Liberally Lean From The Land Of Dairy Queen: 4/1/12

4.07.2012

I Wonder If Kids Even Know What It Means

And on a completely different note, the "Painter of Light" has died.

4.06.2012

English, Do You Speak It?

Ranger game in the first inning. Just checking out the advertising in the background. Yu Darvish Effect?

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

In light of suspended defensive coach Gregg Williams being caught on tape telling his players to target body parts of particular players, The Fan's Richie Whitt said yesterday that his pee wee football team would chant, "Kill. Kill. Blood makes the grass grow." So did mine.
When I can, I like sitting down for Opening Day. Then I get bored by inning number two.
Did that Arkansas coach really think no one would find out? That no one would request a copy of the accident report?
I don't think I ever had the Easter Bunny come visit me at night when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure my house wasn't going to trick up a religious holiday.
I used to think it was silly when a governor toured the site of the disaster. I still do, but I also understand how I'd feel if I perceived state government as not caring at all. All in all, I'd rather him show up.
There were a lot of kids in my house for a sleepover last night.
I think everyone in the world has lost interest in the Republican primary process.
When I'm in line at the grocery store, I always think the person behind me is looking at my items and making a judgment about me.
I got to watch Ann Curry on The Today Show this morning. Man, I miss the joy of head shaking that she gave me.
Whatever happened to Suzy Bogguss?
There will be free wifi at DFW Airport beginning on September 1st. That's hard to believe.
The story of the 80 year old lady landing the plane after her husband/pilot collapsed and died is really amazing. (Audio was released yesterday of the event.) I'd have to tell the control tower my experience consisted of playing Microsoft Flight Simulator for about two hours without one successful landing.
Video of hail destroying a car in this week's storms.
Breaking: The unemployment rate fell to 8.2% last month. Remember, that's good news for your country.
Joe Avezzano's death while running scares me senseless.
Dallas Cowboy first round bust Bobby Carpenter was signed by the Patriots yesterday. That will be the fifth NFL team he has spared to death.
I saw a Wise County pastor on Facebook cheering the fact that JC Penny laid off 14% of its staff at its Plano headquarters yesterday -- he attributed it to the "protest" of the company having Ellen Degeneres as a spokesperson. I'm speechless.
A drunk guy showed up at an Austin Walmart last night and police were called. The result: An Austin police officer was shot dead.

4.05.2012

Married Arkansas Coach Had A Motorcycle Wreck This Week. . .

Bobby Petrino Before Mrs. Petrino Gets A Hold Of Him

. . . but he and the school weren't exactly truthful when asked about whether he was alone. It could be because it was this 25 year old "Hey, Now" who was on the back of the bike . . . .

Not Mrs. Petrino

Younger Days. Game, set and match.

Moldovan Pick Me Up Of The Day

We've all heard of Xenia Deli, right?

"Coach Joe!"

Former Special Teams coach of the Dallas Cowboys during their glory days has died.

I Want This Pirate Ship

Throw in a puffy shirt, an eye patch, and a parrot and you'd never see me again.

I'm a talk radio fan, and it is on in the background almost constantly with me. And in the mornings, I'll normally have WBAP's Mark Davis on. Despite my jabs at him from time to time (I actually had a letter to the editor in the Dallas Morning News printed where I dogged him about his presidential prediction last time), I really like the guy. I think he's smart. He's not saying crap just to get the masses riled up (see Hannity, Limbaugh, etc.). He's honest: He candidly admits that he wants Santorum elected and that he attends a mega-church. And he at least tries to see both sides of an issue. He might be an arrogant nerd, but he's good at what he does.

But a substitute host showed up in his time slot this week without an explanation as to why. On his blog (which is normally dormant), Davis started firing off the equivalent of "random thoughts" this week which I thought was odd. He certainly wasn't on one of his many vacations. Then moments ago he released the above statement explaining his absence. His contract ran out and "we have been unable to reach an agreement on a renewal". What does that mean? Does he want more money and Cumulus said no? Or does the owner want to cut his salary and he's balking? Remember Belo cut Dale Hansen's salary and he gladly accepted it. And also remember that Cumulus, which owns KLIF, let go a morning talk show host on that station just two weeks ago. Throw in the fact that Mike Huckabee is about to launch a new syndicated show which is perfect for WBAP, and I don't know what to think.

The media, it is a-changin'.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Looking at the tornado damage under the light of the next day was just jaw dropping. I'll repeat what everyone else says: It's a miracle no one died.
When a first responder declines to be called a hero and instead says, "I was just doing my job", I always tend to agree.
The Star-Telegram has a story of a man being released early from probation. That hardly ever happens in Wise County. In fact, I refuse to be hired on those cases since I think the chances of success are basically non-existent.
Yep, the Frisco girl kidnapped-and-taken-to-Oklahoma story has faded into oblivion.
Mrs. LL, who is still kind of new to softball, beaned the Third Grader In The House last night while playing catch in the back yard. Said Third Grader acted like she had been hit by a sniper. Good times.
Motorcycle death in Richardson last night.
The Rangers today unveil the statue of the guy who died when he fell over the railing last year. I just don't understand that.
Every year the Augusta National Golf Club comes under criticism about its discriminatory practices in selecting its members. And every year they bring out some boob who absolutely butchers a press conference because he simply can't say, "We are a private organization in America and, just like you have the absolute right to decide who enters your home, we have the right to choose our members."
American Airlines still has 63 planes out with hail damage and 323 flights have been cancelled for today. What a headache.
Description of Mrs. LL trying to catch fly balls: Get underneath it, hold glove out, do a crazy dance where her feet look like fast moving pistons, and then get out of the way while laugh-screaming. (In all fairness, she got the hang of it shortly thereafter.)
President Obama's statement that the Supreme Court overturning a law "passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress" would be "an unprecedented, extraordinary step" was reckless and can't be defended. I tried to parse it in such a way that it makes sense but couldn't do it. (That being said, the federal judge on the 5th Circuit who took umbrage to the remark is a nutcase.)
For me, I think we are in the middle of the best three weather days of the year. I wish Texas was like this year round.
Hey, Liberally Lean Tourney Winners, I'm getting the prize selections of winners 1-3 and then I'll move on to 4-6. I have not pocketed the prizes and fled to Costa Rica. Considered it, yes. Done it, no.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/04/04/3861524/5th-circuit-judge-jerry-smith.html#storylink=cpy

4.04.2012

Remember Him? We Have News.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Let's not be moving too fast here. It was only over 10 years ago when the Twin Towers fell, so the government might want to tap the brakes on this rush to judgment. Maybe they need more time to decide what to charge him with.

The next thing you know we'll schedule a trial for 2020.

Car Was In Coppell Yesterday During Hail Storm

It's no comparison to a house being destroyed, but I bet that made quite the noise if the driver was inside it at the time. (Thanks emailer.)

And here's a new collection of amazing pics from yesterday.

Baylor Law School Screw Up

Baylor Law School released the personal data of every student accepted for attendance via an email attachment over the weekend. That's bad enough, but for the academic minded, every new student now knows the LSAT score and the GPA of his classmate. For those interested, a web site collected the scores and published them here (that site being decent enough to delete the names.)

I have no idea what a good LSAT score is or a bad one. They've changed the scoring system in the krillion years since I took it.

And it's interesting to note that the list had data for over 400 students. But the fall and spring class have 80 students each and the summer class has 30. That's a whole lot of accepted students not attending.

Justice Of The Peace Office Hours In Jack County

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

One of those news helicopters is going to go down one of these days trying to get footage of a tornado.
But that video of the trailers being tossed around like toys in Lancaster is riveting.
Yesterday was bad, but one of these days a massive tornado is going to hit the metroplex. And with subdivisions all over the place, it's going to be historic.
I'm not giving Pete Delkus credit for his pre-tornado rants. If anything, it makes us slow to react when really bad weather does bear down on us. (And he warned of the possibility of 60 mile per hour straight line winds. That wasn't exactly Nostradamus-like.)
I'm still not sure if DFW Airport was shut down yesterday evening or just most flights cancelled as they were checked for damage from the hail storm that moved through there. (American took 80 planes out of service for inspection.) I mean, there wouldn't be a reason to cancel inbound flights once the storms cleared out.
"God was looking out for us." - A common refrain from those whose homes were badly damaged but spared bodily injury or death. Always, to me, one of the great theological things to ponder.
Cops declared a curfew in the worst areas of damage. Honestly, I don't know if they have the authority to do that.
Channel 8 had coverage of a home where two 4X4 boards blew threw a window and pierced a wall. I wish I could find a link to it. Amazing.
Cumulus made an odd decision yesterday when it simulcast weather coverage on WBAP, KLIF, The Ticket, and probably at least two other stations they own.
And I can't watch tornado news coverage without remembering Troy Dungan not being able to find downtown Fort Worth on the map when a tornado was roaring through in 2000.
I'm still tracking down the winners of the Liberally Lean Tourney. I've got two identified and should get to the rest today.
You could see Baylor coach Kim Mulkey's diagnosis of Bell's Palsy revealing itself on TV last night. I felt sorry for her to have to suffer through that during a career highlight.
And I suppose I'll her from the guy/gal who wants to tell me how so much better UConn was a few years back. You realize the starting five for the Baylor girls are coming back next year, don't you?
Back to weather, here's a really good collection of photos and videos from yesterday put together by Texas Monthly.

Messenger Above The Fold

4.03.2012

National Championship #2

If I'm late posting Random Thoughts tomorrow, it's because I'm driving to Waco to turn over some cars and start some fires in celebration.

More wow

Wow

This sounds crazy in eastern Dallas County

It's Armageddon! In all seriousness. Lancaster suffered some pretty large damage.

Arlington:

Am I The Only Guy That Didn't Hate This National Anthem Last Night?

Everybody is hating on it this morning and I just don't get it.

But I might be biased because I've purchased five songs by The Fray over the last three years which makes them the leader by a mile in my purchased music collection. Not even close. That's almost half an album I've shelled out money for!

And there's a pretty good chance I'm retiring and joining that band. I've studied the drum routine in this video very closely and I feel pretty confident, with lots of practice, that I could do that.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Jim Nance called the National Championship game last night and gets to do the Master's this weekend. I wonder if he likes that gig?
The Ticket's Corby Davidson played Pebble Beach last week. The green fee? $495. And that didn't include the tip for the caddie. (Assuming he tipped - which is not a given.)
It's amazing how a story like seven shot dead at an Oakland college becomes the fourth or fifth story on television news.
Mrs. LL managed to lock both sets of her car keys in the car yesterday.
My iPhone now says "4G" when in Decatur. Have we had a change?
A "football play" used in a high school basketball game went viral yesterday. Hey, it was an all-star game which means the defense didn't care (not to mention the 10 second back court violation that was ignored.)
I noticed that the Tarrant County Grand Jury didn't indict a woman who (probably accidentally) had a gun with her at DFW airport and also failed to indict a Keller teacher who allegedly had sexual relations with an 18 year old student who wasn't part of his campus. It wouldn't surprise me if they aren't going against the DA's recommendation in those two cases.
Do people really pay attention to the Wise County Youth Fair?
I love this forecast just posted by Pete Delkus on Facebook: "Damaging wind (60mph straight line) and large hail (quarter to half dollar size) are the main severe concerns but an isolated tornado CANNOT be ruled out." I'd like to add that a flood for forty days and forty nights CANNOT be ruled out either.
An interesting fact that means nothing: The last six times Kentucky won the basketball championship the Yankees won the World Series.
A Texas private investigator is out promoting a book "O.J. Is Innocent And I Can Prove It." Why, why would anyone book him on a radio show? (I'm looking at you WBAP.)

And The Winners Of The Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney

Hmm. I wonder if it was important to pick Kentucky?

The uncomfirmed winner is Jason Brookshire out of Arlington (no doubt the heir to the Brookshire Grocery fortune and a One Percenter.)

The top six winners will, in order of finish, get to pick their prize. Of course, I've got a headache because we've got a three way tie for fourth place. If at all possible, I'd appreciate it if all those who qualify would, at least for today, not make their email "hidden" on the tourney site so I can contact you. The bottom two finishers who tied (and completely filled out their brackets) need to do the same.

Thanks to all the sponsors.

-All Wise Garden Center

Bloomoon Pet Resort

Wise Liquors

completely

Paul Belew

April Cowling

Chris Miller's Farmer's Insurance Agency

4.02.2012

National Championship 2013 Promotion Spelling Fail

Thanks, Scott.

Crazy Cat People Arrested

How many cats you ask? 134.

How this is a New York story and not a Texas story is one of life's mysteries.

(And that woman looks like a character out of South Park.)

April Fool's Day Pranks

Yesterday I saw several references to the Sports Illustrated article of "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch." It was written in 1985, and I still remember four guys huddled around it at the Baylor Law School library where, like most days, I was spending my time. They were "oohing" and "ahhing" and dropping some "you've got to be kidding me's." All I could gather was that there was about to be a new pitcher in the Major Leagues the likes of which had never been seen.

I care about baseball about as much as I do now (very little), so I never got around to reading the article after them. But, whatever it said that day, they all absolutely believed it. And it had a credible author: The great George Plimpton.

But it turned out to be a hoax with the first and only clue being that this particular issue of SI had a date of April 1, 1985.

I finally looked at the article yesterday and quickly came upon this tidbit: The mysterious Sidd Finch's fastball was clocked at 168 miles per hour. Really? And people bought that?

The New Drug User: Prescription Drugs Without The Prescription

Story.

After being a bust as the second pick in the 1998 draft, Leaf ended up coaching at West Texas A&M and looked to be on the road to normalcy. Then after allegations that he asked a player for a pain pill, he resigned in 2008 and was later charged with burglary and drug charges in Amarillo. He was placed on probation after pleading guilty to Obtaining a Controlled Substance by Fraud (which normally means a forged prescription or making a misrepresentation to obtain a prescription.)

Fast forward to over the weekend when news broke that he was again arrested for burglary and drug charges for allegedly "entering an acquaintance house in order to steal a bottle of prescription painkillers." Now today the news comes down that right after posting bail on that charge he allegedly commits a new burglary/drug charge.

The chances of him being addicted? Oh, about 100%. And the U.S. is seeing these type of addictions more and more.

P.S. I told anyone who would listen back in 1998 that I'd use the #1 draft pick on Leaf instead of Peyton Manning. My sports brain had not yet fully developed.

Another Thing I Don't Understand

I don't understand rioting after winning a National Championship. I dang sure don't understand rioting after winning a semi-final game.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

I watched some of Platoon this weekend and realized that Johnny Depp has a minor role as one of the soldiers.
A meat and fish salesman came by the house last week. Based upon the amount of fish and meat in the refrigerator, he was a very good salesman.
I asked Mrs. LL if she bought a lottery ticket. She said she did. I asked how many. She said "twenty" -- followed by a pause and a "kidding."
The Lady Aggies had this yell leader play the part of Baylor's Britney Griner in practice. (And with one more win to go, I still think the Baylor women's team (39-0) has to be at least considered as the best ever.)
Wrestlemania over the weekend in Miami had a paid attendance of 78,363 and who knows how much in pay-per-view receipts. Now that is Idiocracy.
A movie shown at SXSW, "America's Parking Lot" prominently features Decatur resident Stan "Tiger" Shultz. I think it's about tailgating at the old Texas Stadium.
Hey, now.
Heck of an upcoming sports week: Men's and Women's basketball championships, The Masters, and Opening Day for the Rangers.
I've never had any desire to skydive, and the news of a man dying in Central Texas over the weekend when his parachute did not fully open pretty much solidifies that feeling.
Gruesome last week: A 10 year old's body is being sought in Ellis County -- police believe he was starved to death, a teenager is gunned down in a residential neighborhood in Wylie, and a two year old wanders off and drowns in a pool near Houston. Depressing.
Mrs. LL and I ate Habanero's restaurant in Fort Worth on Friday evening and then I saw a comment on here about it a little later.
The Wise County Messenger brought home the sweepstakes award for twice-weekly newspapers in the 2012 North and East Texas Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. How many "twice-weekly" newspapers are there?
I saw a pitcher in a Girls 10 and Under league strike out five in a row on Saturday morning. That came right after she hit three out of four batters.
Sarah Palin is going to host the Today Show for one hour tomorrow. She called in today to promote her appearance and Matt Lauer asked her is she was preparing by reading newspapers. Ouch.

4.01.2012

Prank At University of Michigan

There isn't anything particularly remarkable about this bit, but I was amazed at the size of that class.

And Down The Stretch They Come

Kind of sad to see the Dead Tulips get so close but fall short.

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