Channel 8 Is Turning It Up A Notch With Their News

Many are calling this family Christmas photo offensive. What do you think about it? #IAMUP https://t.co/SZe0vUND7Z pic.twitter.com/cbj7xdicKw

— WFAA-TV (@wfaachannel8) December 22, 2015

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I don't think my ears have ever perked up as much as they did this morning when I heard The Ticket's Norm Hitzges reference "Alvoid" (meaning Wise County's Alvord) as he recalled when he traveled there as a young reporter decades ago. (For those that don't understand it, anyone who is over 45 and grew up in Wise County remembers when the name of the town was pronounced "Alvoid" by everyone. I still don't understand why.)
• But it got better! He went to Alvord as a reporter because a nudist community had opened up nearby. He went and interviewed folks in town and went and interviewed the nudists as well. He said, "You know, there wasn't really a bit difference between the two. They were both nice and had the same political views. I was really surprised."
• He said (and I would pay money to see an old video of this) that he ended the news segment by taking off his clothes and standing behind a telephone poll outside the nudist colony with a fence behind him. He then said, "The people on this side of the fence and that side of the fence are pretty much the same." 
• Changing gears. I'm not sure that the Steve Harvey Miss Universe screw up wasn't a bit. It would be easy to do. Get the results and huddle with the final two girls. Tell them what you are going to do and everyone gets publicity by the "scandal". And if you watch it, it almost looks like some bad acting is going on. 
• I think the most amazing thing about the "Affluenza Teen" is not that he is on the run but how much his looks have changed in two years. "They grow up so fast."
• The Flooring Remolding Project got close to getting wrapped up yesterday. The contractor sent two guys who just happened to be Hispanic and not speak English put in carpet. I wasn't there but they fired up loud Tejano music which made Mrs. LL and the Girls in the House move to a different room. I love it.
• When I walked in the house from work in my suit they looked up startled. I almost wanted to tell them, "I'm not Donald Trump! I'm not Donald Trump!" 
• They did a fantastic job. I'm fascinated by carpet installers. 
• And, no, I'm not saying they were "illegal aliens". I have no idea. I do know they were nice guys and cared about the way they did their job. 
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued his "opinion" that guns should be allowed in college dorms in defiance of the policy of the University of Texas. I can't get past a guy who is under indictment, has been on the job for a short period of time,  and doesn't seem very smart issuing a "legal opinion." 
• The DA in Sandra Bland's case (Waller County) said there will be no indictments against jail employees.  Oddly, the DA in that small county said the Grand Jury reached "no decision" regarding the actions of the trooper, and that the grand jury would return in January to consider the issue. (I hope he's smart enough to know that the Grand Jury's term ends at the end of the year and that there needs to be an entry "on the minutes of the court" - no one knows what that means these days -  by the district judge granting them permission to reconvene.)
• Fox 4 "Hey, Nows"

The Family Rescue Cat

This is the photo that Mrs. LL took of it as it came out of the water.

And, I promise I'm not making it up because the picture does not do him  justice, he WEIGHS 21.5 POUNDS.

Here he is in a crate which is made for monster sized dogs:

Jeb Bush Has Just About Had It With Donald Trump

And Lindsey Graham gave up against Trump today and quit. Chaos, I tell you. We have chaos!

And You Think I'm The Only One Who Does Random Thought Girls?

I May Lose My Mind Before Christmas

I just reviewed a police report. It is cocaine case where the alleged weight of .6 grams of cocaine (which includes the weight of the baggie. The DPS chemist will weigh it without the baggie so we are talking about a minuscule amount.) A Sweet-n-Low packet weighs one gram for comparison. The guy is so poor that he has a truck worth $400.  And the deputy wanted to seize it and give it to the government.

And the lawyers up at the courthouse accepted the case and have filed a lawsuit to take the vehicle.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• It's the holiday season so I'm giving presents this week. Not one but two Random Thought Girls.
• In an incredible screw up, host Steve Harvey announced the winner of Ms. Universe and got it wrong and had to fix it within minutes. Ms.Columbia thought she had won and then they took the crown away from her. Uh, if you get it wrong, I wouldn't get it wrong with someone from Columbia
• Every time I think my life can't get any weirder it does. Yesterday, Mrs. LL and The Family Kids walked in and told me to shut my eyes. When I got to open them, they had the fattest cat in the world in their possession. I'm serious. This thing is the equivalent to a 400 pound man. It is huge! So, of course, I asked where it came from. Mrs. LL told me, "It was swimming in a lake so I called the police. We were able to get it so I brought it home. " I am not making that up.
• I am not a fan of the NFL but for some reason I turned on Carolina vs. New York yesterday and have never been more entertained. It was insanity. Odell Beckham Jr and Josh Norman basically were in a UFC fight and the game was dramatic.
• Mrs. LL has a sentimental attachment to the Sound of Music so we ended up watching it last night. It is, indeed, great. But there was an awkward moment when the beautiful blonde fiance of Captain Von Trapp said, "Fond as I am of you, I really don't think you're the right man for me. You're much too independent. And I need someone who needs me desperately. . ." Recall, I filed as an Independent last week. 
• Little Miss Sunshine sucks me in every time. Every character represents some section of society. And basically it is a family of rebels.
• Star Wars made $238 million dollars this weekend. And we are just talking about the U.S. Second place was a Chipmunks movie which made $14 million
• If I make a phone call, I shouldn't, but still am, amazed at how the recipient's reaction is, "This must be important." I don't make phone calls. (And I had one on Saturday night.)
• I watched Joel Olsteen on Sunday and he actually told a funny joke: "God came down to a man and told him he would grant him one wish. The man told God that he had never been to Hawaii but he was afraid to fly on an airplane so he wanted God to build a bridge to Hawaii. God told him that was logistically impossible so he needed to come up with another wish. The guy then said he had been married four times and is of the belief that he didn't understand women. So he asked God for him to to be given the knowledge of what it takes to understand their needs and what they were thinking. God paused for a  long time and said, "Do you want that highway to Hawaii a be two lanes or four lanes?"
• We have a major entry for "And Another."
• Mrs. LL collects monkey dolls. Actually, she is a little insane about it. Part or our remodeling required us to move them all. I lined them all up and did this yesterday. (I initially forgot to attach the photo to the tweet so that is the reason for the "oops".)

Is This Real Life?

Donnie and Marie Osmond rent Gainesville  theater to watch the new Star Wars film.

Story.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• We have a great a mystery going on. Where is the Afflueniza Kid?  Look, I just watched Alpha Dog again. The kid is in Paraguay walking down the sidewalk while "The Girl From Impanema" is playing. Go get him. (That is a fantastic movie by the way. Justin Timberlake is phenomenal, Sharon Stone plays a sad and overweight grieving mom, Bruce Willis plays a pissed off father, and the still relatively unknown Ben Foster may have played the angriest and scariest guy in the history of cinema.)
• I went and watched a game in Aggieland In October, and now their star quarterback, who was great that day against South Carolina, is leaving the team. The Liberally Lean curse continues.
• One of my favorite songs is REM's "Driver 8". Oddly, for a guy who never listens to music I've heard it twice this week as I push buttons on my car radio. And I love the lyrics. "And the train conductor says, 'Take a break Driver 8. Driver 8 take a break. We can reach our destination, but we're still a ways away.'" 
• You have to see BagOfNothing's post on a version of Silent Night that was performed in a church. Or Vegas. It is hard to tell.
• One of the funniest lines I've heard in a long time is the response I got when I told someone that the Texas Republican Party had called me to want to know why I revoked my application after they had already rejected me. That response? "That's like a girlfriend saying, 'You aren't breaking up with me. I'm breaking up with you!'"
• I haven't opened this letter yet, but they broke up with me in handwriting and by certified mail. That's a nice touch. Personal, yet formal:

• The photoshop bit in the post below makes me laugh to no end. The Liberally Lean readers are crazy. And smart. And creative. Well, at least some of them. 
• I saw the first Star Wars in a movie theater in Northeast Mall with my dad (my mom was shopping). We both walked out saying, "I don't get it." And we both believe that to this day. My main beef is that I didn't get any back story and had no idea what was going on. (And that's exactly what The Ticket's Jake Kemp, who saw it for the first time this week, said.)

This Might Be Better Than The Play "Book of Mormon"

Video: Utah DL Viliseni Fauonuku had a message for BYU at tonight's dance-off #BYU #Utes #LasVegasBowl pic.twitter.com/A39yaLqR6L

— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) December 17, 2015

Utah defentisver tackle tells BYU, "You're a good team but a dirty team. Don't start nothing and there won't be nothing." The Vegas Bowl just got ramped up.

I don't think that comment "stayed in Vegas."

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• I had a fantastic moment on Tuesday when my Bridgeport Fourth Grade teacher, Mrs. Hill, was on the courthouse square and just stopped by the office because she was feeling "sentimental" and just wanted to give me a hug. 
• That made me think about how people influence you as a young person. She ran her class by dividing us up into three different groups based upon the grades you had made in grades one through three. The top group received harder assignments and more homework than the lower groups. But the genius was each group competed against their peers. I told her, "You could not get away with that today." I think she wanted to go on a rant about the current state of education.
• Her late husband, V.M. Hill, may have been the greatest discplinarine I've ever seen and also had an impact on me. Crazy things I remember: I was late for his home room 7th grade class one morning (Drafting. Anyone out there know what drafting is?) I walked into the room and he stared me down in front of the quiet class and asked me why I was late. I blamed it on my mom. I still remember it: "Mr. Green, I happened to know where you live. You could have walked here and been on time if you had wanted to make the effort." I would never again be embarrassed for not making an effort.
• He was also the 7th and 8th grade football coach and it came down to a miraculous chance at a perfect season for both teams. On the 7th grade team, in the last game, I sniffed out an end around in the last two minutes against Bowie and abandoned my responsibilities as defensive end and tracked down the slot receiver as he was about to get the ball in the backfield. Much to my horror, the quarterback saw I had sniffed it out, didn't hand off the ball, and took off around the end where I was supposed to be. I don't know which teammate bailed me out, but they stopped him before he got to the end zone and we won. However, Coach Hill pulled me out of the game immediately (the first time all season) so I got to watch the win from bench. Lessons: (1) You aren't as smart as you think you are, and (2) You do your job as you have been taught. 
• Both 7th and 8th grade teams finished undefeated. V.M. Hill surprised everyone in the Spring by retiring. He went out on top.
• I can't get enough of this Donald Trump craziness.
• I've dogged Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee to no end. He's a Plaintiff's lawyer who has made a fortune, is cocky, and is on the board of regents for aTm. And this morning I see this lead sentence of a story: "After a six-day long trial, Tony Buzbee's client, the estate of Jose Flores, a seaman who died after being bitten by a spider while working on a vessel, won a $41 million jury verdict against the company that operated the ship."
• Someone dropped by a wooden hand carved cross at the office yesterday in honor of my mother. The guy who made it was featured in an article in the Messenger a while back. This has been one heck of a week. And, honestly, I want this year to be over.
• One Idiocracy thing about the Republican Debate was how many of the candidates wore red (a tie), white (shirt), and blue (suit).

Rumor: Decatur Church To Sell Property To Convenience Store And Be Torn Down

This is absolutely unconfirmed (which has never stopped me from blogging about anything.)

The Cornerstone Baptist Church sits on a piece of property off the exit of FM 51 off 287  in Decatur. That land is worth a fortune from a commercial standpoint. The property right across the street from it hasn't sold for over a decade because the owners are demanding a fortune and waiting for the right buyer. They will eventually get it.

The rumor is that Cornerstone will sell the property to Quickmart. It would be a genius move. Take the money and build a new sanctuary.

(By the way, I finally went to Buc-ees the other day. It was crazy. It is like six convenience stores combined without walls. Food. Clothes. A deli. Custom made beef jerky behind glass. It was like Allsup's on acid.)

Oh, and the source of this rumor is . . . (just kidding, darlin').

Unrelated: Something is weird with the host of this site today which causes some computers to stall on the site. I'm deleting sidebars and doing other html stuff to try and diagnose the problem. I suspect the Texas Republican Party. (Just kidding, darlin').  Edit: I think I tracked it down.

Guy Shuts Down Houston Highway To Propose

That guy is starring in a movie which is playing only in his mind.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• If you like politics, the Republican debate last night was beyond entertaining. Every time it came for Trump to speak I sat up. And, man, he delivered. I'm beginning to believe he might be a master politician and that he will win the Republican nomination. This is insane. 
• The debate was in The Venetian in Las Vegas which is crazy in itself. Mrs. LL and I stayed there the night before we went and got married in the Little White Chapel.  One of the reasons we chose that the "chapel" was because Britney Spears got liquored up one night and got married there. We thought it would be a funny bit. We like bits.
• And as the debate started, CNN turned the camera to the audience and focused in on, wait for it, Wayne Newton. I truly laughed out loud. 
• There is another lawyer in Decatur who got married in the Little White Chapel.
• Coincidentally, Mrs. LL and I watched Leaving Las Vegas Honeymoon in Vegas (with Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker) again this weekend. I think that movie is very, very underrated.  
• Hey, I'm on the front page of the Messenger!  (But below the fold! You kidding me? Mr. Eaton! What have I ever done to you!? Wait. Don't answer that.)  
• There is no more Leap of Faith than going "off the record" with a reporter. But I trusted her, and she kept her word. 
• I may have made my boldest statement in the history of ever yesterday when Messenger photographer, the "great Joe Duty", came over to my office to take my photo. I told him, "I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but this is what I want." For a second I was living the life of Zoolander.
• And with all the politics going on, I also feel like I'm living a redneck version of House of Cards.
• The home flooring remodeling project continues. The entire downstairs is now off limits as the tile is being settled. We are all now hostages upstairs. And I think Family Cat is so mad that I'm afraid she's about to go "call a coupla hard, pipe-hittin' [alley cats], who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. You hear me talkin', hillbilly boy . . .  I'ma get medieval." And I'm not kidding. That cat is mad because she doesn't get to roam where ever she wants. She wakes us up in the middle of the night with the loudest "meows" ever. 

I Never Thought I'd Do A "Should Pete Rose Be In The Hall Of Fame" Post

Wait!!!! I just came up with a campaign idea!!!

Speaking of Crazy: Carly Fiorna

I'm not sure what the best part is: (1) When she tells the dogs that President Obama ate one of their cousins, (2) When she eats a dog bone, or (3) When she does a voice over for the dogs in the last few seconds.

Heck, I won't limit it to Carly, I think the whole country has gone crazy.

Woman vs. Florida Trooper: Who Ya Got?

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I was in a store the other day and saw a drone for $69.99. But get this: It was a glow in the dark drone. (Apparently you have to kick it up a notch.)
• But new rules yesterday by the FAA require you, as of Monday, to register any toy drone with the government. It will cost you $5 (but it is free for the first thirty days from Monday - very gracious of them.) You will have to give the government your name, address and email. And if you don't do it, it is a federal crime.
• What's next? Some county commissioner employee is going to be indicted for allegedly providing a Trustee inmate with snuff? Oh, I got a plea bargain offer on that case yesterday: 2 years in prison or 5 years probation and a $1,500 fine. (With the fine, court costs, and probation fees, that would come to at least $5,400 that would go to the government. And also think about the amount of taxpayer money that is being used for the prosecution of this case.) And people think I'm crazy?
• Man, what happened to the Trump and Cruz love fest? And I was talking to someone yesterday who was convinced that Trump would eventually run as an Independent simply out of spite. They might be right. 
• Hey, to the commentors who said yesterday that Frazier won the fight that was depicted in that photo below: It was from the Thrilla in Manilla. Ali won. You must have forgotten that I am a Sports Expert.
• I walked in my house last night and the reconstruction project was in the aftermath of Day One. Every fake piece of wood had been torn up as well the carpet. I saw the concrete foundation and noticed that the original construction workers had written their names on it. So then Mrs. LL and I took out spray paint and did our own graffiti. I think it was the first time that the Kids In The House looked at us with a "You guys are out of your minds" expression.
• I learned yesterday that if you file as an Independent you don't even have to pay a filing fee. Now I just have to wrestle the money I gave Mrs. LL away from her who took it down to file the application for me. I'd try it but I'm afraid she'd go all Ronda Rousey on me. And win. 
• I think the attempt to get on the ballot as an Independent was successful. And I think Mrs. LL had a great day. She ended up with a cab driver who only wanted to talk about politics (Mrs. LL was like Marvin in Pulp Fiction who only wanted to say, "I don't even have an opinion"), she got to deal with Republican Death Star, she got to see the Secretary of State's Office (which apparently is one wheels off operation) and then hit Sixth Street. 
• A DPS lawyer at a hearing in Fort Worth wanted to talk to me about her dad who is suffering from dementia. I spent as much time with her as she wanted. And I could see her pain.
• I forgot to mention this: "Four of the nine people killed in a melee between rival biker gangs outside a Texas restaurant were struck by the same caliber of rifle fired by Waco police." Good lord. 
• There was a confused lady in the courthouse yesterday who just happened to be African American. (At least I think she was African American. I don't see color.) She wanted to know if she was in the right place and asked, "Is this Wise County?" I think I got her to the right place.
• Because of the flooring project in the house, I had to take The Family Pup and The Rescued Family Pup to the office. I'm not sure I've ever seen an office full of women so happy.