Skattershooting as I realize I'll be mowing my lawn from now until October . . .

• At what age do we stop "growing" and begin "aging"?  19 years old? 21? 23?
• The death of the Pope was a big deal, but did you realize they didn't embalm him after his death? And he was available for public viewing for a very, very long time.
  
• In 2000 Joseph Ratzinger, the new Pope, initiated the end of German Catholic counseling for pregnant women who are in doubt about whether to give birth.
• And with all due respect to the new Pope, he has some very bad teeth.
  
• Last month the FDA lifted the ban regarding silicon breast implants. Question: Considering the past manufacturers were sued into oblivion by women (for complaints both real and imagined), who in the world would want to manufacture them now?
• "Jim, you think he's with Jesus now? We only have 30 seconds." - Larry King interviewing James Caviezel, who played Jesus Christ in the film The Passion of the Christ, about the Pope's death.
• "Pfizer, the company that makes Viagra, reported that profits went down 6% last year. Afterward Pfizer said 'I'm sorry. This has never happened before.'" - Conan O'Brien
• "We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States. That's just outrageous. And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous." - Tom Delay
• The right wing in Austin decided to trick up the CPS reform bill by adding an amendment that would prevent gay couples from being foster parents. State Senator Jane Nelson (who amazingly is against the amendment) said on WBAP on 4/22/05 that of the 16,000 kids in Foster Care some 6,000 were in the care of Lesbians/Gay couples. I simply find that hard to believe.  But facts have never been important to her.
  
• What's all this outcry over activists judges all of a sudden?
• The Republicans are complaining about the Democrats use of the filibuster to block six of Bush's federal judicial nominees - a move that they call "unprecedented". Well, they are technically correct. But what they don't tell you is that during the Clinton Administration the Republicans were able to block 40(!!!!) of Clinton's nominees by simply keeping the nominations bottled up in committee. They didn't even have to use the filibuster.
  
• "WASHINGTON - Growing at a rate of about 900 inmates each week between mid-2003 and mid-2004, the nation's prisons and jails held 2.1 million people, or one in every 138 U.S. residents, the government reported Sunday." Amazing.
  
• Call me crazy. Call me liberal. But we have got to stop putting people in cages for using drugs. And I promise that 50 or 100 years from now society will look back on us as barbarians for doing so.
  
• I don't know if we are set to have another high tech stock bust, but the Google stock price would make me nervous if I was a shareholder.
  
• Whatever happened to NBC news anchor Jack Ford?
  
• Tom Cruise, 42, is dating Katie Holmes, 26.   Which one is getting the better deal?
  
• Why is bra singular and panties plural?
• I was listening to PBS the other day and they teased an upcoming interview from a professor on the topic of "The High Cost of Free Parking". Ok, boring, I'm thinking. And then I learned that the guy had written a 600 page book on the topic  and it was available on Amazon for $59.95. What a bizarre world we live in.
  
• The President wants to reform Social Security. I wonder why he hasn't suggested repealing the law that allows no social security tax to be collected on anyone's income once they exceed $90,000 a year?
• The History Channel had a documentary the other night on the final hour of Flight 11 (the first plane to hit the Twin Towers on 9/11). Did you know they have the actual recordings of phone calls made by the flight attendants? Did you know they have audio of the hijackers trying to tell the passengers to stay calm but the transmission was accidentally sent out over the air waves for the air traffic controllers to hear? Did you know that same transmission was heard by the pilots of the second plane to be hijacked before it was actually hijacked? I heard them all.  I had no idea that audio existed.
  
• You upset about high gas prices? Exxon-Mobil's first quarter profits were $7.7 billion - a 44 percent increase from last year.
  
• NBC's Joey (the Friends spin off) is 40th in the rankings. That is the lowest NBC show in history to have a broadcast time of the highly coveted 7:00 p.m. Thursday time slot.
  
• I am not making this up: Two Fridays ago the Dallas Morning News' movie section had a preview of "Beautiful Boxer" the "true story of a Thai man who finances a sex change through kick boxing." And the gave it a B grade!!
• "The United States announced a plan to tighten all borders by the year 2008. Unfortunately, Mexico announced a plan to have all their people here by 2007."  - Jay Leno
  
• The "runaway bride", 32-year old Jennifer Wilbanks, didn't really get me upset or mad at all. We should all know by now, as I so often say, "people are crazy".
• I loved this quote from Fox News Bill O'Reilly which he uttered the day before Wilbanks was discovered safe and sound: "The epidemic of crimes against women and children in America continues with the disappearance of 32-year old Jennifer Wilbanks from an Atlanta suburb." Moments later he said: "It's got to be a crime. A woman like that with a long history of responsibility. She had a steady job...She just wouldn't bolt and not tell anybody."
• And a quote from my-most-despised-women-in-America, Nancy Grace: "I just don't believe it's a case of cold feet."
• And by the way, doesn't Wilbanks have eyes like she's been on a three day crank binge?  And those eyes are the same in every single photo.
• You may have missed that Wilbanks bought her bus ticket to get out of town a full week before she bolted. So much for a split decision to bolt.
• But I loved this quote from Wilbanks fiance in defense of his maybe-someday-bride: "Ain't we all messed up?" Yes, we have.
  
• Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk chose to be a Democrat at the worst possible time.
• Not many of you care about the Strong Mayor vote coming up in Dallas but I knew Beth Ann Blackwood in law school at Baylor and she was smokin' hot back then.
• From reading the Spring football notes from Texas Tech, I didn't see anything about former Bridgeport great Phillip Daugherty. From reading the Spring football notes from SMU, I didn't see anything about former Decatur great Andrew McKinney.  But both of those guys are still young.
• I had forgotten that when I played baseball in my backyard with too few players that we would use a "ghost runner".
• ESPN has won the bidding war to put Monday Night Football on its station beginning in 2006. Did you see the price tag that the all sports station is paying for this? That would be $8.8 billion. That's with a "b". 
  
• And NFL franchises still need public money to build new stadiums?
• I didn't watch many movies last month. Spring means good weather which means I'm jogging outside instead of front of a DVD player.
  
• In an effort to demonstrate the dangers of methamphetamine, the following alleged series of photos taken over a number of years is showing up in all sorts of publications. One thing bugs me about it: I have yet to see anyone identify who this lady is or the jail that she was booked into. In a the most recent issue of "The Texas Prosecutor", the pictures were only described as "an anonymous meth addict". I wonder if this isn't a modern day case of Reefer Madness?  Whatever the case, I can't stop looking at her.