Random Thoughts: As Officers Beat Tyre Nichols...

2023-02-01: Irony: "As Officers Beat Tyre Nichols, a Crime-Prevention Camera Watched Over Them."

2023-02-01: "If football fans are far and away the most TV-destructive sports fans, then Cowboy fans are far and away the most TV-destructive football fans. In a way, this makes sense: No team has combined a sense of entitlement to victory with a consistent failure to achieve it in quite the way Dallas has over the past 25 years."

He's not wrong.

2023-02-01: The best of neighborhood Facebook:
"I did see several kids sliding down hills on the golf course. They have been reported to Oncor. Thanks!"
(posted on a snow day that closed schools in Texas)

2023-02-03: Judging by when I saw the announcements, Richardson ISD led Dallas ISD and Plano ISD in calling off school on Friday due to several factors related to this week's ice storm. RISD, always a step ahead!

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2023-02-03: Headline: "Map Shows US 'Extreme Heat Belt' Above 125 Fahrenheit in 2053."
You'd think Americans might want to take actions against a threat like this. You'd think wrong.
\_('~')_/

2023-02-03: Ted Cruz introduced a resolution that would require vending machines in the Capitol to accept cryptocurrencies. Ted Cruz, the reliable bulwark against government telling businesses what to do, wants the government to tell vendors what to do. I don't know if this is irony or hypocrisy.

2023-02-03: Headline: "The labor market shattered expectations in January, as the economy added 517,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, a low not seen since May 1969."
Thanks, Joe.

2023-02-03: Report: George Santos appears to owe more than $3,400 in traffic and parking tickets in two states.
According to the precedent set by Trump, that makes him "smart."

2023-02-04: In Texas, the endless push for unpopular school vouchers (i.e., giving our tax dollars meant for "public free schools" to private schools) won't go away until the voters make the elected GOP representatives themselves go away.

2023-02-05: Oh great. Dallas Mavericks trade for Kyrie Irving, a player who abandoned his Nets team rather than get vaccinated, who promoted an anti-Semitic film, and who played in only 29, 54 and 20 games the last three seasons. He'll be right at home in Dallas, where Mark Cuban apparently wants to match Jerry Jones in bringing lowlife athletes to town.

2023-02-09: "Greg Abbott's office warned that any deference to what he described as 'forbidden DEI initiatives' would violate anti-discrimination laws by favoring "some demographic groups to the detriment of others."
Abbott wants unquestioned the historic practices that favor Whites to the detriment of all others.

2023-02-10: Headline: "Micron Technology (MU) Cuts Salary of CEO, CFO, Others."
One thing I always liked about working at Micron was that during the down years of the boom-and-bust semiconductor cycles, upper management shared the pain with everyone else.

2023-02-10: Texas Atty Gen. Ken "Paxton will apologize and the state will pay $3.3 million to four whistleblowers who alleged retaliation after they accused the attorney general of bribery and abuse of office."
Apology is not enough. Disgraced AG Ken Paxton should resign. The legislature and Gov. Abbott should insist on it before the state pays.

2023-02-12: Northwestern upsets #1 Purdue for first win over a #1 ranked team in program's history.
youtu.be/bURrhQORlKY

2023-02-17: Headline: "Chemical plume in Ohio River to arrive in Cincinnati area this weekend. How safe is the water?"
The water is perfectly safe, according to a railroad spokesmutant.
(H/T to SNL, 1979)

2023-02-22: Headline: "Dallas Democrat Colin Allred ponders Senate bid against Ted Cruz" — DMN
I predicted this on January 11.

2023-02-24: Beware of school vouchers. America's rise to world dominance from about 1870 to 1970 coincided with the growth of public education. America's decline began about when school desegregation led whites to flee public schools. Ever since, there's been a push to defund public education and siphon funds off for private schools. Public schools have been declining apace.

2023-02-28: When polls are really trolls: "The phrase 'It's OK to be white' is a right-wing troll that originated in the forums of 4Chan. As the Washington Post chronicled in 2017, the term was originally intended as a covert way to force an overreaction from progressives."
Ironically, the Rasmussen poll got an overreaction from conservatives. Scott Adams got trolled.

2023-02-28: Because we're all "just asking questions," I have one. When people say "lab leak" do they mean that the virus was engineered in the lab or do they mean a naturally occurring virus that was collected in nature and was being studied in the lab accidentally got out? Seems we need different terms for those two cases.

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