From The Star-Telegram's Photos of Haunted House

Link.

Sorry, I'm distracted by watching the Baylor's defense leak like something that leaks a lot against Texas Tech. (But if you want to see the worst onside kick of all time from the game, click here.)

Bridgeport Falls Asleep, Still Wins

ALDS Logo Painted On Field At The Ballpark In Arlington This Morning

Edit: In unrelated news, the Mavs coach fainted during practice and taken away by ambulance.

And Another

It's been forever since I've had a Teacher Gone Bad post, but we've got a plea bargain on one out of Tarrant County.

And that looks like a school T-shirt with "Standards & Traditions" on the front.

Elizabeth Hurley, 45

Oh, my. (She's not dead or anything -- just 45 years old and flauntin'.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Ugh: I accidentally scheduled this for 8:35 PM which caused the delay. Sorry. 
• Bad way to start off the day
• My movie watching has fell off a cliff. Edit: Ok, I sounded like Ron Washington on that one.
• Heck of a Brett Favre scandal that broke on Deadspin yesterday (and it ain't family friendly).
• The neighbor kid who is now hanging around asked me if my new car was "a rental". What's your dad been saying kid?
• Dish Network and Fox Southwest are in a standoff and the channel (and some others) haven't been available for two or three weeks. That would drive me nuts.
• The Tooth Fairy came to my house last night and I learned of a tradition: She typically leaves a door unlocked and one of the pictures on the wall slightly crooked. (Uh, creepy.) 
• The two games won by the Rangers is amazing. I remember watching them at the old Arlington Stadium when I was a little kid and, unless they screw this up  -- which is possible, we're about to see them play in the American League Championship Series. I never believed it was possible. 
• But the Florida governor did a horrible job on the first pitch.
• "Hey, now"?
• Two Baylor receivers were arrested last Sunday on misdemeanor marijuana charges. Yet another reason it needs to be legal. (And it'll be interesting to see if that conservative school will suspend them for the most minor of crimes.)
• Read that one of the pigs in the pig races at the State Fair was named Amy Swinehouse.
• I hate the word "supper". Mrs. LL says "supper" a lot. We compromise: She tries not to say it, and I bite my tongue when she does.
• Does the "Battle of the Big Sandy" still generate as much excitement as it used to? I'm not so sure. 
• Parking Hades in Arlington this weekend. Saturday: Aggies/Arkansas at the Death Star starts at 12:30 p.m. and Ranger game starts at 4:07 p.m. Sunday: Ranger game (if necessary) starts at 12:07 p.m. and Cowboy game starts at 3:15 p.m.
• If I find myself with an extra 10 minutes in the morning, I clean and straighten stuff up. Something is definitely wrong with me. 
• Motorcycle death in Irving shutdown 183 in Irving all morning. 
• Victoria's Secret has launched a Halloween line. What took them so long?

Brit Better Step It Up

Or I'll replace her as the Official Chick of Liberally Lean.

We got standards around here.

Random Updates

• The murder trial is still going on but I think the State is close to resting. Autopsy photos were shown today and we learned the victim had a lung disease which contributed to her death. If I heard the testimony correctly, she lived for about 11 days before dying.  The bullet almost missed her as it crossed under her left breast, out, and then through right arm. But she wouldn't have died but for the internal bleeding caused by the bullet. As you might expect, her poor health is not a defense.
• Edit: The trial is proceeding with 11 jurors. I had thought that the juror that fainted was just on the panel, not the jury. Nope. Apparently, right after the trial began he raised his hand, said he wasn't feeling well, walked out of the jury box and collapsed only to be caught by a DA investigator.
• There's a bad wreck out on 380 (at least a tweet from the Messenger said that.)
• Follow the Rangers at 1:37 p.m.  My sports radio buddies said this morning that Tampa Bay's pitcher has been awful all year and even worse over the last 30 days. 

Edit: Jury found the defendant guilty of capital murder late Friday Thursday afternoon. That's life without parole.  

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Fox 4 had an update on the Trooper-Smashes-Girl's-Face-Into-Wall case last night. The Dallas DA's office had earlier presented a felony case to the grand jury who refused to indict the trooper (wow). The next day the DA filed the misdemeanor case which doesn't require grand jury approval. At first I thought this was political grand standing by DA Craig Watkins, now I think he did the right thing.
• Unless he holds a press conference about the case. 
• That's still a shocking video. I've seen Troopers act like jerks but never cross the line like that.
• The MDA Labor Day Telethon will be shortened to six hours next year. About time.
• Fantastic job by the Rangers yesterday. Baseball is always about pitching. (And, yes, I'm on record predicting they would lose in the first round.)
• Mrs. LL and I listened to Ron Washington's post game press conference just to listen for subject-predicate disagreements. We was not disappointed.
• That Westboro Baptist Church case (the funeral protesters), which was heard in front of the Supreme Court yesterday, has some good facts for the crazy church. The guy suing them never saw them when he left the funeral yet sued for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.
• There is some transgendered kid who wants to run for Homecoming Queen in the Dallas ISD -- don't we hear something like this every year? And the 7th grader of my Family Unit sure had a question mark form over her head as she walked past the TV when that story was on.
• Speaking of, it's kind of hard to watch the news sometimes with kids in the house. 
• An accused drunk driver smashed into a Dallas cop last night. The exact same thing happened a couple of weeks ago in Tarrant County.
• There was that  weird case a couple of weeks ago where a boater was shot and killed from the Mexican side of Falcon Lake. I remember about 20 years ago that there was a warning issued about boating down the Rio Grande because of rifle fire from the Mexican side once you got into some canyon areas.
• But Rick Perry is trying to capitalize on the boater shooting talking about how he wants to stomp out "border violence". As Texas Monthly pointed out a couple of months back, there really is no border violence on the Texas side (i.e. only one murder in El Paso through June despite widespread violence in Juarez.)
• More "Cigar Guy" photoshops.
• NFL Cheerleader "Hot and Not" in same pic from last weekend.

Drinkin' Dirty

Link.

In the 1990s, there were two huge lawsuits that took weeks to try in Wise County about this same issue. The first one ended up in a multi-million dollar verdict ($70 million?) but it was reversed on appeal because of a statute of limitations issues. The next one ended up in a verdict in favor of the defendants.

But there is a guy in Montague County suing for a "flaming faucet."

Man Robs Bank In North Fort Worth This Morning. Shots Fired. And He's On The Loose

Anyone's cousin missing right now?

Link.

(Thanks, MzChief)

It's Playoff Baseball at 12:37

The Texas Rangers vs. Tampa Bay. I'm getting lucky because I have to be in Jacksboro at 1:30 which means I get to listen to it guilt free.

You can follow the game on Yahoo (I like it the best) here.

What The Heck Is Going On At Our Courthouse?

(Thanks, Jenny.)

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Wow: The video of the DPS trooper slamming the young girl into the side of the wall of the Dallas Tollway made me yell, "OHHHHH!!!!" last night when I first saw it.  (And the only criminal charge filed of misdemeanor assault is a joke. I've had Agg Assault cases filed with 99% less justification than that.)
• And the criminal defense attorney, Kevin Clancy, that Fox 4 had on last night to discuss the case was as clueless as anyone I've ever seen. The wall can't be a deadly weapon? That huge scar doesn't qualify as "serious bodily injury"? Have you been in a courtroom lately?
• If you are following the feud between a district judge in Collin County, their DA, and their District Clerk, I have this assessment: They are all crazy.
• I've gave up hope on fixing the Family Truckster and broke down and bought a replacement: A Dodge Charger. Stylin' young, but not too young.
• Had to plea a female client to jail sentence yesterday after she violated her DWI probation. The deal was fair, but I hated watching those tears roll down her cheeks. 
• You don't know a beat down until you buy two cars in 10 days when you haven't had a car payment for three years.
• There was a political rumor last night that Hillary Clinton would change places with Joe Biden on the Democratic Presidential ticket for 2012. I'd be a little nervous about Biden causing a nuclear war due to some goofy statement made while on an international trip.
• Ugh. Baylor's basketball program almost went to the Final Four last year and now one it's best players gets arrested for allegedly breaking his girlfriend's jaw. Baylor President Ken Starr will certainly launch a multi-million dollar investigation. 
• Not going to link to it, but the paparazzi sites covering Ice-T's and CoCo's weekend trip to the beach reveal the most wheels off bathing suit ever. 
• Another sign the economy and President Obama are turning it around: American Airlines just announced it is recalling 800 employees, and the Dow is about to crack 11,000. 
• It was confirmed this morning that the New England Patriots traded Randy Moss to the Vikings? I'll be. (My favorite Moss moment is when a reporter asked him how he was going to pay a $10,000 fine since he said he didn't write checks: "Straight cash, homey.")
• That murder trial in Decatur is like an actual murder trial -- pretty interesting. And one of the largest crowds in the gallery in quite some time. 
• Oh, yeah, the Rangers have a playoff game in Florida. During. Work. Hours.

Bridgeport Cheerleader Says Outfits Too Skimpy

Which would normally cause me to send out my team or reporters to cover the story, but it's Bridgeport, Connecticut.   You just knew it had to be some liberal Yankee girl that would say something so silly.

Rivals – According to the Connecticut Post and NBC Connecticut, Heidi Medina, the captain of Bridgeport Central’s cheerleading squad, stood before the Bridgeport Board of Education in her team’s standard uniform, which bares athletes midriffs and uses either small shorts or baggy sweatpants as bottoms, to make a statement that it was inappropriate. Medina and fellow seniors insist that the Central uniforms do not meet regulations that require cheerleader uniforms to cover an athlete’s midsection when they stand at attention.”It really hurts our self esteem,” Bridgeport Central senior Ariana Mesaros told the Board of Education, according to the Post. “I am embarrassed to stand up here dressed like this. Is this really how you want Bridgeport to be represented?” As noted by NBC Connecticut, the Bridgeport cheerleaders’ plea comes on the heels of a recent study of college cheerleaders, which found that college cheerleaders whose uniforms exposed midriffs faced a significantly higher risk of developing eating disorders. For it’s part, the Bridgeport Board of Education is moving quickly to quell the controversy, with the assistant superintendent of secondary schools telling the Post that black bodysuits would be purchased for the Central cheerleaders to wear under their uniforms. Still, the incident raises a troubling disparity between what cheerleaders are expected to look like, and what might be most healthy for them. While the eating disorder study focused on college cheerleaders, there’s little doubt that the findings are significant for high school cheerleaders, too.

University of North Texas And/Or Todd Dodge Is Cursed

Never were there more bigger expectations for UNT's football team when Todd Dodge left the non-humble confines as Southlake's head coach and went to Denton. However, it has been an unmitigated disaster. He went from this:

2002	Southlake Carroll	16	0	5A Division II state champions
2003	Southlake Carroll	15	1	lost title game 16-15 to Katy
2004	Southlake Carroll	16	0	5A Division II state champions
2005	Southlake Carroll	16	0	5A Division II state champions
2006	Southlake Carroll	16	0	5A Division I state champions

to this

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl	Coaches#	AP°
North Texas Mean Green (Sun Belt Conference) (2007–present)
2007	North Texas	2–10	1–6	7th		—	—
2008	North Texas	1–11	0–7	8th		—	—
2009	North Texas	2–10	1–7	8th		—	—
2010	North Texas	0–3	0–0	—		—	—
North Texas:		5–34	2–20
Total:		5–34

He started the season with about as big of a mandate as you could get from the athletic director: Win six games are you out. But he had hope because the team was actually getting some pretty good preseason predictions. But then

• His starting quarterback hurt his hip and had to have surgery. Out for the year.
• His backup, and I think it was in the next game, was also injured and out for the year.
• Then, after turning to his son to play quarterback (who had been playing wide receiver), the kid breaks a wrist last weekend and now he's gone indefinitely.

That's some misery.

And if things couldn't get more bizarre:


North Texas receiver Tyler Stradford will miss two games following surgery for injuries he suffered trying to escape a dog at his apartment complex last week. UNT coach Todd Dodge said Stratford was running a way from the dog when he "jumped a fence, landed on a piece of lawn furniture and had a piece of pipe puncture four inches into his chest." He's expected to be back on Oct. 30, but seriously man, take all the time you need with that.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I go outside for a second yesterday and then back in only to find both kids banished to their rooms for the night. Something about a fight over a water bottle that turned into a BIG deal. I'm glad I was outside. 
• And then this morning everyone wakes up as happy as can be. Nighttime must be magic.
• College girls wear those shoes to football games? (At Alabama last weekend.)
• Story in yesterday's Star-Telegram said three police officers with Sansom Park had been fired and the police chief, Tony White, has been placed on leave with pay. I wonder if that's the same Tony White that used to be chief of police in Rhome?
• More gold in the commercial where the little giraffe kisses the nutty guy: In the beginning, their are live dogs playing poker in the background.
• Rick Perry has a new "border control" campaign ad. (You know, how he glares at the border menacingly as some border agent points out something in the distance.)  The only time that guy thinks about the border is at campaign time.
• Watching a little kid sound like an adult as she chastised a little puppy is pretty cute. 
• What closed Blue Mound Road in far northern Tarrant County last night?
• I've got Sirius satellite radio for a three month free trial. Not bad. But I stumbled across Howard Stern this morning --- sheer radio anthrax. 
• Horrific video yesterday of a Ukrainian lion tamer being mauled in what sounds to be a bunch of children.  Of course, poking the unrestrained animal with a stick beforehand probably didn't help matters.
• The Tea Party candidate who once said she dabbled in witchcraft on Bill Maher's show now has a new campaign ad that starts off, "I'm not a witch." That has to be a first.
• Wow, all those people with offices out in center field will for the first time have to purchase tickets to watch the game from their balconies. The Rangers blame Major League Baseball for the edict. Riiiighhhttt.
• The Mayor of Arlington was on WBAP this morning talking seriously about where the parade route would be if the Rangers won the World Series (and not once did he hesitate because of potential bad karma.) Does he not remember when Laura Miller of Dallas was roasted for doing the same thing when the Mavericks were in the finals against the Heat?

I Completely Missed This Over The Weekend

As much as Jim Knox whips us during Ranger season, it did my heart good to see him get leveled at the start of the Colorado game. (Although that might be another instance of sorriness from the guy that did it.)

(Thanks emailer, Will.)

Think The Bridgeport Index Screwed Up This Ad?

Acting Like A Fool

Sheesh. And why do I want to go to an NFL game when at least I'm safe on my couch. At least until Mrs. LL slaps me up side of the head for sitting on the couch too much.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• The chances of Dallas DA Craig Watkins rushing the police-officers-beating-motorcyclist cases to the grand jury for political purposes? 100%.
• The Ranger/Tampa Bay games are at 12:37 p.m. on Wednesday and 1:37 p.m. on Thursday? Does Major League Baseball want to run itself into the ground?
• My Saturday morning walk pic. 
• Before the Texas/OU game someone suggested we walk around the block since it was so nice outside. "How sweet," I thought. When I returned I found the house outfitted in UT streamers and signs. 
• Baylor won big on Saturday (despite a horrible turnout by apathetic students). The last time Baylor won when UT, Tech, and A&M lost was 1991.
• I felt horrible on Saturday morning when I was jogging. A Down's syndrome kid was on the path and ran away from me as I came towards him as his mother, nearby, yelled at him to stop. I wanted to hug the kid. 
• Football note: When it's all said and done, Michigan's QB Denard Robinson may surpass Vince Young as the greatest college football player ever.
• Cool student trick: Iowa kids wearing alternating color shirts depending on what section they were in. But did one section not get the message? 
• I'm getting old: Watching children playing and laughing gives rise to a peaceful feeling. 
• I think the Family Truckster gave up the ghost this morning. Over 200,000 miles and a lot of memories. 
• Parkland Hospital is known around the world as the best burn injury treatment facility in the world. That takes doctors. And one of their best doctors has died: In, ugh, a motorcycle crash.
• "Texas Lawyers Divided Over 'Sex With Clients' Rule." Wait. What?
• Two 19 year olds from Boyd were killed over the weekend in Denton County in a wreck. Hadn't heard about that until I saw it in the Update. 
• Is it just me, or is it odd to refer to your son as "smoking hot"?
• Crazy woman sues Jerry Jones for sexual assault.

Someone Sent Me This And I Can't Get Her (?) Out Of My Head

Here she is in a video clip.

(Thanks, Chris.)

Put This In The "Greatest Golf Photo Ever" Box

Story.

Edit: Someone has pointed out that the "cigar guy" is a hidden piece of gold in this golden photograph:

And you just knew this was coming: