More Stanton

So, my column in tomorrow's newspaper is about the Steve Stanton firing. Sometimes I go out of the way to try to ignore Topic A in each day's news, on the theory that there's enough being said about it already, but sometimes it feels unavoidable.

I try to answer what I think are the three themes voiced by those who supported Stanton's firing:

(1) Being a transsexual is a sin.

(2) Being a transsexual is disgusting to society.

(3) Being a transsexual is too disruptive for a city manager in a leadership position.

Meanwhlie, check out the lively comments to the Stanton post below, as well as those at the bottom of today's news story. My two favorites:

The Largo City Council has been working with Susan for years. She just LOOKED like Steve. (from Alexandra)

Give him a 20% pay cut, and hire him back as a woman. (from Maggie)

As Long As It Isn't 'Margaritaville'

Our staffer Melanie Ave writes today about changing the state song, Old Folks At Home (Way down upon the Swanee River...). The song's references to "darkeys'' bemoaning the loss of a lifestyle on the old plantation are, to say the least, a little dated.

I wrote a column about this back in 1992, which produced a sheaf of letters from readers suggesting alternatives -- as well as their own lyrics and even a few cassette tapes. Feel free to make suggestions here and we'll see what folks come up with.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the complaint of state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the descendant of a Confederate soldier: "It just seems in this age of multiculturalism we can celebrate everyone's culture but mine."

Well, if the culture was owning other human beings in forced labor, uh...

And Largo Smote Its City Manager...

If Steve Stanton had announced last week that he was "merely" gay, instead of a man intending to become a woman named Susan, would he still have been fired as city manager last night by the Largo City Commission?

I am guessing not, but then, I didn't think Largo was going to fire him so quickly even for this. The guy was there for 14 years and was rock-solid in his job, with excellent evaluations.

The lesson is just how strongly mainstream society still feels about the transsexual issue -- strongly enough, in Stanton's case, to override every other factor.

Other points:

* It seems odd to accuse the guy of being "deceitful," as several speakers did, since he stood up in front of the whole world to announce his intentions.

* One quote from one preacher...

If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he'd want him terminated. Make no mistake about it.

.. does not make him a spokesman for the entire Christian religion. I could produce a whole page of quotes from the New Testament suggesting just the opposite, but decided it wouldn't settle anything.

* Stanton is in a tough line of work where getting fired is an occupational hazard for ANY reason -- or no reason at all. Lots of city managers get fired, and a lot get fired for reasons a lot more petty. In the end, the job consists of exactly one criterion: Keeping a majority of your bosses satisfied.

More later.

The Readers: Sex Vaccines, Sex Changes, Sex Taxes... Whoops, Sorry. PROPERTY Taxes

Obviously my column this morning about vaccinating middle-school girls against a sexually transmitted but potentially deadly virus was so reasonable that few readers could disagree. One who did said it strongly:

When you can identify and publish even a single good outcome from teenage sexual activity, then support for these shots may be forthcoming. Until then I will continue to teach my children that bad decisions have bad outcomes, therefore, don't do it. It IS that simple.

The comments are split on whether to fire Largo City Manager and announced transsexual Steve Stanton. One in the affirmative:

[H]aving some libertarian leanings myself, I think Stanton should be able to do whatever he wants with his body. However, this tolerance does NOT mean society or anyone else must accept him.

And folks are still chipping in on Florida's tax structure. A reader named Jane says:

I know this is a very unpopular opinion, but the only real solution to FL's tax problem is to cap local property taxes severely (or do away with them as proposed) and start collecting a state income tax.

I have been starting to wonder about that myself, Jane. Traditionally, talking about an income tax in Florida has been suicidal, but if it were limited enough and sold as part of an overall fair tax reform... sorry. Lost my head for a second.

Lastly, this from Warren Eisenhower of Pinellas County:

No wonder property taxes here are so high, 23 [24, actually] cities and one county government... It is expensive, duplicative and inefficient... All that is needed is one overall county government that can be held accountable. How did such a catastrophe occur, who let it happen?

The trouble, Warren, is that most if not all of those burgs would rather go to war than give up their status as a city. It's not just a financial question, but political and even emotional, with a huge distrust of a centralized government. "Consolidation" has been a dirty word in Pinellas politics for a long time.

Tuesday Morning: Coloring Books, Victor/Victoria

Check out our ongoing updates of the John Couey trial. If Couey's recent use of coloring books in court is a stunt, it's just as likely to backfire -- I've sat through plenty of murder trials where the defendant put on an oddball act but the jury stuck to the facts at hand. If anything, it seems macabre and unfeeling in a case involving the brutal abduction and murder of a child.

I want to like Judge Ric Howard, who doesn't put with much nonsense. Compare him to the put-me-on-TV judge in the Anna Nicole Smith case, or the all-time model for How Not To Do It, Judge Lance Ito. Still, a public trial is a public trial, and he needs to be careful about making decisions after private bench conferences. "We are not having secret court,'' the judge complained after a media objection to one such decision, but that's exactly what he was doing at that moment.

On another front: Should veteran Largo City Manager Steve Stanton be fired in the wake of his announcement that he is becoming a woman? I liked our editorial this morning -- it ought to be based strictly on his job performance, which has historically been judged excellent by his bosses. You could argue that Stanton's change of gender is itself too distracting, but shouldn't that decision be based on a little track record, instead of making a front-end call?

The Readers: Here's How To Fix This Tax Thing

There are quite a few e-mails on Sunday's column on the state House's plan for eliminating most property taxes on homestead property, and raising the state's sales tax to 8.5 percent (plus whatever each county tacks on).

From Louise McArdle of Seminole: I am a snowbird and live in Florida for 5.9 months.  I own my own condo and pay a full year's taxes on it and also insurance. Why can't I be considered to save on taxes?

Jim & Lillian Conner, who split their time between here and Canada, prefer the setup there of a 15-percent sales tax on just about everything.

John Borrows of Indian Shores has an idea I haven't heard before: deferring any property taxes above the cap until the time a property is sold; he has run lots of numbers and thinks it works out over time. (Of course, the local governments like predictable, recurring annual revenue.)

What else? Taxes should be based only on the ability to pay -- in other words, not property, but income. Another suggestion is to exempt a HUGE amount of a property's value -- $500,000 for residential and business property, $200,000 for rental -- so that the fattest cats would still pay something, and still raise the sales tax.

Lots of ideas... but easier said that done; the challenge is building support in the Legislature to do it...

The Drug Industy Meets Its Match

I was fascinated by this morning's story about a cervical cancer vaccine by our staffer Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler. It shows that even the modern power of the drug industry, and all the lobbying in Tallahassee, still has its limits.

Here's the plot: Drug giant (Merck) invents vaccine to protect again a virus that causes cervical cancer. Drug company launches national lobbying effort to require vaccination for young girls, enlisting local politicians. Florida pols propose state law requiring vaccinations in middle school.

Here's the catch: The virus is sexually transmitted. So vaccinating against it runs into the same political problem as sex education and contraception. For some parents, it implies that we're condoning sexual activity. Now the company is backtracking, and so are the backers of the Florida bill.

I don't have a daughter in middle school, but if I did, I would get her this potentially life-saving vaccine no questions asked. But I am a little more shaky on whether to force everybody else's daughter to get it, whether the parents want it or not.

To me it comes down to whether there is a compelling state interest (1) in protecting an individual teenager's health regardless of her parents' wishes and (2) in protecting society at large from the spread of a virus, in the same way in the past we have required mandatory vaccinations against smallpox or polio.

Comments?   

The Readers: Executions, Power Plants

The reaction was fairly divided to Thursday's column about Florida's last botched lethal injection. Naturally, some folks didn't care whether the guy suffered:

I bet he was more comfortable than he would have been with "Old Sparky!" More bleeding heart BS!

Others helpfully came up with suggestions for alternative methods: firing squad, hanging, even gradual and painless oxygen deprivation (that one came from a World War II B-17 crew member). One even suggested a guillotine -- I don't know if he was joking, but in fact the guillotine WAS originally intended as a more humane way of execution. Them French guys gave it a bad reputation, though...

I also am still getting reaction from a recent column about requiring customers to pay up front for nuclear power plants. Most folks were against the idea, but I did get some lively feedback from those who said it was only fair. My favorite lumped me in with some disfavored members of Congress:

The problem is that the process created by self -appointed defenders of the public like yourself, Commissar Waxman of The People's Republic of California, Markey of Massachusetts and other feeders at the public trough ... is as onerous as it is hideously expensive.  In so much as the process was created in the public interest, what is unfair about asking the customers to pay for it?

Hello? Is This Thing On?

Hey, Howard here. This is TroxBlog. We were gonna call it "Howard's End" but figured that name would be, you know, the butt of too many jokes.

I don't know what this is going to become, but here is how it is going to start out. I'll make morning posts that summarize, update or look ahead at my columns in the St. Petersburg Times, as well as posts that offer a quick new take on the morning's events.

There'll also be frequent posts summing up the best of reader e-mail criticism & reaction. Heck, I'll probably also post the worst, just to reflect what people are saying.

Every couple of weeks (if there's enough interest) I'll spend part of an afternoon in more or less "live" chat with anybody who wants to talk, via the comment function on this blog.

By the way, this is my dog Harry. I just wanted to make sure I could get the photo-putter-in-ner-thing to work. Looks like I can. Now, if you will indulge me with a couple other matters as well...

Just To Be Clear, I Am In Charge of Exactly Squat

Lots of folks want to talk about the rest of the newspaper. But all I'm in charge of is my own column in the metro section, which is mostly about state and local stuff.

I'll answer for my own words all day long, but not anybody else's.

If you really are just dying to talk about what's wrong with the editorial page, the A section, the news coverage, the comics or the Awful Liberal/Mainstream Media in general, you should write a letter to the editor. You can do that by clicking here.

Howard-festo: What Would Barry Say?

Liberal media? Riiiiight. I am putting this post here so that I can send people to it as a reply when they throw out that knee-jerk "liberal" label, instead of talking about the actual merits of an issue.

Nobody is "liberal" or "conservative" on every  issue (few of us, anyway). We're all mixed bags. Me, I support the death penalty, the Second Amendment, gay marriage & Roe v. Wade. I also thought Clinton lied under oath and deserved to be impeached. Go figure.

I was in a cranky mood about people who use labels instead of their brains the day I wrote this.

Say, Who's In Those Photos Up Top?

Socrates, Groucho Marx, Boudiccea (a British warrior-queen who fought the Romans), Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Felix the Cat. No reason in particular. I figure on swapping 'em out now and then.