Friday random thoughts

• Hero of the week: Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old professor at Virginia Tech, held closed a classroom door so students could escape the wrath of Cho Seung-Hui. He died at the hands of the gunman. It figures that Librescu would help save others from an unconscionable killer — he was a Holocaust surivor.

• Do as I say, not as I do? A couple of weeks after pushing an ethics code, Councilwoman Irene Sundberg addresses the council as a business owner regarding a topic in which she had to recuse herself because of a conflict of interest. In the name of those ethics, it probably would have been a better idea for Sundberg to leave the room, as I've seen Mayor Ives do when talk turns to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, his employer.

• Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, raised about $350,000 in the first quarter of 2007 for his pending re-election bid. His prospective competitor, Guy Houston, an Assemblyman, had almost $200,000 in cash on-hand as of the fourth quarter of 2006. Looks like the 11th Congressional District race could become another big-money magnet.

• Want bigger boobs? Party on! One Florida radio station is offering free breast augmentation to the woman who "parties the hardest" during a contrived slumber party.

• Number of the week: 71. It's the number of times Attorney General Alberto Gonzales essentially told the Senate Judiciary Committee "I forgot" in response to questions that he has not been forthcoming (read: lied) about his involvement in the firing of eight U.S. prosecutors.

• I don't know about you, but I would hope that the top attorney in the United States would have a better memory than that. But I shouldn't make fun. He might have early-onset Alzheimer's and just forgot about it.

• Thanks to Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert for lending support to further protect Tracy's trees. Established, leafy trees, or the lack thereof, help determine the character and beauty of a community. Just look at L.A. ... case in point.

• Random thought of the week: "If it's all you can eat, why do they kick you out at the end of the night, even if you're still eating?"

• Calvin and Hobbes quote of the week: "In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks."