My Annual St. Patrick's Day Tradition Unlike Any Other

"Who else seen the leprechaun? Say yow!!!"

Messenger Above The Fold

Check Your Brackets - Oh, My!

#2 Missouri is out.

#2 Duke is out.

And, finally, here's my National Championship prediction. Welp! See ya later!

VCU Cheerleaders (Only 1 of 2 Upset Winners Yesterday) Taking You Into The Weekend

I Know I'd Like This Guy

Not that guy. This guy:

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Funny tweet yesterday: "Dow closed above 13,000 Nasdaq above 3000 and SandP 500 above 1400 together for first time ever. MAKE THIS AWFUL SOCIALISM STOP"
• Mrs. LL loves to mow the lawn, and I don't know why. Anyway, I plop down in my chair to watch the Baylor game yesterday evening with a nice breeze blowing in from the open windows to the back yard. And then . . . the violent sounds of a lawnmower firing up. 
• But instead of walking outside and giving her a what-the-heck-are-you-doing look, I paused the game and did something else for a few minutes. (I'm learning. Slowly. But I'm learning.)
• I almost wished I hadn't seen the first part of the game. Baylor was down 12 to a bunch of white boys who couldn't miss.
• Mrs. LL was surprised to learn that the name she heard on TV was the Shockers of Wichita State.
• The best ending in regulation did not come during March Madness but instead in a Tennessee boys high school playoff game.
• "Where's your Green Card? (Clap. Clap. Clap-Clap.Clap.)" -- Members of the Southern Miss band yesterday when K-State's Angel Rodriguez was at the free throw line. 
• There was a media war last night when Fox 4 had footage of a firefighter being arrested and then spent about a minute explaining, "We weren't tipped off! We we just happen to be there when the cops came!"  Channel 8 covered the arrest and spent a segment on "Something's fishy because one media outlet was tipped off."  
• Cops tipping off the media for an arrest or search sounds very familiar.
• Good weather and the 17th falling on a Saturday means potential record crowds for the St. Patrick's Day gathering at Lower Greenville tomorrow. And to think of the irony of the "Drink Responsibly" signs that will be posted above the crowd. 
• One reason the Department of Justice challenged the Texas Voter ID law is because of the large number of Texans that don't have a driver's license. Some folks are suggesting that the high number is attributable to the dumb DPS Surcharge program that has caused thousands of people to lose their license because of non-payment.
• There's a Decatur company that advertises for a Engineering & Maintenance Manager paying $60,000 to $85,000 a year?
• It's amazing that Dallas PD runs undercover prostitution stings on Harry Hines in the middle of the day. But they did manage to snag an elementary school teacher. 

Tourney Results After One Day

Check out the big brain on Shon! A couple of others are tied for second. Complete results. (Over at ESPN.com, there were 13,570 perfect brackets out of 5.9 million entries. That's 0.23%. We had one out of 403, which is some-percentage-that-I-can't-calculate because I don't know how many digits to move the decimal point over.)

Sponsors:

-All Wise Garden Center has pledged and delivered a $100 and $50 gift certificate for in-house purchases (counts as two prizes). 

-Bloomoon Pet Resort in Chico has pledged and delivered a $50 Visa Gift Card

-Wise Liquors in Bridgeport has pledged and delivered a 1.75 liter bottle of Crown Royal for the last place finisher. Two caveats: (1) Your bracket must be completely filled out to win, and (2) I need a little Baptist forgiveness for this one. 

-A signed Lebron James jersey with a certificate of authenticity pledged and delivered by attorney Paul Belew

- New: $100 Silpada Designs Gift Certificate pledged by April Cowling (can be used online or through April)

-A $100 Visa Gift Card has been pledged and delivered by Chris Miller's Farmer's Insurance Agency in Bridgeport.

And A Dose Of Sobering Reality

Saw on Facebook that lots of Bridgeport folks were expressing concern for this man this afternoon.  Tuesday he was alll smiles as he was headed for Vegas and now he is in the hospital after a heart attack.

I hope all is well.

You never know what each day will bring.

Taking A Break For Spring Sports

I'm don't have a doctorate in physics, but once I saw her heading for the springboard I had a pretty good idea this was not going to end well.

We Are All At Work . . .

 . . .  and I'm told The Family Pup just passed out watching Murray State and Colorado State.

(via email.)

My Continued Rant Against Medical Examiner Rulings

 Story

There is nothing more archaic than the language used in rulings by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner.  To call it a "homicide" causes everyone to speculate and rumors to swirl.  But as the DA of Tarrant County has said before about ME rulings, "The word homicide does not mean crime," he said. "It just means that the death involved another person."

Really? So a person could die in an auto accident as a passenger that did not involve any negligence on the part of anyone -- it was simply an accident -- and it would be ruled a homicide? That's ridiculous.

But I've even got a problem with the medical examiner considering that the death involved "another person." There is a 99% chance that the ME did not send out an investigator to the accident scene. The only information the ME has personal knowledge of is what the body tells him through an examination. Yes, he can certainly rule that the death was due to a cerebral injury, but to rule she was a passenger or the victim of a "homicide" has absolutely nothing to do with that medical examination.

Edit: Let me say this again. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner will issue a "homicide" ruling even if a person's death was not the result of someone else's fault, blame or criminal conduct.

And Another - Texas

Story.

And a faithful reader tipped me off to this additional picture.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Edit: Where is Bacon this week? 
• We have an answer as to whether that Billington guy who received 35 years in prison in Tarrant County last week for felony DWI was the same one who had received prior convictions in Wise County. Yep. And he was headed home to Decatur at the time of his most recent arrest.
• Ex-Cowboys TE Martellus Bennett signed with the NY Giants yesterday for one year at $2.5 million. A lazy, under-achieving, ball dropping tight gets paid an outrageous amount of money and will now play against the team that has already paid him how many millions? That's the NFL. 
• Depressing on many levels: Watermelon smashing comedian Gallagher, who is now playing such hot spots as "Hat Tricks" in Lewisville on Wednesday, has suffered a heart attack.
• Mrs. LL has started a new flower bed in the yard which will be edged by landscaping bricks on all four sides.  I feel my job of leveling those four sides will cause a great deal of frustration. 
• Want to see Blake Griffin airball two consecutive free throws last night?
• I airballed a free throw in a game in high school, and I can remember everything about it like it was yesterday. 
• I keep checking in on a local person on Facebook who I don't know but seems to be a drama queen having a complete emotional breakdown (or might be just seeking attention.) I think that's acceptable viewing on my behalf. 
• Someone commented that having a "last place" prize in the Liberally Lean Pick Em Tournament is silly because someone would intentionally make bad picks. Ya think? But picking who will lose is no easier than picking who will win, and certainly more than one person will try to win last place.
• Oh, some of the bracket names in our tourney are very, very funny. If you missed the chance to be clever, you can change yours. (Although it takes a little searching to figure out how to do it.)
• American Idol has never interested me. At all.
• A building perfectly located and designed to host Quinceaneras seems like a good long term investment.
•  Mrs. LL (who actually has a pretty good voice) would sing "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie all the time a couple of years back. Because I'm sweet, I made it my wake up tone on my phone that I've used as an alarm clock for the last year. Last night Mrs. LL couldn't remember the name of the song or the artist and had to ask me for help. Losing it?
• Something I was completely oblivious to: Hunger Games.

Last Call For The Free For All

"They gonna love me in Wise County!"

The Third Annual Liberally Lean 

Pick 'Em Tournament

Register
(The first game is at 11:15 a.m. Thursday. You'll be locked out after that.)

Prizes listed below and that list may grow. (Hey, you cheap merchants out there! This is the greatest advertising bang for the buck in the history of ever. Show the rest of the county you've got business smarts as well as a sense of humor.) First place winner gets the first choice of a gift, second place gets the second choice, etc.:

-All Wise Garden Center has pledged a $100 and $50 gift certificate for in-house purchases (counts as two prizes). 

-Bloomoon Pet Resort in Chico has pledged and delivered a $50 Visa Gift Card

-Wise Liquors in Bridgeport has pledged and delivered a 1.75 liter bottle of Crown Royal for the last place finisher. Two caveats: (1) Your bracket must be completely filled out to win, and (2) I need a little Baptist forgiveness for this one. 

-A signed Lebron James jersey with a certificate of authenticity pledged and delivered by attorney Paul Belew

- New: $100 Silpada Designs Gift Certificate pledged by April Cowling (can be used online or through April)

-A $100 Visa Gift Card has been pledged and delivered by Chris Miller's Farmer's Insurance Agency in Bridgeport.

- Next?

Spring Break Pick Me Up

Ashley Hart

The Fort Worth Zoo Right Now: 1/2 Price Day Combined With Spring Break

It would be the one day I'd stay away. (Source.)

Edit: Traffic at 2:01 p.m.  I-30 is at a standstill.  And University looks like it is packed as well.

Breaking News Out Of Beaumont

Link.

Edit: Wow. It was a defendant on trial.

A Dark Day For Poor Texas Women In Need Of Healthcare

Since I'm a bullet point kind of guy, let me try to explain.

• The State of Texas provides funding to the Medicaid Women's Health Program (the "Program"). That program pays some of the medical bills of poor Texas women who qualify as in need of financial assistance
• It pays for things like family planning, birth control, cancer screenings and annual exams.
• The Program is funded by only 10% from the State of Texas and 90% by the federal government. The federal government's share is around $35 million. 
• The Program does not pay for abortion services. (Read that three times. It's kind of important.)
• However, 40% of the women assisted by the Program get their non-abortion health care needs from Planned Parenthood. That about 60,000 females. 
• But although the Program has nothing to do with abortion, and the money the Program provides to Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with abortion, the Republicans in Austin all screamed "We've got an abortion issue here!!!!" 
• So . . . your Texas Legislature, wishing to make some political hay out of thin air, created a rule (which became effective today) that it would not provide its 10% share to the Program if Planned Parenthood receives a single dime from the Program. 
• The federal government, believing that to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving funding from the Program is a violation of federal law, announced it would no longer provide its 90% to the Program if the Texas rule was allowed to go into effect. 
• Today is D Day for the Program. Texas ignored the federal government's threat and will not provide its 10% of funds -- yep, those funds that have nothing to do with abortion. The federal government will now discontinue its $35 million to the Program. 
• The victims, as a result of all this posturing, are poor Texas women. 
• Rick Perry blames President Obama (surprise!) and utters the only thing he knows how to say when gets into a bind: "State's rights!"

Sources: Mostly from the Dallas Observer here and here.