Skattershooting again . . . .

• Sen. Jane Nelson said this about the proposed legislation to ban the evil "eight-liners": "It is gambling, and the people of this state don't want gambling."  This woman is out of touch.
• Nelson, when referring to the new ban on open containers of alcohol in motor vehicles, said: "The old Bubbas who think it is their God given right to ride around with a beer in their trucks are being outnumbered by the moms and others who are trying to protect their children." Do you think she was being a bit condescending to the common man with her use of the term "Bubba"? Get this: she made sure there was an exception to the open container law for limousines.
• Can you name one interview of a sport figure that revealed something worthwhile. Every time I hear, "Up next on The Ticket, [insert sports name here]", I turn the dial.
• Speaking of bad sports interview, new Ranger manager Jerry Narron is almost a comic book character.
• John Battaglia made news last week when he allegedly shot his two daughters in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas. His book-in photo shows a huge black eye, but I can't find one report that will explain where it came from. (I know, I know, you don't care.)
• Want a sad bit of irony? The dead daughters of Battaglia were named "Faith" and "Liberty".
• One more oddity about the murder of the Battaglia kids - the mother issued a statement to clarify some of the errors she had seen in the media. Oddly, she issued it through a "publicist".
• There is an old country phrase which speaks of the "poor house". For example, "Man, if that deal goes belly up he'll find himself in the poor house." What exactly is a "poor house"? Were there ever poor houses?
• Have you noticed that the "Dear Abby" column now has a picture of Abby and her daughter Jeanne Phillips? Can they make it more obvious that Jeanne intends to take over Dear Abby once momma retires?
• During the last presidential campaign, Gov. George Bush refused to answer whether he had ever used cocaine. To justify his failure to answer, he uttered the phrase: "We must stop the politics of personal destruction." I knew that sounded familiar. When President Clinton addressed the nation on television after his day of his grand jury testimony, he said: "It is time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into private lives and get on with our national life."
• A great book on the entire President Clinton sex scandal is "A Vast Conspiracy" by ABC News consultant Jeffrey Toobin.  For the Clinton haters, there was more of a right wing conspiracy than you may be willing to believe.
• Did you see that Congressman Asa Hutchinson has been named by President Bush to lead the DEA? You may remember him as one of the "managers" that presented the case for impeachment of Clinton in the Senate. One of these days he is going to pick a battle that he can win.
• The DEA has 9,000 employees. Wake me up when the War on Drugs is over.
• Cowboy great Bob Hayes was recently named to the team's Ring of Honor. Everyone thinks he was some big time drug dealer but he actually only spent 10 months in prison on a drug charge that would have led to probation if committed today.
• I know I rant and rave too much about the drug war, but don't mistake my motives.  I have never even smoked a joint. (I did, however, see my first one being lit up in the parking lot of the Bridgeport Dairy Queen when I was fifteen years old).
• Pitcher Randy Johnson struck out 20 batters the other night against the Cincinnatti Reds. It was almost embarrassing when Deion Sanders was sent in to pinch hit late in the game against Johnson. He struck out on three pitches.
• Mav's owner Mark Cuban and Stars owner Tom Hicks pledged to chip in big money to cover architect Santiago Calatrava's fee for designing a bridge to span the Trinity River in Dallas. His fee for drawing up the plans? $5.9 million! That's not for construction but only for the design!  I hereby offer to draw up plans for a bridge to cross the Big Sandy for a mere $25.00.
• If the public ever blames President Bush for today's high gas prices (an idiotic assertion), he is dead in the water.
• Going into the Byron Nelson Golf Classic, Tiger Woods had won 19 out of the last 38 golf tournaments. Most professionals would be ecstatic to win one.
• Strom Thurmond, the elderly senator from South Carolina, is said to be on his last leg. Republicans are concerned because if he dies, it will be up to the South Carolina governor to appoint his replacement. Thurmond is a Republican. The governor is a Democrat. A Democratic appointment in Thurmond's place switches the balance of power in the Senate to 51-49 in favor of the Dems.
• Boyd legendary QB Billy Joe Tolliver signed with the Chicago Bears the other day. It seems like he has been in the NFL a long, long time.
• Cowboy linebacker Darren Hambrick is a goofball. He has been griping to the press lately because he is "only" being offered $500,000 a year to play for the 'Boys. His justification? He said he doesn't get to go home to a "25,000 square foot house" and instead has to go home to an apartment.  Huh? He also called the salary offer "demoralizing". Cut him, Jerry. Cut him.
• The movie "Office Space" is severely underrated.
• The movie "The Replacements" is the worst movie I have ever seen.
• One more movie note - "Bridget Jones's Diary" is very funny.
• The most recent army recruitment television ad uses this tidbit: "You've seen your drill sergeant and he isn't all that bad." Man, how desperate they must be.
• President Bush appointed John P. Walters as his "Drug Czar" recently. According to CNN, he favors "severe prison sentences" for marijuana smuggling.
• In a recent issue of Harvard's Quarterly Journal of Economics, two law professor opined that "legalized abortion contributed significantly to recent crime reductions." Any truth to that? Columnist George Will said that twenty-seven million abortions of in the last 18 years of unwanted children "is not a minor social development."