It's not because I'm single and unattached that Valentine's Day fills me with a kind of internal cringing normally reserved for the sound of nails dragging down a chalkboard. It's not sour grapes or cynicism gone amuck. It's simply that Valentine's Day is, and nearly always has been, a crass, "What the heck am I going to get him or her" competition, that devalues spontaneity, simplicity, romance and - I'm pulling out the big guns here - most of all, love. ...more

February 14, 2009

I didn't vote for Barack Obama. ...more

January 21, 2009

What's fair is fair. That is the opinion of former city council candidate David Penoyer, who said he plans to file suit against the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office after learning Friday that 440 ballots from precincts 626 and 651 went uncounted in the Nov. 4 election. ...more

January 20, 2009

Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio once had a love affair with the New York Yankees. ...more

January 17, 2009

Welcome to the new U.S. reverse osmosis economy. Trickle-down economics has been abrogated by trickle-up poverty. America has been conned into buying the proverbial "pig in a poke" and there isn't any lipstick on this one. ...more

November 8, 2008

I have watched the political landscape very closely this year, especially the sheriff's race. I have a concern for candidate Ron Grimming. First of all, he has lived in our county only two years and at the helm of the FHP lasted only four years, 1993-1997. Referred to as the first outsider when hired for this job, Grimming had the opportunity to respond to a reporter with the St. Pete Times after leaving office in regards to the criticism of his leadership. This researcher-reporter mentioned Grimming's "innovative attempts to modernize the FHP and splintering its focus, his weakening performance and his alienating of command staff." The writer gave Mr. Grimming three opportunities to respond, but he preferred not to defend this record of bringing in helicopters, community policing squadrons, a car theft hotline, taking troopers off the road and putting them in special units, angering Florida sheriffs. ...more

September 27, 2008

Mark Darling's recent guest column, "In Defense of Sheriff Benton," is not a defense of the sheriff, but rather a diversion from issues. Darling, who will ramble to anyone who will listen to him, is friends with Sheriff Benton and former FHP command personnel who retired or were demoted during an internal affairs investigation. Mr. Darling doesn't even know Ron Grimming. Sour grapes and dirty politics? You bet! ...more

September 19, 2008

A North Korean shooter was stripped of his two medals and was expelled from the Beijing Olympics along with a Vietnamese gymnast Friday after they failed doping tests. ...more

August 16, 2008

Four years ago, Boeing was the corporate villain, the powerful Chicago-based company cheated to win a lucrative contract to build tankers for the Air Force. An outraged Congress killed the deal and forced the Air Force to rebid the contract. Boeing was fined $615 million, CEO Phil Condit resigned and a Boeing executive and an Air Force procurement officer went to prison. ...more

July 4, 2008

Throw another body in the Jon Gruden bone yard. And count Chris Simms among the fed up. ...more

June 11, 2008