Liberally Lean From The Land Of Dairy Queen

9.01.2016

Let's Check In On Neighbor County

Per @HoodCountyNews, Granbury council discussing removal of airport board member over FB "fag," "homo" slurs; he's running for @granburyisd
— Bud Kennedy (@BudKennedy) September 1, 2016

Link to story.

It Rained In Lubbock Yesterday

Okay, this has gone to far...
Video cred @huddleswag pic.twitter.com/CcFkm9WY2x
— Texas Tech Problems (@TTUProb) August 31, 2016

City of Decatur Lawyer Fee Collusion History

A faithful reader sent me this.

It looks like the local Decatur lawyers got together in 1951 (or earlier) and agreed on a minimum fee for routine matters in civil practice. And then they put the collusion down on paper.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

"The state’s highest criminal court Wednesday morning dismissed all three appeals filed on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s behalf, saying his lawyers neglected to include everything needed on the petitions." However, the court gave them 10 days to fix it. That's one odd thing about appeals: At the trial court level, missing a deadline can be fatal to your case. Once a case is appealed, you can screw up, the court will tell you screwed up, but the court will always give you a chance to fix it.
There hasn’t been a criminal defense lawyer on the U.S. Supreme Court in 25 years.
Sounds like a movie: A Penn State professor who police say was pushed off an 80-foot rock quarry ledge died slowly and possibly was alive and immobile for up to two days.
Call back country humor in the Update this morning with a reference to the long known cause of many an accident: He tried to "straighten out the curb". Edit: CURVE!
Do police get overtime pay for attending a funeral in full uniform?
I told you that there's something weird about the case in Johnson County about the lady which allegedly withheld medical care for her child for attention. Yesterday, at a court hearing, she even had that "this case is different" look.
Halloween idea: Sexy Harambe outfit.
Someone explain Trump's “ideological certification test” for immigration that he mentioned last night. He said, "I only want to admit people who share our values and love our people." Truly, what "values" does Trump want to impose upon those who wish to come here?
And how did he get away with this last night: "The result of her misconduct was the release of thousands and thousands of dangerous criminal aliens who should have been sent home to their countries. Instead we have them all over the place. Probably a couple in this room as a matter of fact, but I hope not." So he's seen a couple of people in the room who look like "criminal aliens"?
But he is gaining on Hillary.

8.31.2016

Not Gonna Make It

She intends to walk 10 miles a day* which, by my Bridgeport taught ciphering skills, has her arriving on January 15, 2017.
_____
*Showing her wisdom, she added "or until someone in D.C. takes notice."

My Stadium Bragging Montage

Faithful readers know I'm a fan of sports stadiums. (It's weird. I know.) But for over twenty-five years I've made it a point to try and visit major stadiums in the U.S. My criteria for making the following list is to actually have bought a ticket and watched all (or portion) of a game that counts. The list follows.

The easy ones:

The Ballpark in Arlington
Ranger Stadium (torn down)
Cotton Bowl
Texas Stadium (torn down)
Jerry World
TCU (but not since recent renovations)
SMU (new one and the old Ownby Stadium)
North Texas (Fouts Field only)
AAC (Stars only. Not Mavericks)
Reunion Arena

College Football Stadiums:

Baylor (old and new)
LSU
Florida
Alabama
Tennessee
Ole Miss
Clemson
Georgia
Michigan
Texas
aTm
UTEP
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Arkansas
West Virginia
Rose Bowl (Texas vs. Michigan)
Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego (Tech vs. Cal)
Alamo Bowl (Baylor vs. Washington)

NFL Stadiums:

New Orleans Saints
Atlanta
Tennessee
New York Giants (the old Meadowlands)
Kansas City
Pittsburgh (actually saw Pitt Panthers play at Heinz Field)

Major League Baseball Stadiums:

Yankee Stadium (old not new stadium)
Boston's Fenway Park
Chicago' Wrigley
Chicago's Comisky
Colorado Rockies
Arizona Diamondbacks
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Kansas City (playoff game)

Rangers Won Last Night

HAHAHA i can't quit laughing pic.twitter.com/AcqlFC4a5b
— nick pants (@nick_pants) August 31, 2016

Above The Fold

Full readable page.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

Sheriff Joe in Arizona won a seventh term last night. That gave me Tired Head.
The prosecutor who couldn't convict Trayvon Martin's killer lost her re-election bid last night.
Some of you are thinking: "Was the presidential race yesterday, too? Did I miss it?"
Billionaire Democrat and progressive George Soros has channeled more than $3 million into seven local District Attorney campaigns in six states over the past year. He thinks the criminal justice system is screwed up.
What happened to all the earthquakes that were happening around the old Texas Stadium site? They've just suddenly stopped.
A coach at Northwest's Eaton High School has been placed on administrative leave after an "improper" sexual conduct charge was made by a former student who is now 20. The allegation is a one time touching of the breast over the clothes which wasn't reported for five years. If those are all the facts, I'd never convict. Even if I heard the girl, was inclined to believe that she was telling the truth, and even thought the event probably happened, I'd still have a doubt that I considered reasonable. And you know what any judge would instruct me if I was on the jury?: If you have a reasonable doubt, you can't convict.
There was a hearing yesterday of whether Hooters will be allowed in a certain part of downtown Fort Worth. That gave rise to this gem:
Trump is going to Mexico today? Man, he has gone all in on trying to get the Hispanic and African-American vote and it is a strategy that cannot possibly work. I don't understand this. Get to Florida. Get to Ohio. Get to Pennsylvania.
I still get excited about the start of college football season, it's the last organized sport I care about.
"Weatherford police investigators as well as investigators from the Weatherford and Parker County Special Crimes unit and the multi-jurisdictional Fugitive Apprehension Team [that's four groups of officers] were working to apprehend the man who was wanted on two aggravated robbery warrants." They knew he was in a hotel room. He ended up dead.
"We plan to do a full, immediate, and complete investigation, and we can assure that if any wrongdoing occurred appropriate action will be swiftly taken." - Something everyone has (or should have) in their PR playbook. (The key is the word "appropriate." It's couched as "what you would do" instead of "what we think is right.")

According to Fox 4, Crimestoppers is offering a reward for vandals who damaged football fields in Chico, Alvord, and Paradise two weeks ago. Are we just now hearing about it? (And, finally, we actually hear about Wise County Crimestoppers possibly paying money.)
Number of Zika cases tracked back to Olympics: 0. Number of people diagnosed with the disease in Tarrant County: 17.
I've never seen Willy Wonka.
Opponents of my Bad-Movie-No-Electricity Theory hit me with: Silverado, Glory, Tombstone, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Shakespere in Love, Elizabeth, Dances With Wolves, Unforegiven, The Piano, Last of the Mohicans, Amadeus, The Princess Bride, and Dangerous Liasons. I'm thinking about Last of the Mohicans. The rest I shall reject in that they are consistent with my well reasoned theory.
Other than alt-right rants, the mainstream on Monday didn't seem to care about the Kaepernick protest. That was refreshing.
But Rick Perry had an odd take on the Kaepernick situation on Fox and Friends this morning. "The reason that I wear this U.S. flag lapel pin is that I want to stand with our men and women of law enforcement." That's really weird logic. If someone doesn't want to stand because of x (bad cops) that doesn't mean condemn him because you support something different (not bad cops.)
And I shouldn't have turned over to Fox and Friends because I was subjected to the very relevant Larry the Cable Guy. It's like that network is stuck in 1995.
I forgot to mention that Trump's doctor looks like a Simpsons' character.
When I watch that American Ninja gal (I don't know her name), I wonder why she couldn't find one Olympic event to compete in.
Rick Perry will join Dancing With The Stars. Delicious. I'm looking forward to the behind-the-scenes interview with him because he rarely speaks unless the environment is controlled. (And when he was forced to, he would screw it up -- i.e. "oops" or speaking when high on pain medication.)
I'm not sure I've ever heard of the buy-every-paper-off-the-newsstand trick (as reported by the Update yesterday) executed in real life.
Brookhaven Community College had a mountain lion scare yesterday but me, even being a wildlife idiot, could have tolk you it wasn't a mountain lion.
UT coach Charlie Strong still hasn't named a starting quarterback. If he trots Swoopes out there for the first player, UT might fire Strong before the first series of downs is over.
I had never heard of Juan Gabriel . . .

8.29.2016

Dog vs. Car: Who Ya Got?

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

I watched the MTV Music Awards last night, and I don't think I've ever had a question mark appear over my head more often.
There was a quadruple high school football triple header at Jerry World #2 in Frisco over the weekend and the kids were doing bits:
49ers QB Colin Kaepernick caught heat over the weekend for not standing for the National Anthem as a protest. I don't care, and I'm not sure why anyone would get worked up in a lather about it. (And it took America a while to get worked up. This was the third game in a row he didn't stand but the first time anyone noticed.)
Anthony Wiener did it again.
A "K9 Deputy" in Oklahoma died after being left in a car for 36 hours. The dog's handler was fired.
A theory I've held for years: Any movie which (1) was released before 2000, and (2) does not depict electricity being used is . . . not any good. Exception is Gone With The Wind. Edit: I might have to make Braveheart an exception or move my date to 1995. I forgot about that.
This month's Texas Monthly:
Say Dak Prescott turns out to be a stud quarterback. In 2018 the starting QB for the Cowboys will make $630,000 and in 2019 it will be $720,000.
How does Vegas do it? The line on first college game of the year, California and Hawaii in Australia, had Cal at -20.5. They won by 20. (And had the ball on the one when the game ended.)
There was a raid on a Trophy Club home last year and last week a guy who lived there pled guilty to federal child porn charges. I thought this was interesting: "Last year, officials with Google Inc. alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children(NCMEC) about child pornography on an email address associated with Craft."
You would think they would have a different name other than "cousin" since it includes both male and females. We don't do it anywhere else: Brother/sister, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew.
The TWU volleyball coach resigned after eight players suffered from rhabdomyolysis but says it is "unrelated" to the incident and only for "personal reasons." (She was actually on leave three days before practices began.)