Hot Political Topic: Tax The Rich

The Far Right Wing response is always: They make that much because they are worth it. Well allow me to retort with a brief article on how much money Hewlett-Packard has paid its top people when the leave (both by choice and when fired.)

One guy has to screw it up for everyone

Dallas_Observer (@Dallas_Observer) 9/22/11 1:38 PM TX cancels death row last meal tradition after Lawrence Brewer's pre-execution requests. http://t.co/ZsLjvyDN (via @HoustonPress)

Barry (from iPhone)

I've Got Me Another Pep Talk To Use

First I had the "You gonna lay down and bleed a little" video and then the "we need more dogs" speech. Now I've got the "hit 'em in the face as hard as you can" pep talk.  (And I promise you, my softball girls wouldn't whine like a bunch of ... uh .... girls if I told them to do that.)

Exclusive Rain Photo Stolen From Messenger's Facebook Page

The rain was so hard and so fast moments ago that it caught the Liberally Lean Fore-Warn Storm Tracker Weather Center off guard.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• What a beating for people in the Mesquite area this morning. Not only do you have to live in and around Mesquite, but LBJ freeway was shut down due to an 18 wheeler full of chicken parts overturning. 
• Final meal of the guy executed in Texas last night: Two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions; a triple meat bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapenos; a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas with fixings; a meat lovers pizza; three root beers; one pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream; and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
• Does an execution date and time cause you to work up an appetite?
• A side note for those not facing execution: Any food "smothered" in something is probably not a healthy choice.
• OK, Mrs. LL had me watch the premiere of Modern Family last night (on about a two hour delay.) That show is very funny.
• One place which I'd love to be this weekend: At College Station watching the #8 Aggies play #6 Oklahoma State.
• Our little Yorkie has decided for the last two nights that she wants to go outside at two in the morning. Did you know it's really peaceful outside at two in the morning even when you want to kill a Yorkie?
• Odds of the following web ad being misleading or blatantly untrue?
• 
• Florence Henderson of The Brady Bunch is out pimping a new book and every interviewer wants to talk about that old sitcom that went off the air in 1974. That's the price she has to pay and, sadly, she's more than willing to do it.
• R.E.M. has announced they are breaking up after I've been waiting since 1988 for them to have an album as good as Eponymous.  (And my quick research after typing that sentence caused me to learn for the first time that it was a greatest hits album. I had no idea.)
• Even little things will get you in trouble. Dallas cop sitting on hood of his patrol car as a gal who had left "Beamers" nightclub in Dallas sat behind the wheel. (Story with pic.)
• Lake Bridgeport is down 13.5 feet -- and that's with a brief week of stability due to the rain. 
• Bridgeport/TCU alum Colin Jones and sixth round pick of the San Francisco 49ers was waived last week but ended up back on the team's practice squad. 

While You Eat Dinner, Supreme Court Decides If A Man Will Die Tonight

One of these days, America will look back and shake its collective head.

Edit at 10:28: Don't worry, America. He's dead.

Two quotes to make you think tonight:

"No matter how many ways you explain it, I'll never understand how someone can be pro-choice and anti-death penalty."

"No matter how many ways you explain it, I'll never understand how someone can be anti-abortion and pro-death penalty."

Hang On, Jeremy! I'm Coming To Help!

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 21 (UPI) – Police in Missouri said they arrested a man accused of threatening a Taco Bell employee with a shotgun because he did not receive hot sauce with his meal. Kansas City police said Jeremy Combs, 30, went through the Taco Bell drive-through Saturday and returned with his shotgun after discovering there were no packets of hot sauce in his bag, The Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported Tuesday. Police said Combs told them the item he had been holding was a tire iron, but officers discovered a 12-gauge shotgun under his mattress. Combs was charged with being a felon illegally in possession of a firearm.


Hey, I'm pretty much a pacifist and don't condone violence, but I'm on Jeremy's side on this one. Wasn't it just a couple of months ago when I wrote about receiving just one packet of hot sauce in my to go order from Taco Bell in Decatur? I almost went all Michael Douglas in Falling Down on them right then and there. If I had received no packets (like the true victim in this case, Jeremy), I would have raided Jarhead's probable arsenal of illegal assault weapons and taken all the hot, mild, fire-roasted (new!), and Verde sauce I could carry.

You've got to have hot sauce with Mexican food. No excuses. It's a Universal Truth.  And if you work in the Mexican food industry, you have to know that rule as well as the consequences for violating it. 

Case dismissed. Next case.

(I'm not sure that all that violence in Mexico isn't more hot sauce related than drug related, anyway. Just a theory.)

President Obama At U.N. Today With World Leaders

A little miss-timed wave but no news organization would make a big deal out of it. Well, there's one.

Rick Perry's New Ad

I'm just stunned it didn't start with a deep voice over of "One Man . . . " and didn't end with screenshots of "Coming To A Theater Near You" and "This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated."

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• In case you missed it, late last night the Pac-12 told Texas, OU, Tech, and Okie State, "You guys are all nuts, and we don't want any of you."  The Big 12 is now the most dysfunctional family in the history of college football. From here, they will all sit down at the dinner table as the sound of forks  hitting the plates is the only distraction from the awkward silence. What a mess.
• I'm not sure what has happened when you click on the Random Girl. It will still enlarge, it just takes an extra step. 
• I've not seen one new TV show debuting this week. I doubt that will change over the next month.
• Conversation last night with the Third Grader In The House: "Guess what I had for lunch! No, wait. There are five things we get to choose from at school so pick which number." After five minutes of trying to explain that if I knew what choices were associated with the numbers, I would have a better chance of guessing correctly, I just gave up and said "four". She was very excited I was wrong.
• If I had seen a drug cartel dump 35 bodies on a street in Mexico this week to "send a message", I would have definitely gotten the message.
• I've never heard of Deadmau5, but when he played in Dallas last weekend the attendees looked like a Jimmy Buffet crowd 30 years younger who couldn't find all of their outfits.
• There's a satellite falling to earth. The chances of it hitting any human are 3,200 to 1. The chances of it hitting you are 22,400,000,000,000 to 1. I wonder if you can actually bet on that somewhere?
• The Softball Team is now 2-2 after going into the last inning last night with a three run lead and blowing it. I'm done with them. 
• Kidding. 
• Anyone else notice how many times the "escort car" in front of a huge truck going down the highway is sometimes a full half mile or so in front of the "wide load" vehicle it is escorting? Hey, buddy. Pay attention. 
• I bet the new Weatherford College campus in Wise County will be a huge success. 
• The dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper in 1998 is the first thing I think about when I hear the town's name. Tonight, one of the guys convicted in that killing is set to be executed. (Although the Supreme Court sure has been granting a lot of automatic stays lately.)
• A famous murder trial in north Texas that no one remembers: The State of Texas v. Candance Montgomery. But, considering it is over thirty years ago, I guess it is to be expected. (If you can grab a book on it or even find the old TV movie -- where Mr. Peppermint played the judge -- do it.)
• Whatever happened to that indoor skiing facility planned for Grapevine? And wasn't there one mentioned for an area around Alliance Airport?
• Remember when you would never see an ad on the front page of a newspaper?

Messenger Above The Fold

How Mrs. LL and I Decided To Get Married

Two Moments From Monday Night Football Even If You Aren't A Sports Fan

Giants fake injury to stop a hurry up offense:



Touchdown violence:

Best Buy Flyer From 1996

Bagofnothing.com linked to the ad today. The above section got my attention the most.

Fox 4 Malfunctions Last Night At Beginning of Show

Sorry for the audio quality. (And I'm not showing that the first 30 seconds of the broadcast which was just an odd "test screen" with a timer.)

Think Steve Eager is pleased?:


Very funny wave from Mike Doocy:

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Youtube video of the "Wise County Task Force" watching a DC-10 drop water on the Montague County fire that happened last week. It's pretty amazing, but is that water drop really that effective?
• I saw where Texas state Sen. Florence Shapiro won't be running for re-election. She may have done more damage to the "justice" part of "criminal justice" than anyone else in Texas due to her support of Draconian laws. Good riddance.
• And Sen. Jane Nelson needs to go next.
• I'm ready to concede that I was wrong about my prediction of the Rangers not making the playoffs. I was close, but they consistently played barley above .500 for the last three months and that's all it took. 
• I'm not sure what to do about running drills for the Softball Team when one girl clearly isn't in good enough shape to keep up with the rest of the team. 
• "Coach, you looked like you almost skipped getting the ball right then," - comment by one of my players at practice which I knew a handful of you would get a big kick out of. 
• A man jumped to his death yesterday off of a Rosedale Street bridge in Fort Worth. His name was so unusual that I googled it, and a Fort Worth man with the same name owns/owned what seemed like a pretty big business. I don't know if it is the same guy. 
• I guess suicides are newsworthy if they occur in public? Never have understood the double standard.
• I said yesterday I thought the Decatur Eagles would be in the AP Top Ten. Boy, was I wrong. The new poll released later in the day revealed they still haven't even received a single vote. 
• I'll post it in a bit, but Fox 4 News' was Wheels Off during the first five minutes of last night's broadcast. The camera stayed on Mike Doocy for a good 15 seconds after a lead report (he just waved to the camera while having "Failed Smile"), and the camera cut to Steve Eager at one point who said, paraphrasing, "The camera is on me for some reason and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be saying."
• Facebook page of the Bridgeport guy injured in the wreck with a fire truck yesterday (as referenced in the Update.)
• Ennis High Shocker: 80 students and faculty tested positive for tuberculosis after being exposed to a teacher who had the disease.   I don't think we know yet whether the teacher actually knew that she had the disease or not, but I hope this was an innocent mistake.  And, as a side note, I guess we just sit back and watch if any of those 80 don't have medical insurance.
• WBAP's Hal Jay this morning said he was "confused" by reports that x number of people don't have health insurance in the state because "if they show up to John Peter Smith they'll be taken care of so how can they say they don't have insurance?" Good grief.
• Half of Wise County becoming part of a new Congressional District? Not so fast. The Justice Department officially says the whole new map "ain't fair".  A three judge panel now must make a decision in the first step of "pre-clearance" under the Voting Rights Act. (I don't think they had any trouble with Wise County in particular but it was an all or nothing endorsement.)
• Did I hear talk show host Mark Davis refer to Chaz Bono (currently on Dancing With The Stars) as "that thing" at around 8:24 this morning? Surely not. 
• Tony Romo practiced with a "punctured lung"? Instead of considering him courageous, I'm more inclined to believe that term means something different than what we think it means. 
• They love crime news in Texarkana . . . 

Afternoon Pick Me Up: Britney And A Firearm

Watch This One

Jury deliberated Friday, didn't reach a verdict, and is back at it again today. A guilty verdict carries with it an automatic life sentence since the death penalty has been waived. I've got a strange vibe about it.  Story.

Edit/Update: Mistrial declared on Tuesday after jurors could not reach a verdict.