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

First thing on our mind:

Life is full of questions…Chocolate is the answer.

Leading off: stop wasting our money

Sage advice to the city of Clearwater from a former public official who, with their colleagues, looked into replacing Duke Energy a quarter century back. Stop wasting the taxpayer’s money on a study for taking over the electric service – a study that could cost upwards of half a million dollars. The numbers, which must include acquiring Duke’s entire infrastructure, just don’t work. If they did, every medium to large size city in the state would generate their own power – and they don’t. Stop the study now and put it on the shelf with the one from 25 years ago – a study that cost one heck of a lot less.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Diocese of St. Petersburg’s bishop, Gregory Parkes issued an open letter last week to those of the Jewish faith proclaiming the diocese’s solidarity against the wave of Anti-Semitism in our nation.

All the controversy over the US accepting a 747 from Qatar overlooks the fact that we are flying the chief executive of the most powerful nation in the world in a pair of 35-year-old planes. They badly need replacing.

Hey, anybody want to run UF?

Add David Jolly to former Ohio governor John Kasich as policy makers we once greatly admired who later ran off the tracks. Jolly, the former GOP U.S. Rep for our area, has switched to the Democratic Party and announced his intention to run for governor next year.

An encouraging trend for pro-life citizens across America – 17 abortion clinics have closed their doors thus far in 2025, following an additional 17 last year. The reason – finances, as Americans push back against the killing of unborn children.

The 5:05 Newsletter reports: With all these journalists saying they did not see any deterioration in President Biden while he was in office, the whole thing with Lois Lane not knowing Clark was Superman makes a lot more sense.

Related: Jake Tapper’s book, Original Sin, is, to no one’s surprise, two-thirds a whitewash of the Biden whitewash and the other third more slander on our current President.

This week one hundred years ago (6/8) One of only two women in history to be both a First Lady and mother of a President, Barbara Bush, is born in New York City.

Sports, media and other notes:

Quite possibly the least important item printed in a newspaper last week: “Taylor Swift has regained control of her music.”

Sports note from the prestigious 5:05: Rockies coach takes entire team to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate 11^th win of the year.

Related: Spouses of Braves fans remove all the knives from the kitchen.

As we write this, the Rays are two games over .500 at home and two games over on the road. The other team playing in a minor league stadium, the Athletics, are one game over .500 on the road, but ten games under at home.

ESPN doesn’t seem to be able to keep a solid team together for their premier NBA coverage, instead hiring folks who, for the most part, were auditioning for coaching jobs (Rivers, Reddick, et al) and fleeing the network at the first job offer.

This month’s controversy at USF, the selection of their most successful, but flawed football coach Jim Leavitt for the school’s athletic hall of fame.

You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you’ve taken your pets to the Court Street Veterinary Clinic. Founded in the ‘40s by Dr. Harvey Clanton, it has had a wonderful group of veterinarians over the years – Dr. Jim Grove, Dr. Chip Kuykendall, and for the last several years, Dr. Jamie Todd.

One last thing: A new rule that makes sense

We watched it in Spring Training this year and it worked very well. It’s the rule that allows two team challenges to ball and strike calls. Now, it appears MLB will propose adding the rule to the regular season and post season next year. So often, a missed ball and strike call can turn the outcome of a game. And there have been times like the infamous 1997 Eric Gregg game where the home plate umpire, for whatever reason, goes completely rogue. Teams retain their challenges if correct and only the pitcher, catcher and batter can initiate the challenge. While the jury is still out one some other rule changes (see ghost runner), this one should add more legitimacy to the national pastime.

UP NEXT: Delivery overload; Misguided EPA; 75’s biggest hit

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