Skattershooting as I shake my head to get the cob webs out....

• Here's a prediction in the Elizabeth Smart alleged abduction case in Salt Lake City. (Remember the girl's little sister claims a man came into their bedroom with a gun).  Prediction: There was no man and the girl knows what really occurred. I have absolutely no basis to back this up other than the "man with a gun" story seems very child-like.
• I don't understand the World Cup.
• The NBA Finals are not much more entertaining than the World Cup.
• Shaq and reporter Jim Grey are developing somewhat of a Howard Cosell-Muhammed Ali relationship. After Grey finished his post game interview with Shaq after game three of the NBA Finals, Shaq said "I wished Lewis had knocked you out the other night instead." Grey had attended the Lennox Lewis/Mike Tyson fight in Memphis a couple of days before.
• Wasn't it a horrific wreck that left five dead on I-20 and it is even more tragic because none of the four deceased children had seatbelts on. I can't imagine getting in a car without buckling up (despite the fact I grew up in an era where no one used them - including me).
• I'm tired of hearing about the priest sex scandals.
• The Pope is in really bad shape.
• Not that I have lost a ton of money, but you should check out what Worldcom's stock has done over the last year. It is the number two long distance carrier in America and it's stock is worth about a buck a share? Can you say Enron?
• I don't trust U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft at all. I always hate the head of any criminal prosecution unit that has never so much as tried a single criminal case. (See Kenneth Starr).  His attitude toward civil rights is like a backwoods Bubba in the middle of West Texas. And did you read that he was having cloth wrapped around a statue named Spirit of Justice at the Justice Department. The cost? $8,000. Why? The exposed breasts of the inanimate object made him uncomfortable.  Please.
• Do you recall that Ashcroft lost his Missouri Senate seat in 2000 when he was defeated by Mel Carnahan? Do you also recall that Carnahan had died a month before the election in a plane crash.
• Explain to me why Ashcroft refuses to try "dirty bomber" Abdullah al-Muhajir in an American criminal court. He's a United States citizen and the Constitution applies to him. We can never allow the government to decide who they are going to hold indefinitely without recourse - regardless of how evil that person might be.
• Chan Ho Park, the "ace" of the Rangers who lasted 1 1/2 innings the other night, makes approximately $400,000 per start.
• John Cornyn, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said "that on key issues such as abortion . . . he disagrees with the platform approved last week by the delegates to the Republican Party of Texas convention in Dallas". Dallas Morning News, p. 35A, June 12, 2002.
• Gov. Rick Perry said that he had not had time to look at the platform because it was "voluminous". The document is actually 24 pages.
• I finally saw the Pearl Harbor movie last week. Not bad. How we neglect Memorial Day like we do is shameful.
• The ear piece for the mobile telephone is a great invention.
• Clerks and Chasing Amy, both directed by Kevin Smith, are very funny.
• I think I'd like the College World Series better if I understood the basics of the round robin tournament.
• I can't wait until the local news reporters remind us of the safety tips to keep us from suffering from heat exhaustion this summer. I've already forgotten most of them. Am I supposed to drink a lot of water? Should I stop exercising if I feel faint? Should I consult my doctor before exercising?
• And what about my lawn? Should I water in the middle of the day or early in the morning?
• One other thing I can't wait for: The brewing hurricane out in the Atlantic that "just might" hit the east coast.
• Would someone explain to me how Michael Skakel was convicted of murder twenty-seven years after the fact? Heck, he may have done it, but whatever happened to "reasonable doubt". (I stole that from this week's Newsweek)
• I have grown to hate Fox's Bill O'Reilly. He's a smart guy but he is nothing more than a snake oil salesman in the way he panhandles his books on The O'Reilly Factor.
• The Paul McCartney show last month in Dallas sounds like it was great. Three hours of non-stop memories.
• Seventeen year old Kelly Osbourne (Ozzie's daughter) has cut a remake of Madonna's Pappa Don't Preach. Has it really been 16 years since the song originally came out?
• I watched Desperado again the other day. It's enough to make a man want to grow out a ponytail like Antonio Banderas.
• I'm certain I'm going to have a wreck in the Walmart parking lot one of these days.