Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I had heard of "Purple Drank" before but I learned yesterday of basically the same thing called "Lean" is going around. 
• It's allergy season which is killing me, but, believable or not, it is causing some "vertigo, or dizzy spells" in Austin. 
• If you haven't gone down 287 to Fort Worth to see the flowers in the median, you need to. But they aren't bluebonnets, they are pink. (Unless I'm color blind.) 
• I completely missed that Major League Baseball had a batter set a record for the longest at bat of all time which lasted 12 minutes and 45 seconds. The batter fouled off 16 pitches, including 10 in a row before finally flying out.
• There are a lot of new faces on Fox 4 News. Something is going on over there. 
• I'm now reading Elmer Gantry (yep, I had never read it before.) It is completely different than I expected and pretty hard hitting. The prose by Sinclair Lewis are beautiful, but I wonder if that book would even get published today. 
• Grand Prairie police shot and killed a man at Ikea. 
• Alabama closed state offices yesterday for "Confederate Memorial Day." Those people won't give it up. 
  
• How I've never been to the Civil War Museum in White Settlement (pause), is a mystery to my own mind. The great Robert Wilonsky did. 
  
• Any chance this is the first time Trump has ever picked up a shovel?:
  
• Mrs. LL and I have a bit about who can create the best hummingbird water for a feeder. She now says, "Say my name!"

Make America Great Again?

A white shooter.
People of color murdered.
A black, gunless hero.
A silent white President.#WaffleHouseShooting https://t.co/dAsJc3M2a7

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) April 23, 2018

He'll tweet when he gets his feelings hurt. But now silent. I wonder why?

Edit: BREAKING: Nashville Waffle House shooter, Travis Reinking, who was part of a right wing extremist movement, "Sovereign Citizen" has been arrested.

Album Cover With A Wise County Reference

I know I've posted this before but can't remember the background of the story. If you spell a destination "Rhome" you are talking about Wise County.

(Credit: A Houston lawyer who once successfully ate a 72 oz. steak at The Big Texas Steak Ranch in Amarillo.)

At Barbara Bush's Funeral

Obviously, Trump was not there. His wife was.

But if you want to go down a rabbit hole, start researching whether a sitting President normally attends the funeral of a former First Lady. They don't. It's an American tradition. A tradition of treating women as second class citizens.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Funniest thing I've heard lately about those who hate the Confederate statues being taken down: "You should have won the war."
• Anyone else notice that some cars were driving very slowly on 4/20?
• As a guy who now has seen two kids experiencing high school, watching The Breakfast Club seems much different than when I first saw it. John Hughes was a master at understanding the human condition. 
• Mrs. LL and I are now five episodes deep into Green Acres. Mrs. LL loves it. 
• Ted Cruz writes an article praising Trump in Time magazine? That after what Trump did to him in the election? ("Lyin' Ted"). And Cruz once said we would "plunge into the abyss" under a Donald Trump presidency. Crooks and Liars. 
• This should freak us all out: 
  
• Mark Cuban once said: If you can't spot the sucker in the room in a business meeting, that person is you. That's the dumbest thing ever said. It presumes you are the smartest man in the room. 
• This photo, posted by a former NFL kicker, caused controversy this weekend. I'll cut him a break. #BitsAreFun
  
• This was in the Messenger this week and it referenced one of the greatest articles of all time that they published. One of their young reporters went and ran naked at a Wise County nudist colony.:
  
• I watched Gladiator again this weekend. This line stuck out to me: "Fear and wonder. A powerful combination." (I'll put that movie in my Top 10.)
• Trump went on a crazy Twitter rant this weekend. It is too much to keep up with.
  
• You have to love politics to do want to see this, but Kellyanne Conway losing it over the weekend during a CNN interview borders on bizarre. 
• My father disclosed yesterday that as a young man he was paid $1 to dispose of a dead dog at the request of Bridgeport's Chief of Police, was allowed to take the Chief's car, and decided he would do comedy by firing up the siren as he came back into downtown Bridgeport. I'm still laughing. (He pulled up behind two DPS Troopers' cars -- the only two troopers assigned to Wise County at the time.)
• Four people were killed, and many more injured, by a white naked guy with an AR-15 this weekend in Tennessee. The insanity was stopped by an unarmed black guy.  
  
• Sean Hannity uses government welfare and prays on the poor? Who would have thought? And the fact this came to light because he is one of the three clients for the Dumbest Lawyer In America is gold. 
  

Above The Fold

Full page pdf. 

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

 On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give her an E for effort. 

 Get me this . . . goat. 

 I hope the crowd is coming out to beat him senseless, but I don't think so.

 Life comes at you fast. 

I may divorce Mrs. LL for this woman.
And just because of her golfing abilities, of course.

This Is A Great Photo

Here's what you need to know about the final day of the softball regular season @FridayNghtGlory @DFWfastpitch @TXPrepSoftball @KISDAthletics @NISDAthletics @MISDathletics @FWISDAthletics @caralinew https://t.co/Wao9f0sbpA

— Brian Gosset (@Gosset41) April 20, 2018

For those of you who have ever followed high school level baseball or softball, you'll appreciate this photo. The joy of being "safe."

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• A few months back I said there was a First Amendment issue with "revenge porn" laws. I was taught that by reading what a Houston lawyer, named Mark Bennett, wrote. Yesterday, he won an appeal where the court held the Texas revenge porn law is indeed unconstitutional. Some people have commented that Bennett, who I have never met, is arrogant and a jerk. Let me say this: If true, we need arrogant jerks who are smart lawyers to protect and defend the Constitution. 
• Rudy Guiliani is now a part of Trump's legal "team." He is an arrogant jerk but not smart.  This will not end well.
  
• I'm confused, too:
  
  
• Presented without comment: 
  
• The only people who have ever blocked me on Twitter are hard right wing conservatives. But I'll always give credit to Mark Davis (radio), Robert Jeffress (shyster pastor), and Ed Bark (TV critic) for never blocking me despite me disagreeing with them. (And never mess with Ed Bark. He will engage and destroy you.)
• That being said, everyone should consider giving up social media. 
• Throw in that Texas congressman Farenthold quit because he used taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual harassment case, and this story becomes something right out of the National Enquirer. I present to you the party of family values: 
  
• I'm all set to get my picture taken with Stormy Daniels tonight in Fort Worth but the club's website and Twitter feed says nothing about her being there. Is she still coming? They are still selling tickets via a third party but they are non-refundable. 
• The Yellow Pages Directory was on my porch yesterday. It is a fraction of the size it used to be. If you advertise in it, you might want to rethink your advertising strategy. But I glanced through it to see the typical insane attorney ads. I found one from Tim O'Hare. He's the former mayor of Farmer's Branch which cost the city millions in his stupid immigration fight which they lost. And he is the former head of the Republican Party of Tarrant County. But he will come to the hospital to visit you!
  
• Bet: Trump will never meet with the Kim Jong Un despite his "promise" to do so.
• Yesterday was a first for me: A good person and county employee was obviously sick. I suggested she go home. She refused because she cares about her job and is loyal. The last time I saw her she was going home, and I hope she stayed there. 
• Photo below: Christian values, family man, and conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity at a brothel in 1990. Remember when I said I hate hypocrites and liars? 
  
• I had the funnest experience of my professional career yesterday morning. I represented two rappers who just happen to be black and from Wisconsin (yep, I'm confused, too). They entered a plea to a penny-ante marijuana case. They were the most respectful and gracious clients I have ever had. I could not get them to stop saying, "Thank you, Mr. Green" because they were scared to death what a small Texas county would do to them.  But having two black guys dressed incredibly cool with dreadlocks in the Wise County courthouse caused more crazy looks from other county employees than you can ever imagine. I loved every moment. 
• There was a meeting yesterday about a "Veterans Court" for Wise County to deal with vets' issues when they commit criminal offenses. I'm 100% for the concept. But what about a "Poor People's Court", a "Previously Sexually Abused Court", a "Discriminated Hispanic From Bridgeport Court", or a "Police Officer Who Suffers From Stress Court"? There is a huge Equal Protection issue that will eventually take down any court which gives protection to one class of people over the other. 
• Trump will not attend Barbara Bush's funeral. That honorable family hurt his feelings during the election.  #Snowflake

Every Single Person Should Watch This

In the very, very near future, no one will know what is real and what is fake. (I know most want wish to play it because it is Barak Hussein Obama but it is not what you think.)

And with the dumbing down of America, this could get scary.

(I'll give BagOfNothing guy credit. He was all over this a long time ago.)

Presented Without Comment

In light of today's post, I present to you, "The Fake 10 Commandments". @BSG pic.twitter.com/BqRuQzjlc0

— Add your name (@Road_Builder_TX) April 19, 2018

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• I really don't know anything about Garry Shandling and never watched anything he was in, but the one hour of the HBO documentary I saw last night, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, is one of the most powerful things I've ever seen. It's about mental health. 
• How does a walkout by students at Northwest's Eaton High School because of gun violence turn ugly by some dumb students bringing out Confederate flags?
• I love the Dallas mayor. There was a hearing yesterday in front of the city council where Railroad Commission representatives were there to answer questions about the Atmos Energy gas line crisis. Of course, they didn't have a clue since they were unprepared government employees who are just collecting a check.  After being frustrated, he told them "I'm trying to figure out what our state Railroad Commission does for a living." (The Ticket always jokingly plays the theme from The Sopranos whenever they talk about him. He looked like a mob boss yesterday when he went after those incompetent people.)
• I didn't know they were lost in 1960:
  
• There is no weirder unsolved case in the metroplex than that of Missy Beavers. She was the woman murdered before an early morning workout class by someone dressed as a security guard. Her husband gave an interview about the case to KXAS where he said on the day of the murder he was coming back from a fishing trip in Mississippi and was in a car "for eight hours with . . .  this [the murder] on my mind with" he pauses "relatively no communication." Mrs. LL and I did the slow head turn to each other at that moment. KXAS was clear: "He is not a suspect."
  
• What is going on?  Are these modern day money changers? Modern day Pharisees and Sadducees?
  
• Speaking of. I'll say it for the millionth time: How the Board of Deacons of FBC Dallas has not fired this guy is a mystery. And the replies to this tweet are brutally true.
  
• Stormy Daniels' lawyer is intimidating. If he ever gets the right to depose Trump, making it a pay per view broadcast would be the biggest money maker in the history of pay per views. And Trump is dumb enough to do it if he knew it was going to be on TV.
• Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich's wife has died. Maybe that is why he is always grumpy in interviews. He knew something that was coming that we didn't. 
•  I will always love his speech to the players in the huddle during a timeout in a playoff game. "Keep pounding that rock! Keep pounding that rock!" Meaning: It does not matter how hard and tough a rock is, if you keep pounding it you will eventually find the fissure and it will split. 
• I mentioned last week that the courthouse is having upgraded outdoor cameras installed. They can see who walks in my office. Someone told me I need to install one on the front of my office building and point it at the courthouse and do a bullet point that says, "Now, I'm watching who comes and goes. And when." 
  
• I'm now fascinated by the old white man's "thumb up" photo. From yesterday:
  
• I got into a ridiculous Twitter fight last night about prayer, and it boiled down to this: The Bible tells us, in the words from Jesus no less, to pray in private. If you take the Bible at its literal word, you can't pray in public. (Pause right now and think about that.) But what if you obey God's Word by doing so, but you want to tell another person you prayed for them in private? Is this like violating the attorney/client privilege? Can you disclose what you told God in private? 
• Some stranger chimed in on the Twitter fight and said that I "should pray someone doesn't whip [my] ass" for being a smart aleck. That's a pretty good comeback. 

This Is Weird

MORE: Email warning police to be prepared with riot gear Incase Mueller is fired pic.twitter.com/U1QH25bNN7

— Marcie Cipriani (@MCipriani_WTAE) April 18, 2018

But this isn't a tweet from a crazy Internet troll, it's a reporter in Pittsburgh.

Above The Fold

This is the revamped and free mid-week edition of the Messenger. Full front page is here. I suppose they would let me post the whole paper, but I haven't asked.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The Southwest Airline engine explosion and related death is simply horrifying. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be on that plane. I can't imagine what it is like to be the husband of the woman who died after almost be sucked out of the plane. 
  
• The pilot, who just happens to be a female, can truly be classified as a hero to get that thing safely on the ground. (And I say that with the firm belief that the term "hero" is thrown around way too loosely these days.)
• For those of you who fly every now and then, look at this: 
  
• Side note: If I think I'm going to die, I'm not taking photos.
• A new trend I've noticed from watching too many Wise County DWI videos: Law enforcement has gone to using cell phones to communicate to each other instead of the traditional way over the radio where the public, if they have a scanner, can hear. I wonder why? (That's rhetorical.)
• This is what is called "jumping ship." He is the worst DA in Texas and perhaps the worst in the history of Texas. 
   
• I meant this to make this a bullet point yesterday. Putin owns Trump.
  
• Trump's a "Spy"? And "more a Spy than he is"? He's losing it.
  
  
• How's that Trump appointed Supreme Court judge working out for ya? 
  
• Trump immediately got mad about it:
  
• Barbara Bush was a national treasure. As is her husband. As is her son. I think I finally understand the Simon and Garfunkle song Mrs. Robinson which had the line of, "Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio? A nation turns our lonely eyes to you." 
• Nice job from the White House for botching their acknowledgement of the death of Mrs. Bush.
  
• "At the end of your life you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child or a parent.” - Barbara Bush (1990).

I Will Never . . .

#Flight1380 H/T @MSNBC "Southwest plane makes emergency landing at Philadelphia Airport after reportedly depressurizing mid-flight. Father of female passenger said she was partially sucked out of plane, but then pull backed by other passengers WCAU reports pic.twitter.com/T7xR1kIAc2 https://t.co/0DRxf1IwJx

— PushBackNow.com (@PushBackNow) April 17, 2018

Two friends of @DMagazine were on a @SouthwestAir flight today on which a passenger was "partially" sucked out of window inflight. https://t.co/G0k1hf91z8

— Tim Rogers (@timmytyper) April 17, 2018

. . .  be able to get Mrs. LL on a plane again.

(LaGuardia to Dallas flight.)

Male Chivalry

Show this video to every pro athlete today pic.twitter.com/bU6Iuls9jA

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 16, 2018

I'm Worried About The Gas Prices In Decatur

(Thanks DB)