Another Pulitzer Prize Winning Photo

What are we looking at? I'm not sure other than it was described as a "truck fire on 380 near 7 Wires."  But if that guy lost some tread back on 730, I'd like him to know I ran over it for him.  Fortunately, my sweet ride survived. The Family Unit's cars are under attack!

My Day Just Got Better: Nancy Grace To Be On "Dancing With The Stars"

Break a leg, Nancy. Source.

I Don't Know If Such A Remark Helps Her Or Hurts Her

The exact quote: "I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?'"

I understand offhand remarks but this was a speech by a presidential candidate. So she's either (1) joking or (2) she believes that God intentionally causes natural disasters and that the earthquake and hurricane indicate God is unhappy with Washington. (And we do have a number of deaths due to Irene.)

Messenger Above The Fold From The Weekend

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I didn't do a complete search, but the Skyler Dog was strangely quiet this morning and I didn't see him in his normal place when looking out the back window. I wonder if we've had an escape?
• One of the funnier moments of the over-the-top Irene coverage from the weekend.
• Overheard on the radio: "Why is it called the eastern seaboard?"
• A juror tried to "friend" a female defendant in Tarrant County in a civil lawsuit/car wreck case.  He got in trouble. The defendant's name was Courtney Downing and I'm guessing she's hot, but my Facebook is broke this morning.
• Never thought I'd read an email from a Wise County school official rejecting "Butt Kicking Zombies" as an official slogan for a football team. But I did this weekend.
• I might be wrong, but I think Chico's football win this weekend broke a 26 game losing streak dating back to September 18, 2008. That's before President Obama was elected. 
• There was a wrong way driver on I-35 at 114 over the weekend that killed one and injured ten. I fear the wrong way driver. 
• One of the girls has quit the softball team. I hope it's not because of me.
• I just thought I was joking when I told Mrs. LL that the over/under line on us filing a divorce petition due to the stress of the softball season would be six weeks. Did I mention it's basically her and I running that team?  Edit: We've got a grammar war breaking out in the comments!!!!!
• Of all the "water restrictions" placed on Wise County, this is the most bizarre one: "Hotels, restaurants and bars are asked to serve drinking water only when requested."
• Did you see that a guy fell at the Ballpark in Arlington on Saturday over the railing of those high stairs in the concourse behind home plate? As of this morning, all I could learn was that he was unconscious after the fall, 24 years old, and wasn't identified in the media. 
• I monitor a criminal defense lawyer message board and am constantly stunned by the number of times I see posts like, "I'm starting trial tomorrow and I need to know [insert most basic question ever]." It's like a surgeon asking, "Which one of those sharp knife thingys do I used for ACL surgery? Need a response. Surgery tomorrow at 7:00 a.m." 
• Once student tickets are counted, the Aggies will have sold a record 73,250 season tickets for the season. Baylor goes there in November October and it might be the last time in a long, long time with the Ags expected to announce this week they are joining the SEC. They are just trying to negotiate a payout of $10 to $15 million. 
• More proof LeeAnn Rimes needs a sammich.

Hey, Look What Mrs. LL Did To The Family Gangsta Sedan!!!!

I always knew she'd get in a wreck.  I just never thought she'd be sitting still and absolutely faultless when it happened.

If you got momentarily delayed due to a four car wreck at 377/114 in Roanoke yesterday afternoon, she was part of the problem.

(There's actually a pretty moving story with this, but I'll either let her tell it or get express, written permission before I do.)

Friday Night Lights Of Unbearable Heat

Boyd 26 Godley 62
Instant analysis: Godley? As in Godly? As in God-Like? I think not. No mercy there.

Glen Rose 36 Bridgeport 53
Instant analysis: 89 total points in the first game of the season where the defense is always ahead of the offense. This was 7 on 7, right?

Perrin Whitt 7 Chico 38
Instant analysis: Somebody call 911! Chico has risen from the dead and has gone into butt-kicking Zombie Mode.

Whitesboro 7 Decatur 35
Instant analysis: The changing demographics are not kind to a team named after settlement of Caucasians. They do know we have a black man in the White House, don't they? Time to change.

Northwest 46 Carrollton Creekview 27
Instant analysis: Never cared about Northwest. Not starting now.

Paradise 20 Venus 16
Instant analysis: The Goddess of Love against a Place of Bliss? There should have been some kind of tricked up promotion with the game being played in Godley.

Soon To Be Ex-NBC5 Reporter Kim Fischer Takin' Ya Into The Weekend

That's right. She's leaving.

Dueling Headlines Today Will Make Your Head Spin

Sentencing for something that happened last year . . .

And this is how police describe an incident that happened yesterday . . .

Budget Crisis Solved: Texas Supreme Court Upholds Tax On Nude Dancing

Today the Texas Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion [pdf] of Republican justices who don't want to be labeled as supporters of neekid dancing in the next election, said it's OK for the legislature to single out nude dancing establishments and slap a $5 fee for every customer who comes through the door.

Things I learned by glancing at the opinion: There are 169 of those businesses in Texas, and the first $25 million collected (someone do the math for me on that) is to go to the "sexual assault program fund."

Look at the bright side, at least that'll keep out the riff-raff.

Sanger ISD Teacher Convocation 2011

It's a callback to Hee Haw with a nod to Rick Perry. This video has some potential to get some traction. Performers are Superintendent Kent Crutsinger, deputy superintendent Eric Beam, and assistant superintendent Jackie McBroom. (Thanks, Kevin.)

Lyrics:

Eric
There's bus transportation, school breakfast and lunches,
I asked Mr C, he said "That all is fine"
He says he's quite sure that we can do all this
As long as it don't cost this district a dime!

(chorus)
Where, Rick Perry, are you tonight?
Why did you leave us here all alone?
You promised us funding for all Texas children,
But then you heard "White House" and - psssst - you were gone..

Kent
Wonderful teachers, a wonderful school board
wonderful parents, I can't help but think.
If everything here is really so awesome, then
why do I find so much hair in the sink?

Jackie
First there was TABS and then came the TEAMS test
Up came the TAKS - before that the TAAS
Now EOC - it's all called the STAAR test
Standardized testing's a pain in the ....

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Second softball practice is in the books, and  I'm stressed out of my mind. Doing anything for the first time is challenging. Doing something for the first time in front of an audience is mind numbing. 
• I guess it will be worth it, but when I laid/lain down last night I was thinking, "What do the kids and parents say about me when they get home?" Yeah, I know. Give that up. 
• And my coaching philosophy did a 180 yesterday afternoon when I heard an old audio clip from Jason Garrett who said that the worst coaches he ever had were those who told him he was doing a great job regardless of his performance. Ladies, meet the new boss. 
• And then I ran into the girl who has all sorts of talent but who refused to follow through on her throw out of, I believe, defiance. So then I'm faced with trying to convey the message of "you and I know you're good but you can be better if you'll just listen."  Do you just say that? (12 and 11 year olds.)
• Funniest tweet about the Aggies telling the Big 12 yesterday that it was officially exploring other options: "aTm just changed its Facebook status from 'It's Complicated' to 'Single'."
• Based upon his swing, President Obama is a horrible golfer.
• I had a hearing yesterday where a police officer in Wise County honestly admitted he made a mistake when he could have easily  lied and gotten away with it. It probably jeopardizes the case (a misdemeanor), but his credibility is forever fixed in my mind. If he writes something in a police report in the future, I'll believe it. 
• That lesson needs to be taught in every police academy and at the DPS training in Austin. In the courthouse, an officer is known first and foremost by his reputation for honesty.
• Kinky Friedman endorsed Rick Perry yesterday. Has there ever been a more irrelevant political figure than Kindy Friedman? 
• Danica Patrick announced she would join NASCAR full time next year. Has there ever been a more irrelevant race car driver than Danica Patrick?
• Lake Bridgeport is now 12 feet low.
• I gave a ride to a Hispanic guy yesterday who couldn't speak English who was (oddly) delivering two cars off a big rig in my residential neighborhood and then, after driving one of the cars to its destination, couldn't find his big rig. You can read that sentence five times and you'll  still be as confused as I was as he tried to explain what his his situation was.
• My life is getting weird.
• I did tell Mrs. LL as I backed out of the drive way, "Nice knowing ya." She just looked back at me and said, "Seriously?"
• "Come on Irene, oh I swear (what he means)" .......

Hey, You Guys Were Mentioned In Our Semi-Weekly Paper

Not sure how I missed this. The guy that gave the Child Abuse Recognition Seminar (my label, not his) wrote a response to the negative reaction in the Messenger this week and mentioned the Best Blog Not To Win A Local Award in 2011.  But, sheesh, he did go on. He spent most of the time responding to comments in the blog and even identified them by time of posting. (i.e "anonymous at 4:41 p.m. wrote")  I guess he wrote a blog comment posted in a newspaper as an opinion piece.  This new media makes my head hurt.

I'm pretty much neutral on the whole issue, but I hated it when he used the "if it saves one life argument" at the end.   That never makes sense to me. It would save one life to have all cars built like a NASCAR, for us to be mandated to wear crash helmets, and, in the context of abuse, limiting a parent's contact with their child to times when it was being being remotely monitored by the government on video. All of those would save one life. Guaranteed. But they are all sacrifices that we as a society will not make.

Cremation Talk

I'm minding my own business up at the courthouse this morning and got sucked into a conversation.  One fine employee was talking about how her parents wanted to be cremated. However, I knew for a fact that those parents are over-planners and have already purchased burial plots at a local cemetery. They've even gone so far as to have had their names engraved on the headstone. (That's some serious planning.) So I asked this fine employee why they wanted to be cremated when they already had plots. Her answer: They planned on burying the ashes in the plot.

I said that's crazy. She said I was crazy and that it "happens all the time."

Discuss amongst yourselves. Show your work.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Steve Jobs resignation from Apple can only be seen as an anticipatory obituary for a man who has battled cancer over the last few years. (And I still love the iPhone and long for an iPad or Macbook Air.)
• Don't look now, but the Rangers lead over the Angels has shrunk to 2 1/2 games. (It was at 7 about a week ago.)
• Ok, the first softball practice is under my belt. I stand in front of juries all the time, but I'm not sure I've ever been as nervous as standing in front of all those girls and their parents. 
• "This might be a little tricky" -- My thoughts when a simple "play catch with your partner" drill turned into a war zone of errant softballs. 
• I don't think I've got any problem parents -- at least not yet. (One parent, who seemed really into girls softball, asked me if the league used "designated pitchers." I told him I didn't know when I was really thinking, "What's the heck is a designated pitcher?") 
• Oh, and some of you softball gurus out there, tell me what the "Look Back" rule is.
• How do I know Hannity, Grace and Sheriff Joe are putting on a persona? The same way that I can spot a bad actor in a movie.
• A guy who was stopped for DWI-Third Or More in Decatur and received eight years in prison, had his appeal denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday. (Underlying opinion.)
• Same thing happened in this Bridgeport assault case.
• The Bridgeport pre-parole facitlity, which employs about 60 people, had its contract extended yesterday.
• The Tom-Bishop-Will-He-Be-Forced-To-Drive-A-Pickup Saga won't be answered until Monday at the earliest. All the Commissioners are out of town at some type of legislative training (which might be a little excessive in its own right.)  Edit: Commissioner Harry Lamance is in town 
• The Update has a story of some kid who burglarized a Decatur home and stole, among other things, a Yorkie. The cops probably caught him when he returned the dog after a couple of hours of constant yelping. 
• The media loves to track a hurricane. The process always reminds me of a line from the Simpsons: "Better than the act. Better than the memory. The moment of . . . . anticipation."
• And I keep singing, "Come on, Irene" instead of "Come on, Eileen."

The "War" Continues

More. It was reported they were all from the Metroplex but DeLuna pled on a felony drug charge in Wise County in 2007. I don't know the disposition but it is cause number 12776 if someone wants to look it up.

Says She's Not Buying "It's The Whole Winds' Fault" Theory

This lady was in the crowd when she saw the stage collapse at the Sugarland concert earlier this month in Indianapolis. She wasn't hurt. No one in her family was hurt.  But she wants a big bag o' money because she saw it happen.

She describes the trauma: "There was a person that I saw struggling to breathe, fighting really hard to live," she said. "And then they covered this person up with this itchy, it was some random carpet from the stage. And I kept saying, 'That's going to be itchy,' because I'm a mom. But I didn't realize that the person had died."

Side note: I hope you guys won't sue me for the occasional Random Thought Girl Viewing Trauma.

It's Crazy Day

First I missed this completely from the Update:

And then someone sends me a pic of LeeAnn Rimes tattoo:

And now gold is dropping like I predicted the other day! I'm an investing genius!