4.03.2014

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • Another shooting at Fort Hood. It's so odd: The last time all I heard was "Islamic Terrorist". This time the narrative seems to be "We need better treatment for PTSD". Edit: "AP-Army secretary says Fort Hood shooter saw no combat in Iraq, was not wounded."
  • I saw a broken down school bus on 287 about two miles outside of Decatur this morning. I'm not sure if there were any kids on it. 
  • I ended up not obtaining a "not guilty" verdict in the criminal case yesterday, but it was a good fight. And, with an appropriate sentence of two years of probation, it was worth that fight. (But that sure seemed like a whole lot of time and expense over 1/100th of a gram of meth. But, I suppose, it's just another battle on the War on Drugs.) 
  • "As a late night comedian I'm begging you. Please make this guy run for President." -- Conan O'Brien, referring to Rick Perry, while broadcasting from Dallas.
  • I caught the last part of it, but NPR has a great 12 minute broadcast late yesterday on the total immunity from the IRS that TV evangelists have. They focused on several "preachers" including Kenneth Copeland. Here's a link which includes the text and a picture of Copelands $6.3 million mansion on the property of his church on Eagle Mountain Lake. Good lord. 
  • Since Sunday, I have seen Michael Lewis promoting his new book on high speed training on 60 Minutes and The Daily Show and heard him on the aforementioned NPR.  And I'm still not sure what he's talking about. 
  • Two nights ago the Rangers, playing their second of 162 games, drew 149,000 viewers in the metroplex while the Mavericks, in a critical game, drew 85,000 viewers.  And Mark Cuban thinks the NFL will implode? He might want to worry about the NBA. (And the Cowboys average a million per regular season game.)
  • One of the craziest murder cases and trials in North Texas history will be the feature of 12 episodes on some new show on the Discovery Channel.  A Wylie housewife was acquitted of murder even though she admitted to striking her neighbor with an axe 41 times.  It was the subject of a TV movie, and I even read a book about it. (A quick Google search also revealed this long read from a 1984 issue of Texas Monthly.) Edit: Oops. It's just one of the twelve episodes. That makes more sense.
  • This week, Sean Hannity is running video segments where a Fox reporter interviews scantily clad college girls on Spring Break. This, we are told, is a hard news segment to "uncover the wildness." They report. You decide. 
  • Amanda Bynes turns 28 today. It's been months since she had an incident of craziness and that is totally unacceptable. 
  • I really like Spring. Mrs. LL and I really work a lot on the front flower beds --  And spend a lot of time saying, "I can't believe that died!"
  • "Two Dewhurst aides quit amid campaign feuding about tactics".  This guy, who absolutely is the worst politician in the world, is going to screw this up and get trounced by that nutcase Dan Patrick.