Halloween Bonanza Closing Out Your Day

I'm Insane Now

On The Today Show, Matt Lauer dressed as Pamela Anderson in Baywatch and danced with Carmen Electra.

Dallas Morning News Column

And the comment section is pretty interesting.

Link.

Johnny Football From Last Year Reenacted

Ain't That America?

The Boston Red Sox win the World Series. The masses go crazy.

Boston payroll:

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Wow: Wise County deputy shot a man last night who was allegedly pointing a BB gun at him. From the Update: "The deputy told him to drop it, and he kept walking toward the car and refused to drop the gun, pointing it at the officer." The man is in critical condition. 
• Wise County records show no criminal history for the man who was shot. 
• I can't recall the last time we had a deputy related shooting. (Besides the fleeing Colorado man from earlier this year.) 
• There were 43 baseball "experts" for ESPN making preseason predictions. None of them had the Red Sox or the Cardinals in the World Series. 
• From the "History In Pictures" twitter feed: "The remains of Vladimir Komarov, a man who fell from space. pic.twitter.com/ekzveNWAF3". (Graphic.) I'll Google it later, but I have no idea what that story is about. 
• There has been a tarp since 2004 over the South end zone of Baylor's stadium because the stadium never sold out. It will be removed for the Oklahoma game a week from today. I wonder if it's nasty under that thing. (If they cut the tarp up and sold it, I'd buy a piece of it.)
• The kids decorated the front yard yesterday for Halloween. They should have used a theme based upon the lack of fear of procrastination. (And the Fifth Grader in the House thought we should transform the garage into a Haunted House at about 7:00 p.m.  Umm, no.)
• I don't have a costume for trick or treaters tonight but I do have a pair of khakis, a long sleeve Baylor shirt, and a Baylor cap. If I can find a headset . . . . Hello, Art Briles costume.
• My streak of not watching a single minute of a Dallas Mavericks' game has begun.
• Of the three assistant DAs in Wise County, one is going into private practice and the other is running for a district judgeship in Tarrant County. 
• Over the last year I have monitored my emotions. You know, whether it be in moments of anger, anxiety, love, or disdain -- stopping in the moment and clinically thinking about why I'm feeling what I'm feeling. It's really fascinating. 
• Government spending doesn't drive me nuts like it once did.  I wrote two years ago how our economy depends on it. 
• The Family Pup wakes up with me when the alarm goes off. She'll look inquisitively at me and waits. If I hit the snooze button, she lays back down and goes back to sleep. If I rise up, she leaps off the bed because it's time to go outside. Makes my day start off with a giggle. 

Legal Stuff: Texas Online Solicitation Of A Minor Statute Struck Down

Happened this morning. Before you go crazy about "liberal judges" (especially when the ruling was unanimous from the notorious conservative and 100% Republican Texas Court of Criminal Appeals), calm down. This is the specific part of the statute which was struck down:

A person who is 17 years of age or older commits an offense if, with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, the person, over the Internet, by electronic mail or text message or other electronic message service or system, or through a commercial online service, intentionally: (1)  communicates in a sexually explicit manner with a minor;  or (2)  distributes sexually explicit material to a minor.

What's wrong with that you say? Sounds reasonable. Shouldn't be doing any dirty talking with a minor or sending seedy photos.

What if I told you that "minor" was defined in the statute as "(A)  an individual who represents himself or herself to be younger than 17 years of age; or (B)  an individual whom the actor believes to be younger than 17 years of age."  Notice the "or"?  That's a big deal. That statute makes it a felony, when read literally, for two adults to communicate in a sexually explicit manner with one another so long as one adult says he's/she's younger than 17 even if the other person doesn't believe it or knows for a fact it's not true.  Think about that.

Truly, if I were to say "I'm 16" then from now on Wordkyle would be committing a felony every time he sends me one of those scantily clad pics of women via email.* I've represented myself to be under 17 and that's all that is required under that statute.

All that being said, the Court didn't specifically rule on that argument in knocking down the statute (even though it was argued by the Defendant.) Instead it ruled that the definition used of "sexually explicit material" was so ridiculously broad that it violated the First Amendment right of Free Speech.

(Shout out to lawyer Mark Bennett of Houston who won the case.)

_______
*Note: This factual scenario is a joke. Wordkyle has never done such a thing. Oh, and I'm not 16. Although I know a dog pile was coming on that aspect of said joke.  

And Another - Ohio

Kind of average, but the book-in photo kind of looks like a beaten down Bridget Jones. And I've always been a little jazzed by Bridget Jones.

Story. (We are actually in the trial stage of the case.)

This is the Bridget Jones character

Emotional Baby

(This is also how I look when I have to go through the Liberally Lean comments.)

Thanks, Kat.

The Strangest Extra Point Distraction You'll Ever See

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I watched the 30 for 30 documentary on Jimmy Connors last night. Really, really good. But, man, they painted him as a unbelievable soulless jerk in the last two minutes  -- even more so than we thought he was. I love those documentaries.
• I watched it in the bedroom because Mrs. LL had three ladies over to play some strange card game. And they brought their kids. Pardon me while I retreat. 
• With the "lame stream media" (sorry, I just channeled Sarah Palin) jumping on the story that Americans might not be able to keep their current insurance coverage as promised, the Republicans need to likewise jump on that. But they'll just blame the President (who isn't running again) instead of the Democrats as a whole (who will always be running.) They need a better playbook.
• Man, you guys were really worked up yesterday. 
• Appropriately strong words from acting Wise County judge and current commissioner Kevin Burns regarding filling the judge's position:  “I’d consider anybody who hasn’t talked to me in the last two weeks,” he said. “It was just almost inappropriate the way folks were offering themselves [following McElhaney's death].” (via Update)
• "Fort Worth officer lectures local bikers". That was just odd. 
• How long is that giraffe thing on Facebook gonna go on? By the way, there ain't no giraffes on Twitter.
• The general manager of the Dallas Mavericks resigns one day before the season starts. Mark Cuban has that team running like a well oiled machine. Craig Miller on The Ticket asked Cuban this morning, "What happened there?" Cuban's response: "[Pause.] That's a good question." Sheesh.
• And can I rail on Shark Tank? That is so horribly staged and pre-planned that it makes Duck Dynasty look authentic. 
• I'm not sure it was worthy of an arrest, but some juvenile has been arrested for harassing via text a handicapped girl in Plano. "The suspect is a female student who was close" to the victim. Well, you wouldn't expect the person to be a stranger. 
• 40 Hottest Cowboy Fans ranked by a girl. And a familiar Wise County gal pops up in there.

Above The Fold

Look What the Dallas Sheriff's Office Has!

It's a MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle -- A $600,000 rolling piece of metal that was to be used for the War On Terror but had been collecting dust at Fort Hood.  If I'm reading the article correctly, the military had more than 20,000 of them and is now just giving them away to certain law enforcement agencies.

But get this: This one never went overseas. It stayed in America and was used for training despite being fully operational. Any chance any money gets wasted in the military?

Ohio State Promotes Jump Roping Chick

I'm very confused by this because it's a little hard to see the long term plan. I mean, if you are a diver, you might dive at pool on vacation or in the home pool.  Runner? You can always run. Billiards? You can clean up at the local pool hall. Heck, even piano. You could go all Bill Murray like in a bar ala Groundhog Day. 

But jumping rope? I guess you could get a gig entertaining at kids' birthday parties, but that's about it.

Then again, it's a tough job market. Maybe she can pull out the rope during an Industrial Design interview to get a call back.

Lifehacker Has Some Tips For You

Lifehacker.com is a pretty good site. For years, it provided primarily technology and productivity tips which were really cool. I even bought their first book.

But there is only so much technological advice that can be given so the site began to branch out into other areas whether it be health, money, and relationships. But this new entry "How to Find and Apply For Government Benefits" got my attention. I immediately thought of the Liberally Lean readership and their reaction.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Cowboys: (1) Yesterday everyone was sure second guessing the three runs and a field goal on the Cowboys last possession. If Garrett had ordered Romo to take a knee three times and then punted as everyone seems to want in retrospect, he would have been torched for not trying, (2) So audio comes out of Dez Bryant being "positive" on the sideline early in the game during a rant with Tony Romo and everyone says he is owed an apology? Don't care. I want to know what happened between him and Witten, (3) Breaking: Jerry Jones just said on KRLD that Linebacker Brian Waters is probably out for the year, (4) Fox 4 had a graphic this morning where they referred to DeMarcus Ware as the Cowboy's "punt returner." 
• The lawyer for former Cowboy Josh Brent, who is facing trial for Intoxication Manslaughter, was upset that the district clerk didn't immediately issue a subpoena. So what did he do? He filed a motion entitled "Motion to Compel District Clerk to Play Fair, Be Polite, and Do Their Job."  
• You think Governor wannabe Greg Abbott was happy that most of the Texas anti-abortion law was struck down? Absolutely. Now he gets his free press as he appeals the decision. 
• Here's a picture of the Texas judge who was forced to resigned after she was caught texting advice to a prosecutor during a trial.
• What a crazy killing spree of five in Terrell last night. 
• A caller to Mark Davis this morning said that Wendy Davis is the poster child for "looking at her kids every morning and saying I wish I never had you."  To his credit, Davis put him in his place for crossing the line. 
• My annual rant: Candy Corn is nasty. 
• Wonder Woman bathing suit "Hey, Now".
• So George Will's intellectual opponent on his new Fox News gig will be Juan Williams? Aledo vs. Western Hills was more competitive. 
• There was a story on at least two of the local news stations who claims to have been "twice struck by lightning" at the Redneck's With Paychecks event over the weekend.  Based upon his lack of injuries, I question the use of the term "struck". 
• It's probably not a good sign for the syndication of Kidd Kraddick In The Morning that the show has been dropped in Fargo, North Dakota.

Picture Of The Day

I'd go on a rant about innocent citizens having a gun stuck in their face by the cops if I could just get over the fact that John Candy is alive and well.

That Law Wendy Davis Filibustered Against Is Back In The News

BREAKING: Federal judge declares Texas abortion restrictions unconstitutional, blocks enforcement.
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 28, 2013

And for those who want to read the twenty-six page Order you can do so here.