"And I ................"

Why Didn't The Messenger Quote My Press Release?

Seriously? Did I read that right? Am I on Earth?

 I linked to the press release on this blog which everyone knows is authored by me. That press release is on the website of smith-green.com which might possibly be my firm's website. And my office refers them to the  press release's URL when they call. And that is not confirming its authenticity? It's Journalism 101. At least the way it was taught since something called the Internet was invented.

I've always said I love the Messenger. Through the years, they have served a valued service to this county. But if they refuse to report news because it's on a blog they somehow view as threatening to its existence, it is turning it's back to it's mission: To distribute information to the public.

For years I've considered hiring one photographer, one reporter, and one salesperson. And I know who I'd choose. Don't tempt me.

Edit: The Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy didn't think much of the Messenger's explanation.

Emergency Taking You Into The Weekend Part 2

If this was released because of sweeps month, someone at Fox 4 News is a marketing genius.

Arianny Celeste Taking You Into The Weekend

I'm A Sport Observation Genius

Big time LA columnist today:

Me a few days ago:

DWI and A Friday Morning Pick Me Up -- All In One

Woman Says Breast Implants Saved Her Life: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I dreamed I was playing golf in a twosome with a famous fashion designer. They guy took 20 minutes to examine a chip shot which caused four groups behind us to gather at the tea tee box. (Before you guys psychoanalyse me, yesterday (1)  I watched a little of the Pebble Beach Pro Am, and (2) I read another account of the Springtown guy stabbed with a golf club a couple of weeks ago. Now the fashion designer part is a little hard to explain.)
• We didn't just bring freedom to Iraq, we turned it into Texas: The government has executed 65 prisoners in 40 days.
• The First Lady was at the Olive Garden off of Heritage Trace in North Fort Worth yesterday. That looks to be just about 10 miles from the Wise County line. Has Wise County ever had a First Lady cross the county line before?
• Mark Levin, who sounds like an idiot for what he says but is a genius for realizing the number of people who will believe it, has the New York Times #1 bestseller. How can it not be? He promotes it constantly on his nationally syndicated radio show and Sean Hannity provides him a radio and TV platform to promote it as well. (Last night he had Levin on and called it an "intellectual book." Sheesh.)
• Big 12 Fans: It sounds like West Virginia has reached an exit agreement with the Big East and will join the Big 12 in time for fall football. Road trip to Morgantown anyone?
• The current County Judge of Guadalupe County (and a former DPS trooper) is arrested for possessing pot in a College Station hotel room.  I bet he gets re-elected and there's no reason he shouldn't be. 
• The weather guy of Fox 4 was saying this morning that the National Weather Service needed to update its forecast. He was predicting sleet for Sunday night and that it might not make it to 40 degrees tomorrow.
• What's the eligibility issue of the Brock girls player that's been in the Update?
• I heard from a third person yesterday that the Messenger won't print any of my press release on the County Commissioner story this week unless I "fax" it to them. That cannot possibly be true. (Edit: The Star-Telegram references it.)
• Edit: And to the genius who keeps telling me to "quit trying to influence" potential jury members, uh, what potential jury? A criminal charge doesn't even exist. The only thing that has transpired is the issuance of a search warrant.
• Facepalm last night: Fox 4 ran a video of a guy firing a pistol into his daughter's laptop after a "disrespectful Facebook post" and then brought a shrink on to discuss if his conduct was appropriate. 
• Crazy criminal case out of Denton decided on appeal yesterday: A jury convicts a guy of manslaughter and sentences him to probation.  The verdict is accepted, and the jury is then discharged. A little bit later the judge learns somehow that there might be confusion with the verdict, and the jury is rounded back up. Four jurors then say probation was not their verdict. The judge tells them to go back and deliberate some more. They do, and later come back with a six year prison sentence without probation. The court of appeals yesterday said it was wrong to re-impanel the jury after their original verdict was accepted. Oddly, instead of imposing the original probated sentence, the court remand the case back for a brand new punishment hearing. All the while, the defendant has been sitting in prison since August 4, 2010.
• People in prison who claimed Wise County as their home at the time of the offense. Represent.

Separation Of Church And State Case Settled. Judge Fires Off A Closing Shot.

Explained for those interested.

And Now From The Completely Irrelevant Department

Helicopter Parent and No-Chance-Senate-Candidate Craig James has endorsed Rick Santorum. Wow, what a game changer!!!!

A Kardashian In Wise County?

Link.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Body found in "shallow grave" in Clay County. Never a good sign.
• I obviously can't publish the comments on the County Commissioner story, but I appreciate those that are submitted. It's good to hear the wide-ranging feedback and the tips as well. Edit: And I'm stunned the Update author was oblivious to my press release yesterday when even WFAA Channel 8 quoted it. 
• Hypothetical: You are in charge of buying office supplies with a company credit card. On a Thursday, you take home a previously purchased ream of paper from your employer without permission because you need it for an urgent school project. As you intended, over the weekend you go by Office Depot and purchase an identical replacement and take it to work on Monday to replenish the paper supply. If you then mention to your employer what you did, have you "Admitted to the theft of office supplies that were purchased with a company credit card?"
• Edit: I don't mind comments on the above, just limit them to the hypothetical. 
• Sports: I was all excited about the Baylor/Kansas game last night and then Baylor promptly got demolished. I think Kansas went on a 32-0 run or something like that. It felt like the old days. (I woke up in the middle of the night with the TV on and I was curious how Duke/North Carolina turned out. I flipped over to one of the ESPN channels just in time to catch the last one minute of a replay of the game. Wow. Duke won a last second three pointer and that North Carolina crowd went dead quiet.)
• I actually told Mrs. LL I felt grumpy last night just in case I said something curt. She told me she thought I was in a good mood.
• The big rumor is that there's a seven second video of Josh Hamilton doing very un-Christian like things with a girl who was not his wife in a bathroom stall during his last drinking binge. Allegedly the owner of the video is shopping it to local stations for $41,000.
• I can see TMZ paying that amount but not a local news affiliate. 
• I wonder if the company or companies who manufactured those military drones are public. I'd like to invest in them because that has to be the way wars will be waged in the future.
• The Family Pup made it back to our bed last night only to be swatted in the face by the Family Cat when he woke up this morning. (The Family Cat is kind of like the Honey Badger. Family Cat don't care.)
• If you would boycott J.C. Penney because Ellen Degeneres is there spokesperson, then you are one strange bird. 
• Will Ferrell introduced the starting lineups last night at a NBA game and did shtick. ("At forward, #5, and he still lives with his mother . . . . ")
• High school basketball Idiocracy: The Ponder and Nocona  girls will play a "play-in" game in Bridgeport to win the third place of their district in order to move on to the playoffs. 

From All Reports: Huge Crowd Showed Up For Santorum Appearance Tonight In Plane Plano

There might need to be the creation of a Third Party for the Hard Right.

Official Statement of Wise County Commissioner Terry Ross

Has been posted here.

Photo Of Santorum Prayer This Morning During Church Meeting In McKinney

He's in the middle somewhere. Although there looks like one photographer, the rest seem to be doing the "laying on of hands."

Coverage.

Boyd Restaurant Calls Out Restaurants Which Jack Up Their Prices For Valentine's

"Anticipation . . . Is Making Me Wait"

I presume this is during the NY Giants parade yesterday.

 And, look! The Cowboys have something in common with New England.

Brady on Sunday

Romo a while back

This Is A New One

Hang on girl! I'm on my way!

Link.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Well, it's more chaos for the Republicans. Whomever mentioned yesterday that it "Wouldn't be a good night for Romney" was dead on. Rick Santorum won all three states last night and becomes the GOP Flavor of the Week.
• And Santorum will be in North Texas today with one of the stops being at a Tea Party rally in Allen. Good or bad timing? 
• And WBAP's Mark Davis will give him the equivalent of a free three hour radio show commercial today before he MC's a Santorum event tonight. He should be on the payroll. Edit: He will actually be at two Santorum events today.
• Matt Drudge tweet last night: "Surprisingly LOW voter turnout in Republican races, lackluster cablenews ratings... Who/what to blame? Omen for Nov.? People 'sick of it' ?"
• Said something sweet about the Family Pup yesterday and last night, for the first time ever, she sleeps with the Oldest Girl In The House.
• Do the Dallas Stars still exist? (Joking. Kind of.)
• As much as Dallas needs mass transit, people getting murdered on and around trains is probably not good for PR. (Two dead yesterday, a guy killed in downtown Dallas last month, some guy shot to death in the War on Drugs near Reunion Tower last year, and some kid pushed into a train in South Dallas last year as well.)
• I've taken subways on two different trips: One to New York City and one in Washington D.C.  And using those trains was fantastic. 
• I guess we'll never hear anything else about the hairdresser found dead in her burned car in north Dallas last year. (Cops call it murder. Medical examiner magically says "nuh-uh.")
• I finally watched the "Honey Badger" video on youtube this week. Funny. Really funny.
• TCU has had five suicides in two years? How is that possible? 
• Mrs. LL wants me to point out that she is not assistant coaching but instead head coaching a girl's softball team this year.  
• But, hey, Mr. Assistant Coach --- who I thought was the head coach -- I've got my eyes on you. (Making the two-fingers-at-my-eyeballs gesture that Robert De Niro did to Ben Stiller in Meet The Parents.)
• Set the stage for a very interesting criminal appeal out of the Wise County Court at Law yesterday. I've never had so many prosecutor's tell me I was absolutely wrong and every defense lawyer tell me I'm absolutely right. (From the public record: It involved my client getting arrested for DWI seven days after being placed on DWI probation.  Not the best facts in the world.  The appeal, however, is just a technical procedural point.)
• Josh Hamilton was so strung out on drugs that he missed three seasons (2004-2006) in the major leagues. Yet I've never met anyone who thinks he should have spent a day in prison. Why is that?

Regarding Wise County News This Afternoon

Sometimes my real job collides with this silly hobby, and my real job always takes an ethical and professional priority. However, I might be in a position to release a  statement tomorrow on the news that everyone has been begging me to comment on.

Boom! (Part 2)

How Did This Decatur/Castleberry Fight Get Past Me?

I knew about the fight (it was all over the comments), I just didn't know about the video.

Hippie Court Rules In Favor Of Madonna Loving Gays

Only took 133 pages to say it.

This Ringmaster Is A Born Showman. Motorcycle Guy, Not So Much.

100% professional. Ain't nothing rattling him.  “Ladies and Gentleman…focus on me…I am your ringmaster."

[Brief language warning from crowd.]

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I check a lot of people's accounts on Twitter and Facebook simply because I think they are crazy.
• In case you were going to Syria for vacation, you might want to cancel those plans. It would be safer to be a Mexican policeman right now. (Every country with half a brain has abandoned its embassies.) 
• Regarding the MIA obscene gesture during the Super Bowl halftime show, someone has taken a pic of the moment and pointed out the very odd double standards we have in the United States.
• I got an iPod Nano. Lots of stuff crammed into that little thing but I'm not sure being able to load photos is particularly important. (Oh, an update on the ASICS running shoes I switched to a few months back: After years of Nike, Adidas and New Balance, I'll never go back.)
• I know women's college basketball is boring to you, but what the Baylor women are doing borders on the bizarre. They are 24-0 and basically beat everyone by 30 points. 
• Heard on WBAP this morning: "Spanking is lazy parenting." Their listeners soundly disagreed. 
• One of the most horrible stories I've heard in a while: A wife goes missing. Custody battle ensues between her parents and the husband over two little boys. Husband burns down house with him and kids in it over the weekend. Oh, my.
• Eighty people applied for the Boyd AD and head football coaching job? 
• Somehow over the weekend an old Charlie's Angels show ended up on my TV.  I kept thinking one of the guest stars looked familiar and it finally hit me: A very young and brunette Kim Cattrall who later starred in Sex and The City. (You can see a good shot of her at the :37 mark here.)
• Maria Menounos lost a bet and had to wear a bikini on the air. Hey, now. 
• Our "no dirty dishes in the sink" policy has been flawlessly implemented 98% of the time this year. That just changes the whole atmosphere and attitude of the house. 
• Three state elections are today and I keep hearing, "This will not be a good day for Mitt Romney" since Rick Santorum has a chance to rise from the dead apparently. What a cluster. 
• The holdup on the drawing of Congressional maps in Texas (looks like they got close yesterday before the wheels fell off) has got to be driving newspapers and TV stations crazy. Since we don't have a primary date, no one is spending on political advertising. And they make a ton of money on political advertising.
• There's something peaceful about waking up and seeing the Family Pup has snuggled up beside me. 
• Rick Perry decided to come out of hiding and speak in Williamson County yesterday. After he was done, a George Washington impersonator fired off a joke:  "A Communist, a Muslim and an illegal alien went into a tavern. And the tavern keeper said, 'What will it be President Obama?'" Wow. Just wow.

"Ok, you can owe me."

The Messenger referred to the golfer as a former Decatur resident. The Star-Telegram has more on the story and a portion of the 911 call.

Edit: I'll give the Messenger credit. This story is picking up potentially nationwide steam tonight. I'm not sure how they learned of it in the first place, but Bud Kennedy sent it out to his followers this morning. Shortly thereafter the Star-Telegram ran with it.  Now the SB Nation blog world has picked up on it (giving only credit to the Star-Telegram) so it might really pick up steam.  It makes sense. The slow foursome on a golf course that almost results in death will get your attention.

Edit the following morning: It's in the USA Today with, once again, the Star-Telegram getting credit.  I bet the Messenger's paywall is preventing them from getting credit.

Edit: So let it be written. So let it be done.

Another Reason To Hate Professional Sports

Wow. That is Rob Gronkowski (left) after last night's Super Bowl.  And he plays for the losing New England Patriots.  They had an offensive lineman dancing shirtless as well.

I've said it for years: The fans care more about the results than the players.

So What Was Controversial About The Clint Eastwood Ad?

I understand getting mad at him for Million Dollar Baby, but how can this bug you?

"Forever and Ever, Amen."

If Randy Travis getting arrested for Public Intoxication outside of the First Baptist Church of Sanger doesn't become a country song, there's no justice in this world.

Who Has That Kind Of Money?

I guess someone who has $50,000 in his pocket now.

Edit: The story.

Oddest Guy At Super Bowl Last Night?

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I haven't read many reviews, but I thought Madonna at halftime last night was fantastic.
• The video stage was great. Here's what it looked like from the stands.
• It was pretty quiet at my house until an impromptu party broke out. Who was that guy who brought his own grill over and was lighting up the sky with a flame in my backyard?
• The Patriots first play resulted in a safety (an odd call but a correct one.) Heard this morning that the Vegas odds of the first score being a safety were 75 to 1. Edit: Dallas is a 20-1 shot to win the Super Bowl next year.
• I wrote a few weeks back how I was finally at the point of believing that teams should allow the other team to score in some situations. We saw it last night. It didn't work out, but Bill Belichick would have gone down as the greatest football genius in the history of ever if it had. 
• I took my football to the nearest goalpost yesterday and discovered I can kick an extra point. Barely. 
• I noticed my TV screen flicker during the halftime show. It wasn't until this morning that I discovered NBC was trying to censor MIA.
• One of the gals over at the house last night, upon realizing that Cee Lo Green was at the Super Bowl and on The Voice immediately afterwards, asked, "How did he get there so fast?"  Her husband and I tried very hard to suppress our laughter because she is not "slow to anger." 
• It is amazing how the Right Wing tried to dismiss the lowering unemployment numbers last week. Let me say it again: The way the number is calculated is the way it is calculated.
• A nine year old in Rhome is in the death announcements in the Update this morning. What happened?
• Someone pointed out to me that being a member of AARP makes your spouse automatically qualified to join AARP. I haven't told Mrs. LL that yet. I hope she is "slow to anger."
• Ticket Fans: You should have heard shortly after 6:00 a.m. this morning when both their AM signal and FM signal went down. The only way the station was broadcasting was over the Internet and the Musers absolutely went off on an unnamed manager who "might destroy what we took 18 years to build."
• If you believe Josh Hamilton doesn't drink on a regular basis, you're nuts. It's only when he gets caught do we see the press conferences. 
• It's news Mitt Romney won Nevada over the weekend? Mormons. Nevada. Hello.
• I had to renew my driver's license at the Decatur DPS office on Friday. Those ladies are cheery but don't have a real sense of urgency about them. But, all in all, I think I'll take that. (But the Sargent behind them who looked up and said, "Oh, I know who he is" made me a little nervous.)