11.24.2023

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

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Random billboard that got my attention back in the day. And got some national blog attention as well. 

  • Most businesses are still closed, it's an extended holiday, there is no Update from the Messenger, but here I am: The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.™
  • The Hamas/Israel exchange was in big jeopardy yesterday but, this morning at 8:00 a.m., Hamas was set to release 13 hostages -- all women and children -- in exchange for Israel releasing 39 Palestinians. It has happened per the Wall Street Journal as I hit the "publish" button. 

  • The Messenger had someone monitoring the scanner yesterday:

    • That spot has always been a death trap. But I'm not 100% sure why. 


  • Man, I don't even have an opinion . . . 

  • Around noon on Wednesday, a car became a fireball at the Canadian/U.S. border as it literally launched itself into a border crossing checkpoint. (Video.)   It turned out to be an accident involving a couple in their 50s in a Bentley on their way to Canada to see, of all things, a KISS concert. 

    • But in proving we are the dumbest country, a Fox News reporter immediately reported that it was a terrorists attack.  Fox News ran with it on TV. Her initial tweet was three sentences long and every one of them was wrong.


    • And then, true to form, our dumbest representatives, almost giddy to have a terrorist attack occur, went to Twitter to blame you know who: 


    • Back to the accident itself, it reminded me of almost the exact same happening at DFW Airport in 2010. (Video.)
  • Not the point of this story, but how far away from we are hundreds of thousands of deadly drones launched at the same time which can find their target using facial recognition and AI interpretation of recent GPS historical data? It's like a Black Mirror episode already here.

  • Holy, cow! I supported the impeachment of Ken Paxton, but I didn't agree with the House hiring a bunch of outside lawyers who thought grossly more of themselves than their skills justified. And now we have the opening bill for taxpayers disclosed for one of them, and she was third in command. Sheer robbery. 

  • Don't do that.

     

  • Border crisis!

  • A Wise County candidate for the Texas House had the worst advice ever for Thanksgiving. 

    • He quickly deleted and modified it.

  • Current candidates for the Congressional House seat that will represent the southern part of Wise County.

  • I posted this JFK photo a few years back when I first saw it, and I'm convinced it doesn't get enough acclaim. It was post-shooting with the motorcade leaving downtown on the way to Parkland. Background.

  • Not sure why (probably the parade), but the Tech Tech band was on the plaza of The Today Show on Wednesday morning. Video.

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 4 years and 141 days.


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11.23.2023

Random Thanksgiving Day Post

 


Always a crowd pleaser. 

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11.22.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




I had some nuggets for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. 

  • We've got a temporary deal in the Israel/Hamas war. I think both sides have the potential to screw this up.  

  • Nothing like a small plane crashing in one of the most heavily populated areas on the metroplex. The pilot is dead. From the best I can tell, he hasn't been publicly identified yet.





  • Overnight: Well, that was a wild week for this guy.  And the Board of Directors should have typed "What happens if we fire our CEO?" into ChatGPT before they did so.

  • Every year we are subjected to the same lie: That this is the biggest travel day of the year at airports.  And every year a at least one local affiliate will send a reporter out to DFW Airport or Love Field for a live spot to, inevitably, show empty lines. Exhibit A this morning:

  • What does this mean? A re-enactment/cosplay?

  • Why this fluff piece by NBC? According to the story, Roger Williams shook JFK's hand in Fort Worth that morning. So, according to my calculations, that makes him, along with tens/hundreds of thousands of others at the airports and along the parade route, as among those who were "the last people to see" Kennedy. Weird. 

    • JFK in Fort Worth that morning:

  • Man, I'm hearing good things about this. A stream from National Geographic. (You can watch it at that link, but it requires you to login with your TV provider credentials.)

  • Legal nerdy stuff: I called the Tarrant County D.A. "inexperienced" yesterday. He helped my case moments later by calling the Intoxilyzer test the "breathalyzer."  There is no one who practices in the area of Texas criminal law who calls it a breathalyzer. The public does, but not those who actually work in the area. 

  • Hey, we might be in the end times "but you've still got just enough time to buy my book!"  (And he actually said you could go to church or by his book.)


  • I'm really not grumpy today. Promise.
  • Messenger - Above the Fold

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11.21.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




From a criminal defense standpoint, that photo just hurts. Background of this weird Texas case is here. It was affirmed on appeal. 

  • David Spiller (R-Jacksboro) issued a statement yesterday defending his pro-school voucher vote.  The proposal was defeated. 
    • Calling it "school choice", like Gov. Abbott does, is disingenuous. If you want to send your kid to a private Christian school, knock yourself out. No one should stop you, and you already have a 100% absolute right to do that. Just don't use tax dollars to pay for your kid's tuition. 
  • The face of the Ken Paxton impeachment, the overly-mustached Andrew Murr, has announced he will not seek re-election. 

  • Seems bad. The military destroys a lot of planes in accidents:

  • Wichita Falls says it's OK for teachers to show tattoos so long as the are "appropriate."  (They've got a free speech problem if they are going to censor them based upon content.)


  • The War on Drugs is alive and well as the inexperienced new DA in Tarrant County tries to make headlines.  Prosecution and cages is not the ultimate answer to the problem. Never has been, never will be. 

    • Black market fentanyl is a problem, and it can kill you. But posts like below by DPS are simply a lie.  Let's say DPS seizes 1% of all fentanyl (a ridiculously high guess since 0.00001% or less is probably more accurate). In any event, if it's 1% then that means for DPS's post to be true that 43.065 billion pills -- each one deadly -- made it through to the streets.  Bodies would be piled up on the sidewalks. 

  • Watchdog Media Matters pointed out that an ad you buy on Twitter might show up next to anti-Jewish tweets and other crazy crap, so Elon Musk, who claims to be a free speech absolutist, sued them yesterday. It's a silly lawsuit lawsuit (pdf) which has no chance of not being dismissed. (And if you read it, it basically says Media Matters had to hit "refresh" a bunch of times until the anti-Jewish tweets actually showed up next to an ad. Ummkay.)

    • Then things got weirder. Texas AG Ken Paxton, the epitome of virtue, announced he has started a state investigation into Media Matters. What a waste of taxpayer dollars -- and what a scary authoritarian tactic.  A rich man snaps his fingers because he got his feelings hurt over what someone said, and the government jumps to punish that entity's free speech. That's fascism with oligarchy as the chaser. I keep saying we are headed to a dark place. Heck, we are already there. 

    • Back to Musk, he oddly picked some small firm DFW metroplex lawyers to file his lawsuit, and he chose Fort Worth as a venue in hopes of getting a crazy Trump federal judge. But you know who one of the firms is composed of? Former Paxton AG lawyers. 


  • The New York Times with a front page article on how the very life of democracy is flashing before our eyes. 


  • Let's check in on the MyPillow guy. Oh, there he is yesterday with Steve Bannon while wearing a tin foil hat. Really. 

  • A faithful reader, the great Bud Kennedy, sent me the following after seeing the awkward headline I printed yesterday about the Kennedy assassination. One week after Kennedy's death, Texas beat the Aggies with third string quarterback Tommy Wade leading the way. That led to this lede in the Austin American Statesman. Oh, my: 

     

  • Don't do that. 

  • TCU is getting (more) pricey. "It is the largest percentage increase since at least 2011, raising undergraduate tuition to around $61,643 before fees, books, room and board."

  • A guy named Vladimir de Franceschi just filed for Congressional House District 26, which will become open next year and which includes Wise County.  I looked him up. He's probably smarter than all of us. 
  • Lost of civil cases on the dismissal docket in district court in Wise County today. Speak now or forever . . . . 


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