 
    • Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints 
    • Women's Rights 
    • The Cider House Rules
    • And this one!

  • Idiocy by the city to volunteer pay it. Robbery by the law firm to charge it. Big law firms run some of the greatest scams in America.  

  • Here is the promo which debuted last night where Tucker Carlson appears to have produced an upcoming program that will suggest/urge that The Trump Insurrection on 1/6 was a "false flag." This looks like Alex Jones type stuff. 

  • And another case solved by genetic genealogy.  "In 2019, officers sent one of the infant’s rib bones to a private lab in Texas for forensic analysis. The lab recovered human DNA from the bone and conducted a genealogical profile, which led to Poole and Bynum — a married couple living in the small town of Taylorsville, police said."

  • Rusty Hardin out of Houston is a really good lawyer. But even the greatest lawyers can get their arse handed to them.  He was the lead defense lawyer on this multi-million verdict. (And I've never really thought you can be an expert in both criminal and civil law.) 

  • Lost puppy dog alert.  Edit: Cancel this. They were actually found. 

  • I'll be locked into this just like I was locked into this case when I was a teenager. There's a great book on it called Evidence of Love. You'll like it to if a suburban housewife, a seedy affair, and an axe taken to her lover's wife gets your attention. 

  • Unlike Jerry Jones who is currently making a fortune in oil and gas, real estate, a national concession company, and more, Mark Cuban is just Barnum Bailey trying to associate himself with smoke and mirrors.

  • For the umpteenth year: No one is giving away their weed candy on Halloween. 

  • Waco legal news only because her name got my attention. It seems that her last name is referenced as "Hunting Horse" even though she doesn't use a hyphen. If it's a native American name, it would normally be strung together as Huntinghorse. 

  • For the life of me, I don't understand why there are TV commercials for prescription drugs.

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10.27.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts





Thoughts on civil forfeiture 10 years ago. (Here's the AP story about the DA in Shelby County that the Feds were after. I don't know what eventually happened.)
   
  • It was a nice dedication ceremony yesterday naming the courtroom at the new courthouse annex (officially called the "Wise County Court Center ") after the late Judge Melton Cude.  Judge Lowery had a hard time beginning his remarks when he became more emotional. We need more of that in this world. 
  • The Aurora City Council met last night in temporary quarters. (Credit: Messenger's Austin Jackson doing yeoman's work.)

  • I saw this headline a million times yesterday and kept thinking, "He got charged for being kicked by a paramedic?" Side note which is actually the lede: That's one one heck of a still shot from that video in that shocking case.

  • And this headline below was everywhere. What do you expect the DA to say before the investigation is complete? That all charges are off the table?  (But I am interested in the first news conference today. I really want to know if it was a real gun with a real bullet -- that's not entirely clear.)

  • I think it's going to be hard to get a conviction against Kyle Rittenhouse, and the judge isn't going to do the prosecution any favors, but the blurb below is a little misleading. The actual story said that while the judge "advised Rittenhouse’s team against using pejorative terms to describe the three men shot, such language could be used in their closing arguments if evidence shows the men participated in criminal acts." And telling the prosecutors that they can't refer to them as "victims" is a little unusual but not unheard of. 

  • I'm telling you, we are getting closer to book burning parties.

    • His actual letter to the Agency ask them to find any books which "might" cause a student to feel "discomfort." Good lord.

    • Historical reference photo.

  • In a related note but from a completely different source and reason, I don't know why the lady wants her record expunged or why she is getting such widespread support for it. An expungement means it is all wiped away just like it didn't happen. You don't want that. You want people to remember it. 

  • Random Cowboy pics from their Halloween party.
    Dak as a lion tamer.

    Dalton Shultz

  • What are the Aggies up to now? Video. Answer: I have no idea. 

  • I need to put this story in my "Don't Trust Medical Examiners" file. 

  • There were 19 deaths listed in the Update yesterday.
  • Legal nerd stuff: Two Texas criminal laws were struck down as unconstitutional yesterday by intermediate courts of appeals. Here and here if you are interested in that sort of think. (One of them was the same law being used to prosecute Netflix for broadcasting Cuties. Speaking of, whatever happened to that?)
  • Messenger: Above the Fold 

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