A Lot Can Happen In A Couple of Weeks....

So much has happened within the last couple of weeks since I last blogged, that it's hard to decide which singular topic to discuss. So, in honor of Spring Training, let's touch a few bases...

Texas School Books (The Continued Dumbing Down of America):

I lived in Texas for 3 years. Having experienced Texans first hand, it concerns me deeply that the content of school books for our nation's schools are determined in large part by what a conservative, politicized panel in Texas believes should be contained in our children's books.

Among other very troubling things, they want to take Thomas Jefferson out of the history books. (Read that again.) Seriously.

It's no wonder why many Americans are not smarter than a 5th grader. (I think they'll have to change the name of that TV show when the new Jefferson-less books are printed.)

Leaving out Thomas Jefferson? Really? What, was he too unimportant, or was it that he spent too much time with the French? He didn't do much other than write the Declaration of Independence, act as our country's second Ambassador to France, serve as our first Secretary of State, and our Third President. Plus, he was probably the greatest realtor in U.S. history. They may not realize in Texas that Jefferson brokered that "Louisiana Purchase" that more than doubled the size of the U.S. (and made a part of Texas part of our country). But, I guess the Texas school book advisory committee overlooked that ironic fact. Do you think they decided to leave it out because we bought the property from France?

Leaving Jefferson out of our children's history books, however, leaves room for a few pages about the conservative views of Phyllis Schlafly...seriously. After all, Phyllis has good Texas values-- she was an anti-feminist, she vigorously opposed the United Nations, and was a huge supporter of Pat Buchannon when he ran for President. So I guess that trumps Jefferson's resume.

Remind me again why we needed to water all those Strawberries?

This week it was reported that Hillsborough County strawberry farmers are letting their end of the season crop die on the plants and not be harvested because the prices have dropped so low due to oversupply. The farmers intend to plow them under rather than have them picked. (Really, in this economy with so many people in need of food? How about opening up the fields for U-Pick operations?)

Just a few weeks ago, the farmers told us that they had to run their sprinklers for days on end to keep the strawberries from freezing--so much so that the excessive pumping caused dozens of sinkholes to form all over the Eastern part of Hillsborough County. Neighbors' wells ran dry so they had no water in their homes, and many houses were damaged or rendered completely uninhabitable by these sinkholes. Interstate-4 was closed between Tampa and Orlando to repair sinkholes on the Interstate highway resulting in traffic delays and detours and spending of extraordinary money for road repairs and extra police activity associated with the detours.

We don't have an unlimited supply of potable water and we have a record number of people on food stamps. What a waste, on so many levels.

"It's a Big F$cking Deal..."

The Health Care Bill passed and was signed into law this week. Joe Biden aptly summed up its historic importance with a few choice words. You're right, Joe, it is a BFD. And that was before the death threats to members of Congress began and the frivilous lawsuits were filed to try to get some activist judges to unwind the health care legislation (and before the commencement of "Armageddon").

And, Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse:

• Unemployment in Florida hits a record high.

• The legislature proposes a bill to "streamline" and "speed up development permitting" and to eliminate environmental review permitting for developments of up to 40 acres (so long as a licensed engineer signs off on the developer's plans). Just what we need, a faster path to more development without environmental oversight--do you think we need more empty houses and empty strip centers? More parking lots and fewer wetlands?

• The legislature proposes a bill to completely gut and dismantle the Public Service Commission as retaliation for the PSC having the nerve to turn down a utility rate increase for the first time in years. (I smell lobbyists and much higher electric bills!)

• The Hillsborough County Commission's tragic comedy of errors continues. If we fire the 3 Musketeers, we have to pay them an outrageous amount for work they won't perform for the county. So, instead, the Commissioners put them on a paid leave of absence so they get paid an outrageous amount (including , for two of them, the raises they gave themselves??) for work they won't perform while they stay home, take a trip, or meet with their lawyers.

• The Florida Retirement Plan Pension System is in the red. Now, I know that Bill McCollum sits as a member of the State Board of Administration that is in charge of overseeing that pension fund, but we need to realize that he's been way too busy filing politically motivated health care suits and holding press conferences to do much overseeing of the nestegg of our teachers, firefighters, state employees, etc.

Read and Ponder.....Then Get Active. There's alot of things to pay attention to and get involved with--we've all got alot of work to do....

Pick an issue that matters to you and get busy.