* Given all the constitutional cheap shots aimed at President Obama by contentious tea partiers, it’s enough to tempt one to set the bar unconscionably low for some semblance of common-ground agreement on the Constitution. To that diffident end, how about “insure domestic tranquility“? Anyone else settle for that right now?
* Because we are increasingly the Gunshine state, it’s never a bad idea to re-read the Second Amendment for high-caliber, contextual clues. “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
If this were only about the right to pack serious heat, why bother referencing the militia, unless, of course, that were the only context relevant to a Congress convening in the 18th century?
The Founding Fathers could hardly envision semi-automatic-weapons sales in the name of their Second Amendment, let alone the need to protect the people from a Second Amendment- worshipping gun lobby.
*As downright disturbing as live audience reactions at recent Republican presidential debates have been, the networks need to be held accountable as enablers. That hasn’t been Fox pandering and partnering up with the flambeau-and-pitchfork crowd these last few weeks. It’s been MSNBC and CNN. They sold commercial time and they wanted ratings for their made-for-TV political reality shows.
It wasn’t, for example, luck of the draw that Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum were banished to the symbolic fringes of the eight-candidate line-up or that Mitt Romney and Rick Perry were side-by side as staged centerpieces. And it wasn’t happenstance that both Brian Williams and Wolf Blitzer came out of the blocks looking to feature thrust-and-Perry. They simply applied the principle of all cable television talk shows: conflict sells. The result: incensing, deplorably good TV, replete with gotcha lines and some rhetorical red meat for those in attendance seemingly channeling a Jerry Springer crowd.
Any wonder both Williams and Blitzer skipped over the proscription about members of a debate audience behaving themselves and refraining from audible partisan responses? Such as enthusiastic applause and approval shout-outs on subjects like Texas executions and the theoretically intentional death of an uninsured patient.
I miss Howard K. Smith.
* When those other two American hikers are finally released by the Iranian government, maybe we can put part of the focus back where it belongs. Why exactly would anyone want to hike so close to the Iraq-Iran border as to invite (presumably inadvertent) incursion? If you want the ultimate hike, or thrill or blog or whatever, don’t be so stupidly cavalier as to risk putting your country into a geopolitical bind because you technically violated the sovereignty of a nation, especially one with priorities inimical to those of the United States. You can bet that behind closed doors, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not
pleased about any perceived leverage accorded the Iranian regime because of this eminently avoidable incident.
* We all know people these days who don’t get a daily newspaper but stay informed, they remind us, via the internet. If so, they apparently are the exception, not the rule. Nielsen just released data showing that 2.6 percent of Web use goes to current events and global news. Social networks, blogs and porn dominate. Then classifieds, auctions, online games and e-mail. Then news and current events.
* Regardless of what the National Transportation Safety Board finds regarding that tragic air-race plane crash in Reno that killed at least 11, this much should be certain: No more airplane races. That should be the last time such an event–where aircraft going 500-plus mph come within a couple hundred feet of spectators–is ever held. The running of the Pamplona bulls never looked so quaintly sensible.
* Before there were Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O’Connor, there were those wondering when the Supreme Court would finally get around to diversifying. Now we have an African-American justice, Clarence Thomas, bemoaning the lack of geographic diversity. A majority of the justices have strong ties to Boston, New York and New Jersey. Justice Thomas says the Court should reflect “the fact that this is a big country, not just the Northeast.”
He makes a valid point. And in so doing, he reminds us of the progress that has been made–to the degree that we now take race and gender for granted on the U.S. Supreme Court.
* For those of us who grew up among Cold Warriors and the inscrutable menace that was the Red China of Mao Tse-Tung, this seems like unfathomable stuff. According to the McKinsey and Co. management consulting firm, by 2015 China will account for 20 percent of all worldwide luxury sales. From Mao jackets to Hermes handbags in two generations.
* This just in: Shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem has filed for divorce from his wife Heather Clem. According to reports, the pair has an agreement not to disparage each other in public. Not noted in reports: How disparaging to anticipate the need for such an agreement.
* Don’t get me wrong. I love Doonesbury. We’re on the same side of the spectrum. And yes, political diva Sarah Palin deserves her skewering. But, yes, Gary Trudeau does belong on the editorial page. In fact, Doonesbury has an exclusive first serial arrangement with Joe McGinniss, the author of the soon-to-be-released The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin. So, no, Doonesbury doesn’t belong on the same page as Marmaduke, Family Circus, Dennis the Menace and Bizarro (another favorite). It just doesn’t.
* Sometimes in the midst of news too often dominated by unemployment, panhandlers, foreclosures and declining property values, we can easily forget that there’s a lot more going on downtown than hand-wringing and crepe-hanging. To wit:
^The Florida Aquarium’s $15-million expansion plans; the St. Pete Times Forum’s $40-million facelift; the re-debut of the Floridan; the sold-out Towers of Channelside; the ongoing, on-schedule construction of Encore and USF’s downtown CAMLS project; the recently built, 120-unit Metro 510 apartments; the continued infilling of the signature Riverwalk
^The expected groundbreaking by year’s end of Crescent Resources’ 370-unit apartment complex on Bayshore Boulevard at Platt Street; the Southgate project, Trammel Crow’s proposed 20-story office building and upscale hotel near CAMLS; the deep-pocketed Brownstone Tampa Partners’ purchase of the erstwhile Trump Tower site for mixed-use scenarios; and the proactivity shown by the city in putting out RFP’s for entrepreneurs to develop the Water Works Building into a waterfront restaurant.
^In addition, as we well know, downtown has added restaurants, museums and a bona fide “gathering place.”
^Tampa is only two years removed from its fourth Super Bowl and is now less than a year away from hosting the GOP convention. The latter will be worth a nine-figure economic impact during the off-season. It also means the sort of national and international exposure no chamber of commerce could ever afford.
^And, yes, it’s nice to know that next spring we can fly non-stop to Zurich out of TIA.