Amy Winehouse Dead

CNN reported it (relying on other sources) before noon. Her song "Rehab" might become iconic.

The Ticket's Gordon Keith predicted it last month. (Video of her last wheels off concert removed, though). Edit: Video here.

Edit:

Wow! Four Dead In Wise County Car Crash Early Saturday Morning

Give Messenger credit. They had a report of three dead shortly after 5:00 this morning. (Question: If the Mustang was passing another vehicle, did the vehicle it passed stop? Not that he had a legal responsibility to, but you would think the driver would. An unidentified commentor posted that the Mustang was racing another vehicle -- something that is absolutely unconfirmed.)

Developing....

Anyone with any info?

Latest shortly before noon: WISE COUNTY, Texas — Four people were killed early Saturday morning in a head-on collision on a rural highway in Wise County.exas Department of Public Safety Trooper Lonny Haschell said the accident happened at 3:15 a.m. on FM 730 about six miles northeast of Decatur when the driver of a northbound Ford F-350 pickup truck saw a southbound Ford Mustang going the wrong way on the two-lane road.

Both drivers apparently tried to take evasive action, but they collided.

Four passengers in the Mustang were declared dead at the scene. The driver of the car was airlifted to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth for treatment of serious injuries. Haschell said some of the victims were teenagers.

The driver of the pickup truck, who was wearing a seatbelt, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Wise Regional Health System.

No names were released and the cause of the accident remains under investigation.


Edit: From WFAA ...

Four passengers in the Mustang were declared dead at the scene.  Two of them have been identified:

• Kevin C. Brickey, 19, of Blue Mound
• Vincent G. Williams, 19, of Wakefield, Massachusetts

The driver of that car, 17-year-old Danny R. Nalley of Fort Worth,  was airlifted to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth for treatment of serious injuries.

Edit: Here's a Facebook pic of a Kevin Brickey who went to Saginaw High School: (Edit: Fox 4 used this photo in its coverage.)

Edit: Star-Telegram article with some updates.

Messenger Above The Fold

His Political Views Are Just Like His Tech Knowledge

Both are based on the Stone Age.

(And I wish there was a Las Vegas betting line on whether this guy is a liar. Easy money.)

The Ex-Wife Of The Guy Who Ran Off With LeAnn Rimes Is Thinking About Taking You Into The Weekend

More.

Last One Out Of America, Turn Out The Lights. We're Done.

Dude. Just, dude.

Twitter and Breaking News

Within the hour, there was a bombing in Oslo, Norway (which I can't even begin to explain) but it's huge news. It sounds like there was a massive explosion next to a building that was very well built.

I find it interesting that the first pics come through Twitter. Some gruesome.

Edit: It gets weirder:

Don't Ask Her What They Call A Quarter Pounder With Cheese In Amsterdam

I don't watch this show so I don't understand what happened when the little kid wrote "78" on the screen. Was she trying to trick the lady or is that kid dumb, too?

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Talked to a person yesterday who had consulted with a Fort Worth lawyer about representation in a felony DWI case and was quoted a fee of $25,000. That is more of a crime than felony DWI. 
• I heard that Fox 4 reporter Krystal Guitterez had the most unfortunate blooper this morning while reporting from Hunt County. I'm working on that. 
• For some reason, Thriller fired up in the middle of the night in the house.
• "Family Angered By Hit and Run Defense".  I don't know if it is true, but the "I don't remember anything" isn't a bad defense in that case. 
• Mrs. LL goes to the grocery store last night and came back with a University of Texas candy bar. Can this marriage be saved? (That question was always on the cover of my mom's old Redbook magazines. At least I think it was Redbook.)
• Want a Texas Theater Oswald T-Shirt?
• Baylor has new uniforms (and will continue to use two different colored helmets which is incredibly unstable. No credible program would ever do that.) Edit: Yep, I forgot about Oregon. But since the football team is basically owned by Nike, they don't count. 
• We had a prostitution arrest in Wise County last night but the warrant had been issued out of Tarrant County. (Booking #71883) That ain't exactly Pretty Woman.
• C.J. Wilson gave up two hits and no earned runs and the Rangers still lost yesterday afternoon. I guess sometimes it's not about pitching (at least until you consider the other guy was equally good.)  And Wilson is going to make a fortune as free agent this winter -- and it won't be from the Rangers.
• Edit for the perpetually confused: When I say "It's all about pitching" I mean "the only way you can be an elite team is through pitching".
• The City of Dallas shutdown a "fake church" which they said was actually a dance club that stayed open until 7:00 in the morning.  The Dallas Observer had a slideshow of the place a few weeks back. I don't think that's First Baptist. 
• An Alvord 27 year old is listed in today's obituaries. Any word on that one? I noted that the Sheriff's Office did have a report of an "unattended death" in Alvord yesterday.
• I watched the second episode of CMT's "Texas Women" (the "reality" show about four chicks in Fort Worth) last night and two of the gals went to the Bridgeport Rodeo!  I would post some screenshots but they showed basically nothing of the crowd or the facility. 
• Whenever I see two women "power walking" (or whatever you call it), they are always yacking up a storm. 
• The "Skippy" guy really wanted me to explain Separation of Church and State. Sure, the 1st Amendment is pretty simple. Government can't establish a religion. Government can't interfere with our free exercise of religion. Sounds like a wall separating the two to me.

And another at the same location!

Edit: Most people agree that the intersection (circled below) would be safer if the eastbound 380 traffic had the option to exit onto Business 380 where the red arrow is depicted.Count me among those people. That's the way it used to be.

Map Prepared By Liberally Lean Engineering Department. All Rights Reserved.

Remember That Guy From The Green Mile Who Married The 16 year Old?

Well, it turns out she's creepier than he is. And is she really 16? Really? If so, she makes those gals on The Real Wives Of [Wherever] look like like 14 year olds.

P.S. Hey, blondie, give me back my dog.

Wise County Government Goes Digital?

Link.

Time Waste Of The Day

Oops: This should have posted at 12:38 p.m. but got sent back to 12:38 a.m. until I fixed it.

Head Shake

I think I'm about to start agreeing with the Obama bashers. This country is going down the toilet, and this little boy is Exhibit A.

Listen, kid. If you wanted the ball, you should have fought for it. Don't let some adult chick in front of you beat you out. You give her an elbow in the ribs, push her aside like an ex-wife, and you take that ball.  That's what America was built on: Getting what you work for. You know. Always Be Closing.   But noooooooooooo.  Nowadays, all a kid has to do is whine like a little girl who lost her Barbie, and the whole world will bend over backwards to make sure he gets something for nothing.

Case closed. I'm moving to Costa Rica.

I Don't Want To Bag On The Messenger, But I'm Going To Bag On The Messenger

They need to get their social media scene together. Case in point: I've been seeing a ton of Decatur kids running in the early morning hours over the last two weeks so I was curious as to what was going on. So I see a tweet this morning from the Messenger come across my Twitter feed.

Maybe Joe Duty has some cool pics. Maybe it's a story on how early those kids get up to run even though school isn't even in session. I'm just interested enough to click on the link, do so, and it takes me to .....

Ok. That's a little confusing. It's the Messenger's website with the text of the tweet reprinted with yet another link. A little frustrating but I'm already there so I clicked on the link and got ........

It's a post from the Messenger's Facebook page telling me to see the preview in this weekend's paper. *sigh*

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Thirty-seven percent of spouses admit to digitally spying on their spouse. I wouldn't think 37% would know how to digitally spy.
• Pretty manly night at the house last night: When I went to bed, there was hair highlighting going on while Phantom of the Opera was on TV.
• Mapsco can't possibly still be in business, can it?
• A screenshot of a Liberally Lean post made Fox 4 last night in a story about the poor-spelling-lawyer-in-the-appellate-brief. (It was voiced over by how that news was all over the "blogosphere.") Unfortunately, my masthead didn't make it. Lari Barager has turned on me once again. 
• There sure are a lot of rumblings that Oklahoma and the Aggies are really upset ever since UT signed a deal with ESPN to create the Longhorn Network.  I'm not sure the Big 12 will still be in existence in three years.
• Me to Mrs. LL  last night as she walked by: "Love me?" Mrs. LL: "Usually."  Wait. What? (It was followed by a laugh. Funny. I think.)
• Sean Hannity sure is mad at Republicans for slowly backing down on the Debt Ceiling Crisis. But I'll give him credit for calling them on the carpet when he gets them on his program. 
• Hal Jay and WBAP staff were laughing about a report in San Francisco of an electronic construction warning sign being hacked to warn of zombies. They wondered if such a thing would ever happen here. Note: The same thing happened in Austin two years ago.
• The Rangers scored eight runs last night but had their 12 game winning streak come to an end. Have I told you how it is all about pitching?
• Three college students were swept over a waterfall at Yosemite after climbing over a rail. When Googling the name of the waterfall, I came across this unrelated image of three guys standing in front of the same rail with the waterfall in the background. 
• As of 4:57 a.m. this morning, the money pit of the Space Shuttle program is finally over. 
• Baylor says that daily Bible reading makes you more liberal (or at least more interested in "social justice.") Kidding aside, that makes perfect sense.
• American Airlines has lost $4 billion since 2007 so it just ordered 460 new planes at an estimated cost of $36 billion. That doesn't make perfect sense.
• The BagOfNothing guy posted a clip of Bono and The Edge signing while sitting next to David Letterman. I finally watched it but became irritated when the audience-clap-along started which I hate even more that The Wave. However, I think Bono hated it too because he got The Edge to change the beat until it stopped. (2:35 mark.)

Unrelated News That Got My Attention

The Dallas lawyer who thought he had done something worthy by shooting a huge alligator in Texas has an arrest warrant out for him. You knew the Game Warden would find a way to get him. Edit: Wow. Texas Parks and Wildlife is even promoting the arrest by a press release.

The Dallas Morning News proves it is one step closer to death as its biggest (and hugely overrated) sports columnist, Jean-Jacques Taylor,  is headed to ESPNDallas.com. The over/under until he uses the phrase "abject failure" in a column is two weeks. In his defense, writing for a newspaper that keeps your work behind a paywall probably isn't the best gig these days.

A caller to the Fort Worth Star Telegram believes Beach Street at 820 is not in Haltom City. The youtube clip the paper put together is pretty funny.

Calling My Real Estate Law Buddies (If I Have Any)

I saw this story the other night and the only part that really got my attention was this guy filing the "avidavit" (pic below.)  But if a mortgage company forecloses on a house and then goes bankrupt, I can just move in an own the house by "adverse possession" after x number of  years?  (That link is pretty instructive and even refers to an "affidavit of adverse possession.") I'm skeptical, though.

And I think our freeloading hero might have a tax problem. Won't the local taxing entities sell the property at auction for unpaid real estate taxes? And won't the buyer have title free and clear?

But, as I always say, if the file doesn't have an indictment in it, I'm not the guy to ask.

Does This Look Like A Texas Couple . . .

. . . who got into a fight after their three year old grandchild found a loaded pistol on the dresser and when the cops got to the house the guy pointed out the gun which was near some meth?

(Just by reading the bold faced words you know this was not going to end well.)

Source.

We've Got A "Best Of" Robbery!

Who's here every morning? Who would never bore you with a Minerals Club announcement or FHA news? Who doesn't post pictures of gruesome car crashes (so what if it's because I can't get there in time)? Who gives you Random Girls? Who is your most trusted source in news even if it's based on rumor and hearsay? Who gives a forum to Double Fakes? Who keeps you up to date on Britney? Who is free?

Who has never ran a "best blog" or "best website" contest and declared themselves the winner?

This guy!!!!!

And to think people consider the Casey Anthony verdict an injustice. It's a dark day in Wise County, my friends. A dark day indeed.

Edit: One of the commentors is right. If the Liberally Lean Nation doesn't gather at the courthouse and have a Middle East type uprising, something's wrong.

Young People Just Can't Stay Committed These Days

I know I blogged about these girls before, but for some reason I can't find anything when I search the archives of Liberally Lean.  (That's a shame. What if Mark Twain's best work was lost to the ages?)

Anyway, these two used to be cute little Nazi's that had a band named Prussian Blue. They are making news this week because they are all grown up, have given up their minority hating ways, and are pretty much hippies (they both hold medical marijuana cards.)

(Although there can't technically be a good White Supremacist T-shirt, the one they used to sport was probably about as clever as you could get.)

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Need a little help: There was a drama-type show on Saturday morning (not a cartoon) in the 1970s that depicted a family, a boat, and perhaps Hawaii. (I think it came on after Land of the Lost). I have no idea what the name of it was but for some reason it's bugging me. I remember they wore the same clothing in every show. Edit: Ok, the older daughter wore a halter top. (For research purposes only.)
• Edit: The readers come through!!!! It was "Westwind" -- which ran one year and had 13 episodes. (The dad in the show had played the Green Hornet in a prior TV series.)
• The Rangers raising the height of the railing in response to the guy that died recently is silly. God bless the guy, but he was 100% at fault in that incident.
• I jogged the other morning before sunrise and came across another jogger who ran behind me for about a mile with a flashlight attached to him. That was creepy -- the light bouncing off the ground in front of me. I felt like I was about to be a victim in a slasher movie.
• The A/C repair guy left the coolest and greatest flashlight in the attic. Do I have an obligation to call the company?
• Someone commented yesterday that they thought it was odd that I was disturbed by the deaths of those in their 40s. Hey, send me your long list of accomplishments because apparently life has nothing left to offer you once you hit 50. 
• Yeah, that sounded a little grumpy of me. 
• Mrs. LL planted a tree last night. I offered to help but you would have thought I was interrupting De Vinci while creating a work of art. 
• The Rangers collective ERA over this 12 game winning streak is 1.91. (Or so the radio told me this morning when I was half asleep.) It's all about pitching. 
• A guy committed suicide over the weekend who is now believed to have run a Madoff-like Ponzi scheme that sucked in a bunch of coaches (including Baylor's basketball coach). But the craziest one is new Texas Tech basketball coach Billy Gillispie who lost $2.3 million -- the exact amount of his settlement with Kentucky after they fired him.
• Rupert Murdock is a modern day snake oil salesman, but I hated to see someone try to give him the pie-in-the-face treatment yesterday while testifying in England. (But I hope Mrs. LL would slap any would be attacker like his young wife did.) 
• The Messenger has a story today about how a Bridgeport running back might miss the season after a blood clot scare last week. I don't know why it stuck out, but one of the sentences contained a quote from him along with the phrase that he was speaking "while his parents were in the room." I guess that was just a disclaimer of "Hey, we are reporting on a minor's medical condition but we want you to know his parents say it is OK." 
• Speaking of, the Messenger's "Best Of Wise" edition is out today (or whatever they call it now.) If they don't have a Best Blog category (they used to) and if I don't win it again (check out my mantle) , I'll never steal material from them again. 

Messenger Above The Fold

I should do this more often. I suppose they wouldn't mind since you would see the same thing if you looked down at the paper in the convenience store.

Edit: For the official Internet Record, I received three negative comments that were too harsh to print.

Lawyer Slap Down - For Those Who Like That Sort Of Thing

Some high school girl out of Carrollton didn't make the cheerleading squad and files a federal lawsuit. It gets thrown out at the trial level and then it is appealed to the Fifth Circuit. The Court issued the opinion last week that began with (ouch):

 And ended with (double ouch):

And they even finished it off in a footnote with a roundhouse punch that Rocky would have been proud of (Correction!!!! I, mean "of which Rocky would have been proud." )

Source (with thanks to "My Other Brother Daryl").

Edit: The Above The Law blog identifies the lawyers as Harry Jones and Jessica Brown

The Fad of "Leisure Dive"?

No wonder they hate us for our freedom. (Website.)

Liberally Lean Adopt-A-Rider: Laurens Ten Dam

I really haven't watched much of the Tour De France but, when I have, I've seen more bodies fly around than at UFC fight. It's Crash City this year.

Which brings me to: This weekend I learned of the guy in the video who continued to race despite not being able to win any Male Afternoon Pick Me Up Awards after the crash. (Pic.) Maybe a Pic-Me-Ugh Award instead.  But I've got a question: On Sunday, I'm sure I saw a medical car pull up next to him while he was pedaling away, and I'm sure I saw him grab the car and just get towed along as he talked to the medical team inside. It only lasted less than a minute, but is that legal?  I'd hate to see the first ever Liberally Lean Adopted Rider get disqualified.

You Guys With The Helmets And Guns Got My Back, Right?

"Get him! Get him! Get him!"

"Maybe we need to go over that plan one more time."

Source.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• What's up with these monster billboards in Wise County with lawyers' faces plastered on them? Looks like I'm going to have to raise the bar: Get ready for the Speedo Barry Billboard.
• Lingering motorcycle death in Haltom City (as well as a summary of the two deaths from yesterday.)
• Motorcycle death in Keller last night.
• Nolan Ryan was hospitalized for chest pains, is said to be fine, but will be released later in the week. A few days in the hospital when you're fine?
• The (a?) Decatur livestock auction house has been on the news the last couple of days as ranchers unload their cattle due to the drought.
• Three obituaries for forty-something year olds in the Update today. Creeps me out. 
• The Wichita County DA's office is weird: It had a grand jury "no bill" (decline to indict) 34 cases in a single day and then releases the names of those not charged to the media. Why not just kill the cases up front, don't waste the grand jury's time on the crappy cases, and not embarrass those who don't deserve to be charged? 
• The Space Shuttle will make its final landing in two days. Certainly NASA wants to make this a media event so how about a prime time landing? Nope. It'll be 4:57 a.m. Texas time. Nice planning. 
• There's a guy in town who will speak to me for an incredibly short period of time but he always leaves me confused by the conversation. I think I figured it out yesterday as he walked away: He thinks I'm my law partner. 
• Sounds like the NFL Lockout is coming to an end. I'm really, really surprised about that. Fantasy Football Players are more happy than the generic NFL fan. 
• "Don't spend your money on possessions. Spend it on experiences." - The boys on The Ticket after getting back from their vacations. I've thought about that. A lot. And I don't know if I agree with that. Random justification: I'd rather have a nice wireless printer/scanner than a meal at Del Frisco's.
• Mrs. LL started yelling at a lady on TV last night who was complaining about having to spend a couple of hundred bucks for her kid to ride the bus in Keller ISD. (I think something about not being able to afford it while at the same time seeing her son who look liked he was playing $elect Ba$eball.) I finally had to say, "Hey, babe. I'm not on her side."
• CNN broadcast a video of 16 people being executed by the Taliban yesterday, and I can't believe they showed it. Yeah, it's news. Yeah, it shows how "evil" the Taliban is. But, man, TV is turning into the Internet.
• Kate Upton slow motion catwalk video. 
• Any of you ever driven down Padre Island from Corpus Christi. It's some sixty miles or so. Safe? Edit: I mean drive along the beach.
• Superstar pitcher Roy Halladay had to be taken out of the game last night after four innings once the heat got to him. It was 91 degrees (!!!) when the game began.
• Yeah, this heat wave doesn't "prove" global warming but it sure does shut up the Al Gore haters. If you're goofy enough to make fun of him after a single cold day in May, that same astute scientific analysis will shut you up after a string of sixteen or so 100 degree temperature days.

President Obama Joke Falls Flat

I thought it was kind of funny.

I'm Impressed

Normally I don't post videos of kids-doing-wacky-things-that-turn-out-badly but this was pretty impressive.

(And for you Tosh.0 fans, this clip is just begging for a Web Redemption.)

Wise County Reunion

Saw this video which looks to be about a year old but only with 67 hits. Figured some of the locals might like it.

I remember as a kid I was confused by the (look the other way) gambling that was going on.  There was a huge three-sided dart throwing booth that was the equivalent of playing roulette using darts instead of a marble. You could place your bets in cash on the black or red square in front of you and then one of the bettors would throw a dart onto a massive checkerboard.  Red or black paid 2 to 1. However, all the squares were separated by about a 1/4" to 1/2" border in white. If the dart hit there, the house won.

Those days are gone.

Edit: Someone questioned the color scheme, and I'll concede I may be wrong about that. They all said that the border didn't go to house but paid 3 to 1. Hmmm. I guess that's possible. I just remember everyone losing their money when a border was hit and it's possible there weren't many 3 to 1 bettors.

(Someone posted a comment earlier complaining about a Latino band that is scheduled to play on one of the nights this year --- that got me thinking about Reunion.)

When Pulling Into Dos Chiles

I saw this bumper sticker. At that moment, I knew I had returned to my homeland.

It's a little hard to read, but it says "For The Truth About Islam" with a reference to  thestraightway.org.  I didn't look at all the site, but I was quickly hit with the "Obama is a Muslin" page. Who would have thought?

And I never did reference the poll I posted on vacation.  I guess we're not big fans of the Muslim tourist trade.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• WFAA was all over "breaking news" yesterday morning about a former Dallas Cowboy who was arrested in downtown Dallas on minor intoxication charges. It turned out to be Stephen Hodge. Who? Hodge was on the team from 2009 to 2010 but was never on the active roster and never played a down. Doesn't take much to make news these days.
• Strange sight: The DART bus that crashed into a building over the weekend. I mean the whole bus was in the building.
• I'm a Ron Paul fan.
• I went to the Water Gardens in Fort Worth on Friday night (an often forgotten gem) and Mrs. LL just had to get in. But the humidity caused by all of that water was off the charts.
• Ate at Dos Chiles in Bridgeport on Sunday. You know, that's a pretty impressive building, and the food was really good. The service, however, was lacking which might of had something to do with the party of 30 sitting nearby (including eight kids who kept banging into our chairs like it was McDonald's Playland.)
• For the Liberally Lean female fans who have been ignored too long: Up and coming NBA star Blake Griffin at the beach.
• JLo is getting divorced after eight years. It lasted longer than I thought it would. Remember when she was engaged to Ben Affleck? The man dodged a bullet. 
• Did you see that Rick Perry said he felt "called" to run for President.. He teases us more than Donald Trump, but this guy is actually going to run. And he'll get crushed.
• Visited the Bible Baptist Church in Bridgeport on Sunday to see a baptism. Afterwards a man came up to me and introduced himself. "I thought that was you! I don't know you but I read that blog."  I told him he might want to keep it down. 
• No hurricanes this year?
• Motorcycle death in Arlington last night.
• Edit: Another motorcycle death near Springtown after running from trooper. (No link yet.)
• I wouldn't surprise me if all of those small earthquakes around Texas (there was another one on Sunday) are due to fracking.
• Yesterday was thirty year anniversary of an event I hardly remember: The collapse of a skywalk at a Kansas City Hilton which killed 114 people.
• I've to to give Breaking Bad a chance. People were buzzing about last night's premiere. 

Casey Anthony Freed

Video.

Edit: On Monday morning, KLIF had on "former federal prosecutor" Fred Teece who said "the defense didn't do a damn thing in the case" and, in fact, only made if more likely that she would have got convicted. Moreover, any competent defense lawyer could have obtained an acquittal "in six minutes."  When he was asked by the host why the prosecutor would try the case in the first place, he said. "You've got to because you've got a dead three year old girl. You take a shot of sake, scream 'Bonzi", and do your best."

That is the greatest threat to our system: Reckless prosecutors who pursue baseless cases because they are scared of the political fallout from doing the right thing.

Most Entertaining Moment From Today's Women's World Cup Final

Kid Likes Soccer. And Cake.