Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, October 9, 2019

  • I love how insightful and observant fourth-grader DaughterGeeding can be. She was working on a school project while I was watching the news and she asked me what’s the difference between a grand jury and other kinds of juries. Like a good day, I told her to submit her question or search the archives of LiberallyLean.com.
  • The girl is too hard on herself and I’m trying to figure out why she is feeling stressed about certain things. For instance, her assignment is to create a medieval estate. This can be done on Friday by drawing on a worksheet provided by the teacher or the student can build a 3D model. She opted for the latter. But, she was in tears on Sunday night because she didn’t finish it over the weekend so she can turn it in four days early.
  • Armchair Political Strategist Time – If I were consulting the GOP, I’d tell them to support the Trump impeachment. Republican candidates in the House and the Senate can run on the message on how courageous they were to put the country first and their integrity and respect for what the framers had in mind. Also, working with President Pence is going to be a whole hell of a lot easier. Their focus would shift from drumming up the far-right base and winning moderate voters for Pence, but you could still woo the base by stating how he would continue to stack the Supreme Court with conservative justices and he’s better and more experienced than anyone the opposition would throw out.
  • Bob Sturm claimed if Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford were walking through an airport, more excitement would be made for Stallone over Ford. I do not support his claim. Sure, Stallone is more approachable and it’s more fun to shout “Sly” or “Yo, Rock!” but the fandom of Star Wars and Indiana Jones is greater.
  • I love Junior Miller’s description of Mumford and Sons – Coldplay with a banjo.
  • This comes from a school district that decided to hold a vote and announce their new head coach on a Friday night to avoid any attention. Kids have to suffer because of immoral adults.  – Mount Vernon, coached by former Baylor head coach Art Briles, facing possible forfeiture after two players ruled ineligible. 
    • Briles was also publicly reprimanded by the committee for using an assistant coach who wasn’t a full-time employee of the district, also a violation of UIL rules.
      • I’m not sure what the rule is on this. Earlier this week I mentioned Troy Aikman was an assistant coach for a local high school football team and I’m sure he’s not a full-time employee.

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, October 8, 2019

  • My coworker who lost his son earlier this year unexpectedly lost his mother last week.
  • I haven’t seen my coworkers in over a year, I think. But we have a new CFO who is visiting and we are all having dinner tonight. I’m not complaining that I have to be with my coworkers, but I’m just not good at being social or engaging in small talk. Perhaps the best thing for me to do is look at this as an opportunity to work on a weakness.
  • As great as capitalism is, sometimes it has its drawbacks. I wasn’t too happy how the NBA catered to it over the fight for freedom and democracy playing damage control with China. They are almost as accommodating to communism as President Trump. Heck, even Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rouke expressed their disappointment with the NBA, even they agreed on something.
  • Judge Tammy Kemp of the Amber Guyer trial was recently interviewed and offered some insight into why she hugged Guyer, why she gave her her personal Bible, and why she felt she didn’t cross any boundaries.
    •  I was not proselytizing. Ms. Guyger asked me for a hug. I’m sad to say she had to ask me twice. I never asked Ms. Guyger to pray and I didn’t pray with her”, she said.
  • ‘God, Guns and America’: South Carolina car dealership offers AR-15 voucher, Bible with every sale
  • The Atlantic – Top Military Officers Unload on Trump – The commander in chief is impulsive, disdains expertise, and gets his intelligence briefings from Fox News. What does this mean for those on the front lines?
    • To get a sense of what serving Trump has been like, I interviewed officers up and down the ranks, as well as several present and former civilian Pentagon employees. Among the officers I spoke with were four of the highest ranks—three or four stars—all recently retired.
    • Military officers are sworn to serve whomever voters send to the White House. Cognizant of the special authority they hold, high-level officers epitomize respect for the chain of command, and are extremely reticent about criticizing their civilian overseers. That those I spoke with made an exception in Trump’s case is telling, and much of what they told me is deeply disturbing.
  • As I watched A Very Brady Renovation on HGTV, it occurred to me Maureen McCormick has never gone through an ugly phase in life.
  • Peter King’s column was a fun read yesterday as it had a touch of nostalgia, mainly because of how his former employer, Sports Illustrated, cut half their workforce yesterday. First, there was a recap of one of my favorite Joe Montana games and cover story.  His team down 21-10 in the fourth quarter but Montana threw four touchdown passes in 13 minutes to seal the victory. The Niners had a terrible first half, Montana got sacked four times in the last seven plays of the first quarter, eight times in all. Reggie White was unstoppable. I love that cover photo, how his helmet is placed in front of the logo and perfectly centered in his firing position. Second, Rick Reilly, the man who always had the last article in the magazine called “Life of Reilly” wrote a point after. That man is living the life, spending half the year in Italy and the other half in Southern California.
  • One heck of a workout
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Bag of Randomness for Monday, October 7, 2019

  • The woman in red is giving this bridesmaid some serious side-eye. Look at that form, it’s textbook, you can’t teach that stuff, that’s just some natural talent.
  • I stopped at a red light on the way to church yesterday. The woman in the car next to me didn’t see the light turn green because she was looking into a compact mirror and plucking chin and neck hair with a pair of tweezers.
  • The Cowboys bested Brett Farve but his replacement has certainly owned the Cowboys.
  • I had no idea Troy Aikman was an assistant coach for the Episcopal School of Dallas, that’s pretty cool. If I understand correctly, his stepson (who also happens to be Jerry Jone’s great-nephew) plays receiver and a talented musician with his own website. The team appears to be doing well with Aikman coaching the quarterbacks. Last week, his team won 61-6 and their starting QB threw six touchdowns. Aikman gave the QB a shoutout during the Cowboys game and briefly talked about his potential as a college quarterback, which I’m sure got a lot of attention from scouts.
  • NFL referees wear jersey numbers but NCAA referees do not. In case you are wondering why and how they are assigned:
    • The jersey numbers for NFL officials are purely for identification purposes, and though there are 117 officials, the jersey numbers go up to 135. There’s no rhyme or reason to the numbering system, unlike how players are limited to a certain range of jersey numbers depending on which position they play. Typically, when an official is assigned a jersey number, he or she keeps it year after year, although occasionally there’s some number swapping. 
  • I had no idea dolphins used to commonly roam the Potamic River during colonial times. Thanks to the efforts to clean it up, they are returning.
  • The Ohio State Marching band impressively told the story of the space race.
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