First It Was Rene Zellweger Who Was Unrecognizable

Now it's Zack Galifianakis.

Story.

Random Tribute To Lynda Carter

Random facts: She's a former Miss World USA (very confusing title) and once found a dead body in the Potomac river.

My Twitter Timeline Can Be Disconcerting

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• You know, I made fun of the False Flag people in connection with the razing of the house of the shooter of Sandy Hook elementary. And I still will. But it is weird that they are tearing down a perfectly good house. I mean, it's worth something, right? Heck, I'd buy it if the price was low. 
• "You walk into any Republican Club and quite frankly, the real challenge it to find someone there under 50, please." - Mark Davis on his radio show last Friday. (And, after going back and listening to his show, he absolutely believes that Chris Kyle killed two car-jackers. Note to Davis: You believe stuff like that and I question everything you say.)
• Can no one tell the truth? Hannity had Chris Kyle's father on his "special" show on Friday night and the father spoke of Kyle shooting the young boy which is featured in the first scene of American Sniper. But Kyle never even said or wrote that he did such a thing. Incredible. 
• One more thought on that Hannity show: Why do we come to the defense of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and scream "Free Speech" but get outraged when Michael Moore or other celebrities criticize American Sniper? (Hannity, during the show, suggested putting Moore in a room with five Navy Seals. That's promoting violence because of certain speech.)
• Nothing is more of a time waste than an interview with a player in a professional sport.
• Troy Aikman seems angry over the last month. Very angry. I wonder if something is going on.
• I hope I live long enough to see history judge the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. History will not be kind.
• College football recruiting: A kid committed Texas flipped to Auburn over the last few days and then "Snapchatted" a photo of himself holding a wad of cash. Edit: Link fixed.
• Grand Prairie police arrested two people for driving while intoxicated early Sunday after three back-to-back car crashes into unoccupied police cars. 
• New York City is expected to get hit with a record blizzard today and tomorrow. When I heard that last night, I thought that if I were rich I'd hop in a plane and find a hotel as close to Central Park as I could. And then I'd walk and walk this afternoon.  (And when I'm on my deathbed, I'll ask myself, "Why didn't you?")
• The greatest NFL receiver that never was, Josh Gordon, is facing a ban of one year for failing another drug test. And the drug he tested for? Alcohol.   Worst. Player's. Union. Ever. 
• We crowned a New Miss Universe over the weekend. Is that the most presumptuous title ever? (The winner was Miss Colombia Paulina Vega.) Edit: Saw this after I wrote that. 
• There were protestors in the Supreme Court on Thursday objecting to the silly Citizen's United decision which allows the rich to buy elections.  I thought it was cool that there was an "artist's rendering" of the event but was surprised to see there was cell phone footage. (Those security folks needed to lighten up on that first lady.)
• Teacher suspended for supporting "And another."
• From the Update: "FREEDOM TEXAS – Freedom Texas will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the meeting room at Pizza Hut, 501 S. Washburn St., in Decatur. This is a group that educates people about the sovereignty, security and self-sufficiency of Texas and promotes its eventual independence." Let's guess the average age and race of the attendees. 

Kid Is Destined To Be A Hit With The Ladies

Let's Tell This Bear Of A Week What We Think Of It And Head Into The Weekend

I suggest that guy go watch the documentary Grizzly Man.

Now I Have My Answer

Last month, I dogged the judge in the Kaufman JP capital murder case for grandstanding:

And someone speculated why . . .

But now we have our answer from the "Local Politics" section of the Morning News:

Story. I guess Tip O'Neill was correct: "All politics is local."

University of Miami Fan Pushes NC State Player

Loved that glare when the player turned around.  If that kid didn't say, "Uh . . . sorry, sir. Just trying to help. Won't happen again, sir", he's flirting with disaster.

Palin/Nugent 2016

I would be horrified and extremely entertained.

I Thought We Had Gold For A Moment From Fox 4!

Alas, it was Decatur, Georgia.

"Dozens Of Dogs Possibly Stolen From Wise County"

Link to Channel 5 story.

Edit: A commenter pointed out that this made the Drudge Report . . .

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• "Trial of Eddie Routh, killer of Chris Kyle, will be darkest chapter of American Sniper". True that. Routh is a victim of that that war, too. A war which took so many young lives will haunt, if not destroy, many of its survivors for year and years to come.
• Conservative talk show host Mark Davis actually believes Chris Kyle killed two truck jackers at a convenience store in Texas? 
• The King of Saudi Arabia died yesterday. Every time I hear "Saudi Arabia" I think of the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from there. And I also think of a book I've always intended to read: House of Bush, House of Saud. 
• Odd NFL fact I had forgotten about: Tampa Bay began in the AFC and then moved to the NFC. Seattle started in the NFC, moved to the AFC, and then back to the NFC.
• Deflategate is whipping me to no end. And note to media: If you think double entendres about balls are funny when discussing the controversy, I suspect you go home and watch Larry the Cable Guy on a DVD player.
• Fox 4's Becky Oliver had a segment last night on "extreme billing" by Texas General Hospital in Grand Prairie. She focused in on a lady who had gastric sleeve surgery and received a bill for $622,887.  Anyone else confused by this? She had an elective surgery and there was not an agreed upon price upfront? This isn't like she was rushed to the emergency room after an auto accident with severe injuries.
• You guys can gripe all you want to about Obamacare, but the system we have lived with for decades is jacked up. Getting rid of it might be like being on a journey with Lewis and Clark, but it needs to be made. And I don't care how Obamacare morphs over the years to come so long as the old status quo is gone.
• In the Jacksboro murder case where the guy was representing himself, he was found guilty and received 85 years in prison. Based upon what I've read, that seems excessive. 
• Come on, can't we have at least one ice day?
• Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of Heath Ledger's death.  Is it just me, or does the passage of time seem to be ramped up to overdrive?
• Kyler Murray is a very highly rated high school QB who is committed to the Aggies. (He's also the son of former Aggie great Kevin Murray.) But he did three weird things this week: (1) Took a surprise unofficial recruiting visit to UT, (2) Tweeted a picture of a Longhorn jersey with his number on it, and (3) Attended a function wearing a burnt orange tie.  If he ends up with the Aggies, I'd be worried he's a nutcase. 
• Very nerdy legal observation: Yesterday the Fort Worth Court of Appeals issued an "en banc" opinion which means all seven judges decided the case instead of the typical three. That's beyond rare so I expected something big. But the opinion issued concerned itself with the pretty routine issue of whether there was sufficient evidence of intoxication in a DWI case. It was incredibly short and there was not a dissent. And they designated the opinion as "Do not publish" which it means it doesn't go in the formal printed law books (but can still be cited.) So why did they go to all that trouble to have all seven judges hear the case? 
• Stolen from BagOfNothing: I completely missed the filming this week during a NBA game of Will Ferrell hit a cheerleader with a (probably fake) basketball as part of an upcoming film. Here's the video. Here's an incredible photo of it. And here is the gal who played the part of the cheerleader. Hey, now. 

Girl vs. Glass Door: Who Ya Got?

That was kind of like Rocky and Apollo Creed hitting each other simultaneously and both going down.

Winner: Girl. She's able to get up.

Flashback: He's Still On The Run

From America's Most Wanted

I hadn't thought about this guy in years, but he is still on the run. He worked as a crime scene investigator or processor in Wise County in the 1990s but was fired in a resume scandal. Later he became wanted for murder. And they've been looking for him for years.

Edit: I wonder if this comment is true . . .

Funnier Than I Thought It Would Be

There's some Crazy Talk in there.

Dez likes Funyons.

Guy Calls Out A Troll On Twitter

Who trolls a guard for 13-6 New Mexico who plays in the Mountain West?

That Was A Pretty Big 72 Hours

Within period of 72 hours, Nixon was reinaugurated, LBJ died, Roe v Wade decided, Vietnam settlement announced--all 42 years ago this week.
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 22, 2015

A president who would be forced to resign, a president who was forced into office after the JFK assassination, abortion legalized, and a war we still argue about today.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Jalapeno question: I can eat a Subway sandwich with several jalapenos on it with no problem. A little hot, but I like it. But if I buy a jalapeno at the grocery store and eat a slice of it, even if cut razor thin, my mouth erupts in fire. What's the difference? 
• The Dallas Observer had a great post yesterday of corruption within the University Texas Law School (including its former dean) and how the Texas Tribune, "the on-line news service that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the University of Texas System, blew off [a] new report as old news and basically not much to talk about." It was basically about a slush fund for the dean. 
• Look, I have some hesitation letting some comments go through that are critical of certain aspects of the Bridgeport High School basketball team. But, as I have always done, I want to expose racism to those who blindly don't believe it exists. And, man, some of you over the last two days have acted like you live in 1950 Mississippi. (And you can't imagine some of the comments that I killed. )
• 1,715 TV series aired in 2014. That is crazy.
• That said, set the DVR: On January 27th, HBO will broadcast Night Will Fall. It "explores the background to what took place in 1945 when Allied soldiers, newly trained as camera operators, were sent into Germany to record what they found during the liberation of camps such as Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and Auschwitz." The footage almost became a documentary after WWII (Alfred Hitchcock was involved) but it was shelved. And that footage has never been seen until now. They say it is haunting. 
• Troy Aikman on the Ticket this morning said that a new football is used on every play in the Super Bowl because the last used ball becomes a "commemorative football." I'll take his word on that, but I've never heard of Super Bowl commemorative football (advertised as "actually used in the game!") for sale on e-Bay or anywhere else. 
• There are places in the metroplex where gas jumped 25 cents a gallon yesterday. 
• The Assistant DA from Dallas who was arrested a couple of weeks ago for DWI and went on a rant towards the officers has now officially been canned. 
• There's a murder trial going on in Jacksboro where the defendant is representing himself with two "standby attorneys" from Decatur appointed to help him if he wants it. Day one. Day two. This morning he will testify by having one of the two lawyers read questions to him exactly as he (the defendant) has written them. It has the potential to be a train wreck. 
• Baylor played a basketball game last night, in the middle of the conference part of the schedule, against some school named Huston-Tillotson. Who is that? Why are they playing a school with an enrollment of 900? Answer: It was supposed to be part of a "Coach Carter" movie that fell through but they played the game anyway. (Baylor was only ahead by one at halftime). 
• The house of Adam Lanza (the Sandy Hook killer - or alleged Sandy Hook killer for you False Flag nuts) will be demolished. But, man, that's a nice house on two acres. 
• "Police in a Mexican border city said Wednesday that a drone overloaded with illicit methamphetamine crashed into a supermarket parking lot." Now that's some American type ingenuity by our friends south of the the border. 
• WBAP's Hal Jay this morning: "Ann [his wife] and I don't have any secrets from each other as far as I know." Think about that statement.
• WBAP's Brian Estridge this morning pointed out that the President ended the State of the Union with "and God bless this country we love” instead of "God bless America."  Estridge then said he "wasn't offended by that" which caused me to become very confused. Then he followed it up by saying "some people" wonder what country the President was referring to. Incredible. 
• For 64 years, the Texas Senate (31 members) required a 2/3rds majority (21 votes) before a bill could be bought up for debate and a vote. Yesterday, that was scrapped and now there is a 3/5ths rule (which will require only 19 votes.) Want to know the current make-up of the Senate: 20 Republicans. 11 Democrats.  Get ready, folks.