"Greatness"

I know this is a Nike ad and a great one at that. But if it ended with "David Dewhurst for Senate - Believing In The Greatness Of America - And In All Of Us" and it had replaced every one of his Chinese commercials, I wonder who would have won the election.

Messenger Above The Fold

Denton County 380 Project and The Wise County Connection

Link. (There's comments at the bottom.)

NBC Jacksonville Guy Is Mad Bob Costas Didn't Shut Down Broadcast at Midnight As Promised

Olympic Pick Me Up: Dutch Field Hockey Player Ellen Hoog

Olympic Moment Of The Day

I support this guy. How many times have we seen the "athlete", in a near incapacitated state, crawl towards the finish line in an effort to defeat all odds? A million.  "Look at me! Look at me! I'm near death but I'll finish!"

But no drama for this guy. That crossbar to the chest knocked the need for "the human drama of athletic competition" right out of him. He's just looking for the exit and the nearest flight schedule back to wherever he's from.

P.S. What's up with the green top and red shorts? We should of known trouble was brewing when we saw that. The Michael Johnsons and Usain Bolts of the world are always stylin'.

C.J. Wilson

Genius stuff from the Dallas Morning News. And make no mistake, C.J. said all of that stuff (and there wasn't much context for the quotes to be taken out of.)  Most of the sound bites come from an interview with Gordon Keith of The Ticket but some of it was from an interview in LA after being signed with the Angels.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Uh, oh. Just announced: Unemployment rose to 8.3%.
• It would be unAmerican to be excited about that, right? 
• Frank Caliendo is out. He won't be back in the Fox NFL pre-game show. The guy is always funny on the radio but a beating on that show (and I never understood why his character would make game predictions at the end of his bit.)
• Josh Hamilton doesn't seem smart enough to be the theologian that he thinks he is.
• Six Flags is shutting down the parachute ride and the Flashback. I couldn't picture the latter until I remembered I actually rode the thing 20 years ago. My oddest memory is that there were three teenage girls in front of us in line and they would address each other by talking into their own wrists Never figured that out.
• I wonder if the Family Pup understands me when I tell her I want to switch lives with her?
• North Texas gets to play the #1 team in the country, LSU, for their season opener.
• A Vermont farmer, upset over his recent arrest for pot, took his huge tractor to the police station yesterday and decided to go all monster truck on a bunch of cop cars. Insane.
• Heard on the radio this morning: I don't want to see gays kissing at Chick-fil-A. In fact, I don't want to see anyone kissing at Chick-fil-A.
• Heard on the radio yesterday: Where will the  battleground be for immigration? Wendy's?
• Great night last night when C.J. Wilson gets lit up by the Rangers and Michael Phelps beat Ryan Lochte. 
• Another police shooting in Dallas last night (that's the 18th this year.)
• After that Gabby gal won the overall competition in gymnastics, NBCs Bob Costas gave a thoughtful wrap up about how the color barrier had been broken. Then they cut to a commercial showing a monkey competing in gymnastics. You've got to see it.

Yankee's Facebook Page Just Got Hacked

(Screenshot before taken down.)

Olympic Play Of The Day

It would help if the guy could film his TV when he wasn't staggering drunk, but that play was pretty slick. But here's a question: Is that legal? If so, I could have saved a thousand more plays in my illustrious volleyball career. I'd have been 100% spider monkey on the court. Guaranteed. Again, oh what might have been.

Haunting

The site of the Joe Paterno statue after it was removed. 

Deputy Shot And Killed In Big Lake, Texas

It appears he was shot while serving a warrant. There was an all night standoff, but the alleged killer was captured an hour or so ago. Updates.

Guess That Price

A couple of years ago, American lost our bags but delivered them the next day on our doorstep.  There was the initial hassle of (1) "Hey, where are our bags", (2) where do we go, and (3) what forms do we fill out, but after I had gotten over that, the actual bag delivery was a fantastic concept. I remember writing that if I knew I'd get them back with home delivery, they could lose them every time. The beat down of waiting for them at the baggage claim and then lugging them out to the curb is a pain.

But now American will do the delivery for a flat fee within 40 miles. You just get off the plane and head to the car.  So here's the game: What do you think they will charge? They have a rate for one bag, one rate for two bags, and one rate for three to ten (which seems surprising.)  My guess was that one bag would start at $50.

Answer here.

Sidenote: Mrs. LL always does something to make our bags unique so they can easily be spotted in the mass of bags that will undoubtedly include lookalikes.  Normally it is a bright ribbon tied around the handle. Our last trip she used a strip of Hello, Kitty duct tape.  See what I'm dealing with here?

That Was Probably Hard To Remember

Pretty funny moment (relatively speaking) in the trial of the Fort Worth guy who was sentenced to life for shooting, but not killing, a police officer. His momma was called to the stand during the punishment phase and asked by the defendant's lawyer if there had been any acts of violence between her and the defendant's father (the "he's the product of bad parents" defense).   She quickly said, "No."  Then a couple of seconds later a light bulb came on and she recalled there was that one time. You know, the time she shot him. Video.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Hey, if you wanted to go to Chick-fil-A yesterday, more power to you. But what I didn't understand were those who were interviewed who said they were there to support free speech rights and that it had nothing to do with traditional vs. gay marriage. That's not true.
• Don't believe me? If the owner of Chick-fil-A had said "There is no God" and a firestorm had broken out, would those same people have been there to support his free speech rights? Not a chance. They were there to support the content of his speech, not his right to say it.
• (Yeah, yeah. I understand "free speech" is applicable to government censorship).
• Fox 4 had the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas on last night to debate the Chick-fil-A controversy.  I can't believe the Board of Deacons puts up with him because he is anything other than pastor-like. (And does anyone else's gaydar go off when he talks?)
• And it finally happened: The Clarice Tinsley lets-look-at-the-Facebook-comments segment (beating) finally displayed the F bomb last night. She was actually reading that comment before she bailed.
• That was the Ranger game of the year last year. Box score. I went to bed after checking in on it to see it tied in the 9th. I'm interested but not that interested.
• I'm not sure any Olympic sport sucks the life force out of me more than rowing. 
• Regarding those cross country running high school kids I see in the morning: Is that organized by the school or are those kids doing it on their own?
• One thing I learned due to my recent dental work: They don't deaden your mouth like they did in the old days. Now its a slow step-by-step process. Used to the dentist would just jab you one time with a big needle, maybe wait 15 minutes, and then get to drilling.
• There's a 28 year old from Bridgeport listed in the Update's obituary today. Anyone?
• From the photos I've seen, the new Wise County campus of Weatherford College looks really nice. 
• Heard the Ticket boys reference a song (hip hop?) which has a line about Jerry Jones losing his wallet in the California town he lived in for a while. They were debating whether Jerry even knew about the song. I'll admit I had never even heard any reference to it whatsoever.

.

The Man Behind The Dewhurst Ads

Dave Carney.

What a stellar 12 months.  He was the campaign manager for Rick Perry's presidential run (where Perry went from front runner to basement dweller in record time). On February 1st, he became a consultant to Dewhurst later becoming "in charge" of the campaign after the May primary.

If his consulting fees are commensurate with performance, he might now have to pay someone to to take his advice.

Actual Chick-fil-A Photo

In all fairness, it is also the one in Fort Worth that 200 folks from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary promised to visit.

Olympic Scandal Of The Day

Eight players have been disqualified from the badminton competition for trying to lose. Yep, lose.

But here's the catch: They all had already "qualified" for the Elimination Bracket which really means Loser's Bracket. However, they weren't there yet -- they still had to play some games. And here is the key for the player: The worse your win/loss record was once you got there, the crappier your opponent would be.

So lose? Absolutely. Makes perfect sense to me. Do you want to win and face the #2 seed or lose and face the #6 seed. No brainer.

But then it dawned on me that the "worse" player might not be the actual "worse" player because that player was probably trying to throw games, too. Up is down. Down is up. Cats chasing dogs.

P.S. I'm a fantastic badminton player. If I had pursued it, I'd be known as the John McEnroe of the sport, and  birdie manufacturers would probably beg me to license my name to them. Oh, what might have been.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The Messenger's web site went down again last night (on election night, no less) and in their anger they revealed they pay $300 a month to their web hosting company. 
• I (finally) saw Too Big To Fail over the weekend. Fantastic. For the life of me, I never understood why the country was not in an absolute panic four years ago when everyone in the know was telling us our economy was on the verge of complete destruction.
• Good Ags: ESPN's College Gameday decided to cut a commercial for the upcoming season which featured the Aggies Yell Practice in it. Here's a pic of the turnout for the filming at College Station.
• It was a perfect storm for the Tea Party last night: A run-off, a bland establishment guy firing off offensive ads, and let's-get-prepared-to-oust-Obama fueled emotion. And I'll give them credit, they realized if they turned out they could win the thing.
• And the turnout was crazy: It looks like there were 1.4 million people who voted in the Republican primary in May. Last night it only dropped off to 1.1 million. 
• But here is the real and crazy proof. Dewhurst received 624,170 votes in May but dropped to 450,562 yesterday. Cruz received 479,079 in May but grew to 578,938 yesterday. That's insane. (Source)
• Some of you Google experts, find out for me who was the mastermind of Dewhurst's "Chinese company" ad. It had to be some high paid political consultant, and I love to know exactly who it was. (And that Ted-Cruz-Killed-My-Son ad may have been worse.)
• And I cannot believe Dewhurst said last night, "We never compromised any of our values." So you still stand by those ads? He's either morally challenged or mentally challenged. 
• But here's my hot sports opinion: This is the high water mark for the Tea Party in Texas. Like I said, it was a perfect storm, and changing demographics will prevent that from ever happening again at the state-wide level.
• It's support Chick-fil-A day. Who would have thought that being anti-gay marriage could be so profitable?
• One of the morning boys on The Ticket yesterday said "we know" that both the Angels and the Rangers will make the playoffs. I'd tap the brakes on that big time. The Rangers are in trouble.
• Another Alvord blow: This man (facebook link) suffered serious injuries in a wreck last night. 
• It seems like everyone who dies from the West Nile Virus is in bad health to start with. 

Above The Fold

Exclusive: Ted Cruz Reacting To Election Results

I'm pretty sure that's Dewhurst at the 3 second and 55 second mark.

P.S. Get me that goat!!!!

Help The Media Out

(Random unrelated Alvord demographic information)

I've got an inquiry from a media source (a legitimate one - they don't have Random Girls), about any other Alvord teen tragedies.  We've got two teenage deaths this year and, of course, the two young ladies that were killed in the awful accident in Denton County on 380.   That is certainly enough, but are there any others?

Edit: We've come up with a guy who tried to commit suicide and was featured in a Messenger article about his rehab. Also the death of teenager Aisha Bryant in a car accident earlier this year. There is another reference to a girl dying of an illness but I don't recall that story or her name.

Australian Synchronized Swim Team

And I'm not making that up.

Note to USA team: A silver medal is still OK.

Get Me This Dog Who Always Does The Splits!!!!!

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Ok, yesterday's Random Thoughts even had more errors than normal, but you guy's realize I type it and post it, right?
• Saw most of The Help. Not bad at all. Saw all of Project X. Funny for the first three quarters of it and then it jumped the shark.
• The Worst-National-Anthem kid was on Fox 4 last night with her dad. Man, daddy is milking this thing for all it is worth.
• Random sports thoughts: (1) I was back for two days before I learned that Colby Lewis was gone for the season - uh, guys, that might be a lethal loss that can't be casually written off; (2) After basking in the glow of RG3 for months it's beginning to dawn on me that now Baylor has to play without him; (3) I have a mild interest in Cowboys camp but I don't need to see tweets of how a potential third receiver just had "nice separation as he went across the middle."
• Had a "oh, no, the air conditioning at the house isn't working" moment last night. Fortunately I got lucky and diagnosed the issue after only two hours of rising heat. 
• The pic of the barracuda yesterday (buried in Random Thoughts) had Mrs. LL in it with a What Would Honey Badger Do t-shirt.
• I promise to get to my "brush with the Mexican drug business" story in the next couple of days. 
• The amount of money spent on campaign ads in this Senate race is mind-boggling. I've never seen any race in Texas like this. 
• Looking back at everything I've written, the first time I called out David Dewhurst as a political fraud was in November of 2001.  Yep, ten years ago. 
• Former President Clinton will be a big player at the Democratic National Convention. Former President George W. Bush won't attend the Republican National Convention (and will probably rarely, if ever, be mentioned.) 
• Mrs. LL has found a jogging app that interrupts her music to tell her a zombie is chasing her and that she needs to run at a particular pace to keep him from catching her. That's about all I understand about it. (She ran past me barefoot last night saying, "They zombies are chasing me!" and then proceeded down the sidewalk.)
• The Fourth Grader In The House came out and asked where she went. Told her zombies were chasing her mother. The kid said, "OK" and went back in the house.
• I do a lot of head shaking at home.
• The County Surveyor story in the Update is pretty interesting.  It's an official position in Wise County but no one has ran for the job since the 1960s. At least until this year once some guy figured it out. 
• So we've had three teenage deaths on the train tracks in Alvord in recent months? That story is eventually going to go national. 

Hey Tea Party Members

Tom Leppert and Craig James

Rick Perry and Dewhurst

Look who are all in the same room right now manning the phones to try and defeat your guy, Ted Cruz, tomorrow.

That room may burst into flames based upon the lack of sincerety alone. (Video for those interested.)

Colorado Shooter In Court This Morning

"Let me explain this to you. You're screwed. And that hair isn't making my job any easier."

Identity of Alvord Girl Who Died Yesterday Has Been Released

And I found this video of her. What a head shaking tragedy.

Liberally Lean Olympic Profile: Robert Forsteman

In my continuing coverage of Olympic athletes (this is the first and might be the last) I bring you a German and his legs. Weightlifter? Nope.  He's a cyclist. Yep, the guy rides a bike.

Keep your eye on that country. Ever since the East and the West got back together, I've wondered what they've been up to. Although I didn't thing magic quads mutation was something we had to worry about.

Source.

While I Was Gone

Some kid from Coppell apparently won the award for Worst National Anthem In The History of Ever. It's the dreaded combo of off key and long and drawn out. (And whoever is handling her -- I'm guessing parents -- takes her craft very seriously.)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I was truly "off the grid" electronically speaking last week. And I didn't mind.
• Mrs. LL decided to rap her legs around a pier in the ocean and learned about little sharp organic thingies that will cause a huge and itchy rash. For a week everyone around us referred to the condition being as the result of "barnacles" but after a google search just now, I'm not so sure.
• A treatment of any ointment we could find and white vinegar (listening to any suggestion we would hear), it went completely away. Then on the last day of vacation it all comes back with a vengeance. She finally got to a doctor yesterday. 
• I had an experience right out of Cocaine Cowboys but it'll have to be its own post later.
• The American Airlines flight attendants (most at least) act as if they've lost their best friend.
• We cleared customs coming back into DFW in record time. Walked straight up to the passport guy and right up to the baggage clearance guy with basically no line.  
• I got to saw Michael Phelps lose his first Olympic event in real time at the Mexican airport. I think it was delayed here in the States until that night. And is it true that the American winner, Ryan Lochte, is the equivalent of C.J. Wilson? Edit: A man's brain can't change from "I got to see" to "I saw" while he's typing at dawn?
• Things seem the same here: A wrong way driver caused a four car wreck in Fort Worth, and we've got a double motorcycle death in Dallas. 
• I'm off to vote against David Dewhurst tomorrow. I don't think I've ever been so angered by campaign commercials as those of Dewhurst.  His latest one on "close our borders"  begins with a split second screen shot of a car destroyed in a wreck. A word is never said about why. If that's not a subliminal message about stereotypes,  I don't know what is. 
• But look out! Craig James has endorsed Dewhurst. I'll cancel the vote of one his supporters, but I'll need help to cancel out the other two. 
• I discovered something sitting by a pool this weekend. Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child Of Mind" starts off great but turns into a beating without you realizing it. 
• Ever been in a small boat when a barracuda is caught and thrown on board? It'll get your attention. (Its teeth is somewhere in Mrs. LL's luggage.) 
• We left the Family Cat in the house and hired some neighborhood kid to come by and check on her and the house on a daily basis.  Oddest thing: Once we got back she had turned into the most loving and sweet thing you've ever seen. Purring. Cuddling. The whole nine yards.  That ended about 24 hours later. 
• I'll credit the Update this morning. Sometime there is no news except bake sales, but today it is worth the read.

Another Alvord Tragedy (With A Note)

"Barry, if you have not heard, and for reasons not yet released, an incoming AHS freshman girl took her life early this morning.  She did leave a note.  She is from a family of limited means that do not have the funds to provide a funeral.  Those . . .  associated with the school are trying to come up with some way to assist the family . . . . I immediately thought of [this blog].  If you can think of a tactful way to alert the masses, anyone who would want to contribute financially may contact the Alvord ISD Administration office.  Please allow me to remain anonymous in trying to help this family."

Boyd Fire Tonight

Messenger Above The Fold

As Liberally Lean rises from a week's slumber.