Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• I had to leave the house early this morning, but there were some incredible images being broadcast of the damage in Cleburne and Granbury. Example. Example.
• I wonder if Jarhead is OK? (Although it occurs to me he's been absent for so long that many won't know who he is.)
• Apparently the worst area hit was Rancho Brazos Estates in Granbury. Reports say that area was the site of many homes built by Habitat for Humanity.
• I hope no one was injured because of apathy created by the constant "crying wolf" in the past by local weatherman.
• The radar technology these days is really good, but can they really definitively say, "There's a tornado!" when they see the hook?
• Saw a report where some Wise Countians have been without power for 12 hours. 
• And is there anything more spare than when they cut to the webcam in a vehicle driving down a roadway?
• Have you seen the relatively new "storm chaser" vehicles used by, uh, storm chasers.
• Sure were lots of quick-on-the-trigger Twitter and Facebook posts from roof repair companies as the storms were ongoing. 
• One station had a "Hail Projection" graphic which had a color designation for "Bowling Ball" size hail. Really. Why stop there?
• AG Eric Holder has his faults but I love the way he smacks down goofballs like Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert as he did yesterday. (But what in the heck did Gohmert mean when he said that Holder was attacking his integrity and “casting aspersions on my asparagus.” 3:55 in the second video in the previous link.)
• Regarding the current pseudo-scandals of the President, Mark Davis is right when he warns his Right Wing Brethren to not oversell their attacks or it will come across as partisan and, thus, be ineffective.  They probably won't listen. 
• They are replacing the turf at Cowboys Stadium already. Decatur and Bridgeport: Place your bids. 

Pete Saving Us All!

Love the marks on the floor to keep him within camera range.

Tweet from Amy Castaneda (@amycast)

	Amy Castaneda (@amycast)
5/15/13, 8:34 PM @NBCDFW Huge hail in Granbury pic.twitter.com/ISet8ZQ3JU

Download the official Twitter app here

Wow

	Jeff Jamison (@CBS11JeffJam)
5/15/13, 6:42 PM Golf balls to softballs RT @severestudios: Holy HAIL, Batman! RT @CoopWay: Mineral Wells, TX pic.twitter.com/E8KyX7o1XL

The most trusted name in weather in Wise County announces a tornado warning until 8:15

High Tone Cat Fight

Former UT Cheerleader Nicole Jacobs (far left) DOMINATED Girl Fight at Steeplechase 2013! #TripByTrip #risetothetop twitter.com/ErikAinge3/sta…
— Erik Ainge (@ErikAinge3) May 15, 2013

I saw this video yesterday of a fight breaking out at some Steeplechase event in Tennessee.  High tone chicks acting all hood rat. Can't take 'em anywhere.  But the guy above has identified at least one of them.

And here is a site that gives a frame via frame breakdown and with bonus video coverage.

Edit: We've got an update as the "girl in pink" as called into a blog to give her version of the story.

I've Been Working On This Graphic For Hours In My Lab

Star-Telegram Story On The Upcoming Water-geddon

Story.

That's A Heck Of An Endorsement

Web site.

I was going to title this "I'm Calling This Election For Pierre!" but then I noticed the election was yesterday. So I went and found the results:

Been Monitoring These Lately

Ever since Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent was charged with Intoxication Manslaughter in the death of his friend who was a passenger, I've been looking for news reports of similar situations. Things can get weird when a victim's family urges a DA's office for leniency.

I've got a new one: This girl out of Austin pled guilty to "intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the death of 22-year-old Christopher Johnson Peart, who was thrown out of the car she was driving in a wrong-way wreck". In exchange for the plea, she received two ten year probated sentences stacked on top of one another and 120 days in the county jail as a condition of the probation. (The 120 days is mandatory by law if she receives probation.)

I think there is a double jeopardy issue of being charged both with intoxication manslaughter and aggravated assault, but it might be a situation where the defense lawyer didn't complain so long as he could keep her out of prison.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Headline in the Dallas Morning News today: "Scandal removed from Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson’s Wikipedia page." Seriously? Does anyone over there know how Wikipedia works? Anyone can change it in thirty seconds. 
• Channel 8 had a brief story last night that the police had "recommended" that the Bridgeport substitute teacher (who played overly aggressive dodge ball with a kid's head) be prosecuted. That's really the wrong word. That just means they turned the case over to the prosecutor for a determination -- something that was guaranteed to happen from the beginning. 
• An unusually ill-prepared Fox 4 Steve Eager interviewed some MADD mouthpiece last night about the possibility of a change from .08 to .05 in DWI cases.  At one point Eager said that "10,000" people a day die in the U.S. from alcohol related incidents. That was an error of biblical proportions. But, of course, the MADD representative let that information go through uncorrected.
• I set off an ear splitting office alarm this morning as I scrambled to put in a four digit code. That'll wake a guy up. 
• How has White House Press Secretary Jay Carney kept his job? That man is awful on his best of days. 
• The Update today leads with the Murder-On-Mother's-Day story like this is the first we've heard of it. (By the way, the guy in the second story has a neck tattoo that reads, "Rednexican.")
• Maybe the only thing I find interesting about the NBA playoffs: "In his last 8 games, Jason Kidd has no points on 0-16 field goal shooting and 0-10 in three point shooting."
• Mrs. LL asked last night whether that "gene screening test" that Angelina Jolie had was available to everyone and how much it cost. Good question. 
• Pretty interesting blog post about the day reporter Scott Pelley came to Bridgeport in the early 1980s.
• I always heard the name Billie Sol Estes growing up as a kid, but I really had no idea who he was. He died yesterday. 
• I bet there's a heck of a lot more to the story than what is being reported about the Irving teen who was accused of "human trafficking" yesterday. 
• The current political "scandals" sure has pulled Right Wing Talk Radio/TV out of its collective depression. I haven't seen them this happy in almost ten years.
• Did you see the video of the Dallas jailer slamming a handcuffed girl to the floor causing "shattered and broken teeth" because she wouldn't stay on a line (and might have gotten mouthy?)  After a while other jailers gathered in the background and you can just tell they have that "that wasn't good" look. 

Above The Fold

We Could See Lots Of This Over The Next Few Months

Grass Fire (Wise Co. - Boyd) 105 CR4791 - Boyd FD responding to a reported grass fire with lots of smoke visible... fb.me/UR9qV9dY
— DFW Scanner (@DFWscanner) May 14, 2013

Good Grief

Link.

But I'm not sure if that "recommendation" has much weight.  Basically every state has a .08 threshold right now because in the 1990s the federal government told the states that if it didn't use that standard then federal highway funds would be withheld. (See how that works? They couldn't make a federal law of .08 that could be imposed on the states so they just blackmailed them into doing the functional equivalent.)  Unless Congress does the same thing this time, I don't think you'll see much change. That is, unless MADD starts bullying lawmakers.

Tailgating At Kenny Chesney Concert At Cowboys Stadium: You're Doing It Wrong

Not sure what the back story is. Just found here on the Dallas Observer web site.

And Another: Vegas

Link.

Edit:

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Benghazi? It's still nothing. IRS auditing conservative groups? Jolting, but it's also something we've always suspected. A broad sweep of AP reporters phone records? Hey, even I'm drawing the line on that one.
• It's not been a good week for the President, but rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated.
• Bryce Harper crashing face first into the wall last night was nasty. 
• "A Kaufman County Sheriff's Deputy was hospitalized after being ejected from his squad car during a pursuit."
• I don't know anything about the Facebook Phone other than it is a disaster. ATT originally priced the phone at $99 but a couple of weeks ago lowered it to 99 cents. Really. Now it has announced they won't sell them at all. 
• Talk show host Mark Davis said the other day that it would be "years" before his 10 year old son had access to his own cell phone. If true, that's a little crazy, right?
• One valuable lesson that I took forever to learn: Don't correct someone unless absolutely necessary. 
• Back over Christmas I found a bunch of 8 millimeter homemade films in my parents' house that were made before I was born and when my brother was two years old. (They were labeled.) They were two brittle to play so I took one to see if I could find a company to convert it to DVD. Mrs. LL found a place and mailed it off in January and told me "they said it would take a while." Yesterday we received a box containing the film roll and a DVD. I've not watched it yet. I have no idea what to expect, but I feel like the guy about to open up the Holy Grail in the first Indiana Jones movie. 
• I went to Fort Worth for a driver's license hearing yesterday. On I-30 between Camp Bowie and University, I saw four different police traffic stops.  
• Dick Cheney was pimping a new book everywhere yesterday. Well, that is if "everywhere" means every show on Fox News and Fox News Radio.
• There was an old Seinfeld episode where George was caught gawking at the young daughter of an NBC executive. ("Get a good look, Costanza?")  I've seen that scene ten or more times and never realized the girl was Denise Richards.
• The Fourth Grader in The House announced that she had determined I'm in the process of wearing a suit for twelve straight days. Mrs. LL was afraid of immediate depression on my part.
• Mrs. LL didn't know of Bruce Jenner other than through the Kardashians. Think about that: Jenner competed in the Olympics 37 years ago. 
• I read this morning that Angelina Jolie had undergone a double mastectomy. Pretty big news. Then I read it was a "preventive" procedure, and I thought she was a nut. Then I read that she had undergone genetic testing which revealed there was an 85% chance she was going to contract breast cancer. That's a fascinating story. 

Somebody Beat This Man Over The Head, Say, With a "Smartphone"

This isn't earthshaking, but it is amazing in its own way. This was published on Newt's Youtube channel three days ago.

It's not a phone. It's not a computer. What should we call this thing?