If You Are Expecting A Truck With A Longhorn Logo . . .

. . . he's going to be a little late.  This happened a second ago on 380 and (I'm guessing)  at the 287 intersection with the half cloverleaf.  Trucks used to lose it there all the time.  (Thanks, Brian.)

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Willie Nelson, multiple time marijuana offender, gets his latest charged reduced to a Class C misdemeanor, pays a $500 fine, and  receives 30 days deferred adjudication probation via plea bargain. Some Texas counties have prosecutors who would want a little jail time. Others would want a probation of two years with a conviction. Wise County had a prosecutor once who wouldn't even have filed the case. (Waaaay ahead of his time.) And all that disparity is legal and constitutional.
• "And another" enters into plea bargain. Did I miss this one at the time of the arrest? Definitely one of the cuter ones.
• Dirt for flower bed delivery summary: I wasn't there, but it sounds like truck backed up, dumped a ton of dirt onto the driveway that completely buried the tarp, most of the driveway, and some of the lawn. Then the driver drove off while Mrs. LL stood there wide-eyed.
• Uh, that dirt has a very distinctive organic smell and a top soil texture. Oh, my. 
• Dueling stories yesterday: Lady got five years in prison for sex at a Bedford motel with a runaway 16 year old boy while a former youth minister out of Plano received seven years deferred adjudication probation for sexual assault of a 15 year old girl. 
• Alex P. Keaton turns 50 today.
• The Texas Rangers announced that former pitcher Kenny Rogers will enter into its (wheels off) Hall of Fame. Fox 4 cameraman Larry Rodriguez, who was attacked by Rogers on the field before a game in 2005, should cover the ceremony. (He later sued and received an undisclosed settlement amount.)
• Did you see the insane debate on Fox 4 last night between Dallas County Commissioner John Wylie Price and Commissioner Maurine Dickey who is upset by the new precinct lines? She looked drunk because she wouldn't stop her incessant swaying, and Heather Hays has got to learn to control an interview. That was chaos.
• The girl allegedly kidnapped by her father who had been in the Wise County Jail was found safe yesterday. The guy is still on the loose although he has a probation violation warrant out of Wise County for criminal trespass, and he has a felony that's pending (but I don't know the charge.)
• News reports always confuse "parole" (what you are on when released from prison) with "probation" (what you receive to avoid jail or prison.)
• The Texas Rangers drafted a paralyzed college player in the 33rd round of the MLB draft. It was either for publicity or a nice gesture. Or both.
• I don't know who Sylvia Elenburg from Bridgeport is but she's doing well in a golf tournament in San Angelo.

What The Heck Is This At The Decatur Walmart?

Looks like a circus tent for midgets.

(Thanks, Scott.)

Edit: Per a commentor's suggestion . . .  a mock up of the Denver Airport perhaps?

Homer Call Is Pretty Funny

Not over the top funny but worth a grin.  On Monday night, Baylor played Cal for a chance to move onto the next round on the baseball playoffs. It wasn't on TV so I checked in on the web and found the box score with automatic updates. Not the most exciting way to watch a game, by the way. Right before bed, I checked back in and saw it was the 7th inning with  Baylor up 7-3.   Nothing to worry about. Sweet dreams.

The next morning I'm greeted with the box score.

The video is the bottom of the ninth. Two outs. Two strikes. Bases loaded. The student announcer was pretty excited.

I'm Telling You, It's Hard Out Here For A . . . . Lawyer

Illinois lawyer charged with prostitution. Acknowledges it on web site.

This world gets crazier every day.

Oh, My

Teen found dead this morning in Desoto. I checked out his Facebook page. Wow. I mean, wow.

And in case it changes or gets deleted, here's a screenshot.

The kid's dead so let's try to refrain from the racist comments that normally come pouring in. But, I'll admit, I kind of need Barbara Billingsley from Airplane to explain some of that to me.

Roe v. Wade Did Happen, Didn't It?

An email that Rep. Phil King is sending out.  Uh, doesn't Planned Parenthood provide services that have nothing to do with abortion? Aren't those services primarily for the poor?

And who is in that picture? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

(Legal issues here -- looks like Indiana has more Phil Kings than Texas since they did it first.)

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I'm not sure I've ever heard of a capital murder case ending in a "not guilty" when the alleged victim was a cop, but I'm monitoring the Charles Payne.trial going on in Dallas right now. There's something not quite right about it.  
• There is a missing 7 year old girl from Mineral Wells who might have been taken by her father. Local connection: "He was released from the Wise County jail in April, but police said he never reported to his probation officer and hasn’t paid his bondsman or attorney." I can't find out what he was charged with here, and, as an aside, I have no idea how the cops would know how the attorney didn't get paid.
• Edit: Fox 4's Lari Barager tells me that the charge was criminal trespass and the cops talked to the bondsman and attorney to try and locate the defendant.  
• The Ticket ranked big purchases that quickly turn into regret: A boat, a hot tub,and Bowflex were at the top of the list. I'm two out of three.
• NBC just agreed to pay $1.2 billion for the 2016 Olympics and $1.4 billion for the 2020 Olympics. And that's just for the right to broadcast it -- add on the cost to produce the coverage.
• Flower bed project won't die: I'm having a load of dirt delivered today. And by "load", I mean an amount calculated by Mrs. LL.  I'm very interested in what I'll see when I round the corner this evening. 
• A letter to the editor in today's Messenger has a lady complaining that no Texas law prohibits cattle from roaming free on Farm to Market roads in Wise County. I thought that was nuts, but a quick bit of research (pdf) proved her to be correct. That is,  unless the County Commissioners have called for an election ("Stock Election Law") as to whether cattle need to be fenced in. Have they ever?
• Jogging in this heat is a beating.
• Glenn Beck, who even Fox News didn't want, is starting a subscription web show with a minimum of $4.95 a month. That can't possibly work. 
• Saw a guy representing himself in the courthouse yesterday who was pleading guilty to a new offense committed while on probation. Uh, oh. He also couldn't remember the name of his probation officer after six months of reporting.
• I'm pretty sure I saw everyone in the house walk out to go swimming at 9:30 last night. 
• Can we agree on this about Sarah Palin?:  “Sarah Palin mangled Paul Revere. I don’t care if she said she didn’t – she did.” (That was said by noted author and conservative Bernie Goldberg on Bill O'Reilly.)
• There's some talk of charging the "psychic" in the mass-grave-story yesterday (below) with False Report To A Police Officer.  What are the odds that the State could prove she knew her tip was false when she made it? 
• Yes, I know about the Mavs game. 
• Family Cat decided to violently play in the water bowl at 5:00 a.m. 
• Facebook unveiled a "facial recognition" feature yesterday for the tagging of photos. I think I know what that means, but I do know it's "on" by default. I think technology is getting away from me. 

Report: Tipster Tells Police 25 to 30 Bodies In Mass Grave Near Houston

Early reports like this always cause my Skeptical Meter to go off, but you never know. 

Story. (Updated tweets from this guy.)

Edit three hours later: Well, it looks like ol' Liberally Lean smelled this one from a mile away. Before every news outlet goes crazy next time, they might want to check out that the tip came from a "self professed psychic". And did you notice that a judge issued a search warrant based upon his finding of probable cause? That's about par for what's left of the Fourth Amendment. 

One Final Rep. Weiner Reference

How About That of the Day: Gennette Cordova, the 21-year-old journalism student from Seattle who received the tweet that launched Weinergate, was apparently something of a scandal-rod during her days at Shorecrest High School — at least enough to be dubbed “Most Likely to be Involved in a Tabloid Scandal” in a 2007 issue of her school’s newspaper.


Stories.

Something Weird Is Going On

That liberal ABC News/Washington Post poll, which is never accurate when it has results favorable to President Obama, has just released a poll showing the Republicans' favorite Mormon could take the President. Have you people forgotten that Obama killed Osama????!!!!!

And in completely unrelated news, Dallas Baptist University (which started as Decatur Baptist and stayed here until 1965) will host the famously liberal University of California in a Super Regional baseball game because (1) TCU couldn't beat Dallas Baptist last weekend, (2) Baylor gives up four runs to California in the ninth inning last night to completely implode, and (3) California's stadium is under construction so they have to play at Dallas Baptist. I'm not sure the stadium was ever meant to hold a big crowd:

Edit: Something weird is going on. Despite all the news below, now there's late word they'll play it in California at Stanford's stadium. Looks like Dallas Baptist tried to get the game played at the minor league stadium in Grand Prairie but couldn't pull it off.

You Might Want To Designate The Gas Well And Disclose The Royalties

Someone propositioned me this morning. (Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, Sir.)

And are you sure he won't release it? (He means the picture of Weiner). From NBC's The Today Show this morning:

Edit on the following day: Hey, hoss.  Remind me to take you up on your bet next time. I can even prepare the Assignment of the gas well proceeds. That was certainly predictable. I just thought the nutcase would wait more than 24 hours.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• For Rep. Weiner to come out yesterday and fall on the sword can only mean there is about to be a ton of shocking revelations about to hit the media. (Edit: It begins.) But, you know, he's so confident that he might survive this.
• But why in the world would you go on ABC News (and soon to be everywhere) if you're the 26 year old Texas girl who was one of the objects of his attention?  Edit: Impress your friends -- her brother played 25 games with the Texas Rangers in 2008.
• I learned yesterday that the Wise County Sheriff's Office recently used cell phone records to track the location of someone suspected in a theft. It seems like that would be commonplace, but that's the first I've heard of it around here. (I bet 90% of crime does not involve a "whodunit".)
• I got home yesterday to find that it had turned into a locked down prison with three girls (one who is a week long guest) banished to their rooms because of an incident involving yelling, throwing a jump rope, slight injury, and tattling. (At least that's what I learned from the Warden.) The place was so quiet I almost wanted to encourage late afternoon bad behavior. 
• The official University of North Texas sports web site is counting down the 100 greatest moments in football history. They might have considered making the list shorter: Number 97 is a win over Decatur Baptist in 1929.
• The Random Thought girl does some part time work for The Fan radio station. 
• I'm extremely late on this one: former Tarrant County judge John Street died a couple of weeks ago. Despite the accolades, I never remember anyone having a more pro-Plaintiffs slant than him. He once stopped a compelling defense attorney's closing argument right in the middle of it and decided the jury needed a break. (He couldn't get elected after 1984.)
• And another (Austin teacher with the incident in Fort Worth.)
• And another (Georgia teacher who will certainly win the Crossed The Line award.)
• The blood cleanup in the house yesterday was prompted by a guy picking up and carting off my treadmill that had given up the ghost. He somehow cut himself and dripped blood out the house and onto the driveway. But it was a bit jarring to see my open laptop showing a "How to clean blood up from concrete" web site when I got home. 
• Yeah, the liability issue crossed my mind. 
• Folks who have traveled out to West Texas recently tell me that the drought conditions are shocking. And this drought map backs them up. 
• Today's Update says that the LBJ Grassland Fires earlier this year was caused by burning poop. Nothing is ever normal around here. 
• You guys can parse Sarah Palin's Paul Revere story all you want in order to try to make it "technically true", but you can't go back and read her answer without admitting it was like a junior high student trying to bluff her way through a history test.
• Saw the Wise County Murder For Hire lady in court yesterday. She still hasn't be able to post bond. 
• Jon Stewart remarked about how fit Rep. Weiner looked in the photo released yesterday. "I can't believe we're the same age! What kind of Congressional health plan do they have!?"

We've Got An Admission This Afternoon In Weiner-Gate

New Photo Released Today (or what I see when I look in mirror)

Link.

(And Breitbart told Sean Hannity he has an x-rated photo that the Congressman sent but that he "has no intentions of releasing it." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.)

"All in all it's just another [crack] in The Wall"

Gov. Perry, in his official capacity as governor, has invited other governors to a Christian religious event which is he is co-hosting and where on the event's web site he writes, "As a nation, we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles, and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy."

Links here.

Does the action "endorse" a particular religion (which the Supreme Court condemns)? The only way to honestly answer that question is to not factor in his particular religious preference. Would you feel the same if it were a Muslim governor inviting other governors to an Islamic event in order to call upon Allah? What about Buddhist? Jewish? Jehovah's Witness?  

It's The 67th Anniversary Of D-Day

Although many of us envision what happened by thinking of the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, there were some photos taken during the invasion of Normandy. And although you may have heard the story of the photos of Robert Capa, it's still fascinating. From Wikipedia:

His most famous work occurred on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) when he swam ashore with the second assault wave on Omaha Beach. He was armed with two Contax II cameras mounted with 50 mm lenses and several rolls of spare film. Capa took 106 pictures in the first couple of hours of the invasion. However, a staff member at Life in London made a mistake in the darkroom; he set the dryer too high and melted the emulsion in the negatives in three complete rolls and over half of a fourth roll. Only eight frames in total were recovered. Capa never said a word to the London bureau chief about the loss of three and a half rolls of his D-Day landing film  . . . .  Life magazine printed some of the frames in its June 19, 1944 issue with captions that described the footage as "slightly out of focus", explaining that Capa's hands were shaking in the excitement of the moment (something that he denied). Capa used this phrase as the title of his autobiographical account of the war, Slightly Out of Focus.

The Great Moodini. Yep, Moodini, Proves He Needs Some Practice

News Story about the incident in Atlanta over the weekend:



Raw footage:

Mrs. LL's Tweet This Morning Makes Me Have A Couple Of Questions