He's Baaaaack

First AnObiter came out of exile and now it's the conservative you all love to hate: Jarhead.

I've Changed My Position On The Death Penalty

Because this hot girl got hit with some kind of bottle at a game over the weekend. This time the lawlessness has gone to far.

Happy Thanksgiving Week

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

With a weekend round up of being a tour guides to friends:

• The Sixth Floor Museum is really neat in a morbid sort of way.
• Despite many frames of the Zapruder film being on display throughout the place, the famous "head shot" is no where to be seen. I suppose that makes sense.
• It's amazing the number of people that come to the grassy knoll on a daily basis -- and they can always tell where Kennedy was hit by gunfire on the street because there is an "X" painted on the pavement. Really.
• There was one guy standing around proclaiming that he was there on the day the shots were fired. My conclusion: Nut Case.
• Traffic in the metroplex is getting unbearable.
• Took my friends to Angelo's on Friday night and they got to witness a drunk and arguing couple tip the waitress $100.
• Most awkward couple moment: The girl telling the waitress, "He's not my boyfriend. He's my brother. Well. Kinda."
• And then I actually set foot in Billy Bob's on a Friday night. Not much has changed over the years except guys are no longer required to wear the uniform of starched shirts and ropers.
• They don't have Whataburger's in the northeast (where my friends were from), so we had to stop by there at midnight.
• Went by the Gaylord Texas on Saturday and it's already decked out for Christmas. Even if you don't spend a dime there for anything other than parking, go walk around that place. Amazing.
• And who did I see in the lobby at around 10:00 p.m.? Cowboy's Patrick Crayton. He was just sitting down and talking to kids. (Apparently the hotel is where the Cowboys stay before home games.)
• That night we went to the Glass Cactus (last reported on by Jarhead a few months back.) Downstairs is a beating. Upstairs is people watching gold.
• Went to the Cowboy game yesterday. Parking and getting in and out is pretty much a breeze. And the game presentation is just short of Idiocracy --- and that thing is printing money.
• But the game would be more enjoyable if the two people behind us would shut the heck up. It was like listening to bad color commentary including such gems as, "We need to put our fast players on that guy to cover him!"
• And I bought the tickets from Stubhub and was almost rewarded with a game that almost had zero touchdowns.
• I'm tired of eating out for three days in a row.
• I can't sleep when I'm responsible for waking other people up.
• On to other things:
• I predicted New Moon would set all box office records, and I was close. It had the third best opening weekend ever with $140 million.
• I just saw a commercial staged as a news story on NBC 5 about 24 Hour Fitness providing free personal trainers this week.
• The Texas Lawyer newspaper has an article on leasing issues in the Barnett Shale.

Paradise Found

The Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy sends along these pics from a new park he saw in University Park. (There's a Wise County reference at the bottom of the statue.)

Bulls Win - I'm Still Alive

Link.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• If posting is a little slow today, try to find forgiveness in your dark hearts: I've got friends in from out the Northeast and I have to entertain.
• I hate entertaining.
• Having people in your home makes you clean like nobody's business.
• And this is some pressure: What do you show folks who have never been to Texas before?
• My agenda so far is: The 6th Floor Museum, the new arts district of downtown Dallas, Cowboy game, Water Gardens, North Side, Angelo's, Joe T's, Turtle Creek Area, the restaurant where Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones were photo'd for the first time (they are Cowboy fans), downtown Fort Worth, Gaylord Texan (?). Any suggestions are welcomed.
• They were amazed that you had to pay at DFW Airport just to pick some one up.
• But it's funny how the chain storing of America made them think at times they had never left home at all.
• Took them to a Tex-Mex restaurant last night and they loved it.
• Even though the table beside us got liquored up and smeared birthday cake on one another.
• Distracted: I love Tell It To Tim on Fox 4.
• I wish I were The Today Show's Matt Lauer.
• I bet that New Moon movie sets box office records this weekend.
• One of the stars in the movie is on The Today Show as I type this. He's 17 and treated like a rock star. (And the third movie in the series has already been filmed?)
• I'm amazed the Pete Hart story in Chico got so many comments.

Fine Dining On Mondays

How To Save A Life

Hey, we've got defibrillators now available in the courthouse. But I couldn't help but notice they were under lock and key. As someone up there just told me, "We'll save your life so long as we can get a hold of the guys in maintenance to unlock it."

Chico, My Chico

The Messenger has this video of the school board listening to a few residents regarding the potential termination of Coach Pete Hart. (Although you can't hear a word.) The Board's decision (which looks like it was a done deal way before the meeting) occurs at around the 3:00 minute mark. And the one over excited clapper, after an extended pause, is kind of funny.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Noticed that the commercial for the new Disney movie Old Dogs, starring the beat down that is Robin Williams, has a scene where a guy gets hit in the crotch with a golf ball. And that makes the preview. Idiocracy, we are headed in your direction.
• I'm not saying a word about Sarah Palin on Sean Hannity last night other than they both would be great in the so called War On Terror. Why? They would suck the life force out of any human.
• Ok, I lied. Let me say that I thought they were going to make out at any moment.
• Fort Worth motorcycle death yesterday.
• Faithful reader [name redacted by request] emails me to say that he saw Sheriff David Walker on TruTV last night in connection with the runaway 18 wheeler theft a couple of months ago.
• A Wise County jury convicted a guy of DWI yesterday for driving under the influence of prescription medication. Yep, that's illegal.
• They are starting up another DWI trial again today (amazingly, I'm not involved in it.) This one involves a driver who allegedly had a breath test of .23 (wow) with the defense being, "You can't prove I was drunk when I was driving." (It sounds mildly entertaining.)
• Both of the cases involve Fort Worth defense lawyers that never come to Wise County. I think that's nuts. I'd never go into, say, Eastland County, without the help of someone who knows the judge, prosecutors, office staff, local customs, and the "feel" of the county.
• A woman tried to run across six lanes of northbound traffic on Stemmons Freeway by the AAC this morning. To no one's surprise, she didn't make it.
• The Cincinnati Bengals have a 41 year old cheerleader. Kinda hawt.
• I was in the stands at Kyle Field during a torrential downpour in 1984 when Baylor beat A&M. Little did I know it would be the last time The Baptists would win in College Station. (They play this weekend.)
• People's Sexiest Man Alive announced this morning: Johnny Depp.

A Wednesday Afternoon . . . Uh . . . Nevermind

Check Out The Lady At the 45 Second Mark

Let me translate: "Keep those poor kids away from my kids."

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• One horrible thought about the 9/11 masterminds being tried in open court in New York: Nancy Grace's coverage.
• Watched a bit of a DWI trial in our County Court at Law yesterday - odd case. No alcohol, prescription medication only, and a hot DPS chemist from Austin testifying.
• Slowly becoming my kryptonite: Fox and Friend's Gretchen Carlson. (And she used to be at KXAS, channel 5, locally?)
• Why do I watch so much of Fox News if I hate it? Because I love watching things that irritate me. Really.
• That freeze warning for last night might have been prematurely issued.
• I got disturbed yesterday when I looked at a friend's wife's Facebook page and she was kissing another guy with the the caption "I love this man!". Then I noticed her status wasn't "Married" but "In a relationship". And then, after much searching, I couldn't find any reference to the husband on her page. I don't think that is a good sign.
• Probably Joe Duty's best pic from Boyd's playoff loss last week.
• Do they still have that fraud of fraud's "Who's Who" book for high school students?
• This seems wrong: Seven Dallas criminal judges have hired the DA's wife as a political consultant.
• Legislation introduced yesterday would require those killed at Fort Hood to get the Purple Heart. Any congressman have the guts to vote against that? And must everything be politicized?
• Anybody else get tense watching the footage of Reunion Arena coming down yesterday? Did it seem like they had no idea what they were doing? (Great youtube clip of it.)
• Hot weather is irritating. Cold weather hurts.
• Today's top story in the Messenger above-the-fold is the resignation of the two guys from the Boyd Fire Department. For the life of me, I don't understand why this is a big deal and the story doesn't even hint at why it should be.

Everyone Is Going Nuts Over This Cover

Including Sarah Palin who calls it "sexist." Sheesh, woman, you posed for the pic for Runners World earlier this year. But if I do say so myself, "Hey, now." (And I'd like to point out that this fine Blog brought you this photo back in June of this year.)

Sneak Peak: Walmart Black Friday Ad

http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/11/wal-mart-black-friday-ads-leak.html Watching Trooper Jeff Johnson testify in an unusual DWI case that involvies no alcohol but prescription medication got boring all of a sudden so I stumbled upon this ad. You can thank me later. Waiting on a chemist from Austin to testify -- I expect to learn something. Via phone.

Everybody go stock up on non-perishables

Tuesday Afternoon Pick Me Up