Diamond's Supermarket In Bridgeport On Fire?

Unconfirmed report. Developing.

News

Looks like the big news this morning is a bomb explosion at hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. Forty dead and counting. It was a Marriott property which the chain advertised on its web site like any other hotel it owns. That was a nice place. The cheapest room last night went for $200. But, man, Pakistan is a violent place. Just look at the list of attacks at the bottom of this wikipedia page.

The Briefest Random Thoughts

• Caught about 30 minutes of No Country For Old Men last night on cable. I had seen it in the theater and walked away with a "good but not great" review. I might have been too harsh.
• Great Baylor game last night. It's fun just to be competitive again (although it's kind of sad that I'm happy with that.)
• ESPN's College Game Day is more fun in theory than in practice.
• I need to mow the yard.
• I'm not sure I know one song on Billboard's Top Ten - I haven't listened to music on the radio in the last six months. I need to fix that.
• I can't sleep late any more.
• Edit: If you didn't see it, the I Hate This Hummer guy from Southlake turned himself in. He's 72. He probably wants a do over.

Friday Night Happy Feet

Decatur 0 Argyle 45 Oh, my. City View 25 Chico 45 Somebody check the water Godley 21 Boyd 35 Finally getting their feet underneath them Windthorst 0 Alvord 14 Off season chaos having no effect Paradise 40 Bowie 16 Rolling. Baylor 28 Connecticut 31 Chance to win at the end falls short

Getting All Artsy

I was asked to promote a play going on over in Bridgeport to which, of course, I refused. Then it was called to my attention that I would be considered a "community organizer" if I were to do so. Hello, resume builder. The information is here. These type of plays are either really good or really bad. Either way, you've got you some local entertainment. Alternatively, you've got karaoke at Frilly's, or the North Texas Singles Club which will meet Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Armondo's in Decatur. Good times.

Oh, My

Mark Cuban releases some of the emails he has received regarding Josh Howard's less than patriotic rant released this week. We might want to throttle back on that "there is no racism in America" belief.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Stock market talk is giving me Tired Head.
• Problem solved: More government regulations with the silent realization that the government will bail you out if all goes wrong ---- ah, yes, the cornerstone of free enterprise.
• Baylor plays on Friday night for the second time in two weeks. Please no high school football jokes, please.
• If I don't read Newsweek on the first day that I get it, I never get around to it before the next one arrives.
• Snakes On A Plane is on cable every now and then. Man, that was awful.
• It took me years to learn it, but drink coasters are important.
• There's a hot air balloon festival in Plano this weekend. I've never been to one much less on a balloon. (And Fox 4 played 99 Luftballoons in the background while reporting on it.)
• Had some kid roll down his window and bark like a dog as I jogged pasted his car the other day. So odd.
• I feel lazy when I buy those salad-in-a-bag products.
• It seems that every wrongfully convicted guy released in Dallas after being imprisoned for 20+ years is never bitter.
• With all these bailouts by the government (which is nothing more than printing money), why won't inflation go through the roof?
• A lady in Granbury protests the high school flag which is that pirate-jolly-rogers-skull-and-cross-bones thing. "I appreciate our teams and coaches, too. But I have to stand up for my biblical convictions," she said. I soooooo wish she lived here.
• I ran across a pic of hottest girl in a bikini top with an amputated leg over at What Would Tyler Turden Durden Do. I was debating about whether to post it until I realized I was spending precious moments of my live life involved in that debate. Edit: Man, I struggled with the keyboard on this one.
• Got this email on a "way for your blog to make money." Here was the pitch "Right now we are doing promotional giveaways. You write an article about a product. Then you encourage the viewer to click on a link that is imbedded in the article. To enter the contest, the viewer has to retrieve some information from the advertisers web site. For example, we might get the viewer to pick out there favorite color. They post a comment with their favorite color. Then, we pick a winner."................ It's boring and confusing.
• The new paved roads in Decatur are actually impressive. Much better than the "throw down some tar and gravel" that was used last time.

More High Sheriff Pics

We've Got Some Political Gold Going On

Meet Andy Lacasse. This man was a registered Democrat until Obama won the nomination - now he's voting Republican. (You boys proud to have him?) And if you "liberal weenies" are thinking about touching his yard sign, think again. "I got a club sitting right over there," he said. Ooooookay. The only down side is that he's from Florida (which I find hard to believe because I'm pretty sure I saw him in the Decatur Walmart in the firearms section on Tuesday - right after I bumped into him in the wife beater clothing section.) And, as though I have some special karma with this guy, the story associated with these pictures utilized the "[sic]" which we studied in class just a couple of days ago. Dear Lord (or Allah for all of you Muslins who support Obama), please let election day get here. Soon.

There Would Be Some "Confused Head" At The Polls

The chance of this happening is a million to one, but wouldn't it be fascinating? I think McCain would still win Texas in a write-in campaign but it would at least make it one crazy race. Both Obama and McCain would have to rely upon people being smart enough to write their names in - a dicey proposition to say the least. And straight party voting would help neither one of them if their names weren't on the ballot. Delicious. And if Obama was smart, he should take the position that Barr is right - that both the Republican and Democratic nominees should be thrown off the ballot. I mean, there's no way he's going to win Texas so it couldn't hurt his chances. (I so love the Libertarians but I can't stand Bob Barr.) Edit: Someone wrote that you have to "file" as a write-in candidate and it's too late to do that. And, I'll be dang, he/she was right.

Campaign Spending: Just Last Week

It's an obvious point, but forget about "national polls". Those states listed in the chart are those that will decide the presidency. On election night, your ears better perk up every time you hear Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida. (And wouldn't you like to own a TV station or newspaper in one of those states for the ad revenue alone.) (Source)

Kind Of Startled Me . . .

. . . as I rounded the corner in Decatur at lunch and looked up. (Just south of Sweetie Pie's Ribeyes.) Edit: Sheesh, people. You can't say stuff like that. And, by the way Jarhead, one post was directed at you but I left it on my Comment Laboratory Floor (although it was pretty funny). And RandR, that was borderline. I'd just be up to my eyeballs in cat comments if I let it through.

If TMZ Was Based In Wise County

Here's a pic of the helicopter that the High Sheriff and his new bride used to escape the masses after the wedding.

Not To Self:

Keep in mind if Weatherford College Branch Campus gets the go ahead in the election. (Kidding. That's awful.) Edit: Note to self: Learn to type

The Guy That Hid In The Closet Is A Free Man

Remember this guy? This 27 year old guy from Pennsylvania had a buddy drive him to the home of a 14 year old girl in Bedford that he had met on The Internets. He stays with her on Sunday night (she kept him in the closet) but the jig was up when the girl's mother found him sleeping in the teen's bed while she was at school. Well, a Tarrant County Grand Jury has decided the guy shouldn't be prosecuted. The charge was that of Sexual Assault of a Child (basically consenaul sex with someone under 17 years of age.) From reading the story, it's hard to tell what went on behind the scenes. Either the DA went in there and said, "All we have is the 14 year old's word that they had sex and she really doesn't want the kid prosecuted anyway" or the Grand Jury simply decided to revolt and not clog the system with this type of case. If it's the latter, grand juries need to do it more often. Edit: The more I think about this, I wonder if the grand jury believed that the girl had lied about her age. Amazingly, that's not a legal defense for the guy, but they may have cut him a break nevertheless.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• I finally have an iPhone trouble. After a software upgrade it won't boot back up. From looking at the Internets, this has happened to quite a few people. I'm going to try and get it working with the office computer this morning. Ugh.
• Since the current presidential administration is always blamed for economic woes, could the stock market trash have come at a worst time for the Republicans?
• There was a Barbara Walters special on ABC last night on the Queen's visit to America two years ago. I'm not sure if I would have been interested if I hadn't seen the film, The Queen, but man it was great.
• The best material that I can't publish comes from attorney-client initial meetings.
• Saw where the feds announced a big drug bust yesterday (175 people) and called it "Project Reckoning." I guess you have to give it a fancy name when the investigation took 15 months and, in the end, won't change a thing.
• The renovations to the Cotton Bowl look pretty good, but at a cost of $50 million it was kind of like putting lipstick on a pig . . . . Uh, oh.
• I really want to go to the Texas/OU game in a couple of weeks. Can anybody help a bruther out? Stubhub seems to think those tickets are worth quite a bit - which the obviously are.
• Very funny Hurricane Ike coverage here.
• If I had kids, I'd definitely rent this for a birthday party in order to teach them respect for the dead.
• I've gained about five pounds over the summer. Let the obsession to lose it begin.
• Isn't the price of a barrel of oil less than a $100 (down from the high of around $150) but gas prices are still around $3.70?
• I've never cared about the Ryder Cup competition.
• iPhone update as I jacked around with it while writing all of this. No luck. If I have to take it the Apple store in Southlake I'll shoot myself. And key a Hummer out of frustration.

Edit: I appreciate the help on the iPhone (but I had already tried that since I spent hours on the problem last night.) It failed during a software update and then told me to "restore" the iPhone. Ugh. I tried that but it would get hung on "Verifying iPhone software" stage. (Happens quite a bit apparently.) Edit #2: Since I know all of you are dying to know, I got the phone back up and running. Uh, at least to the way it was configured on July 11, 2008 (the date of the last backup - which makes no sense since I backed it up two days ago.) Anyway, I'm going back in time.

Wednesday Afternoon Pick Me Uuuuu.....Wait A Second

What the heck happened to Kelly Kapowski? I really can't handle something like this right now. I'm feeling weak.

I Meant To Mention This Randomly

I saw this on Fox 4 last night. Amazing. This guy decides to "key" a Hummer in the Southlake Carroll parking lot. Yeah, not so interesting. What is incredible is that the Hummer was equipment with cameras that were activated by motion detectors. It even picked him up when he went to the other side. Video here. That guy is so screwed. As he should be. I can picture him doing the ol' spew-coke-out-of-your-mouth routine as he saw himself on the television last night.