Big Government Part 2: It's Your Money

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Side Note: Anyone can call me anything they want for $375,000.

Courtney Stodden Looks Different

Big Government And The Fourth Amendment

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Get ready! They comin' for your blood!

It has been constitutional law for years that police can always search without a warrant if they have probable cause and "exigent circumstances."  So if the police had probable cause to arrest you for DWI and your blood alcohol level is being subjected to your metabolism by the minute, why do they need to get a warrant for your blood in order to save the blood/alcohol reading?

The Supreme Court will decide if that is the law next Spring.

(For what it's worth, even if the Supreme Court sides with the vampires, the Texas Legislature would probably have to rewrite some Texas statutes to fit within the parameters of the Supreme Court ruling. The DAs have been talking about this for years.)

The Texas DPS labs already analyze over 1,600 blood vials a year, and they are taking measures to try and keep up.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• The Springtown "spanking case" is borderline nuts as the school board changed the policy last night to allow men to paddle female students. Prediction: That gets changed within the week once they hear the outcry. 
• And we've seen some Springtown mommas ham it up for the news cameras, but where are the daddies?
• I had no idea that corporeal punishment was still dished out in school. But its even more incredible because these kids are teenagers.
• That was one exasperated dad on Fox 4 last night who was sitting in front of 31 months of tollway bills for his son. None of them were past due, they just all arrived at the same time.
• Another sexual assault on the SMU campus but this time it's between two males. 
• The end of the Green Bay / Seattle game last night may be the nail in the coffin for the replacement referees based upon the final play. (If you haven't seen it, track it down.) And Clay Matthews was so angry that he purportedly posted Roger Goodell's phone number (if that is a private one, he's in big trouble.)
• The Musers this morning said that the call wasn't "obviously wrong." They took a beating on that one. 
• But I knew it was a big deal when Mrs. LL's first words to me this morning was, "What happened in that game last night?" 
• Someone nicknamed the catch this morning as, "The Inaccurate Reception." 
• Want to see a wreck where a guy goes through a windshield and lands on his feet? Sure you do. 
• Speaking of wrecks, something happened on 287 south of Rhome this morning causing an 18 wheeler to end up in the opposite bar ditch and prompting the dispatch of a couple of ambulances. It's right there at CR 4838 where everyone makes mad dashes across 287.
• 
• Mrs. LL and both got new car registration stickers. This morning, I discovered mine is on hers and hers is missing. She has a project now. 
• One of my taillights burned out. When you can replace it without having to get out a single tool, that's smart engineering. 

TCU Showgirls Always Have Those Boots?

Radio News

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They Look A Little Nicer . . .

. . . than those at the Fort Worth Zoo who just stare at you like they want to kill you.

Edit: And I get this in my inbox shortly after I posted this. Coincidence?

Draft Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Former Facts of Life star Blair (and metroplex resident) is taking part in Survivor. But it was disheartening to hear that she and her husband have divorced after 24 years. 
• The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case concerning what you can recover if someone negligently kills your pet: The fair market value (which has always been the law) or the fair market value + the value of the loss of companionship (which the Fort Worth court of appeals ruled a few months back).
• Football point: I continue to believe there is no "neutral zone". You either line up offsides or you do not.
• Man, it was a bad week for Romney when he had to release his  income tax return to try and deflect from his 47% distraction.
• I never saw this story of a Texas lawyer who got fired because of a series of profane emails. It made the "Best Of' edition of the Dallas Observer.
• Whatever happened to Greg Kinnear?
• There's a show on PBS called The Daytripper which features a guy going to different Texas towns. This week he returned to Bastrop after the devasting fire last year.  Man, it made me sick. 
• More Americans now die of suicide than car crashes. And they believe suicides are probably under-reported.
• I mentioned a Tulane football player, Devon Walker, a couple of weeks ago who was the subject of an erroneous report that he received a tracheotomy on the field.  I heard over the weekend that he is still not breathing on his own.  There is a deep concern growing inside me about sacrificing young people for football.
• Greatest headline ever.
• Fox 4's Lauren Pryzbel is engaged. 
• The most gay Aggie football picture in the history of ever that doesn't involve Yell Leaders. Oh, my. (Thanks, emailer.)
• Not many details about a crime that left a lady in a ditch on the Wise-Tarrant-Denton county border
• Ann Coulter, who was on This Week, looks like she does meth. And I'm serious.

This Is The Guy . . .

. . . who fell out of a pickup last night near Alvord. (Facebook.)

Friday Night Lights

Alvord (1-3) 0
Bowie (4-0) 55

Boyd (2-2) 27
Sanger (0-4) 25

Bridgeport (2-2) 48
Burkburnett (0-4) 31

TLCA (3-1) 6
Chico (2-1) 43

Decatur (2-2)        49
WF Hirschi (0-4) 9

Paradise (0-4)  7
Krum (4-0)  54

The Messenger screwed up the Paradise score. Screenshot:

Messenger Above The Fold

Britney Taking You Into The Weekend

"Hey, Brit, you know you'll always be the number one Liberally Lean girl"

"But I think Wordkyle may have a crush on you"

"And Rage, too"

Romney Releases 2011 Tax Returns

Serious question: Did he have a job in 2011?

I Found A Clint Eastwood Fan

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The "Oh. Seriously. So Gross." commercial makes me laugh every time.
• Texas high school football is turning into a video game: A kid from Marble Falls passed for 715 yards last night. I remember a time when there wouldn't be 715 yards in passing for a whole season.
• I'm an iPhone fan but I do not understand the fuss about the iPhone 5. (Here's a pic of the guy who was first in line in Fort Worth. He seems well rounded.)
• There's a Brandi's Country Kitchen in Bridgeport?
• Since Casa Torres in Decatur has reopened after the expansion, what's the verdict?
• Rick Perry said this week that the "separation of church and state" is a "myth." I'm speechless.
• Funny Fox 4 screenshot from this morning. (Facebook.)
• Cowboys Stadium will have a new addition of the home opener on Sunday: The five Super Bowl Champion banners. (Pic.) It was originally planned that they would be on display in an adjacent Cowboys Museum, but that didn't pan out. 
• This week an Iranian soccer player found a grenade on the soccer field, tossed it aside, and it exploded. Video. That's not a "grenade" as we commonly know one is it? I would think those guys by the explosion would have been brutalized by flying shrapnel. 
• Broke Vince Young once spent $6,000 at a T.G.I.F. restaurant, and bought about 120 seats on a Southwest Nashville to Houston flight so he could have the plane to himself. That's a good start on blowing $30 million. 
• I had another DWI set for trial yesterday but it settled at the last moment. A buddy later told me he was called to be on the jury panel and he intended to pelt me with Ticket shtick. 
• All the right wingers are going nutty over the Obama campaign's "Obama American Flag".  I think it's kind of cool. 
• Decatur teachers are getting 100 Macbook Airs. I make post like this all the time, and no one really seems to object to the subject.
• Chico is playing the Texas Leadership Charter Academy tonight. That's a three year old charter school out of San Angelo. I'll admit that I don't really understand the concept of a "charter school."
• "Moody's upgrades to Baa2 from Ba1 the rating of the City of Bridgeport's (TX) General Obligation Limited Tax debt." I don't really understand that either. 

Does This Look Like A Group Of Guys At A Pep Rally . . .

. . . dressed up as cheerleaders with one of them holding a fake baby because their rival school had a cheerleader who gave birth and couldn't try out for this year's squad? Why yes it does.

I'd hate to be the principal at that school. Every time I would try to chew them out, I think I'd crack a smile.

"Waiting For Tony Romo"

Some reporter just tweeted this pic as the press waits for Romo to appear at Valley Ranch.

What a beating. All those guys trying to get a sound bite from Romo for TV or radio.  And you know, he'll say nothing. Absolutely nothing. But there is a 100% chance that he'll say, "We just have to work hard and get better." Bank on it.

But the picture does remind me of a story I heard on The Fan last year about the insufferable Terrance Newman. He walked up in a similar situation and said he would only talk to one reporter who they had to select. Once that reporter was chosen, Newman intentionally began quickly pacing back and forth in the locker room thereby forcing the reporter to try and keep up while holding the recording device.  

The life of a sports reporter doesn't seem to glamorous sometimes.

First Photo From Upcoming Scary Movie 5

That's funny. (Source.)