Another Reason To Love The Internets

Rate a book-in photo of a girl and see a new one. (Thanks emailer.)

I Told You We Had Enough Laws

Using the name or persona of another person on a social networking site, without the person’s consent, would be a third-degree felony under a bill awaiting Gov. Rick Perry’s signature. H.B. 2003, authored by state Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, also would make it a Class A misdemeanor to use another person’s identifying information to send an e-mail, text message or similar communication without the person’s consent and with the intent of harming the person. (Source) Silly. Incredibly silly. Is there any wonder why the U.S. has so many people in prison or on probation or parole? And I'm really regretting sending Jarhead's wife that text that read, "I'm on a boat with the au pair and a goat, and we might not be coming back. - Love, Jarhead." And my high priced criminal defense legal advice is to just add "Double Fake" to whomever you wish to impersonate. Crisis averted. Thank you. I accept donations by Paypal.

We're All Going To Be Skinny and Rich!!!!!

Saw these ads on the Star-Telegram home page. I presume the ads work by finding your IP address and then plugging in your local town's name. But just in case I'm wrong, this is a little shout out to the $63 an hour girl. You like Frilly's?

We Need An Investigation

Let me get this straight. This lady has a hankerin' for some White Castle burgers so she loads up on her scooter and is denied? And then, uttering something to herself like, "I won't be denied" she hits the gas and burns some rubber as she heads over to McDonalds? When this lady wants a burger, she really wants a burger. Or two. Or three. The most shocking part of this clip is that White Castle offered to settle the matter with some free meals and she turned it down. She turned it down? If I had been White Castle's lawyer, I would have thought that offering her even one of those little square burgers would be enough to get her to sign anything we put in front of her. Wait. She's madder than what?

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• It's Bowling Tuesday. Apparently.
• Yesterday I got an email from a guy I don't know who told me, "I read your blog every day in Iraq. It kept me entertained." That was a little humbling.
• I wonder if I should get some yellow magnetic ribbons printed up with "Liberally Lean" on them?
• I finally got my home Internet fixed after a visit from two, count 'em two, technicians yesterday. (That brings the total to seven.) And the last guy was pretty cocky about what the problem had been (a faulty copper panel in the neighborhood box). I'll take cocky if the guy can fix it. I think he has.
• The new Calvin Klein billboard in SoHo in NYC is indeed shocking. A clearer picture on Flickr is here. (Warning. It's pretty risque.)
• My random link to the Texas DA and CA message board: A trooper stops a car and finds 82 grams of cocaine. The problem: The stop was based on driving in the left hand lane of a two lane freeway while "not passing" even though no other cars are in sight. If the stop is without justification, the evidence of cocaine cannot be used against the defendant. Note to DA: Good luck with all that.
• Today's Random Thought Girl is hawt.
• The Boston Globe always has the greatest photo galleries. They've now posted one of the protests in Iraq Iran over the recent presidential elections. Good stuff.
• Craziest accident ever yesterday: A guy goes off the Berry Street overpass in Fort Worth over I-35 at 4:00 in the afternoon, lands upside down on the freeway below, doesn't get hit by another car, and survives.
• But I struggled with the words of witnesses on the news yesterday who said, "That man is blessed!" So the blessing began a second before impact? Why not before he went over the guardrail? And why does no one want to have an open, honest, and reverent discussion about such things?
• WBAP's Hal Jay this morning asked Nolan Ryan if any of today's pitchers train by running the bleachers backwards like Nolan used to do. Nolan told him he had never done that. Awkward pause.
• On my early morning jog yesterday, I came face to face (or shoe to face) with an armadillo who immediately jumped and then made a beeline for the tall grass. We were within two feet of a very uncomfortable encounter.
• Which reminds me of a mean looking dog who ran at me while jogging two weeks ago but decided just to hit my calf, hard, with his nose. That scared me. I was waiting for the feel of teeth.
• More details about the Jacksboro shooting. Sounds like a mess.
• My electricity went out this morning. Having an automatic garage door is not handy in those situations.

A Rare Baseball Post

I love stuff like this. On Friday night, the Yankees trailed the Mets by one run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Runners at first and second. Alex Rodriquez hits a pop up to the second baseman so game over. Right? Not so fast my friends. (The clip above is of poor video quality but contains the audio mashup of four different broadcast teams covering the game. Wait. Four?) And the winning run coming in from first base was former Ranger Mark Teixeira who makes a krillion dollars at year. But despite the risk of becoming complacent, he remembered one important baseball rule: When there are two out and you're on base, run!! Good thing. They would have crucified him if he had dogged it. ------------- On an unrelated note, I was watching the beginning tease of ESPN Sports Center yesterday morning and I saw a three second clip of a HUGE branch falling within feet of a guy sitting and watching a golf tournament. Did anybody else see that? I can't find anything about it (and I didn't get to watch the Sports Center episode.)

What Is This?

I saw it on 287 this morning. It looked like a one piece fiberglass ball with a hole in the top of it.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• If it's this hot now, what's July and August going to be like?
• Digging up a fence post buried two feet in the ground and encased in cement is not fun.
• I rethreaded my weedeater when I wasn't doing yard work. There's no bigger beat down than to have the line run out when you're right in the middle of whacking weeds.
• Rush Limbaugh, in response to Obama encouraging Americans to lose weight for health reasons, said that "you exercise freaks" are the ones putting pressure on the health care system because they are always getting injured. The man is losing it.
• I'm not talking about my home Internet. Five repair guys. No results. Incredible.
• Sarah Palin sure doesn't mind exploiting her daughters for political purposes. Until this recent David Letterman flap, I had forgotten she even had a 14 year old. But she sure didn't mind dropping Willow's name in her many responses.
• That lady's voice drives me insane.
• A lot of people casually email me but will start off with, "This is NOT for publication."
• After the storms the other day, I found a basketball (fully inflated) sitting in my front lawn. I left it there for a couple of days thinking the owner would see it. He didn't. I guess I can keep it -- guilt free.
• But I don't have a basketball goal so that's kind of silly.
• Lots of fuss over the re-election of the Iranian president when, in reality, he has no power. They still have that Ayatollah thing working over there.
• I finally saw what I think is the first Coen brothers movie, Blood Simple. Not bad.
• Bell Helicopter workers voted to go on strike last night. With everyone else losing their job, they might want to tap the brakes on that.
• If you know you're going to the beach for a vacation and you know you're as white as a sheet, is it OK for a guy to go to a tanning bed?

Jacksboro Killing Update

Although the report says the victim died at "Parkland" when the autopsy said John Peter Smith. And the charge was "manslaughter" which would mean a reckless, but not intentional, killing. But I've never heard of anybody being the "XI". I suspect Daniel Nelson I through X are no too pleased.

Random Saturday Monkey

A 19 Year Old Was Shot To Death In Jacksboro Last Night?

Link. (Emailer submitted.) Edit: A commenter believed the homicide occurred in Fort Worth. It is confusing. 1575 S. Main is the address for John Peter Smith Hospital. So it looks like the incident "occurred" at 310 E. Belknap in Jacksboro with a death later at JPS.

As We Balance Our Check Books This Weekend

There are some HUGE law firms in this country but they are having economic issues just like the rest of us. But they've got a problem because most extended job offers last year for first year associates to begin this fall. It's a problem because now they realize they don't have any work for those newbies to do. So what did one monster firm in NYC do this week? It sent a letter to all those new hires and told them if they want to take a year off before their starting their employment, that's fine with them. But here's the kicker: They'll pay them $80,000 for that year, provide them medical coverage, and throw in a $1,000 a month to help with student loans. And all they have to do is sit home and watch Jerry Springer and eat bon bons. Oh, my.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

Don't Hate Her Because She Loves Books

• My gate on my wooden fence collapsed in the storm. So I went to Home Depot to get a couple of replacement posts and some concrete. Ran me about $26.
• But, of course, this is going to be a home repair disaster.
• I have had the Internet guy (four different ones to be exact) over to do repairs at my house over the last two weeks. As of this morning, it was out again. I'm done.
• Blogger Anobiter is off to New Hampshire for a whole month. Her blog posts indicated that she headed to DFW at 7:34 a.m yesterday. At 2:39 p.m., she still hadn't boarded due to weather delays.
• I've never been a fan of "inspirational quotes."
• I'm thinking of Debbie Gibson.
• One year later, I'm still fascinated by the opening Olympic Ceremony segment of all those Chinese drummers. As Bob Costa's said, it was a little "intimidating."
• Paul McCartney and Wings, even at it's cheesiest, is still better than most of what is going on in music today.
• Sheesh, that makes me sound old.
• My first concert: Boston at the Tarrant County Convention Center where me and my buddies paid a scalper $12 each for the tickets.
• I'm calling Hawkins Funeral Home to reserve a plot.
• Whether it be the WFAA radar or the Dallas Morning News web site that suddenly requires you to register, it's proof that Belo Corp has no idea why it will soon be bankrupt. (By the way, you can cheat the sign-up page by getting a quick username and password at BugMeNot.com)
• Back to my old age theme: I watched a little of Paul Newman in The Verdict last night (highly overrated, I might add) but I noted that all of the six male jurors wore a suit. I've practiced law for 23 years, and I don't recall even one male juror wearing even a tie.
• Didn't the creation of USB port on a computer make things 1,000 times easier?
• For all of you that were jumping for joy over the mentally handicapped kid that was sentenced to 100 years in prison: Aren't you the ones that say, "Every life is precious?"
• The crazy right winger is more dangerous than the crazy left winger (i.e. abortion doctor killer, Holocaust Memorial guard killer, etc.)
• The Irving City Manager makes $390,000 a year?
• "Woman Who Missed Air France Tragic Flight Killed in Car Wreck Days Later". Fate will not be denied?
• There was a weird white powdery substance outside my office door this morning.

Tony Romo's Fake Facebook Page

Genius. (Click to enlarge.)

The Aurora Snakerealis

This email is going around about what happened to a lady in Aurora last night. I deleted the names. I was going to go out on the front porch to look at the weather and I opened the door to find that dang snake wrapped around the bottom of the door not visible as it is in the picture. It fell at my feet in my house. It crawled around my dining room until [my husband] could get it out, very scary. It looks to be about 5 feet long. He put it out in the grass then at about 10 or so last night. The dogs starting going crazy and I went to look and it was back on my door, crawling up it. [Redacted] and I were scared to death. [Husband] said to leave it alone that it was a good snake to eat bugs, rats etc. He wouldn't get it. He went to be and [redacted] and I called the Sheriff's department and they came and killed it. It was so crazy.

From The Liberally Lean Triple Doppler Weather Center

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Those were some incredibly high winds last night. I saw a full sized trampoline in the street this morning - upright.
• I thought for a moment what a crazy scene it would be if I were to get out and start jumping on it.
• One thing about technical service (my home Internet issues are better but still not perfect) is that you have to go through the same phone tree and, when you get a real person, the same script.
• The craziest thing my tech support people say is, "Ok, Mr. Green, I'm going to take ownership of this call so we can solve your problem." Ummkay. Get after it.
• I think I'm going to Costa Rica in February.
• I've got a crazy female friend who throws a tantrum once every six months or so. Her most recent one included "unfriending" me of Facebook. And I've known her for almost 20 years.
• News you can use: There's only one web site authorized by law to provide free credit reports: www.annualcreditreport.com (Or at least that's what the most recent issue of the Texas Bar Journal said.)
• In Paris, Texas, an 18 year old with an IQ of 47 pleads guilty to five counts of sexual abuse of a child and the jury assesses punishment of 30 years, 30 years, 30 years, 5 years, and 5 years. Holy cow. If that's not insane enough, the judge decided to stack the sentences to make it a 100 year sentence. That's Lamar County Judge Eric Clifford who justified his actions by saying, "In the state of Texas, there isn't a whole lot you can do with somebody like him."Can I call a sitting judge an idiot?
• And now I've got a computer virus that is crazy: You click on a google search result and it hijacks the link and redirects to a random site. And that makes it very difficult to google how to get rid of it. Edit: And whoever suggested MalwareBytes is a genius. Good job.
• Edit: Want to hear Boston fans last night chant "You Do Steroids" to A-Rod as he came up to bat?

Email Submitted: Tonight's Wise County Rainbow

Thanks, Tony. And the rare Double Rainbow: