Above The Fold

Cindy Lou: Then And Now

(I'm actually a little late on this. More.)

Pat Robertson Speaking Truth And Speaking Crazy

We start off with a question from a gal in some crazy church. They can't date? At all? Ever? And Pat gives her some pretty good advice: That church is crazy so get the heck out of there.

But before that, for a reason that can't be explained, he throws out the hot opinion that gays will die out because they can't reproduce. Hey, I'm no scientist, but I think there's a flaw in that theory.

Random Index 1969

• Bobcat killer
• Were the "Harlem Stars" anything like the "Harlem Globetrotters"?
• Sudden death of County Clerk

Crazy Russian Ex-Girlfriend Goes All NASCAR

Story.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• To me, there's a distinct difference between the hacking of Sony and the threats if the movie was shown. The Interview was pulled because of the threats, not the hacking. The killing of the movie could have occurred because of the threats alone. 
• But all of this North Korea controversy reminded me how shockingly funny Team America: World Police was. I remember talking to a Wise County prosecutor shortly after it came out. He thought the movie constantly made fun of liberals. I thought it constantly made fun of the Right Wing.  It actually did both.
• The way ISIS has been quickly beaten back, they really were the J.V. A vicious little J.V., but the J.V. nonetheless. 
• My outdoor Christmas lights have yet to  blow a single fuse or trip a single breaker. It only took me five years and a billion extension cords to get it right.
• Mark Cuban is spending 90% of his time on social media this week promoting a silly app called Cyber Dust which is destined to fail. 
• I get Slumped Shoulders when anyone involved in American sports yells "We just shocked the world. baby!" after a win.
• The Star-Telegram has an editorial today encouraging a smooth transition between the outgoing and incoming Tarrant County DAs. What's the point of an editorial like that? Is there someone who desires the opposite? It's like encouraging civility during Christmas, respecting your neighbor, or safe driving. Not exactly a hot opinion. 
• The Junior In The House had a female friend over last night and then two boys showed up.  (Ugh.) I was feeling pretty good about them until I went outside and realized they had arrived on skate boards. 
• I'll be throwing up later after I read the new Texas Monthly article on Joe Jamail entitled, "The Greatest Lawyer Who Ever Lived."
• Sports (1) Evil Empire news: I don't know who those two high school kids are, but the fact they announced they were signing with Texas caused my Twitter timeline to blow up this morning. (2) It looks like all the remaining Texas high school championship games will be broadcast on Fox Sports Southwest, (3) The Mavs trade for Rajon Rondo is the equivalent of going all in. If they don't win this year, it will be considered a stupid move. And they only win if Tyson Chandler stays healthy and Dirk doesn't peeter out. Good luck with all that.  (4) Watched the end of the Notre Dame/FSU again last night. Notre Dame got screwed. The announcers even incorrectly guessed at who was called for interference. Edit: The penalty wasn't on the receiver pushing straight back. It was on the receiver running the slant. 
• Hey, they stole my catapult!!!! (If my catapult had turned into a functional monster)  . . .

Pregnant Dancing Gals

Nothing says Christmas like that.

Uh, "Hey, Now"?

"Elizabeth! I'm Coming To See Ya!"*

Two Florida men were dying to own a Barbie car so desperately that one of them faked a heart attack to create a diversion to allow the other to steal it from a Walmart. Tarus Scott, 30 and Gerard Dupree, 27, were arrested after their alleged ploy to steal the girl’s toy was caught on tape, reports Wesh.com. Surveillance footage from the Lake Wales Walmart on Tuesday shows two men loading a cart with a power wheel Barbie car, a Leap Frog tablet, and a Barbie Glam vacation house before trying to dupe store security. Scott appears to roll the stolen goods out of the store as the man who police have named as Dupree fakes a coronary to distract customers and employees from the theft. Concerned passers-by stop to help the suspect in apparent distress and one even appears to make a 911 call.

Story.
______________
*Very dated Sanford and Son reference.

Gal Gets Car Booted. Won't Be Denied.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• If you object to restoring relations with Cuba, you are living in the 1960s. Doing what the President has proposed seems like a no brainer for at least the last 20 years. 
• It will take decades, but Cuba will eventually have a ton of beachfront hotels and casinos which will be huge destinations for Americans. Win-Win. 
• Sony's decision yesterday not to release The Interview came after the top five movie chains announced they would not show the movie. I still think my civil liability theory I proposed yesterday is behind all of this (as opposed to "bowing to terrorists"), but I haven't heard anyone else mention it. 
• A good movie would be one about how the making and releasing of a movie caused an international incident after computer hackers got involved. 
• Mark Davis this morning said that every theater should have released the movie even if it took "six cop cars" around every one of them and if "anyone so much as looked crossways at you they would be taken down." Good grief. Talk about "terrorists winning". 
• Starting today, there will be ten state high school championship games at Cowboys Stadium this weekend.
• It'll probably be in the Update, but southbound 287 out of Decatur was shut down this morning because of a wreck in the construction zone. Completely shut down. 
• The death sentence, even in this era of rare death sentences, was pretty much expected in the trial of the Ex Kaufman JP. 
• I can kind of understand the post verdict "victim impact statements" in that case (although I'd never give one -- what's done is done), but I don't understand a judge grandstanding after the sentencing (which he had no control over.) The judge said, in an effort to pander for the cameras, "You murdered a little old lady, and you would have murdered two other innocent people if you would have had the opportunity. That puts you right there with Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Speck. But the people of Kaufman County know you've been scared for the last couple of years. There's no reason to be scared anymore."
• And I'm not sure those last two sentences make any sense. 
• I suspect most people don't know who Richard Speck was. He's been dead for almost 25 years. 
• And the post verdict prosecutor/investigator photo op drives me nuts. There's a great phrase I've always loved for those engaged in public service: "Do your job and then go home."
• Mrs. LL recorded Survivor and watched it when she finally could last night. I woke up near midnight and she was still downstairs. 
• I have no control over whether that crazy Captcha keyword requirement appears for comment posting, but it sounds like it is gone. 
• Beginning right now in 1983, the metroplex would experience 295 straight hours of temperatures below freezing. Man, I remember that. 
• Hey, I don't care about the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, but how would you like to be a player for the University of Pittsburgh? In the last 24 hours, your coach resigned to go to coach Wisconsin and the school then fired the Athletic Director. Now go out and practice!
• No injuries this morning, but this is a pretty crazy picture after a school bus T-boned a car in Grand Prairie. 
• It snowed on Christmas here about three or four years ago.  I was smart enough to sit back, relax, and watch it realizing I might never see that happen again. 

We've Got Us Some Wise County Heros Right Here If Wise County Were In Alabama

 Pink handle on that gun.

 Hey, now.

Not daughter and father. Also not Mrs. LL and me. 

Someone drives by who you recognize from your surveillance tape as the people that broke into your home. Do you call the cops? Not in Alabama. No siree. You draw down on them.

P.S. Does everyone have surveillance cameras these days?

1982 Channel 4 Christmas Commercial

There's Dale Hanson in there before he got fired.  If interested, [Grumpy] Uncle Barky has some background on this.

Back then, Channel 5 was still with NBC and Channel 8 was still with ABC.  However, Channel 4 was actually affiliated with CBS, while Channel 11 was an independent station.  Then at some point (the 1980s?), Channel 11 become an affiliate of CBS and Channel 4 became a Fox outlet.  So suddenly one day, the Channel 4 news crew had "Fox" instead of "CBS" in its graphics. (I'm pretty sure this video was when Channel 4 was still part of CBS. That Fox 4 News graphic in the corner seems to be added later.)

Deer vs. Bicyclist: Who Ya Got?

I guess that's really not much of a contest.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The testimony yesterday from the ex-wife/co-defendant of the ex Kaufman County JP on trial for capital murder was beyond bizarre. Putting aside how she came across as almost happy to have memories of the killings, she fully admitted to assisting in the offense of capital murder. Now she has, at the very least, a guaranteed life sentence without the possibility of parole in her own trial. At worst, she'll get the death penalty. 
• But didn't she have a deal with the prosecutors in exchange for her testimony? She said no. The prosecutors said no. So if a plea bargain is reached for anything other than life in prison, alarms are going to go off. As they should. 
• There is now a threat of a 9/11 like attack of any theater which shows The Interview -- the comedy about a scheme to kill the leader of North Korea.  Don't movie theaters have a huge liability issue here? If a bomb goes off, you can just hear a Plaintiff's lawyer say, "You were warned that a theater would be blown up and you showed the movie any way?" And the only other option is to provide metal detectors and other over the top security -- not exactly conducive to a good movie going experience. Or a profit. 
• When I first heard the premise of The Interview months ago, it made me uncomfortable. 
• The catapult project for the Sixth Grader In The House must be made of one single coat hanger. 
• The Family Cat decided to play basketball with a Christmas tree ball after we went to bed last night. I think her game went into overtime. 
• I was confused that Deion Sanders wife was sentenced to seven days in jail for child custody violations during a hearing on a claim of defamation by Deion. Seems like those would be two separate cases. (At least that's the way it was reported.)
• Nice book-in photo of her, by the way.
• And regarding the defamation claim, the judge granted a temporary injunction against the ex-wife and "ordered her to remove any statements from social media or videos posted online by her or people connected to her that could be construed as damaging to her ex-husband." First, that's a very vague order. Second, I didn't think a judge could order the alleged defamatory material removed but that the only remedy was money damages. But in Texas, at least for now, a judge can do that. However, he can't order the defendant to not repost the same material in the future. It doesn't seem worth the effort. 
• When anyone in the house hands me an Android phone, I might as well be reading Japanese. I don't understand either.
• One thing I forgot to mention about The Reluctant Astronaut: The great Leslie Nielsen was one of the co-stars. If Don Knotts said something crazy, Nielsen would get that confused look on his face which later would become a staple of the Airplane and The Naked Gun movies. Funny. 
• We could have Bush vs. Clinton in the next presidential election. Ah, America. Where anyone can grow up to be president.  Edit: I knew I read that yesterday but didn't remember it was commenter Katy.  The Liberally Lean Editorial Staff regrets this oversight. 
• Texas penalty for abortion providers in 1879. If the mother died or the fetus had been viable, they weren't messing around.

Above The Fold

Bill Clinton Still Livin' Large

Obviously A Case Of Mistaken Identity

2nd suspect arrested in fatal shooting at Fort Worth bar http://t.co/NDcDIW85J0 #txcrime pic.twitter.com/cInaXBXNPP
— Star-Telegram (@startelegram) December 16, 2014

Get Me This Turtle!