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6.17.2006
Uh, One More Thing
Simpson Trial - Day 4.
Star Telegram Story. (And this is the most interesting one of all.)
6.16.2006
OK, I'm Obsessed . . .
. . . with this Blog so I think I'll avoid it for a couple of days.
But, in the meantime, I wonder what Britney is doing?
Tell Me I Didn't Read That Correctly
"BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A man transporting his wife's severed head in a pickup truck collided with an oncoming car, killing a woman and her 4-year-old daughter, police said. The impact sent the head flying onto the road." Full story.
Edit: We have a photo of the guy.
Cue The Banjos
I always monitor the Texas prosecutors message board because they have some very interesting conversations about Texas criminal law. This question just got posted:
I am taking a case to GJ [grand jury] next week where a father and his 19 year old daughter have been having consensual sex. . . . Should just dad be indicted since most people think, as the parent, he is more culpable? Should they both be indicted? And the ones of you from east Texas, don't act like this only happens in my jurisdiction!
Responses should be here.
And the Texas incest statute is here.
Guilty Pleasure
I might have snuck over to Channel 5 to watch some of the Britney Spears interview by Matt Lauer last night. Verdict: Good stuff. From the flashbacks of "how she used to be" to her wheels off, crying, gum chewing, "I just want the press to leave me alone" present day self.
But the easiest conclusion is that Matt Lauer is great at what he does.
Edit: And where were Matt's socks?
Snipers Were In Denton?
Remember the two snipers that terrorized the Northeast a couple of years ago?
One of them says they shot a man in Denton and there's some proof to back it up.
Links to various news stories covering this are here.
[Props to our news reading Sheriff who pointed this out to me.]
Bored?
The Star Telegram is getting bored with the Rebecca Simpson trial in Fort Worth. This is all they printed today:
FORT WORTH -- Prosecutors in a solicitation-of-capital-murder trial had planned for jurors to hear an audio recording Thursday of what they said was defendant Rebecca Simpson talking to an undercover agent. Simpson, 44, is accused of trying to hire a hit man, in reality an undercover Texas Department of Public Safety officer, to kill her ex-lover's wife. She was arrested Nov. 1, 2004, and Shemane Watts, the woman who prosecutors say was the intended victim, wasn't harmed. Jurors were supposed to hear a recording of Simpson's first meeting with the agent. However, the compact disc it was on didn't work properly. State District Judge Mike Thomas dismissed jurors about 4:30 p.m., earlier than scheduled. The trial resumes this morning.
Mavs Talk
1. I'm beginning to believe the conspiracy theory I posted here.
2. Anyone wish to question my sports brain based upon this prior post.
3. Dirk didn't make basket after 10:42 of the second quarter!
4. Blame the City of Dallas for letting it leak that a victory parade would be on Tuesday if the Mavs swept the Heat. Unfortunately, Game 6 will be that day.
5. Did you see that the AAC in Dallas was sold out for a game watching party last night?
6.15.2006
Why Motorcycles Are Evil
Seven minutes of motorcycle crashes (some bad, but we never see broken bones), motorcycle stunts, motorcycle near-crashes, and a ton of not too smart folks.
The Heck With That Supreme Court Stuff . . .
. . . let's see how Jessica Simpson is doing. And, man, do I miss that Nick and Jessica show especially that scuba diving episode that was so funny.
The End Is Near
You think those two recent Supreme Court appointments will have an impact? It has begun.
For over 40 years the "exclusionary rule" has been in effect. That is, if the police break the law in searching or arresting you, any evidence they find as a result of that breach will be excluded from evidence and cannot be used against a defendant.
It's a hard and fast rule.
Until today. Even though your Supreme Court has said that the constitution requires police to "knock and announce" their presence when executing a search warrant, the Court held today (in a 5-4 decision) that a violation of that particular rule won't require any evidence found to be excluded. Why? Because they say so. That is, Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas say so.
The case was Booker T. Hudson v. Michigan.
Come to think about, the defendant probably lost once the five justices saw his name was "Booker T."
Property Talk
I'm seeing and hearing a ton of ads for "Moonlight Bay" on the north shore of Lake Bridgeport.
I think this is the old boy scout ranch land, but I could have sworn the development had previously been marketed under some name called "pointe" something (with the extra "e").
Anyway, I bet its a tough sale with the lake currently approaching 11 feet low.
Stuff Like This Makes Me Want To Head For The Beach. Forever.
In 2003 and 2004, there was a little known backup quarterback for Iowa State named Cris Love.
He completed 50 of 104 passes for 667 yards and five touchdowns during his career.
A more important stat is that he just died of cancer at the age of 24.
We take it for granted, people. We take it for granted.
Me Loves Me Some Soccer
Victoria Beckham (formerly Posh Spice and currently the wife of soccer superstar David Beckham), went to lunch yesterday in Germany.
Hit Me Baby One More Time
Matt Lauer interviews Britney Spears tonight on Dateline, and they've been showing some of the clips on the Today show.
This girl is cooouuuuntry.
This girl is a mess.
6.14.2006
Oh, noooooooo
Uh, oh. This morning, the President did not realize that reporter Peter Wallsten is legally blind.
Thank Goodness You Didn't Go To Northeast Mall Today
From the Star Telegram:
An unidentified woman plunged to her death from an overpass at Rufe Snow Road onto the emergency lane of Loop 820 West in Northeast Tarrant Councy on Wednesday morning.
Police say they believe the woman intentionally jumped, said investigator Larry Irving of the North Richland Hills Police Department.
Witnesses told police that the woman walked across the street from a nearby cluster of restaurants and shops shortly before noon and disappeared over the edge of the overpass.
She landed out of highway traffic and no-one else was injured, police said.
Traffic was snarled for at least an hour and backed up about a mile to Highway 26 to the east as police investigated.
"I Sooooo Wanna Go Back to Fox News!"
"White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, left, and White House Counselor Dan Barlett, ride in a military helicopter wearing helmets and flak jackets for a trip from Baghdad International Airport to U.S. Embassy in the Greenzone Tuesday, June 13, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq. Snow and Bartlett traveled with President Bush who made a surprise visit to Baghdad. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) "
Kudos To A Faithful Reader For Pointing This Out
From the Update today:
"MEETING TODAY — There will be a meeting at noon today at Decatur City Hall for anyone interested in helping plan Wise County’s 150th sesquicentennial celebration."
Father's Day Thought
In Time magazine this week there is an article called "Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?"
The author points out that our "memory" will seize on our most "powerful" images. He explains that a guy can sit through an 8 inning boring baseball game but if it ends with a home run in the bottom of the ninth, a glorious memory has been created and the boring eight innings are forgotten.
And then he says this: "The . . . moment when our 3-year-old looks up from the mess she is making with her mashed potatoes and says, 'I wub you, daddy,' can erase eight hours of no, not yet, not now and stop asking. Children may not make us happy very often, but when they do, the happiness is . . . both transcendent [above and beyond the ordinary] and amnesic [allowing us to forgot the bad stuff]."
What's Next? Santa? The Easter Bunny?
I'm not into "Larry the Cable Guy" humor, but those that are will find this clip interesting. It's Larry before he found his Cable Guy sch tick.
Git er.....uh.....life force draining now.
Rebecca Simpson Trial Begins
"Prosecutors in the solicitation of capital murder case against Rebecca Simpson began their case Tuesday by describing the privileged life they say she led as the wife of a prominent attorney in Bridgeport, a small town in Wise County.
"'Rebecca Simpson was a woman who had it all,' said Tarrant County assistant district attorney Kim D’Avignon, mentioning Simpson’s two children and the large home she shared with her husband, Ross. 'She had a wonderful life, but it wasn’t enough for her.'"
(Rest of Star Telegram story here)
Edit: Comments temporarily disabled.
6.13.2006
The President's Surprise Visit To Iraq Today
Jon Stewart (of The Daily Show) said:
"A few weeks after U.S. troops dropped two 500 pound surprises on al-Zarqawi , [uh, that was last week - but I digress] the White House dropped a 190 pound surprise on U.S. troops in the form of a presidential visit. Said the Iraqi Prime Minister to the President, 'If I had known you were coming I'd have built an infrastructure'."
And, "A sign of progress will be when he can make announced visits."
Human Nature
I love this pic of Paris Hilton outside of the David Letterman Show yesterday. Not for her, but for the crowd. You know, those people weren't taking pictures to capture her image (there's tons of pics of Paris out there), they were taking them to prove they were that close to Paris.
This Has To Be A Baylor First
From the Morning News:
TCU's football season opener at Baylor, originally scheduled for Sept. 2, has been moved to Sept. 3 to accommodate national television on Fox Sports Net. Kickoff will be at 4:30 p.m. CDT at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco.
For the first time in school history, TCU will have all its regular-season games on television. Five of those 12 contests will be seen nationally.
September 3 is a Sunday. (I guess the NFL season will not have started yet.)
OK, I Shouldn't Do This (But I Can't Help Myself)
There's been a pretty big scandal about Heather Mill McCartney (who is getting divorced from the greatness that is Paul McCartney). Apparently one of the London tabloids discovered some pics of Heather from the 1980s where she was engaged in some soft porn. (And when she had both of her legs).
I found one that was relatively safe (but don't click on it if you're gonna yell at me). For some reason, Heather must have been really, really bad because she's about to get a . . . oh . . . you know.
"Ann, You've Changed"
Henry Rollins' open letter to Ann Coulter. Who knew "F-Bomb" humor could be so funny? And, bruther, are there ever a couple of F-Bombs.
Link.
(The pic has nothing to do with the link. But it's funny.)
A Courthouse Worker . . .
. . . just asked me if I had ever seen the "arrow" in the Fed Ex logo. I'll swear, I had never seen it before.
Is It That Time Of Year?
Dave Campbell's Pre-Season Top 25 is out and two Wise County school's make the 2A group:
1. Tatum
2. Jefferson
3. Early
4. Lexington
5. Crawford
6. New Boston
7. Paradise
8. Hempstead
9. Marlin
10. Newton
11. Rice
12. Farmersville
13. Boyd
14. Lone Oak
15. Blanco
16. Mart
17. Henrietta
18. Arp
19. De Kalb
20. Stratford
21. Troy
22. Childress
23. Comfort
24. New Diana
25. Wall
Source: The message boards over at FridayNightFever.net where those boys talk Wise County high school football 24/7.
Elliott Yamin - National Anthem NBA Finals Game 2
This guy has been catching lots of flak on the radio for his version of the National Anthem on Sunday night. I'm not sure what the controversy is about.
6.12.2006
Ben Roethlisberger Injured - The NFL Network Is Insensitive
Most will find this mildly interesting. But as Big Ben is in intensive care, it was interesting to see what the NFL Network was discussing less than 12 hours after the accident. (Next week....acceptable. Today...uh, no.)
And All We Get In The U.S. Is Drunk Guys
"A woman is taken off the field by security guards near the end of an international rugby union match between New Zealand and Ireland in Hamilton, New Zealand June 10, 2006. "
Wear A Helmet
In case you missed it, a star NFL quarterback almost got killed today (and may be in pretty bad shape).
A friend of mine told me today, "I don't see how a helmet is going to save your life at a high speed."
"It must be a crackhead!"
They play parts of this on The Ticket all the time. My favorite parts: (1) The guy cheering on the crowd to yell "yeah" if they think it's a leprechaun, (2) The lady who says "It must be a a crack head who got a hold of the wrong stuff", (3) the guy at the end of the clip who says "give me the gold!", (4) the amateur sketch, and (5) the guy holding the metal "flute" claiming it had been passed down for thousands of years.
Prime Time Real Estate
The Dallas Morning News has an article (can't find it on the web site) on the most expensive homes in Collin County. Number one was Deion Sanders 30,017 square foot mansion in Prosper which is valued at $8.8 million.
Troy Aikman makes it at #9 with a $4.6 million, 10,971 square foot home in Plano.
None of the other names ring a bell other than David Brennan (there's a guy on the radio on weekends by that name that talks about investments) and there is a James Davenport on the list who may be a lawyer (doing a little bit better than me).
If you . . .
. . . (1) plan on being on probation and (2) want to do drugs while on probation, you'll need one of these.
Warning: "The following information & pictures may be offensive to some people."
Shaq Schooled
After being held to a career low playoff point total last night, Shaq didn't come out after the game to address the media.
Amazingly, he knew such a move (or lack thereof) would cost him $10,000.
6.11.2006
Predictions
I was sooooo right about that Cars movie prediction.
I was just kidding about that "Heat in Six" thing. (Funny line I just read: "Total Shaq points through 3 quarters: 5. Number of people who rented Kazaam! this weekend: 8.)
"The Break Up"
I went and saw the movie this afternoon in the new Southlake theater (great place). Despite mediocre reviews, I really liked it.
Although basically a comedy, it had some serious "this is how break ups actually feel" undertones. If I weren't so manly, I would have shed a tear.
Jennifer Aniston was great. Vince Vaughn was great. (And you can see them together at the French Open here.)
(And I went to see it based upon the recommendation of a frequent commentor).
Well I'll Be
As I'm working my way through Gone With The Wind (which takes a while when you watch it in icrements of 40 minutes on a treadmill), I kept thinking that Scarlett's father looked very familiar.
Yep, I figured it out: He was "Uncle Billy" in It's A Wonderful Life.
And to give him full props, his name was Thomas Mitchell.
Channel 8 and Boogey Bob
Channel 8 sucked the life out of me this morning with a Mavericks Special hosted by Debbie Denmon. In addition to having a bunch of fans brought into the studio to scream at me, the show hit its high point with this interview of Boogey Bob. You have to watch for (1) Debbie's over-laughing, (2) Bob referencing "my partner" and (3) Bob dancing in studio to what he referred to as a Christian song.
Oh, The Humanity!!!!
"MIAMI — Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, developed Sunday from a poorly organized tropical depression in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and appeared likely to carry heavy rain to Florida, forecasters said.
"By midday, the storm had maximum sustained wind near 45 mph, up 10 mph from early in the morning, the National Hurricane Center said. "
The Walmart parking lot is more dangerous that Tropical Storm Alberto.