The (fake) year in review, Part II

The (mostly fake) news of 2007 in review, Part II:

July 4: Pinellas County refuses to buy land from its own elected property appraiser, saying, "This is obviously a sensitive transaction that requires the highest level of caution."

July 13: The treasure-hunting ship Odyssey is seized at sea by Capt. Jack Sparrow.

July 20: A mysterious lack of hurricanes prompts State Farm to cancel another 50,000 customers in Florida.

Aug. 2: NASA discovers a bad valve behind space-shuttle toilet. "Here's yer problem right here," NASA's plumber says, while displaying his own, you know, moon shot.

Aug. 8: A bunch of guys sitting around with nothing else to do decide it would be really neat-o to buy the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Aug. 16: An investigation by Hillsborough County concludes that it's okay that Hillsborough County blew all that money on the lake of a Hillsborough County commissioner, Brian Blair. Well, glad that's settled.

Aug. 17: Florida's entire Panhandle to be paved over for giant airport. "It's not like you're using it," St. Joe Co. executive says. [rest of column]

The (fake) year in review, Part I

The (mostly fake) news of 2007 in review, Part I:

Jan. 20: St. Petersburg police slash tents that had been donated to the homeless. In related news, those who hath two cloaks decide to keep them both.

Jan. 29: Legislature votes to ask insurance companies "pretty please with sugar on top" to cut rates.

Feb. 2: Personal savings rate in U.S. is at the lowest rate since the 1930s. "It's a good thing that the mortgage market is so stable," experts say.

Feb. 6: The nation acquires Too Much Information about astronaut diapers.

Feb. 13: An investigation into Florida State Prison discovers 24 copies of Lethal Injections for Dummies.

Feb. 15: A Pinellas girl gets the hiccups. Fortunately, no media frenzy erupts. [rest of column]

BayWalk

In other news, there's a new round of "Is BayWalk safe?" worry following what sounds like an awful time late on Christmas night in and around the downtown St. Petersburg shopping and entertainment complex. Shots fired in the air, a guy shot in the parking garage, fights and melees, some idiot throwing money in the air...

Now, BayWalk is a perfectly safe, mom-and-pop, Mayberry kind of place during the days and early evenings. I go there all the time. But I wouldn't step foot in the place after mid-evening on a weekend, precisely because it is jammed with raucous kids, even with the 10 p.m. curfew for the younger ones. This is more out of my being a cranky old guy than out of any sense of personal fear.

Still, I thought the statements of the mayor ("The police handled it well"), Police Department ("a couple" of troublemakers) and BayWalk management ("a security plan that worked") were a little forced. Your standards and mine for what constitutes the unacceptable breakdown of civilization might be different, but mine include gunplay and melees in public places.

Thou shalt not commit (workplace) adultery

There's an interesting story in the paper today about the sheriff of Pinellas County, Jim Coats, disciplining two of his employees for an old-fashioned reason: adultery in the workplace. (With each other, that is, not with civilians.) He created the rule in 2005 but this was the first time he invoked it.

I can't get too worked up about this. Although Coats himself describes his policy in terms of "morality," there are practical, common-sense workplace reasons for having it -- especially in a "workplace" that involves life-and-death matters.

The wording of the sheriff's policy doesn't use the word "adultery," but simply the term "association" between married staffers, a term defined as living together, dating or having an, ahem, "intimate relationship." Again, seems to me this can be justified on the basis of not disrupting the workplace. Maybe I am flat wrong and I would be curious to hear what folks had to say about it.

Now, if Coats decided to start disciplining staffers for not keeping the Sabbath holy or honoring their parents, we'd have a different story...

Rudy the policy man

Rudy Giuliani came by the office Wednesday and spent an hour with the Times editorial board. The board's meetings are on the record and news staffers can attend, so I sat in the corner and listened. [Times photo | Scott Keeler]

I know it is corny and superficial but I still like a guy who gives you a good handshake and looks you in the eye and acknowledges your existence as a fellow human being. Giuliani is good at this, insisted on shaking every hand in the room and repeating each name back. The best ever at this, of course, is Bill Clinton.

Forget the who's-winning political stuff. It was interesting to try to pin down Giuliani on policy. If I understood him right, he said he would use military force as a last resort if Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear capability. "Using the military option would be very dangerous," he said -- but not as dangerous as a nuclear Iran. (If you are really into this, be advised that he named Yale's Prof. Charles Hill as his top adviser on these matters.)

Giuliani said he opposed the practice of waterboarding in interrogation except for "once in a lifetime, once in a decade" circumstances, at the president's discretion. He wouldn't be pinned down on whether waterboarding is "torture" per se. He never criticized the Bush Administration directly but tried to distinguish himself from it. He said all his domestic policies would be "built around growth principles" but was not specific -- if "growth principles" means more free rides for rich guys and zillion-dollar deficits shoved onto our grandkids' backs, it does not sound so great to me.

Giuliani agreed that the U.S. needs to "engage the rest of the world" and said that France, Germany and others who disagreed with us about Iraq were not our enemies because of it. (We coulda used some of that sentiment during the whole "freedom fries" nonsense.) "If we don't become engaged in the world, we're going to make terrible mistakes," he said. Hmm.

Let's see, what else? He talked about "energy independence" in broad terms, including a mix of biofuel, nuclear, hybrid vehicles, and more reliance on wind, solar and hydro sources. He would NOT increase taxes on gasoline, preferring incentives instead of disincentives. He made a general statement about giving states more "flexibility" under the No Child Left Behind Act, whatever that means. And knowing his Florida third-rail issues, he defended the distinction given to Cuban refugees, fleeing political (i.e. Communist) persecution, as distinct from Haitians or other groups mere seeking economic improvement.

On the question of entitlements -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid -- Giuliani said Social Security was most ripe for being put on a sound basis with a bipartisan commission, as been's done before. He said his two conditions as president for a Social Security fix would be NO tax increase (not even increasing the cap for folks making more than $97,000 or so a year) and some kind of "personal account" option.

When it came to Medicare, Giuliani grabbed a notepad and paper and started sketching out his ideas. (I grabbed the notepad afterward and made a photocopy of his scribbles.) The gist of it was that Giuliani would offer an outright tax credit -- $15,000 a year for families, $7,500 for individuals -- provided it was used to buy health insurance.

Giuliani's overall idea is to increase the share of Americans who have their own insurance in the private market, but not through their employers. (That's the little sliver of the chart where he jotted the word "Private.") By swelling that market to 50-60 million Americans, it would drive down costs and ease pressure on the entitled programs. At least, that's his idea.

He spent a little more than an hour and, another little thing that makes for a good politician, acted like he didn't want to go while his staff was trying to usher him out. In the debates and in person, he strikes me as a fairly level-headed guy, not somebody just spouting off a bunch of slogans and ideological junk.

Okay, we can go back to the "who's-winning" stuff now.

Howard the Grinch?

Here's an excerpt from the Christmas mailbag, in which the gentleman worries that I am turning into a sourpuss:

Recently.. I've noticed more and more of a tendency for you to only find fault with everything Floridian - the legislature, the Governor, the County Commission, the St Petersburg City Council and administration, and pretty much everything else. I'm a third generation native of St Petersburg and share most of your concerns. But -  I also find time to reflect on what's good in my life, my community and my state... Even on Christmas, you couldn't seem to find anything nice to say.  Ernest Hooper found a way to be positive on Christmas , as did Susan Taylor Martin (kinda) in their respective columns. C'mon, Mr. Troxler - you used to be so worth reading.  Don't stop discussing controversial topics and giving us your perspective, but once in a while please find a way to say something good about where we work, live and rear our children. Even the Grinch finds a way to become nice at the end of the story - I hope you can too. -- Charlie Peters, Seminole

Dear Mr. Peters: Thanks for the message and the observations. I always appreciate it most when someone offers a criticism based upon reading several columns over time, instead of somebody who reads one column, disagrees with it, and demands that I be fired at once.

Of course, you are 100% entitled to your opinion. I respectfully will try to defend myself a little bit, using just the last month of columns as evidence. I hope you will give the actual track record another peek and agree that it isn't just me sitting around griping unconstructively all the the time:

12/25 Satirical Christmas carols -- you say too negative, I say, meant in good fun
12/23 On poll data showing Florida becoming more of a community - fairly optimistic
12/20 Crist too close to electric company - yep, this one was critical
12/18 Supporting right to citizen petition in St. Pete Beach - seemed constructive enough
12/16 We need a do-over because of City Hall - definitely critical over baseball secrecy
12/13 Unlicensed practice of geology - disagreeing with a state decision, but sort of funny
12/11 Ladder, husband, what can go wrong? - making fun of myself and ladder-climbers everywhere
12/9 Apples, oranges, creation, evolution - taking a whack at sorting it out
12/6 On three, everybody panic! - trying to be calm about the state investment crisis
12/4 Even the governor has to prove it - explaining constitutional checks and balances
12/2 CNN's debate: guns, flags and Bibles - disagreeing with tone of St. Pete debate questions

Of these examples, the ones that basically were finding fault were 12/2, 12/13, 12/16 and 12/20. Even the City Hall one, however, was not just mere complaining -- I was trying to argue that the city should reconsider the decisions that were made during the baseball secrecy last year. Most of the rest were either explaining or commenting on some current issue, except for the one about the ladder (man, I heard a lot of ladder stories after that one!)

Anyway, as I said, you are entitled to your opinion, and I do not expect to change your mind. But I wanted to try to show there was at least some variety there. In general, though, I do figure my job is to try to offer constructive criticism and running commentary on what the government is doing. Having said all this, it may turn out that you are 100% right, that I AM getting too grumpy and knee-jerk complain-y, and that I ought to do something else... I've been doing this column thing for all but a couple of the past 19 years! I will think about it.

Best wishes for the new year,

Howard

Don we now our sunshine carols

A few years ago I started doing this as an alternative to trying to find a Christmas column with a Deep Meaning. When more people tell me that they think these are lame, than tell me they like them, I'll stop. Could be any year now.

Best wishes to all for a merry Christmas. See you a little later in the week.

GOOD KING PETERSBURG

Good King Pet-ers-burg looked out, on the feast of Stephen,

Saw the poor all scattered 'bout, their presence most aggrievin'.

"Hither, page,' he cried right out, '"don't say t'was me who bid thee,

"Now send the cops to homeless town and cut down their tent ci-i-ty."

CHARLIE'S WONDERLAND

Like a rock, insurance prem-iums, drop un-til we barely see 'em,

With our burdens so light, and our taxes just right,

We're livin' life in Charlie's Wonderland.

In the spring we'll have a special session to outlaw hur-ri-canes (and see, it worked!)

Take a supermodel to confession, then hang out with The Donald for dessert!

He's so green, his roof is solar, no culture war, no ayatollah,

He skirts across the thin ice, thinking veep would be nice,

Living life in Charlie's Wonderland.

DECK THE STATE INVESTMENT POOL

Deck the state investment pool with worthless paper,

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-HA!

Wall Street does us rubes a favor , (ha ha, etc.)

Grade-Z debt now much de-plored, (ha ha, etc.)

Lehman puts Jeb on its board (ha ha, etc.).

THEY CAME UPON A WETLANDS CLEAR

They came upon a wetlands clear, in Hillsborough County one day,

And reg-u-la-tors of county hire for pro-tect-tion of it did pray.

"You fools!'" cried angry co-mis-sion-ers, "for asphalt and condos are best!'

And so, they gutted the rules henceforth, at their monied buddies' request.

AWAY IN A SECRET ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

Away in a secret economic development agreement,

A new stad-i-um planned,

No need to let folks know

The truth be-fore-hand,

Pretend-ing that vo-ters have any real say

While se-crets they're keeping in St. Pete to-day.

GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A CREATIONIST

Grandma got run over by a creationist, coming home from science class on Christmas Eve,

You can claim we somehow came from monkeys, but that's not what me and the majority of the Pinellas School Board now believe.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE NOT COMING TO TOWN

You'd better not ask, you'd better not pry,

They won't say a word, and here's telling you why,

The Democrats are not coming to town.

They know they'll take our money, they'll sneak down here for cash,

But not a word of pol-i-cy,

'Cause they fear New Hampshire's lash! Oh!

Republicans now, all over the place,

Don't give a dang about delegate space

But the Democrats aren't coming to town.

Mr. Foster reports that his hair is still safe

In response to my post earlier today, departing St. Petersburg City Council member Bill Foster just called to say that at the end of last evening's council meeting, he did in fact bring up this new memo. Foster asked for confirmation that the council had committed to designating Al Lang as a park.

The video is not up on the city's web site yet, but Foster said that the other council members agreed that designating the Al Lang site as a park was the plan... if so, then either the city staff will have to go along with the council's firmly expressed wishes, or else the council will have to be, you know, persuaded otherwise.

Foster told me that as far as he was concerned, the council HAS been through a public process, and the public said it wanted Al Lang as a park.

City staff: Don't make Al Lang a park

If you're following the proposed baseball stadium saga in St. Petersburg, here is a most interesting memo that came out yesterday from Rick Mussett, the city's economic development director, addressed to the City Council. [Click the images to enlarge]

The gist of the memo is to tell the City Council NOT to designate the Al Lang waterfront site -- the site of the new proposed stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays -- as a park under the city's new land-use plan.

Now, designating Al Lang as a park would not block baseball from the site -- the voters could still approve the stadium in November 2008 -- but it WOULD make it impossible for the city to do anything else with Al Lang if baseball fell through.

First in the memo, in the time-honored fashion of bureaucrats everywhere, Mussett says there have been plenty of times over the years that the citizens COULD have asked to make Al Lang a park, such as in past "visioning" sessions. He lists several examples. The implication is that the more recent input is Johnny-come-lately stuff that somehow counts less.

Mussett goes on to say the City Council should not "arbitrarily" designate Al Lang as a park, just because citizens ask for it. Even if it turns out not to be suitable for baseball, Mussett said there still should be a "broad based public consensus-building process" before deciding the ultimate use of the site.

(Hmm, I wonder if this means city has signed ANOTHER secret deal as a backup plan? After all, when the stadium deal was still secret and the citizens were asking to make Al Lang a park, it was Mussett who kept calling for "keeping our options open"...)

When the City Council passsed the new land-use map in August, it said would come back and make Al Lang a park site as part of a follow-up amendment, just as the public had requested. The City Council repeated this intention as recently as its Dec. 6 meeting. And just the other day, when I mocked the city for keeping the stadium proposal secret during these important decisions, outgoing council member Bill Foster called me to chide me for not giving the council credit for its promise. If the council doesn't do what he said, he told me, he will shave his head.

Well, now the City Council has its new marching orders from the city staff. Can anyone convince me that the City Council will not do whatever the mayor's staff orders it to do?

I have just the barber for Mr. Foster....

Free liquor for the homeless?

Fred Weit of Cape Coral writes:

I am hoping you will have something to say about the squeaky clean politicians who are up in arms about the art dealer handing out some cheer to the homeless.  If the legal thives spent a little more time trying to find solutions to problems rather than creating new ones there would be less homelessness.  After serving my time in the United States Marine Corps (1963-1969) I was basically in the homeless category also.

Mr. Weit is talking about a fellow named Evander Preston, who handed out 100 bottles of bourbon to the homeless in St. Petersburg. Now the City Council is tripping over itself to change city ordinance to ban it. One council member (Bill Foster) called the gift "offensive" and another (Rene Flowers) suggested handing out soap instead.

At the risk of exhibiting common sense, I would turn my head and look away if this is a once-a-year thing. If the guy was passing out free booze on the corner regularly, we'd have a problem and maybe that would warrant the creation of more law.

But this is mostly just righteous posturing by the City Council, and it will be well received. The trouble with talking about the homeless in St. Pete is there is a lot of resentment built up. Downtown business owners and residents are quite rightly fed up with having to fight to get into their own doorways, hosing away human waste and so forth. That explains the lack of, shall we say, holiday spirit. So even a guy just trying to provide a fleeting kindness will be criticized.

As one of the commenters to the news story points out, next time he could just hand out cash and they can buy their own...

Hugh Smith

In Marc Antony’s speech at Caesar’s funeral he stated, “The evil that men do lives after them but the good is oft interred with their bones.” Why was it necessary for the Times to mention Hugh Smith’s sexual indiscretions in the article regarding his death and contributions to the Bay area?  It added nothing and made the Times look like the National Inquirer.  -- John Larry Franks, Clearwater

Dear Mr. Franks: I respectfully disagree. I knew and admired Hugh Smith as a newsman, but I think the inclusion of the whole truth in his obituary is appropriate. This was not a private indiscretion -- he was arrested twice in nine years, the last time for soliciting a 15-year-old prostitute. The case was high-profile and career-ending for him. The majority of the article talked about Smith's career and role in the community, but I think it would be dishonest and misleading not to have included the bad along with the good.

Wednesday: Museum bailout, Tierra Verde annexation, FSU cheating

Goood morning and happy Wednesday. Hope you survived the brutal "cold" snap. It is now less than a week until Christmas, which means less than two weeks left in 2007...

Notice the news in this morning's paper of yet another proposed bailout for the Florida International Museum in downtown St. Petersburg. The city is being asked to forgive $260,346, as part of a deal in which the museum's private benefactors forgive the rest of its debt as well.

The museum has never been a "museum" as much an an exhibition hall for tourist and gimmicky attractions. Admittedly, the early blockbusters (Treasures of the Czars) helped bring people downtown and played a role in the downtown's renaissance. As to whether this justified all the subsequent propping-up... nah. I really do not want to hear any more irksome "You owe us" kind of stuff. Who's in charge over there, Vince Naimoli?

Meanwhile, our neighbors in Tierra Verde, down at the southern tip of Pinellas County, are nervous now that the city of St. Petersburg is eyeing annexation. And they should be. They are between a rock and a hard place -- trampled by the county government up in Clearwater, and in danger of being gobbled up by St. Pete. Plus, some residents are rightly suspicious of the motives behind all this. Meanwhile, as the story points out, some in Tierra Verde are advocating incorporation into their own city out of self-defense.

Now, about this FSU football scandal: Hey, I don't want to take any cheap shots at Free Shoes University (whoops, sorry, that was a previous scandal). But if I were king of Florida, I would say that NO Florida university could take part in ANY bowl game until the state's universities were on a better academic footing overall. Imagine the gnashing and wailing of teeth then! Obviously, my priorities are misplaced.

Tuesday morning

Good morning and happy Tuesday. There's no live chat today on TroxBlog -- we'll pick up again with chats after the holidays, probably on Tuesday, Jan. 8 -- the world will have resumed by then and there should be lots to talk about.

My print column today (Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander) is about the right to petition in St. Pete Beach, a charming barrier-island burg in Pinellas County that has been wracked by division these past couple of years. Each side, when it has held power, has tried to block the other from using the right to petition to put their ideas on the ballot.

Also:

* There's a difference, news-wise, between these School Board members launching an actual own campaign to teach intelligent design, and just stating their off-the-cuff opinions on the topic... it is interesting to see what they have to say, but unless they are proposing to hijack the curriculum, it is, uh, academic.

* I was interested to see this editorial about Clearwater's tough rules on signs for business. It struck a note with me, since I wrote a column in early 2005 about a good charity that was having similar troubles.

* Now that it's working, anyone want to bet on how long before it's shut down again because of problems?

* P.S. -- If you were really, really saving up a question for a chat today, put it in the comments of this announcement... I'll check in during the day.

... And these Monday-morning items

* Yep, between same-sex marriage and illegal immigrants, it's shaping up for another election year of thoughtful discussion about important issues.

* My colleague Sue Carlton wrote the other day about Hillsborough County's opposition to the petition for an elected county mayor. I agree that the County Commission's pretext is ridiculously thin. One more case of the government using tax dollars to try to thwart the citizens.

* This man seems to be acting with uncommon grace. His congregation, too. So, good luck to him.

* On the other hand, seems like a good time to point out that not every use of the word "pornography" connotes, you know, child molesting and evildoing and the feds seizing one's computer... I know that YOU would never look at dirty stuff on the Internet, of course...

* Does anyone begrudge George Steinbrenner this honor after being such a benefactor to the Tampa Bay area? The question is not rhetorical -- I would be curious to hear from anyone who disagreed.

The readers on geology, Crist and gay marriage, and That Darned St. Pete City Hall

Excerpts from reader e-mails, and my replies:

On Thursday's column (Hands up! Step away from that rock pile!) on the state accusing a citizen of "unlicensed practice of geology:"

G. K. Chesterton said it best.  "All government is an ugly necessity" and, "When learned men begin to reason I soon discover they haven't any." -- Pat Rinard

On Gov. Charlie Crist's statement that he would not campaign for the same-sex marriage amendment:

Seems the governor thinks of himself as a "live and let live" kind of fellow who would rather work on issues such as teachers' pay, the environment and property taxes... Could it be we've gone and elected ourselves a governor with some actual common sense? -- Jay Ramage, Largo

I do think he has some common sense. However, he also tends to tell people what they want to hear at the moment -- earlier, Crist said he supported this same-sex amendment and would sign it as a petitioner -- just like he opposed gambling when speaking to gambling opponents but then made this recent deal with the Seminoles. Basically, he IS a centrist who does not have much taste for social issues.

Most of my e-mail agreed with Sunday's column (We need a do-over because of City Hall) saying that St. Petersburg adopted new land rules under fraudulent pretenses -- knowing all the while the secret plans for a new downtown baseball stadium. However, I did get one thoughtful message of disagreement:

I read your column today and see you are still on your "get the government" kick.  When the information came out about the possibility of the new ballpark the mayor was as surprised as everyone else.  The law that keeps the negotiations private also keeps the information private from even elected officials.  I know you do not like the exemption from the freedom of information law but it is the law. What I really find to be distasteful is that the general public reads your column and takes it as the gospel and strengthens their distrust of all government... I do enjoy your column and have heard you talk in the various libraries around the county and you are always well received. -- Paul C. Blatt, Dunedin

I have to tell you, to me it is not just a "get the government" kick and they were NOT just keeping an economic secret. They actually went out and held public hearings and passed a law on the future use of the downtown waterfront, deceiving taxpayers the whole time. Not to mention holding a city election while keeping the voters in the dark on what they were voting on... but again, thank you and best wishes!

Lastly, here's good news, at least for me -- you'll have to get your own winning number:

RLP Germany Reference Number: RLP/15-DE/8407 Batch: RLP/07/23 Congratulations! You are hereby notified that your email identity has won EUR 1 000 000 (One million Euro) after our final email draws conducted last week. Your email ID was attached to serial number : 45-2007 and drew the winning numbers; 4.36.18.2.31.39 CLAIMS AGENT CONTACT:
Email-pmarcel98@googlemail.com Phone: 00 44 702 401 3107 -- Marcel Pearson

Dear Marcel Pearson: Let me pack my bag and I'll be right there.

Free speech and 'civility' at UF

The University of Florida has backed down on its demand for an apology from students who promoted a movie about radical Islam with a poster saying: "Radical Islam wants you dead."

I think this is a good decision, because if the university really wanted to be in the business of ordering people to apologize to each other when someone is offended, then it would have its hands full.

But I am curious as to the standard -- do you think there are ANY circumstances in which the university would be right to demand an apology for student speech? Lots of universities in modern times have some sort of code about not being racist, sexist, offensive and so forth.

For example, here is a passage from a document titled "Student Rights and Responsibilities" on the university's web site:

Organizations or individuals that adversely upset the delicate balance of communal living will be subject to disciplinary action by the University. Only in an atmosphere of equality and respect can all members of the University community grow.

Oh, really? So if you "adversely upset the delicate balance of communal living" at UF, you can be subject to university discipline? How does that square, then, with UF's backing down in this case? If the affected group had been Hispanic, Chinese, or African-American, would things be different? If cable-TV news or the state attorney general had not taken notice?

My question is whether the university needs to strike a balance between "civility" in campus life and free speech -- or whether there ought to be no balance at all, and students should be able to speak of each other any way they please. In either case, let's just make sure that it applies the same way to everybody.

The readers, part I: ladder tales

Naturally, Tuesday's column (Ladder, husband: What can go wrong?) produced a bunch of ladder stories from readers. "I think we all have a ladder story," one comments, and it must be true. My favorite was from a guy who was recording his wife as she put the star on the Christmas tree as her ladder toppled into the tree. He had to decide whether to try to catch her, or keep recording. Hint: the result is on YouTube, although sadly, I've lost the link.

Here are some other ladder tales, the first from a guy who fell in his garage, and THEN while remodeling his closet:

I was putting the very last clothes pole hanger on the wall when the little 3-step ladder that I was using tipped. I completely demolished one of the organizers -- with my head... Garage falls seem to be catching.  Two weeks after my fall, gal 3 doors down fell in her garage and broke her arm. Two weeks after that, the old timer across the street fell in his garage and had to do my thing -- ride on the backboard to ER for stitches/staples in the head. Stay safe -- dc, Largo

Just wanted you to know you have joined the ranks of men "who do it themselves"  I did the same thing on an aluminum ladder and it buckled on me and I hit the bricks.  I was cleaning gutters with no one home so no one saw me fall.  Make sure you get a check on your back. -- William Henrickson

I think we all have a ladder story. Here’s mine; back in the 80’s I owned a big 2 story brick home in Ft. Erie Ontario . My wife wanted me to paint the area’s that needed painting the eves, trim and the under eves on the 2nd floor... as I reached the top the ladder started sliding down the wall as the legs on the ground kicked out. I was screaming as I rode the ladder to the ground.... I split both my shins when the ladder it the ground and I bounced on it. The worst is till this day I hear about it.. I left that dam ladder in the garage when we moved to Florida . -- Jim Siragusa

Now, this gentleman ups the suspense value by including a chain saw:

In Michigan a few decades back, at a spry young 53 I had a similar, perhaps a bit more hazardous adventure. A 60 foot pine in the middle of my driveway was trimmed up to about 20 feet. I decided to trim it up higher. In shorts and T shirt with a well padded pair of athletic shoes, I put up my 20 foot extension ladder. It was at a very steep angle and as I reached the top with chainsaw in my right hand, I lost my balance and departed the ladder... Following my 3 point landing I regained my composure and shut off the chainsaw; after laying it on the drive I noted no scratches or bruises. After shedding a bit of shock, I decided the tree was trimmed high enough. -- Ol' (careful) Miller

And this note from my colleague Jeff Klinkenberg, which could be titled, "Snakes On A Ladder":

Friend of mine, Sheryl James (won Pulitzer for us in '91) was married to a real handyman by name of eric. I think it was (Tom) French who hired Eric to repair the screens in his eaves that had been ripped open by starlings. So Eric is on a tall ladder. He reaches through the torn screen to remove bird nest. Out fall a four foot yellow rat snake. Eric's body races snake to the ground. Both snake and man survived the experience.

The readers, part II: unlicensed geology

I also got a good response to Thursday's column (Hands up! Step away from the rock pile!) about a woman who spoke against mining at a public hearing and was charged by the state with "unlicensed practice of geology." I half-jokingly wondered whether this could be a new tactic to discourage public comments at public hearings, and most readers agreed:

What about HMOs - are they "practicing medicine without a license" when some claims person denies coverage for medical treatment recommended by the attending physician?  Maybe.  -- Stan

Could Coach Gruden be arrested for telling the team to pound the rock? -- Bill Hammond

Basically, it was a "slap lawsuit."  Thus, I, although retired, have maintained my Professional Geologist license at my own expense ... so that I might provide supportive services to environmental groups. Sadly, there are those in many professions, not just geology, who have "sold out" to commercial, agricultural, industrial and developer interests, to the potential detriment of the environment and the Public. -- John C Miller. PG #883

And on my closing claim that mining makes one's rear end turn blue (daring the Board of Buttology to press charges against me), this query:

I am concerned about one thing and you may know the answer to this. If one does not live next to a mine (I do not live next to one) are there any other reasons one ones derriere would turn blue? -- Wayne Mineo, Safety Harbor

Well, if we lived in a northern climate, I might suggest cold weather as a culprit. Otherwise I have no answers, and would not want to practice unlicensed medicine by guessing...

The readers, part III: evolution and other topics

Here's a letter in response to my Sunday column (Apples, oranges, creation, evolution). The first writer argues that fossil evidence has failed to provide "missing links" between widely different species. Maybe species have evolved somewhat within themselves, she and others argue, but this does not mean early reptiles transformed into birds, etc. --

[A] bird is still a bird, a dinosaur still a dinosaur, a ape is still an ape, an Neanderthal is still a human being - the blatant misuse, abuse and omission regards scientific evidence is unfortunately rampant in the "Scientific" community, each one building on the previous pattern of faulty reasoning, mistakes and conclusions. -- Johanna Boomsmam, St. Petersburg

But most readers agreed there is a distinction between scientific theory and religious belief:

IMHO, religious beliefs should only be taught in public schools in the context of  comparative religions. In my public school up north, we had several months in fourth grade where we studied the various major world religions. And that was all.... Let the yahoos send their kids to religious schools to get religion. Public schools in Florida have a national reputation for being lousy anyway. Three guesses why that is. -- Holly Hand

I only disagree with one statement. " They are entirely separate matters ."  I believe they are intertwined.  You seem to say this also when you state,"I am figuring that God could have made the world any way that He wanted." -- Kalen Gebler

Now, letters on a couple other topics, the first related to baseball in St. Petersburg:

Will you please publish the specific steps which must be taken to recall the St. Petersburg mayor, the oodles of deputy mayors, and the city commission? Also, as a public service, may I tell you how we, the citizens of St. Petersburg, can prevent the building of any new structure which we, the people, do not want.  Simply pass an ordinance preventing the placement of any plaque, sign, notice, or any other writing on the proposed structure, which contains the name(s) of any elected official. -- Doug Sattler

Hah! I love the suggestion about no names on plaques. As for recall elections, you can't recall deputy mayors -- only their boss, the elected mayor. The provisions for recall are found in Florida Statutes 100.361. A recall election is called via petition drive. Here's the link to the statute.

And lastly, this question about the Pinellas Juvenile Welfare Board:

Will you refer this to one of the Times investigative reporters. Have them ck into the County Juvvi Welfare Board,  They consume 22.3% of my property taxes and yet, no one hears about them. For once I'd like to see how much they receive, salaries pd and where all this money goes. It'd make a hellava story I'm betting. -- Tom Vath, S. Pasadena

I've always been uncomfortable with the JWB's ability to levy property taxes directly, despite being an unelected body -- the old "taxation without representation" thing, you know. This has nothing to do with the fact that they use the tax dollars to support a lot of good causes. You can get the complete rundown on the board's budget, the agencies that get the money, tax returns and so forth at the board's web site, www.jwbpinellas.org

These are just a fraction of the e-mails... I have tried to acknowledge as many as possible, but can't keep up with them some weeks... thanks to everyone who took the trouble to write!

Column: Hands up! Step away from that rock pile!

Until this week, I never knew there was a Florida law against the "unlicensed practice of geology."

But there is indeed such a law, and the state of Florida can use it against you - especially if you say the wrong things about the mining industry in this state.

"What are you, a geologist?" the state might demand of you. "How do you know that mining is bad for the environment?"

Our story begins in 2005, when a environmental activist named Sydney Bacchus attended public hearings in Putnam County, speaking on behalf of the opponents of proposed sand-mining there.

After that appearance, Bacchus got a "cease and desist" letter from the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, accusing her of unlicensed geology.

The state was acting on a complaint from a geologist-supporter of the mining. He accused Bacchus of "making a mockery of our profession." [Entire column here]

Here's the Dec. 11 chat -- read the transcript

Hello, happy Tuesday, and welcome to the transcript of the weekly live chat held earlier today here on TroxBlog. As has been the case lately, most of the questions and comments dealt with the proposed baseball stadium in St. Petersburg.

To read the transcript of today's chat, click on the "Comments" link of this announcement, just a few lines below. You'll see a page with what's been said already, and a form for you to add your own comment. Keep refreshing the comments page to see the latest.

Here's a program note: There will be no live chat on Dec. 18, and the following two Tuesdays are holidays, so we'll pick up our weekly chats in January 2008. But I'll still be here on TroxBlog for the rest of this month, making daily posts and reading and answering reader comments.

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

I hope you can come by from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday for the weekly live chat here on TroxBlog. I realize that I'll just be a warmup act for the Tampa Bay Rays live chat from 2-3 p.m., but hey, that's life. I'll be taking reader comments and questions about current events in Florida and here in the Tampa Bay area.

To observe or take part in Tuesday's chat, come back to TroxBlog at noon and look for a new item with the headline, "The Dec. 11 chat is open." Click on the comments link of that item to see what people have said so far, and for a form to add your own question or comment.

As always, you can "pre-file" a question or comment to the comments link of this item, a few lines below. I'll try to work your question in during the live hour. And if you can't be here for the live chat, you can always come back later to read a transcript (check out the link labeled "chat transcripts" in the left-hand column).

Hope to see you at noon Tuesday!

The fake baseball deadline, and other topics

Good morning and happy Monday. Sorry about the Bucs.

There was a story over the weekend by my colleague Aaron Sharockman about the city of St. Petersburg setting an "aggressive" timetable for moving toward a new baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays. There was a quote from City Council chairman James Bennett that rubs the wrong way. Bennett said the city is "working with the time frame the Rays gave us."

I would suggest politely that the CITY should be giving the timetable to the RAYS. This is EXACTLY the kind of fake decision-making momentum that has taken the City Council down past boondoggles. Listen: There. Is. No. Deadline. The city doesn't have to do anything.

According to this schedule, the first City Council discussion of this plan occurs on Jan. 10 -- and eight days later, the city issues a request for proposals to developers for taking over the site of the existing Tropicana Field! Developers then have two months to reply, with the city supposedly picking one by May 1. Then the City Council calls an election for November...

Rays executives will be answering questions from the public from 2-3 p.m. Tuesday on my sister blog, http://blogs.tampabay.com/rays. Here's a link for an announcement of the session, and with the e-mail address for sending in questions.

Other quick topics:

* Tuesday is the day that Bright House Networks moves government access, along with educational and public access, off its lowest tier of channels around the Tampa Bay area. Customers now gotta pay $1 extra to see them. This is a Bad Thing. Our democracy ought to be on channel 2, not channel 1000, and it ought not cost extra. Bright House, nee Time-Warner, built its business on the public right-of-way with a public franchise...

* How come it took a state report for Pinellas school officials to swing into action with emergency meetings about having a low graduation rate? Didn't they notice until then?

* This guy has issues, but not nearly as many problems as the %##s who made those videos.

* The Stairway to Heaven has now been equipped with an escalator, wheelchair lift and frequent rest stops for those of us with prostate issues. In related news, Jimmy Page shakes his fist at pesky neighborhood kids and tells them to get off his lawn.

* Live chat here on TroxBlog at noon Tuesday.

Column: Apples, oranges, creation, evolution

Hey, do you mind if we take a whack at this business about "intelligent design" vs. "evolution"? The debate flared up again in Florida last week.

Here's my fix.

They're not opposite things. They are entirely separate matters. Let's deal with them separately.

So if you say you want to "teach intelligent design" in the public schools, hey, that's fine by me, up to a point.

I would address it in a few paragraphs early on about the kinds of things that people believe. I would say that lots of people believe that our universe has a creator, and a purpose.

For further info, I would say, check out the religion of your choice, if you choose one. And if you don't, and don't believe that, that's fine too - this is a public school, and we are not taking sides here. [entire column]

The mail: Not a UFO nut, and other topics

Edited excerpts from reader e-mail:

I take exception to a term you used in your column today. That would be the use of "UFO nut"... Serious researchers today are more scientifically grounded and prefer the term UAP or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. I am the founder of the StPeteUFOGroup and probably the only person in the Tampa Bay area who still goes out and investigates sightings. I would hardly consider myself a nut and neither would any of my friends or family. I am merely a well educated person in search of an answer to a mystery... To us "UFO nut" is a derogatory term unless of course it's applied to moonbats like Shirley McLaine. -- Keith A. Loper

Dear Mr. Loper: Nothin' personal with the "UFO nut" crack... I am completely convinced, mathematically speaking if no other way, that the universe has produced more than one planet with sentient life (with the usual lame comic proviso that this assumes OUR planet possesses intelligent species, hardy har, etc.) Nobody will be more delighted than I would be to learn of incontrovertible evidence that unexplained phenomena are due to encounters with other intelligences...  I hope you will not think I am being too smart-alecky in saying that I am waiting for serious people to provide such evidence, rather than guys out in the middle of cornfields in Alabama claiming they got anal probes. (You are probably sick of "probe" jokes, too, sorry).

Here's a different note about the same column, criticizing CNN's selection of questions for the Republican presidential candidates in the St. Petersburg debate:

Nice column, but you only got it half right.  The questions should be randomly selected, and they should also be randomly directed , or at least directed to the candidates in alphabetical order.  That would take away the last tool the media could use to bias the debate. -- Beth Ray

About the baseball stadium proposal in St. Petersburg, and all those folks who insist that "baseball should be played indoors":

I'm a 70-year-old and go to about 6 Rays games a year. I'll be going to zero games if the ball park doesn't have air conditioning.

And this complaint about holding the Jan. 29 statewide election:

I am very distressed  that we are having any kind of  primary elections in this state when the primary votes do not count.  It costs millions to put on the election when we could save the money and decide all the issues during  the 2008 voting that will count. -- Pete Harris

Dear Mr. Harris: Well, the Republicans are still awarding half of Florida's delegates in this primary, so that counts... and the Democrats are saying that the election still matters even without delegates, so neither party's leaders would agree that our votes "do not count." I imagine the psychological value of winning Florida matters more than delegates anyway. Also on Jan. 29 we're deciding the property-tax amendment, and many local governments have now moved their election date as well. But, as you point out, we COULD settle all these matters on a different date if we wanted to... I was skeptical of moving the primary back to January in the first place.

Thanks to everyone, and my apology for being unable to post and answer every e-mail...

Blast from the past

Apropos of nothing, here's another funny clipping dug up by Gary Mormino, the USF-St. Petersburg history professor who likes to root around in the archives.

This one should ring a bell for anyone old enough to remember the Cold War. Every burg and hamlet in the U.S. knew that it was important enough to be a target in the event of nuclear attack, because of the local widget plant or whatever. Plus, planning for The Big One was both patriotic and morbidly fascinating.

Hence this clip from the Bradenton Herald from 1957: "If H-Bomb Wipes Out Bradenton, Oneco Will Become County Seat."

Thursday: Everybody panic on three, the fake creation vs. evolution debate, and several other topics

Goooooooood morning and happy Thursday. For starters, my column today is about the semi-fake panic over the state's investments. It's not like they lost all our money on yak dung futures, or even Enron stock. But maybe there's a REASON that some folks want to play it up as a debacle as much as possible...

On other fronts:

* I really do not have much taste for the fake "evolution versus faith" debate, and I hope this is not really going to be the start of a new culture war over science standards. I don't have any problem with any science course pointing out, perfectly accurately, that nobody knows how the whole shebang got started, and some people believe it was an act of God. This has NOTHING TO DO with the perfectly observable scientific phenomenon that life on Earth has changed over time... unless, of course, we are talking about teaching kids anything that flies directly in the face of scientific evidence -- in which case we would be morons.

* I see that for the third day in a row, our front page has a Woman In Trouble story... the Woman In Trouble trifecta is now in play. And to think, just the other day I was defending us against charges we were overplaying the Hulk Hogan story...

* Does this story mean that my Doctor of Columnology diploma I got in the mail is fake? Seriously, this is a modern story for modern values... videri quam esse, to turn the time-honored motto around -- To Seem, Rather Than To Be.

* If any of our School Boards around here do this, I say we force-feed 'em two-day-old quarter pounders.

* Of course, I'm sure that if this guy gets elected property appraiser in Pinellas County, he'll have somebody from outside handle his own property... right?

* The Florida Democrats lost their lawsuit. Turns out that a national political party actually CAN enforce its rules. Too bad those rules don't extent to a ban on raising money in Florida. As an earlier column was headlined, "Don't Woo Us Later If You Don't Love Us Now." (Kind of a country-song feel, don't you think?)

* Lastly, this story about a Hillsborough County Commission going overboard with using the government access TV station for his Christmas greeting is a perfect example of what I'm talking about with these stations. GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE ITS OWN TELEVISION STATION that it can use to propagandize the citizens. We need an independent C-SPAN kind of outfit to broadcast the public meetings, and that's it.

Here's the Dec. 4 chat -- read a transcript

Not surprisingly, the top two topics in today's weekly live chat here on TroxBlog were the proposed baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, and the gambling pact between Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe.

We had spirited and widely different takes on the stadium deal, ranging from "a joke" and a parking disaster, to an exciting centerpiece of a new downtown. As for the governor, several readers agreed with him, and disagreed with my column this morning. If the Legislature is so all-fired opposed to this deal, they ask, how come it didn't lift a finger to stop it?

To read the transcript of today's chat, click on the "Comments" link of this announcement a few lines below. You'll see what everyone has had to say so far, and a space for you to add your own question or comment.

Thanks again for all the great comments in today's chat. I hope you'll consider coming back next week!

Psst! How about a live chat?

It's been a few weeks since we had a live chat here on TroxBlog, so what say we try one starting at noon Tuesday? There's plenty to talk about, from the baseball stadium in St. Petersburg to the Seminole gambling and property tax fights... not to mention anything else you'd like to bring up!

To observe or take part in Tuesday's chat, come back to TroxBlog between noon and 1 p.m. Tuesday and look for a new announcement with the headline, "The Dec. 4 chat is OPEN." Click on the "Comments" link of that announcement to see what folks have said so far, and to add your own question or thoughts.

As always, feel free to "pre-file" a question or comment to the Comments link of this item, just a few lines below. I'll try to work them into the "live" portion of the chat (or use them as a standby in case nobody shows up....). Also as always, if you can't make it live, there'll be a transcript of the chat available afterwards.

Hope to see you from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday!

Venezuela: Fairer than St. Pete?

Gooooood morning and happy Monday! Let's start the week by announcing the return of the TroxBlog weekly live chat coming at noon on Tuesday -- stop by with questions or comments about current events of your choosing. And a Merry Christmas this morning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who got an early Christmas gift from the Saints on Sunday. Sheesh.

Now, on to business:

* You might have noticed that they had a sham election in Russia over the weekend, in other words, kind of like what our own city of St. Petersburg did recently by keeping the citizens in the dark about the proposed new baseball stadium even as we were electing a new City Council. No need to clutter up elections by letting the citizens fret about any actual issues... I wonder, too, if Putin needed to issue a letter to citizens in the voting booth to "educate" them, the way that St. Petersburg tried to...

* On the other hand, who'd have thought that Hugo Chavez fellow would run a fair election in Venezuela, which he actually LOST? How often does THAT happen? What, did he mis-stuff the ballot boxes? Did he buy the wrong vendor's voting machines? Did he mis-program the touch-screens? I bet he is kicking himself for not declaring an Orange Terror Alert...

* I am not sure that I could care any less about this.

* My Sunday column, criticizing CNN's choice of debate questions, prompted loyal reader Jim Parker to point out this column in the Los Angeles Times, making some of the same points and some other interesting ones as well. For instance, is it a coincidence CNN spent such a disproportionate amount of time on immigration, the favorite cause of the network's demagogue-for-ratings Lou Dobbs?

* Lastly, I try hard not to be prejudiced by arrest mug shots, such as this one from a case in Lakeland. But tell me, before clicking on the link, what you think the guy is charged with...