Cop Of The Year

Look, the first 4:00 minutes of this video is some psycho chick screaming while the cops try to handcuff her in order to take her to hoosegow.

The most amazing thing is the cop -- around 4:30 -- taking the time to explain to the crowd (and especially to one wise guy) what had just taken place.

Las Vegas "After Hours" Clubs Might Be A Dicey Proposition

A guy tries to get in but is informed there is a $30 cover charge in order to get his party on. That's obviously justification to pull out a handgun and start shooting.  Good grief.

Link.

Greatest GIF Creation Tool Timewaster In The History Of Ever

Create your own.

Listen Up, Kids: Santa and Jesus Are White

In this debate as to whether minorities feel less connected with Santa because he is portrayed as white, Fox's Megyn Kelly drops a bombshell at 1:45: "Jesus was a white man, too."

And You Wonder Why Schools Have Been Slow To Re-Open

Be careful! RT @dkrice: @DFWscanner @wfaaweather Some roads still dangerous. Golden Triangle 1mi W of 377. Keller/FTW pic.twitter.com/ZA7FMATNLN
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) December 12, 2013

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• In July of this year there was a big story of a newlywed allegedly pushing her husband off a cliff. (Man, it was tailor made for crazy Nancy Grace.) Amazingly, her trial has already started. 
• Major League Baseball is on the verge of outlawing home plate collisions. The new rule would require sliding instead of trying to run over the catcher. I support that. 
• That probated sentence for the sixteen year old in Fort Worth for the Intoxication Manslaughter of four people was making the national rounds yesterday. There were, of course, the "he should be locked away forever" crazies, but there was also a heck of a lot more understanding than I thought there would be. 
• "So people who were just calling Mandela a Communist a week ago, are now concerned he wasn't shown proper reverence at his funeral?"
• RG3 got "benched" for the rest of the season. Good move. Let him get healthy. Bring in a coach in the off season who knows how to use him. The Redskins will be fine.
• WBAP's Brian Estridge constantly says things that are totally off the wall or misinformed. Today, he basically said that once Obamacare goes into effect that hospitals like John Peter Smith would no longer accept indigent patients who are having an emergency health situation if they had not signed up for Obamacare. The only reason he can get away with the crazy things he says is that the demographics of the WBAP listener want to believe what he says. The Echo Chamber on the far right is a scary place. 
• I like the phrase, "Being on the wrong side of history." It's so easy to see current beliefs in America which will be the subject of "What were they thinking?" conversations fifty years from now. 
• I tried to make it through A Clockwork Orange a few years back but bailed on it. I'm thinking of giving it another shot. 
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Ben Stiller gets my attention. 
• How did the war in Syria go from a global crisis requiring American bombing to being completely out of the news? That war is still going on, no?
• I think Mack Brown is gone. And once that happens, it truly is the changing of the guard down in Austin. Deloss Dodds has already been ousted, and Brown's "retirement" will send a message to the Joe Jamails of the State that they are no longer in control.  That will be a good thing for the Empire. (And I'm not sure President Bill Powers, a Brown supporter, is safe.)
• AT and T understands that the "Are you competing for cutest kid right now?" commercial with that little girl is a huge crowd pleaser. 
• Elian Gonzalez was the subject of a famous photo in 1999 when the U.S. forcibly removed the six year old Cuban refugee from a Florida home at gunpoint in order to eventually ship him back home. I told a buddy then, which wasn't long after the fall of so many communist countries, that I could see him becoming a young man and leading a Cuban revolution due to his notoriety. I was wrong about that. 

Gay or Not Gay?: Arkansas Frat Boys Make Katy Perry Music Video In Recent Snowstorm

Wisconsin Massive Pile Up Caught By DOT Cameras

Here.  It's pretty crazy.

Note: Slow down!!!!!

Come On, That's Funny!

You've probably heard about the fake sign language guy at the Nelson Mandela memorial service (described above.)  Well, The Today Show was making light of it this morning when some stagehand suddenly appeared in a circle on the screen and started to doing his own sign language bit. Funny. (Not Garrett Morris interpretation for the hard of hearing on Saturday Night Live funny, but funny.)  As one can only expect in this day and time, The Today Show apologized.

"Lucky" People Compilation

This is from earlier this year, but I just saw it.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• That girl reminds me of a young Bernadette Peters (who I will always associate with Steve Martin in The Jerk.)
• There was an NFL field goal record set this weekend with one from 64 yards. I saw it live (thanks to the greatness that is the Red Zone channel). I felt old when I recalled I watched the half-footed Tom Dempsey set the original record of 63 yards -- also live.
• According to the Messenger today, there were 30 people indicted by the last grand jury. Fifteen of them were for drugs. The system is broken. 
• It probably deserves a post of its own, but I'll interested in the reaction to the sentence of probation for the sixteen year old Keller kid who pled guilty to drunk driving and causing the death of four people. Whatever your reaction, you have to remember: He's sixteen. A sixteen year old who did a dumb, but not intentional, act.  The prosecutors asking for the maximum of twenty years did themselves no favors. Seeking the maximum may get you an award from MADD at the end of the year, but it shows laziness and a disregard for true justice.  
• That being said, I'm surprised the judge didn't showboat and sentence the  kid to twenty years. Why? Because under the "determinate sentencing" scheme in place twenty years doesn't mean twenty years. The kid would have spent around two years in juvenile prison and then would go back before the court where the judge could probated the remainder of the sentence of send him to adult prison. So a headline grabbing twenty year sentence would really mean probation with a little bit of jail time up front. 
• Ice falling from Great Wolf Lodge.
• This morning: Pope Francis has been selected by Time magazine as the Person of the Year. I liked that guy. 
• During the ice storm, I parked my car on Thursday afternoon in the garage (thanks to Mrs. LL, we actually got TWO cars in a two car garage) and didn't fire it back up until Tuesday morning.  I walked outside a couple of times, but that was about it. I didn't mind it a bit. 
• Want to be a lawyer? Try sitting down and telling a twenty something year old that she is going to jail for violating probation and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Happened to me twice in the last few months. It's gut wrenching. That's why I normally refuse to take revocation of probation cases. Those cases aren't about skills as a lawyer. It's begging. 
• I bundled up and took off jogging yesterday evening, and the sidewalks were too icy so I ran down neighborhood streets. With the various houses lit up with Christmas lights, it was fantastic.
• If it is 30 degrees with no wind and sunny, I have no problem with that. 
• I'm guessing that all Wise County ISDs are closed only because the less traveled country roads are still too icy for school buses. (Chico will open at 10:00 a.m. but will keep the buses off the road.)
• I actually researched the "Oxford comma" last night after seeing this.
• Nick Saban to Texas? Wouldn't surprise me. It also wouldn't surprise me if he's not playing Alabama to make him richer than he already is. (But look at this story - which may or may not be true - about how Texas alums might bail him out of $20 million in bad investments to entice him.) Edit: Link fixed.
• Big 12 "awards" per Fox Sports. Good stuff (even if I disagree with a lot of it.)
• I have to think John Cornyn will crush Tea Partier Steve Stockman. If your campaign platform is "John Cornyn is a liberal" there are only a handful of nutcases who will agree with you. 
• I remember Charles Haley just destroying and disrupting a backfield during crunch time.  It seems DeMarcus Ware gets sacks during trash time. It's night and day to me. 
• I saw about two minutes of Danica Patrick hosting the Country Music Awards. She was as awful as I expected. 
• A fantastic essay on aging parents and Alzheimers that ran in the Star-Telegram over Thanksgiving It's worth your time. Well worth your time.

Above The Fold

Wreck

Major Accident w/ Entrapment (Wise County, Rhome) Rhome FD has launched air medical to the scene of a major... http://t.co/6E8qyOFYBC
— DFW Scanner (@DFWscanner) December 10, 2013

Chip Brown Is Normally Right

High-level sources tell http://t.co/Pb827xg41z Mack Brown will step down as coach at Texas after 16 years.
— Chip Brown (@ChipBrownOB) December 10, 2013

At Least You'll Be Close To An Emergency Room If It Hits You

Source.

She Understands That A Wedding Bouquet Is Magical

That suddenly looked like the pit in 300 but with a rail around it.

President Obama Taking A Selfie At Mandela's Funeral

Just being hip. Just like the kids these days.

(That's Chris Christie to the left - I think. Not sure who the lady is but it's not Christie's wife.)

Edit: OK, that's not Chris Christie but it sure looks like him.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• "FORT WORTH -- Longtime Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Lawrence 'Larry' Meyers [from Fort Worth] announced Monday that he is leaving the Republican Party to run as a Democrat for the Texas Supreme Court." That's beyond baffling. The only thing I can think of is that he was ready to retire and wanted to gig a sitting justice from across the hall. But that's just a guess.
• And in other Court of Criminal Appeals news,  Judge Cathy Cochran did not file for re-election.   With Myers and Cochran's last minute moves, I wonder if anyone is even running for those two judgeships. 
• "A Dimmitt County jury has awarded $281 million to the family of a man killed when he was struck by a drive shaft that broke off a truck involved in activity in the Eagle Ford Shale." Good grief. The Eagle Ford Shale being located in a Plaintiff's attorney's heaven will have its downside. 
• Three girls get engaged and have a cutesy photo taken with all their friends. I'd marry the one on the bottom row, far left. 
• There is a civil case against the Travis County DA ongoing where they are trying to oust her after her DWI arrest and conviction.  Shockingly, a public official can be removed under Texas law for "intoxication on or off duty caused by drinking an alcoholic beverage." That's it.  But for some reason (perhaps because Austin is Austin), the prosecutors said they will prove that the the DA "is unfit for office and could harm the public interest if she remains in her position." Why? That's not required. Why enlarge your burden of proof? And why is the judge questioning whether they can prove that. 
• I had my first Starbucks product in over 6 years the other day thanks to my office partner. It had some fancy name but I think it was really a large non-fat hot chocolate with "no whip". 
• "FORT WORTH — A judge has sentenced a former agent with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to 180 days in jail and two years of probation for taking lewd photographs of a woman with hidden cameras." A lot of that story doesn't make sense: (1) It says the offense is a third degree felony -- it's not. It's a State Jail Felony, (2) I can't tell if the sentence was 180 days in jail which was probated and suspended for two years, or a two year probation with 180 days in jail as a condition of the probation, (3) Regardless, it's odd to accept a felony conviction for a statute which was declared unconstitutional by an appellate court. 
• The Ticket's Bob Sturm finally got back from Guatemala via Miami via Charleston and then to Dallas. 
• Days after Carrie Underwood helped re-created live performance of The Sound Of Music on NBC, actress Eleanor Parker from the original movie has died. (She played Baroness Elsa Schraeder.)
• Sports: Think an NCAA four team playoff (to being next year)  is better than the current BCS. I do. Then I read that if the playoff were to have been implemented this year,  "No. 2 Auburn would have to beat No. 3 Alabama [again] and the Crimson Tide would have had a bye week while Missouri picked up a second loss in [the SEC Championship] to knock them out of the playoff. Yeah, that’s real fair. Oh, and the Tide would have a shot at the national title despite not even having to win its division while Big 12 champ Baylor would be left out in the cold (both figuratively and literally)."
• Tea Party favorite Texas congressman Steve Stockman, who invited Ted Nugent to join him during the President's last State of the Union message, filed at the last minute to run against John Cornyn for U.S. Senate.  It keeps getting crazier and crazier. But let the word go forth: Thou Shall Not Refuse To Bow Down To Ted Cruz. 
• My "bet the house" proclamation of the Cowboys having less than 8.5 wins for the season is still alive.
• There has never been a movie promoted as much as Anchorman 2.
• Danica Patrick will co-host the American Country Music Awards on Fox tonight. Can you think of a more personality deprived individual to host anything? 
• My newspaper front page site hasn't updated today. Edit: Updated