Elvis (The Baseball One - Not the Dead Singer) Has A Funny Bit Going

"Continuing a comedy bit they've been acting out for a couple months now, Beltre and Andrus at least pretend to fight over pop-ups to the left side of the infield." More. (Although I think it is more of Andrus jacking with Beltre than a combined comedy team.)

Woman Removed From Texas Abortion Bill Hearing After Scolding GOP Lawmakers

I find this fascinating. Were her remarks worthy of having her physically removed?  What if the bill had expanded abortion rights and a conservative was at the mic ranting about the "life of the unborn". Would that make a difference.

Story.

Wednesday Random Morning Thoughts

• MTV is filming a reality TV show about the Redneck Heaven restaurant. It's at Beach and 820 in north Fort Worth. Never been there, but it looks shocking. 
• It's interesting that only six people were arrested for DWI in Wise County over the long 4th of July holidays. Some speculated that it was because of the publicity of Vampire Weekend, and I won't rule that out. But I heard a pretty good alternative theory yesterday: No one came and went from Lake Bridgeport because it is so low.
• CVS in Decatur was broken into over the weekend with only cigarettes being taken. For years, a carton of cigarettes has been used as currency in the black market.
• Elisabeth Hasselbeck will leave 'The View' for 'Fox and Friends'. Who would have thought that Fox would have hired an attractive, young, blond, and shallow female?
• The teenage driver of a red pickup involved in a horrific wreck on Burleson-Retta Road last month had a blood-alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit.  I wonder if that is hospital blood or blood taken by law enforcement? One is a heck of a lot easier to prove than the other.
• Gordon Keith this morning: "Don't ever marry crazy. It never gets better." (They were talking about the Anna Benson story.)
• Someone told me yesterday that I needed to look at Rick Perry's calendar before I called his job easy. Puhhhleeeze. Any event he attends, he attends because he wants to. Give me a plane and an expense account and my schedule would be packed, too.
• Random high school football thought: Beginning in 2013, four teams from each Class 3A and Class 2A district will make the playoffs. I bet we'll see a 2-8 team make it. 
• When the new Dallas Star tweeted this weekend that  “Only steers and queers in Texas, and I’m not a cow”, I thought of the original quote from the drill instructor from An Officer and A Gentleman instead of Full Metal Jacket.  (But not only did he mangle the quote, what the heck was he trying to say?)
• Misleading headline I'm seeing everywhere: "Police: Man arrested in Odin Lloyd's death ID'd [Former New England Patriot] Aaron Hernandez as shooter." Not quite. That man said that another man told him Hernandez pulled the trigger. Big difference.  

Above The Fold

Well This Seemed Like A Bad Idea

Story.  More images.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• The Kids In The House and I played basketball on a school hoop, but I required that we string up a net before doing so. It was hard to explain how playing without a net is no fun at all. They didn't understand. 
• Eleven bears have found a new home in the animal sanctuary in Boyd. That's becoming quite the place over there.
• The Muslims and the Buddhists are warring. I saw several tweets this weekend that said, "If you read one thing today read this" with a link to a long and horrifying article of the slaughter of 36 Muslims, mostly teenagers, in Myanmar last March. After that, I noticed a news flash about explosions last weekend in Buddhist temples by Muslims in India.  
• A fruit/vegetable stand on the side of the road is one of life's great joys, but I have no idea where one is. 
• Rick Perry, in his announcement that he won't run again for governor, said  that he'll miss it "because it is the greatest job in modern politics.”  Yeah, you get paid a ton to live in a mansion to do nothing other than sign or veto bills for a couple of weeks every two years. What's not to like?
• I think Perry would have a better chance of beating John Cornyn for U.S. Senate than winning the Republican presidential nomination (which he has absolutely no chance of.) 
• Rev. Robert Jeffress did in fact appear at the pro-life rally in Austin yesterday and said this: "Anyone who opposes this bill, whether he or she realizes it, is a tool of Satan being used by Satan to accomplish Satan's purpose of death." Wow. 
• Interesting: DWI roadblocks are illegal in Texas (at least until the legislature approves them with guidelines) but Saginaw police set up roadblocks yesterday stopping everyone coming in and out of the area in the search for information about the murder of the little girl from last week. Is that legal? Oddly, yes. 
• The Rangers played Baltimore and official Liberally Lean MLB player Chris Davis last night. Davis struck out four times. I hope the Ghost of Texas Past doesn't cause him to spiral out of control now.
• Worth watching from last night if you have any interest in baseball rules: Nick Swisher hits a slow roller foul down the third base line and turns away. The catcher follows the slow moving ball and lets it roll back in to fair play, scoops it up, and rushes over and tags Swisher out. Good stuff. 

Was This Headline Offensive?

The paper apologized for it. (Remember, it was Asiana Airlines.)

And Another - Texas

Starting off the second half of the year strong.

Breaking: Our Long Statewide Nightmare Is Over

Rick Perry announces he will not seek re-election as governor. pic.twitter.com/kvq7mUi4T1
— FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) July 8, 2013

Greg Louganis Would Be Jealous

Grade A quality slow-motion and sound.  Perfect 10 for execution.

But the most tense part was thinking Timmy was going to land on the little kid in the yellow floatie. No kid could have survived an impact like that.

Incoming!!!!

You can actually see the potential crushing blow develop in the background. And I love how all the guys in the background just stand around like it ain't no big thing.

From The Weekend: Captain America

An escaped sex offender had his mugshot posted in an Ohio convenience store. Patron of the store sees mugshot and tackles escapee.

The fact he's wearing red, white and blue makes it even more dramatic.  (And I bet he drove away listening to Toby Keith in his truck.)

Brad Cooper and Gerald Gerard Butler At Wimbledon

Their image stopped Mrs. LL down this weekend.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• There's a fire going on at an old house near the courthouse this morning and, although the picture on the Messenger's website doesn't look that bad, Decatur Fire Department has called for all sorts of help from neighboring fire departments. And, based upon scanner traffic, they are extremely concerned with firefighter safety (which might be due to the recent news of firefighter deaths.)
• Drownings over the holidays: (1) A 21 year old at Lake Grapevine, (2) a 27 year old at Possum Kingdom lake (which caused the fireworks display to be cancelled), and (3) a 7 year old at Joe Pool Lake.  And a 20 year old woman was left in the water for hours in the dark before found. 
• Told ya: Dwight Howard decides not to sign with the Dallas Mavericks.  And one rumored reason that free agents don't want to come to Dallas is that ol' South racism still exists here. So who did the Mavericks send to visit with Howard in LA to try to bring him Dallas? Six white guys: "Cuban, Mark Cuban, Dirk Nowitzki, president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, head coach Rick Carlisle, athletic trainer Casey Smith and director of analytics Roland Beech."
• There's a political rally in Austin today by a pro-life group. Among the speakers is Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas. Is that guy running for office somewhere? 
• Watching the Wimbledon finals -- men's or women's -- on the 4th of July weekend in the morning is always fantastic. 
• How more people didn't die in the 777 crash in San Francisco is amazing. That plane got so close to cart-wheeling on the runway and, had it, all of them would probably be dead. 
• I ended up laying "four square" with the Kids In The House over the weekend. Unfortunately, the four squares were set up right by a curb going into a parking lot. As I should have expected, I ended up falling into the parking lot.
• As I'm on my back, with two faces staring down at me, my first thought at my age was "did I break anything?" Fortunately, I just ended up with a scraped hand since I broke my fall better than Emmitt Smith ever did. 
• So those in charge of Wise County's Vampire No Refusal Weekend, what are the stats? 
• Rick Perry makes a "big announcement" today at 1:00 a.m. I bet he's nutty enough to make another presidential run. 
• For some reason I watched a portion of the Arkansas/Texas 1969 classic game on the Longhorn Network this weekend. The crowning moment for the Longhorns was a shocking pass on fourth and short with about four minutes remaining. I looked up the stats on the game and learned Texas threw only 10 passes and had two of those intercepted. Oh, how the game has changed. 
• No arrests in the murder of that little Saginaw girl? 
• From the Update:  "The Decatur City Council will discuss a $261,500 incentive package for 'Project Walter' . . . . " What the heck is that? 

Little Pink Houses For You And Me

Above The Fold

Houston Rockets Dancers Taking You Into The Weekend

Like They Need Help: Texas Judge Assists Prosecution

Link.