Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Caution: It is the beating that is April Fool's Day. 
• So the Rangers gave up an opening day record for them of 14 runs, combined with the Phillies to give up 24 runs -- almost a major league record, and the game took over three and a half hours. And we get 161 more of them. 
• It's hard to believe The Ballpark is 20 years old. I went there for its first "open house" before a game was played there. 
• Yeah, we got the Beagle back to its owner. We probably would have kept it before we would take it to a shelter. 
• If you ever wondered what it's like to go to a soccer game in Europe (stay with me here), you should take a listen to the Ticket's Bob Sturm on this podcast.  He's been to multiple games and makes it sound like attending an NFL game is like going to the opera in comparison. 
• Ouch! The Angels hitting coach broke his femur of the ceremonial first pitch. 
• I keep hearing a radio commercial for the band Boston coming to the Allen Events Center in June. But their lead singer committed suicide in 2007.
• Is Syria still having a civil war? It dominated the news and now we hear nothing about it. 
• "Forestburg woman wanted by Crime Stoppers." I assume she no longer lives in Forestburg because it would be really hard to hide in Forestburg. 
• The Morning News has a story about elevated levels of cancer in Forestburg possibly related to fracking. Well, maybe.  It's the most confusing story ever -- see the third paragraph here. 
• The Decatur Main Street website has some pretty cool old photo's of the courthouse square -- one of them is a movie marquee advertising the movie "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now". I'd never heard of the movie but since it was released in 1947, it does give us a time stamp for the photos. 
• "FBI, military hunt ex-Army recruit suspected of plotting 'Ft. Hood-inspired jihad'".  Both Hal Jay and Brian Estridge said on WBAP this morning, in all seriousness, that the military should never recruit anyone named "Mohammed". 
• Barring a last minute resolution, I'm out of pocket today trying a State Jail Felony case. (Some of you will know how crazy that sounds.)

And A Little Different Opening Day Photo

Rangers' Response:

Good stuff

	Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky)
3/31/14, 2:11 PM The @dallasnews' Louis DeLuca is one hell of a guy. And he takes one hell of a Texas Rangers Opening Day photo: pic.twitter.com/Xnrdl8qWUc

Padres Ball Girl From Last Night

Look At This Guy Just Taking Rubber Bullets Like A Pro

Other video from a different angle and a photo of the shirtless aftermath here.  (With a funny reference to him as the "Tucson Terminator").

UConn Campus After Win Sends Them To The Final Four

Love the reaction of the cops: Let's get the heck outta here.

(Link if the above doesn't work.)

Just Gotta Post Everything, Don't Ya

WESTLAND, Mich. - It was the day after St. Patrick's Day when Colleen Cudney was called in for a random breathalyzer test.

The 22-year-old was put on probation for a drunken driving conviction in 2012. After Cudney took the test at the probation office in Westland, she logged on to Facebook and counted her blessings.

Investigators say she posted this: “Buzz killer for me, I had to breathalyze (sic) this morning and I drank yesterday but I passed thank god lol my dumba@@."

Anita Brown, a resident of Oak Park, says she didn't find Cudney's post humorous at all.

"I hope they throw the book at you young lady because it's sad that you did something like that because you could hurt someone or kill someone," Brown said.

A Westland police officer saw her post that morning and notified the probation office. When a probation officer called Cudney to return to the office for an urine test, she hung up the phone.

Probation officials say that was a violation of her probation. It was set to end in a few weeks.

An urine test would have detected if Cudney had anything to drink in the 80 hours prior to taking it, probation officials said. [Edit: I seriously question this sentence.]

Local 4 went by her house Thursday afternoon and were told no comment. Her Facebook post is sparking a lot of comments on the streets.

"People post some crazy things. They don't even think before they do anything," said Thomas Boyce, of Inkster.

Cudney is due in court on April 1st for a probation hearing. She could be sentenced to 93 days in jail.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• A Baylor student committed suicide in his car by the use of chemicals but was thoughtful enough to warn others about the presence of nitrogen sulfide by leaving a note.
• Shirley Jones turns 80 today. That's Mrs. Partridge. 
• Motorcycle death in Grand Prairie. 
• I bought birdseed for our bird bath. Birdseed, I learned, is expensive. 
• "Cop In Riot Gear Violently Blindsides Girl". (Language warning.)
• The guy charged with online solicitation last week in Wise County was initially arrested by  the "U.S. Marshals Service, Texas Rangers, Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Montgomery County Precinct 1, 2 and 4 constables, Conroe Police Department, Wise County Sheriff’s Department and Rhome Police Department." Did they really need that many people?
• The Messenger printed some guy's statement from a "private, neighborhood Facebook page" about the Klan in Rhome and ended up running a "clarification". The guy must have objected.  
• "Chris R" is in first place in the Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney, and I'm guessing that's our DA in second place. 
• Sports: (1) I don't think former UT Offensive Coordinator Major Applewhite has a job. (2) Cliff Lee faces the Rangers today which reminds me how seedy it seems to have rented him for half a season in 2010, (3) The Eagles cut DeSean Jackson amid rumors of gang affiliation. I didn't realize he even threw up a Crips sign in the first game last year. (4) To the guy who thinks I didn't realize that the Rangers pitching staff had suffered injuries and who thinks everything will be fine once everyone heals: Just how many starts to you think the Rangers will get out of the injured Holland and Harrison and the still recovering Lewis and Feliz? (5) I ended up watching a lot of the Texas Relays this weekend -- I learned that if you had "Florida" on your jersey then you were probably very, very fast.  (6) Anyone else having trouble getting used to "Globe Life Park"?
• Think our water problems are bad? Lake Travis is 53 feet low. 
• I caught some of Something About Mary this weekend -- still a funny, funny movie. And I had no idea that Sarah Silverman was in it. 
• I rescued a lost Beagle this weekend. As I carried it back to the house my neighbor yelled, "Now that's a different kind 'taking your dog for a walk'".

This Is Quite The Phenomenon

Creating a traffic hazard, @OpenCarryTexas activists were shooed away by @ArlingtonPD, and videoed it http://t.co/9Mbd0UfAeV
— Bud Kennedy (@BudKennedy) March 29, 2014

We are seeing more and more of this. Second Amendment advocates who are aware that is it absolutely legal to carry a rifle (or any other legal and long barreled firearm) down a city street in Texas. So they do it and film the cops when they come to investigate them.

The only way it is a crime is if the firearm is displayed "in a manner calculated to alarm". Then it's a Class C, fine only, misdemeanor.

It also looks like the city of Arlington may have an ordinance prohibiting handing anything to a person occupying a motor vehicle on a public street. So one of the gun supporters in this video asks the cop, "So if I hand this copy of the Constitution to that guy I'm going to get a citation?"

Above The Fold

Britney Taking You Into The Weekend

Out of Denton

	FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4)
3/28/14, 2:31 PM DFW: Amber Alert issued for abducted 10-year-old boy bit.ly/1hF6zxz

Edit: Cancelled at 3:50 p.m.

Highland Park PD Gonna Highland Park PD

"The Highland Park Department of Public Safety, however, is not your average police department. To better present their version of events, they produced what is essentially a nine-minute segment from America's Most Wanted, complete with actors, a voice-over, and sepia-toned reenactments, all punctuated by explanatory clips of an authoritative talking-head interview with the Public Safety Director Chris Vinson . . . . As far as propaganda goes, this is top-notch . . . . It's also hard to watch without wondering how magical it must be to live in a town so loaded that it can hire a professional PR firm to turn a couple of dash-cam videos into full-scale multimedia productions."  Source.

Financial News From MLB Yesterday

Miguel Cabrera & Tigers agree on deal that will pay him just under $300 million over next 10 years. (via @JCrasnick) pic.twitter.com/sWf4OJt0R6
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 27, 2014

Miguel Cabrera will earn $49,423 PER AT BAT over the next decade. Median annual income of a household in Michigan: $48,471.
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) March 27, 2014

From Last Night?

03/28/2014 08:59:08 | 25 yrs old | Bond: $704 | SPEEDING | EXPIRED INSPECTION http://t.co/rWrSAYThKV http://t.co/mzIe3CQVXv
— Arrests by @DentonPD (@DentonPolice) March 28, 2014

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• A big law firm hired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, at taxpayer's expense, concluded he had no role in the George Washington Bridge lane closings. What a goofball. 
• The Fifth Circuit upheld Texas' new abortion restrictions. The Fifth Circuit is like having Fox News make judicial rulings.
• That may have been the thickest fog I've ever seen this morning. 
• The video of the guy shot and killed by Highland Park Police officers is fascinating. He is searched in the back seat of the patrol car, but the cop doesn't find a handgun in the guy's pocket. He then is able to move his handcuffed hands from his back to his front, get the gun, shoot out the passenger window, and flee. Then another camera shows the cops firing at him (he's off screen) within seconds. The question is whether the dead guy pointed the gun back at the officers. (I absolutely disagree with Fox 4's legal analyst Pete Shulte -- who is normally spot on -- that it didn't matter if he pointed the gun because "he had already demonstrated that he could use a firearm".)
• Sports: (1) Baylor got drilled last night and it wasn't even close. I actually turned it off. Wisconsin has a seven foot white guy that just shredded Baylor's big guys. But Baylor President Ken Starr -- still have trouble typing that -- met Angela from The Office at the game.  (2) Great graphic depicting how long, in real time, it takes to play the final minute of a NCAA Tourney game. (3) When the Colt's owner was stopped a couple of weeks ago for drunk driving, he had $29,000 in cash on him. 
• I can't get enough of this clip of Nancy Grace, in her irritating voice, saying, "To look for poooooorrrrrn, Dan!"
• "Denton Woman Makes Record-Breaking Donation of Breast Milk." And that's all I have to say about that. 
• I had no idea it is just the Star-Telegram and not the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
• The Alvord ISD athletic director's contract was not renewed after a tie vote on the issue by the school board. A post on Liberally Lean about his hiring in 2011 generated 93 comments. 
• I didn't care about the announcement by Gwyneth Paltrow of her separation from Chris Martin other than her entitling it "Conscious Uncoupling". 
• Dallas Attorney Lisa Blue (I've dogged her before) is selling her mansion in Dallas. Take a look at that thing. 

Washington Mudslide Animated GIF

Looks like you could see that coming.

Sarah Palin's New Reality Show

So America that it hurts.