I Think About Things And They Happen

No Bomb Can Contain Her

Several people pointed out that after I posted my Random Thoughts about the horrible Bomb-Around-The-Neck incident of 2003 that is to be made into a movie, the news broke of a girl in Australia who, well, had a bomb around her neck in the last 24 hours.

An Australian schoolgirl who spent more than 10 hours with a bomb strapped to her by a hooded intruder who broke into her house was reunited with her parents tonight after a dramatic rescue. 

Police bomb disposal experts, who had sought advice from British military authorities as they delicately worked to free Madeleine Pulver from the explosive package that had been attached to her, finally freed her from her terrifying ordeal - into the arms of her relieved mother and father.

The 18-year-old girl had been startled by the balaclava-clad intruder who left the device attached to her - as well as leaving, it is believed, a ransom note for her wealthy parents.
Her father, William, is the CEO of an internet share dealing company, called Nielsen Net Ratings and is said to be one of the richest men in Australia.

More. (Including a picture of  the fantastic house they live in.)

He Turned It Over To The Police?

Does the guy not go to the movies? There is a ton of adventure to be had once you find a big ol' bag of dope. Just think No Country For Old Men with Josh Brolin or True Romance with Christian Slater? Wait. Both those guys ended up getting shot.

Story.

(Little known story: I actually found a marijuana garden n the woods when I was a kid. I pulled up the plants -- in the spirit of a true crime fighter -- and began walking back to the house. That prompted my brother to take off running while yelling, "You can go to jail for a couple of ounces and you've got a few pounds!!!!"  Funny.  Dad actually took one of the plants into the Bridgeport Police Chief to verify it was pot. It was. Those, my friends, were simpler days.)

Almost Forgot: Wise County Wishes* President Obama A Happy 50th Birthday!

___________

*For some reason, I don't think the wishes will be unanimous. 

When Technologies Collide

Remember "People to People" on the local radio where Jim Bob would call up offering his truck camper with broken windows up for trade with anyone who has a refrigerator even if it wasn't working? Well, it has a Facebook group.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The highest recorded temperature in DFW is 113 degrees. I'm issuing a "might-want-to-watch-that" warning for today.
• Metroplex motorcycle death.
• Did you catch the names of the seven people arrested in Haltom City for alleged illegal gambling/eight liners: Thanh Trang Chau,  Hai Van Nguyen,  Hoang Dung Nguyen, Nia Thi Nguyen,  Tao The Pham,  Vo Van Phu, and Txuy Tran.  It's like the cast of extras from The Deer Hunter.
• We had a case here in Wise County a couple of months back of a woman running over and killing her ex with her car. A famous and similar case in Houston resulted in a manslaughter (reckless killing) conviction instead of murder (intentional killing) conviction.  The same result/verdict happened in Wichita Falls yesterday.
• Edit to above: Come to think about it, the Houston case was actually a guilty verdict on murder but the jury found she acted with "sudden passion" which dropped the range of punishment to the same as Manslaughter. 
• My first wave of electric and water bills has come in. Oh, my. 
• I really haven't gotten a handle on the Deficit Ceiling Deal other than I know the Tea Party is royally angry.  
• I don't understand the "electric grid" everyone talks about. 
• Wow: Texas is actually shutting down a prison - one that held 900 inmates only a few months ago - due to budget cuts. I don't think Gov. Perry will be bragging about that in his speeches.
• Something I'm about to start getting really interested in: The true story of the man who was shockingly blown up by a bomb attached to neck while cameras rolled in 2003.  After robbing a bank with the threat of that bomb, he claimed to onlookers (as the bomb squad was in route) that he had done so against his will. The bomb squad didn't make it in time. Then the much delayed investigation revealed a bizarre and fascinating story which was featured in Wired magazine this year. Now, it gets weirder as the story has been made into a big budget comedy (yep, comedy) called 30 Minutes or Less. 
• A seedy tape involving UNT students was being circulated online yesterday but the oddest thing is that the student newspaper acknowledged it.  

Today's Messenger Above The Fold

Opening Up The Liberally Lean Weather Center For Rest Of The Afternoon

Should update automatically.  We cracked 100 degrees at 10:32 a.m. Wow.

Edit: Screenshot of various weather stations at 5:31 p.m. :

Rick Perry: The Golden Age

Credit: Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy's Facebook page.

Cowboys' Coach: Rookies Must "Earn" The Star

You heard him. If you're a first year Dallas Cowboy, your helmet in practice will not have a star on it until you show you're worthy enough to have one. That's right. Only those like Bobby Carpenter, Roy Williams, Ebenezer Ekuban, Shante Carter, Quincy Carter, and David LaFleur deserved to have the iconic emblem on the side of their noggins. Shape up, men.

(What's the record? One playoff win in 15 years?)

Oh. One other thing. Every player will have stars on their helmet for the first preseason game on August 11th.

I like Jason Garrett but this is stuff that should only go on in places like Paradise or Boyd. (Edit: That's not a shot at those schools. It's is a high school motivation tactic. Just no place for it in a league where $10,000 fines are paid in "straight cash, homey.")

Downtown Decatur With Dirt Streets. Circa ????

Someone pointed out that they believe that's the back end of a horse within the red circle.

Random Rant

As a prelude to the Hurricane Harbor post, I wanted to at least share this. As I pulled into my very expensive parking spot ($12 general parking), I looked over and saw the above trash under the truck next to me. (I tried to tweak with the photo's contrast to show it better.)  The best I could tell was that someone had a pretty good fast food meal and then dumped all the trash on the ground. They then made the effort to kick it a bit under the truck.

Nice.

I feel pretty good about making assumptions about the person or person(s) responsible. The most basic one being: You don't care much about anything, do you?  I understand eating fast food before going into the park (maybe not in 100 degree heat, but I do understand) because I don't really want to pay the inflated prices inside either.  But it came in a bag. Once you're through, there's a readily available bag for you to put the trash in. I mean the absolute best place to put the remnants of your Bahama Burger is in that bag.  From there, you just have to carry it a few yards to a trash bin.

This isn't a Going Green post. It's an Anti-Slob post.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• The Aggies have set a school record for season tickets sold for the upcoming season. I would predict big things for the Ags this year but I don't want to put a curse on them before the first game. 
• The lady who was struck and killed by the train in Alvord over the weekend had the same name, was the same age, and lived in the same city as this lady. (Facebook link)
• The entire Family Unit tends to sleep with various lights on but the Guest In The House, like a normal person, likes total darkness. The house has been unusually dark when I've awakened the last two mornings. I think she gets up in the middle of the night and walks around turning off lights.
• A coach for Prestonwood Christian Academy in Dallas (the private school associated with Prestonwood Baptist) collapsed and died on the field yesterday.  I heard on the radio that one of his sons was a player who was on the field at the time. 
• Even if you're the toughest Old School kind of coach, aren't you scared to death for your players in this heat?
• Got a report last night about a DWI, a golf cart, Runaway Bay, and Highway 380. Haven't confirmed anything yet. (No names in the comments please.)
• I went through the horrible where-are-my-car-keys experience this morning. Twenty minutes of searching later, I found them behind my alarm clock. That's a location for them that I never use.
• It's kind of crazy that I mentioned Gabby Giffords yesterday not being on the House floor for the Debt Ceiling Vote only for to her to be there for the first time since her shooting. And I hate to be a killjoy, but is anyone else skeptical about her showing up for a Feel Good Moment when the public's disdain for Congress was at the boiling point?
• And Ann Compton was back on WBAP this morning and Hal Jay triumphantly pointed out that three Democrats weren't present to vote yesterday. (Obviously stinging from yesterday's slap down.) Why is he obsessed with that? 
• Out Guest In The House, who I think is 12 or 13, announced last night that she thinks there should be a Flat Tax. I asked her if her dad watches a lot of Fox News. "Yeah," she said. "He hogs the TV a lot." Thought so.
• When I went to bed last night, Mrs. LL was belting out "Tell me what you want, what you really really want!"  on Guitar Hero in the game room.
• Never thought I'd be interested in Rihanna being in Barbados for Kadooment Day. But I am.
• Lower lake levels lead to the discovery of (probably) a piece of the Space Shuttle that disintegrated over Texas in 2003. 
• Lake Bridgeport is closing in on 10 feet low and dropping. If the lake went completely dry, I wonder what would be found?
• Alert: I went to Hurricane Harbor. A Pulitzer Prize potential blog post is forthcoming. 
• I intend to steal a lot from it, but someone has started a "Remember In Decatur When . . . " Facebook group which seems really active. 

Forgot: Last Sunday's Messenger Above The Fold

Lead story is about solar panels at Bridgeport High School.

Random Images

 Think that's a little false advertising?

The "hot dog girl" from Rangers Dollar Hot Dog commercial.

Decatur temperature at 1:11 p.m. 

Wise County Tea Party Going To Houston For Day Of Prayer

(1) And although Perry probably believes that quote, I don't think he said it. It's just part of the promotional material for the event.

(2) There may be plenty of room. There are reports of only 8,000 registered for the 71,000 seat Reliant Stadium.

(3) I had the leader of the Bridgeport Tea Party yell at me from his car the other day that "The Tea Party is an all inclusive organization!"  I think he meant ethnically, not politically.

I Can't Stand ESPN's "X Games"

But I didn't know they had a sport called Chick Motocross By Chicks That Can't Ride Bikes.

Does This Look Like A Man Who . . .

. . . would file a Class C "unwanted touching" assault complaint against a woman who touched him to complain about the light coming from his cell phone while he was texting in a Grapevine movie theater? He said he suffered a "little whiplash."

(Technically, he said the contact caused him "pain" which is all that is needed for the cops to file Class A misdemeanor charges. For some reason, they decided to go with Class C assault -- the equivalent of a traffic ticket.)

Edit: For the person who sent me "historical" information, it sure sounds authentic. But there's no way I can post it without verification.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• There was a chase early this morning around Alvord that ended with cops using spikes and the subject tased. Any updates?
• The Star-Telegram had a couple of stories yesterday reminiscing about the Cullen Davis murder trials many, many years ago. One thing that got my attention was the note that Racehorse Haynes cross-examined Priscilla Davis for thirteen days. That tells me one thing: The judge didn't know what he was doing or the prosecution never heard of a relevancy objection. I can't imagine that happening in Texas today.
• There was a story yesterday of four kids being left in a car for two hours in Dallas while their parents went to donate blood.  My guess: The parents, both in their early 20s, were giving blood for the money.
• We've got another week long teenage guest in the house who I'd never heard of before last week. You think that would drive me nuts, but it's really not that bad. (And the fact she stuck out her hand yesterday and said, "Very nice to meet you" either means we've got a respectful kid in the house or Eddie Haskell.)
• Because Mrs. LL had to make a long journey to pick the kid up, I was responsible for taking the Family Pup to the vet yesterday due to lingering issues. I don't think I've ever done that before, and that temperature taking kind of caught me off guard.
• Oh, and that long trip was sidelined when she tried to take the kids to the roof of a hotel in Rockwall only to find the stairwell door locked and blood on the floor. That sentence is confusing to you as it is to me. She'll probably now be a suspect in some murder.
• Maybe we're not a social melting pot: A guy was killed in an Arlington club early Sunday morning. The club was named Saigon Night. His name was Austin Nguyen.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm has become funnier. Entourage's season premiere made me glad the show was coming to an end.
• Radio topic this morning that I agreed with: I can't stand the "violent lane changer."
• The Kings of Leon stopped their show in Dallas this weekend right in the middle of it due to the heat, health, and/or intoxication. But, sheesh, the youtube clips of the event only prove that the lead singer is an over-cusser.
• I wonder how the bicyclist, Paul Edwards, who was hit by a car last week near Runaway Bay is doing?
• A compromise was allegedly reached yesterday in the Debt Ceiling Controversy and everyone I hear talk about it call it "complicated." Translated: Same old, same old.
• Awkward moment on WBAP when ABC's Ann Compton was on to talk about today's congressional vote on the Debt Ceiling deal. Hal Jay asked in a cynical voice: "Tell me, will all the members of Congress be there to vote?" Compton "Well . . . Congresswoman Gabby Giffords won't be there." 
• We are now 30 days into the 100 degree streak with the record sitting there at 42. We're going see that streak broken assuming we survive this week's 105 degrees every day forecast. Beating. 
• Yankee fan tries to catch near home run foul ball with his face. 
• High school football two-a-days have started for some schools. Prepare to get pummeled with news stories showing players drinking lots of water, coaches talking about how concerned they are about the heat, and "experts" talking about the way it used to be. 
• The Bridgeport City Pool will celebrate it's 45th birthday this week. That is, assuming they can get the "mechanical problem" fixed that caused it to shut down last week.