Bag of Randomness for Thursday, October 15, 2020

Amazon Prime Day continues to not impress me.

I’m curious why we didn’t see any blood bleed through Dak’s sock, even a little.

I like my supreme court nominees to know what freedoms are protected by the 1st Amendment. Preferably, like the back of her hand.

If Senator Lindsey Graham was trying to add a little humor to the confirmation hearing by saying, “The good old days of segregation,” he could have at least delivered the line a bit better. The sarcasm wasn’t evident. I mean, I knew he said it out of sarcasm, but it certainly didn’t sound like it.

If there’s one thing our senior senator from Texas likes to do, it’s to spread disinformation.

Cornyn shares photo of Democratic senators from 2018, asks why they’re not wearing masks

Amy Coney Barrett on originalism: “That means that I interpret the Constitution as a law… I understand it to have the meaning that it had at the time people ratified it. That meaning doesn’t change over time and it’s not up to me to update it or infuse my policy views into it.”

I understand originalists will reference amendments allow for changes, but I’m going by the definition she provided. When the Constitution was ratified, women couldn’t vote, much less be judges, and blacks were only considered three-fifths of a person. You want to think like someone did at the time it was ratified?

While thankful, I’m surprised that Michele Bachmann hasn’t served in the Trump administration in some capacity.

The new guy in the neighborhood is a doppelganger for James Van Der Beek.

Nick Saban has tested positive for COVID-19, is asymptomatic, and coaching via Zoom. Okay, cool. But Alabama will still play this weekend? Surely, a head coach has been around his players recently. Those players may be positive even though they tested negative because of the incubation period, and will certainly infect their opposition.

Having Dementia Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Vote – Yes, you can help a cognitively impaired person participate in the election. But heed these two guidelines.

One: After reminding the person that Election Day is nearing, ask whether he or she would like to vote. A “no” stops the process, Mr. Sabatino said, but “anyone who expresses an interest in voting should be assisted, within the limits of the law.”

Two: You may read the voter the ballot choices, if he or she cannot read them, but cannot provide additional information or interpretation, although discussions before voting begins are permitted. “Ask them their choices and see if they answer,” Mr. Sabatino said. “If they do, they vote.”

New Bipartisan Super PAC “Not Our Faith” Targets President Trump

A bipartisan coalition of Christians is forming a political action committee that aims to weaken President Trump’s standing with evangelical voters.

The super PAC, Not Our Faith, plans a six-figure ad buy targeting evangelical and Catholic voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan, The Associated Press reported.

The ad accuses the president of exploiting Christian rhetoric and iconography for self-serving purposes, specifically citing his photo opportunity outside of St. John’s Episcopal Church earlier this year after police cleared Lafayette Square with tear gas and pepper spray.

“[Christians] don’t need Trump to save them. The truth is that Trump needs Christians to save his flailing campaign,” the ad states, according to the AP.

My Life as an Anti-Fascist Catfisher – Or how I found a violent white supremacist’s Achilles’ heel: online dating.

Victorian MP caught lifting speech from fictional TV show The West Wing

The Victorian MP delivered a 90 second speech yesterday afternoon which borrowed three times from a speech delivered by the fictional president Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen.

Mr Talia spoke to Mr Fowles who admitted he was a huge fan of The West Wing, but said the lifting of the speech was unintentional.

“He has said he has phrases that are kind of lodged in his brain … and this was an unconscious homage to The West Wing’s creator Aaron Sorkin, who he describes as one of the greatest speechwriters we’ve ever seen,” he said.

That Victorian MP must be related to that famous Canadian Ted Cruz, who is also a plagiarist of Aaron Sorkin. (Yes, I know, I posted this not too long ago.)

The man does like to keep to a script.

 

 

 

 

 

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, October 14, 2020

I was listening to the radio and noticed a commercial for a business with a name like “Southwest Widows and Siding.” The commercial stated they are experts when it comes to windows because they “only do windows.” Well, if you only do windows, maybe you should update your company’s name.

But when it comes to local business names, nothing cracks me up more than Gourmet Donuts & Water. They don’t just sell donuts; they sell gourmet donuts. And they don’t just sell gourmet donuts, but they also serve water.

I really enjoyed putting up Halloween decorations last year, but I have zero motivation to do it this year, especially since I doubt a single treat-or-tricker will walk up to our door on Halloween.

I bought a dragon steam release attachment for our Instant Pot.

One of my closest friends is hospitalized with COVID-19. Unlike the president, he doesn’t consider it a blessing.

While watching the NFL Today on Sunday, I momentarily mistook Phil Simms for Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

What’s the cost per vote to become US president?

To determine cost per winning vote, we divided the amount spent by the candidate with the total number of votes they received. These numbers don’t include any funding contributed by candidates’ respective parties or political action committees (PACs) spending on their behalf. For clarity, our simple analysis is different than the cost-per-vote metric used by some campaign strategists, which is the likelihood of changing an election outcome with a marginal vote.

iPhone 12 does not come with power charger or earbuds in the box

A Woman’s football team in Houston later signed her.

YouTuber creates real-life ‘Star Wars’ lightsaber that slices steel

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, October 13, 2020

I decided to watch a particular episode of The West Wing on Netflix. Back in the day, I used to record it on my VCR and re-watch an episode several times before a new episode aired. While watching it yesterday, I cracked up at some old muscle memory which was triggered immediately after the opening credits. I had the remote in my hand and immediately started to fast-forward through the expected commercial. But, in this case, there was nothing to fast-forward through because Netflix streams episodes without commercials. For a moment, I was transported 20-years in the past and felt like I was living alone in my apartment watching an episode on my VCR.

And, I can’t believe I never knew CJ’s last name was spelled “Cregg”, I always thought it was “Craig”. But, thanks to a larger television and HD technology, I was able to read her name plate. And, I wasn’t away CJ stood for “Claudia Jean”.

I’m Billy Graham’s granddaughter. Evangelical support for Donald Trump insults his legacy.

By supporting Donald Trump, evangelical leaders are failing us and failing the Gospel. Christian women must step up where our church leaders won’t.

Americans shouldn’t have to wait this long to cast a vote. Ridiculous. Early voting starts today in Texas, I hope it goes well.  I have a feeling the first day will be pretty busy, so I’ll try to go the next day or so.

The Surprising Origin of Fried Chicken – Fried chicken is as emblematic of the US South as collard greens and sweet potato pie. But it may be more Scottish than Southern.

Tourist returns stolen artifacts to Pompeii after suffering ‘curse’ for 15 years

The woman, identified only as Nicole, sent two white mosaic tiles, two pieces of amphora vase and a piece of ceramic wall to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, along with a letter explaining her decision.
“I wanted to have a piece of history that couldn’t be bought,” wrote the woman, who said she was “young and dumb” at the time.
Since returning to Canada, she said, she has suffered two bouts of breast cancer, resulting in a double mastectomy, and her family has also been in financial trouble.

Halo-Gravity Traction

Inside Disney’s Ugly COVID Reopening Battle in California

Disney is firing workers by the thousands while its executives cling to their exorbitant bonuses. And the battle to reopen Disneyland is getting more desperate.

I kept hearing reporters state that a compound fracture meant bone broke through the skin. I thought they were wrong, that they were confusing the words “compound” and “open”, and that a compound fracture only meant a complete break. But it turns out I’m wrong, and “open” and “compound” can be used interchangeably.

Dak Prescott of the NFL Dallas Cowboys suffered a severe season ending ankle injury during week 5 of the NFL season. The star quarterback appeared to dislocate and fracture his ankle and is already on his way to get surgery. In this video we’ll review the footage and discuss the mechanism of how something like this happens, the relevant anatomy, and then touch on the on field management and some important aspects of Dak’s recovery.

Wife of Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor called racist slur at grocery store – Gisele Barreto Fetterman, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s wife and a formerly undocumented immigrant from Brazil, said the incident happened Sunday after she was recognized at the store.

Watch A Guy Does His Best To Handle A Cougar Stalking Him For Six Minutes Straight

The cat starts to get really aggressive at the 2:48 mark.

This guy followed what to do by the book.

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, October 12, 2020

For anyone who has any sorry for Dak Prescott because of his devastating ankle injury and how bad 2020 has affected you on a personal level, just take a moment to consider that Dak’s brother succumbed to suicide earlier this year.

Michael Gallup made the most impressive back-to-back catches in Cowboys, and probably NFL history, and no one will remember or be talking about it.

We took the kids to the drive-thru haunted experience held at one of the American Airlines Center’s parking garages on Saturday. Every time I asked BoyGeeding how he was doing, he’d simply respond with, “Terrified.” It didn’t phase DaughterGeeding at all.

I was most surprised passing all the restaurants and bars and seeing how packed the parking lots and insides were. Ain’t nobody caring about social distancing or wearing masks.

Promotion of the Senator John Cornyn and MJ Hegar debate was poor, I had no idea it occurred until after the event. I heard more about the lead-up to the South Carolina debate between Lindsey Graham and his opponent than I did for the one in my own state. The South Carolina got more coverage after the event especially because of the following remark by Graham, “f you’re a young, African American or an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state, you just need to be conservative, not liberal”.

Human ‘microevolution’ sees more people born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery – Australian researchers found our faces have got shorter over time and our jaws smaller.

The Atlantic – Schools Aren’t Super-Spreaders – Fears from the summer appear to have been overblown.

Since early last month, I’ve been working with a group of data scientists at the technology company Qualtrics, as well as with school-principal and superintendent associations, to collect data on COVID-19 in schools. Our data on almost 200,000 kids in 47 states from the last two weeks of September revealed an infection rate of 0.13 percent among students and 0.24 percent among staff. That’s about 1.3 infections over two weeks in a school of 1,000 kids, or 2.2 infections over two weeks in a group of 1,000 staff. Even in high-risk areas of the country, the student rates were well under half a percent.

Illinois Woman Takes Bar Exam While in Labor, Gives Birth, Then Finishes Test  – She doesn’t know yet if she passed the exam but she’ll find out in December

Sounds like the setup for a Trump joke – Venomous caterpillar that looks like a walking toupee sighted in U.S.

Recycling was a lie — a big lie — to sell more plastic, industry experts say
Social Sharing – Less than 10 per cent of the plastics we’ve used have been recycled. A new documentary reveals why

The Most Haunted Places in America by Thrillist

Here’s the entry for Texas.

Texas
Yorktown Memorial Hospital
Yorktown (about 75 miles from San Antonio)

The old beds, gurneys, mirrors, chairs, and other medical equipment are still inside, this decrepit abandoned hospital, where more than 2,000 patients died before it shuttered in 1988. Today, vsitors have described inexplicable apparitions, whispers, shadowy figures in the hallways, wheelchairs rolling unpushed, and a particularly terrifying talking doll in the nursery that asks, “Do you love me?” So um. Go check it out! The owner allows for regular tours and paranormal investigations. —Keller Powell

 

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