Random Thoughts 4/16/07

• I was in Winchester recently, the town where I grew up and I couldn't make myself drive by the old house. It's just too sad how run-down that place has become.
• Nike has an advertising campaign featuring the NFL rookies who will be drafted later this month. The ads picture these athletes standing together in Nike athletic apparel and a few things stood out to me: 1) Adrian Peterson is HUGE! Peterson, a running back from Oklahoma, is the biggest looking player in the picture even though some of the others are five inches taller and 80 pounds heavier. 2) The oldest looking player is the 19 year old. DT Amobi Okoye looks like he's in his mid-twenties even though he's the youngest draft prospect ever, having graduated from college while still a teenager. 3) The second biggest-looking guy is the wide receiver, Calvin Johnson. 4) Marshawn Lynch is scary looking – and I mean like serial killer scary. Surely that's not the look he's going for.
• Pravda (the actual Russian newspaper, not my pet name for the KC Star) reports that Don Imus was fired because he was about to reveal the secret connection between 9/11 and the Bush Administration. The White House supposedly orchestrated the outrage and subsequent firing of Imus over his rude remarks. Hmm… that means Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Rutgers University, Oprah, CBS radio, et al. are in the pocket of the Bushies! Welcome to the tinfoil hat club, Pravda.
• Increasing numbers of doctors in the UK are refusing to perform abortions. There are 190,000 abortions in Britain every year, paid for the by the state, and permitted in some cases through the ninth month. But if more doctors refuse to comply, abortions will be harder to come by. Even more important, a doctor saying that a fetus is a person carries a lot of weight with most people.
• The Chiefs' Will Shields, perhaps one of the top five offensive linemen in NFL history, retired today. He'll leave a gaping hole (a first for him) that will be hard for the Chiefs to fill.