3.24.2018

Leader Board


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Above The Fold

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3.23.2018

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

 When the instructor doesn't realize he actually has
to give one little last instruction to some people.
 That'll buff right out. 
 Who doesn't want a real live rabbit toy?
 Take a seat. Please, take a seat. 
I just came up with an idea for a horror movie starring my 22 pound fat cat. 
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Congress Has Gone Home. Government Shutdown Looming.

And another day of White House chaos.

And now we know what prompted the veto threat. He was watching Fox and Friends:
Edit: He called an impromptu "press conference" where he signed the bill. It was the most rambling and incoherent speech in U.S. history. He said that "no one" had read the monstrous spending bill. How's that "Drain The Swamp" thing workin' out for ya?






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Leader Board

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • Jenny Anchondo quit Fox 4 "effective immediately." That seems very abrupt and very strange. I looked at her Twitter feed and she was working hard up until the day before. What happened?
  • What a day for Trump.
    • John Dowd, Trump's lead lawyer in the Mueller investigation, quit in the morning.  The Washington Post on Monday said there was trouble brewing but Dowd denied it.
    • Trump, late in the afternoon, then fired the National Security Adviser who was big on compromise and negotiations. The "lame stream media" said the departure was coming for the last two weeks, but the White House lied and said it wouldn't happen.  
    •  And the replacement, John Bolton, is likely to get us all killed if Trump listens to him. (By the way, this will be Trump's third one.)
    • Bolton on Fox News an hour after the announcement of his new job: "I didn't really expect that announcement" today.  Good, lord. 
    • Oh, and after Trump signed a "memo" adding tariffs for imports from China, the stock market lost 724 points yesterday.  
  • McLennan County commissioners invoked a provision in state law to place a limit on how much outgoing District Attorney Abel "Let's Indict All Twin Peaks Bikers" Reyna can spend before the end of his term Dec. 31.  I'll be honest, I didn't know such a law existed.
  • My one and only administrative assistant is in Manhatten. There was 8.4 inches of snow in Central Park on the day she arrived. 
  • This week I was walking out of a grocery store and a girl, wearing sunglasses, flirting with young guys on a  work break, and who kind of looked like a stoner, said to me, "Hey, Barr" as I walked by. It stopped me down and I gave her a "Do you know me?" look. She said, "It's on your shirt." I was wearing a Baylor shirt that had "BEARS" in the biggest letters.
  • KXAS  (Channel 5) had a 15 second "news segment" about a Starbucks promotion at the end of their 5:00 p.m. broadcast yesterday. Obviously, that couldn't be a paid ad disguised as news, right? And you guys have laughed at me for years. 
  • Remember one of those "winter parks" coming to Fort Worth where you could snowboard indoors? It was a scam. The promoter was just sentenced to 10 years in prison. 
  • Oh, and yesterday:
  • If you want political entertainment, watch the Fox 4 morning hosts struggle to not laugh out loud as they interview Mark Davis for five minutes every Thursday. 
  • There's a wild Houston murder for hire case going on, but I find this very disturbing journalism from the Houston Chronicle:. In reporting about the trial they wrote: "The officer, whom the Chronicle is not identifying at the request of the Harris County district attorney’s office, testified Wednesday for more than five hours . . . . " You kidding me? It's a public trial and you won't name him because the DA tells you not to? Who is running the press? You or the government?
  • Yesterday, a $1.3 trillion spending bill was approved by the Republican controlled House with strong support from the Democrats. It was 2,232 pages long and passed less than 17 hours after it was released. It's filled with pork.  Actual photo: 
  • If you haven't seen the police murder of an unarmed black man in Sacramento in his grandmother's back yard, you need to. Twenty shots fired. An officer then says "mute" and the audio "mysteriously" goes off on the body cams. This link will take you to a helicopter video and body cam video.
  • The Bridgeport Volunteer Fire Department received a million dollar grant?

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3.22.2018

Terms Of His Probation




Not that anyone cares, but the cost per month of the SCRAM device is, I think, around $300 and the ignition interlock is probably around $80. That's on top of a probation fee which is either $60 or $80 a month in Tarrant County.



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Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • Mark Zuckerberg was on CNN last night and did not do well. The reason is that he suffers from social anxiety.  Back when Facebook was just getting big, he gave an interview before a crowd at SXSW and famously began sweating profusely. 
  • No one, and I mean no one, wants a video to start automatically playing when you visit a website. 
  • I said this a few years back: Driverless cars, which will absolutely replace the modern day cars in the future, will have an amazing impact on the economy. Think of all the jobs that exist because of the lack of wrecks, speeding, etc. that will go away. Both in the public and private sector.
  • Yesterday was an incredibly heavy news day. Let's check in on Fox News. (Uh, "moved Stateside?"): 
  • Let me translate this for you: The Feds were in charge of that investigation in Austin (they were the only agencies who had obtained a warrant two days ago from a federal judge), but every elected official in Texas is trying to be in the spotlight. 
  • Here's another example. The Texas Attorney General's office has no idea what goes on in the trenches of local police work. And I've seen it firsthand. The only two times they were in charge of prosecutions in Jack County and Wise County in the last twenty years, they got thrashed. Yet now Greg Abbott is an expert on police:
  • Mrs. LL turned up Margaritaville in the car the other day because she knows I hate it with a passion. She laughed. I laughed. 
  • "There is no evidence of collusion!" - Something heard on Fox News and silly radio shows every day.  I can't tell you the number of times I've thought I was in good shape representing someone until there was an indictment and the prosecutor handed over the file. You never know everything they know until they tell you. 
  • She might beat him:
  • Well, I guess they think we should legalize drugs. Laws don't mean anything?:
  • Let's check in Trump's mental health this morning. Oh, my! He truly is an immature sixth grade boy. 
  • But I would pay money to see a UFC fight between Trump, with Putin in his corner, and Biden, with Obama in his corner.
  • The Austin bomber left a 25 minute "confession" on his phone. What follows is an odd statement by the Austin PD Chief. The bomber's life appears be that of an average person. Every single one of us has been "challenged" as children, teens, young adults, and adults. Yet we don't go out and randomly kill people. And no mention of hate or terror. 
  • A reference to something I heard on the radio this morning that I haven't thought about in years: Mapsco. 



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3.21.2018

Southlake Police With Breaking News!!

A fender bender!!!!!!!!
Nine minutes later!!!!!


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Here Is Your Radical American Bombing Terrorist



  • White? Check
  • Texan? Check
  • U.S. Citizen? Check
  • Home schooled? Check
  • Some college? Check
  • Self proclaimed conservative? Check
  • Radical Islamic Terrorist? No check.
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Above The Fold


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Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts


  • Police say Austin bombing suspect, a 24 year old male white male, is dead after a wild morning, but they can't say he was acting alone.
  • Fox News embarrassed itself again last night: 
  • Birth control for men via pill? No way guys are smart enough to remember to take one of these every day.
  • I watched part of The Shining last weekend. It makes more sense every time I see it. 
  • Two county employees in the courthouse bent over backwards yesterday to help me on unrelated matters. I'm very thankful. Here's a tip for new lawyers: Treat a prosecutor's staff and judge's staff with respect. Not only is it the decent and right thing to do, but they can help you when you need it. 
  • This is clever: 
  • I don't think this is correct. Someone tell me if this is a parody account or really that of North Korea: 

  • And you tech boys, tell why the URL for my login page for my online Dallas Morning News subscription has a .uk extension.
  • Apps for Whataburger, QT, and other businesses built on convenience make no sense to me. You need to call ahead to order things from places which are designed to get you in and out as quickly as possible? 
  • Trump is in so much chaos that I missed the news that an Apprentice star, who has sued him, won in court yesterday with the judge saying that the lawsuit could go forward. Trump isn't entitled to immunity, and now he's going to have to give a deposition under oath.
  • In one office in the courthouse yesterday I had to guess the personal riddle of: (1) Today is the first day, (2) I'm going to get fat as a cow, and (3) I'll save a lot of money. I had to enlist an elected county official to help me out. (He couldn't.) Can you? 
  • And in the next 10 minutes I had a guy show me pictures of dead animals, a guy tell me of a brain tumor patient/relative who was turned away from Harris because he didn't have insurance (despite the fact he was having seizures), and had a reference to A Bad Moms Christmas. 
  • This guy is a brain surgeon? Even the dumbest guy in America knows you don't throw your wife under the bus.
  • The Waco DA, who got fired by voters this month, fired a felony court chief. Some in the Waco courthouse say it was because he was seen talking to the guy who beat the DA.  The outgoing DA would only say he was fired for “insubordination and not following office policy.”
  • The panic continues this morning as he watches Fox and Friends for support, comfort, and therapy: 
  • It will be in the mid-70s today while a massive snow storm has shut down D.C. Can we make that happen every day? 


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3.20.2018

Trump Congrats Putin. Some People Are Not Pleased.

Then again, Trump doesn't think heroes get captured.

Edit: Trump's day just got worse.



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Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • Holy cow. A package at a FedEx distribution center in Texas bound for Austin exploded in the middle of the night. 
  • Who knew Texas Body Cam law was so hard? The question: Does an officer involved in an "incident" have a right to view other officers' footage before giving a statement?  The answer: Yes. At least for now. 
  • This whole story is amazing even before Cruz was involved.
  • Me at Bridgeport grocery deli: "I just need two slices of ham and two slices of turkey." Her: "What kind?" Me: "Huh?" Her: "Do you know how many types we have?" Me: "I have no idea what I'm doing. Just give me what you would pick out." Her: "Umkay. I'm guessing you don't know the thickness of the slice, do you?" Me: "Not a chance."
  • I'm convinced that the Monday after Spring Break makes people incredibly grumpy. 
  • A self driving Uber car struck and killed someone jaywalking in Tempe.  It even had a "safety driver" who served as a back-up. Everyone is freaking out but I still think it's safer than driving around with a lot of the nutcases out there. 
  • Sports Illustrated went after the Mavericks again this morning. (Side note: After a "bold" press conference, that interim CEO has been strangely quiet.)
  • Stormy Daniels might have, uh, pictures of Trump. That would explain quite a bit. 
  • Arlington is getting a $10 million "esports" complex for gaming? I'm officially old. 
  • Yesterday Trump added another lawyer to his legal team to fight his scandal. Let's have another flashback from earlier this month. What? The New York Times was right? Again?:
  • The death of the Cirque du Soleil acrobat was horrifying. The footage is out there but I'm not going to watch it. 
  • As a kid, I was creeped out by Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. I could never get past the first five minutes.  
  • The "affluenza teen" is set to be released. Someone set me straight: Was that term ever used in court or was it created by the media?
  • What? Yep, it is true. The link proves it. And he's the technology editor for the Houston Chronicle. 
  • We had the weirdest debate ever in the house last night over my belief that "quesadillas are round." 
  • One thing I forgot to mention about my minor surgery: The doctor met Mrs. LL for the first time before the procedure and after he left she uttered, "Hey, now!"  
  • He was funny. He was still in street clothes but before he left he told me that he had to go change into a surgeon outfit because "they make do that around here."

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3.19.2018

Leader Board


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I'm Old Enough To Remember This




And you would catch air. 
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Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • Another bomb went off in Austin.  That's number four.
  • This is the first time since 1980 that the state of Texas has had two teams in the Sweet 16. Tech and Aggie are in. 
  • Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe was fired late Friday night. To make matters worse, McCabe learned about it 9 minutes before the media did. He was a few days short of getting his pension. 
  • And Trump had this planned. Look what he said in December. 
  •  But McCabe, like any smart person, wrote memos after every time he met with Trump. Now he has turned them over to Mueller. And Trump doesn't understand how memos to the file work. I do that maybe 50 times every single day.
  • This is a screenshot from Fox News that is not photoshopped. Idiocracy.
  • I find this story weird. Deputy Manosuhagian, who was head of K-9 department for the Wise County Sheriff's office, is leaving to go to Lake Worth. (Stolen from the Messenger.)
  • Mrs. LL and I went to a place I visited almost 30 years ago: A little known cemetery in Wise County, East Mound, where most of the headstones, old and aging, tell you the birth of that person was in the 1800s.
  • This place in Fort Worth was demolished on Sunday. It used to be a hipster place. And quite the history: "On Nov. 15, 1963, a week before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Casa del Sol also took a two-minute phone call from Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, according to the Warren Commission report." It was in the medical district south of 30.
  • For the first time ever, a sixteen seed beat a number one seed. That was UMBC (Google it). Look what happened to them earlier in the year.
  • Kids, this is what is called "consciousness of guilt". He is scared. He's in full scale panic mode.
  • "Hundreds of volunteers helped create a realistic mass casualty drill in Downtown Dallas Sunday morning. Violence wasn’t the focus of the training, instead the exercise focused on how first responders react to injuries and death." Uh, this was weird.
  • That's her?
  • I saw either and oil rig or natural gas rig off 287 this morning. It's been a few years since one has appeared on the horizon.


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