"Do You Believe In Miracles"

OK, that was an overstatement. Maybe. Baylor has made the tournament three times in my lifetime. The first was in the late 1980s, and I remember setting my VCR and keeping away from the score so I could watch it in the late afternoon. We got killed by Memphis State and looked like we had no business being there (because we didn't.) I had to wait 20 years to see them reach the NCAA Tournament again and that was two years ago. Twenty years! Once again, Baylor was knocked out in the first round before I even had a chance appreciate the moment. And that brings us to now. It may all end on Sunday when Baylor plays #1 Duke, but it has been, in a word that does not do the experience justice, fun. Most of us support teams that never win -- that's the nature of sports. But once in a blue moon -- or once in 20 blue moons -- you get to sit back and enjoy something that you never thought you'd see. TCU football knows what is was like last year. Tech saw it two years ago. And even though basketball is a distant second in the South, I'll grab onto these moments as they rush by. Because unlike the embarrassment of riches that the Evil Empire experiences, I know it may not pass this way again.

Friday Afternoon Pick Me Up

This tricked up outfit is enough to win her a place on the coveted "Pick Me Up" list. (She's the gal that Reggie Bush chose over Kim Kardashian.) Edit: Woah. Woah. Woah. A commenter says those are Twisted X boots manufactured in (or at least distributed from) Decatur? Kinda looks like 'em.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The new leaderboard for The Liberally Lean pick 'em contest sponsored by Stagecoach Steakhouse in Bridgeport is here. The big upset last night was Butler over Syracuse, and it's no coincidence that the new top two leaders picked Butler to make it to the Elite 8.
• The spokesperson for the new Irving Animal Shelter, as seen on Fox 4 this morning, is hawt.
• The motorcycle death count had slowed down but went through the roof yesterday in Arizona when three bikers were killed while waiting at an intersection. Several more were hurt.
• We had a verdict in the Tarrant County Intoxication Manslaughter case I was interested in: 16 years - only 4 years short of the maximum. The probation eligible defendant appeared to have some gay qualities, but I hope that played no role in the harsh sentence.
• KLIF's host Jeff Bolton had no idea how big a 25 square foot plot was this morning. "How do you calculate that?" he said. (California is considering legalizing growing marijuana so long as your personal garden of marijuana is no bigger than that size.)
• I'd never be friends with anyone who said they "took a power nap."
• I'll be sitting on my couch holding my Baylor pennant this evening as the Bears are a 4.5 point favorite to move on in the NCAA Tourney. And it's only been seven years since one player murdered another and the coach lied about paying for the dead player's housing suggesting, via secret recording, that they paint him as a drug dealer. (Background.)
• The "no denial for a pre-existing condition" in the new health care bill seems problematic. If I'm an insurance company and I know a new applicant has cancer and will need $30,000 in chemo, can I set his premium at $30,000? By definition, insurance is protection from the unknown.
• And I know I'm going to get killed for that observation.
• Funny moment at driver's license hearing yesterday when a female cop indicated that her name had changed since she had been subpoenaed. "My last name has changed," she said. "Congratulations," the judge said. "Well, actually I'm divorced now." The judge: "Well, congratulations anyway."
• Channel 8 actually had a story about a DWI where there was a child in the car. Trust me, that happens all the time.
• To the commenter yesterday who suggested that I bill my clients for time spent "working" on the blog, put down the crack pipe. I haven't billed by the hour since 1989. But I appreciate your concern. Sign your name next time.
• We are about to set a record for the most consecutive days without hitting 80 degrees. (Cue the anti-global warming nutcases.)

Thursday Afternoon Pick Me Up: Pre-Season Ball Girl Edition

I'll never bad mouth baseball again.

Cops Have Too Much Time In Parker County

Story. I honestly don't remember a prostitution criminal case in Wise County in the last 20 years. In unrelated news, the Messenger just tweeted, "Market goats in ring now." Developing . . .

I'm Out Of The Loop . . .

. . . since I don't watch American Idol so will someone explain who this chick is in the audience and why she has Bloody Face?

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• How much is AT&T paying Luke Wilson to be it spokesperson? And why him?
• The Republicans found some procedural flaw in the health care bill last night which means the House has to vote on it again. That would be like Baylor being excited about forcing UT play them again in football because of an officiating error. It wasn't fun the first time, and I wouldn't want to go through it again.
• You don't hear much about LoJack car security systems anymore.
• And I still think those Brinks Home Security commercials are crazy -- you know, those showing someone violently breaking a front door. And who, in their right mind, would answer the phone seconds after the intruder comes through the door?
• The Wise County Youth Fair was never a big deal when I was a youth.
• Almost a quarter of Republicans think Obama "may be the anti-Christ"?
• I'm always interested in the probation eligible Intoxication Manslaughter defendant who has a clean criminal record. One in Fort Worth gets sentenced by a jury today.
• The jury in the Wise County DWI case deliberated a long time yesterday. And no one texted me with the ultimate verdict like they usually do.
• But I did get to watch part of the video where the defendant raised his handcuffed hands up to camera and started slow clapping, in mock appreciation, the trooper for doing his job.
• I tried to finish my jog outside before the storm hit yesterday. I didn't make it.
• Some of the threats that U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak received by voicemail are disturbing.What is wrong with people?
• And I'll give Bill O'Reilly credit. Last night he had some Congressman on his show and he wanted an answer to a simple question: If someone doesn't comply with the requirement to buy health insurance as a form of protest, what agency is in charge of fining that person? The Congressman wouldn't answer and O'Reilly kept after him.

You Guys Are Right, I Shouldn't Watch MSNBC

Pics of my TV screen a second ago while watching the Rachel Maddow show for the first time. Intimi-what? Edit: That word keeps showing up in graphic after graphic. I guess it's just a play on words, although I'm not the only one to be doing a double take. They probably should have at least put it in quotes or added a hyphen (i.e. "Intimi-Nation"). But maybe I'm just getting stupiderer.

I've Fired Up The Liberally Lean Double Doppler Storm Tracker Radar

From Chico at around 4:00 p.m.:

Today's Video Clip Of The Day Today

W shakes hand with poor person. Wipes said hand on Clinton's shirt. Alternatively, I bring you "Call My Parents" girl.

You Play Judge

A guy is charged with possession of a controlled substance after dope is found in his car after a traffic stop. The reason for the stop was that he had his front license plate behind his windshield. The statute the cop relied upon to make the stop says:

A person commits an offense if the person operates on a public highway . . . a passenger car or commercial motor vehicle that does not display two license plates, at the front and rear of the vehicle . . . .

The defendant files a Motion to Suppress before the trial judge asserting the State can't use the dope they found in the car against him if they did not have a legal reason to stop the car. That's a true statement of the law. But the question it, does having a license plate behind the windshield constitute having the plate at the "front . . . of the vehicle?" Sadly, as of now, the answer depends on whether you are before an appellate court in Austin (who says "no" and the guy goes free) or Amarillo (who says "yes" and the guy is now a convicted felon). If this happened in Wise County, the case goes to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals who gets to make their own decision.

Decatur Socialist Government Limits Profits!

An obvious Obama loving Decatur City Council is about to pass an ordinance that will limit what a private company can earn in the free market!!

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• My bathroom scale is a brand called "Thinner" which is also the name of a Stephen King novel about an attorney who starts losing weight and cannot stop.
• Texas A&M student hits Baylor student while texting which led to a jury verdict last week of $22 million. But since there was little insurance money, this verdict truly "isn't about the money."
• I saw the Tarleton State (??!!) "gay Jesus play" story yesterday morning but didn't mention it because I thought it was too easy of a target. Then Fox 4 led its 9:00 p.m. newscast with it last night.
• If the play was going to run for a month or so, I bet the school would shut it down under pressure. But it's only a one time deal this weekend so I bet they'll weather the storm.
• "Weather the storm" is an odd phrase.
• The stock market is the highest it has been since President Obama took office. I've said it before: It is the economy, and nothing else, that will determine the next presidential election.
• What? A USA Today poll this morning shows that Americans favor the health care bill by at 49%-40% margin. If the Republicans run on a "repeal the bill" platform this fall, they won't get very far.
• Wise County Courthouse painting that stopped me down yesterday.
• They finally found judge-to-be Tom Zachry's body yesterday. In an odd twist, his judicial seat will be filled by someone chosen by the local Tarrant County Republican Party. "[The party chair] said that she has received inquiries from potential candidates to replace Zachry but that 'I'm trying to encourage people to wait until after any services.'" Good lord.
• I'm constantly stunned how few people make eye contact on Decatur sidewalks. It's like being in a zombie movie sometimes. (Happened to me twice yesterday).
• My point yesterday questioning Republican outrage over the health care bill is not that they were outraged, but why it took them this long to get really outraged.
• All the AG's can say the health care bill is unconstitutional because "Congress doesn't have the authority" but under the Commerce Clause, Congress has been able to do anything it wanted for almost 100 years. I agree with the limited federal government proposition, but I gave up that fight a long, long time ago.
• There was a DWI trial going on yesterday in Decatur but I'm not sure what happened. The good thing for the defendant is that there were no field sobriety tests. The bad news is that he cussed out the cop in the patrol car when he was alone but didn't know the cameras were running.
• There should be a rule in basketball that no timeouts can be called during the last 60 seconds.

Tuesday Afternoon Pick Me Up

That's 41 year old Stephanie Seymour (who used to date Axel Rose or something) while vacationing this week in St. Barts. And, man, the paparazzi is all over her there.

Are We Living In The Time Of Idiocracy*?

So, as you may have heard, Vice President Joe Biden dropped an F Bomb today during the signing of the historic health care bill signing. To be expected, Fox News immediately jumped on it like it is THE news of the day. But just when I thought it was only Fox News who had lost its journalistic mind, I heard CBS Radio News lead with the story at the top of the hour. (As of this writing, CNN has it buried on its home page, the Dallas Morning News home page has nothing about it as is the case with the Star-Telegram. But local affiliate Fox 4 had the story on its home page complete with video. Channel 8's website had nothing about it nor did KXAS Channel 5.) Edit: To clear this up for a few, my complaint is how this "news" is handled as real news by major media outlets --- not what makes headlines on a spare small town blog. ___________ * Idiocracy is a movie which portrays America far into the future where the House of Representatives had become The House of Representin', the President was a former Ultimate Fighter, every product had "Extreme" in the name or something like it, and the most popular TV show was nothing but videos of guys getting hit in the groin.

Tourettes Syndrome Guy Hits His Mom?

I'm having a little trouble making out what they are saying because they're not speaking 'merican, but I think the guy is claiming he involuntarily whacks his mom every now and then. And then, coincidentally, he smacks her right in the kisser. I think he hates his momma.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• The official GOP site shows Nancy Pelosi in front of a wall of flames? Have they lost their minds?
• And I don't understand all the Republican congressional outrage yesterday. From John McCain proclaiming he'll fight the bill to a handful of representatives introducing legislation to "repeal" the health care change. Kids, where was all that outrage beforehand? It's too late now.
• If we can skip over baseball, TCU has formalized plans to play its first game at Cowboys Stadium against Oregon State in September.
• I told you Maverick fans to tap the brakes -- they've now lost 3 out of 4.
• For some reason I had people yelling at me for the health care bill yesterday. And more than one was upset about "having to pay for some lady that won't work but has had seven kids." Huh?
• The NFL Network replayed "The Catch" game last night (between the Cowboys and 49ers). For giggles, I googled the box score. Wow. The 49ers killed the Cowboys and won despite having six turnovers.
• You probably heard about some prankster in a Walmart in New Jersey who grabbed the PA mic and told "all black people" to "leave the building." But did you know they tracked him down an arrested him. Arrested? For what?
• A Britney sighting! Hey, now.
• Did you see the video on the news of the Dallas cop who hit the car in the intersection? I bet I replayed it 10 times last night on my TIVO. You can tell how the cop thought the car would continue to cross in front of him so he veers to the right to go behind the car. But the car stops and there's no place to go. Screenshot:
• That clip even made national news on The Today Show this morning.
• A federal appellate court the other day ruled that the estate of Anna Nicole Smith gets nada from the estate of her rich dead husband. That litigation has been going on forever. (And I still love the old wedding pictures.)
• No surprise the Texas AG Greg Abbott plans to file a lawsuit challenging the national health care legislation. If it will get him in front of a camera, he'll file anything.

The Messenger Is Twitter Drunk!

The Messenger twitter feed is normally fairly quiet (except for some crazy reason they decide to post every obituary in a separate tweet.) But apparently they were so excited about "tweeting" the well explosion last Friday that they decided to "live tweet" some beauty contest at the Wise County Youth Fair tonight. It's like being waterboarded. Edit: Joe Duty just posted this pic. What does that say? Double edit: I withdraw that question. You guys can't be trusted.

"Jesus Martinez" might favor health bill, "[b]ut not the Jesus from Nazareth that I know"

More proof that Fox News' Glenn Beck is crazy.

Whodunit?

Background: A few pro-life Democrats had refused to vote for the health care bill yesterday until President Obama signed an Executive Order saying that no federal funds would be used to pay for abortions. And when one of those main Democrats spoke in the House, someone yelled "baby killer!" It looks like it was a Republican from Texan but no one is fessing up. They are keeping a list of who has denied saying it here. Edit: We now have our answer. This is the guy who defeated Charles Stenholm (long time Wise County representative before the Republicans gerrymandered his district.)

I think the crazy guy is on the right

New York Knicks Dancer Fails To Execute

Update On Liberally Lean Tourney

Full list here. (Once again, sponsored by Stagecoach Steakhouse in Bridgeport.)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I guess if you don't like the health care bill that just passed, you can blame Bush. He's the only reason Democrats have majorities in Congress.
• But how does it affect us?
• Plano got six inches of snow? McKinney got seven?
• Very weird thought while watching a basketball game: You never see hand sanitizers on the bench.
• Next month has already set a record for homes posted for foreclosure in North Texas: 6,168. And just when you thought the worst was over.
• The Messenger did a good job of covering the well fire on Friday through updates via its Twitter account. But that has to be what drives newspapers crazy: the best way to provide breaking news also provides no way to sell advertising to go along with it.
• Watched most of Saturday's Baylor game at a place called Frankie's on McKinney Avenue in Uptown. It was weird to see the Bears make a great play and hear other people cheer.
• From there we saw a play at the Wyly Theater in the new AT&T Performing Arts Theater in downtown Dallas. I really plays that are edgy and emotion filled -- it's like you're spying on something you're not supposed to see.
• I saw an Aggie player shoot an air ball during a free throw attempt yesterday against Purdue. I'm not sure I've ever seen that. (But I really wish the Aggies would have won.)
• The Census needs more workers. But knocking on peoples' doors unannounced doesn't sound like the greatest way to make a buck.
• Someone actually called the Sheriff's office this weekend to report road signs vandalized between Decatur and Wichita Falls. It turned out to be blowing snow sticking to them. (Not making this up.)

I Feel Better About Health Care Reform . . .

. . . when I see who is against it. (From a protest in DC yesterday.)