Loretta Lynch attempting to defend the indefensible

The state of North Carolina has enacted a common sense law that states people must use a gender appropriate restroom i.e. the restroom that corresponds to the gender listed on your birth certificate. The Obama administration and its legal mouthpiece, Loretta Lynch, are opposing the North Carolina law threatening a cutoff of funds to vital state services. Lynch has an arduous task convincing us that our wives, daughters or granddaughters should be in the same restroom with someone who was a male six weeks or six months ago. And to top it off, she decided to play the race card – comparing the law to segregationist laws of the middle 1900s. We should expect and demand much better from our Attorney General.

Around Tampa Bay:

1. If ever there was a time ripe for a legitimate third party presidential challenger it’s 2016 with the American public apparently doomed to choose between two circus acts.

2. Almost as sad as the loss of three teenagers when the car they were driving plunged into a pond in Pinellas County is the blame being thrown at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office by the very people who are ultimately responsible for the teen’s actions. We have become a community and nation that no longer believes in self-responsibility and continually wants to blame our shortcomings on someone else.

3. Heard from a Bright House installation tech: “We’ve never been busier since the Frontier Cable gaffs”. But beware, Charter Communications lurks around the corner and recently Bright House has been no hallmark of excellence either – your HB (humble blogger) has experienced four significant service outages in the past six weeks.

4. So, we learn that fluoride levels are below normal in Clearwater’s water supply. Geez, you’d think with the almost yearly increases in water bills, the city would be up to snuff. But the good news, we will be – in two years, maybe.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember when it wasn’t St. Petersburg College, Clearwater Campus but “Drew U”.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. The pride of Winston-Salem, NC, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, sold to a German company – oh the humanity! Krispy Kreme and its Boston-based rival Dunkin Donuts are like Ford and Chevy or Pepsi and Coke. It’s either one or the other. We’ll swallow hard (no pun intended) and ignore the fact that the better doughnut is now foreign-owned.

7. For his next birthday, give your son or grandson a baseball bat and glove. On opening day, fully 492 players on major league rosters were making one million dollars or more.

8. Fifty years ago this week, one of the two hottest new groups of 1966, the Mama and Papas surged to Number One on the charts with Monday, Monday. Their 1966 success was matched only by another L.A. group - the Monkees.

9. Borrowed from a friend’s Facebook Page. “Does it count as saving someone’s life if you just refrain from killing them?”

10. Factoid – Wally Pipp known universally as the guy who sat out with a headache in favor of a rookie named Gehrig (who played the next 2130 games) twice led the major leagues in home runs and once in triples.

The Bombers: still the greatest team in the history of the game

They rank right up there with the Yankees in baseball, the Celtics in basketball and the Patriots in football. The Clearwater Bombers put the city of Clearwater on the map. Only our world class beach rivals the Bombers for the national recognition the Bombers brought to Clearwater over the years. Dudley, Hunter, Haney, Whitlock, Tomlinson, Mason, Sprentall, Moore and Weathersby – the names go on and on. Ten times the Bombers were national champs – no small feat considering the competition from places like Aurora IL, Detroit, Stratford CN and Mountain View, CA to name a few. Soon, you’ll be able to relive the Bomber years at the museum being planned at the old South Ward School location. For those of us who packed the stands at Jack Russell Stadium on Saturday nights or for folks who only knew the Bombers by reputation, the new Bomber Museum will be something worth seeing.