It’s Friday and time to celebrate! For those readers on spring break, it’s time to really celebrate!

It’s also Good Friday!

If this is your first time visiting The Western Word, the “Caught My Eye” column is where I take a quick look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week – and I often throw in some sarcasm just to make you smile. So get ready to head into your weekend armed with knowledge and a smile.

Today I write about the Bullock veto, Drone paranoia, Idaho’s Larry Craig, Iowa’s Steve King, the Obituary, Most/Least Religious places, Local TV News, the Broken Cheeseburger, Eyeballs, and much more!

Common Sense Veto:

I think former Republican Congressman Rick Hill did not win the Montana Gubernatorial race against Democrat Steve Bullock in part because many voters did not trust him enough to reel in the wackos on the right.

Bullock took out his veto pen this week for one of those weird Republican bills (House Bill 302). That bill would “Prohibit state enforcement of any federal ban on semi-auto firearms/magazines.” According to the Associated Press, Bullock called the bill “unnecessary political theater.”

He’s right. Good for Bullock. That’s called check and balance. It’s also called common sense.

Drone Paranoia:

Drone paranoia has struck Montana Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus. They were so concerned about drones that they wrote a letter to the U.S. Attorney General. Then they sent a press release about that monumental act of bravery so the Montana media could laud their action.

Also, in a three stooges moment, Tester and Baucus teamed up with Senator Rand Paul and co-sponsored his amendment that would require a search warrant to use drones for surveillance on U.S. soil.

Beam me up Scotty…

Larry Craig:

Remember him? Craig was a Republican senator from Idaho who was arrested for lewd conduct during a sting in the men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

He is no longer a senator for some reason.

According to Roll Call, “A federal judge has refused to dismiss a suit in which former Sen. Larry E. Craig is accused of improperly using campaign funds in a quest to vacate his guilty plea in a Minnesota airport bathroom sting.”

I’ve never felt the same about the restrooms in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport since that story hit the news…

Iowa’s Steve King:

He’s a Representative from Iowa and a member of the Tea Party Caucus. He may run for senator to replace Tom Harkin. On a radio program in Iowa he criticized “first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama’s recent spring break vacation to the Bahamas during the federal budget belt-tightening of sequestration.”

Come on. King did not expect the Obama children to take spring break vacation in Iowa, did he? I did hear that Hamburg, Iowa, along the Nishnabotna River is a pleasant place to visit this time of year…

Rest in Peace:

According to this obituary, “Timothy Wayne ‘Tim’ Hopkins, 54, went to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Dale Earnhardt to contribute his building and painting expertise to the constructing of many heavenly mansions on Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Memphis.”

Rest in peace Tim…

Most/Least Religious:

According to a poll from Gallup, “Provo-Orem, Utah, is the most religious of 189 U.S. metropolitan areas Gallup surveyed in 2012, with 77% of its residents classified as very religious. Burlington, Vt., and Boulder, Colo., are the least religious, with 17% meeting that threshold.”

Local TV News:

Ed Rabel is an author and Emmy Award-winning former television news correspondent. He writes an opinion piece that got my attention (and made me snicker) about local television news saying it is a “waste of your time” and it “is populated by bubble-heads and glib, young, sometimes pretty know-nothings. The truth is, they wouldn’t know a news story if it slapped them in the face.”

His thoughts on the weather were pretty funny, too.

They try Ed. They try…

Rabel is writing from Charleston, West Virginia, which has a population around 52,000.

“Broken” Cheeseburger:

In case you missed it, this is a heartwarming story about a young girl with autism and her “broken” cheeseburger.

There are still a lot of nice people left in this world…

Keeping an Eye Out…

Rest easy folks – “Police say a pair of eyeballs found in a medical box in a Kansas City gas station’s trash bin aren’t human.”

Whew…

One More Thing:

Don’t forget to stretch…