Nobody asked me, but -
. . . All kinds of news, controversy, strike (and maybe more) in Largo and Indian Rocks Beach and not a murmur, not a scintilla on these developments in the Big Paper. Hmmmmm?
. . . Kudos to a great Florida football team that beat the highly vaunted Ohio Buckeyes by the wonderful palindromic score of 41-14 and established, for those who had doubts, of the supremacy of SEC football. So much for Ohio State.
. . . So the guy's head came off when he was hanged. So what? Dead is dead.
. . . You should know this - the well advertised neo-conservatives, who co-opted President Bush along with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld into bringing down Iraq, are for the most part former Democrats and Jews who think the United States does not do enough to protect Israel.
. . . If the powers that be try to re-institute the draft and succeed, the people will be in the streets.
. . . Our clever friend observes - Rep. Dennis Kucinich is running for president in 2008. In a related story, a tree fell in a forest.
. . . With the Latin admonishment in mind - De mortuis nil nisi bonum - nevertheless President Gerry Ford said (in 1976) that Eastern Europe was not under Soviet domination and, after his presidency, at speaking engagements never got out of the limo until the certified check for the honorarium was in his hands.
. . . Self promotion pays off. A guy named Jack Jacobs won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. He is a retired colonel. And he has become a self-styled expert - a talking head - on network TV, pontificating on military strategy and politics (and even on that strange smell Manhattan experienced recently). He should be honored for his combat heroism, but he has no credentials for what he now bloviates on.
. . . Beware of guys who wear suspenders and have glittering eyes.
. . . Does the name Sig Ruman mean anything to anybody?
. . . The race for mayor in Belleair Beach in March ought to be interesting. Lynn Rives, veteran on the City Council, is leaving what may be a secure seat to succeed Rudy Davis, who vowed to serve one term only. His opponent will be Donna Durante, a former council member who made the mistake of joining a ticket that included former mayor Mike Kelly in seeking re-election last year. She rode Kelly's coattails to defeat.
. . . Speaking of elections, Belleair Shore residents will have the continued services of Mayor John Robertson who has done a tip-top job over the past several years, turning around a town that was in turmoil. Commissioner John Hayes, another excellent man, will also be back. Both are running unopposed.
. . . All the incredible shenanigans in Indian Rocks Beach raise many questions, but perhaps the overriding one is cui bono? That means who benefits folks, and given what has happened there must be a pony somewhere under that pile of manure.
. . . Warning - again, anyone contemplating signing up with health insurance, particularly Medicare, stay away from Aetna. It is the worst insurance outfit in the world - they are all bad but Aetna is by far the worst.
. . . The case of the "around the world" sailor who got in trouble is another example of it being wrong to bring public resources - money and people - into rescue attempts. These people are adventurers and should understand that they are on their own. Their investment is their time and safety in a try to become rich and famous. Let them pay the penalty for failure.
. . . The word is that Steve Spratt, Pinellas County administrator, is recruiting old pals from Miami-Dade to replace some departing Pinellas staffers. That fits in with the plan to re-tailor Pinellas into a clone of Miami-Dade; that is, one supreme county government. Watch out, folks!
. . . Item - Spokane, Wash., Catholic diocese to pay $48 million to victims of homosexual rapist priests; Item - Villanova University study finds 85 percent of Catholic dioceses have history of embezzlement; Item - St. Petersburg bishop paid $100,000 in "hush" money a few years ago. Question - Why would anybody throw anything into the collection basket?
. . . And whatever became of Art Deegan?