Not On My Court!

Minnesota High School AD goes medieval on punk kid who interrupts basketball game. (And kudos to the production value of the video - with the exception of the last 3 1/2 minutes being dead air.)

Snow

It's snowing. Not enough to take a picture of it and see it, but it is snowing.

The Video Referenced Below

Trust me. Watch it. [Edit: Fixed. Sorry about that.] Thanks MzChief

Chris Berman Working For The Messenger?

As they make reference to a song released in 1971. (That's 37 years ago if my math is right.)

On a very unrelated note, I was in line to pay my entry fee a couple of Saturdays ago for the half marathon in downtown Fort Worth when I dropped four $20 bills on the ground in a crowd. I heard lots of "woahs" as I scrambled to pick them up. I then sheepishly said, "I was just trying to make it rain out here." One guy laughed. The other sounds were crickets chirping.

Quick Random Thoughts While I Decide On What Type Of Smowman Snowman To Make This Afternoon

- If got a cold, but not the flu. I'll take the cold. - I created an external hard drive out of an old internal hard drive this weekend. And it took about 15 minutes. (I had no idea what I was doing.) - There was an amazing video on The Today Show of a jet trying to land in Germany in high winds. I'll try to find it on youtube.com. You have to see it. - Speaking of The Today Show, for the third week in a row they have done a "Saturday Night Live in Sixty Seconds." Nothing more than a commercial. (But they will, in a second, have the mayor that posed in her underwear on. So all is forgiven.) - The triple murder (almost four) in East Texas over the weekend was insane.

Mugshot Of The Week

National Anthem Etiquette

I kept hearing the story of Barack Obama not "putting his hand" over his heart during the National Anthem. I finally saw the youtube clip of it here.

I'll probably get blasted for this (nothing new), but I don't recall ever being taught to put my hand over my heart during that song. Now during the Pledge of Allegiance, yeah, I always do it. But not during the National Anthem.

Alvord ISD

Got a couple of emails today calling my attention to this. Edit: I've not posted a few comments because they make conclusions that may not be true. And all those comments were anonymously submitted.

A Loyal Reader

. . . sends in this pic of a new ride spotted in the parking lot of the Sheriff's Office today.

Allow Me To Retort

Hey, this is huge news. But I'm not sure if something that happened on Wednesday and reported on Friday constitutes "Breaking News." I'm just saying.

Random Ann Curry Irritation

I don't know why this lady gets to me so much. This week I was getting ready for work and not really paying attention to The Today Show. Suddenly, there was this voice that just pierced my brain. I had to grab the TIVO to replay what had happened.

Friday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Decatur Rumor

Decatur Police had a report of "shots fired" on Main Street in Decatur shortly before noon. They had trouble locating the source but a guy showed up at the Decatur Hospital (or whatever its name is) with some kind of injury a short time later. They think the two are connected . . .

Developing.

(Thanks, uh, "good looking emailer")

Edit: Crime Scene Van? Decatur has a Crime Scene Van?



From a comment:

Trial Update

Success. A "not guilty" verdict came in within 15 minutes.

As you can tell, the breath test was .085 and .083 and it was taken an hour after the stop. The rest of the facts really favored my 21 year old client with no criminal history. He was followed by the trooper for throwing out a lit set of firecrackers in downtown Boyd (yep, while driving) but for the next 2 and 1/2 miles he only "touched" the yellow line with his driver's side tires one time and "barely crossed" the white fog line one time. Other than that, the driving was fine.

The field sobriety tests, in my opinion, were great. And, quite frankly, I think that's what won it. Even using the trooper's interpretation, (1) on the thirty second One Leg Stand test he put his foot down one time, and "swayed" and "raised arm for balance" one time at Count 29; (2) on the Walk and Turn test, he stepped off the line one time (I couldn't see it) did not touch heal to toe four times, and made an "improper turn." According to the Manual that all the troopers and cops use, that is failing. To your average person, that's pretty darn good. I promise you, if you saw the tape you would not have thought the guy was intoxicated.

But these things can go either way. I felt good about it, but I've been surprised before. Thankfully, this time there were no surprises.

Edit: One new wrinkle was to utilize Google's Powerpoint equivalent during the cross-examination of the trooper and technical supervisor. It won't make much sense, but they are both here and here. Me loves me some Google. (And the first presentation contains one heck of an algebra problem that I asked my secretary to calculate for me. And she did.)

Fox 4's Good Day . . .

. . . is funny. (And I'd watch it even if I wasn't obsessed with Megan Henderson.)

Case in point: This morning they run a video of Victoria Secret models on a runway in connection with some story about the head of the company claiming they had become "too sexy." Tim Ryan says, "Oh, come on. This is just a cheap grab for ratings, isn't it?" Two seconds later you hear a Homer Simpson drop of, "Yooo Hooo!" Then, moments later, we get another drop of: "How you doooiiiinnnnn'?"

Good times.

People In Cages

For the first time ever, more than one in every 100 Americans is either in jail or prison - thats 2.3 million people. We lead the world. Texas leads America.

Right wingers begin the Slow Clap.

You Mess With The Bull And . . . .

PETA protests the "Running Of The Bulls."

Ladies, I find your argument very persuasive.

Oh, My

Fort Worth Star Telegram story.

The death had already been reported by the Messenger and other sources a couple of weeks ago. The big news is that the death has been determined to have occurred in Decatur. That means that the Wise County Courthouse now has jurisdiction over the case.

Because the child is under six, it qualifies as capital murder. I'm not sure we've had one of those in quite some time.

Edit: Fox 4 video here.