Courtroom News

Hey, it's Friday before Labor Day so it's not exactly News Central around here. But I just saw that the district courtroom in Decatur is about to go high tech with a couple of 50" screen and other stuff. Taxpayer waste? Naaa, not really. The money came from a fund which got $1 off every case as court costs. And I heard that Star Power was the vendor and installer. But I do loves me some technology.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• North Texas won a football game last night. North Texas! And looked good doing it.
• I fear the lightening strike.
• I had a conversation with a guy yesterday that wouldn't shut up. I tried a dozen times to wrap it on the phone but he kept going. It was one of those where I took the phone away from my ear and just stared at it about a foot from my face.
• Traffic has been rerouted in Decatur because of some construction close to downtown which brings a lot of cars by my office. I asked my law partner is we could put a big purple inflatable gorilla on our roof.
• Fox 4's Dan Godwin interviewing Mike Judge was kind of awkward. (And I'm not sure if the new movie "Extract" deserves to be associated in the same breath as "Office Space". Then again, I haven't seen it.)
• Is it "I've said my peace" or "I've said my piece"?
• If I see a young attorney's obituary in the Texas Bar Journal, I always try and find out how he died. Anybody know what happened to Stephen C. Ackley?
• Texas Tech star Michael Crabtree is the only drafted player not to have signed an NFL contract. Idiot.
• If Obama were to make a personal visit to Decatur ISD, would there be parents that would keep their kids home?
• Observation from the Cowboys game last weekend: White people like the Jason Witten jersey.
• After the Boise State/Oregon last night, a player threw one of the most violent sucker punches ever. Then he went into the stands. If that kid isn't suspended for a couple of games -- maybe more -- I'll be surprised. (I'll try to find the video.)
• Obama's Approval to Disapproval rating is 55% to 39%. That's a landslide if it were election returns.

"Horse Kicks Man In Chest" aka "Good Times"

Let's Talk About Me

You guys can argue about the future of humanity all you want, but today is the start of college football season. I don't care about the NBA, MLB, and especially the NHL. But I care about college football like I care about my firstborn gifted and talented son I never had. As Derrick Boyd said in the courthouse this morning, "Today is like Christmas. Only better." Preach on, bruther. And I got especially excited a couple of months ago when I learned that the Baylor v. Wake Forest game was going to be a regional/national telecast by ABC on 2:30 on Saturday. (In case you haven't heard, Baylor has a quarterback that trails only Jesus in popularity in Waco. And it's a close race.) But I started getting nervous earlier this week when all the TV listings had Georgia at Oklahoma State on that channel at that time. What gives? Was that possible? I know ABC has about four regional broadcasts but Dallas-Fort Worth was not getting the Baylor game? Do they not know how many good Baptists we have around here? Well, today I got my answer. I'm screwed. The regional broadcast of the Baylor game will be shown only in the black areas in the above map. Sheesh. There's more blue in that map than the Obama landslide of 2008. But wait! There's hope! WFAA, I learned, is showing the game on it's alternative "HD Channel 8.2". Of course, I had no idea what the heck that meant. Well, with a little more checking I found out that's pretty much only available if you have an HD antenna or are part of Charter Cable -- both of which I ain't got. So what's my other option? Subscribe to ESPN GamePlan for $25 for the weekend or for the season for $115. I'm sure I'll do it. I just wish the government would step in and provide a Universal Football Plan to cover me in these times of trouble.

Brit!, Save Us From The Anger!

Decatur ISD Protects Your Children From Hearing Obama Say, "Stay In School"

Link.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• I showed up for County Court in Jack County yesterday, found the sign in sheet, and noticed my court appointed client had arrived before me. I then looked around and didn't see him -- an oddity that was explained when his exasperated girlfriend came in later to tell me "they arrested him when he came in." Sheesh.
• His bondsman had turned on him, by the way.
• My health insurance company wrote me to tell me my monthly premium is going up $50 a month. That's with not filing a claim in 5 years and having a deductible that would buy a nice vacation.
• My house plants never die. And I really don't do anything other than water them when I see the leaves going limp.
• Hey, Right Wingers, don't worry about the Obama speech to your children. They are kids. It's a speech. It's school. They'll be asleep or daydreaming within 2 minutes.
• I like watching a bird flap it's wings in water.
• Prediction Fail: I said the Rangers would fade down the stretch. I was wrong. It's September and they are 3 1/2 games behind in the division and 2 1/2 games behind in the Wild Card. My bad.
• I've said it before, but the "Promiseland" televangelist/religious show is worse than what Robert Tilton ever did. I know you've never seen it, but if I ever run across it I'll watch it until my blood boils.
• OK, after proclaiming The Dark Knight was awful after seeing it in the theater last year, I've had a chance to reevaluate my position after watching it on cable. Verdict: I was too kind in my review. It's corny and simplistic.
• Texas A&M just lost a game in 2015 and 2016 because they just agreed to play USC. Why, oh why?
• My travel companion, who happened to be female, took this photo at the Cowboys game on Saturday night. I hadn't noticed the little Photo Bomber on the right.
• Funny: Our main governor candidates have created YouTube channels to attack each other. Gov. Perry named his AKayOticCampaign while Kay Bailey Hutchison named her's TrickyRicky2010.
• Someone keeps telling me that the attendance for the Texas Rangers is "great." No so fast my friend. The average attendance for this year is 27,637. That would rank 10th best over the last 13 years.

Wednesday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Hey, that's that guy from Jon & Kate Make 8 (or whatever it's called.) Welcome to the single life, buddy! I promise you it's like that every single day.

Listen Up, Class

"Next week, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, President Obama will be broadcasting an address directly to students in the nation’s public schools. The text of Obama’s school speech has not been made available to parents at this point, although lists of classroom activities for elementary school students and older students are available at the Department of Education website. "President Obama does not plan to broadcast on major network channels, but the speech can be viewed live online at the Whitehouse website. Broadcast begins at 12:00 noon Eastern time." This will be interesting. The county didn't want to lower the flag for Kennedy, will the local school districts allow our President to talk to our kids? Anyone heard anything? Edit: Good grief. Republicans are already going crazy: [The] Republican Party of Florida . . . released a statement "condemning President Obama's use of taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda."

"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology," said Jim Greer, party chairman, in a news release.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• There was a lady call into KLIF this morning who had been a teenage mother and "grew up in Bridgeport." She said the only sex education she had was "that film they showed us in sixth grade." I know what you're talking about, sista.
• I had no idea that the new starting quarterback for Alabama, Greg McElroy, played one incredible year for Southlake Carroll.
• Since redesigned, the Star-Telegram's web site doesn't seem to be updated as often.
• A Fall movie I'm interested in: The Invention of Lying which stars and was written by the great Ricky Gervais. It also has Tina Fey in it.
• Romo's new girlfriend. (I'm certain I profiled her about a month ago but can't find the link anywhere.)
• You would think even her biggest fans would get tired of Oprah. She is an immediate power down for me.
• PeopleOfWalmart.com
• Today's Messenger has almost no coverage of this weekend's Wise County high school football games. I don't know what happened with Robert Morgan (and I won't let you speculate), but they are struggling over there in the sports department.
• KFed, who was able to defeat me in my quest to be Mr. Britney Spears, is huge. Not like in "huge star" but just "huge."
• I would think even Fox News fans don't believe it's "Fair and Balanced." It's simply news presented from the conservative perspective. Why lie about it?
• My jogging routine changes but I've been going with the outside/early morning routine. And by "early morning", I mean "still dark." But I've got the oddest experience working: Every time, about two miles away, I meet a guy walking the opposite direction. And although I meet him at the same location every time and wave, he never responds.

Rangers Just Started A Doubleheader

And this twitpic indicates that is one sparse crowd. (Posted 20 minutes after the game began.)

I Can Heal Our Wounds

Ok, folks, after weeks of arguing over Obama, Obamacare, Cash For Clunkers, Bailouts, Socialism, Townhalls, Spider Monkeys,Birthers, and darn near everything else, I've come up with a great idea to bring us together: Cuddle Parties!!! How did I not think of this? Just picture it: Denny Crane, MzChief, Wordkyle, Double Fake Guy, Chupacabra, Mike Honcho, Jarhead, Adolf O. Bush, Triple Fake Guy, Your Majesty and everyone else all involved in the peaceful and calming effect of the group cuddle. This is going to kill. They said there was a $30 charge in the video, but that's crazy. I'm charging $20. No, wait. Make it $29.99. And in someone's home? No way. We are taking over Frilly's at Happy Hour (but before Karaoke because I've been practicing my Debbie Gibson.) And the Wise County Singles Club thought they had kick arse events! Step aside, boys. There's a new Party Sheriff in town.

The Arms Race Continues

From the Update. Your question should be: "Tell us exactly how much of that money would go towards athletics."

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I won't bore you with the details but the last Texas legislature made a major change in post-DWI driver's license hearings. Why do I mention this? Because the change was one page in a 200 page bill that had nothing to do with DWI or driver's licenses. I bet you could ask every legislator if they were aware they voted on the change and they would answer "no." (Except the author that stuck it in there.) And I bet 95% of them couldn't explain the hearings in the first place.
• Ok, I just bored you.
• NFL note: Brett Favre ended up split out as a wide receiver last night in a preseason game and then through threw an illegal crackback block? There's about 100 dumb things about the whole play. Edit: Video (while it lasts)
• NCAA: This will be weird --- the Cotton Bowl Classic (which is moving into Jerry's Death Star) will have a new day and time after next season: Jan. 7, 2011 at 7 p.m.
• I made a trip to the Decatur Walmart the other day (after avoiding it for almost a year.) I could people watch in that place all day long. Scary.
• Fox's Glenn Beck has finally figured out the more outrageous you act, the more people will talk about you.
• High school football is much more exciting when you are in high school.
• When I walk by the spice section in the grocery store, I wonder what people do with all of them.
• If you were interested in the recent news story about the girl that was kidnapped in California and held for almost two decades, and (stay with me here) you have a working knowledge of Google Street View, this is kinda creepy.
• MzChief sure has been grumpy lately.
• I wonder if happy babies end up being happy people?
• It amazes me how people fail to realize that they see the world through a prism that was formed through their incredibly limited experiences.
• Every office in the Wise County courthouse has a personality, and they are all very different. One big dysfunctional family that's pretty, uh, functional.
• I'm not a hunter but the first time I ever went dove hunting (1991?), I hit a bird with my first shot ever.
• It seems like you can turn the TV on in the middle of the night (or on Saturday early afternoon) and all it is is a bunch of paid programming by snake oil salesman. Man, there's a lot of scams out there.
• The federal government had to purchase the land for a United 93 September 11th Memorial for $9.5 million?
• For every teen that gave birth in Dallas in 2006, 28% of them resulted in the teen's second child. "Of the city's 3,739 teen births in 2006, the report says, 64 percent were to Hispanics, 30 percent to blacks and 6 percent to whites. Although most were to 18- or 19-year-olds, there were 72 to girls 14 or younger"

For Governor: Larry Kilgore of Mansfield

We've come a long way when a candidate for Texas' highest office can start off a rally with "I hate the United States." (Recorded on August 29, 2009 at Austin, Texa.)

Barnett Shale Bust Not Over Yet

I'd been hearing that Wise County's oil and gas business was picking back up. I'm not so sure after this article today. Highlights:

• Natural gas prices in Texas are currently averaging $3.62 per thousand cubic. This is down from $12.33 per thousand cubic feet in July 2008.
• As of July 2009, there were 342 drilling rigs in Texas in production. This was down from a peak of 958 rigs at the end of August 2008.
• Petroleum economist Karr Ingham said,“That adjustment is not complete, so it appears that thousands more Texans will be sent packing before this cycle hits bottom.”

Monday Afternoon Pick Me Up

It's Like A Blooper From The Matrix

All I know is that this is one of the Jonas Brothers from last night, but that's not the point because I love animated GIFs no matter who is in them. I could watch this stuff forever. But I'm a tad bit concerned about the move the boy does to get back to his feet. What's up with the arms down to his side and the "Ready! OK!" bounce? The last time I saw something like that was by a gal in a cheerleader outfit at a Halloween party.