Index - 1967

I'm posting this for one reason: The funeral home used to have the only ambulance in town. In this picture, they are called out to pick up a deceased body. But I promise you, they were also called out to accident scenes to transport the injured to the hospital. (Unless, I'm completely crazy, but I think someone in the comments will back me up. )

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was interview by CBS yesterday, and he came across with "liar" written all over his face. The NFL "assumed" there was an elevator tape, requested it, but couldn't get it? Baloney. (Great job by interviewer Norah O’Donnell.)
• The NFL was willing to pay Goodell a mind boggling $44 million last year. But the NFL didn't have the resources to get the tape?
• There was one sure fire way to get the tape that no one is talking about. Rice's lawyer certainly would have a copy if one existed. The NFL could have told Rice, "Get a copy from him and hand it over."  The lawyer would tell Rice, "The DVD belongs to you and your under no legal obligation to give it to them. But they'll probably suspend you for life if you don't."  It would be like one of my clients coming to me and saying, "My employer wants to see my DWI tape." I'd tell him, "Here you go. You're under no obligation to give it to them, but they might fire you if you don't."
• The lawsuit against Jerry Jones is silly, and Jones' lawyers basically came out yesterday and called the woman's lawyer a spare. Hey, you civil lawyer boys: Isn't there a limitations issue here?
• The "lady" suing Jones is referred to in the media as "a former exotic dancer from Ardmore, Oklahoma." That's just funny. 
• So the cartel stalked the lawyer for two years, including using a GPS, and then decided to kill him in the most public place in Southlake? That's weird. (Personal note to Cartel: No offense intended.) 
• WBAP had Morten Storm on this morning. He's the author of Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA. Uh, someone might want to do some fact checking on that guy. I smell a rat. 
• "Interstate highways" must have on and off ramps and can't have traffic entering directly onto the highway from a "T" crossroad, right? The metroplex has I-35, I-20, I-30, I-635, and I-820. 
• If I knew what I was doing and had the training, I'd love just to get lost for a week hiking the Appalachian Trail. (Just to be clear, I'm talking literally and not euphemistically.) 
• I don't care what the calender says, it sounds like Fall arrives tomorrow. 
• Personal note: Last week I posted pictures of Pee Wee cheerleaders from Bridgeport back in the day. I was on the TXI Mustang football team back then. "RPM" commented that he was on that team. Who are you? Also, someone also commented that he was on a Decatur team that played TXI. That game happened. Kind of a Decatur/Bridgeport Pee Wee Super Bowl. Who are you? 
• In the Decatur/TXI game, they ran a kickoff back for a touchdown to give us our only loss. I was the kickoff team safety on the play and aimlessly just stood there in the middle of the field thinking, "There's no way he's going to make it down the sideline." He did. I was in sixth grade. Remember that touching little league coach who had that tear jerking post game talk with his after losing team in the Little League World Series last month? Our coach was just the opposite after that game.  "This leaves a little different taste in your mouths, doesn't it boys!" he said. And then he looked at me. "Where was the safety on that kickoff return?"  That was 40 years ago. We were gathered in the north end zone at Decatur Stadium. I was on a knee facing north. He was standing with the Eagle clubhouse in the background. And  I normally can't remember what happened yesterday.  

Above The Fold

Index 1967

• Motel fire. I think that thing was in downtown Bridgeport. There were 50 guests!
• Shootin' Blind is not pleased with the volunteer fire department. 
• Shootin' Blind also has a hot political opinion. 

Arlington Taxpayers Pay This Government Social Media Guy?

	Arlington Police, TX (@ArlingtonPD)
9/9/14, 1:50 PM I posted 37 photos on Facebook in the album "National Dog Day Album featuring your furry four-legged buddy" fb.me/6Rzlqkopb

Am I Telling You To Watch Tryouts For A Minor League Hockey Team Mascot?

Yes, I am.

I have a feeling this is what closing time at some Wise County bars look like.

Kids Today

Hey, kid, this is the way your supposed to mess around in the Oval Office:

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• More Ray Rice thoughts (1) The NFL and the Baltimore Ravens are unequivocally on record that they had not seen the elevator video before yesterday. If this turns out to be a lie, we'll have a modern day Red Wedding because a ton of people will lose their jobs. This includes commissioner Roger Goodell and Baltimore coach John Harbaugh. (2) And I think it's a lie. (3) Make no mistake about it: The NFL didn't take action against Ray Rice yesterday for beating up a woman. They knew that. They took action because yesterday the public saw Ray Rice beat up a woman. (4) And females, when the NFL rolls out all that pink next month for Breast Cancer Awareness you need to realize they don't care about you at all. (5) Peter King was on The Ticket this morning and he fell on his sword admitting that he did a horrible job of reporting that the NFL had seen the elevator video in July. But why does he now believe the NFL over his trusted source who he refers to as "impeccable"? It's like the NFL mafia contacted him and said, "Backtrack on that July story."  (6) In this day and time when you can get indicted for joking about a threat, how did Ray Rice not get criminally prosecuted for a Mike Tyson like left hook?
• Thought that Random Thought girl had some crazy fingers there for a second. 
• They finally made an arrest in the 2013 "hit" of the drug cartel lawyer at the Southlake Town Center. Heck, this was like the brothers from Mexico in Breaking Bad coming to kill someone in a parking lot that I mentioned the other day. 
• An Irving mother who killed her two children in 2010 was quietly found not guilty by reason of insanity yesterday.  Considering how much press coverage Andrea Yates, Deanna Laney, and Dena Schlosser received, this thing really flew under the radar. (This was also a trial before a judge and not a jury. Reading between the lines, I think the State agreed she was crazy and agreed to waive a jury and let the judge do the inevitable.)
• Every time I wake up at night (which is often), I look over and see new Family Pup #2 staring at me. I'm not sure that thing ever sleeps. 
• I've been on the Internet since November of 1996, and I'm still amazed that there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- that cannot be researched and discovered. I had a debate class in college where the subject was the Egypt/Israel conflict and the U.S. supplying AWACS planes to Egypt. (I feel old right now.)  I spent hours upon hours in the library - as well as going to and from -- and I only scratched the surface of understanding. For fun, I just Googled "Egypt and AWACS" and got  2,590,000 results in .75 seconds. 
• I don't care if President Obama golfs a lot, I'm just stunned he doesn't do a better job of hiding the fact that he golfs a lot. (He said over the weekend that he made a mistake golfing after a statement condemning the execution of American journalist James Foley. Duh. Did he not learn from W's "now watch this drive" fiasco?)
• When I watched SMU coach June Jones getting killed by UNT in the heat on Saturday, I thought, "Man, I've never seen a coach look more miserable." I was right. He quit yesterday. (Which is pretty sorry, right?) 
• When I watch that new Matthew McConaughey commercial for Lincoln, I just start smiling. It's kind of like I'd feel if I saw David Wooderson drive by the courthouse and he nodded at me. Edit: Heck, I hadn't even seen the one with the bull.
• Here's a Vine of Dez Bryant getting hit in the back on Sunday. That is so violent. I'm stunned it didn't snap in half. 

Fox and Friends Tells Us There Is A Message About That Ray Rice Incident

And that message is: Never, ever, hit a woman. When you're in an elevator, there's a camera.

I've Had Peter King In My Figurative Cross Hairs For Over A Year

My statement on the Ray Rice story: http://t.co/aTbQMTSQAh
— Peter King (@SI_PeterKing) September 8, 2014

This is all you need to know.

For the uninitiated, Ray Rice is an NFL player who beat up his then girlfriend (now wife) in an elevator and then drug her out of it. The video of her dragging her out of it was released months ago and everyone was horrified. The NFL only suspended the guy for only two games and King, who is nothing more than a lap dog for the NFL, supported the decision.

Today the video comes out which shows what happened in the elevator. It is beyond shocking. The NFL released a statement this morning saying, "Hey, we didn't know about that video."  This has to be a lie. TMZ can get it but the NFL, which is a Bully With Billions, can't? Anyway, King then releases his "statement" (how pompous is that?) saying that his earlier report that the NFL had seen the elevator video was wrong but that he had relied on a trusted source.  But he just takes the NFL's word that the front office hadn't seen the video and turns on his "source" who he refuses to name?  And to further prove the guy is clueless, he has this sentence in his brief statement, "No one from the league has ever knocked down my report to me . . . . " He used the phrase, "knocked down."

The site his statement is on allows instant comments. He is getting brutalized.

(As great as Ray Rice is as a football player, I wouldn't rule out the Ravens cutting him and the NFL then shunning him. This is a PR disaster.) Edit: BOOM!

Links:
My post on Ray Rice's shocking May press conference and apology. "Sometimes in life you will get knocked down." (Along with shocking Raven tweets at the time.)
Me turning on King in 2013.

Edit: Now I know why he issued the "statement"!  He had a brain freeze earlier in the day and didn't remember what he had written.

Earlier in the day, he wrote this: "If league officials saw this [new] video before issuing the two-game ban for Rice, all the scorn that’s been heaped on them when Roger Goodell gave Rice a two-game ban will be deserved."

This is what he wrote in July: "There is one other thing I did not write or refer to, and that is the other videotape the NFL and some Ravens officials have seen, from the security camera inside the elevator at the time of the physical altercation between Rice and his fiancée. I have heard reports of what is on the video, but because I could not confirm them and because of the sensitivity of the case, I never speculated on the video in my writing, because I don’t think it is fair in an incendiary case like this one to use something I cannot confirm with more than one person."

University Of Minnesota Has A Very Funny Bit To Intimidate Opposing Kickers

The Dramatic Gopher returned to TCF Bank Stadium last Saturday. Shows up keep an eye on opposing kickers. #Gophers pic.twitter.com/gU7pQgmhos
— Minnesota Football (@GopherFootball) September 8, 2014

The original from years back:

Rick Perry Is In Japan For Some Reason

My new desktop wallpaper: @GovernorPerry and Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko. So confusing. pic.twitter.com/4kI1W9RabZ
— Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky) September 8, 2014

Index

Only posting this because of the huge picture of the girl in the bathing suit and, more importantly, the caption.  And that was an employee of the paper.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts. Edit: It's Monday. Maybe I Just Refused To Acknowledge It.

• Wow: The elevator footage of Ray Rice punching his fiancee has been released. Once again, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him for two games. I despise the NFL. 
• After four years, I had to replace my gas powered weedeater. I'll take four years worth of use (being used at least 30 weekends). But the last two I have had to replace had the same problem: A small cylinder becomes disconnected from a fuel tube inside the tiny gas tank. (And after decades of weedeater purchases, Ryobi is my favorite. And I use a metal blade instead of those always breaking strings.)
• There's a fake photo going around allegedly depicting the Ferguson officer's "fractured eye socket". And even I was almost duped by the orbital injury story.
• There's a radio ad I hear on The Ticket that is for railroad track (it's in the first person talking about how "I" show up for work every day and am responsible for the U.S. economy). Who is that ad targeted at?
• The Red Bull Air Show was at the Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. WBAP's Steve Lamb this morning: "They can't fly more than 230 miles per hour and must travel at 80 feet above the ground." Hal Jay: "Hey, that's the same rules that the Malaysian Airline pilots have." Too soon? 
• I don't understand those who post comments that are nothing more than over the top President Obama bashing. I'm not talking about those who try to intelligently make a point, but those who just go on a crazy rant that sounds like the author is about to bust a gasket. That just seems like a crazy waste of energy. 
• Sports and funny stuff: (1) To the guy who angrily asked me last week, "Have you ever seen [UT quarterback] Swoopes play?" after I announced he was awful: Uh, yeah. Last year. And he was awful. More importantly, the fact that Mack Brown wouldn't play him more when Brown was fighting for his job was more than telling. (2) But Brown's recruiting at the QB position is beyond stunning. Since Colt McCoy, there has been no one. (3) The resignation of Ron Washington is a massive mystery. The greatest manager in Rangers history quits with three weeks to go, won't say why, and the Rangers hold the weirdest press conference 30 minutes after the announcement? The media hardly had time to get other there, and most didn't. (3A) And Dale Hansen said last night that Washington showed up with lawyers by his side when he announced his retirement to the team? This even weirder. (4) That still shot of the number of 49ers fans at the Cowboy game yesterday is stunning. (5) OSU's quarterback may miss the rest of the season and his replacement is Maxx German. Ring a bell? That was the Southlake kid who Channel 8's Brett Shipp went after for illegally transferring into the district just to play football.  I remember Shipp ambushing the kid's daddy as he was gassing up his bass boat. (6) The end of College Gameday on ESPN was funny and insane. (7) But not as funny as the Carolina Panther kicker warming up in the middle of a band performance.  (8) The Decatur Eagles played in the "Dale Hansen Classic" in Waxahachie. Dale Hansen has a Classic?
• Wise County is about to host the Texas Sporting Clays Championship in about ten days where they estimate 300,000 clay pigeons will be tossed in six days.
• I almost ended up with a stray (big) bulldog and his Yorkie buddy who were frantically running in the rain this weekend. As I coaxed them to my front door, their owner pulled up who was out looking for them. Thank goodness.
• I jogged this weekend and my Achilles was still hurting. I went back to the method of landing on my heel and rolling the foot. Worked like a charm. You'd think that changing your running style would be impossible but it was pretty easy. 

Today Is The 50th Anniversary of the LBJ "Daisy Girl" Ad

It aired one time.

Funny

These players were meant to sit next to each other #wallyworld pic.twitter.com/z5BmMTpQnH (via @PaulPabst)
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) September 6, 2014

Friday Night Lights

• Bridgeport 56, Boyd 48 (4 overtimes! And get this:  Per Richard Greene at the Messenger, Boyd's Qualynn Wells rushed for more 420 yards in the loss. That's insane.)
• Grapevine Faith 56, Alvord 21 (You gotta have faith.)
• Era 60, Chico 30
• Henrietta 20, Paradise 13

And there were three games at Cowboys Stadium which were crazy. Southlake won in overtime on a gamble. #1 Allen won in the final seconds and scored 58, as did Skyline who scored 53 (and had a 484 yard rusher!). The last game didn't wrap up until after midnight.  Edit: Man, there were four games there. Argyle played as well.

Above The Fold