Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Big Amtrak wreck in Philadelphia last night that killed six.  (Oddly, I just keep thinking of Bruce Willis walking down the hospital hall in Unbreakable.)
• I've got a commenter who has fired off a "you refuse to publish my comment" a couple of times.  Since you mentioned what the content of it was, I went back and checked. Nope. Not submitted and not in Spam comment folder. I think we have a YP instead of a MP.
• I'm not sure about this: If I see high water on the road should I turn around? 
• And I was just struck with a crazy old memory from the old Dick Van Dyke show where Rob or Buddy were having a pants crisis requiring one of them to remove his pants. They told Sally who was in the room to "turn around." She did a full 360 and said, "Ta-Da!"
• Lake Bridgeport is now 14.66 feet low. With rain predicted over the next week, if a storm would park itself on the saturated watershed, you would actually see what everyone always says: It can fill up in two days. 
• "A Wichita Falls woman is behind bars after police say she and her boyfriend were smoking meth in the Rathgeber Hospitality House at United Regional." I'm more worried about the boyfriend who said he gulped down nine grams of meth as security was knocking on the door. 
• An "apparent stripper" from Oklahoma is seeking a protective order against a Tea Party Texas State Senator. Who knows if there is any merit it to it, but when the AP uses the phrase "apparent stripper", I'll run with it. (Her twitter account is a one hot mess.)
• Odd discussion up at the courthouse yesterday when three buddies I was talking with had already ranked the ways to commit suicide. Then we debated the pros and cons to various methods. (Trust me, the conversation was not dark but funny.) 
• I'm not sure where I saw it last night, but Jeb Bush is taking heat from fellow Republicans for saying he would have fought the Iraq war all over again. I was stunned that so many Republicans now finally acknowledge what a horrible mistake that war was. 
• The 37 lawyer firm of Hermes Sargent Bates in Dallas will (oddly?) disband after six "equity partners" couldn't agree on a long term lease for the firm. (Story - probably behind paywall.) By June 1, the firm is done. (There's something that rings a bell with me about that firm, but I can't recall it.)
• Serious question: Why did the Wise Regional Hospital buy the Bridgeport hospital only to close it? (And here's the latest financials on Wise Regional. Sounds to be in pretty good shape but it is interesting to note it lost $2.4 million in 2014 on its new Parkway Surgical and Cardiovascular Hospital in North Fort Worth.) 
• The Sixth Grader In The House is a pretty good softball pitcher but she will launch a ball over the neighbor's fence from time to time. I'm envisioning creating my own temporary safety net with PVC pipe. 
• Note to goofy Texas legislature: If the Supreme Court decides there is a constitutional right to gay marriage next month, you can't "thwart" that ruling with a state law. 

Oh, My

Taken by @MonicaDPD, who's at the multiple fatality crash near Sunset High in Oak Cliff http://t.co/Er8kF8ehvs pic.twitter.com/JK6QEmj1Cq

— Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky) May 13, 2015

Can't Decide On The Title: "Idiocracy" Or Just "Morons"

Patriots protesters handcuffed themselves together in lobby of NFL offices. Expecting police arrival. (@LAKEdwards) pic.twitter.com/ZOvB2Vx5vD

— Breaking News Feed (@PzFeed) May 12, 2015

Anyone Seen Maverick And Goose?

JUST IN: US Navy: F/A-18 jet crashes after launch from USS Theodore Roosevelt in Persian Gulf; 2 on board ejected, rescued - @LMartinezABC

— ABC News (@ABC) May 12, 2015

My expert Google skills tell me the jet has a sticker price of $55 million.

 So?

Ego? Check? Body? Cashed? Ring a bell, Scientology boy?

[Editor's note: Never did understand this.]

Let's Check In On The The Mean Streets Of The Bishop Arts District

She says she's just a regular white girl in the "hood" who got thrown out of a country show because of lesbians.

Story and video.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Someone offered Mrs. LL free Colonial golf tourney tickets, and she asked me if I would want to go. I told her "maybe" and pointed out that it would held over Memorial Day weekend. She did the Google and told me that it wasn't. "I'm pretty sure I'm right, babe," I replied (actually meaning "You aren't talking to the guy in the next cubicle. You're talking to a Sports Genius. And Colonial is always on Memorial Day weekend.") Then I learned that for the first time since 1964 the Byron Nelson which will be played after the Colonial on Memorial Day.
• I didn't see it, but Channel 5 interrupted a PGA tourney on Sunday to show two goofballs stuck in high water in Dallas. The Ticket had one of the guys on  yesterday where he revealed he was 17 years old and only got stuck in water because a "levee broke." Riiiighht. He had named his truck "VortecXpress."  (His Twitter feed is about what you would expect from a high schooler from Sanger with a big truck.)
• Fort Worth police killed a guy yesterday because he left a home suspected of being a place where hydrocodone and xanax were being sold. (!!!!!!)  He allegedly backed up in the direction of officers, allegedly striking one offiver who was not injured, so they shot him.
• The Patriots get fined $1 million for "Deflategate" so fans created a GoFundMe account to pay it for them. You kidding me?
• And it is amazing that Deflategate led most national evening news shows last night.
• The 16-Year-Old-In-The-House is now the 17-Year-Old-In-The-House.  Many years ago I used to gig Mrs. LL by sarcastically saying, "They grow up so fast."   I feel silly now.  As is so often the case, we don't understand some things until we experience them. 
• Interesting item in the Update: Wise County spends $30,000 a year on "indigent burials" while Denton County spends $40,000.  Regardless of how someone qualifies for an indigent burial, I'm more stunned that Denton County only spends $40,000 than any potential "waste" by Wise County. 
• Two hosts of a former WBAP weekend show are being sued by the SEC for "telling customers that interests in life settlements they sold were 'guaranteed,' 'safe as CDs' and federally insured.'”  There is nothing worse than some radio "talk shows" on the weekends. They are obviously nothing more infomercials, have fake/planted callers, and just reek of lies.  
• Is this real? A University of Houston student posted a pic of himself with a handgun making a joke about gangs and had his placed was searched by police? 

Random Texas Bus Driver

This got the attention of Texas Monthly.

Things That Make Me Shake My Head But Probably Shouldn't

Here's a friendly reminder to get your mom and wife a special surprise to brighten their day tomorrow. 😊 pic.twitter.com/2SxgER39P7

— Arlington Police, TX (@ArlingtonPD) May 10, 2015

I've always dogged the Arlington PD twitter account.  It's more silliness than public information, and it drives me nuts that someone is being paid with tax dollars to run it.

But this tweet got my attention over the weekend. OK, it's funny. It's cute. But are those guys on duty? I've seen public official get indicted over the alleged theft of $250. So how much taxpayer money is being wasted if these guys are on the clock?

Random Bar Exam Passing Rate Results

Either the test was much harder this year or there is something different about those taking the test.

Wait For It

1:25 mark.

Back story.

Fox 4 News Comedy Routine

It was taken down within 30 minutes.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• As I drove around Wise County yesterday afternoon, I thought that I was in the most intense rainstorm I've ever seen. And I still think that. 
• Lake Bridgeport is 16.44 feet low as of this morning.  I think that's a seven feet rise in less than a week. And we might get a little more of a rise through runoff today.
• I don't know anything about metroplex politics, but how does Arlington mayor Robert Cluck get defeated with that much name recognition?
• I don't know how I ended up watching the South Carolina Freedom Summit on CSPAN in the middle of the night, but seeing every GOP presidential candidate and Donald Trump address what looked like a white AARP convention was not inspiring. (And, man, they loved invoking "radical Islam" and "Garland, Texas" to fire up that crowd.)
• Troubled Cowboy Josh Brent "retired" last Friday.  I bet that is more of a Cowboy decision than a Josh Brent decision -- the guy can't play.
• It's been about two weeks since Gov. Greg Abbott said he would have the Texas State Guard keep an eye on federal troops as they engage in routine operations in Texas this month. I can't get past that. (And when Rick Perry pretty much called Abbott a nut because of it, you've got problems.) Edit: Funny.
• Just glanced at BagOfNothing's blog. He installed a bidet this weekend. (Cue orchestra music!)
• Local weatherman complaint: Over the weekend, they would do a forecast using a radar graphic. But this wasn't the typical "just green" projection. This included all sorts of color (red, purple, yellow) which made it look like a current live radar.  I'm against that.
• I never thought there would come a day when I'm putting stakes in the back yard exactly 43' apart to mark the distance for softball pitching. That's the distance for rec league pitching ages 12 and up. (Side note: After becoming curious, I was curious what the pitching distance for college softball. I'll be dang: 43' feet. But high schools only moved from 40' to 43' five years ago.) 
• Tornadoes struck Van, Texas last night. The only thing I know about Van is that in high school, in journalism class, we got to see the weekly student newspaper called the Van Vandal. I have no idea why we had a subscription (it was the only one we had, too.)
• This morning, The Ticket had an add for pre-paid legal defense insurance for gun users. 
• I saw where WBAP's  and TCU play-by-play man Brian Estridge has jury duty in Tarrant County this morning. Note to the defense: Cut him. 
• Close to "And Another": Principal found in car with weed and shirt partially unbuttoned. 
• Remember that nice house on Lake Whitney was intentionally burned a year or so ago because the cliff it was built upon was falling into the lake? Well, the cliff fell over the weekend. 
• A 17 year old from Bridgeport is listed in the Update death notices today. Edit: Should have recognized that it was the boy who went missing a couple of weeks ago. We just had an official ID so now they'll have the funeral. 

Decatur ISD Election News

Firing Up The Liberally Lean Radar For Saturday Night

Not that I have sixth super secret weatherman sense (although that wouldn't surprise me), but there is something really weird about the weather today.  Tornadoes already forming to the east. Some pretty big storms already popping up nearby.

Something ain't right.

I'm taking us to DEFCON 4.

Edit: And then the sun comes out at 8:00 pm. Take us to DEFCON 5, Colonel. But you might want to check on the boys south of Fort Worth.

I'm No Engineer . . .

FM 1806 just outside of Bowie is completely washed away after last night's storm. pic.twitter.com/YZEn7y8Zcu

— Jessica Bruno (@JbrunoKFDX) May 9, 2015

. . . but I'd put a lot of those big drainage pipe thingees underneath it when they rebuild it. Or maybe a huge concrete storm drainage foundation thingee. (I apologize for all of this technical talk.)

Work Week Over: Let's Make A Break For It While We Still Have A Chance

I'm Always Confused By These "Hip" Social Media Friendly Judges

This guy is a sitting judge in Houston and also Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's son.  He'll tweet when a trial is about to start or when a jury reaches a verdict.

But then he'll send things like this out.  This is a work day, right? Is he using a government computer? A government phone? Government Wifi? Government provided internet hardline?

I Have So Many Questions

From Youtube: Previously unknown medical condition caused a crash on 4/2/2015. I have never passed out in 26 years, but suddenly passed out. Sorry about disabling the comments, but the trolls got really bad. Media inquiries please see break.com, as Defy Media has acquired rights to this video. God Bless.