TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

From Political Gadfly To Gun Control To - Oh Dear - The Village People

ADVERTISEMENT

Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 13, 2008

"Mr. Ruth, you are a disgusting person," opined yet another loyal, loving, caring observer of this space.

Gee, for a moment there, I thought my much, much, much, much older brother had decided to respond to a column.

But no, rather the tender missive was the handiwork of Situp (where do you people get these names?!?!), who was taking umbrage over a recent column on the passing of Hillsborough County political gadfly Ralph Hughes, who used his checkbook as a weapon of mass governmental influence.

Good grief! Hughes had so many local pols quivering in fear of his clout that his cash turned the Hillsborough County Commission into one giant brass pole.

At any rate Situp (whatever the heck that means) went on: "I find it hard to believe that you can justify reveling in the death of Mr. Hughes because he was a conservative/activist."

And then the writer went on to (this must be a law or something) dredge up comparisons to Ted Kennedy, off the bridge, etc., etc. etc.

"Last time I checked, Mr. Hughes never left a woman to drown in his car."

You actually "checked" on these things? What part of "get a life" don't you understand?

Indeed, if you had "checked" a bit further you would have discovered that as a young man Hughes served hard time (but not as hard a time as reading these letters) in prison for assault. And Hughes had other brushes with the law, but you're right, at least he didn't drown anyone.

Rubio's Losing Hand
On the subject of the Florida Supreme Court voiding Gov. Charlie Crist's gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe after House Speaker Marco Rubio filed a legal challenge, SeffnerGuy wrote: "Thank you for printing about the senseless political BS we have going on here in Florida."

You're more than welcome. There's more than enough to write about.

"I say let the cards fly," offered MichaelJ. "Let the jobs be created. Let the state coffers be filled once again. Moralists like Rubio may feel smug that they 'upheld the letter of the law,' but it was done at the expense of our struggling state.

"The big irony will be when the Feds rule the Seminoles have the right to set up casinos and the state gets nothing. Now that's a real sin."

Yes, but at least Rubio's bloomers will remain nicely unruffled.

Deadly Drinking Game

Another column a few days ago on Eric Morris, who died during a drinking game in a redneck bar in Seffner, suggested it might be a good idea to hang a photo of this unfortunate chap as a cautionary tale for others who might be thinking about literally drinking themselves to death.

"This column is a good example of the liberal mindset," clucked Alneri. "Someone does something stupid or is the victim of a tragedy and the suggested solution is to pass another law to go with the millions of laws already restricting our freedoms."

You're right, this is what I get for committing first-degree whimsy. Who knew anyone would take the photo idea seriously? Obviously, Alneri has not succumbed to that liberal mind-set of having a sense of humor.

If you haven't followed some of these online postings, you might be chagrined to discover how quickly the exchanges can veer off into some truly absurdist lines of reductive and completely irrelevant reasoning.

For example, a column from nearly two weeks ago on the implementation of Florida's "Take Your Last Will Testament To Work With You Law," which permits employees and customers to convey their little guns onto the property of private business, eventually elicited this reaction from our resident revisionist historian and Confederate Flag cheerleader Bart Siegel.

Siegel sent up the goofy argument that everyone who opposes flying the Confederate Flag also opposes trampling private property rights just so folks can tote their guns around.

I only mention this silliness, because over the course of time, the back and forth exchanges eventually led Siegel, who claims to be a member of the pseudo egghead club Mensa, to admit he also likes Olivia Newton John, the Village People and (oh, dear) Abba.

What this has to do with gun control eludes me, although having to listen to this stuff probably would make one want to blow one's brains out.

Still, wouldn't that sort of confession get one stripped of his Stephen Hawking decoder ring? Then again, maybe those crazy, wacky party-down Mensa types like to get funky with the Captain and Tennille.

But I really don't need to know that.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT