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Can Jim Norman Sense The Annoyance Over His Courage Award Idea?

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Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 21, 2008

In the parallel universe that this column sometimes finds itself aimlessly wandering through, there are moments when your humble scribbler is taken to task by some of you beloved readers for stuff I never wrote.

If it makes any difference - please accept my apologies for not writing that thing that so annoyed you.

I'll try to do better next time, perhaps by not writing something that hopefully you'll enjoy even more.

"Hey Daniel," penned williepeter. "What happened to your original post that was online at 8 a.m. this morning? The one with a lot of radical leftie disingenuous takes on Sarah Palin?

"Did the powers at the Trib make you take it off? What a wuss."

Oh, you dear, sweet, silly, dolt of the clod, williepeter.

Obviously, you know absolutely nothing about the henscratching racket.

I have no idea what the heck you were reading that had just been posted at 8 a.m., but it sure wasn't anything I would have filed.

Really now, that's practically in the middle of the night for me.

And since I generally don't stop throwing up at least until 11 a.m., there's no way I'd be in any shape to compose even a muddled thought at that ungodly hour.

You may be quite right. I might very well be a wuss, especially when it comes to eating green peas, asparagus and lima beans, but I fail to see how not writing something that never existed somehow vaults me into Barney Fife territory.

Back On Planet Earth
Meanwhile, back here on Planet Earth, a number of you weighed in on Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman's gormless effort to politicize the community's Moral Courage Award by naming it after the late ideologue Ralph Hughes, who was a sort of right-wing-nut Republican Luca Brasi armed with a checkbook.

"Tell me something, Dan, and be honest here," wrote pacfandave. "If Ralph Hughes had eschewed shoes and run around the Hillsborough corridors of power barefoot, would you have loved him, then."

First, I have no idea why Ralph Hughes would have wanted to show up at county commission meetings barefoot.

But to answer your very weird question, pacfandave, the answer is: No!

"Hughes had chutzpah, a boat-load of self-interest, and a fat checkbook to purchase commissioners," opined FLCRACRACKER.

"For this he gets the courage award named after him? Hey Jimmy Boy! Haven't you paid him back enough already??? Does it have to go beyond the grave?"

Yes, apparently so.

"As usual, when Commissioner Norman doesn't get what he originally wants, he tries going in the back door," noted Swathslayer. (And that again reminds me, where do some of you folks come up with these pen names?)

"To rename the Moral Courage Award after Hughes is a slap in the face of every one of the previous recipients."

Oh, Commissioner Norman?

If you are reading any of this, are you beginning to get just the slightest hint that perhaps you and your fellow Ralph Hughes footmen have royally stepped on your ... uh, hubris here?

But wait! There's more!

Attention 'Morons'

"The Ralph Hughes Moral Courage Award?," wrote katbyrd78. "The I Control Everything In This County Beyond My Death Award?

"You morons who bothered to vote, re-elected two of these morally reprehensible &^%$ who supported this nonsense.

"After this name change, if you are ever nominated for this award, kill yourself."

Well that seems a pinch extreme. Wouldn't simply turning it down, while less melodramatic, certainly be more pragmatic?

A Sloth, A Snake, An Elephant

Responding to a recent column on the Lowry Park Zoo, Marty - At last! A real name! - suggested, "How about we give the animals a break by sending them to the County Center instead and let them actually be the commissioners?

"Send a sloth, a snake and an elephant because it would certainly be an improvement to five of the seven current commissioners."

You have to admit that's not entirely a bad idea, except I rather suspect Commissioners Mark Sharpe and Rose Ferlita wouldn't be all that crazy about having to sit next to a stinky, slobbering, muttering, half-witted critter.

Then again, is there really that much difference?

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog. Or tune into WWBA, NewsTalk 1040, on Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m. to listen to his radio show.

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