12.26.2016

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • It's the Monday after Christmas, and once again I prove I'm the hardest working man in show business
  • Random tweet:

  • Fox News' puppet Sheriff Clarke tried to be cute over the weekend by using an old photo of President Obama with a tear rolling down his face. He might want to check his attempted cuteness. Colin Jones set him straight.
  • After Tiger Woods posted his crazy shirtless Santa picture (see post below), we got to see this. (Tiger's bleached beard can still be seen.)
  • So let me get this straight, Ivanka Trump was verbally harassed last week as she prepared to fly in coach on Jet Blue? She's flying commercial with the common man? She's rich. Her daddy's rich. And her husband's family could buy and sell the Trump family many times over. That was a stunt. No way she's flying in coach on Jet Blue. #TheBigCon
  • Mrs. LL and I watched the Christmas movie Scarface on Christmas eve'e eve. (She giggles so much at it you would think it's a comedy.)
  • International banks, including Deutsche Bank, have agreed to pay $12.5 billion in fines in connection with the mortgage crisis. (Cue the goofballs who think the mortgage crisis was caused by banks being "forced" to give mortgages to low income people. Note to those people: Look up "credit default swap" (I explained it years ago in that link). And if you aren't willing to do that at least read the book The Big Short. Or any book.).
  • Credit default swaps brought down Bear, Stearns and Lehman, Brothers. Something so shocking at the end of the Bush Administration that I still can't believe it.  Goldman, Sachs weathered the storm and is now in perfect position under Trump to become the richest Wall Street firm in history. 
  • George Michael, too? Heck, none of us are safe from 2016.
  • That Fort Worth throat slashing case has gotten weird.  There seems to be a very real possibility that his anti-anxiety medication really, really messed him up. He certainly gave off the early warning signs. Something's not right. 
  • I've said to invest in drones, virtual reality, and legal edible marijuana. I think I might add one: The ton of hard plastic that comes around basically every Christmas gift that needs protection. 
  • Every one of you need to be educated on the power and the reoccurring problem of the unethical, deceitful and arrogant prosecutor who does not care about the truth. If you are interested in criminal justice, I beg you to track down ESPN's 30 for 30 on the Duke Lacrosse scandal, Fantastic Lies.  I almost threw up. 
  • And now we have some very sad news . . . 

Comments are off not because I don't want them, but it's because that I'm going off the grid. 

at 8:30 AM

12.24.2016

I Just Got Pissed Off On Christmas Eve!



Story
at 11:24 AM

Above The Fold


Here's a New Year's prediction: Although the case against the judge is a misdemeanor, it must go to the district court (normally reserved for felonies) because it involves a public official. That means the case will have to be vetted by a Wise County Grand Jury.  I bet the grand jury boots this silliness to the curb in a New York minute. As they should. What an incredible waste of time and taxpayer money.

(And to me the most disturbing thing about this whole case is that the facts, even if true, do not meet the legal definition of Official Oppression. How did it get this far?)
at 6:28 AM

12.23.2016

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here. (Assuming Anyone Is Still Here.)

I like these creative kids. Bits are fun. 

Helium + Flame = "Yes! Science!"

America needs to replace the traditional
 dunking booth with this immediately. 
That girl will be a good wife someday.
This girl, on the other hand, is a Wife Wildcard. 
That cat has to be doped up. 

at 12:55 PM

I Want To Know More About This Christmas Story

Happened in Cisco.

Edit:
at 8:49 AM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • Greg Abbott's pardons yesterday are mind boggling. Such courage. Such bravery. Putting himself on the line for the most wretched of society! How will he ever survive the political blowback??!!
  • Seriously, it makes you think everyone on that list is there not as the result of merit but because of a political favor. Not for them but for someone else. A big donor's maid? Dan Patrick's secretary's nephew? Rick Perry's pharmacist's  daughter? 
  • Shout out to David West at James Wood Motors. He put me in the poor man's Mach 5 cheaply and easily yesterday. (Actual Mach 5 pictured here for you youngsters. Real car only looks like that in my mind.) And shout out to the manager of the sales department who acknowledged being a Liberally Lean reader. ("He's a liberal, but he writes good stuff.") 
  • After getting past Trump using Twitter to talk about nuclear weapons when all previous presidents referred to them very carefully, when's the last time a president advocated increasing them?
  • Dallas won the NFC East last night with an Eagles win. Academy then opened up to sell "NFC East Champions" shirts. Why would you ever want one of those? If that's the best that happens, that's a "good" season followed by failure. You can't equate it to a SEC, Big 12 or Big 10 championship shirt. Heck, there are only four teams in the NFC East. 
  • That Fort Worth cop is done. You can't arrest people because you're pissed. But from the start of that video it looks like he was just having a bad day. I understand that. We've all performed poorly at our job at one time or another because of a bad day. That being said, he should have just separated everyone, talked to all parties, and assured the Angry Momma that he would file a report but that he couldn't make an arrest even if he believed the child had been assaulted. Then go back and make the report. (All that sounds like a beating. And he was probably thinking of that as all of it was unfolding in front of him. And he was also probably thinking, "If that kid hadn't littered, I wouldn't have to go through all this crap.")
  • Mrs. LL found a very, very funny movie named All-Stars about coaching 10 and under girls softball. It is straight out of Best in Show and Spinal Tap -- and there has to be some connection because Fred Willard plays a major role. Trailer here. (I don't know if the thing was even released in theaters. It has an IMDB page which says nothing about the box office and the movie isn't mentioned anywhere on Wikipedia.)
  • Trump is mad that the "cool kids" really don't want to have anything to do with him: 
  • We need to check in on the pulse of Fort Worth and the stock price of Lockheed Martin: 
  • That guy loves exclamation points!
  • The weirdest story of the year might be the guy accused of slashing his wife's and baby's throats in their home near Harmon and 287. He was arrested yesterday on his way to Las Vegas after being stopped in Colorado for driving without a back license plate. (Recall that Timothy McVeigh was arrested after the Oklahoma City bombing because he was stopped for the same violation.)
  • A couple of Arlington officers responded to a stolen Christmas gifts call and found it to be true. They then decided to take the mom/victim to Walmart and paid to help replace the gifts. That truly is a touching gesture. But it is ruined when the PR director of Arlington PD decides to take advantage of it by putting the officers and the victimized family in front of an Arlington PD banner and calling a news conference. Kindness does not need to be exploited. 
  • The Berlin Market Attacker has been killed in Milan, Italy. That's a lot of border crossing going on. They gonna build a wall around every country in Europe? Didn't we work to tear down those that existed over there?




at 8:30 AM

12.22.2016

Tiger Woods Just Set Twitter Ablaze




The responses are pretty funny.
at 3:24 PM

What A Mess




That's how you escalate, not de-escalate, a situation.
at 11:27 AM

Trump Just Moments Ago




This should all makes us feel comfortable that a man with a hairpin emotional trigger is already talking about ramping up the nukes.


at 11:00 AM

Let's Check In On Today's Youth On A Golf Course



The chubby kid in the Longhorn visor is a stickler for the rules. And he is none too pleased when he sees a PGA violation. If his opponent doesn't acknowledge that he's lying three, there will be consequences.

Kudos to the camera man for recognizing the comedy unfolding in front of him. (Although the damage to the golf bag stand seems to be over the top and overlooked by everyone.)

Language warning: Longhorn kid drops an F bomb there at the end.
at 8:59 AM

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




  • After suffering from painful sinuses that kept me down for almost four full days and the weekend, let me praise the greatness of the Z-Pac. I had never taken that before and it worked like a miracle.
  • I think Wise County may have a well fire on the south side of the county in the Boyd-Rhome-Decatur triangle. It's one of those that looks like a giant flame thrower aimed at the sky this morning.
  • Bob Stoops on his woman slugging player Joe Mixon yesterday on what would happen if the incident happened today: "Two and a half years later, dismissal is really the only thing that's possible." Huh? You saw the tape back then. What's different about today?
  • There is a hero out there somewhere: 
  • Anyone know anyone in Bridgeport who will rake leaves, bag them (or put them in a trailer), and haul them off? Residential, but an above average sized job. 
  • This is worth following:
  • "Mississippi police have arrested a man for allegedly throwing a homemade explosive device into a Walmart store on Sunday because he was angry employees there stopped selling Confederate flag paraphernalia." Let's call it what it is: Radical White Southern American Racist Terrorism. 
  • Everyone reported that former OU coach Barry Switzer met with Trump because Switzer told the media he did after coming out of the elevators at Trump Tower. Now Switzer says he was just joking and had only gone up to Starbucks. 
  • [For hardcore Ticket fans only: The funniest thing you'll see all year.]
  • Am I out of the loop on the "Billy on The Street" bit? I keep seeing references to it, watched about a minute of one, was unimpressed, and much of it seemed staged. Or has no one else even heard about it?
  • I've yet to see Love, Actually this Christmas. Still my favorite. (And I just realized one of the three hot chicks the guy runs into in America at the bar near the end of the movie is January Jones -- later of Mad Men.)



at 8:41 AM

12.21.2016

Life Comes At You Fast


at 1:44 PM

Above The Fold


at 9:30 AM

This Is All Over The Internet This Morning

But context is needed.  I thought it was possible that his freak-out is what got him kicked off the plane. But at the beginning of the video, he says he has already been informed he is being kicked off -- implying that is why he is now recording.

It will be interesting to hear Delta's side and if there are any other videos of the event.

Edit: Delta's initial response:


at 8:45 AM

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

  • Yes, I saw the news about the Wise County JP. Hey, even if the allegations are true, does it have to go all the way to an arrest and criminal prosecution? Isn't there some other way that reasonable and decent human beings can handle this without the criminal justice system getting involved? 
  • The final certified vote: Hillary's margin of victory in the popular vote is 2,864,974.
  • And that number was bothering Trump this morning: 
  • Boy, the Harris County DA - Elect is going scorched earth. She's already sent letters to 40 current prosecutors saying they won't be retained, and now she is threatening to prosecute some of them. (She says they have contacted alleged victims in pending cases saying the new administration will dismiss the criminal cases.)
  • Sen. Joe Manchin's solution for West Virginia's opioid epidemic: "We need to declare a war on drugs" Please tell me this isn't the "again" in "Make America Great Again."
  • The offices in the Wise County Courthouse had a Holiday Door Decorating Competition. After talking to some of those who did not win, they won't rule out Russian Hacking of the votes by the judges at the Messenger.
  • Trump's sons will now distance themselves from the seedy "$1 Million To Have Access To The President" event once they figured out what everyone else knew: The whole thing seemed unethical. They've now learned they'll have to be unethical behind the scenes. 
  • Question at the courthouse yesterday: Does Santa wrap your kid's gifts or not? My parents did wrap them but did so very poorly telling me that "Santa was probably in a hurry late last night."
  • It's behind a paywall (Edit: Another version not behind a paywall), but this story out of Oklahoma this morning looks juicy:
  • I don't know Decatur's Parker Hicks but he scored 60 points in a basketball game last night.
  • I'm now confused about the pronunciation of "Gyro" as in the sandwich. When I ordered one at Arby's in Decatur a couple of weeks back, the nice guy at the window confirmed my order by pronouncing it "YEAR-o." So I guessed that was correct. But then I was watching a great Seinfeld episode last night and Elaine pronounced it "JI-ro". Hey, she's was playing a New Yorker. That has to be correct, right?
  • And it was my favorite Seinfeld episode ever involving a guy stalking Elaine after meeting her on the Subway because she was reading his favorite publication -  TV Guide, Jerry dating and Indian woman and a drugstore Indian kept making and appearance, George getting busy in his parents' house, and Kramer coming up with the idea about a coffee table book about coffee tables. All that in one episode. 

at 8:32 AM

12.20.2016

Bet How This Will End


at 12:33 PM

Actually Written Last Year But Still Funny


at 9:00 AM

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • So the manslaughter trial of the Garland cop who fired 41 shots into a guy's truck ended in a mistrial yesterday after the jury couldn't reach a verdict. 
  • "Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant was found dead in his home Monday, one week after it was announced that he was under investigation, the Stephenville Empire-Tribune reported." It appears to be a suicide.
  • The Austin American Statesman looked at how constitutional county judges can receive a extra $25,000 by signing a one page document representing they are doing extra work. It has a positive reference to Wise County of declining to do so.
  • Finally had the diagnosis of the new washing machine not working: The power runs through a typical switch right above it on wall. It had failed. (The electrician figured out the problem in record time, and I complimented him for this. His dry pan response was: "It's almost as if I know what I'm doing, huh?"
  • Breaking this morning: Police in Berlin say they arrested the wrong man after a truck driver plowed into a Christmas market.
  • So what's on Trump's mind this morning with all the global issues going on?:

  • Two big name college running backs who will be turning pro next year have decided to not participate in their team's bowl game. I've got no problem with that. Coaches leave before bowl games all the time for better opportunities. (Both of those guys have been hurt in the past.)
  • I'll never camped out overnight at a store just to the first to get a product. Then again, I'm not a fan of camping out for enjoyment. 
  • I was surprised by the number of comments defending OU's Joe Mixon. That elite athlete hit a girl so hard that she ended up having to have her jaw wired shut. 
  • Trump's two older male children, along with Dallas' Tom Hicks, Jr., have organized a group to sell a one time "access to the President" for $1 million with the funds going to unnamed "conservation charities." Sheesh. How much will they make off of that? Follow the money. 
  • Anyone else think Home Alone is a horrible movie? The kid's phone lines were down but why didn't his parents just call someone else to go check on him? And a movie primarily for kids sends the message that kids are smart and adults are dumb. 
  • "The New Year’s Eve Bash planned by the Wise County Chamber of Commerce has been canceled." That used to be a big deal.
  • For the first time ever, I'm not publishing a lot of the comments because the are simply dumb. I almost feel like they are whipping everyone's arse and running folks like Rage and Wordkyle off from the comments section. 


at 8:39 AM

12.19.2016

Russian Ambassador To Turkey Was Shot And Killed Today


Good lord, it was at a press event at an art gallery and reporters were rolling tape.

In a video circulating on social media that shows the shooting of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, the shooter is heard shouting, "Allahu akbar (God is great). Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria! Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!"

Great. We can WW III start before Christmas.
at 11:32 AM

Maybe The Craziest Thing During The Cowboy Game Last Night

But a close second:


at 8:56 AM

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • Watching OU's Joe Mixon hit that girl on video, which was released on  Friday, was horrific.  The event happened two years ago and the only thing OU did was redshirt him. He's played ever since. That's not a good look for Bob Stoops or the school. And I don't know how this ESPN reporter still has a job after firing this off and then deleting it:
    Meant "greet", by the way.
  • If Zeke Elliott had snapped his leg jumping into the Salvation Army bucket, he would have been roasted instead of being hailed as the King of Post TD Celebrations. (But news this morning is that the NFL won't fine him.)
  • The world's gone crazy . . . 
  • When you renew your driver's license online, it will be sent to you with a notice that you can "become a Texas State Trooper."
  • I'm hearing about lots of people sick in Wise County with sinus/flu like symptoms. 
  • A Fort Worth cop was acquitted last week of sexual assault after being in prison for twenty-one years. He was granted a new trial after the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in May that the alleged victim had lied during her testimony. There is no way the Tarrant County DA's office should have retried him.
  • A both shocking (due to its citations) and brilliant free speech brief was filed last week in the Supreme Court. It begins: 
  • I watched a lot of the high school finals on TV -- broadcast from Cowboy's Stadium. Do they ever call targeting in Texas? I never seen more leading with the crown of the helmet than in those games.
  • Trump proved once again over the weekend that he can't spell. 
  • And continued to act oddly:
  • But this Electoral College "news" that's coming today is truly a big bag of nothing. 



at 8:40 AM

12.17.2016

Above The Fold


at 7:00 AM

12.16.2016

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.

You almost pulled it off, kid.

Still doesn't make me interested in Star Wars sequels.

The 22 Pound Cat in the House would have a heart attack.

Obvious NBA fan.

Still doesn't make want me to see Star Wars sequels.
at 2:30 PM

Huh?!


at 11:50 AM

Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson

Doesn't this firm represent Wise County in tax collections?


at 9:03 AM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • Did the Russians hack the election with Trump's knowledge? And he revealed once again how dumb he is this morning in a nonsensical tweet where he acknowledges the hack: 
  • "Parker County grand jury declines to indict Weatherford attorney Matthew McConahay on sexual misconduct with a former client."
  • Mineola won a football state championship yesterday. Many, many years ago a buddy and I went there and bought about 30 Christmas trees with the concept of selling them door to door in Trophy Club. We tried. It was a miserable failure. We sold zero. 
  • If you watch any of the Dylan Roof videos (he was convicted yesterday) you'll be horrified.  How does a kid so young become so full hate and racism? Side note: The prosecutor in the case is the same guy who prosecuted Susan Smith who drowned her kids. 
  • How your relationship changes with your children (or, in my case, my fake kids -- a funny name I use instead of saying "stepchildren") as they grow older and wittier is really amazing.
  • Mrs. LL and I still have  a 22 pound cat that she found in a pond. He's named "Ponder."  And the fattest cat in the history of ever. 
  • Syria is President Obama's biggest failure. He really made a push to intervene about two years ago and then abandoned the concept. It would have been much more worthy of invading than Iraq or Afghanistan. 
  • WHAT?: "Wise County commissioners approved Monday spending $25,020 to create a K9 training facility in order to host the United States Police K-9 Association (USPCA) regional trials and certification."
  • Syracuse broke a 99 year old cold record this morning checking in at -2.
  • I reference the Mark Davis Show all the time. Check out this picture of the staff of his talk show station, The Answer, and their companion Christian station KLTY. What's missing?:
  • This was yesterday at the Death Star. That's quality comedy. (Look at the team name and the sign):
  • Baylor's women basketball team won a game yesterday 140-32. If Mrs. LL ever divorces me, I'm marrying Kim Mulkey.
  • Those uniforms last night:
  • Finally I have proof of an embedded ad. Yesterday on The Ticket's Hardline, Corby Davidson began a segment saying, "We were all commissioned to see a movie, Office Party . . . . "

at 8:34 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)