Why we love Politifact (see disclaimer above)

Figures don’t lie but… you know the rest. This recent Politifact item caught our attention and pegged our phony meter. The statement, “We have record numbers of people living in poverty” – Carly Fiorina. The merry crew at Politifact rates this half true because according to them while there are indeed more people than ever living in poverty in the U.S. there have been, in the past, larger percentages of the American public living in poverty. We are sure that to the more than 45 million Americans living in poverty knowing that they are a smaller percentage of the U.S. population than at other times in history gives them great comfort and Politifact even more credibility.

Around Tampa Bay:

1. Factoid: It took one year and 45 days to build the Empire State Building. It has taken over twice that long to build a lousy Mexican restaurant on top of the Clearwater Marina – a restaurant still not open.

2. TIA is not waiting on the state legislature to act on easing rules on free parking by disabled vets. The cities of Tampa, St. Pete and Clearwater should follow suit.

3. Most self-serving quote of the week: “There’s no place like home especially home with fair congressional districts (read Democratic-leaning) like the one we have now in Pinellas County” – perennial candidate Charlie Crist.

4. The website Athlon Sports and Life ranks the Rays’ logo the worst in baseball. Have they seen the Astros’ or the Padres’ logos? Top three are the Tigers’ iconic D, the Cubs and the Dodgers. All three are good, but somewhere at the top you have to have the time-tested Yankees’ top hat logo.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember Val’s Meat Market on Drew Street and their incredible sizzlers. Thanks to one of the members of the august Morton Plant Treehouse group for reminding us of this bit of local history.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Has there ever been a more inept Secretary of State than John Kerry - probably so, but not in recent memory. Did the “Big O” appoint him just to make Hillary look good?

7. Doris Burke is one of the true gems in the ESPN stable. She provides steady analysis of NCAA basketball games coming off as a fan of the game without being over the top ala Dickie V.

8. Happy to see the foolishness concerning Les Miles’ job security at LSU come to an end. Miles is arguably one of the ten best coaches in the country. As Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops opined at the height of the rumors, “Be careful what you wish for.”

9. The CBS ensemble comedy Life in Pieces has been picked up for a full season’s run. The show is one of the brighter things in the 2015-16 television season.

10. Question: what do the popcorn machine, Juicy Fruit Gum, brownies, the dishwasher and the Ferris Wheel have in common? They all debuted at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and all five are still around 122 years later.

Presidential feet of clay:

Memory is not an accurate recording. This pretty much sums up a letter from a Rants and Raves reader concerning our canonization of JFK (RANTS – November 22). Our reader accurately points out Kennedy’s awful Bay of Pigs adventure, his unwise involvement in Vietnam and a very spotty civil rights record – paling in comparison to his successor – LBJ – a Southerner to boot. We tend to remember only the good things about former leaders – even the acknowledged best five – Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln and FDR all made serious missteps but those follies have been buried under various frontier expansions, new deals and wars won. And, of course, the closer historically, we are to a president, the worse he seems. In the end, our current leader (presently ranked 36th out of 43) may not go down in history as one of the worst despite opinion to the contrary now.