Latest
Check here for the latest topics not shown in the featured section.
Seven Checks. One Address. Nothing to See Here… Probably.
What if the most interesting story isn’t who gave to one candidate—but who keeps showing up in multiple County Commission races? That’s exactly what caught my attention while reviewing Donna Cameron Cepeda’s latest campaign finance report. One connected business network accounted for more than one-quarter of her campaign’s monetary contributions, and the same network also appears in Josh Wostal’s filings. There’s nothing illegal about that. In fact, businesses have every right to support the candidates they believe will best serve the community.
But campaign finance reports exist for a reason. They allow voters to see who is investing in our elections and to ask informed questions before casting a ballot. This article doesn’t accuse anyone of wrongdoing. Instead, it examines one business network’s unusually strong financial interest in Hillsborough County Commission races, and asks the question every voter should ask: Why are these races important enough to attract that level of investment?
Politics
All the hot-button topics about government, state, local, and federal the courts, and the election.
Cutting a Program Is Not the Same as Making Government Efficient
The Hillsborough County DOGE committee calls the county health care plan a source of major savings. But ending care for more than 22,000 low-income residents is not the same as making government more efficient.
This essay looks at what the program actually does, why voters approved the tax that funds it, and what happens when needed care disappears from one budget line only to reappear in emergency rooms, hospitals, charities, and family finances.
Cutting a program may make a spreadsheet look better. The harder question is whether the community pays more when the service is gone.
Science
This includes discussions on scientific topics that include the environment, weather, medicine, and space.
Society
We lump a lot under this category including crime, corruption, education and hate groups. This category runs the gamut.
Culture
Posts on cultural activities such as theater, art, holidays, and music.
Religion
This is our section for articles related to religion, especially Methodism, and the Evangelical movement.
What We Choose Together
Politics can make otherwise reasonable people turn strange. It can harden conversations, flatten human beings into talking points, and tempt us into anger, contempt, or despair. But avoiding public life entirely is also a moral choice. If government is, as Barney Frank once said, “the things we choose to do together,” then citizenship is one of the places where our values become visible.
This essay reflects on a recent Citizen Engagement training at Hyde Park United Methodist, the beginning of the Faith250 series, and Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” as a way into a larger question: what does a Stoic owe to public life? The answer is not withdrawal. It is disciplined participation, rooted in justice, guided by wisdom, restrained by temperance, and sustained by courage.
The Stoic citizen does not control the whole outcome. But we can still show up with clarity. We can still speak truth without surrendering to hatred. We can still widen the circle, lift a lamp, and choose together as wisely and justly as we can.
Technology
Discussions on software, hardware, apps, and gadgets.
LGBT Issues
Here we discuss the politics of the LGBT movement, stories of events in the community, and anything else related to the LGBT community.
Fun Stuff
This is a bit of a collection of stories about family, food, friends, and travel.
The Economy
Here are topics on the economy, trade, and business.
When Justice Outruns Wisdom
“I told her I was ready to give up. I wasn’t. I was frustrated.”
What began as a communication bottleneck in a church office became a lesson in leadership. When drafts moved without review and a public link went live incorrectly, urgency surged. The concern was legitimate. The tone was not. Justice rose quickly. Wisdom lagged behind. Where has urgency outrun wisdom in your week?
In this new essay, I contemplate what the Stoics understood about anger, discipline, and leadership—and why the same dynamic I saw in myself is evident at the highest levels of national leadership. Anger is a signal. It is not a strategy. Wisdom must organize justice, or institutions begin to fray.
Read: When Justice Outruns Wisdom.
Steel-Toed Integrity
When something breaks in the real world, you don’t call a politician to give a speech; you call someone with a toolbox to fix it. That is the leadership Brian Nathan offers Senate District 14. A Navy veteran and IBEW electrician who chose Tampa as his home during the Great Recession, Brian brings a craftsman’s perspective to a political system that is deeply broken.
Read about Brian’s vision for “steel-toed integrity”—a philosophy born on the job site that prioritizes practical solutions for working families over political theater. He is running to fight for affordable housing, good-paying local jobs, and quality education.
The High Price of “Nice”: What Karen Gonzalez Pittman is Actually Costing South Tampa
Is your State Rep costing you money?
On paper, Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman fits South Tampa perfectly. She’s polished, presentable, and active in the community. If you met her at a Palma Ceia mixer, you’d think, “Now, there’s a reasonable person.” But for the wealthy and aspirational residents of District 65, voting for Pittman has become an expensive illusion. You think you’re voting for stability, but you’re actually paying a premium for a representative who consistently prioritizes Tallahassee’s culture war performance art over your bank account.
The most glaring receipt is your property insurance bill. For years, the Republican supermajority, of which Pittman is a loyal member, has promised that if we protected insurance companies from lawsuits, rates would trickle down. Pittman voted for every one of those protections. Yet, while your premiums have doubled, she and her colleagues have spent the legislative session banning books and policing bathrooms rather than fixing the financial crisis that is actually threatening our property values.
There’s a high cost to the “anti-woke” agenda, and South Tampa homeowners are paying it. This is a clear example of Patrimonialism: the state is run for insiders, while regular people get worse service and pay more. It’s time to see what her “nice” image is really costing you.
MoviesView All
Articles related to places important to me or the places we visit.
Media
Covers things like the web, blogging, Radio and television, and print media.
Places
Here we talk about topics specific to Tampa, Kings Mountain, and other places I've lived or visited.
