Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• A man was found not guilty in Tarrant County yesterday of shaking his baby to death. I'll give the prosecutors the benefit of the doubt that they just didn't speculate about what happened to the child. That would be a dangerous kind of prosecutor. And they exist. Boy, do they exist. 
• Star-Telegram reporter Mitch Mitchell tweeted that the "jury said [the defendant] did not murder his 23 day old baby." That's not necessarily true. The jury could have simply had a doubt about the man's guilt which was reasonable to them. That's all that is required for a not guilty verdict. And that's not just semantics. 
• The Tarrant County DA's office fires off press releases at the drop of a hat. Want to place a bet on the chances of there being one about that case? 
• I got an email about the long time offensive coordinator in Bridgeport no longer being there. What gives?
• A very funny guest on Hannity last night lead off the show talking about Ted Cruz's citizenship.  "His problem isn't that he's from Canada. His problem is that he's from Mars." Hannity didn't think it was funny. 
• And how goofy does Cruz sound, upon learning that he holds duel dual [ok, that was a bad/funny one --- dagnabbit]  citizenship, by saying: "I will renounce any Canadian citizenship." It's like a Monty Python bit. 
• Someone owes former FAN host Richie Whitt $6,500.
• "Ball girl forgets she not supposed to catch foul balls."
• Mark Davis really called out wanna be governor Greg Abbott yesterday for opposing the AA/US Airways merger.  And I agree with him. Something isn't quite right about Abbott getting involved in that -- someone might want to check the campaign donations list. (And it was awkward when Abbott kept claiming there was a "smoking gun" conversation by the US Airways president about "jacking up" fares but he couldn't remember what it was. That's kind of important.)
• Just heard a vague report about a big restaurant fire this morning at NE 28th Street and Main Street in Fort Worth.  Whataburger? That BBQ place? Edit/Update: It's the Lonesome Dove restaurant. The initial address is wrong. 
• The over/under line for wins by the Dallas Cowboys this year is 8.5.  Here's a hot sports opinion: Bet the house on the Under.
• The most conservative judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will pay a $25,000 ethics fine (negotiated down from an earlier $100,000 assessment.)
• I've mentioned this a ton of times but I keep forgetting his name: What ever happened to the metroplex cop who fired 40 (?) something shots and killed the unarmed man who evaded him?
• What a strange life: Remember the crazy guy who falsely confessed to killing Jon Benet Ramsey? He was never prosecuted for anything and has since had a sex change operation and lives as Alexis Reich.
• That measles outbreak in Tarrant County is disconcerting, but it gets closer as Bud Kennedy just tweeted that the outbreak is "in Kenneth Copeland's church." Edit: He updated his source to be a Fox 4 story.
• Mrs. LL watched the first episode of Breaking Bad without telling me. I suspected she had and kept waiting for an opportunity to casually tell her to "tread lightly."  (But it was a little hard to be mad since I had watched it, too.)
• I understand that some days there's not much news, but I power down when I get to the second item in the Update and it reads "HEALTH FAIR -" followed by the third item being "COOKING CLASS - ". 

A Random Rant: I Hate Peter King

Peter King is a Sports Illustrated writer. He. Is. Horrible. And he makes at least $1.2 million a year.

A few years back, I finally heard of his Monday Morning Quarterback column which always contains what seems to be a million words and, famously, is written in the middle of every Sunday night.  It's so famous that 60 Minutes even did a segment about it and King.

Did I say he he is horrible?

Take the following example. This is the beginning of his second paragraph in today's edition.

First off, an acknowledgement of the real world in the NFL—even on good teams, change is constant. When [Colt's head coach] Chuck Pagano stared out at his team on the first night of training camp here, he saw 47 percent new faces from 2012 (42 of the 90 players were first-year Colts)

You kidding me? Let's have a math lesson.  Every team is composed of 53 players on the active roster and 8 players on the practice squad*. That's 61. But at the beginning of the season, an NFL team can have up to 90 players in training camp.  You see what's going on here? Every training camp, even if a team brought every single player back from the year before -- which never happens due to retirements, trades, free agency and cuts -- there would have to be 29 players present who weren't on the team the previous year. Every team has at least 29 "new faces"!

So to have 42 new players in training camp is par for the course. And you know who those guys are except for the seven or so players taken during the draft? Spares!! They are bodies brought in solely for the purpose of practice. 

(Believe it or not, there's a guy who dissects King's column every Monday morning. And in a pretty funny fashion.)

_____

* I'm giving King the huge benefit of the doubt that he is including practice squad players in not being "new faces". 

Easy There On The Smirnoff, Comrade

I have no idea what's going on here.  Just a Russian guy drinking vodka right out the bottle with two "Hey, Nows!" behind him on a kiddie ride. That's about American as a Russian can get, no?

But I'm throwing a penalty flag on the camera gal for not rushing over there and getting a shot of the post-crash carnage.

($100 says those gals are mail order brides. Or will be.)

Here's Your Sign

I'm not sure how this is even Dallas Observer blog worthy.  But it was.

This guy lives in a condo in the W Hotel. He steals a W welcome sign from the lobby as he drunkenly comes homes (at the very early hour of 8:00 p.m.). Security goes to his condo and ask where the sign is. And he gives it back to them.

And this is news?

I'm more interested in what the sign looks like since it is valued at $2,200.

Hey, There's Another Reason For The Cops To Stop You And Extract Money From You!

Source.

Johnny Football Sighting Over The Weekend

Bonus fun: Spot the guy with the tattoos. (Source.)

Heisman odds (courtesy of Bovada): Braxton Miller a 9-2 favorite. Johnny Manziel drops to 15-1. Top Big 12: Seastrunk 30-1, Blake Bell 50-1.
— Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) August 19, 2013

Didn't See That Degree In The Catalog

I'm officially a #Baylor Grad!👋🐻 I'm excited to embark on a new journey- my 1st year as #Dallas Mavericks Dancer! pic.twitter.com/vZJ4ukNWd4
— DMD Kathryn (@DMD_Kathryn) August 17, 2013

Duck!

What Kind Of Barbie?

He's been licensed less than three years but he had a hot opinion about Wendy Davis this weekend:

Greg Abbott thanked him.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Slumped Shoulder moment of the weekend: When I proclaimed that Lost was "horrible", the Sophomore in The House retorted with, "But you think Paul Blart: Mall Cop was bad, too!!!!"  
• Celebrated my parents 60th wedding anniversary this weekend at III Forks in Dallas. 60th! Side note: Are there people who just casually decide to go to a restaurant like that outside of a special occasion? I'm sure that's true. I'm just not one of those persons. 
• I got accused this weekend of anonymously commenting. I'll admit to doing that maybe three times in the last seven years. And that was for humor. 
• Former Texas Ranger Chad Curtis was convicted of sexual assault of a teenager on Friday. A faithful reader emailed me to point out that he will begin to collect his $100,000 a year Major League Baseball pension in three years.
• A popular blogger commits suicide but then has a post automatically go up that gives the GPS coordinates for a stash of gold and silver coins he had buried. (Which people believe to be a hoax.)
• The Update's lead item says someone "was arrested on suspicion" of a crime. Let me say this for the millionth time: No one can be legally arrested based solely on a suspicion. (Although, unfortunately, that does happen all the time.)
• Sports: (1) I tried to ignore it, but I think RG3 hates head coach Mike Shanahan, (2) I actually watched some of the English Premiere League this weekend and a save on a penalty kick at point blank range by the Liverpool goalkeeper made me think I shouldn't have ignored this sport, (3) NBC is smart to jump on the soccer bandwagon because football won't exist in fifty years, (4) What a strange moment it was when the fantastic pitcher Stephen Strasburg was thrown out of a game because of three wild pitches in a row -- the umpire thought he was going to kill someone and Strasburg didn't argue, (5) I've been promoting Phil Steele for years and this is why -- the AP college football poll came out this weekend and he predicted all 25 teams that would be in it, without error, back in April. 
• I've got two little relatives of Mrs. LL staying in the house this week. That makes a house of five girls and me. 
• Friday motorcycle death.
• I don't know what it's about, but that Crazy Texas Mommy blogger is some kind of contest. Give her some love. 
• I've only heard of one individual refer to being a "veteran of the Cold War." 
• Someone keeps commenting how the BagOfNothing guy always brings his "A Game" unlike me. Sir, you're right. I'm very disturbed. Since both blogs appear on the Internet at the same time there is no possible way that people can read both of them. You are obviously aware of this. But I would appreciate you not promoting his blog because it could kill my ad revenue. If I had any.
• Flipping across the TV this weekend I had two movie thoughts: Vegas Vacation stands up over time, and no one has been as mis-casted miscast as Dustin Hoffman in Outbreak.  

New Study: Wise County Doesn't Make The List

Link

But I think I know why local law enforcement doesn't pick on the African American here . . .

Above The Fold

UNLV Cheerleaders Taking You Into The Weekend

Texas Politics Has Come To This?

Just launched http://t.co/96ywFPYzmT for the latest #omg #fail #lols from Lt Governor David Dewhurst. RT! #txlege
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) August 16, 2013

Dan Patrick, who is challenging David Dewhurst for Lt. Governor, directs his followers to a website which isn't exactly statesman-like. Note: It's primarily re-living the night of the Wendy Davis filibuster fiasco with the story "told by cats". As in animated gifs of cats.

Robin Thicke Sued Marvin Gaye's Family -- Claim They Didn't Steal A Dang Thing

In order to shield "Blurred Lines," the hottest hit of the summer, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris, Jr. are going to court.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday in California federal court by the trio against Marvin Gaye's family and Bridgeport Music . . . .. At issue are complaints about similarities between "Blurred Lines" and at least two songs.

"[T]here are no similarities between plaintiffs' composition and those the claimants allege they own, other than commonplace musical elements," states the lawsuit. "Plaintiffs created a hit and did it without copying anyone else's composition." More.

I don't know about that.

Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines:




Marvin Gaye's Got To Give It Up:

Random Twitter Photo From This Morning

@DFWscanner Clouds over HWY 380 and FM 51 in Decatur. pic.twitter.com/8GeV5mubvj
— Anthony Crowley (@CPLS_Anthony) August 16, 2013

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• All Texas high school championship games will be at Cowboys Stadium this year including, for the first time, the six man championship. I might go watch that one. I've never seen a six man game.
• The Muslim Brotherhood has called for "A Day of Rage" in Egypt.
• The 44th Anniversary of Woodstock was yesterday. On the 10th Anniversary (which I heard about on the radio and thought "wow, that is ancient history") I was at the "front pool" at Runaway Bay getting a massive sunburn, and I bet it was a Friday since that was my day off. (How I remember that, I have no idea.) 
• Courtney Stodden went to the beach.
• "Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to have his deputies put up white wooden crosses near the sites where authorities find bodies of immigrants who are dying in the desert."  I'm guessing he sees no problem with government erecting crosses. 
• I think Bill O'Reilly is tolerable. 
• Corby Davidson on The Ticket yesterday told of a girl who came to his door and said her dad was in prison and mom had run off causing her to live with relatives. She then told a further convincing story that they didn't have any money but needed school supplies. Corby's wife gave the girl $20. A day or so later there was a thank you note left at their house but asking for her to purchase some additional items including back packs for her and her little brother.  I smell scam. 
• When cops illegally detain someone, many courts will give them by out by saying "Oh, no. It was just a consensual encounter" -- you know, just the cops walking up and and talking to someone. At least one new study says there's nothing consensual when cops approach you. 
• For some reason Mrs. LL is re-watching a lot of the episodes of Lost. This despite her responding, "Yes!!!!" to my question of, "You think the writers made all that stuff up on the fly?"
• Mark Cuban had a crazy quote about expectations yesterday in the Mavs pre-season press conference. I was very Jerry Jones like, but I can't find it to save the life of me. 
• Red Sox fan Ben Affleck's birthday was yesterday. The Red Sox are now 0-14 on Ben Affleck's birthday since the release of Good Will Hunting in 1998.

We Can All Sleep Safer Tonight

Cops investigate large online gambling ring (made up of people who want to take their own money and do with it what they want), and then the cops gamble pays off as they get to seize millions of dollars. Of 18 defendants, only one has gone to jail -- and that's for a year -- so at least there's one rational part of the story.

Law enforcement doesn't have enough to do.

And there had to be a cute name for this operation, but I can't fine done. Operation Snake Eyes, perhaps?

Story.

Edit: More . . .

Stacks of $100 bills - just part of the $10 million seized by federal agents in bust of online gambling ring @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/QdigvRJNao
— Catherine Ross (@CatherineNBC5) August 15, 2013