Friday random thoughts

• More McNerney: While my Friday column attempts to inform consituents a little more about their Congressman, don't think I'm trying to present the end-all tale of Rep. Jerry McNerney. There's plenty of his platform that I didn't explicitly mention. But don't worry, there will be a lot more that's known about McNerney the statesman in November 2008 from which voters can make a decision.

• Alert reader JimF sent in this gem from Wednesday's Tracy Press: "This woman (above) is complaining because she wants another sound wall. She bought the house in 2003! Perhaps the blinds on the window were closed when she came to look at the house? Looking at the photo, I imagine her moving boxes into her new home, and opening the blinds, discovering, GAH, there is a freeway out my back window!"

• So much for gender equality: A Grayson woman pleaded guilty to having sex with her teenage son's underage friends and giving booze to teenagers who later ended up in an intoxicated car wreck. She'll serve a maximum 1 year in prison, and likely no prison time at all. If this were a man having sex with underage girls and supplying alcohol, any bets as to how many decades of prison time he'd be serving?

• Forlorn hope? Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian and Merced County Planning Commissioner Jack Mobley are making runs at seats in the state Senate and Assembly, respectively. Aghazarian might have a chance, but Mobley is going up against Cathleen Galgiani, who doesn't look like she's ready to be unseated.

• Gulf of Tonkin II? Iran is holding British sailors captive. The U.S. just finished war games with two cruiser groups in the Persian Gulf. Is this the way the war with Iran starts?

• Double-edged sword: Either this thing with Iran is going to blow up in our faces, or it could serve as a door-opener to increased diplomacy. Let's hope it's the latter.

• Two Rottweilers that have terrorized a Tracy neighborhood for more than a week will be put to death. But their seven puppies are being spared. Let's hope that the pups are raised better than the parents.

• An Iraq war spending bill is between a rock and a hard place. Bush and Republicans won't budge. Neither will the Democrats. So I'm guessing that the whole "bipartisan cooperation" thing they were talking about two months ago is pretty much over.

• Most random thought of the week: "I am totally not qualified to do this!"

• Calvin & Hobbes quote of the week: "Someday the neighbors will look out and wonder why there's a grown man wearing kids' clothes on our roof."