The Readers: Do Take Your Guns To Town, Son; No Redner Regrets; Oh, And By The Way, You Stink

My column this morning mocked a bill in the Legislature that would prevent employers or businesses in Florida from banning guns on their property. Employees or customers could keep a gun locked in their car under the proposed law.

I said it was ironic that at the same time, the Legislature also is considering a bill to allow Publix, Wal-Mart and the like to ban petition gathering by the public on their grounds. In other words, a property owner has a right to kick out the First Amendment, but even private property rights have to give way to the Second Amendment. I figure the two are of equal importance.

Here's part of an interesting reply from reader Roger Gulbransen of Gainesville, who thinks I make a false equivalence:

Just as the fight over hiding names and addresses last year pointed out that it doesn't take a license for someone to shoot a gun at work or home, if someone is mad enough at their employer, they would be just as apt to bring a gun with or without permission to have a gun locked in their car at work.

Not being allowed to have their gun locked away while they work means that license holders have no defense while traveling to/from work or shopping on that trip to save gas.

I don't equate the overwhelmingly law abiding license holders with the Hare-Krishna's and political wannabes . Those folks have a plethora of 'public' owned places to practice their solicitations.

Thanks, Roger. Meanwhile, most of the e-mail and comments have run against Joe Redner, the famous nude-club owner from Tampa who finished second in a Tampa City Council race against incumbent Gwen Miller. For example:

I've always thought Redner's political runs were mostly ego-driven. Every pimp craves respectability.  Joe Redner seems to have a compulsive need and a knack for publicity, and I think one must admit the local press including the St. Pete Times and Creative Loafing have been his enablers.  -- Z

I'm still catching lots of flak from Tuesday's column, in which I disagreed with the faculty decision at the University of Florida to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree. Check out today's letters to the editor page for even more. Most folks think Bush shouldn't get an honorary degree on the basis of his track record as governor. One comment-poster at the end of the column also disagreed, at least I THINK so anyway --

if howard troxler had a single creative thought in his head it would die of lonliness  -- Travis

If you didn't catch my live chat on Tuesday, you can still read the transcript of comments, questions & my replies here. A few comments are still trickling in, including this one:

I would like to know why the Times never publishes a letter criticizing Bill Young. I have only been in St. Pete 12 years now but even when he tried to explain why he never did anything about Walter Reed the paper did not call him on it. Is there some kind of "give Bill Young a Pass" card that I do not know about? -- schauer

No offense, schauer, but the reason I include your question here is because it is a prime example of modern rhetoric: The assertion of the thing that is Simply Not True. In the past month we have run letters both criticizing and supporting Young; I have copied over the texts of some of them in reply to your question.

Best wishes to all and happy Thursday,
Howard

Comments

[schauer]

Wow. A change in policy. I stand corrected. I do not read the letters often since they usually just rehash party talking points (both sides). I meant in actual coverage of events and votes that work against the interest of the voters. I realize that Young has bought the bacon home for decades but for a long period nothing was ever said about him and his failure to debate at election time. On a side note. Is there any movement to try to get Senator Martinez to pick a job to do full time instead of his working two part time jobs. I do not think any Senator or Congressman should be so beholden to a party ideology as to work at odds against the interest of the people he represents. Otherwise good policy looses out to hard politics. and the voters lose out. I cannot meet with my Senator because he is out in Idaho trying to rally support for a political party, not the state of Florida.

Is there a way to get active issue debate, not just unchallenged political sound-bites, as a regular part of the process. I'd buy you lunch if you could do that!

[schauer]

WHat I was referring to was Young's time as a chairman when he had to tow the line for Delay to keep his chairman ship. Nothing was said during the time he blindly followed Delay's directives.

[schauer]

As for my comment being "modern rhetoric", the fact that you say something is not true has as much credence as me saying something is true. Let's search the news articles for the past 5 years and see what Young has been criticized for by your editorial board vs reporters stories vs letters to the editor. Each carries a different weight with readers.

[Howard Troxler]

These are good points and great topics for discussion, schauer -- please consider my "simply not true" claim to be limited to your initial question: "I would like to know why the Times never publishes a letter criticizing Bill Young." For sure I am not prepared to do a content analysis of everything that's been in the newspaper about Young, but I betcha it has certainly been more positive than negative, which I have complained about over the years -- an incumbent basically hands out $$$ like candy, gets a bunch of things named after him, and everybody goes, hooray...

[Howard Troxler]

In general the "you never do so-and-so'' claim is insoluble. Earlier today I got an "I dare you to answer me" message along the lines of, nobody at the Times is ever allowed to criticize Rick Baker. Since I have written bunches of columns criticizing and even mocking Baker, who complains bitterly about it, I suppose I could carefully look them up and list them all and try to refute his claim, but I doubt it would do much good... in the same vein, I have written columns making fun of Young as a sort of reverse trick-or-treater, running around stuffing federal dollars into everybody's pocket... but then, that does not comply with the Media Conspiracy Theory, so it simply doesn't count. It is a no-win game, because no matter how many such letters, articles, criticisms, etc. I might produce from the archives, somebody can always say, "Well, it is not enough.''