1.19.2015

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether the States can ban same sex marriage. (There were actually four petitions granted from four different states. By the luck of a docket number order the case will forever be known as Obergefell v. Hodges.) The decision is a no-brainer, right? 
  • In this day and time, I can't tell you how much I think the Bridgeport "Sissies" is the greatest name in the history of ever.  (For those of you who don't know, the boy's team used to be called the "Bullies" -- as in "Bully".) Even back in the day, there was nothing more amusing than watching one their games against a non-district opponent and watching the question marks form over the opponent crowd as they thought "Sissies?"
  • 12.8% of Texas children are uninsured. Not bad? Well, that ranks us the 49th state in the nation for children's health care.
  • Fox News apologized four times for an anti-Islam report. The most stunning thing is that they didn't preface the apologizes with "For those who may have been offended . .  .. "
  • That Fox Business News report on Super Bowl attendance (see post below) still has me shaking my head. And people listen to them for business advice? Someone had to be fired over that report. 
  • Before the Seahawks/Packers game, I told Mrs. LL that I'd bet $500 on Seattle if we were in Vegas even with the Seahawks giving 7.  It was a lock. #Kids,Don'tBetOnSports
  • "Let's Laugh At These Poor Seahawks Fans Who Left The Game Early"
  • If you write a book entitled God, Guns, Grits and Gravy and you want to run for President, one thing is certain: You might win the South. But that's it. The rest of the nation doesn't exactly get all giddy when it hears Sweet Home Alabama.
  • The Tarrant County DA tweets about MLK this morning and directs us to a link that doesn't work. She might want to consider hiring a PR person since her's left. 
  • A corporate executive at a conference goes to a dinner and then dropped off by Uber at the wrong hotel. His suit jacket was found neatly folded two weeks ago on the accompanying golf course. His body was found in a pond on the golf course over the weekend.
  • Along those same lines, professional golfer Robert Allenby misses the cut at a tournament in Hawaii and then posts a selfie of himself claiming he was kidnapped from a wine bar, beaten, and then released. Riiiiiiiight. I'm sure that's all there is to it. 
  • For the first time ever, I watched Point Break over the weekend. It's bad in a great way. But its no Road House.  
  • I also watched a documentary: Evolution of a Criminal.  A guy robbed a Texas bank when he was 16 years old, got out and received a degree in film from NYU, and then directed and starred in this documentary about the robbery. Good stuff. (As the film was about to reveal what the plea bargain was, Mrs. LL and I both guessed. Much to my chagrin, she nailed it exactly. I was five years too high.)
  • We also went and saw American Sniper over the weekend. The movie doesn't mention his tendency to stretch the truth, but the movie was really, really good despite being directed by Clint Eastwood who is notorious for dumbing down his films (See: Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby.)  But even Eastwood had a little trouble having the script follow Kyle's book  -- the first scene out of the gate is inaccurate. Note: If you go see it, you will be able to hear a pin drop during the credits. It earned $90.2 million over the weekend -- a January weekend. 
  • Seth Rogan compared American Sniper to "Stolz der Nation (Nation’s Pride), a Nazi propaganda film in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds starring Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl)—a German sniper reenacting a 'heroic' episode in which he picked off over 200 Allied soldiers from a clock tower." He'll probably get in trouble for that. But not as much as Michael Moore. (Source.)
  • We saw the film at Keller's new Movie House and Eatery off of Rufe Snow. That place is fantastic. You sit in recliners. I mean, real recliners!
  • Bud Kennedy, in an article about MLK today, briefly referenced "the ugly Mansfield High School incident" of the 1950s. I had to look it up
  • Troy Aikman got all pissy with The Ticket's Gordon Keith last week. The man has no sense of humor, does he?  
  • Base salary for certain Cowboys last year: pro bowler Zack Martin ($420,000), Terrance Williams ($520,000), Anthony Hitchens ($420,000) and even Dez Bryant ($1.78 million).  If any sport needed a better union, it's the NFL.
  • "Eighty people hold the same amount of wealth as the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people." Here's the list. Hint: Mark Cuban isn't even in sniffing distance.