Monica Lewinsky At 40

And she's written an article for Vanity Fair. Not that I'm particularly interested, but she has been silent for a long, long time.

Internet Weather Report For Dallas From Sydney, Nova Scotia

[Staring at screen. Thinking of a comment. Giving up.]

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I received an email addressed to "all major media outlets" (I'm apparantly big time now) from moveon.org to announce a protest at the Star-Telegram's office "to demand that they stop the blackout regarding the leaked drafts of the  Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  We will protest this legislation and its turbo-charged twin, 'Fast Track' authority legislation, which our media have not publicized." I have no idea what that means.
• Radio guy Mark Davis said this morning that the new Benghazi hearings are being held with the purpose of (1) finding the truth, and (2) damaging the Obama Presidency and preventing a Hillary presidency. "We can't deny that," he said. Good lord. They are politicizing the death of four Americans? 
• "[O]ur public institutions belong no less to the Buddhist or Hindu than to the Methodist or Episcopalian.” - Justice Kagan dissenting yesterday from the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to allow prayer before public city council meetings. 
• Mrs. LL and I watched Monster recently -- the 2003 film about serial killer Aileen Wuornos played by Charlize Theron. It's great. Once you watch it, go find this clip on youtube of an actual interview of Wuornos and you'll be stunned by how well Theron nailed the character. 
• Hey sports nemesis, another Ranger starter had a bad outing last night. They've gone 3-7 in the last 10 games. 
• My routine: The alarm goes off and I hit the snooze button. The Family Pup looks at me. Ten minutes later it goes off again and she walks on my chest because she wants her belly rubbed. I comply. Snooze button hit again. Ten minutes later the alarm goes off and she jumps off the bed because it's time to go outside. Every morning. 
• Obscure NFL Draft Fact: Houston owns the number one pick and most think they'll take Jadeveon Clowney  over Johnny Football. Clowney is 6'5" 265 lbs. When Houston took Mario Williams over Vince Young in 2006, Williams was 6'6", 290 lbs. That 25 pounds and the lack of motor on Clowney seems like a huge difference for a potential number one pick. 
• The requirement that drug companies disclose every possible side effect in an advertisement seems enough to discourage them from ever advertising. 
• I went to bed last night with Six Days Seven Nights on. Is David Schwimmer one of the worst actors ever? And Friends doesn't exactly hold up over time, does it? 
• Call back from We're The Millers from yesterday: Jennifer Aniston certainly has held up. 
• The Bag of Nothing guy just tweeted that he woke up with "blood running out of my ear". 
• The Clippers' owner's mistress telling Barbara Walters that she was his "silly wabbit" and Walter's reaction of "What?!" makes me laugh. I've got it cued up for you. 

The Family Cat is after you, buddy.

Me mind on fire -- Me soul on fire -- Feeling hot hot hot

Good grief. This summer could be bad. Over 100 to the west? On May 5th?

(And the goofy commentators who in the past were quick to point out that a one day cold spell proved that global warming is a myth, where are you? This one day heat wave is equally conclusive empirical evidence, right?)

Violent Video Of The Day That I Certainly Don't Approve Of

Hey, this thing is everywhere. It's actually part of an eight minute video which I already know I don't want to watch.

I'm pretty sure if the shovel didn't knock her silly that the land on the concrete did.

Edit: If you think this girl has died, you don't understand the Internets.

Goo Goo G'joob

And Another -- Odessa

Carrasco Knighten, 25, was hired by ECISD as a P.E. teacher at Bonham in May 2013. She is the fourth female employee from Permian in about a year to resign while being investigated of an alleged improper relationship between an employee and a student. Story.

Would You Pay $100 To Take This Bus To Austin?

Speaking of @SouthwestAir competitors, @vonlanemotors' Dallas-to-Austin service launched today http://t.co/BrOVf7kKNb pic.twitter.com/pQms4Ki6Nl
— Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky) May 5, 2014

Maybe.

But I also think there's a train that I've never taken either.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• There was a Dallas Christian radio DJ who went on trial for sexual assault last week, but a mistrial was declared when the jury could not reach a verdict. When I heard that the "victim" said her accusation was based upon a "repressed memory", I knew there was a problem.
• It's amazing that double jeopardy doesn't prevent the retrial of a person after a hung jury.
• Fun fact: Former Southlake Carroll  coach Todd Dodge (whom I mentioned the other day) has a new job as head coach and AD at Austin Westlake. And, get this,: Westlake plays Carroll in the first game of the year.
• I keep hearing that the Benghazi murders were "preventable". Isn't every murder in one way or another preventable?
• I had to pick up the Sophomore In The House at Grapevine Mills mall and ended up walking through the food court. I was accosted with food samples. When did that start?
• There was a Jerry Whittle pontoon boat on display at the mall with a sign that said it could be purchased for $5.400 down and 180 months at $432.  First of all, that's 15 years. And that's total payments of $77,760. Someone calculate the present value of that boat for me. (I just looked it up and it's priced higher on the website.)
• There's an openly gay TCU assistant athletic director.
• I find it so strange that so many Mavs fans are proud of the team taking the Spurs to seven games. Hey, they lost in the first round, and it won't get any better in the foreseeable future. Mark Cuban inherited Dirk and he's done nothing to plan for the future.
• I watched the White House Correspondents' Dinner on CSPAN, and I came to the conclusion that President Obama is a better comedian than Joel McHale. And the opening film clip featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, John Boehner, and Nancy Pelosi was pretty funny. 
• Mrs. LL and I watched We're The Millers over the weekend. Pretty funny. And that kid, Will Poulter, stole the show. 
• We also watched the HBO documentary on Ann Richards. Mrs. LL had never heard of the Clayton Williams "relax and enjoy it" comment, and she reacted accordingly.
• Yesterday, Mrs. LL turned over to Duck Dynasty. That Christian based show bombarded me with beaver double entendre jokes. And they appeared to have been written by an eighth grader. 
• How in the world does Floyd Mayweather, Jr. earn $31 million for a boxing match over the weekend?
• Wells Fargo is closing it's "downtown" Decatur branch.  You know, FM 51 is more of a downtown than downtown is.  
• Mrs. LL comedy teams: She'll take Robin Williams and Jim Carrey. I'll take Sarah Silverman and Ricky Gervais. 
• Some people are worried about the potential violence when the World Cup is held in Brazil this year. This won't help: "A Brazilian soccer fan was killed (video link) when he was struck in the head by a toilet bowl hurled from stadium stands as supporters of rival clubs clashed in the northeastern World Cup host city of Recife, police said Saturday."

Oh, My

I'm Stealing An Ad Placed In This Weekend's Messenger

Hate the thought of missing puppy dogs.

Wake Up To Two Incredible Sportsy Plays

NBA: With .09 seconds left, Portland manages to get a shot off to send Houston packing in Game Seven. Video.

College Baseball: In the bottom of the 9th with the score tied and runners at first and second, an Aggie hits a game winner to left to beat LSU. Well, that's what everyone thought was going to happen. Video.

Above The Fold

Oregon State Cheer & Dance Tryouts Taking You Into The Weekend

More.

Dead Whale News

Everyone is upset because a whale washed ashore in Atlantic City and some frat kid painted his Greek letters on it.  I'm not sure there's a law outlawing the abusing of a whale corpse.

That reminded my that I saw a story earlier this week of a whale which had washed ashore in Canada and the town was afraid it would explode. Explode? Yep, here's a video to prove it can happen (with a great screen shot at the beginning of it):

Random Sports Confusion

This deals with math, so I'm in a dangerous area. But can both these statements be true?

And Dallas did in fact force a game seven in 1988:

• Game 6 @ Reunion Arena, Dallas (June 2): Dallas 105, Los Angeles 103

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Police in Washington state are going to set up a prostitution sting operation and then live tweet the photos of the poor saps that thought they were going to visit a hooker. Such sorriness on the part of the cops. 
• Every politician in Texas is jumping on the real (or imagined) proposed land grab by the BLM of some Texas property near the Red River. My favorite is carpetbagger George P. Bush who wants you to sign his "petition" to tell the BLM to stop its plan to seize the land. Take a look at that thing. That has one purpose: To create a database of potential voters. Not only does he want your phone number, he wants to know which carrier you use. 
• The Sophomore in the House thinks Jim Carrey is funny. That disturbs me. (We watched part of The Truman Show last night.)
• Strictly legal: I may be the only guy in the world yesterday who jogged and listened to the Supreme Court oral arguments in that can-cops-stop-a-guy-based-upon-an-anonymous-tip case.  I'm probably speaking to less than five people, but if you know this area of criminal law, listen to it because it is fantastic. "Counselor, if someone reported that someone was not wearing a seatbelt, can the police make a traffic stop?" "Counselor, if there was an anonymous caller who reported someone working for al qaeda had a nuclear bomb in their trunk and was heading into downtown Los Angeles, can a stop be made?" "If there is a report of someone throwing bombs out of car do the police have to wait to actually see another bomb be thrown before a stop can be made?" One judge told a lawyer that his argument "exhibited consistency but not a lot of common sense."
• I don't listen to music (as I've said) but I really like John Legend's hits.
• BagOfNothing.com guy said today that he used to think about suicide daily until he had kids. I'm not sure he realizes how shocking that it is. Or maybe I took it the wrong way. 
• Which reminded me of a book I read recently about suppressed anger which, shockingly, I probably suffer from. It began with a paragraph of "You may wake up and think" and then described perceptions of life and daily feelings in general. It matched me to a tee. The book then slapped me in the face with the sentence, "It might surprise you to learn that most people don't think and feel that way."
• Sports: (1) The Cowboys picked up the fifth year option on left tackle Tyron Smith which will cost them over $10 million. That will make him one of the top paid tackles. (2) In the Dirk area, the Mavs have never forced a Game Seven. They are either 0-6 ir 0-5 -- I can't find the exact number. (3) Best picture of Baylor's new stadium. (4) Argyle beat Bridgeport 3-0 last night in the regional baseball playoffs after which Argyle's head coach called it the  "worst game we've played all year."
• I was reading a USA Today story and it used the term "indefatigable". I had to make sure it was the USA Today. (It means "persisting tirelessly" by the way. I looked it up.)
• David Dewhurst has another attack ad on Dan Patrick. It isn't bad, but in the runoff, which will certainly have a low turnout, I think the ad will hack off the Tea Party so much that they'll turn out in droves to support Patrick. (The ad shows Patrick with his shirt unbuttoned which makes him look like he was at a drunken party. It was actually at a charity event for children where he was auctioning "the shirt off his back".) 
• I received a comment overnight taking me to task about not mentioning Benghazi. In case you can't find it, he wanted me to know that the "head negro in charge has been lying to us." Uh, thank you for reading Mr. Sterling. 
• The Dallas Morning News looks like a tabloid today. The guy didn't die, but was pardoned by the victim's mom at the last second. I skimmed the story -- the fact that she probably received $35,000 for her mercy makes this less than touching. 
• Edit for late news: Wordkyle, U.S. unemployment rate plummeted to 6.3%.

A Little Florida Police Brutality For Your Thursday Afternoon

Story and video. The reporter mentions that it "hurts to watch" the incident. This guy agrees . . .