1.10.2015

Oh my

Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson)
Shot of the century by Trevor Booker. #Thunder #Jazz vine.co/v/OpUK9bQhDzI



Barry
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1.09.2015

New Jersey Paper Taking You Into The Weekend


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Special Weather Report From ESPN


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Tarrant County Iconic Prosecutor Takes A Shot At New DA




You hardly ever see a former and respected prosecutor take a shot at a new DA.  And he's a pretty mild mannered guy.

Something weird is going on. Keep you eye on the DA's office.
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Up At The Courthouse All Morning . . .


. . . only to come back and find that the French police went all Rambo on the terrorists.

And to think we once dishonored that country by renaming our tasty fried potato product as "Freedom Fries." We didn't know who we were messing with.
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I'm Conflicted By This Bit



Girls pretend to find $100 underneath lady's chair. Lady swears (to God, no less) that it is hers.

But the pranksters were pretty proud of themselves. That was some serious laughing as they fled.
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Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • I didn't know there was a Texas Music Office which is an actual government entity in Austin.  Any way, it has had one director for the last 25 years. Then Gov. Abbott fired him yesterday.  (I wonder if Abbott will hire Lawrence Welk IV or someone like that?)
  • The other day I meant to say Bill O'Reilly didn't really write Killing Kennedy but only slapped his name on it for publicity. I called him a "ghostwriter". Wordkyle pointed out that word means the exact opposite of what I intended. He was exactly right. 
  • The most "diverse" new congress in our nation's history is 80% white, 80% male, and 92% Christian.
  • The Sixth Grader in the House was doing the "drop an egg from nine feet" without breaking it experiment last night. I think she went through a lot of eggs. 
  • Newsweek had a cover story on the accuracy of the Bible a couple of weeks ago. Stuff like that really interests me but the subject is sure a lightning rod. Last time I checked there were over 2,500 comments.
  • Elvis Presley played what is now the Fort Worth Cowtown Coliseum in Northside four times while age 20/21.
  • Ted Cruz reported for jury duty this morning. If he ends up on a criminal jury panel, the defense lawyer should automatically be given an extra strike. 
  • Economic news this morning: Unemployment down to 5.6%. 
  • Things are getting confusing in France this morning. They've got the two remaining terrorists cornered but now we've learned they have a hostage.  And now there's a second hostage situation which involves the guy who shot a police officer the day after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
  • I read some of the background on the Leroy Burch/John Yarbrough scandal yesterday after I linked to a federal appellate opinion. There was definitely some bad stuff going on, but the U.S. Attorney's really had to shoehorn it through some vague federal statutes to make it a federal case. (Basically every federal crime has to impact interstate commerce for the feds to have jurisdiction.) 
  • Jimmy Johnson is one of the 15 finalists for the the NFL Hall of Fame but most think his career was too short.  But hasn't the NFL allowed "other contributions" to count? I mean, he's been a fixture on Fox pre-game for over a decade. 
  • The NFL sanctioned "independent investigation" found that the NFL never had possession of the Ray Rice elevator video. I wonder if the authors wrote their conclusions their first day on the job. What a charade.  
  • Guy saves drone from going in water. Kinda funny. But look closely in the background at 1:24. What is that creature going under the bridge? Alligator? Snake? Loch Ness Monster? That sucker is big. 
  • Kind of odd that the Morning News and Star-Telegram both went with the same old picture today and the same "Frozen in Time" headline:





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1.08.2015

That Was One Weird Error!




From the website:


Misquoted? And the corrected quote is to delete the entire quote?

(And all of that overshadows the very weird statement that most would not be attracted to helping people.)

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I Wish Wise County Could Get Funding To Do This

Bexar County in San Antonio has renovated its old historic courtroom

The outside of the Wise County Courthouse is majestic.  I can't tell you the number of out-of-towners from over the years I've seen who have stopped to photograph it.

But inside, it's kind of a dump.  Every nook and cranny is occupied with some kind of office. And wires (some properly encased and others not) run along the outside of the walls because those walls aren't made up of two by fours and sheetrock.

The district courtroom we have is what I would want restored.  I've heard that up until around 1950 or so, it had a circular balcony much like To Kill a Mockingbird. Then a ceiling was put on it and a second courtroom was built on top of it. Obviously, the balcony was removed. It takes a lot of imagination these days to try to picture the way it once was.

Crazy note: I have never seen one single photograph of the courtroom as it used to exist. And I've talked to a ton of folks over the years who are interested in Wise County history that have never seen one as well.  That's pretty amazing.


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An Actual Public Service Blog Post




There's a bunch of Wise County folks who work at that Amazon plant, and here's a chance for some more.


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Clippers Owner Is Killin' It





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Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • Kinky Friedman was on ESPN's Outside The Lines yesterday and referred to Jerry Jones and Chris Christie as being in the "most important latent homosexual relationship since Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson."  Host Bob Ley suddenly became very uncomfortable. 
  • There was an allegation last year that a Wise County deputy had photographed registered sex offenders in various stages of dress. Now Wise County has been sued in connection with one of the alleged incidents. (Note to Messenger: That's cause number CV14-12-924). I don't know if the lawsuit has any merit but there's an odd reference in it to former Wise County Sheriff Leroy Burch and Chief Deputy Sheriff John Yarbrough. (History.)
  • WBAP's Hal Jay brought up some weird study this morning that proclaimed that if you are born during a lot of solar activity you are more likely to die earlier than someone who was born when there was not. When a co-host asked what the solar activity was like in June of 1955, Jay said, "It was June! Of course there was a lot of solar activity!" (He was not joking.)
  • College Game Day has set up shop in Sundance Square this weekend for the National Championship Game. Might be a tad chilly. 
  • I just learned that The People's Choice Awards was on last night (I wouldn't have watched anyway) but all you need to know is that Best Comedic Actor went to Adam Sandler. Really.  Is this the 1990s?
  • It is almost poetic that Cowboy great Jethro Pugh passed away on a week when the iconic image of him digging in the ground for footing during the Green Bay Ice Bowl game has been shown on TV about a million times. 
  • Troy Aikman said this morning that he wasn't surprised that Jason Garrett went for it on 4th and 6 last week and "kind of expected it." Riiiiighhhhhttttttt.
  • Let me tell you the conclusion of any scientist studying the earthquakes in Irving: "It could be just natural earth movement. We can't rule out fracking but can't say it didn't contribute to it. And we can't predict the number or the magnitude of quakes in the future." 
  • Yesterday, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cautioned that terrorists are still out there “and they want to kill us wherever they can find us.” I didn't realize we were that hard to find. 
  • "The pen is mightier than the sword" didn't seem very accurate yesterday. 
  • For a couple of years I dogged the Tarrant County DA's office for hiring a Public Information Officer who seemed to be used as more of a campaign spokesman than a government DA's spokesman. (Although she was really good at her job.)  This morning she announced she had quit eight days into the administration of the new DA, Sharen Wilson.  Smart move. Smart girl. Someone hire her. She's a former Star-Telegram reporter. 


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1.07.2015

I Guess It Is Crazy


Hey, I don't know what she is legally entitled to but she thinks it is 1/2 of his $18 billion empire that was built during their 26 years of marriage.  As crazy as it sounds, I guess she could be correct.

Story.



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Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • I got an email report from someone I trust who reports that Decatur's "Speedo Man" (he's pictured in the masthead, above) has died.  According to the email:  "He was a good guy with a good sense of humor. He was one other best dozer operators I've ever met. It was uncanny. He could push a pile of dirt or timber 200 yards and not lose an ounce of the dirt pile or there wouldn't be a teaspoon of dirt in the whole ball of timber if pushing timber or brush. He could barely read or write but he could eyeball grades and cut them to within +/- an inch or two. Again, it was uncanny. Inspectors would take their lunch breaks on the site to watch him work." He never EVER drank water- only coffee no matter how hot it was.
  • I'm pretty sure that the SMU scientists erected their own seismic equipment within the last week and half at the old Texas Stadium site. Very nice timing considering the last 24 hours of activity. 
  • Big news this morning: At least 12 people killed in Paris in a terroristic attack at a satirical magazine. (I clicked on a "graphic footage" link this morning and wish I hadn't.) They were targeting specific individuals including the editor and a cartoonist. There are already collections on the Internet of the paper's most "offensive" covers -- they are obviously in French but there are explanations in the sidebar in that link. 
  • Does Salman Rushdie still live in fear after all of these years?
  • There is a Wise County inmate who has been mailing out uh, toilet paper, to various county officials over the past week or so. 
  • I rarely watch MSNBC, but Rachel Maddow last night had the funniest segment as she ran footage of Joe Biden interacting with the newly sworn Senators and their families.  It truly is like Christmas to him. And it's so tense watching him because he's so wheels off. 
  • Every friend I have who has ever used Uber loves it. 
  • "DALLAS — A Dallas attorney, Andrew Lee Siegel, faces up to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty in a nearly $1.6 million vodka investment scam." I thought he might be associated with "Sigel's wine of the week" until I discovered is name is spelled differently that the liquor chain. 
  • For the Republicans to take over both houses of Congress yesterday, they sure seemed grumpy. 
  • I had no idea the very wheels off Kennedale "And Another" teacher was released from prison last month. (Credit: BagofNothing for seeing it.) She had been sentenced to five years in August of 2012, but she probably had accumulated a ton of back time. If I remember correctly, all her "victims" were of legal age but she was prosecuted under the teacher/student "improper relationship" statute.
  • I'm late to this story, but the Assistant Dallas DA who got a arrested for DWI has to be a moron for firing off the "Do you know who I am" card. (But he sure looked "fly" in the Channel 8 video.) 


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1.06.2015

Above The Fold

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Another Irving/Dallas Earthquake At Around 3:10 p.m.


This one sounds bigger based upon initial reports.

I'm checking the Liberally Lean seismic equipment.

Developing . . .


Edit: If you read this on Wednesday morning, you're probably aware there were eight more over the next few hours.
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Scenes From The New Congress Today





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Lithuanian Talent Show Is The Most Tense Thing You'll See All Day. Or week. Or more.

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That's A Mess




Firetruck and cement trick collide. Cement truck falls on pickup.
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Now This Is Beginning To Make Sense

Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky)
Chris Christie, Jerry Jones and the Port Authority of NY & NY -- now THAT's an unholy trinity share.d-news.co/KzzKVaM pic.twitter.com/1gZ2fMQCLj

Download the official Twitter app here


Barry
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Get Me This Dog!



He's a regular Birddog of Alcatraz.
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Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • Wise County court docket's for yesterday and today are crazy. 
  • Having  a woman get stabbed at a DART station doesn't exactly make one want to use public transportation. (Happened early this morning.) 
  • OU offensive coordinator, who led the team to a national championship when he was QB, has been fired this morning.
  • The Ticket was talking about Miss America this morning. Didn't Denton County have two back to back winners? Wasn't Phyllis George one of them?
  • Power Down words I heard last night; "It's Bachelor marathon evening!"  (Maybe for you Mrs. LL, but I. Am. Out.)
  • I've worn a Fitbit for two weeks and still haven't read the instructions.
  • A new Congress and a new Texas legislature. Hide yo' wife. Hide yo' kids.
  • And the Right Wing trying to promote Rep. Louie Gohmert as House Speaker over John Boehner a huge favor by trying to take him down on Tuesday. That ain't gonna happen. 
  • After the controversial call/non-call in the Detroit/Dallas game, I was reminded that the NFL vice president of officiating, Dean Blandino, was on the Cowboys "party bus" with Jerry and Stephen Jones back in August. I had completely forgotten about that.  


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1.05.2015

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • I watched a little of Joel Osteen yesterday. Let me tell you the formula: "You might be having financial troubles. You might have been in a relationship you shouldn't have been in. You might be suffering from some type of addiction. You might have have said something to a family member you shouldn't have." What? You are trying to connect to 99% of your audience? 
  • If you are a fan of The Office you understand "That's what she said."  Hey, it's a tired bit and I've retired it. But then, on Saturday,  Mrs. LL made a comment about a burrito she brought home. I pinched my lips together. She saw what was going through my mind and then bombarded me with innuendos. I'm not sure I have laughed so hard in years.
  • We are re-watching Breaking Bad and it's better than I remembered. And I thought it was great the first time. 
  • I'm convinced that the new Family Pup #2 is mentally challenged. It may be the dumbest animal I've ever seen. Every time you see her, she looks up with this expression of "Who are you?" Hey, pup!!! I'm the one who saved you from traffic!!!!
  • It's a weird phenomenon when the Kids In The House start making incredibly witty/funny comments. Hey, don't grow up!!!
  • Meathead Rob Lowe is my favorite Rob Lowe.
  • Sports: Going for it on 4th down now seems in vogue -- and I'm a huge fan.
  • BagOfNothing is revealing more about his sex life this morning. If any of you guys want to form a posse and join me to confront him later today, let me know. He's putting way too much pressure on us. 
  • No one seems like they've grown up in, and still lives in, a bubble more than Mike Huckabee.
  • Mrs. LL yells at me when she walks in and sees me steaming because I've been watching Fox News. 
  • I hate January. 


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