TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

'Boy Bollea' Needs To Shape Up; Maybe The Campfire Girls Can Use Him

ADVERTISEMENT

Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 8, 2008

Hardly a week goes by that professional ne'er-do-well Nick Bollea doesn't come up with a new way to annoy the many satisfied customers of this space.

A few days ago, Pinellas County's answer to Little Lord Fauntleroy, who is pulling an eight-month stretch in jail after pleading no contest to a charge of reckless driving - which left his friend, Marine and Iraq war veteran John Graziano, with massive brain injuries - attempted to argue that his incarceration amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment."

"This sorry, spoiled brat needs to MAN UP and be inducted into the MARINE CORPS!" wrote FireGoddess, who obviously is a lass not to be trifled with. "He'll be turning 18 in July?? He is more than old enough to serve his country! The CORPS will make a man out of him!"

Don't know if this whining twerp is Marine material, but maybe the Campfire Girls are looking for a few good tots.

The Bollea column suggested the lad might best fill his spare time in the slammer by reading books like, oh, "Crime and Punishment," which prompted snooky_g to respond with: "Your advice was right on for 'playtime for Nick.' Unfortunately, you are assuming he can read. Obviously he is numerically challenged because he can't read speed limit signs."

Tom Lauletta also weighed on the Bollea debacle, noting: "Boy Bollea should be confined to a hospital bed for the 8 months. Then maybe he can better appreciate what he has done to Mr. Graziano."

Thanks for all the responses on this topic, but unless Nick Bollea starts demanding foie gras and caviar and Dom Perignon to be served to him, we'll probably give the lad a rest for a while.

Fast-Food McCarthyism

A recent Book of Ruth blog item on right-wing crazy nut columnist Michelle Malkin engaging in Fast-Food McCarthyism when she accused Dunkin' Donuts of being soft on terrorism - she wrongly concluded company spokeswoman Rachael Ray was wearing a traditional Middle Eastern keffiyeh - inspired Stephen Sarnoff of Clearwater to opine.

This is "another example of the new and improved fascism we have been hearing about," he wrote. "I recall a time back in the 90's when Jesse Jackson was accused of shaking down businesses ... if they did not contribute to his PUSH organization that he would say something negative about them and hurt their business," Sarnoff continued.

Historical Myopia

Another blog item on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, arguing that had the late New York senator lived he would have easily defeated Richard Nixon for the presidency in 1968, prompted pacfandave to once more illustrate his historical myopia.

"I doubt any Democrat would have won the presidential election of 1969," he wrote, wrongly. "The electorate was absolutely fed up with Lyndon Johnson, his war, his in-your-face appointment of the liberal deconstructionist Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court and his attempt to elevate the liberal Abe Fortas to Chief Justice, and his ruinous attempt to turn the country into a welfare state."

Well that's sort of the whole issue here, isn't it?

No one was more fed up with Lyndon Johnson than Robert Kennedy, who would have obviously ridden a fervent anti-Vietnam War position directly into the White House.

With the possible exception of pacfandave, there probably isn't a single soul in this country, regardless of his or her political persuasion, who believes Nixon would have beaten RFK.

As for LBJ's so-called "ruinous" domestic agenda, obviously once more pacfandave needs to read his history more carefully.

While Johnson's prosecution of Vietnam was a disaster, this is the same president whose "Great Society" agenda also gave us: VISTA, Model Cities, Upward Bound, the Higher Education Act, Medicare, Medicaid, the National Endowment of the Arts, numerous consumer and environmental protection initiatives, as well as Head Start.

And it was Lyndon Johnson, for all his shortcomings, who pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Oh the ruin of it all! A president who cared about helping people. So radical, so revolutionary - so (cue the "Phantom of the Opera" theme) liberal.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT