While Strolling Through the Dallas Morning News' Website

I have no idea what that fashion show was about, but I did notice this couple. And since their names were listed on the side, I thought I'd check them out. I learned they had a dinner party earlier this month.  

Opulence, they haz it.

(Although I don't know which I hate more - - their pretentiousness or the reporter's fawning.)

In Today's Horse Racing News

The @preaknessstakes infield: A 10am Bikini contest sponsored by @jagermeister_ twitter.com/PreaknessStake…
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) May 18, 2013

Cops Are Hoping They Didn't Kill Her

Story.

Above The Fold

At The "Relay For Life" Tonight

Pat Robertson Tells Cheated On Wife To Stop Her Whining

Man, I wish they would have panned over to his co-host during that spewing of knowledge. That gal deserves hazard pay to have to work with him.

Faithful Reader Just Spotted This In Fort Worth

A quick search revealed that the display used to be the property of the now deceased David Hall of the Texas Patriot Guard. I'm not sure who is using it now.

Police, Interrupted

Ian Kinsler's Textbook Slide From Last Night

(Takes a little time to load but worth it.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

Edit (since I think we've got a repeat):

• Is that a repeat? I'm not sure. 
• There's a Fort Worth car dealership radio ad that constantly plays which features the voice of the owner's kid. Please. Stop. It. It might make you proud, but its not going to make us buy a car. 
• It occurred to me that for every one civil case tried to a jury in our courthouse there are ten or more criminal jury trials. I promise you there are a ton of silk suited lawyers in big civil firms who "specialize in litigation" that have never tried a case. And never will. 
• The "Michael Morton Act" was signed yesterday by Gov. Perry which requires prosecutors to [insert shock sound] allow defense lawyers see the reports and evidence against their clients. These times, they are-a-changin', but I suspect most of you are shocked to learn that wasn't already the law. (That'll have little impact in Wise County where the prosecutors have had an "open file" policy for as long as I can remember.)
• The Office finale and retrospective was fantastic last night, but I've still got twenty minutes of it to watch because we had company come over. (The term "company" sounds a little outdated, doesn't it?)
• There was The Office going on and Darvish vs. Velander at the same time and I then noticed Mark Davis was live tweeting American Idol. (That from a guy who said this morning that no "self-respecting man" would go see The Great Gatsby unless it was "date-influenced."
• Headline: "The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for [Obamacare]."  Merry Christmas to the Far Right -- you just received a big ol' package.
• I may do a blog post on this later: Finally got the upstairs air conditioner fixed but not after almost being a fraud victim by the first company who came out and took a look at it.  The first company said the compressor was shot and needed to be replaced at a cost of $2,424 but, since it was that much, that I might want to consider getting a whole new unit -- they could send over a "comfort specialist" to talk about it. We then called a Decatur guy (Burl Cash) for a second opinion who came out and had it up and running like a charm for $301.55. A lot of crooks in the HVAC business?
• Speaking of, there's a chance Locks of Love may be no better than those companies.
• I'm not sure what to make of the commentor who compares me to Price Daniel Jr. but I love his efforts: (1) Baylor law graduate, (2) diminutive, (3) Napoleon Complex, and (4) had a younger second wife.  But I've got more!  I Googled Daniel yesterday and also learned this: His second wife, a former Dairy Queen (!!!!) waitress, was accused of his murder but was acquitted after being represented by Racehorse Haynes (who my dad introduced me to in Dallas during a trial of a man from Boyd.) And for the final bit of weirdness: I received one scholarship while at Baylor and it was the result of a donation by Price Daniel, Sr. 
• I've been meaning to do this: Shout out to the Wise County District Clerk. The felony court case settings are now online. 
• Will Cruz, Cornyn, Abbott, or Dewhurst go to Granbury after the tornadoes  That's a comparable disaster to West, Texas, right? 
• Science fiction prediction: Like the new "Google Glasses", we'll all have similar devices in the future which will have facial recognition technology allowing us to learn important info about the person we are looking at. (Think I'm joking? Transport someone from 50 years ago into present day and their mind would be blown by the technology around us.)
• I still haven't watched the 50+ year old home movie of my parents. I'm just waiting for a quiet time this weekend. 
• Local talk radio note: Rarely heard J.D. Wells is horrible at his craft. Forced righteous indignation can be seen a mile away. And the guy is not very smart. 

Photo Of The Day For My Far Right Friends

How Was I Left Off This Dairy Queen List?

It's some crazy national list about how Dairy Queen is the greatest place on earth. It has junk like this on it: 

Nothing could keep you from your sweet Dairy Queen.

And I'm left off? The most associated product with Dairy Queen since the Dilly Bar and I don't even get a mention? Yet another example of the mainstream media not covering an important aspect of American culture. I'm gonna call MSNBC about this.

It wouldn't have taken much . . . .

People even blog from the humble confines of its home

(Side note: If I could find it, [Edit: Mrs. LL did], I'd link to the letter I got from the assistant general counsel of Dairy Queen a few years back "suggesting" that I cease and desist using Dairy Queen in the title of Liberally Lean. Seriously. It was official and everything. But I never heard from him again. I'm assuming Liberally Lean was Item #1 on some high level Board of Directors meeting where someone made a motion of "Let's not mess with this guy" followed by swift and unanimous approval. I've got to find those minutes - they just have to exist.)

Edit: On a darker note, this is the DQ in Ennis this morning:

"Next stop, please . . . . Thank you." - Deer

Fiona's Hat This Morning

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• I had to leave the house early this morning, but there were some incredible images being broadcast of the damage in Cleburne and Granbury. Example. Example.
• I wonder if Jarhead is OK? (Although it occurs to me he's been absent for so long that many won't know who he is.)
• Apparently the worst area hit was Rancho Brazos Estates in Granbury. Reports say that area was the site of many homes built by Habitat for Humanity.
• I hope no one was injured because of apathy created by the constant "crying wolf" in the past by local weatherman.
• The radar technology these days is really good, but can they really definitively say, "There's a tornado!" when they see the hook?
• Saw a report where some Wise Countians have been without power for 12 hours. 
• And is there anything more spare than when they cut to the webcam in a vehicle driving down a roadway?
• Have you seen the relatively new "storm chaser" vehicles used by, uh, storm chasers.
• Sure were lots of quick-on-the-trigger Twitter and Facebook posts from roof repair companies as the storms were ongoing. 
• One station had a "Hail Projection" graphic which had a color designation for "Bowling Ball" size hail. Really. Why stop there?
• AG Eric Holder has his faults but I love the way he smacks down goofballs like Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert as he did yesterday. (But what in the heck did Gohmert mean when he said that Holder was attacking his integrity and “casting aspersions on my asparagus.” 3:55 in the second video in the previous link.)
• Regarding the current pseudo-scandals of the President, Mark Davis is right when he warns his Right Wing Brethren to not oversell their attacks or it will come across as partisan and, thus, be ineffective.  They probably won't listen. 
• They are replacing the turf at Cowboys Stadium already. Decatur and Bridgeport: Place your bids. 

Pete Saving Us All!

Love the marks on the floor to keep him within camera range.

Tweet from Amy Castaneda (@amycast)

	Amy Castaneda (@amycast)
5/15/13, 8:34 PM @NBCDFW Huge hail in Granbury pic.twitter.com/ISet8ZQ3JU

Download the official Twitter app here

Wow

	Jeff Jamison (@CBS11JeffJam)
5/15/13, 6:42 PM Golf balls to softballs RT @severestudios: Holy HAIL, Batman! RT @CoopWay: Mineral Wells, TX pic.twitter.com/E8KyX7o1XL

The most trusted name in weather in Wise County announces a tornado warning until 8:15

High Tone Cat Fight

Former UT Cheerleader Nicole Jacobs (far left) DOMINATED Girl Fight at Steeplechase 2013! #TripByTrip #risetothetop twitter.com/ErikAinge3/sta…
— Erik Ainge (@ErikAinge3) May 15, 2013

I saw this video yesterday of a fight breaking out at some Steeplechase event in Tennessee.  High tone chicks acting all hood rat. Can't take 'em anywhere.  But the guy above has identified at least one of them.

And here is a site that gives a frame via frame breakdown and with bonus video coverage.

Edit: We've got an update as the "girl in pink" as called into a blog to give her version of the story.

I've Been Working On This Graphic For Hours In My Lab

Star-Telegram Story On The Upcoming Water-geddon

Story.

That's A Heck Of An Endorsement

Web site.

I was going to title this "I'm Calling This Election For Pierre!" but then I noticed the election was yesterday. So I went and found the results:

Been Monitoring These Lately

Ever since Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent was charged with Intoxication Manslaughter in the death of his friend who was a passenger, I've been looking for news reports of similar situations. Things can get weird when a victim's family urges a DA's office for leniency.

I've got a new one: This girl out of Austin pled guilty to "intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the death of 22-year-old Christopher Johnson Peart, who was thrown out of the car she was driving in a wrong-way wreck". In exchange for the plea, she received two ten year probated sentences stacked on top of one another and 120 days in the county jail as a condition of the probation. (The 120 days is mandatory by law if she receives probation.)

I think there is a double jeopardy issue of being charged both with intoxication manslaughter and aggravated assault, but it might be a situation where the defense lawyer didn't complain so long as he could keep her out of prison.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Headline in the Dallas Morning News today: "Scandal removed from Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson’s Wikipedia page." Seriously? Does anyone over there know how Wikipedia works? Anyone can change it in thirty seconds. 
• Channel 8 had a brief story last night that the police had "recommended" that the Bridgeport substitute teacher (who played overly aggressive dodge ball with a kid's head) be prosecuted. That's really the wrong word. That just means they turned the case over to the prosecutor for a determination -- something that was guaranteed to happen from the beginning. 
• An unusually ill-prepared Fox 4 Steve Eager interviewed some MADD mouthpiece last night about the possibility of a change from .08 to .05 in DWI cases.  At one point Eager said that "10,000" people a day die in the U.S. from alcohol related incidents. That was an error of biblical proportions. But, of course, the MADD representative let that information go through uncorrected.
• I set off an ear splitting office alarm this morning as I scrambled to put in a four digit code. That'll wake a guy up. 
• How has White House Press Secretary Jay Carney kept his job? That man is awful on his best of days. 
• The Update today leads with the Murder-On-Mother's-Day story like this is the first we've heard of it. (By the way, the guy in the second story has a neck tattoo that reads, "Rednexican.")
• Maybe the only thing I find interesting about the NBA playoffs: "In his last 8 games, Jason Kidd has no points on 0-16 field goal shooting and 0-10 in three point shooting."
• Mrs. LL asked last night whether that "gene screening test" that Angelina Jolie had was available to everyone and how much it cost. Good question. 
• Pretty interesting blog post about the day reporter Scott Pelley came to Bridgeport in the early 1980s.
• I always heard the name Billie Sol Estes growing up as a kid, but I really had no idea who he was. He died yesterday. 
• I bet there's a heck of a lot more to the story than what is being reported about the Irving teen who was accused of "human trafficking" yesterday. 
• The current political "scandals" sure has pulled Right Wing Talk Radio/TV out of its collective depression. I haven't seen them this happy in almost ten years.
• Did you see the video of the Dallas jailer slamming a handcuffed girl to the floor causing "shattered and broken teeth" because she wouldn't stay on a line (and might have gotten mouthy?)  After a while other jailers gathered in the background and you can just tell they have that "that wasn't good" look. 

Above The Fold

We Could See Lots Of This Over The Next Few Months

Grass Fire (Wise Co. - Boyd) 105 CR4791 - Boyd FD responding to a reported grass fire with lots of smoke visible... fb.me/UR9qV9dY
— DFW Scanner (@DFWscanner) May 14, 2013

Good Grief

Link.

But I'm not sure if that "recommendation" has much weight.  Basically every state has a .08 threshold right now because in the 1990s the federal government told the states that if it didn't use that standard then federal highway funds would be withheld. (See how that works? They couldn't make a federal law of .08 that could be imposed on the states so they just blackmailed them into doing the functional equivalent.)  Unless Congress does the same thing this time, I don't think you'll see much change. That is, unless MADD starts bullying lawmakers.

Tailgating At Kenny Chesney Concert At Cowboys Stadium: You're Doing It Wrong

Not sure what the back story is. Just found here on the Dallas Observer web site.

And Another: Vegas

Link.

Edit:

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Benghazi? It's still nothing. IRS auditing conservative groups? Jolting, but it's also something we've always suspected. A broad sweep of AP reporters phone records? Hey, even I'm drawing the line on that one.
• It's not been a good week for the President, but rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated.
• Bryce Harper crashing face first into the wall last night was nasty. 
• "A Kaufman County Sheriff's Deputy was hospitalized after being ejected from his squad car during a pursuit."
• I don't know anything about the Facebook Phone other than it is a disaster. ATT originally priced the phone at $99 but a couple of weeks ago lowered it to 99 cents. Really. Now it has announced they won't sell them at all. 
• Talk show host Mark Davis said the other day that it would be "years" before his 10 year old son had access to his own cell phone. If true, that's a little crazy, right?
• One valuable lesson that I took forever to learn: Don't correct someone unless absolutely necessary. 
• Back over Christmas I found a bunch of 8 millimeter homemade films in my parents' house that were made before I was born and when my brother was two years old. (They were labeled.) They were two brittle to play so I took one to see if I could find a company to convert it to DVD. Mrs. LL found a place and mailed it off in January and told me "they said it would take a while." Yesterday we received a box containing the film roll and a DVD. I've not watched it yet. I have no idea what to expect, but I feel like the guy about to open up the Holy Grail in the first Indiana Jones movie. 
• I went to Fort Worth for a driver's license hearing yesterday. On I-30 between Camp Bowie and University, I saw four different police traffic stops.  
• Dick Cheney was pimping a new book everywhere yesterday. Well, that is if "everywhere" means every show on Fox News and Fox News Radio.
• There was an old Seinfeld episode where George was caught gawking at the young daughter of an NBC executive. ("Get a good look, Costanza?")  I've seen that scene ten or more times and never realized the girl was Denise Richards.
• The Fourth Grader in The House announced that she had determined I'm in the process of wearing a suit for twelve straight days. Mrs. LL was afraid of immediate depression on my part.
• Mrs. LL didn't know of Bruce Jenner other than through the Kardashians. Think about that: Jenner competed in the Olympics 37 years ago. 
• I read this morning that Angelina Jolie had undergone a double mastectomy. Pretty big news. Then I read it was a "preventive" procedure, and I thought she was a nut. Then I read that she had undergone genetic testing which revealed there was an 85% chance she was going to contract breast cancer. That's a fascinating story. 

Somebody Beat This Man Over The Head, Say, With a "Smartphone"

This isn't earthshaking, but it is amazing in its own way. This was published on Newt's Youtube channel three days ago.

It's not a phone. It's not a computer. What should we call this thing?

Hate Map

Montague County leads the region in both racist and homophobic comments on Twitter. Wise County 2nd most racist twitter.com/BudKennedy/sta…
— Bud Kennedy (@BudKennedy) May 13, 2013

You have to click on "Racist" at the top of this map to see it. (We don't win any medals in the categories of making derogatory tweets about homosexuals or cripples.) But someone in Montague must be a Twitter Hitler.

Well, this is strange

	WCMessenger.com (@WCMessenger)
5/13/13, 12:51 PM New details in the case of a son accused of murdering his mom on Mother's Day wcmessenger.com/?p=62346

Still Images Of New Orleans Mother's Day Shooter

Ugh

SPRINGTOWN - A boy was killed after he tripped and fell and was run over while attempting to catch a school bus Monday morning in a Parker County town, authorities said in a statement. More.

Get Me These Baby Ducks

And that's some fine parenting right there. You kids better get after it and take that leap of faith. We can't build bridges for you all your life.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Nineteen shot at a Mother's Day Parade in New Orleans. Two things: (1) it's amazing no one died and, (2) what an odd way to honor mom..
• I've said for years and years that Kenny Chesney is positioning himself as the next Jimmy Buffet.  And he's doing it well based upon the huge crowd that turned out to see his shtick at Cowboys Stadium on Saturday night. 
• It struck me as funny to see Pete Delkus was tweeting photos from Chesney's concert. Just the thought of Delkus dancing with a fist pump in the air brings joy to my heart. 
• Update over the weekend: "Teen injured in ATV wreck." I thinks it's odd they used the phrase that she was "passed out" when found. And we use helicopter ambulances for "precautionary reasons" these days?
• Yep, the IRS targeting conservative groups is notagood.
• Bangladesh death toll: 1,127.
• The Little Puppy In The House may be the cutest thing I've ever seen. I've never owned a puppy in my life.
• Man, if you listen to sports talk radio in the metroplex, Boyd's Greg Williams is going scorched earth on his blog.
• Mrs. LL and I are almost caught up with Breaking Bad. Over the weekend we watched the train robbery episode named Dead Freight. Oh, my.
• Funny tweet from someone after Sergio Garcia put two shots in the water on the 17th whole yesterday: "Give me another ball, Romeo." That's a Tin Cup reference. (Side note: If I'm ever arrested for murder, I assure you the victim will be someone who constantly shouted, "Get in the hole!")
• Paraphrasing from a funeral I attended on Saturday: "Accumulating a lot of stuff really doesn't matter much in the end." 
• Some very spare sounding company called InvestingMakesMeSick.com has been advertising for the last year on the radio about how dumb it is to invest in the stock market.  They've finally abandoned that approach because it was not making them look very smart.
• Bryce Harper [Edit: Make that Bryce Reed -- maybe one of my strangest screw-ups ever], the guy arrested for bomb making materials in West, is an odd duck. The Dallas Morning News published an article about him over the weekend which is worth the read. No one is saying he is connected to the blast, but there is a weird history of fireman who also like to be arsonists.

Line At Joe T. Garcias

That's from tonight based upon a pic from twitter that was just posted. Unless I've been fasting for forty days and forty nights, there's no way I'm waiting in that line for food. 

Edit: Another picture from during the day . . .