Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

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• Amtrak review: Fantastic. I'd love to commute every morning by train and then walk to work.
• I posted a picture of Mrs. LL asleep looking like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable and got some funny responses. 
• Mrs. LL and I are staying with friends. She spent the night having fun playing with a toddler while I got into a debate with a senior citizen over health care. She was feisty!
• We are staying in a house in New Jersey. I did an informal poll of the people around me last night as to their political choice if it were Trump v. Hillary. It was 5-1 for Trump. Son of a gun, he might win this thing.
• And I loved Trump's recent statement of "If I don't win this thing it will have all been just a big waste of time."
• Speaking of Trump: Fetus necklace?
• The mom of the Affluenza kid is back in the U.S. Picture. However, the kid is fighting extradition and is still in Mexico and may remain there for a while. I mentioned yesterday that juvenile law is complicated. Is it possible that the deadline to transfer him to adult court will run out before he gets back here? Just a thought.  
• "Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew invites 'Star Wars' fan's widow to his Texas home" Does he still live in Boyd?
• The NFL had refile its appellate brief in Deflategate because the first one had a cover page which was the wrong color. That whole sentence screams Idiocracy.
• Bill Cosby getting arrested is something I never expected as recently as ten years ago. 
• Mrs. LL and I just spent two days in Washington D.C.   I'll do a seperate post on it but I've got some hot sports opinions. 
• Year-end countdown: The 10 biggest North Texas criminal justice stories of 2015.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• So the Affluenza kid got caught because they ordered a pizza via cell phone in Mexico? Buddy, just walk down the road and eat a taco. 
• The Tarrant County DA was smart to hold a news conference. Juvenile probation law is incredibly complicated. At this point the best she can do to that kid is not revoke the probation as a juvenile, get him transferred to an adult court, keep the probation going to 2024 with a condition he spend a few months in county jail. Like I said, incredibly complicated.  
• I'm beginning to believe this affluenza defense. With idiot parents like that, the kid never had a chance. 
• I'm going to spend two and a half hours on an Amtrak train today, and I'm very excited about it. 
• In a bizarre game, Baylor beat a very good North Carolnia team last night by running the ball for 645 yards. That's the most ever in any bowl game in the history of bowl game ever. And it was done without their top two quarterbacks, best receiver, and best running back. 
• Oklahoma's quarterback took a verbal shot at TCU because of the way he believes he was treated during the recruiting process when he was in high school. TCU coach Gary Patterson fired back and I do mean fired. “If he wanted to blame TCU for 128 BCS schools not offering him a scholarship, that’s fine,” Patterson said. “But ask Kliff Kingsbury why he didn’t offer him a scholarship at Texas Tech. Ask about Baker’s dad. He’s an arrogant guy who thinks he knows everything. If people knew the whole story, they might not have a great opinion of Baker or his father.” Good lord. 
• For Christmas, Mrs  LL got me a rope bracelet with a porcelain plate on it.  That small plate has GPS coordinates on it. And where do they go to?: A particular place in the jungle of Costa Rica.
• Trump now says he will spend money on advertising and is prepared to spend a lot of money on ads targeting any candidate who attacks him. Genius.   
• The Philadelphia Eagles coach was shockingly fired yesterday.  That team has been bad, he has made nutty decisions, but the firing was unexpected  If UT is not scrambling to hire him, then I don't know UT.  And it would be a great hire.
• These are actual tweets from our Governer "1/2: I'm accusing Texas State Bar of religious discrimination for denying continuing education credit for Christian legal ethics programs" "2/2: The Texas State Bar leaders should be compelled to read my winning arguments upholding the Ten Commandments & One Nation Under God".  There's so much wrong with this but I can't get passed "compelled". Ok, My Fuher!
• Tea Party darling Jon Stickland used to look for people to smoke "da green" with. At least according to  his cyber past was discovered according to a column today in the Star-Telegram. And you know what? It won't hurt him a bit. As that column says, nothing is normal about politics these days. http://bit.ly/1NV0mhN
• My technical issues continue. 

Anyone Want To Save A 21 Pound Cat

He's in a shelter today and we've learned that this is the execution date. Holy cow!

We promise we will pick it up on Sunday.

Info: kat@wisecounty.com (that's Mrs. LL)

Edit: Cat saved. Not sure what the heck we do now.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Due to a dead battery on my laptop, we are having some Liberally Lean technical issues. 
• Of all the places in the world to hide, the affluenza kid is found in a tourist resort In Mexico. Momma doesn't need to be arrested for harboring a fugitive, she needs to be arrested for being dumb. 
• And he looks hammered 
• I finally flew on Virgin Airlines. Greatest. Plane. Experience. Ever. 
• I forgot to mention in connection with The Big Short and the mortgage crisis: It might be building  again right now. 
• Commercials on The Ticket seem to focus on divorce, vodka, rehab and cars. 
• From earlier @NBCDFW: LIVE: Wise Co. authorities work to rescue people trapped in a truck stuck in water in Rhome https://t.co/t2U3W7MiCo https://t.co/RSDueH8iSg
• I don't know who country singer Craig Stricland is but he has gone missing and his frien was "found dead"
• Writing this on an iPad is a beating. 
• I'm in an undisclosed location but l'll just say Frank Underwood has walked these streets. 

Sad News To Old Guys Like Me Out There

Meadowlark Lemon, the "clown prince" of the Harlem Globetrotters, died Sunday at age 83, team says: https://t.co/U6l0tioHTV

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 28, 2015

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• That was a pretty big snow storm for Decatur this morning. It caught me by surprise, my car got stuck, and I had to walk the last quarter mile to work. (I left very, very early.)
• I saw a true Idocracy commercial this weekend. It was for something called "Emergen-c" and it actually claimed to have "more electrolytes!"
• I saw The Big Short this weekend. I had read the book but that stuff is still complicated. But it is a fantastic movie and did a great (and funny) job of explaining it.
• Mrs. LL got me a tiny drone for Christmas. I told there was no was I was going to try and fly it and end up destroying the thing on my first try so she got the first shot. There was nothing funnier than her flying that thing around the house trying to figure it out -- with the high points being when she crashed it into the fireplace and later into her chin. And I had to duck once or it would have smashed into me. 
• One of our dumb dogs stole beef jerky out of a stocking, removed the wrapping, and ate it. 
• A very funny bit that I had never seen was John Oliver's segment on how insane it is that how most judges have to run for election. (And he threw in some insane and hilarious commercials they had found.)
• Very, very underrated movie: Saving Silverman. 
• Mrs. LL and I used Uber for the first time yesterday. It was fantastic. 
• Old school weather guys: Here's a photo of Harold Taft, Scott Chesner, and David Finfrock.
• Pete Delkus did a good job during those crazy storms but he almost seemed to apologize for having to mention their "free" weather app all the time (which I'm guessing has ads on it). And that concept of him and the new guy staring at a computer screen which we cannot see explaining breaking weather developments just screams of the work of a consultant. 
• And apparently people were dogging Delkus on Twitter. There was a bowl game going on and WFAA went to a split screen but some of the bowl watchers were not happy with him. I could swear that I  heard him say, when they went to full screen, "the game is over so you guys can stop the death threats." 
• Washington Redskin's quarterback taking a knee instead of grounding the ball was almost painful to watch. The clock then ran out.
• I always talk about too many cops and too many lawyers. The Dallas Morning News jumped on that concept with a story of an escalation of cops and lawyers in the Texas AG's office and, more shockingly, how their salaries have skyrocketed -- primarily in the white collar crime unit which rarely has exclusive jurisdiction over anything. It's the local DA's job normally. And get this:  Under AG Greg Abbott in 2014, you, the taxpayer, paid for $50,000 in ammunition for that white collar crime unit. They may spend more time having fun at the gun range than working. 
• Randy Galloway had his "final" column (and began it by saying he had a few final "random thoughts"). One interesting one was his rant about why there is no legalized gambling in Texas. One explanation he wrote about: Goofy (my term, not his) Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has received over $250,000 in contributions from people who make money off the fact there is no legalized gambling in Texas. And Rep. Jane Nelson is also guilty of accepting contributions and fighting legalized gambling.
• Shout out to the Messenger for referring to the Liberally Lean blog as "infamous". That was funny and made me smile.

"The Most Amazing Interview Ever"

@BSG The most amazing interview ever? pic.twitter.com/lyOtk8kBuj

— Jrod (@TyHasABday) December 27, 2015

This is from last night's disaster in Garland.

From an interview standpoint, this is like the Zapruder film.

Edit: If you don't understand this post, like one commentor  at 11:34 AM, you might want to reconsider your understanding of how this blog works, hoss.

Uh, Oh: Frankie Says West Texas Is In Trouble

For you guys who aren't familiar with him, he is autistic. But the amazing (or not so amazing) thing is that he is always right.

This May Become A Classic

When you subtweet but they see it and reply https://t.co/65MkycrE7L

— daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 26, 2015

She plans to mock Lebron as a "cry baby" and he looks at her as she begins. And she carries through with it anyway in the most reluctant mock of all time. Then scoots back on her chair and looks sheepishly down. And the LeBron does a double take and looks like he wants to kill her.

That's funny stuff.

Random Christmas Morning Thoughts

The dancers in 'A Charlie Brown Christmas Special' ranked 1-11: https://t.co/E8KzXf4DcA pic.twitter.com/amdgdL3Smy

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) December 25, 2015

What 25 Years Can Do To You

Home Alone actors. Then and now.

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I'll say it: Home Alone was a horrible movie and Macaulay Culkin is a horrible actor. Then and now. 

But I mean no disrespect. 

And I wish them all a Merry Christmas. 

And Merry Christmas to the crazy Liberally Lean readers. Both to those that love and hate it. 

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• It's Christmas Eve and you still get Random Thoughts. I remain The Hardest Working Man in Show Business. (And I continue with my double Random Thought Girls as a Christmas present.)
• There's a house not far from ours which has synchronzed lights with music (not just one song, but about 10 on a loop -- including that Charlie Brown song). It is fantastic.
• The Family Unit went to see it last night and we sat across the street on the curb with other people who were doing the same thing. It was great. And I'm sentimental enough to remind my self, "Remember moments like this" when they are happening. Edit: Shout out to the guy who sent in a comment that my neighborhood needed to, essentially, get the name of particular (unprintable) song. It was signed as "Double Fake Prince." I'm still laughing. 
• And a shout out to Billie in the District Clerk's office for winning the "cookie contest". (When did that start?) She may be one of the sweetest people alive. I still remember when I announced I was leaving the DA's office that she stopped me in the hallway. She had read the Messenger article and said, "Barry, parts of that article made me cry."
• Texas has gone to mandatory electronic filing of civil documents. And you have to use one of "selected" services to do it. In concept, it is a good idea. But I had to file a two page civil Original Answer the other day in a civil forfeiture suit. However, where before I use to have my assistant walk over to the courthouse less than 100 yards away and file it for free now costs over $5 in a mysterious "electronic filing fee." I'm still trying to figure out where the money is going. 
• The other day I went on a rant about a civil forfeiture case in Wise County. Yesterday I saw a headline that I thought meant the federal government was going to suspend its forfeiture policy altogther. I was wrong. The actual story was "The Justice Department has suspended $1.2 billion in payments of asset forfeiture revenues to police departments across the country, citing budget constraints." They aren't suspending it at all. The federal government is just going to keep all the money. 
• I proposed to someone the other day that if they helped me with something I would actually sell out and run an ad buried in the middle of Random Thoughts. Think "Your ad here". 
• I've praised the book "Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History" to no end. I praise it, in part,  because it is fantastic and references Parker County and Wise County because of the extent of the Comanche Empire back in the day. (And when I say "back in the day"  it wasn't that long ago when you think about it.) Any way, I looked down the other day and saw an issue of the Fort Worth Weekly and saw the headline of "The Way We Were - A once-lost silent film tied to Cynthia Ann Parker's legacy is a bittersweet gem." I'm in. 
• I watched a DVD the other day in a DWI case where the officer was wearing a body cam. For the first time ever, in my 23 years doing criminal law in Wise County, I got to see a guy blow into the Intoxilyzer 5000 at the Wise County Jail  and what actually goes on. (There is no camera in there.) This is a game changer. Both ways.
• We have a hood rat cat in the neighborhood. He slowly walked past me the other day with a baby bird in its mouth from one of my trees and just stared at me. 
• I want to see Concussion, The Big Short, The Hateful Eight and maybe even Star Wars.
• There actually are two old school concerts coming to Dallas next year that I would consider going to. The Cure and Todd Rundgren.
• Mrs. LL  told me yesterday that Matthew McConaughey needed to be considered as one of the greatest actors of our generation. That's going too far but, when you think about it, he might be in the top ten. His performance as the DA in Bernie is fantastic. 
• Ticket Fans: In the very early morning hours yesterday Norm Hitzges said he was in a "contract year" and took a shot at Cumulus. He just threw it in while he was talking about who would be on the Cowboys' team next year because all of the contracts that are ending and who would become free agents.  

Santa And His Gun Taking You Into Christmas Eve

just saw this off i-30 in ft worth, that's santa and his gun pic.twitter.com/GIen9vh0fS

— Mike Taddow (@taddmike) December 23, 2015

Legendary Lawyer/UT Football Supporter Has Died

He's off camera in this crazy clip when he conducted a deposition:

A Texas Monthly profile of him is a "great read" if you get bored over the holidays.

When I went to a UT/Baylor game last year I asked a security guard whose statute[*] was by Darrell Royal's. (The stadium wasn't open yet and I could only see the two statues from a distance through a gate.) He told me is was Joe Jamail and began to explain who he was. I interrupted him because he didn't need to waste his time explaining to me who he was.

The fact that his statue is right by Royal's is something I do not understand.
___________
*Edit: I made that spelling error in this original post, and I won't correct it for comedy's sake. There's something poetic about the error considering the substance of this post. 

I'm Insane Now

Montgomery County ‘porn dog’ to sniff out child predators https://t.co/3tS8FTloCM

— TDCAANews (@TDCAANews) December 23, 2015

I thought that this had to be from The Onion but it is real. (By the way, the Montgomery County DA is a goofball and loves social media. He might be doing a bit for publicity.)

Crimestoppers spent $17,000 for the dog.

Dez Bryant vs. Oklahoma State Horse: Who Ya Got?

That was one insane laugh by the way.

And we have a rematch . . .

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I don't know what to think about this Ted Cruz/Washington Post controversy. Cruz uses his children in a political commercial (using kids like that makes my stomach turn) and then the political cartoonist for the Post draws a cartoon of Cruz depicting his children like monkeys. (It was an organ grinder reference which I'm not sure most people would understand). But there was a backlash, and the Post took the cartoon down. Look, children should be off limits, but it's a little scary when the the press becomes that politically correct. They generally try to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."
• The dad who posted of series of photos of his baby and turned him into a real life Elf on The Shelf came up with one funny bit. (I perked up last night when I heard on the news that he was from Paradise but it turned out to Paradise, Utah.)
• Mrs. LL last night: "We are doing a simple gift exchange party with my side of the family. Go buy something worth about $40." Me: "Why don't you do it for me?" Her: "Because if I end up with that gift I'll know what it is." Me: [Slumped Shoulders]
• She followed it up with: "Make it an adult gift. But I don't mean one those kind of 'adult gifts'."
• I watched a part of Poltergeist last night and had forgotten how great it is. One scene made me think of my household: After the wife realizes there is craziness going on, she demonstrates to her husband how she can put a chair in one part of the kitchen and it would slide across the room. Then she puts one of her kids in the same place and the kid slides across the room. Both the kid and wife are giggling. The husband is slumped against the wall in horror. Welcome to my world. 
• I had a funny moment in court the other day when I saw a lawyer friend of mine walk in and tell his client the case had been dismissed. He said it in a slightly (and, unintentionally, loud voice) so I was able to hear it along with some of the other people in the courtroom. I talked to afterwards and he joked that he should hire three or four people just to be in the courtroom so he could walk in and loudly tell them, "Your case has been dismissed". That would be a genius move for the Wise County Hammer.
• And he even tricked it up after that. When the judge called his client's name, since he didn't know the case was dismissed, my buddy -- instead of walking up to the bench -- said in a loud voice while standing up from where we were sitting, "That case has been dismissed your Honor!" The whole gallery of defendants looked at him longingly. Then he turned and smiled at me and walked out. I did my best not to bust out laughing.  
• I got in a Twitter fight with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick's son last night. He's a district judge in Houston and had tweeted out a pic of his staff at a bowling alley (?) and mentioned how hard they worked. But the pic was yesterday during the day. I understand Christmas parties even for government employees but I thought I would have fun with him and asked him via Twitter, "Are you working now?" He actually responded with, "[W]e had the biggest docket in the building today and I'm the only judge in the building tomorrow covering for everyone else." First, lighten up. Secondly, he is the only judge in the Harris County courthouse right now? He is either lying or there are a ton of lazy judges in Harris County. 
• How Idiocracy has the world become when I can get into a "Twitter fight" with a Houston district judge?

Drone vs. One of World's Greatest Skiers: Who Ya Got?

Story.