Human Chain Saves Woman

Unbelievable video as I and several other men rescue a woman from her car floating down Main St in Historic Ellicott City, Maryland, at about 8:30pm July 30th during the devastating flood. My wife and I are business owners on Main St. I was standing at the entry of my shop at the top of the human chain holding the next man's hand and filming with the other. The man who got washed away was incredibly lucky.

I thought the first guy was a goner.

I'm surprised when she started delaying the whole process by taking care of her cell phone they didn't all just say "screw it" and go on their way.

Shoplifter Brought To To Court With No Pants

This is long but lots of gold in it for those which do this stuff for a living. No pants is just the beginning. The judge picking up the phone and firing off a "What. The. Hell?" was funny. And I loved how the plea bargain/recommended sentence was shot down from the get go and the case got a lot sweeter for the defendant once the "no pants" issue was discovered. (And I kind of worry about her lawyer if that's her in the blue.)

And the judge actually qualifies as a "Hey, Now":

Today Is The 50th Anniversary of the UT Tower Shooting

Excerpts from 96 Minutes.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Trump can't screw up much more than he did this weekend -- from the Stephanopoulos interview to tweets - - but it doesn't seem to matter with his supporters. Nevertheless, Ted Cruz must just sit back these days, smile, and say "I told ya so."
  
• KRLD's weather guy "resigned" after posting on Facebook during the Democratic National Convention that the slain sons of the Mothers of the Movement were “thugs.” (I've said for years that I don't know how those guys over at WBAP keep their jobs based upon what they say on the air.) 
• Kill me . . . 
  
• I understand that ads on web sites, the Star-Telegram, for example, uses your location but what exactly am I looking at here?
  
• Open Carry hits Texas universities today.  There are 37 private Texas universities and only one will allow it: Abilene Christian.
• “Quit hiring cowards, they are hiring cowards… my partner says they are hiring cowards . . . .They are hiring ex-military and they don’t see people as human.” -- Dallas police officer calling into a live podcast as the shooting was going on that left five dead.
• Mrs. LL dreamed we had a "vacation home" in the Hamptons. This from the girl who claims she grew up without a dishwasher. 
• A phrase I heard that I don't think I've ever heard before: "Blood libel." 
• The Star-Telegram had a big story of the "millions" raised by Texas Legislators this year. But when you look at it, most candidates weren't impressive at all. For example, "State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, raised $4,360 this year and has $47,446.81 in cash on hand." That was pretty typical.
• If you thought Fox 4's Clarice Tinsley's broadcasting Facebook comments was an all time low for local media, their bits on Facebook are worse. Throw in a few "warnings" and the time honored click bait phrase of "you won't believe" and there you have it. I used to think Steve Eagar was better than this. 
  
• Sixteen people were killed in a hot air balloon in Lockhart, Texas on Saturday. I had no idea those things could carry sixteen people. (The pilot had the same name as a former editor of the Messenger.)
• I actually saw The Last Picture Show for the first time over the weekend. Pretty racy for back in the day. I looked it up and learned that at least a couple of places tried to ban it as pornography. (But for the life of me, the group's reaction to seeing the dead boy in the street -- played by Sam Bottoms who died a few years back at the age of 53 --  was so out of place and weird for a depiction of small town Texas.)
• "At a quarry in Bridgeport, Texas, where rock is crushed, sorted and cleaned, it’s hard to tell that the nation’s construction boom may be hitting a wall." - The opening line to a Bloomberg.com story today on construction and the only reference to Bridgeport.

Above The Fold

Readable full page.

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.

(I'm no video expert, but I think we have some tinkering with this one.)

(Texas vs. Dixie Chicks)

I can't stop watching Bill pic.twitter.com/r1oY0rBREN

— Rachel Zarrell ✨ (@rachelzarrell) July 29, 2016

He Just Ran Into A Great Big Hassle

Bank Robbing Denton Singer Richard Haskins Gets Minimum Two-Year Prison Sentence https://t.co/XvU7xkiGRX pic.twitter.com/dFFV6Go7sg

— Dallas Observer (@Dallas_Observer) July 29, 2016

Moral to the story: Hope that the feds decide that your attempted bank robbery case isn't worthy of their time and the case remains a state prosecution.

Who Doesn't Love Katy Perry?

Old guy caught dancing to Katy Perry is an instant classic. #guysdancingtokatyperry #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/0pGjL50uBO

— G.E. Anderson (@g_e_anderson) July 29, 2016

Around 9:00 A.M.

Funny

Robot Hillary Clinton's excitement.exe needs a little polishing #HillaryClinton #ImWithHerNow pic.twitter.com/FVXFvToTKm

— Roark (@RoarkHoward_) July 29, 2016

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• These ladies (below, not above) are probably 30 feet from each other during this split screen broadcast, right? Oh, and who wore it better?
  
• Katy Perry performed at the DNC last night. Donald Trump had some advice to her a few years back:
  
• Funny:
  
• Hillary's best line came when she paraphrased Jackie Kennedy: "War might be started not so much by big men as by the little ones . . . moved more by fear and pride."
• We get the Jerry Jones opening-of-camp-press-conference today.  Sure Thing = Confusing Statements Coming.
• Random sight this morning around the courthouse square: A guy smoking a cigarette while barefoot and while wearing pajama bottoms and no shirt. (Note to self: New "casual Friday" outfit for me?)
• Every time Fox News has Charles Krauthammer on as a guest, I think he might die before the segment is over.
• I drove into downtown Fort Worth yesterday. That I-35 construction is the ultimate beating. 
• "AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas attorney general has filed suit against Austin, accusing the state capital of violating 'open carry' rules by banning guns inside city hall." And that crazy Paxton did it within five days of a certain 50 year anniversary.
  
• The only GOP nominee that Hillary may be able to beat is the one they served up: Trump. 
• Yesterday's Update can be interpreted in a couple of ways: " Bridgeport Band Boosters will host a hot dog dinner for current Mighty Marching Maroon students 5:30-7 p.m. Friday at the Pavilion in Harwood Park. Although not supervised by Bridgeport Booster Club, students have also been invited to swim at the Bridgeport City pool for free." It reads like, "Hey, kids. We just run this private group but why don't ya'll run over there and just swim in that public pool without paying. And, by the way, you're on your own."

Seen In Criminal Court Today

The guy wasn't a defendant but only a friend of a defendant.

That's a bold statement.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Trump yesterday: "I'm would renegotiate so much of everything." It's quotes like that which keep me smiling. 
• In light of the SMU officer reportedly being swept away into Turtle Creek, the Dallas Morning News recounts when two students were pulled into the creek twenty years ago. One drowned. Her body, however, was found the next day. 
• And another.
  
• I think we all agree on something: The prosecutor in the now closed Freddie Gray cases, Marilyn Mosby, is a nutcase. (At least she didn't hide it.)
• "STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) – A municipal court has cleared former Mississippi State quarterback, and draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys, Dak Prescott on charges of speeding and drunk driving."  I was prepared to explain how that was possible but the following sums it up:
  
• But why doesn't the prosecutor just look at the case, put it in the "You-Gotta-Be-Kidding-Me" file, and reject it?
• A lot of people are upset over the supervised release of John Hinkley, Jr.  Heck, thirty-five years is a long time for attempted murder.
• Nancy Pelosi last night on Fox News on why a poll of "uneducated white men" overwhelming showed support for Trump over Hillary: "They voted against their own economic interests because of guns, because of gays, and because of God, the three G’s, God being the woman’s right to choose." Fox News did their best to make it an issue but their efforts seem to have failed. 
• Someone believed they spotted the Liberally Lean Mobile yesterday. Get me that decal!!!:
  
• One of the nutcases who comment on here cited Alex Jones' infowars.com yesterday as a source.  Oh yeah? Well, I have some pretty, pretty good evidence that the earth is shaped like a burrito. Top that. 
• I say this once a year: Every person placed on probation in Wise County is required to donate $50.00 to Crime Stoppers.  I never hear of that fund paying out a dime, I have no idea who is in control of it, I don't know if it is independently audited, and (most importantly) I'm begging to learn what the balance of the fund is. 
• An off duty Fort Worth police shot a guy this morning who allegedly came at him with a box cutter. There sure seem to be a lot of box cutters out there. And why can I never find one when I just want to assault a box? 
• I'm conventioned-out. But I thought the President was just average last night, Biden was good, and Kaine had a fairly funny Donald Trump impersonation (that is, if Ned Flanders tried to do that impression).  
• But the Democrats did have a secret weapon in the audience to appeal to women last night:
  
• Wait a second! Brad Cooper's girlfriend is a Russian!! Get me Hillary on the horn! DEFCON 1! DEFCON 1!

"Uh, Is It Supposed To Be Doing That?"

AA flight makes emergency landing after flames shoot from engine https://t.co/ENIkaedouF pic.twitter.com/OzbwIeC4N1

— NBC DFW (@NBCDFW) July 28, 2016

DPS Gives Escort To Some Guy Going To Work Ranger Player On I-35

More.

For All Reasons To Be Concerned About What Trump Says, This Isn't One Of Them

Trump had a press conference today and, although it was as wheels off as usual, he said this:

Headlines, from CNN to the New York Times, immediately started appearing with this:

Trump followed up with this tweet:

I think Trump has you on a technicality. There's a big difference between asking the Ruskies to hack into emails written while Clinton was Secretary of State from asking them to turn over emails they already have.

After conferring with the judges, the split decision goes to Trump.

Copyright. 2016. Liberally Lean Graphics

Bill Clinton Still Has It

That's the gal from Friday Night Lights.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The Cowboys' Randy Gregory is facing a 10 day game suspension for violating the league's drug policy for marijuana and has checked into rehab. If he has in fact checked into rehab, he will be the only guy in his support group who says that he is addicted to weed.
• Bill O'Reilly was in rare form last night. In responding to Michelle Obama saying she now has gone to bed in a house built by slaves only to see her children playing on its lawn the next morning, O'Reilly said the slaves who built the White House were “well-fed and had decent lodgings.” He's his own Saturday Night Live skit.
• Number of black delegates at the Democratic National Convention: 1,182. Number of black delegates at the Republican National Convention: 18.
• In light of this disparity, however, the great FiveThirtyEight.com says it is getting closer:
  
• The bad news for Trump is that he is still losing in that projection even though he is currently predicted to win coveted Florida and Ohio - albeit barely.  The problem is that he's running out of states to conceivably win. And if either Florida or Ohio goes back to Clinton, it's over (and it may already be over).
• The Ticket had a National Park Talk this morning. I'm embarrassed how few of them I have been to. I think I've got this mind block where I feel that even if I spent a week in one of them, I would still miss 99% of the hidden gems in it. 
• NPR is reporting this morning that a "federal judge has granted John Hinckley, who shot President Reagan in 1981, his freedom under certain restrictions" reportedly being allowed to live full time with his mother. 
• In related news per the Update, "The Hinkles will perform at 7:30 tonight at the pavilion at the Wise County Old Settlers Reunion." Wait. I think I messed that up. 
• Hinckley was crazy. And that's a simplistic statement reflecting how our criminal justice system simply has a standard of "just don't do x or you will be punished" with no regard to the way someone's brain is formed -- unless it is so malformed that we don't even need science to tell us that it is. It's that grey area in the middle that we turn a blind eye to. 
  
• I'm really amazed how the Democrats haven't opened up both figurative barrels on Donald Trump. He has given them an arsenal that won't end and they seem hesitant to go after him. That makes no sense. 
• Someone asked me what bait I used. My preference has always been some type of yellow or green sassy shad.  (Nothing works better than live minnows, but I like to give the fish a fighting chance.) 
• Someone draw me a Venn Diagram of the group who hates someone saying "Black Lives Matter" and the group who want all retail clerks to say, "Merry Christmas."