12.04.2015

Maybe My First NBA Post Ever




What a beast.
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It's Friday. Let's Get Out Here.

Not smooth:

Smooth:

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The Making Of A Political Ad



This one focuses on Ted Cruz, but they all have to be a beating to make. (And note: They are all ineffective.)
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Get Me This (Drunk?) Panda!

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • New CNN poll released this morning: Trump, 36%. Cruz, 16%, Carson 14%.  That is a mind-boggling lead. And it is December!! (Here is a fascinating grid of every candidate's share for every month since June. Trump had 12% in June.) 
  • Sports: (1) I told you take take the under on the number of Cowboy wins. Winner! (2) I've got a witness up at the courthouse who I told in August that OU would win the Big 12. Winner. (3) I missed the over/under on TCU but it came down to double-over time and being short by a yard on fourth down. So Close To Being Winner. (4) This Vine of Rajon Rondo getting ejected is great.
  • I received in the mail a "prescription card" offering savings "up to 75%" for prescription costs not covered by insurance. There was no catch in any of the literature -- nothing to sign up for and nothing to buy. I was so confused that I researched them. I'll be dang. It's legit - although the 75% is a rarity. Apparently the company, American Prescription Discounts, makes money from drug companies every time the card is used for one of its products. I still don't understand how they can make money, though. Edit: Maybe not as good as I thought, and they are in the business of selling your private info once you use the card. 
  • A friend of mine and I were talking yesterday and we both had the same observation: There seems to a dramatic increase in the number of people who are suffering from so much anxiety that they are almost crippled by it. It's almost as if something weird is going on out there. She had a great sci-fi theory: That the country won't be attacked by bombs or troops but by contaminating the air or water supply to slowly disable the population. (That could be a movie.) 
  • "Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland dead at 48." That news was everywhere this morning. I wouldn't have thought it would have been that big of deal. 
  • The Rhome Police Chief has filed to run for Sheriff. You'll remember him from that city council meeting from earlier this year. The other candidate is former Texas Ranger Lane Akin.
  • I don't think I've ever felt as ill as I did on Thanksgiving Day. And I still think I'm only 75% now. (There's something unique about someone telling you that you "look awful". You don't want to look awful but it is re-assuring that you are in fact sick.) 
  • Police killings based upon population of county across the nation: Dallas County comes in 7th and Tarrant County comes in 9th. Wow.
  • The Feds are now officially investigating Irving PD over the arrest of the Clock Kid. 
  • Ticket fans only: Look what was found in Bowie.
  • I'm not very familiar with Fox News Kimberly Guifoyle but I saw her work late at night during the California Massacre. That girl could barely ask a coherent question. But she was hot. 
  • Man, the Daily News goes full throttle . . . 


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12.03.2015

Our Lt. Governor Redesigned The New York Daily News Cover




They prayed for people to be shot?
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This Kid Is A Moron




It's not enough to get his "probation" revoked, but it might be enough for the case to be transferred to adult court which the DA's office had already indicated it wanted to do.


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Trump!



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Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




  • Well we have another act of mass violence . . . once again by a government employee who is a U.S. citizen.
  • Just because the California murderers have Middle Eastern names, Fox News seemed to big over backwards yesterday trying to speculate that is was ISIS related. 
  • And why does Fox employee Mark Fuhrman as a crime expert? He is the most famous incompetent detective in U.S. history.
  • The point is, we don't know what motivated the California Killers.  Fox and Friends had a former FBI guy on today who said he would "rule out" simple "work place violence" because, in part, "how many people have AR-15s?" Heck, I know three people with AR-15s who are as conservative as the day is long.
  • SBPD Chief Jarrod Burguan gave a press conference around midnight. He's smart. He's no fool. I was impressed.
  • I went to a funeral yesterday where Acts 20 was discussed (it was pretty funny - the son of the deceased mom had used it to instruct the person conducting the service to "keep it short"). But, as much as I know about the Bible, I'm not sure I had heard of Paul raising someone from the dead. Is that the way that most people interpret that passage?
  • 660 Answer's Mark Davis' support of Donald Trump and his belief that Trump could beat Hillary is disturbing. And credit for Fox 4's Tim Ryan confronting him this morning on TV by asking, "You want someone with no self control to be the Commander and Chief?" (And then I turned on the radio and heard Davis emphatically refer to the California shootings as "Global Jihah".)  Good lord, man. 
  • "Reports: Internet-famous ‘adorable drug kingpin’ [based upon book in photo] busted in College Station is daughter of DEA agent".  My head exploded once again. 
  • If you watch any of the business channels, you'll see from time to time Chris Faulkner who is a big fan of fracking and the president of Breitling Energy. I've always been suspicious of that guy especially because he has owned at least one failed business and comes across, to me, as a snake oil salesman. I checked Breitling's stock price.  It has gone from $15.00 a share in 2011 to yesterday's sensational price of 5.4 cents a share.
  • Man, this newspaper cover is full throttle . . .










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12.02.2015

Breaking: We Have Another Mass Shooting



12 dead in California. More shot. Could be more than one shooter.

Developing.


Edit at 5:57 p.m. Two alleged domestic terrorists dead on the street and one guy has barricaded himself in a home -- and it is not his home. Insane. And there is also mass media confusion

And this is offered without opinion:


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Random Wise County Political Announcement From 1984


All I can think of is "We're the Flying Elvises! Utah Chapter!"
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That Video Is Turnt Up


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Get Me These Baby Goats!


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Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • There was an interesting comment yesterday after I posted a couple of Alvord news clips from back in the day. To paraphrase, it was someone complaining that if you weren't born in Wise County you will never feel accepted by the old-timers. And further, why does just being born in a particular place give you the right to feel superior? (Now consider that statement and think about people trying to enter our country for a better life.)
  • In the high school playoffs in 2002, Everman beat Lake Dallas 78-0.  And I think it was around that time (maybe) that a kid was paralyzed playing for Everman. I wonder what ever happened to him.
  • Did you see the video of the metroplex female officer who was swept away in rushing water. I don't know if she was brave or clueless. There is no way someone could think they could walk through that. 
  • That hearing yesterday for pre-trial motions for Texas AG Ken Paxton was a waster of time and nothing but grandstanding. (And I wouldn't dare to try to use Power Point in a hearing in Wise County.)  I'm kind of surprised that the respected Tarrant County judge allowed all that grandstanding. 
  • Pitcher David Price received a new contract yesterday of 7 years for $217 million. Guaranteed. Parents: Don't hand your kid a football. Hand him a baseball. (And Price has basically zero chance to suffer from the effects of concussions -- save the line drive off his noggin.)
  • I've mentioned Looking For Captain Zero a couple of times now because I have a hunch that my contractor for the floors in the home may be the guy who went looking for him. And then Mrs. LL reminded me of how all of this started. When we were in Costa Rica in that village, we were briefly introduced to Captain Zero who looked borderline homeless and was riding a bike. That's what caused me to go buy the book in the first place.  And she remembered something else I had forgotten: He was wearing a University of Texas cap! There is a Texas connection! 
  • Wow: "MECOSTA COUNTY, Mich. — A Mecosta man is charged with a felony for obstruction of justice and misdemeanor of tampering with a jury for passing out fliers about jury nullification rights on the sidewalk of the Mecosta County courthouse." His bond was set at $150,000.  The guy was arrested for just telling potential jurors that they can find someone not guilty if they want to on the basis of fairness and common decency? 
  • I arose from my illness (still getting better, by the way) to watch the new Muppets show last night on ABC. It was like the writers of Modern Family took over this resurrection. It was laugh out loud funny. 
  • The Mayor of Chicago fired the police chief because of the murder of the kid by one of the chief's officers. Why? The buck ends with him. Along those line, after  all of the bad press that DPS in Texas has received (see example, below), how does DPS Director Steve McCraw still have a job? 
  • From the Update: "HELICOPTER SANTA – Santa will be landing his helicopter at The Community Bank in Bridgeport at 5 p.m. Thursday. Cookies will be served." I remember my dad almost freaking out when I was a little kid when we had a Helicopter Santa land in narrow downtown Bridgeport between a bunch of power lines in front of a massive crowd. It got so close to the lines that we almost had a small town Hindenburg. Oh, the humanity, indeed. 
  • The Ticket's Gordon Keith won an award for writing -- primarily based upon one column about the anticipated death of his mom earlier this year. A guy who is a smart ass, writes too much, talks too much, thinks about deep things too much, and had a loving mother.
  • The "almost" final Top Four for the college football playoffs are out: (1) Clemson, (2) Alabama, (3) Oklahoma, (4) Iowa.   Bet the house: Michigan State will replace Iowa next week. All else will remain the same. #SportsGenius
  • If you are a fan of The Ticket and a fan of the movie Love, Actually (which I am), this might make you laugh out loud.




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12.01.2015

Oh, My!


Story

And to think I asked a client last week (after something about the facts seemed very odd to me): "Do you think he [the Wise County officer] was hitting on you?"

I'm not allowed to tell you her answer.
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One More Alvord News Post


That's not a bad inspirational quote from the pastor.

But the second story got my attention. Emma Ray! A smart (and take no prisoners) woman. She scared me to death when I was DA.  And for you current county officials and bankers, check out that interest rate on CDs which only had to be invested for a couple of weeks. 
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I Came Into Possession Of Some Old Alvord Newspapers. Great Stuff

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Texas Monthly vs. Irony: Who Ya Got?

The cover story of this month's Texas Monthly is fascinating. It features how the housing market is out of control (headed for disaster) and that most people can't afford real estate and struggle to even find an affordable apartment . . .



Then, about five pages in, there is this ad for a high end area of Houston.


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Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • I'm late on this, but that Planned Parenthood shooting was insane. A dead cop. A dead veteran. But Ted Cruz was quick to point out that this had nothing to do with abortion, "Well, it's also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and transgendered leftist activist, if that's what he is." Good lord, man. 
  • The Chicago shooting of the teenager by a police officer -- shooting him 16 times -- went under the radar since the shocking video was released over the Thanksgiving holidays. 
  • I'm feeling better.  Mrs. LL referred to me as being "under the weather". I hadn't heard that phrase in forever. (And I think the Dogs In The House know when I'm sick. And maybe even that mean Cat.)
  • Why are Wise County Deputies doing traffic stops on 287 and in the Southern part of the county? Something seems odd. 
  • Who would have thought that Lake Bridgeport would be two feet over its level in December? 
  • The Senior in House playing her flute upstairs is a beautiful sound.
  •  “The simple and undeniable fact is the overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats” - Ted Cruz during an interview on Monday. “There’s a reason why the Democrats for years have been viewed as soft on crime,” Cruz continued. “The Democrats know convicted felons tend to vote Democrat.”  When did Ted Cruz go insane? Or is he just trying to out-Trump Trump? 
  • I said it two months ago. You are watching the implosion of the GOP. The Republicans need a new face to save that party. 
  • What happened to Carter Haynie, 27, of Bridgeport who is mentioned in the obits in the Update?
  • The end of the Cleveland/Baltimore game last night was beyond entertaining.
  • I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas Special last night for what might have been the first time in 20 years. I had forgotten how smartly written it was (and how Snoopy was an incredible character in the  background.)]
  • \------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
  • (That was done by the Rescued Dog In The House as I was trying to hit the "Publish" button)







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11.30.2015

The Official Liberally Lean Girl Is Killin' It

A video posted by Britney Spears (@britneyspears) on


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Police State 2.1


I'm reviewing a DVD in one of the cases I'm working on.

I can't believe what I just saw! A trooper training another trooper told him to go get an arrest warrant for a driver and fill it out a portion of it with with "blah, blah. blah, blah."

(Then again, maybe I should have expected to see it.)

By the way, can you make my job any easier than this? And can you make an honest prosecutor's job any harder? By the way, this was an allegation of a misdemeanor: Lying to a police officer!

(Note to prosecutor: It's around 14:31 of the video)

Edit: And runner up for the day is another video where the officer reads the DIC-24 in a DWI and changes his voice when he reads the part of "your license will be suspended" and then ends it with that he is "requesting a simple breath test." (He had already told him that he would take his blood if he wanted to.)  Good lord. Who is training these people in Austin?

Edit: I'm on my fourth video of the day. A veteran trooper calmly and politely tells the guy, "This is not a game show" when he is asking if he will submit to field sobriety tests. You, sir, are a genius. And I mean that. Maybe the best trooper I've ever seen in Wise County.



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Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • I'm not sure I've ever been so sick as I have been over the last week and half, yet I have no fever. And I'm still barely able to type all this out. 
  • I post ELO's Mr. Blue Sky and then I'm not sure we've seen the sun since then. 
  • But I did wake up to the song, "I can see clearly now, the rain has gone. I can see all obstacles in my way."
  • I mentioned a few days back about the hippie contractor who came over to redo the floors. What first got my attention was how he talked so fondly about Baja Mexico with such incredible delight. He then talked about how he had been to the same small village in Costa Rica that he had been to that Mrs. LL and I went to a few years back. When we were down there, a guy told me about the book Searching For Captain Zero -- it's about a guy who went looking for a buddy who was hooked on meth. Do you know what weird route the author of that book and my contractor took to get to Costa Rica? The Baja.
  • I also spent time during my illness reading Michael Morton's book about his false imprisonment, Getting Life, due to a prosecutor who withheld evidence. 
  • Sports: (1) TCU beat Baylor fair and square. Baylor was down to its third team QB but TCU's QB was playing on on leg, (2) Remember before the season I predicted that an Oklahoma team would win the Big 12? Boom. (3) Every time a network puts "rules official" Mike Pereira on the air to predict how and official review will end he is wrong, (4) Nothing was more scored earth than LSU's Les Miles when he went after the school's president and AD after they threatened to fire him but the public backlash  was so great they backed down. He said he wanted to talk to some people in a "back alley", (5) The movie Concussion which has the NFL in its cross-hairs looks great. 
  • Do you guys realize that our Texas Governor is meeting with Cuban Communists!! Communists!
  • Fed Ex and Amazon need to merge. 
  • Pastor Keith Craft, in my opinion, looks like he is on steroids. 







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