Tampa Bay Raves and Rants is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - much of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

What’s wrong with pro-lifers? Here’s the answer

We seldom comment on “letters to the editor” we read. But a recent missive in “Florida’s Best Newspaper” was completely over the top. It was from an A. (not sure what the A stands for, but we’d guess it isn’t astute) O’Brien. According to the not so erudite Ms. Mrs. or Mr. O’Brien, the great number of Americans who are pro-life are opposed to climate change measures; are warmongers; against sustainable wages; don’t want quality health care for our citizens; won’t wear masks and won’t get vaccinated. That’s a whole lot of wild, wild supposition with absolutely no basis in fact. We guess we shouldn’t be surprised that what passes for our local newspaper would print such garbage.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Quote of the Week: “We can talk about the border problems, you could say they’re years in the making, but it’s pretty clear that we have a bigger problem now than we’ve had in years” – NBC’s Chuck Todd. When a liberal apologist like Todd says something like that, you know we have an enormous problem at our borders.

The fact that Joy Reid still has a job at MSNBC after her racist remarks of last week regarding the death of Gabby Petito tells you all you need to know about the cable outlet.

As plans move ahead for a new and long overdue bus station at Myrtle and Court Street in downtown Clearwater, the most exciting aspect of the replacement facility is a possible connection from downtown to TIA.

You wonder how many “feel good” ads Bank of America will have to run to overcome the publicity they received when they closed the account of a local man they presumed deceased and then put him through the ringer when he showed up, very much alive, with ID, taking almost two weeks to unfreeze his account so he could pay his bills.

Factoid: Florida’s economy is the 17^th largest in the world. It ranks ahead of Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland to name a few.

Five Years Ago in TBR&R (September 25, 2016) - Ten years ago this week, former Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares passed away. The man knew everybody in town; was a champion for the Hispanic community; but most of all, is remembered for his valiant fight against the Church of Scientology. It was Cazares who, along with a few others, sniffed out what the “United Churches of Florida” was up to. It was Cazares alone who withstood vicious harassment by the Church of Scientology involving what federal investigators found to be a smear campaign against the Clearwater Mayor. Gabe later served on the Pinellas County Commission, but it was as the crusading mayor of Clearwater where he made his indelible mark.

Sports, media and lighter stuff:

As we get ready for the baseball post season, this bit of etymology from the 5:05 Newsletter: “Karate is a Japanese word that means "My kid can't hit a baseball."

It’s not only the cellar dwellers that have managers on shaky ground. A couple late season collapses could spell the end of the road for skippers who were expected to win.

We know he plays for the home team, but Kevin Kiermaier deserved to get plunked by the Blue Jays. What he did was just plain bush league.

The Dodgers are the favorite to win the World Series with odds of 14-5. The Rays rank third at 7-1. The team with the longest odds is the Cardinals at 30-1. That’s a bet we’d be willing to take. The oddsmakers are vastly underrating the Redbirds.

Idle thought: think of all the things you’ve used as a bookmark over the years (pictures, old tickets, business cards, receipts, dollar bills etc.) while the nice bookmark someone gave you sits in a drawer.

You’ve lived in the bay area (or anywhere else) a long time if you remember when cigarette machines populated every restaurant, gas station and most businesses in the area.

The hit making groups of the 70s

With eight number one hits in the 1970s, the Bee Gees were the runaway leaders of the 1970s groups. Their Night Fever from Saturday Night Fever was the biggest seller by a group in the 1970s. The other top ten groups of the 70s, in order were The Carpenters (Close to You), Chicago, The Jackson Five, Three Dog Night, Gladys Knight and the Pips (Midnight Train to Georgia), Tony Orlando and Dawn, Earth Wind and Fire (September) , The Eagles and The Spinners - who had hits in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Just outside the top ten were The Temptations and the Doobie Brothers. Next month, Michael Jackson and the other top male artists of the 80s.

NEXT UP: “The Mouse”; A great investment; King of Beers

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