Put Your Business on 'Internet TV' for only $399
Florida waterfront developers usually insist they have the “right” to ruin our coast without giving anything in return. But there is no reason condominium builders can’t do good things for the towns where they plop their view-blockers, which would both help their reputations and add value to their building projects. One Bradenton developer seems to have figured this out — and deserves major kudos for its generosity.
I used Google Language Tools to translate the first verse of The Star Spangled Banner (the only one most people know) into Spanish, then back into English. It’s a total laugh, especially in light of the much-unheralded, newly-released Spanish version, AKA Nuestro Himno.
It’s so sad. Here’s hard-working, over-achieving, Republican-believing Katherine Harris trying hard to get the Republican Senatorial nomination here in Florida, and she is getting back-stabbed by the people who should be her most ardent supporters. No one else in public office embodies the Bush-era virtues of the Republican Party as well as Katherine Harris.
I went to a meeting of Progressive Florida Bloggers in Lakeland last week. Organizer Kenneth Quinnell, a political science and history professor, is criss-crossing the state, getting small groups of people together outside of mainstream political organizations with the hope that grassroots-types can be more effective at bringing real, positive change than (duh!) the Republicans currently in power or the state’s sadly top-down Democratic Party, which is working hard to out-corrupt the Republicans while offering little or no reason for ordinary working people to support it. So there I was, in a room with several very smart, politically-involved people, and I was more interested in our hosts’ home remodeling and landscaping efforts; their house is the same vintage as ours (both built in 1950), and while they have not gotten as colorful as my wife and I have, they have done some truly neat stuff with it. But this is only one example of why I suck at politics.
I got this AP story link from RIGHT WING HOWLER, a political parody site run by an ultraliberal named “Vilmar” who ridicules Republican extremists by pretending to be one, but is usually so over-the-top no one can take him seriously.
He nailed this story, though, since it’s not about political persuasion but about hypocrisy.
A quote: “…while Mexicans denounce the criminalization of their citizens living without papers in the United States, Mexican law classifies undocumented immigration as a felony punishable by up to two years in prison, although deportation is more common.”
Pot… kettle… black and all that. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
You’ve probably seen articles like this one (originally from the Wall Street Journal) about how Wal~Mart is starting to open in-store medical clinics. Could this idea, combined with something like the new Massachusetts “univeral health insurance” plan, solve our growing health care problems?
In Sarasota, as in Bradenton, slumlords who rent to illegal aliens and druggies (because they never complain about poor housing conditions) do major damage to the neighborhoods they infest. For a brief moment, it looked like Sarasota might just institute a rental inspection and certification program, but it got body-slammed by slumlords who turned out to shout down the bill when city commissioners voted on it.
As always, I’m trying to make sense of local, state, and national politics. And, as always, I tend to be confused about where I ought to stand on the political spectrum. I’m not in favor of current tax policies that encourage multi-generational dynasties made up of wealthy non-workers, because they inevitably lead to nasty revolts. (See French Revolution for details.) I’m not big on government handouts for those who want to ride on the backs of working Americans, so I regard the soon-to-be-reality Homeless Service Center in Bradenton — two blocks from my house — as a slap in the face to everyone who stays straight and tries to make it instead of going on the bum, but at the same time I detest big business handouts like publically-financed sports stadiums.
I don’t like governments telling me (or you) what kind of god or gods — if any — to worship or deciding who we should sleep with. In that sense I am a (small “l”) libertarian. Basically, I suppose, more than anything else I want competence in government, and I will sacrifice many ideology points to get it. Right now, I see little evidence that either major party can field and elect candidates who can read a balance sheet and make honest decisions about what government can and can’t do. Call me cynical, call me realistic or call me a typical 21st Century American. But whatever label you hang on me, please note that people who share my beliefs are on the edge of becoming a (not necessarily silent) majority in our country.
I had a revelation one evening at a Walgreens Drug Store in Bradenton, which I suppose is as good a place to have a revelation as any. It was about Jesus, Passover, and Easter. In a flash, I suddenly realized why Christianity is popular and Judaism is not.
More activity downtown: Good
Cover the riverfront with high-rise condom(inium)s: Bad
Support for Village of the Arts: Good
Manatee Players stupidity: Bad
Tamiami Trail (14th St.) fixup: Good
Treatment of homeowners trying to improve their own property at their own expense: Bad to the point where it’s hard for me to talk about the way Bradenton stymies self-financed renovators without cursing.
And that’s sad, because I am a local booster by nature, working hard to improve my little corner and, by extension, the neighborhood around it.