A weekly look at the Tampa Bay area and national politics from a conservative viewpoint – plus a helping of sports and lifestyle items. Warning: not everything printed here should be taken at face value.

Guns: local control vs. uniformity

On a subject as controversial as gun control, there has to be some uniformity at least on the state, if not the federal level. Yes and good luck with that – at least the federal piece. But something has to be done in Florida. We can’t have folks cross city boundaries and be subject to another set of rules and regulations regarding guns. But at the same time, we can’t have state officials threatening local policy makers with fines and jail time if they want to consider local initiatives. That is just a bit over the top. What we need is cooler heads to prevail both statewide and locally and come up with realistic gun measures. It isn’t going to be easy, but it must be done.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Another argument for beach consolidation (see TBRR 5/19/19) is Madeira Beach – a city that fires its city managers and clerks as often as you change your oil. Add in a former city commissioner with an ethics charge and a loose cannon of a mayor and you have another compelling reason for consolidation of small beach enclaves.

2. The idea of a bunch of scooters to get around Tampa seemed like a good idea. Now there’s talk of the city hiring folks to just go around and pick up the scooters where careless people just leave them after using them.

3. From the merger of B B & T and Sun Trust comes the dynamic new name Truist Bank! Granted it’s not much more vanilla than Branch Bank and Trust (B B & T) but there had to be something better out there like Acme, Ace or Better Than Average Bank.

4. St. Pete College dumps their longtime head of the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions, David Klement, without consulting the organization’s high powered Board of Directors. This isn’t going to end well.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you ever enjoyed a summer weekend at The Bath Club on North Redington Beach.

Sports, the media and other stuff:

6. Speaking of summer, time to put together your feel good summer playlist. Here are five great ones for starters – Jimmy Buffet’s Duke’s On Sunday; On the Island by Brian Wilson; California Gold by Gidea Park and two great Carolina beach songs – Beach Music by the Embers and the Drifters’ I’ve Got Sand In My Shoes.

7. Factoid – Barbara Millicent Roberts is the full name of the iconic Barbie Doll which turns 60 this year.

8. The St. Louis Blues are no longer the Buffalo Bills of hockey – been there several times but never cashed. Their seven game Stanley Cup victory has turned a traditionally baseball town into one big hockey celebration.

9. A tip of the cap to the Boston Red Sox for their very classy move of sending a plane for their former slugger David Ortiz so he could receive further treatment in Boston from the senseless gunshot wounds he suffered in the Dominican Republic.

10. This week’s analysis of the best players to wear a certain number (see back story TBRR 3/10/19) rolls around to #15. Some good choices here – slugger Dick Allen, Yanks’ backstop Thurman Munson, several time All Star pitcher Tim Hudson. But for the first time (and probably not the last), we go with an active player as the best to wear a certain number. Dustin Pedroia has an MVP, a bunch of gold gloves and has been the catalyst of three World Championship teams – next stop for the Bosox second baseman is the Hall of Fame.

The very tarnished “Sport of Kings”

The Killing Fields are no longer in Cambodia but in southern California and Santa Anita Race Track where over two dozen thoroughbreds have died this year. Is it time to pull the plug on thoroughbred racing? We hope not because it is one of sport’s greatest spectacles. But unless some strong coast to coast measures are taken to protect these beautiful animals, the sport should be put to rest.

UP NEXT: Scrabble, the original six; Whitey. 

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