Friday random thoughts...

• Calvin & Hobbes quote of the week: "Talk show hosts, political candidates, news programs, special interst groups... they all become successful by reducing debates to the level of shouted rage. Nothing gets solved but we're all entertained."

• No matter what the reasoning is, it looks very, very bad when three of five Tracy City Council members voice opposition to a proposed ethics code.

• Evelyn Tolbert's pledge to not take any campaign donations over $99 sounds egalitarian and downright democratic. Nevertheless, I'd be very intersted to see from whom she collected more than $43,000 in eight years of fundraising.

• Lawrence Livermore's most recent application to the local air quality district says it might put into the air up to 450 pounds of depleted uranium each year from tests at Site 300. Anyone care to take a deep breath while the wind is blowing from the west?

• Does anyone else find it ironic that pro-war folks — people who used cherry-picked, faulty intelligence and fearmongering to justify an unnecessary war that was secretly years in the planning — are now accusing those who want to end this war as being "reckless?" It boggles the mind.

• If I see Anna Nicole Smith's name on the front page of one more cable news Web site, I am going to scream.

• Take it from Mr. Imus: Whoever first said "Sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never hurt me," probably issued many public apologies.

• Seriously though, that whole sordid incident shows us two things: No. 1, that words are very powerful and effect the way we view the world; No. 2, that it's too easy for the entire nation to get swept away by some stupid celebrity's ignorant comments.

• Random thought of the week: "Aim low. That way, if you fail, you don't have so far to fall."