Hello, goodbye, hello

Hello? Is this thing on?

Howard here. Thanks for all the comments on the last post. I laughed at some of the "sightings." I wish a quarter of them were true.

I'm back from a few weeks of working on an article that will appear in the newspaper soon. In the meantime, I've resumed my regular print column, starting with Sunday morning's paper.

As for this blog, the news is different. I've decided not to return to it.

There are several reasons, but the main one is that I want to spend more time on columns -- in particular, more time away from the keyboard and in the world. What I found was that to do justice to the blog, I was spending a pretty good chunk of each day, then playing catch-up on column topics and research.

There are a bunch of right smart and entertaining folks here, and I am grateful that you have taken the time. There are plenty of places on the Times site to comment on current events and see what other folks are saying. As for me, I'm still around, still writing three columns a week. I'll figure out a way to do occasional live chats -- my favorite part of this blog -- on the Times site somewhere. And you can e-mail me anytime at htroxler@sptimes.com.

Best wishes,

Howard

P.S. That's a photo of Harry, who was in the first blog post ever. I still miss him.

TroxBlog on hiatus

Howard here. As I mentioned in today's column and Friday's blog post, I'm taking a break from column-writing and blogging to work on a one-time special assignment. It should take a few weeks, and I'll be back to regular duty after that.

I'll be around in the meantime, so if you want to e-mail or post a comment I'll be checking in. My apology for breaking the rhythm but I hope that it will prove to be worthwhile.

Until then,

Howard

Friday, August 8, and a little announcement

Happy Friday. So far there are 70+ comments on my Thursday post/column proposing a new seventh-inning song for the Tampa Bay Rays. I liked a lot of them but am still sticking with Louie Louie.

I said on Wednesday that my choices were between writing about Amendment 5 and writing about a Rays song. I went with the lighter topic but will come back to Amendment 5 in my Sunday column.

Now, here is a spot of news that I wanted to tell you first, since you are being good enough to read this blog in the first place.

I'm takin' a little break from being a columnist. Just a little one.

I'm going to work on a reporting assignment for a little while, maybe a few weeks. I've got a topic that I hope proves to be worth pursuing in more depth than a column. It will give me a chance to stretch different muscles. I hope you'll be interested in the result.

I'll post a better announcement later. I know this is sort of leaving in the lurch, and it's also going to mean a lot less posting and traffic here. There are trade-offs involved.

Thursday's column on... well, almost Thursday! Louie, Lou-aye, OH, baby -- why not?

This is August and the Tampa Bay Rays are still in first place — did you see that win Wednesday? — so now we are down to serious business.

This is why I propose a new seventh-inning song.

I'm not talking about getting rid of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. That's sacrilege. But there's always room for another good one.

Sure, for a while the Rays did YMCA, and that was all right, if hackneyed. For a while they did Jimmy Buffett's Fins, which was appropriate for the marine-animal theme.

We've tried Cotton-Eyed Joe and Thank God I'm a Country Boy over the years, too.

But none of these have really been our song, not in the way that that Boston Red Sox fans lovingly belt out Sweet Caroline at Fenway Park in the eighth inning.

I'm talking about a song that gets 35,000 people stomping and singing and rocking back and forth, like Wild Thing in the baseball movie Major League.

Everybody probably has an idea, so let me start:

Louie, Louie.

Come on. Imagine a jam-packed Tropicana Field rocking back and forth and singing, "Louie Lou-AYE, OH, baby, me gotta go now."

Wednesday, August 6

Happy Wednesday. Thank goodness the Rays finally broke the Cleveland curse, at least for a few hours. Nobody asked me, but I vote for Jeff Garcia, by the way.

Check out the transcript of Tuesday's live chat, now at 170+ comments and growing, if you've haven't done it yet. I went back this morning and added to a lively exchange involving Rick K.

I have to write a column for Thursday's newspaper. I have two candidates, one light, one serious. The light one is my proposal to adopt a seventh-inning song for home Rays games (I vote for Louie Louie.) The serious one is to discuss Amendment 5, the proposal to eliminate school property taxes and replace them with other taxes to be determined later. Seems timely.

What's on your mind today?

Louie, Lou-AYE, oh, baby! Here's the transcript of the August 5 chat

Hello and welcome to the transcript of the weekly live chat here on TroxBlog. In a little over an hour we talked about food safety, nude beaches, Democratic delegates, Amendment 5, my proposal for a seventh-inning song for the Rays, and the assertion by a loyal critic that I have been too negative in my columns.

Check out the transcript and see for yourself by clicking on the "Comments" link a few lines below. You'll see a page with everything that's been said so far, and a space at the bottom where you can still add your own comments after the fact.

As always, thanks to everyone who stopped by or took part in today's chat!

Attack of the live chat, noon - 1 p.m. Tuesday!

Hey, how's your week going so far? I hope you'll consider stopping by TroxBlog from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday for this edition of the weekly live chat. I'll be here live and in person (sort of), taking comments and questions about current events in the Tampa Bay area and beyond. Feel free to bring up a topic, or just to hang out to see what people are talking about.

To observe or take part in the chat: Come back to TroxBlog at or after noon and look for a new announcement  with the headline, "The August 5 chat is OPEN!" Click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of that announcement and you'll see a page with everything that's been said so far, and a space at the end for you to join in. Keep refreshing the comments page to see the latest.

If you can't be here for the live chat, feel free to "pre-file" a question or proposed topic to the comments link of THIS announcement a few lines below, and I'll try to work them in. And you can always come back after the fact to read a transcript of the chat.

Otherwise, I hope to see you at noon Tuesday...

Tuesday's column on Monday! Delegates: That was then, this is now

Wait a minute. Is that it? Barack Obama says, “Let all of Florida’s delegates be counted,” and everybody holds hands and sings now?

Excuse me. I thought there was some sort of principle at stake here.

C’mon, you remember “principle.” The Democrats fought over it for months.

Florida, along with Michigan, broke the national party rules. Both states scheduled a presidential primary too early.

So last August, the national Democrats cracked down and told Florida its delegates wouldn’t count.

Are we going to enforce the rules, or are we just going to have open season on this entire process?
— DNC official, August 2007

After that, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the rest of the Democrats all signed a pledge not to campaign here.

Florida howled. Florida boo-hooed. Florida sued. Florida went right ahead and voted on Jan. 29.

And in the Election that Didn’t Count, Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama by 50 percent to 33 percent.

You know what happened next.

Monday, August 4

Hidy. Yesterday we saw Mamma Mia! so my head is filled with Abba songs. I went to iTunes and downloaded a greatest-hits album. Lots of memories of '70s-era puppy love. Also, you gotta love Christine Baranski in Does Your Mother Know.

I was thinking for tomorrow's column about Barack Obama's statement that yes, after all, Florida's full delegates should be counted at the Democratic National Convention. Of course this was expected as a show of unity. And now that we're in the general election, no need for one party to insult Florida gratuitously.

Still, it feels sort of... anticlimactic, even a little cheap, like the whole thing was based on posturing from the beginning. And in the end there was only temporary disapproval, no lasting effect, from Florida and Michigan choosing to break the rules and hold early primaries.

An article of note from our Tallahassee bureau chief Steve Bousquet today on who's giving money to whom, such as a Wal-Mart heir backing the school-voucher movement. Interesting that the side OPPOSING Florida's proposed ban on same-sex marriage has raised 4x the $$$ of the supporting side. Also interesting that future state Senate president Jeff Atwater has a committee that's raised more than $700K to date.

Bousquet notes: "Many donors to legislators' committees are special interest groups with a heavy lobbying presence in Tallahassee such as Realtors, horse and dog tracks, health care firms and wealthy lobbyists and individuals, such as Miami Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga, who gave $15,000 to Atwater's group."

What's on your mind today? Great walkoff comeback by the Rays yesterday after the blown save. I'm off to the game tonight for a double-date -- one of 'em is a Cleveland girl who is feeling the tug of the Rays, but will still be wearing her Indians cap. By the way, not to stir up an angry discussion here or anything, but -- do you think the grinning-red-man logo needs to be updated?

Gun comments

I don't regularly publish "I agree with your column" e-mails, since it smacks of self-satisifed horn-tooting. But I was interested in the strongly favorable reaction to Thursday's column from the gun community. Many of the comments expressed surprise that a member of the Liberal Media would analyze the judge's ruling the way I did...

Thanks for a very fair article. I'm very pro-gun, but I'm more concerned about judicial activism and maintaining our Republic. It's not good to continue to take so many issues out of the purview of the legislature. It's not often you see a balanced column in the media on a decision like this. Too often, political commentators push their own agenda, without regard to the fact we're live in a Republic not a Democracy. -- Mark

The right of one's own self protection has been eroded in many states, and its image distorted by the mass media. However it is refreshing to see that Florida legislators, and a few enlightened journalists, have the good sense to take a stand to protect this important right. It would be wonderful if others would follow this lead. -- Russell Marcus, St. Petersburg

It is nice to see journalism in a media that is so much overwhelmed by opinion and bias. Even a liberal like Troxler who opposes the civil rights of Americans to keep and bear arms, can have enough sense and professionalism to see the reality of the situation, and the essence of the issue. instead of spewing the standard liberal talking points, he explained the issue in layman's terms that was factually correct and without bias. Well done Troxler!! not for supporting civil rights, or constitutional judicial restraint, or for understanding that private property rights are no more absolute than any other rights, but for getting the story correct! Now that's Journalism, and that's not what we are used to from the liberal media. Wow!! -- Bo Reuter

My hats off to you sir. You've figured out that (1) we don't live in a Democracy we live in a Republic and (2) letting federal judges run amuck is not good for the sanctity of the Republic no matter what side of the political divide you are on. I agree with the promise of your article -- what is at stake here is not the 2 ^nd Amendment but rather the power of State Legislators to do things! Way to go ! -- John Ritenour

You might recognize the name on this one -- she's the head of the state NRA affiliate:

After reading your column: Gun law: They can pass it if they want all I could say was, WOW. I sent it out to many reporters who obviously don't get it and told them: Howard Troxler gets it. You probably would rather have praise from the other side but I still have to call it as I see it. I rarely ever agree with you on Second Amendment issues but this time you got it right and there was no bias. Thanks for a good column. -- Marion Hammer

Still, I did not please everyone by saying I thought business owners should have the right to say whether they wanted guns on their property. Here's part of an e-mail making a good case for the other argument:

If all private-property business owners were allowed to ban concealed carry what good would it then be to have self-protection in the first place? Practically one couldn't carry anywhere.The right to carry concealed should supersede over (and will soon enough) all private-property business sanctions against it. If you own a business where the general public comes to your store or place of operation, then you absolutely should have no right to snuff out a state law that permits me from carrying concealed for self-protection. Period. Private property (residences) should of course be allowed to sanction what comes in their home or on their property -- but not a business! -- Jerry Blomgren

For the record, I've repeatedly said I believe the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms -- check out the "As A Matter of Fact, I AM Biased" category over in the left-hand column.

Happy Friday to all...

Friday, August 1

Happy August. May I just point out that the much-touted Mr. Bay of the Pittsburgh baseball club is batting .190 against left-handers? So, I am not entirely convinced he was the answer...

But this is not a sports blog. Mr. Obama is coming to St. Petersburg this morning. Mr. Crist seems less and less likely to be a serious vice-presidential candidate. Mr. Recession appears to be official in Florida, although it seems to me that such pronouncements often are based on lagging indicators. I look forward to things getting better.

I didn't say nothin' about the harbor pilot story because I don't know enough about it. Maybe it would be a good thing to learn more about. Don't know anything about the expenses, the working conditions or the tradeoffs involved. Just to be contrary, I might point out that if it costs $262,000 to hire a guy who doesn't run boats into bridges, that this might be OK? I just don't know.

If you don't have enough conspiracy theories, in a slow moment do a Google on "Troxler" and "anthrax." I was one of the lucky recipients of a fake envelope soon after 9/11 -- the same guy mailed fakes to me, Tom Brokaw and Judith Miller of the N.Y. Times from St. Petersburg -- and in the years since, there have been various theories about it. Some of those theories are along the lines that the Real Mailer also sent out the fakes. At any rate, I was struck by the news today that a suspect in the real mailings has committed suicide.

What's on your mind today?

Thursday's column on Wednesday! Gun law: They can pass it if they want to

In case you're interested, here's a copy of the judge's ruling: Download guns_opinion.pdf

* * *

I like readin’ a good court ruling, and this was a good one on Florida’s “take your gun to work” law.

On the surface, the judge sure looks like he cut the baby in half:

• Florida employers have to let employees keep guns in their cars if they have concealed-weapons permits.

• But businesses can still have a no-gun policy for customers. That part of the new law is on hold.

So, what’s the difference between employees and customers?

If you’re trying to figure out some important constitutional distinction, don’t bother. Here’s the real answer:

Because the Florida Legislature screwed up the wording of the law, that’s all. That can be fixed.

Otherwise, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle ruled, the Legislature was perfectly able to pass the “guns to work” law.

The ruling, therefore, is more of a victory for the pro-gun side, and a fine example of judicial restraint — even by a mighty federal judge —  against the political power of a state Legislature.

Wednesday, July 30

Happy Wednesday. In case you missed it, comments are still coming in to this week's live chat. I had to laugh at the part after I left where "guy" said, "Okay, he's gone, now we can argue and swear."

What's on your mind today? Every day I write down more topics that could make for columns, and since I only get three a week the competition is fierce. Some current things on the list (which is a lot longer than these few):

* The Rays task force and Jeff Lyash. Everybody else in the world has offered Mr. Lyash their opinion on how to proceed; I feel left out.

* The upcoming environmental lands vote at the Pinellas County Commission.

* I got an excellent suggestion after Sunday's column, in which I complained about the tax policies of John McCain and Barack Obama both, that I should interview Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr. I agree, and I bet I could do it.

* The Everglades are back in the news today and I've been meaning to try to write something about the overall status.

* I don't think I understand the court ruling in the guns-to-work law and need to read it.

I liked Sue Carlton's column on the Aisenberg case, a story I have avoided so far. I am cautious about the whole dueling-jailhouse-snitch-and-high-publicity-lawyer business. Mostly what I care about is whether they actually have anything that can lead them to solve the case.

Since this is a smart bunch of folks here, may I ask, what is your impression of the Pinellas Juvenile Welfare Board? On the one hand, it pays for a lot of unquestionably good programs. On the other hand, it is an odd creature, an unelected board with taxing power, and I've always been curious about that...

Here's the transcript of the July 29 chat, and it was a darned fine one, if I do say so myself

Here's the transcript of today's weekly live chat. We touched on a lot of topics, including, in no particular order:

Wall Street bailouts, the Aisenberg case, my column today on the Pinellas zoning case and affordable housing, baseball stadiums, Hometown Democracy, and a certain amount of discourse, all printable of course, about eight-foot-tall works of art.

To read the transcript of the chat: Click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of this item and you'll see a page with everything that's been said so far, and a space at the end where you can still join in.

Thanks as always to everybody who stopped by today, and I hope to see you at the next chat...

The live chat is... well, LIVE, noon - 1 p.m. Tuesday

I hope you'll stop by TroxBlog between noon and 1 p.m. Tuesday for the latest edition of the weekly live chat. No doubt you're just dyin' to talk about the big penis statue, but there's probably room to bring up more serious matters that nerds like me prefer, such as Tuesday's column about a Pinellas zoning case, Sunday's column about the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac bailout, or last Thursday's sarcastic column proposing a "economic impact" grant from the government to hire 100 folks to drink beer full-time.

Hey, I'm nothing if not flexible when it comes to topics. Bring a sandwich, pull up a chair and feel free to join in, or just to sit back and watch.

To observe or take part in the chat: Come back to TroxBlog at or after noon and look for a new announcement here with the headline, "The July 29 chat is OPEN!" Click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of that announcement and you'll see a page with everything that's been said so far, and a space at the end for you to join in. Keep refreshing the comments page to see the latest.

If you can't be here for the live chat, feel free to "pre-file" a question or proposed topic to the comments link of THIS announcement a few lines below, and I'll try to work them in. And you can always come back after the fact to read a transcript of the chat.

Otherwise, I hope to see you at noon Tuesday...

Tuesday's column on Monday! Lots of familiar faces in this deal

Pinellas County has almost 1-million people, but in some ways it’s still a small town. Nobody knows that better than the folks who live just west of the southern end of the Bayside Bridge.

The residents of the single-family neighborhoods there have been fighting a proposed 23-acre development of 209 apartments and heights of up to five stories.

They organized. They signed petitions. Last Tuesday night, more than 100 of them attended a meeting of the Pinellas County Commission.

But they lost, at least for now. There are more rounds to go.

There are a couple of interesting angles that separate this from your average case.

The lawyer for the developers is from the firm of Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns. If you know a bit about Pinellas affairs, you know it as “Ed Armstrong’s firm.” Armstrong, a well-known land-use lawyer, is the president.

Nothing unusual about that. Lots of people hire Ed Armstrong’s firm. If I wanted a land-use ruling from the county, I’d hire him too.

Here is an extra angle. The development, called Bayside Reserves, might be financed by a public agency called the Pinellas Housing Finance Authority. And the lawyer for the Housing Finance Authority is from the firm of…

Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns.

Monday, July 28

Hello and happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend. My Sunday column was about the scintillating topic of the Fannie Mae bailout, including how our local members of Congress voted on it.

So, what's on your mind today? Comments welcome. I'm not sure yet of the topic of my column for tomorrow's newspaper...

Sunday column: Bail out you, bail out me, it's free!

This is probably a little far afield for a metro column, but last Thursday and Friday I got lost in the topic and wanted to try to write something useful about it. I don't know useful it turned out, and I really do not want to spend a lot of time writing about Congress. But it seemed worth a try...

* * *

Back in ancient Rome, politicians had a trick for winning votes when debts got too high.

They would campaign on a platform of wiping out existing debts. They promised a tabula rasa, a “blank slate.”

These days, we don’t go for anything as crude as a “blank slate.” We just stick it to the taxpayers.

Now, I am just as bored as you probably are when I see the words “Fannie Mae.”

In my brain, the words translate to, “Some financial thing that I don’t care about.”

But as a citizen, I did pay attention last week while our Congress was bailing out this mortgage mess.

The fight was over whom to bail out — the greedy lenders who caused this mess, or the borrowers who are suffering from it.

No, you're not being censored. Well, maybe a little.

While I'm doing other housekeeping things today --

I hear regularly from posters who are convinced their comment on the blog was censored because the evil newspaper is squelching their point of view.

Actually, there's a dumb automatic filter (as opposed to us dumb human beings) that flags almost every vulgarity, even mild ones, along with lots of other keywords, some of which make no sense to me. Neither does an innocent context make a difference. You can't say something is a "r-pe of the taxpayers," because the filter doesn't like that r-word.

If your comment is rejected as "spam," it almost certainly is because there's a word or phrase in it that the filter doesn't like. Sometimes I've had to go over my own comment a couple of times to figure out the offending phrase. One time, because I had written several paragraphs, I ended up blipping out one paragraph at a time until I had figured out the phrase it didn't like. Sheesh.

if you REALLY can't figure it out, and are convinced your comment is worth the extra trouble, then e-mail me at troxblog@tampabay.com and I will take a look (the filter keeps a copy of everything it blocks) and I can bypass it. Don't e-mail me just because it won't let you say "p----d off," though, or else I will be p -- uh, ticked off.

Program note #2

I slightly changed the blog information that's over in the right-hand column to try to set a tone. Tell me if you think it is too nannyish or could be worded better.

Best wishes for a good weekend.