Thoughts while heading into a serious weekend of Masters golf-viewing:

Now that the Red Sox have cooled off a little bit can we all agree that outfielder Jackie Bradley, Jr. has a ton of potential but is not yet ready for the big leagues?

Of course, you can’t have a mainstream media article about the Roman Catholic Church without some snarky comment about issues near and dear to the liberal left:

It will take more than an invitation for Kathy Budreski, though. The 70-year-old left Catholicism after the abuse scandal and has been attending a Unitarian church in Cape Cod.

She was heartened to see the cardinals pick a pope from South America, and loved seeing Francis hug a little boy with cerebral palsy after Easter Mass but says he’s not a progressive.

“He has a big heart and he loves the poor people, but he’s not going to do anything to change the stance of the church on birth control and gay rights,” she said.

Damned straight on that, Ms. Budreski. And that’s two reasons why I’m a Roman Catholic. If by “gay rights” you mean gay marriage then best keep going to that Unitarian church. And as for birth control, I guess some people just can’t get enough baby killing.

Speaking of which, kudos to Kirsten Powers, one of my cable news commentator faves. She rightly calls out the mainstream media for avoiding at all cost any mention of that horrific abortion clinic trial going on in Philadelphia. And you know why? Because, in addition to Barack and Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, it is impermissible in the mainstream media to cover anything having to do negatively with Planned Parenthood and any kind of abortion clinic. Nothing warms the hearts of the mainstream media like babies being killed so women aren’t inconvenienced by motherhood.

But enough negative stuff. I’d rather watch this video of a woodchuck eating and thoroughly enjoying an ice cream cone.

Any of you Goodboys in the Boston area interested in checking out a real cool, honest-to-goodness Exotica band should head over to Lily Pad in Cambridge to see Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica live. These guys are awesome, check out this video sample.