What Does Facebook Know About You?

Find out how to learn the answer here.

And I don't understand it because I never use Facebook, but if you use their Messenger on an Android phone, you might be in trouble.

This is a treasure trove for lawsuits, criminal cases, and divorces.

Madison Avenue Thought This Would Be A Good Idea

They thought this would be a good idea? Slide a beer past African-Americans to a white gal with the slogan "Lighter is Better"?

(But I wonder if they knew what they were doing to get people talking about Heineken.)

Edit: It made national news everywhere. They even pulled the ad.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I saved another lost puppy dog over the weekend and got it back to its owner. I think I've found my new calling. 
• The DA candidate who lost the Democrat nomination in the Dallas County primary by a little over 500 votes has now sued alleging "ineligible, illegal, and fraudulent mail-in ballots."  Mail-In ballots seem a little suspect in this day and time. 
• The pastor of the FBC of Dallas never disappoints.
  

  

  He loves "Two Corinthians" and Muslims, too.

• The incredibly decent former President Jimmy Carter, during his campaign, was scorched for referencing the Bible by saying, "I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do and God forgives me for it.” Trump could have an orgy on the White House lawn and Jeffers would praise him. And then he would put it on pay-per-view and call it "tithing".
• On the other hand, he believes the Ten Commandments should be taught in public schools to end gun violence. "Thou shall not kill" sounds good, but the adultery part doesn't seem to be a priority with Jeffers. #Stormy
  
• A Frisco couple was arrested in Massachusetts for possessing this in a Residence Inn. How many of my readers will be outraged?:
  
• As a "sports columnist" for the Bridgeport High School paper, I once got called into the principal's office after I quoted one of our high school basketball players, after a loss to Archer City, as saying: "I don't know if they should be ranked, but they sure are going to beat the heck out of Chico." (They were in the same district.) The Chico ISD Superintendent got mad and called our principal who made me write an apology for "insulting" Chico's basketball team. I did it which proved I didn't have a clue about how journalism works. Neither did my "teacher" who never even remotely thought about saying, "No, he will not."
• When I told my dad about it he didn't really care that I was called onto the carpet. But he said to me, and I remember this like yesterday, "I'm just surprised they actually read what you write all the way over in Chico." 
• Don't you love how in Texas JP's (and sometimes County Judges) can determine the cause of death without any investigation or autopsy. (I had forgotten that Justice Scalia was declared dead of "natural causes" over the phone by a guy who didn't even go to the scene.)
  
  
• Nice "gangsta rap" reference by an elected official in Colleyville: 
  
• The father of Brown of Brown vs. Board of Education has died. You know that little Supreme Court decision that said it was unconstitutional to segregate schools under state and local laws? Shockingly, that decision was handed down in 1954. That wasn't long ago. 
• The Ticket had a porn star on for two hours yesterday. She was actually incredibly smart and funny, but I couldn't believe what I was listening to in the morning hours.
• For all you Wise County women out there, call Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, tell him that you had an affair with Trump and he will write you a check for $130,000 no questions asked. 
• Facebook may be in trouble. A couple of years ago someone on the third floor of the courthouse told me that they had texted someone about buying something and then ads for that specific product started showing up on the Internet. I found that hard to believe. I believe it now. 

This Came Up Over The Weekend

17 years ago today, Randy Johnson vaporized a bird. pic.twitter.com/NsEFR0A1TN

— SB Nation (@SBNation) March 24, 2018

Interesting question: "What's the rule? Does it count as a pitch?" Answer.

Leader Board

Link.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Riley Dodge is the new head coach at Southlake? He's 29. That certainly doesn't disqualify him, but coaching in your politically charged home town at such a young age seems less than ideal.
• Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill on Friday (which was 2,323 pages long) after calling it ridiculous and saying that no one had read it. 
  
• But I'll give him credit this morning. I didn't think he had the guts (assuming it is not a stunt to distract): 
  
• It used to be if there was a negligent death at a theme park that the company would be sued. Now they also get criminally indicted. Example: Schlitterbahn.
• I've preached for over a decade that demographics are changing at a rapid pace. Look at this promotion from the Mavericks on the front page of the Saturday sports section of the Dallas Morning News:
  
  
• 
  
• This seems a little odd. I've often wondered if Crime Stoppers in Wise County ever pays out anything. Then I see a story this story where they are prominently mentioned for what seems to be a small crime of the theft of "numerous unshaped Resistol cowboy hats [and] Anderson Bean Boot Company Rataetna Chocolate Mad style boots" at NRS.
  
  
• I was in downtown Fort Worth on Saturday for an unrelated reason, but ended up watching part of the March For Our Lives. I've never seen anything like it in my life.  And I love it that young people get politically active in anything. 
• And if you didn't see this girl speak in D.C., you missed something pretty powerful:
  
• Below is from local radio host Mark Davis, who actually says prayers on the radio and works for a Christian radio station. You kidding me? "Not inappropriate?"  
  
• Trump is having trouble finding lawyers. Two more declined after meeting with him. (And Trump implied that the taxpayers were paying for his private lawyers.)
  
• Trump, who tweets like a madman, has never mentioned Stormy Daniels. Hmmmmmm. (But we learned this morning that his lawyer's lawyer sent a "cease and desist" letter to Stormy demanding  an apology after last night's 60 Minutes episode. That's not how it works.)
• 
• Texas Tech, I feel your pain. Baylor has been to the Elite Eight twice in the last 10 years. It's hard to get there, and much harder to win once there.

Leader Board

Above The Fold

Full page PDF.

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

 When the instructor doesn't realize he actually has
to give one little last instruction to some people.

 That'll buff right out. 

 Who doesn't want a real live rabbit toy?

 Take a seat. Please, take a seat. 

I just came up with an idea for a horror movie starring my 22 pound fat cat. 

Congress Has Gone Home. Government Shutdown Looming.

And another day of White House chaos.

NEWS ALERT: Secretary Mattis calling @POTUS to warn of threat to defense spending if budget is vetoed. https://t.co/Q2UXfbOYfL pic.twitter.com/HPaZR71z1l

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 23, 2018

And now we know what prompted the veto threat. He was watching Fox and Friends:

Shortly before the president's veto threat this morning, Fox & Friends rejected the notion that the bill includes wall money. https://t.co/q9MjHQFRj3

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 23, 2018

Edit: He called an impromptu "press conference" where he signed the bill. It was the most rambling and incoherent speech in U.S. history. He said that "no one" had read the monstrous spending bill. How's that "Drain The Swamp" thing workin' out for ya?

Leader Board

Link.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Jenny Anchondo quit Fox 4 "effective immediately." That seems very abrupt and very strange. I looked at her Twitter feed and she was working hard up until the day before. What happened?
• 
• What a day for Trump.
• John Dowd, Trump's lead lawyer in the Mueller investigation, quit in the morning.  The Washington Post on Monday said there was trouble brewing but Dowd denied it.
• Trump, late in the afternoon, then fired the National Security Adviser who was big on compromise and negotiations. The "lame stream media" said the departure was coming for the last two weeks, but the White House lied and said it wouldn't happen.  
  
•  And the replacement, John Bolton, is likely to get us all killed if Trump listens to him. (By the way, this will be Trump's third one.)
  
• Bolton on Fox News an hour after the announcement of his new job: "I didn't really expect that announcement" today.  Good, lord. 
• Oh, and after Trump signed a "memo" adding tariffs for imports from China, the stock market lost 724 points yesterday.  
• McLennan County commissioners invoked a provision in state law to place a limit on how much outgoing District Attorney Abel "Let's Indict All Twin Peaks Bikers" Reyna can spend before the end of his term Dec. 31.  I'll be honest, I didn't know such a law existed.
• My one and only administrative assistant is in Manhatten. There was 8.4 inches of snow in Central Park on the day she arrived. 
• This week I was walking out of a grocery store and a girl, wearing sunglasses, flirting with young guys on a  work break, and who kind of looked like a stoner, said to me, "Hey, Barr" as I walked by. It stopped me down and I gave her a "Do you know me?" look. She said, "It's on your shirt." I was wearing a Baylor shirt that had "BEARS" in the biggest letters.
• KXAS  (Channel 5) had a 15 second "news segment" about a Starbucks promotion at the end of their 5:00 p.m. broadcast yesterday. Obviously, that couldn't be a paid ad disguised as news, right? And you guys have laughed at me for years. 
• Remember one of those "winter parks" coming to Fort Worth where you could snowboard indoors? It was a scam. The promoter was just sentenced to 10 years in prison. 
• Oh, and yesterday:
  
  
• If you want political entertainment, watch the Fox 4 morning hosts struggle to not laugh out loud as they interview Mark Davis for five minutes every Thursday. 
• There's a wild Houston murder for hire case going on, but I find this very disturbing journalism from the Houston Chronicle:. In reporting about the trial they wrote: "The officer, whom the Chronicle is not identifying at the request of the Harris County district attorney’s office, testified Wednesday for more than five hours . . . . " You kidding me? It's a public trial and you won't name him because the DA tells you not to? Who is running the press? You or the government?
• Yesterday, a $1.3 trillion spending bill was approved by the Republican controlled House with strong support from the Democrats. It was 2,232 pages long and passed less than 17 hours after it was released. It's filled with pork.  Actual photo: 
• 
• If you haven't seen the police murder of an unarmed black man in Sacramento in his grandmother's back yard, you need to. Twenty shots fired. An officer then says "mute" and the audio "mysteriously" goes off on the body cams. This link will take you to a helicopter video and body cam video.
• The Bridgeport Volunteer Fire Department received a million dollar grant?

Terms Of His Probation

DEVELOPING: for terms of his release on Apr. 2nd, #affluenza inmate Ethan Couch must do the following @wfaa pic.twitter.com/PE2nLwpBGj

— Todd Unger (@ToddWFAA8) March 22, 2018

Not that anyone cares, but the cost per month of the SCRAM device is, I think, around $300 and the ignition interlock is probably around $80. That's on top of a probation fee which is either $60 or $80 a month in Tarrant County.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Mark Zuckerberg was on CNN last night and did not do well. The reason is that he suffers from social anxiety.  Back when Facebook was just getting big, he gave an interview before a crowd at SXSW and famously began sweating profusely. 
• 
• No one, and I mean no one, wants a video to start automatically playing when you visit a website. 
• I said this a few years back: Driverless cars, which will absolutely replace the modern day cars in the future, will have an amazing impact on the economy. Think of all the jobs that exist because of the lack of wrecks, speeding, etc. that will go away. Both in the public and private sector.
• Yesterday was an incredibly heavy news day. Let's check in on Fox News. (Uh, "moved Stateside?"): 
  
• Let me translate this for you: The Feds were in charge of that investigation in Austin (they were the only agencies who had obtained a warrant two days ago from a federal judge), but every elected official in Texas is trying to be in the spotlight. 
  
• Here's another example. The Texas Attorney General's office has no idea what goes on in the trenches of local police work. And I've seen it firsthand. The only two times they were in charge of prosecutions in Jack County and Wise County in the last twenty years, they got thrashed. Yet now Greg Abbott is an expert on police:
  
• Mrs. LL turned up Margaritaville in the car the other day because she knows I hate it with a passion. She laughed. I laughed. 
• "There is no evidence of collusion!" - Something heard on Fox News and silly radio shows every day.  I can't tell you the number of times I've thought I was in good shape representing someone until there was an indictment and the prosecutor handed over the file. You never know everything they know until they tell you. 
• She might beat him:
  
• Well, I guess they think we should legalize drugs. Laws don't mean anything?:
  
• Let's check in Trump's mental health this morning. Oh, my! He truly is an immature sixth grade boy. 
  
• But I would pay money to see a UFC fight between Trump, with Putin in his corner, and Biden, with Obama in his corner.
• The Austin bomber left a 25 minute "confession" on his phone. What follows is an odd statement by the Austin PD Chief. The bomber's life appears be that of an average person. Every single one of us has been "challenged" as children, teens, young adults, and adults. Yet we don't go out and randomly kill people. And no mention of hate or terror. 
  
• A reference to something I heard on the radio this morning that I haven't thought about in years: Mapsco. 

Southlake Police With Breaking News!!

A fender bender!!!!!!!!

Nine minutes later!!!!!

Here Is Your Radical American Bombing Terrorist

• White? Check
• Texan? Check
• U.S. Citizen? Check
• Home schooled? Check
• Some college? Check
• Self proclaimed conservative? Check
• Radical Islamic Terrorist? No check.

Above The Fold

Full page PDF.