Marijuana petition scam in Florida

It works like this. A polite young person comes up and asks you to sign a petition to allow solar power to be resold in a free market. Sounds okay, put it on the ballot and then study the issue thoroughly to see if you want to vote yes or no. The petition is on white paper. Then the young person asks you to also sign a second sheet (yellow, like the second part of most forms). Mildly aggravated that they wouldn’t invest in a carbonless form, you begin to sign it and then you realize the second form is a petition to put pot back on the ballot. No mention of that from young petition gatherer. Come on Mr. Morgan and cronies; if this is such a noble cause, do you really have to stoop to tactics like that?

Around Tampa Bay:

1. The barrels and the barricades are up on Clearwater’s Court and Chestnut Streets, but do you ever see anyone out there performing any work?

2. This spring voters will elect a majority of the Clearwater city council and, sad to report, no shining lights are coming forward to offer their services as opposed to last election where we had, unfortunately, three really good people competing for two seats.

3. Your tax dollars in action - new sculpture to grace the entryway to the downtown library. Cost - just over fifty large. But that’s only half what the “artwork” at the new fire station cost – the artwork no one can see.

4. When is the last time you enjoyed a walk on Clearwater Beach? Most evenings this time of year are great opportunities to enjoy some of the splendor we too often take for granted.

5. From the darker side, you’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember the United Churches of Florida.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. It will be so much easier for the liberal media once the GOP Presidential field is winnowed down to a handful. As it is now, they have to scramble so hard to make sure they take cheap shots at every credible candidate.

7. Now that hurricane season is over, an idle thought. Why can’t they just resume with the unused names the following year? As it stands, 2015’s Rose, Teresa and Wanda will never get a shot at fame or infamy.

8. Cubs and former Ray’s bench coach Dave Martinez apparently doesn’t interview well as he lost out on the Ray’s top job and, more recently, the Dodger’s managerial post. One of these days, he will be thrust into the top spot by a firing, resignation or whatever and when that happens, he will make a couple clubs very unhappy they didn’t hire him.

9. We often praise the Times Tom Jones here – simply because he’s so doggone good. We particularly applaud his recent column on the sanctity of Friday night high school football. College has Saturday as well as Tuesday through Thursday, if they want it, but for heaven’s sake, leave Friday nights to the high schoolers.

10. Washington Redskins – nothing to report about the team. Just wanted to use the team name in print to offset the politically correct folks who think they should be renamed the Washington (insert non-offensive and irrelevant name here).

Let’s all trash the SEC

Last year Ohio State was the college national football champion – breaking a run of eight straight years teams from the SEC led the nation. So suddenly Big 10 or 12 or however many supporters think they rule the world. Of particular interest is PTI’s Michael Wilbon who has some sort of blind hatred for the SEC in general and Alabama in particular. He points out the three “cupcakes” the Tide has played this year while conveniently overlooking Ohio State’s schedule featuring powerhouses like Hawaii, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois (who they barely beat). Then, when the Buckeyes finally play a ranked team, they lose. Alabama, by the way, has already played three ranked schools. Let’s see how the rest of the season plays out before we crown the Big However Many the new coin of the realm.