I'm Officially Organizing One For Wise County

"World's Largest Bikini Parade"

I'm A Little Worried About The Local Democrats

(Posted on the bulletin board in the courthouse.)

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• The "rank the girls" commentor has his work cut out for him today.
• I broke my left click button on the built-in mouse pad on my laptop. Beating.
• TCU is tricking up their uniforms for this week's high profile game with Utah. Warning: Don't mess with charma. Edit: Make that "karma". What the heck is "charma"?
• The question has nothing to do with veterans or military service: Should "The Cold War" be referenced in the same list that contains "World War II", "The Vietnam War" or the "Korean War?" Seems like a fair question that rationale people could debate.
• NPR, while doing a profile on the Fort Hood shooter this morning, mentioned that "On at least one occasion he tried to convert one of his mental health patients to Islam saying it would 'save his soul.'" Is that a big deal? Would the fact that a Christian mental health care provider tried to convert a patient to Christianity because it would "save his soul" be newsworthy?
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has cancer. But he's a Muslim so we don't care, right?
• Speaking of cancer, I read this yesterday which stopped me down.
• There's an article today in the Star Telegram about defense lawyers subpoenaing records from the City of Fort Worth in criminal trials (primarily information held by the police department). Little known fact: A subpoena can be issued by the State or the defense without the judge's approval. You just fill out a form, file it with the clerk, and then hand it to someone over 18 years old to go serve it. Seems wrong.
• Insignificantly significant: The Star-Telegram's sport's section on Sunday had a blurb about Baylor's win over Missouri but did not have an article about the afternoon game. Not even an AP article. I know these are hard newspaper times, but I never remember that happening before.
• You want to run me off from your business? Refuse to leave me alone. Case in point: A cashier in Fort Worth sandwich shop yesterday who loudly told a co-worker, "He always orders the same thing. And then he's going to take his paper and go and sit at the table over there with his back towards the door."Good bye.
• A 21 year old won the World Series of Poker yesterday (and over $8 million.) His winning hand (as I try not to think of the the song Brick House)?: A pair of nines.
• I'm happy I have no desire whatsoever to shoot a deer.
• Fallen Miss California, Carrie Prejean, is all over Fox News promoting her new book. She's the oddest "family values" individual the network has ever embraced considering the recent news of a sex tape she made as a teenager for her boyfriend. Not to worry, "it's all a campaign to silence me, " she said this morning. Yep, it's all a vast left wing conspiracy.
• And does everyone have to write a book?

I'm Conflicted

This lady lied about having breast cancer (very bad) only to raise $10,000 and use the cash on breast implants (good) only to then have this book-in photo taken (bad). And we just had Breast Cancer Awareness Month (triple bad timing.) (Story from near Waco.)

Holy Cow

Background.

Monday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Scariest Play In College Football This Weekend

I said a couple of months ago that I think we'll see someone die in pro football. Heck it might be in college football. But this kid will be OK.

Messenger's Bridgeport v. Decatur Video

Game winning catch @ 3:50 mark.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma is huge. (At least it is from the road.) And they've built, or are building, a pretty swanky looking hotel.
• For some reason, my iPod screwed up on my early morning run yesterday so I had to do without it. Listening to the birds, my breathing, my steps, and everything else around me was not a bad thing.
• ESPN's College Gameday is coming to TCU, who somehow is now ranked #4, on Saturday. That may not happen again. Ever.
• "Muslim" does not equal "bad person."
• "Different from you" does not equal "bad person."
• I removed caulk from my shower yesterday which was a tremendous beating. But I giggled when I found out that a product called "Krud Remover" that I had purchased from Home Depot actually worked.
• Book-In Photo fun: Fairly hot 30 year old was arrested for Public Intoxication in Denton yesterday.
• But hotter.
• I actually walked in a Michael's store yesterday because I had to. Not fun.
• On the afternoon of the Fort Hood shooting, everyone was referring to the shooter as the "alleged gunman." I understand the qualifier "alleged", but on that afternoon who exactly was it that was making the "allegations?"
• It's amazing the military reported that he had died before that was confirmed.
• I forgot to mention that there was a four jet flyover at Arkansas game this weekend. Me loves me the flyover.
• I think I saw this weekend's NASCAR winner (whoever that was) firing the fake pistols he is given for winning the race. Even with blanks, that seems dangerous. Wasn't some kung fu movie star killed by a blank once?
• Cowboy fans might want to tap the Super Bowl brakes. December is coming.
• Five teens beat a 28 year old man to death in his front yard over the weekend in Wylie. Allegedly.
• In Fayetteville around 10:00 p.m. I went into a convenience store and spoke briefly to a stressed and young female clerk who was worried about whether her replacement for the third shift would show up. "I have a kid to take care of," she told me. I wonder if she has health care?
• WBAP's Mark Davis says he is wearing a Demarcus Ware jersey this morning. I was laboring under the delusion that he was a grown man.
• A Messenger reporter used the word "methodically" in two separate stories this weekend.

While You Were Sleeping

We need health care reform, but no one of those Senators knows what's really in the monstrosity. As I told a buddy of mine the other day, lawsuits are fought every day about one sentence of one bill. And this thing is what? About 2,000 pages?

Fayetteville Is A Long Way Away

• I thought I was a fan of driving. I'm not.
• On the was home I went through Southern Arkansas and Southwestern Southeastern Oklahoma. I had no idea it was that beautiful. I had no idea it was that desolate.
• Before the game, I got there really early and found a parking garage. It had an automated credit card pay system that I used. When I returned my car was booted by a private company. Sheesh. I called the number on my sticker, a guy shows up in five minutes, believes my story (which was true), and lets me go on my way. Amazing.
• The University of Arkansas has a crazy and cool tradition. Every graduate gets his or her name etched into a sidewalk on the campus. That's a lot of names, but they have lots of sidewalks. You walk upon names everywhere you go.
• Most of the leaves had fallen but not all of them. I also came across a section of Evergreens in southern Arkansas which surprised me.
• And after a krillion hours on the road yesterday. I got stuck in a 30 minute traffic jam on LBJ (and kicked myself for missing the George Bush Tollway). I almost went all Falling Down on everyone.
• And the pic below may be my favorite. I snuck out the game early and came across a couple in their forties laying out a blanket on the campus grounds.

Gold

Link.

Greetings From Fayetteville (While I Should Have Stayed Home To See the Bridgeport/Decatur Game)

• I couldn't resist the temptation of doing something I've wanted to do for a while: See an Arkansas Razorback game in the Fall
• I think it's beautiful up here in the hills, but it was dark when I drove in so I'll tell you tomorrow.
• Why do I do this? I have a football stadium fetish.
• I'm staying in a new Candlewood Inn which is pretty dang nice.
• On the hotel elevator, one guy was telling another guy that his wife has an elevator/claustrophobia issue. He said that once, in a crowded situation, "we had to wait an hour until the elevator was empty before she would get on it." His buddy and I both looked at him like he was nuts for putting up with that.
• As I was driving up, I passed the NASCAR race in north Fort Worth, saw all the campers, and said out loud, "You guys are freakin' nuts." Then it dawned on me that that I was driving six hours for a college football game that I have no connection to.
• The game is on Channel 21 tomorrow at the very odd start time of 11:21 a.m.
• I love my GPS device. Truly, I typed in the address of my hotel, left Texas, and never looked at a map. When it tells you to turn, you turn.
• And I leave town and Bridgeport beats Decatur with a TD pass with 42 seconds left? 24-21. Holy cow. (Decatur led 21-0)

I Didn't Know Chico Had A Port-O-Potty Farm

But they do.

Cat Fight!

I've got me a couple of new candidates for the future Mrs. Green.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The Ft. Hood shooter ending up being alive was a shocking development, but Sean Hannity on Fox News read the bulletin like he was reading his grocery list.
• On 287 yesterday afternoon, I saw three big military vehicles pulled off to the side of the road with about 12 soldiers out of the vehicles -- some on cell phones. I'm sure they had heard about the shooting and were trying to get info.
• You knew the Redneck Panic Meter would go off the chart once it was learned that the shooter's name didn't sound 'merican.
• The shooter's family says that he had been hurt by being called a "camel jockey" by fellow soldiers.
• Killeen now has two huge mass killings on the list of America's worst. (Although I couldn't find the list.) The other was the killing of 23 people at a Luby's in 1991.
• Judge Andrew Napolitano, the consultant to Fox News, is either reckless with the truth or an idiot. He said this morning that Texas law requires "planning" and "premeditation" on the part of a defendant before he can be sentenced to death for capital murder. That's simply wrong.
• This tragedy will add to the Texas I-35 Trail of Tears list: Dallas (JFK assassination) to Waco (Branch Davidians) to Killeen (the Luby's mass murder/Ft. Hood) to Jarrell (tornado) to Austin (the UT Tower shooting) to San Antonio (the Alamo.)
• The Fox 4 morning weather guy says the temperature gauge in Decatur is messed up (reading too high) and he's going to start ignoring it until it gets fixed.
• Weird pet peeve: Someone saying something so outrageous that it is obviously a joke but then feeling the need to follow it up with "just kidding."
• Crazy Texas Tech coach Mike Leach made a cameo on Friday Night Lights. Pretty funny.
• Just announced this morning: The unemployment rate has now reached 10.2% Somehow that is going to be Obama's fault.
• Those apartments in Decatur on College Street that burned earlier this year? They are actually rebuilding them instead of tearing the structure down and starting over.
• Think I'm the only one that thinks baseball is a beating? Out of 56 TV markets, DFW ranked 53rd in viewership of the World Series.

Rare Thursday Evening Pick Me Up

Real News

Latest at 2:31 p.m.: Seven dead. Twelve wounded. Two shooters. (That's Fort Hood, Texas by the way) Updates here. Edit: Those numbers above will be changing. Edit: 12 dead. Three shooters with one of them now dead. Edit: (Sheesh) 12 dead including one shooter. Two others taken into custody. Edit: (Uh, oh) The name of the shooter: Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan Edit @ 8:29 p.m.: He's ALIVE!