Nobody asked me, but –
. . .If you’re paying attention, you will have noted that except for three of them, local government budgets for fiscal year 2006 (it began October 1) have gone up by the approximate increase in property values as ascertained by the Property Appraiser’s Office. In other words, government keeps pace with every penny you can count as an asset.
. . .The exceptions are Largo which went to the rollback rate (no tax increase at all) and Indian Rocks Beach and Belleair Shore, both of which went below the roll back rate for tax reductions.
. . .One obvious mental defective said at a recent Indian Rocks Beach “town hall” meeting that he hoped a category 5 hurricane would hit Belleair Shore. Guess Mister Dimwit doesn’t like rich guys.
. . .Should be wake up time for the Clearwater City Council – the city is in a mess that all can see apparently except the boy mayor and myopic members of the council.
. . .”Florida’s Best Newspaper” (who writes these laugh lines?) can’t seem to get a story in the paper the morning following an event, like real newspapers do. The Pointy-Headed Institute has a few pros, but is riddled with tokens and neophytes.
. . .Same old story – The U.S. Army makes the low rankers pay the price for misdeeds that had their genesis elsewhere. It has ever been thus. It happened with the My Lai massacre. No wonder they can’t get any recruits. Anyone who joins up is a sucker.
. . .Just wondering -- why is it that when people recite a list of things they use a sing-song voice?
. . .There is nothing more absurd than the psychobunko jargon that promotes the idea of the “disease of addiction.” There is no such thing. Addiction is a result, not a cause. A disease is a primary function -- it causes a condition that needs treatment and usually is not curable in the sense of disappearing. Addiction comes about as a result of doing something. Stop doing whatever it is and the addiction ends.
. . .It seems the chief characteristic of the U.S. Government over the years is that it lies. John Barry’s book on the great influenza epidemic in 1918 found the government lying all over the place, and LBJ lied us into Vietnam and you know what happened more recently.
. . .Does anyone detect a slight odor from the dealings that put a coffee shop in the new Largo library?
. . .One member of the Largo City Commission is drawing snickers from colleagues. Seems like this individual has just discovered the wheel and is eager to share the info with all and sundry. Colleagues are buried with all kinds of stuff they don’t want, but nobody is impolite enough to say, “Puhleeze go away.”
. . .Just wondering -- why are we being urged to “stay the course” if the “mission was accomplished”? I am confused.
. . .Hey, not bad! U.S. 19 is going to be unclogged, overpasses done and congestion gone. Great news. Of course, it doesn’t take place until 2012.
. . .One Largo commission member continues to build on a reputation as a windbag. Whew!
. . .One member of the Largo Charter Review Commission must leave meetings early. He moonlights as a Fearless Fosdick when not pontificating and writing laws.
. . .It has always startled me since I first read it how Henry James panned and was such a severe adverse critic of the otherwise hailed Walt Whitman. If you don’t know who I am referring to, go see Casey McPhee for help at the magnificent new Largo Public Library.
. . .When combat deaths were less than 100 in Vietnam, a rationale for continuing that misgotten adventure was that the mission must be continued for “what they gave their lives for.” Do you get a sense of deja vu these days?