Yesterday we got to hear the mayor of McKinney declare that police should be free to harass and arrest people for doing perfectly legal things (click here, second item) if someone nearby happens to be offended. Today we get to see the mayor of Duncanville appoint himself the power to sic police officers on a duly elected representative — councilman Paul Ford — and have that representative silenced. As a bonus, we get to see Duncanville police officers laughing at a man they’ve apparently injured, who was offering absolutely no resistance, and who they refused to arrest at the time — one presumes lest Ford be given cause of civil action, and they be called upon to justify their goonish tactics and slavish obedience. This stinks up one side and down the other. The barbarians aren’t at the gate; the fascists are on the ramparts, by god, and it’s going to get a lot weirder.

Tip: Don’t harm another man’s dog. Protip: Don’t harm a hero Navy SEAL’s dog. You will not escape.

A North Texas woman is the only American in the running for the job of maintaining an paradise island in what sounds a lot like the setup for a Stephen King story where someone ends up wearing the winner’s skin for a coat.

And here we have the creepiest item of the day: mother wants to harvest her dead son’s sperm. Because there aren’t enough fatherless children in this world.

PERSONAL NOTE: Yesterday, I posted a comment about what’s happening to Sgt. Gil Cerda of the DPD. (See Wednesday Roundup, last item.) I had only read the linked story, and had no idea a full hearing had been held and it was far beyond the initial “he said, she said” stage. I spoke out of turn about something I hadn’t done my homework on, and I apologize to readers.