Liberally Lean From The Land Of Dairy Queen

3.18.2014

Whoa -- Seattle News Helicopter Just Crashed

Wreckage of news chopper, 2 cars still exploding right now @komonews pic.twitter.com/YM9vVhoGOa
— Kelly Koopmans (@KellyKOMO4) March 18, 2014

Edit:

He Decides To Get Off The Road And This Is The Thanks He Gets

Day Shift Officers just arrested a DWI driver who decided to pull over and sleep at the entrance to our police shooting range. C'mon man!
— Carrollton TX Police (@CarrolltonTXPD) March 18, 2014

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

I finally got to watch some of the news coverage (and speculation) about the missing Malaysian jet. This is one of the most fascinating mysteries I've ever seen.
Shyster Kevin Trudeau has received a 10 year federal prison sentence. I couldn't be happier.
A Grapevine man fell into the Grand Canyon over the weekend and died.
Coolest thing about the Spring Break vacation: We stayed in a "tree house" where three of the walls were screens. Worst part: Despite a ton of bug spray, jungle bugs will bite you.
A County Court judge over in Denton won re-election by 29 votes, but his challenger has requested a manual recount.
Still time to sign up for the Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney. (I don't know why Yahoo! makes you verify you identify via cell phone -- seems stupid to me, too.)
See a dog run around in a football uniform.
Want to run 50 miles in the LBJ Grasslands beginning at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday?
If Russia wants Crimea, it'll take Crimea.
There currently may not be a bigger beating than driving from Wise County to Northeast Mall. There's the I-35 construction and then the Loop 820 construction.
Anyone else cringe when they hear a Texas Motor Speedway commercial where they reference both the "Duck Commander 500" and the "Big Hoss" video board?
Texas Monthly, beginning tomorrow, will publish a series of articles online about the 1982 Lake Waco Murders. That was a crazy case of a bunch of kids killed due to mistaken identity and then a cluster of criminal trials that followed (one that ended in an acquittal upon a retrial on a change of venue to Tarrant County.) I once read a book about the case named Careless Whispers by Carlton Stowers. (Yeah, cue Wham!)
Mrs. LL grounded the Fifth Grader in the House last night and you would have thought, based upon the reaction, that she just got sentenced to TDC.
What has happened to Fox's Megyn Kelly? ("Hey, Now" photo) When she used to be a guest on Hannity or O'Reilly, she was a voice of reason. Now she acts more like Nancy Grace.
With Lake Bridgeport a shocking 21 feet low and what looks to be a dry Spring, will the Tarrant County Water Board open the gates this Summer to keep Eagle Mountain Lake full?
Wendy Davis is within seven points of Greg Abbott. She won't win, but it's further proof of the changing politics of the state.
The Ticket talked about the game "Thumbs up, Seven Up" today. I had never heard of that.
Vince Vaughn just bought ex-USC coach Lane Kiffin's house for $6.5 million.

3.17.2014

Courtney Love Has Found The Malaysian Missing Plane

@Courtney If you say so. I don't see it. ✈️
— D.R. (@DR24) March 17, 2014

Google and Microsoft Paint. Genius.

A St. Patrick's Tradition Unlike Any Other

That thing is now up to 23 million views over the years.

"Who else seen the leprechaun, say yay!!!!!!"

(Source) — The executive director of Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers is facing up to two weeks in jail on a contempt of court charge for stuffing an anonymous tip in his mouth instead of handing it over to a judge Friday. Richard Masten was appearing before Judge Victoria Brennan when he refused to share information related to a tip in a cocaine possession case. Instead, he ate the paper containing the tip while sitting in court. “We promise the people who give us information to solve murders, serious violent crimes in this community, that they can call with an assurance that they will remain anonymous and that nothing about them or their information would ever be compromised,” he said. “The case today started creeping into that… it’s not going to happen on my watch and I understood the consequences.”

Gotta love this guy. A true man of his word.

(From a legal standpoint, I've always questioned the tip to Crime Stopper's being "confidential". In fact, the Texas Government Code requires the disclosure of a Crime Stopper's tip if it tends to show that a person accused of crime is not guilty.)

Random Baylor Football Note That Even I Can't Believe

	FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules)
3/17/14, 2:38 PM Yes, this Baylor-UIW game in 2019 is real - bit.ly/1dga7VU

And we're back. In case you were wondering, we went to Ian Anderson's Caves Branch in Belize. It bills itself as a "jungle lodge" and an "adventure company". I discovered it in an old New York Times article here.
I rode a horse up and down a slippery and steep 30 foot "canyon" (picture me wildly frightened on a horse and you've got me pictured correctly), I repelled 15 feet over a cliff and then was lowered down the next 270 feet (scary), Mrs. LL and I and a guided tour into the depths of a river cave which led to a dislocated shoulder after climbing a waterfall about an hour in (which was then put back in place by two guides who spoke broken English.), we all went to the Mayan ruins in Guatemala (where I could only think about Apocalypto and the rest of the Family Unit wouldn't stop looking at the monkeys in the trees.)
After snorkeling and stopping at a small island, the Fifth Grader in the House asked me "if you discover an island is it yours." I told her, "I think that's true if it's in international waters which, I believe, is like 15 miles from the coast of any country, but I'm not sure." Some wise guy college kid who was standing nearby said, "To not be sure, that was a pretty specific answer."
I was completely, and I mean completely, in a news blackout last week. There was no WiFi and no TV. That was pretty refreshing. (But I didn't expect the missing Malaysian plane to still be missing once I got back on the grid.)
When I loaded the plane to go home, Weatherford attorney Dan Carney was two rows behind me holding an issue of Texas Monthly which had an article on current Wise County assistant DA Tim Cole -- an issue which I had taken down there and read as well.
Not that I use it much, but going through customs in DFW is now a breeze. Completely automated and they make you take a "selfie" -- I'm guessing some type of facial recognition software is being used.
I read Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw's book on his addiction to alcohol called Drunk On Sports. It was pretty interesting but he sure thinks a lot of himself. He told us how much he made, how he was selected as being to valuable to be laid off by the News, and referred to himself as a "powerful voice" in the DFW media. And despite two years of sobriety, his tone at the end of the book does not sound like a guy who can keep it up.
I always thought Quizno's was a little wheels off and now it has declared for bankruptcy protection.
Some guy gets drunk and plows into a crowd at SXSW killing two people in Austin? I would understand an Intoxication Manslaughter charge but the DA will seek Capital Murder charges. That makes no sense. Edit: Here's the PC affidavit. There may be more to this than just aimlessly driving into a car. But it's still murky.
A list of the 35 riches "neighborhoods" in DFW. I suppose they all make sense except for #34: "Bedford".
Did you know that the "kissing sailor" in that famous Life photo lived in Benbrook? And he died last week.
TMZ got a hold of Justin Beiber's deposition last week and it is entertainment gold. That kid is such a tool.
The season finale of True Detective was beyond disappointing. Never has a brilliant cable show ended with an episode that wasn't even comparable to of a bad show of Law and Order.
St. Patrick's Day Parade "Hey, Now."
You don't hear much about the "Bermuda Triangle" anymore. Man, it was a big player when I was a kid.
Former tonight show regular David Brenner died last week. Maybe the most unfunny comedian ever.
Sports: (1) UT's new coach kicked two players off the team over the weekend, Charlie Strong is either going to be a great success or an epic disaster, (2) Baylor makes the NCAA Tourney but has its first game at 11:40 a.m. on Saturday, (3) 7 of the 10 teams in the Big 12 made the tourney, (4) The owner of the Colts got arrested last night for DWI and possession of a controlled substance, and (5) Troy Aikman was average at best over his last five seasons.