Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• This is the perfect storm for the local media: The ice storm they've been waiting for occurring during Super Bowl week. 
• Pete Delkus was delivering the weather at 5:00 a.m. Did he go home? 
• But here's a perfect example of how he overhypes things: At 5:25 a.m. he tweeted that this "major winter storm" would continue "thru mid afternoon." Fox 4's Evan Andrews was showing the radar at the same time and saying even Dallas would be done with the storm within three hours -- and that looked so obvious to everyone (except apparently Delkus.)
• And Andrews turned out to be exactly right. 
• Sundance Square had their own private snow plows standing by. Yep, snow plows. 
• What has happened to the Dallas sanding trucks being referred to as "Ice Force One"? That was Idiocracy gold!
• You know, of the thousands of school buses in the metroplex, we've never heard of a single one being involved in an accident when an ISD decided not to close a school. 
• If you get a chance to turn on ESPN2 and catch Mike and Mike In The Morning broadcasting live from Sundance Square this morning, do it. Those boys are freezing. 
• The temperature over the next couple of days may be a bigger story than the sleet. At least the wind chill. It's already brutal out there. 
• I think it's odd that the weather guys always say things like "fortunately, we missed the big winter blast" when we all want a big winter blast.
• DFW Airport stopped all incoming and outgoing flights at 6:30 a.m. Yep, the airport shut down. I'm not sure I have any memory of that happening before. 
• (Did I get up early like I always do today? Yep.)
• Changing gears......
• The Messenger referenced that the legislative budget cuts for local ISDs could decrease their budgets by 25%. I don't think you could dramatically cut a school budget by a 1/4th without catastrophic results. 
• Barely made the news: A man on trial for capital murder was found not guilty in Tarrant County on Friday. That was basically an impossible event twenty years ago. (And it happened in District Judge Sharen Wilson'scourt -- a judge who prides herself on being extremely tough on crime. That's why we have juries between us and the government.)
• I saw a plea going on in district court yesterday with a defendant who was not a U.S. citizen. When the judge asked him if he understood that his plea of guilty could result in his deportation, the defendant said no. In fact, this was the first time he had ever heard of any potential immigration consequences. His attorney might want to do his job in the future since that warning is in the plea papers he was supposed to explain to his client. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that it is "ineffective assistance of counsel" not to explain the specific immigration consequences regarding a plea. Made me shake my head. 
• A great video of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric in 1994 on the Today Show asking what the Internet is. Hey, we were all in the same boat back then. (I had my first email address in 1996).
• The only news out of the Denton County No Body Murder Trial yesterday was the "victim's" brother testified that he talked to his sister on the day she headed to the defendant's house. I was more interested in the fact that the brother didn't attend the funeral for the maybe-dead-lady because he was "sick". Way to man up. Or maybe he even questions whether she is dead. 
• There are supposed to by millions marching in Egypt today. Think Israel is nervous? Cover of their leading paper follows (since most U.S. papers didn't have much to offer.)

We've Found Someone Who Will Pull The Trigger Quicker Than Alvord ISD

Denton County government closes before the first raindrop falls.

Edit: Jack County was a close second (per faithful reader David.)

Another Federal Judge Strikes Down Obamacare

And gives a shout out in his decision to a particular political group?

It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place.

Youbetcha.

Source.

Ice-Apocalypse 2011: Updated Forecast

As of 11:18 a.m. today. That sounds worse than before, right?

Edit: The 3:00 p.m. update now calls for accumulation of up to "2 to 10 inches". Kind of wide range, no?

The Steelers Have Just Landed . . .

. . . and we decided to hit 'em with a couple of water cannons? That's the best we can do? (Source).

And at the risk of having Good Old Days Syndrome, those Cowboys/Steelers Super Bowls of the 1970s were the golden age of the NFL.  It all went downhill after that.

Modern Family's Sofia Vergara At Last Night's SAG Awards

Instead of thinking how hot this gal is, I always start smiling as I start thinking about her character on that sit-com.

It's Enough To Make Me Want To Trade In My Liberal Card

We get three white guys that can't dunk even with a trampoline? And then there just happens to be a black kid to go last who was even able to trick up his dunk?

Obviously a plant by the Black Establishment to keep the white man down.

(Although those three goofballs did succeed in making us white guys ashamed to be white.)

I Think The X Games Are Silly

Yet it has its moments.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• With he focus is on Cowboys Stadium this week, and I can't believe that its naming rights haven't been sold. 
• Fox 4 referred to the Star-Telegram as the "Star-T" this morning. I've never heard anyone do that before.
• Wise County school officials will have to make a decision as to whether to close schools tomorrow at a time when the roads are only wet.
• I had a disturbing dream about marriage and pregnancy last night (it's too bizarre to describe) and, to boot, it even had my recurring I'm-In-School-And-Late-For-Class theme as the backdrop.
• Still thinking about the ESPN crew in downtown Fort Worth. Since the wind chill is the big factor, it dawned on me that downtown is like a wind tunnel. If you've ever been down their in high winds, it'll feel like its going to knock you over. 
• How my weekend turned into late nights and daytime naps is beyond me. 
• We know that the NFL stops businesses from using "Super Bowl" in their ads so that's why you always here the words "the Big Game." But in a twist, and I can't remember the name of the company, WBAP's Mark Davis mentioned a business that had bought 10 Super Bowl tickets and were giving them away in a promotion. But the NFL even objected to using words "Super Bowl" when the company was giving away real "Super Bowl tickets."
• If you know who Tim Ted Haggard is (he's the minister in Colorado disgraced by your run of the mill male prostitute and meth scandal), and if you saw the HBO documentary about him, you'll love/hate/be bewildered by this photo of his family from GQ.
• I'm still following the Denton "no body" murder case and the article Friday about the trial provided no help to the prosecutor's case. Still the strangest thing I've ever seen. 
• The last play of the Pro Bowl was so ridiculous yesterday that the ESPN highlights pretended it didn't exist. (Quarterback drops back, offensive line and defensive lines stand straight up and look at each other, QB stands there for 10 seconds, completes a pass, there's a lateral, and then a lateral to the center -- yep, the center -- who runs another 20 yards for a TD with no one trying to tackle him.)
• Heard a commercial on The Ticket this morning from an air conditioning/heating company that was running a sale "because we accidentally doubled our order of units from the manufacturer." Sure, I trust them. 

Chaos In Egypt Explained By Guy In Background

Yep, that country might be going down.

I'm Firing Up The Liberally Lean First Storm Warning Weather Center

And I'm not sure I've ever seen these type of wind chill forecasts for Wise County on Tuesday.

And how would you like to be working on that outdoor ESPN set at Sundance Square?

I'm Board Certified In Criminal Law . . .

. . . and I have no idea what that crime is.

(Source: Twitter guy who gets Denton book-in photo.)

Denton No Body Murder Trial: Day Three

Still nothing. (Story.)

You know, after the State rests its case, the defendant has the right to ask the judge for a directed verdict of acquittal if the State has failed prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.  That is, no rationale jury could convict the man so the judge finds him not guilty and ends the trial.

It doesn't happen very often, but it might here.

Shuttle Disaster: 25 Years Later

Not sure about the caption, but I had never seen this video before.

Twenty-five years ago today, I was sitting at my desk in law school with KRLD on the radio. The broadcast of the Challenger's launch was going to be broadcast but the station was late getting to it. Once they did, the first words I heard were Christopher Glenn (of Saturday Morning "In The News" fame) say, "Something is definitely wrong here."

I've had people dispute my account*, but I ran to the TV to get the news and none of the networks had cut in yet.  It was the weirdest feeling, in that pre-Internet age, to know that any second I would see a "Breaking News" banner across the screen.
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* Some people have said that the launch was broadcast live on the networks. I just don't think that's right. Then again, it's been 25 years.

Edit: It might have been on CNN but I didn't have cable. Was it on ABC, CBS or NBC live?

Cops Working Hard At Chasing Nothing Today

Early this morning, someone reported that they saw someone place a suspicious package in a manhole near Cowboys Stadium. Cops responded like gangbusters only to find nothing in the manhole.

At about the same time, a lady reported her car stolen from a parking lot in Dallas with an infant in the back. Cops responded like gangbusters, issued an Amber Alert, only to have the lady admit she was lying.

Then JPS in Fort Worth was shutdown after a gunman was reported being on the premises. Cops responded.....(oh, you know)..... only to find no gunman.

Edit: I'm ragging on the cops, commenter? Really?

Contracted What?

I always forget to check out the Cheers & Jeers in the Star-Telegram (actually, I just look at the Jeers), but look what I came across from last week.

Feline AIDS? Really? They can get that? We had a Family Cat scratching us left and right as we pried her out of the Christmas tree and she could have had The AID?

What can the Family Dog carry? Swine Flu?

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*Yeah, I'm guessing it's not the same AIDs, but why ruin a good rant.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• TMZ says that Dallas needs 10,000 more strippers for Super Bowl week. Riiiiiight. (And is there anything more annoying then those guys in the "newsroom" on the TMZ TV show?)
• A lady was doing a horrible job in the self check out line in the grocery store last night, and I sighed as I waited behind her. I guess I was a little loud because she apologized. I felt bad about that. 
• I'm not sure what's going on in Egypt, but when the government shuts down the Internet to prevent protester news from getting out, it's not good.
• Can we take another week of Super Bowl coverage? I knew it would be bad, but I didn't know it would be this bad. 
• There were two huge plums of smoke high in the sky to the north of Decatur this morning that looked like a missile launch. 
• Tiger Woods shoots a 69 in his first tournament of the year and is five behind the leader?
• Completely missed Fox News' Megyn Kelly posing in GQ last November. Hey, now.
• I bet the Illinois Supreme Court deciding in record time yesterday that Rahm Emanuel could be on the ballot for mayor of Chicago drove the Obama haters on here crazy. 
• No terrorist attacks in the first half of Obama's first term? I guess we can say "Thank you President Obama for keeping us safe over the last two years." 
• ESPN's Erin Andrews was on the sideline of the TCU game and reported that the Nike shoes were causing Frog players to slip. Now she has announced a Reebok endorsement deal that had to have been in the works at the time of that report. Man, that's bad. And finally people are noticing.
• The Update reports this morning that the Decatur ISD Superintendent has received a $10,000 raise to take his salary to $145,000. 
• There's also a blurb about thieves in Wise County shaving the hair off of horses' tails in Wise County. Someone explain that to me. 
• I'm not 100% sure that every DNA exoneree out of Dallas County is innocent (DNA from someone else doesn't always mean he did not commit the crime), but most of these guys are black, convicted by white juries in the 1970s, and have served a ton of time. I would suspect there might be a little bit of an attitude of "we're not absolutely sure you're innocent, but you've been locked up long enough even if we're wrong."
• How Charlie Sheen isn't dead soon from partying is beyond me. (And it's funny to think the first time most of saw him was as a bit character at the Chicago Police Station in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Pic.)

Update On The Denton Murder Case Where No One Even Knows If The Lady Is Dead

More.

For the life of me, I don't understand why this case is being prosecuted. I keep waiting for something, but it hasn't happened yet.

Can't you start every cross examination with, "You can't tell this jury that Kathy Stobaugh is dead, can you?"